| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
In Nominee, given that the game was focused on roleplaying Angels and Demons focused on the topic quite a bit. It's a lot more difficult to redeem a Demon to an Angel, because a needed step is the requirement of a sponsoring Archangel to literally rebuild the Demon's corrupted Forces into Angelic lines. It takes a lot of effort for the Archangel, and the would be redemptive demon is sometimes destroyed in the process. (most of the effort expended by the Archangel is in trying to prevent that destruction) Knowledge of this possibility is enough to scare off many Demons from trying.
In Pathfinder terms that would be the equivalent of removing the evil subtype from a succubus undergoing redemption. Angels that fully fall, automatically lose their good subtype and acquire an evil one. I am of the opinion that Falling should be a lot...
I *loved* many aspects of In Nomine, and in fact that is one of the games I would like to rebuild with a different rule set. I thought it was only flawed by not taking itself seriously enough sometimes (which I am told the French version did not suffer from). Anyway, this reply is not meant to be a challenge or disagree to your comment. Rather it is in addition to.
And my apologies to James Jacobs, I don't mean *discuss* anything at great length in his thread about questions. This topic just means alot to me.
I have thought about this at great length, and I also have come to believe that the infernal system is not invested in letting demons (and devils) really believe that it is even possible. And when an evil outsider makes the effort, a concerted effort is made to stop them—like a heresy. It is a dangerous precedent to allow to exist. When an evil outsider succeeds in redemption, that effort is besmirched as self-delusion. As if it were only a matter of time before their true nature reasserts itself, and no one should be fooled.
That being said, I think most evil outsiders don't believe they really have any choice to be what they are. Knowing that you have a choice opens up dangerous questions and confused thinking. "Can I make different choices? Was it my own fault? Was it inevitable, or was I just too weak to do anything different?"
It is interesting that evil outsiders do not (to my knowledge) have much recollection of their previous lives. Case in point, multiple larvae from multiple souls which combine to form a demon. Imagine if you were an outsider burdened with the past?
Enough rambling, I'm just saying if *I* was a demon lord I wouldn't want my minions to even think it was possible. Then they would be uncluttered and unfettered by such distractions to their beautiful corruption.
Just like if I was a hag, I wouldn't want my changeling to think they had any choice either. But they do.
Sorry James, I'll shut up now.
Lyrical Observation behind the spoiler:
"Did you do it for love?
Did you do it for money?
Did you do it for spite?
Did you think you had to, honey?
|
Dear Mr. Jacobs,
Has the company ever thought of doing an AP where the Pcs are sent back in time to maybe the time period of the Runelords or further back? I know in the current AP the Pcs goto Russia back in the past, but I am asking if the beginning and most of the AP would be set in the past of Golarion at some point in history. (aka. Kingpriest in Dragonlance)
And a follow-up to Robert Brookes' question: will Bestiary 4 contain THE Cthulhu, or is this just a reprint of the lowly starspawn from Wake of the Watcher?
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This collection of creatures shatters all past thresholds of danger and destructiveness with phenomenally powerful beings like demon lords, kaiju, juggernauts, and Great Old Ones—including invincible Cthulhu!
Emphasis, and loss of sanity points, mine.
I just saw the blog post for Bestiary 4 and I am crazy excited because I saw the word kaiju.
So my question is:
How difficult is it to not let information slip before it's time? Because with something like kaiju, it'd be very hard for me.
Creative Director
|
OH Great and Powerful James Jacobs. A devout follower beseeches you. In your wisdom you created the Dinosaur Cultist which is awesome. However, mere mortals could not possibly covert to Pathfinder without issues what you, in your omniscient greatness, created.
1. Yea, though it is known that the Dinosaur God on Earth is you, who is it on Golarion? If there is no equivalent, I shall brew one.
2. The Gift of the Saurian allows your followers to become mighty beasts of Gargantuan size. What are the Str, Dex, and other modifiers for such an apotheosis?
3. There is no capstone which Paizo has traditionally done for prestige classes and this prestige class, beloved of your heart, deserves one. Do you have any guidance O Carnivorous One?
1) Gozreh's the closest thing Golarion has to a dinosaur god.
2) They'd be the same as listed in the appendix to the Bestiary.
3) Wow. Laying it on a bit thick there! :-P If I were to give this prestige class a capstone, it'd be the ability that doubles the benefits of all his existing gifts of the saurian.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
My wife and I started watching Hemlock Grove at the recommendation of Clinton Boomer. I wouldn't call it terrible, but it is rather slow-paced. I had an easier time getting into it than, say, American Horror Story, though (which I gave up on after a single episode). We're about 10 episodes into the series, and it is getting better... but the plot needs to pay off VERY strongly by the end of the season in order to bring me back for another season's worth of viewing. [EDIT: There's some horrifying, gut-wrenchingly sad and unexpected character deaths on the back half of the season, too, so clearly the writers are doing SOMETHING right.]Gonna anyway, but thanks for the expectation management heads up.I'm hoping HOPING that after next week, when the gen con crunch ends, I'll have more time to do things like not work, and actually enjoy my Netflix subscription again. The first thing I'll watch there is probably "The Frankenstein Theory," but Hemlock Grove will be viewed at some point.Don't bother with Hemlock Grove. Despite a pretty good cast, it's really terrible. I couldn't get through episode 3.
Well...
I thought both seasons of American Horror Story were among the best things TV has come up with in the past 10 years, up there with Lost and Breaking Bad and Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. I guess my mileage will vary.
|
Creative Director
|
Dear Mr. Jacobs,
Has the company ever thought of doing an AP where the Pcs are sent back in time to maybe the time period of the Runelords or further back? I know in the current AP the Pcs goto Russia back in the past, but I am asking if the beginning and most of the AP would be set in the past of Golarion at some point in history. (aka. Kingpriest in Dragonlance)
We have, but it's probably never gonna happen. Time travel opens up so many cans of worms that the mere idea of running an AP set during Thassilonian times BOGGLES THE MIND. Setting a single adventure on Earth is child's play compared to reverse engineering 6+ years of campaign setting canon to figure out how things worked 10,000+ years ago, and that doesn't even TOUCH the ugliness that paradoxes can inflict.
In RPGs, it works best if it's the central core conceit of the game.
|
Creative Director
|
James.
James, James, James!
How did you keep so quiet about Cthulhu itself being in Bestiary 4!?
I am just beside myself with disbelief and excitement!
Practice. It wasn't easy, but it was a LOT easier than keeping quiet for about a year that Dragon and Dungeon magazine were going away. THAT was the hardest secret I've ever had to keep.
|
Creative Director
|
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
And a follow-up to Robert Brookes' question: will Bestiary 4 contain THE Cthulhu, or is this just a reprint of the lowly starspawn from Wake of the Watcher?
Bestiary 4 contains a reprint of the star-spawn AND a new entry for Cthulhu himeself. He has the ability to summon his star spawn, after all, so we had to reprint them to support Big C.
And if I did my design on Cthulhu right... he's gonna be the monster with the most hit points in all of Pathfinder.
|
Creative Director
|
I just saw the blog post for Bestiary 4 and I am crazy excited because I saw the word kaiju.
So my question is:
How difficult is it to not let information slip before it's time? Because with something like kaiju, it'd be very hard for me.
It's really difficult, but it's also part of the job. I've had to keep secret a LOT of stuff for Paizo. The aforementioned "Dragon and Dungeon magazine are going away" is one of the biggest secrets I've had to keep, but there's LOTS more. For example, I've known that Cthulhu was gonna be in Bestiary 4 for, I'm guessing, 9 months at this point. If not more.
It's certainly tough not letting the info slip before it is supposed to go out.
But knowing that if I do, I could well get fired from the best job ever certainly makes keeping these secrets a LOT easier.
|
1) Gozreh's the closest thing Golarion has to a dinosaur god.
2) They'd be the same as listed in the appendix to the Bestiary.
3) Wow. Laying it on a bit thick there! :-P If I were to give this prestige class a capstone, it'd be the ability that doubles the benefits of all his existing gifts of the saurian.
Meh, Gozreh doesn't excite me. Any Druid or Cleric can roll with Goz. I think I need to make this more special. I'll use Gozreh's domains since you suggested him and then just totally rewrite Shimye-Magalla.
The appendix in the bestiary you say? Now I just need to find that hardcover. It's not in the PRD somewhere?
Thick it was but I had more fun writing all that than I would have doing something like work. Thanks for the answers, James.
|
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
|
Practice. It wasn't easy, but it was a LOT easier than keeping quiet for about a year that Dragon and Dungeon magazine were going away. THAT was the hardest secret I've ever had to keep.James.
James, James, James!
How did you keep so quiet about Cthulhu itself being in Bestiary 4!?
I am just beside myself with disbelief and excitement!
I do not envy you that. Those were hard times for everyone.
We didn't see a surge of interest large enough to abandon the Inner Sea after Tian Xia was covered, though...
O_O
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-
*extremely radioactive F-shaped mushroom cloud*
With the advent of Mythic and Bestiary 4, how closer are the stars to aligning for a Lovecraft AP?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As a related question, who was it who invented the artifact in Artifacts & Legends that enables time travel? Sceptre of Ages, I think it's called, and it allows time travel. Looks like a giant key, too (which always makes me think "Kingdom Hearts Keyblade" when I see the picture).
That was invented by Wes, and that's pretty much the EXACT way that time travel should be put into the game, in my opinion. In the form of a crazy powerful artifact, that, if you don't want time travel, you simply don't use in your game.
So, I get the time travel thing is rough. Oh man, I wouldn't want to tackle it either. What do you think of a "place removed from time" idea? A demi-plane or something similar that was ripped from time and is now separate from our time line. Maybe it was flung into the future, or maybe it just separate entirely, but the focus is a place that is the past but not located there (if that didn't make it more confusing). What do you think of that idea for giving use a taste of diet time travel?
Also how happy are you now that a Wayne Reynolds Cthulhu exists?Quite happy.
Although this is not the first time he's painted Cthulhu. There's a GREAT picture he did in the d20 CoC game of Cthulhu fighting the D&D iconics.
This one? Always wondered were it was from after it showed up in the Rules Compendium. Do you have an all time favorite Wayne picture? Mine might be the Tarrasque fight in the back of DMG2.
Hey James,
I don't know if you've read them or not, but I wanted to recommend the books "Shadows in the Asylum" and "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" - they're both pretty awesome.
Asylum is fun because its my kind of horror story: its told through a series of "found" psychiatric files, and it REALLY reminded me of the SCP Foundation.
I enjoyed Afraid because its 50% found journal, 50% encyclopedia of fae, and 100% prequel to the film of the same name.
Hey James, hope you're doing well! Two unrelated questions for you.
1) What does "pulp" mean in relation to the feeling a setting has? I noticed you used it to describe Greyhawk at some point in this thread, and I was curious.
2) Does a lawful alignment denote a strict personal code or an adherence to the laws of society? Or does it mean both? If someone has a strict personal code, but eschews the laws of society (or vice-versa, I suppose) do they "average out" to neutral on the law-chaos axis?
Just to be clear, this isn't part of a debate on the messageboards or with my group, I'm just curious as to what it means exactly.
Thanks for your answers, they are always helpful!
James,
Is powered armor in Unspeakable Futures? If so, do you handle powered armor as equipment giving an armor bonus and some benefits/buffs or do you consider it a vehicle with its own stats?
In addition, what are the skills/feats needed to operate powered armor?
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
James,
Since we'll be seeing kaiju in the near future, is there a particular kaiju who is stronger than all the rest, perhaps could even be called their "King"?
Hi James!
Hope that your GenCon deadlines aren't killing you yet. We need you at the helm as Creative Director....
On to a question...
While I understand and agree with your thoughts on time travel, is there a chance of a chronomancer type character class or prestige class, archetype etc with much more localized and short term time travel abilities? Powers along the lines of what Time Stop already does?
|
Creative Director
|
So, I get the time travel thing is rough. Oh man, I wouldn't want to tackle it either. What do you think of a "place removed from time" idea? A demi-plane or something similar that was ripped from time and is now separate from our time line. Maybe it was flung into the future, or maybe it just separate entirely, but the focus is a place that is the past but not located there (if that didn't make it more confusing). What do you think of that idea for giving use a taste of diet time travel?
Places removed from time are another story entirely. We've done stuff like that quite a few times before, in fact. Runeforge from Rise of the Runelords comes to mind, as does Erik's level in Thornkeep.
|
Creative Director
|
This one? Always wondered were it was from after it showed up in the Rules Compendium. Do you have an all time favorite Wayne picture? Mine might be the Tarrasque fight in the back of DMG2.Also how happy are you now that a Wayne Reynolds Cthulhu exists?Quite happy.
Although this is not the first time he's painted Cthulhu. There's a GREAT picture he did in the d20 CoC game of Cthulhu fighting the D&D iconics.
That's the one. It's from the hardcover D20 CoC book.
My all-time favorite Wayne picture would be a 5-way tie between the goblins from the cover of Burnt Offerings, Merisiel from the cover of Hook Mountain Massacre, the cover to Dungeon #119, (which was, by the way, the first cover illustration I ever ordered!), the cover to Dungeon #150, or the cover to Dungeon #135. I own the originals of three of those five!
In fact, I also did the art order for the tarrasque fight you mentioned. I'm pretty stoked that one turned out so well.
|
Creative Director
|
Hey James,
I don't know if you've read them or not, but I wanted to recommend the books "Shadows in the Asylum" and "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" - they're both pretty awesome.
Asylum is fun because its my kind of horror story: its told through a series of "found" psychiatric files, and it REALLY reminded me of the SCP Foundation.
I enjoyed Afraid because its 50% found journal, 50% encyclopedia of fae, and 100% prequel to the film of the same name.
Haven't read "Shadows," but I do own the other book. Haven't read it yet though.
|
Creative Director
|
Hey James, hope you're doing well! Two unrelated questions for you.
1) What does "pulp" mean in relation to the feeling a setting has? I noticed you used it to describe Greyhawk at some point in this thread, and I was curious.
2) Does a lawful alignment denote a strict personal code or an adherence to the laws of society? Or does it mean both? If someone has a strict personal code, but eschews the laws of society (or vice-versa, I suppose) do they "average out" to neutral on the law-chaos axis?
Just to be clear, this isn't part of a debate on the messageboards or with my group, I'm just curious as to what it means exactly.
Thanks for your answers, they are always helpful!
1) "Pulp" refers to the stories published in the 20s, 30s, and 40s that published weird and fantasy fiction. Magazines like "Weird Tales" or "Amazing Stories." They published a LOT of stuff, but the most enduring stories were those by H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, Clark Ashton Smith, Edgar Rice Burroghs, and so on. "Pulp" equates to weird, high-adventure, horror, science fiction, and other genre literature, and was a huge influence on both Greyhawk AND Golarion. The magaiznes themelves were printed on cheap pulp paper, hence the name. They kinda died out and never regained their public prominence after WWII.
2) Lawful means both, more or less, especially if you're lawful neutral. If someone's got a strict personal code and eschews laws of society, they're more good or evil, depending on the nature of their code.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
James,
Is powered armor in Unspeakable Futures? If so, do you handle powered armor as equipment giving an armor bonus and some benefits/buffs or do you consider it a vehicle with its own stats?
In addition, what are the skills/feats needed to operate powered armor?
Powered armor is absolutely in Unspeakable Futures.
All the gear in Unspeakable Futures is handled the same way as magic items are in Pathfinder. Powered Armor is basically a VERY expensive suit of armor that provides armor and resistance bonuses, stat mods, and other powers. The least powerful suits are still expensive, while the most powerful suits are "artifact level" and thus don't have prices. They are not vehicles; those use different rules.
Since powered armor is armor, you only need the appropriate armor proficiency to use it. There are light, medium, and heavy powered armors, but they do different things—they're not "upgrades."
|
Creative Director
|
And something I've been wondering about, in Rise of the Runelords Anniversery Edition why was Nualia kept as a Fighter/Cleric instead of making her an Antipaladin? I'm in no way chiding the decision, just curious.
Because one of the things I wanted to do in the revision to that book was change as absolutely as little as I could. I think I changed only 3 classes in the entire thing—two because we didn't want to build a new base class (the thaumaturgist) and because the characters worked just as fine as witches or clerics, and one because we specifically called the NPC an oracle in the original.
And even if I hadn't been following that philosophy as strictly, I would have kept Nualia as a fighter/cleric, because that's who she is.
|
Creative Director
|
Hi James!
Hope that your GenCon deadlines aren't killing you yet. We need you at the helm as Creative Director....
On to a question...
While I understand and agree with your thoughts on time travel, is there a chance of a chronomancer type character class or prestige class, archetype etc with much more localized and short term time travel abilities? Powers along the lines of what Time Stop already does?
The deadlines are doing their best, but I'm enduring so far!
Chances of us doing a chronomancer type class are very very slim. There's not enough time travel/time manipulation spells and effects in the game, for one thing, so doing a class like this would require a LOT of new spells and new rules. And if we're gonna be doing something like that... it's gonna be psychic magic, not time travel.