Creative Director
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Okay, this query has kind of a wordy leadup, so just bear with me.
Say you have an incredibly powerful LE spellcaster. He's got 20 levels of cleric under his belt, but he's on his deathbed from the simple matter of old age. With his last dregs of power, he calls up a contract devil.
My question: Can he contract the infernal slave for someone else? Like, say, his son or grandson? If so, would the spellcaster's soul be the only payment? It'd be kind of interesting to see a pit fiend bound by duty to protect a baby or something.
And yes, before anyone asks, this question was inspired by Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler.
That's a cool story idea that would need to be roleplayed out if it were a PC, or be detailed out by the GM if it were an NPC.
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What domain would you use to represent fertility / have a fertility subdomain?I'd make fertility a new subdomain and hook it up to the Healing domain. Or MAYBE to Community or Water.
Cool happy to see my own guesses matched up pretty well with your own (I was thinking Healing or Charm). That being said why Water?
Hey James, I remember reading somewhere that you enjoyed the TV series Primeval.
I just thought I would share that they're doing a Canadian Based Spin-Off.
Link Safe for Work: Here
That's a cool story idea that would need to be roleplayed out if it were a PC, or be detailed out by the GM if it were an NPC.Okay, this query has kind of a wordy leadup, so just bear with me.
Say you have an incredibly powerful LE spellcaster. He's got 20 levels of cleric under his belt, but he's on his deathbed from the simple matter of old age. With his last dregs of power, he calls up a contract devil.
My question: Can he contract the infernal slave for someone else? Like, say, his son or grandson? If so, would the spellcaster's soul be the only payment? It'd be kind of interesting to see a pit fiend bound by duty to protect a baby or something.
And yes, before anyone asks, this question was inspired by Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler.
I think it'd be even more interesting if the dying spellcaster was powerful enough to secure the service of a Duke of Hell.
One hell of a butler indeed.
1. Can you shed any light on why share spells (especially for familiars) was powered down so tremendously between 3.5 and PF?
It seems like the change makes familiars a huge liability and resource sink in higher level games, especially when AoEs are being thrown around. I understand they receive improved evasion, but they've also got half the hit points of the squishiest class in the game. I'm just curious as to why I now have to spend two turns (and two spells) to (for example) resist energy both of us.
I understand the ability was probably a little strong on druids (especially those spec'd for melee) but it seems odd that it got ported onto casters as well.
2. Can you shed any light on means you might consider acceptable to remove the ability penalties and loss of spellcasting inflicted by contact other plane? They aren't specified to be damage or drain or something similar which might be healed by various restoration based spells, but nor are they said to be explicitly magical (an thus subject to break enchantment, remove curse, dispel magic, ect). Was the intent of the spell that it should remove PCs from play for months at a time due to a bad roll with no means of remedy? As a whole the spell seems to have an incredibly high cost relative to its value.
3. Can you think of anywhere I might look to dig up information on Greyhawk (as a setting) beyond canonfire and the wiki? It seems like a lot of the setting information is more or less out of the hands of people who are only getting into it recently, since so many titles are out of print and the vast majority of the works that deal with or expand upon it date back twenty or more years.
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Creative Director
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Cool happy to see my own guesses matched up pretty well with your own (I was thinking Healing or Charm). That being said why Water?What domain would you use to represent fertility / have a fertility subdomain?I'd make fertility a new subdomain and hook it up to the Healing domain. Or MAYBE to Community or Water.
Because water is often associated with fertility and birth.
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Creative Director
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Hey James, I remember reading somewhere that you enjoyed the TV series Primeval.
I just thought I would share that they're doing a Canadian Based Spin-Off.
Link Safe for Work: Here
Huh... interesting!
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Creative Director
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1. Can you shed any light on why share spells (especially for familiars) was powered down so tremendously between 3.5 and PF?
It seems like the change makes familiars a huge liability and resource sink in higher level games, especially when AoEs are being thrown around. I understand they receive improved evasion, but they've also got half the hit points of the squishiest class in the game. I'm just curious as to why I now have to spend two turns (and two spells) to (for example) resist energy both of us.
I understand the ability was probably a little strong on druids (especially those spec'd for melee) but it seems odd that it got ported onto casters as well.
2. Can you shed any light on means you might consider acceptable to remove the ability penalties and loss of spellcasting inflicted by contact other plane? They aren't specified to be damage or drain or something similar which might be healed by various restoration based spells, but nor are they said to be explicitly magical (an thus subject to break enchantment, remove curse, dispel magic, ect). Was the intent of the spell that it should remove PCs from play for months at a time due to a bad roll with no means of remedy? As a whole the spell seems to have an incredibly high cost relative to its value.
3. Can you think of anywhere I might look to dig up information on Greyhawk (as a setting) beyond canonfire and the wiki? It seems like a lot of the setting information is more or less out of the hands of people who are only getting into it recently, since so many titles are out of print and the vast majority of the works that deal with or expand upon it date back twenty or more years.
1) Not really; that's a Jason question. He must have felt that it was just too powerful in 3.5.
2) The intent of the spell is that contacting other planes when you're an arcane spellcaster is supposed to be more dangerous than contacting your deity if you're a divine spellcaster. Contact other plane models the danger of learning things humanity was not meant to know, of the mind snapping when exposed to concepts so powerful that they break your brain. It's also intended to help prevent the spellcaster from being too much of a pain to the GM by casting the spell all the time to pry out campaign secrets; with commune, you have the option of saying "your deity doesn't want you to know that." There's no such check or balance for arcane spells.
3) The best place to get info is the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, at this point. The original boxed set for 1st edition is also rather delightful, as is the From the Ashes boxked set for 2nd edition. A quick check on Amazon turned up affordable used copies of the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and the original World of Greyhawk boxed set. From the Ashes looked a bit pricey.
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Creative Director
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A lot of adventures don't seem to get up to much beyond about 16th-17th level, when all is said and done. I think you've said in the past that this is related to how you only have so much that you can cram into a single adventure path, and that individual GMs would need to extrapolate from the additional material (e.g. realm-building in Kingmaker) to generate additional quests and extra XP to push a party towards 20th level.
Now that Wrath of the Righteous will be made using the Mythic rules, you're hoping that it will get characters all the way to 20th, since Mythic tiers allow low-level characters to fight high-CR enemies, the Mythic status functioning as an equaliser.
In subsequent adventure paths, however, will the Mythic rules have as big an input with regard to pushing the level cap for the adventure closer towards 20th, even though the adventure path itself might not be designed as a Mythic one like Wrath of the Righteous will be? For example, fighting a smattering of mythic foes in an otherwise non-Mythic path.
We aren't planning to significantly involve mythic rules in the next two APs after Wrath of the Righteous. If they're really popular, we'll do another mythic AP at some point in the future. And we certainly could well throw in a mythic foe now and then in a normal AP. None of that will really help non-mythic APs hit 20th level though.
I would probably make the class proficient in light armor at most, maybe not even that. They would not be proficient in shields.In your theoretical Swashbuckler base class;
Would the class be proficient in no armor or only light armor?
Would the class be proficient in no shields or just the buckler or small shields and lighter?
Sorry, no book this time:P
I would probably make the class proficient in light armor at most, maybe not even that. They would not be proficient in shields.In your theoretical Swashbuckler base class;
Would the class be proficient in no armor or only light armor?
Would the class be proficient in no shields or just the buckler or small shields and lighter?
Sorry, no book this time:P
1) Not even buckler? Wouldn't AC be a big problem?
Some questions on Varisia.
2) Sandpoint: In the Inner sea world guide page 197 it says that Sandpoint is the sixth largest city i Varisia, but on page 194 where Notable Settlements of Varisia are listed Sandpoint is the 10th largest city. Are the numbers on page 16 wrong? Is it the 6th or 10th largest city in Varisia?
3) Are there pawnshops in Varisia?
4.1) If there are pawnshops in Varisia, would Sandpoint have any?
4.2) and in your guess, how many would Sandpoint have?
edit:
5) What skill would you use for sailing?
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As the discussion about this in the rule forum has died down several days ago I think it is reasonably safe to ask a question about invisibility.
The Invisibility ability say: "A creature can generally notice the presence of an active invisible creature within 30 feet with a DC 20 Perception check."
Then the table say that noticing someone using stealth while invisible use: "Stealth check +20".
Someone read that a two different values that you should add together, so noticing someone invisible using stealth has a DC of 40+ the stealth check result.
Pinpointing the invisible entity would have a DC of 60+ the stealth check result and so on.
My opinion is that the static DC of 20 and the +20 to the stealth check are the same modifier and that it should be applied only once.
How do you play that when playing with the other Paizo employees?
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Creative Director
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1) Not even buckler? Wouldn't AC be a big problem?
Some questions on Varisia.
2) Sandpoint: In the Inner sea world guide page 197 it says that Sandpoint is the sixth largest city i Varisia, but on page 194 where Notable Settlements of Varisia are listed Sandpoint is the 10th largest city. Are the numbers on page 16 wrong? Is it the 6th or 10th largest city in Varisia?
3) Are there pawnshops in Varisia?
4.1) If there are pawnshops in Varisia, would Sandpoint have any?
4.2) and in your guess, how many would Sandpoint have?edit:
5) What skill would you use for sailing?
1) More I think on it, the more I'd be likely to allow them bucklers. I initially said no because the duelist prestige class doesn't allow it. And I still might say no, since that blurs the line between fighter a bit much with them relying on even a little armor. Of course... it's not like I'm building the class anyway, so it's all academic.
2) It's the 10th largest city.
3) Yes.
4.1) Yes; it has a curio shop that functions something like a pawn shop.
4.2) 1—the aforementioned curio shop.
5) Profession (sailor)
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Creative Director
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As the discussion about this in the rule forum has died down several days ago I think it is reasonably safe to ask a question about invisibility.
The Invisibility ability say: "A creature can generally notice the presence of an active invisible creature within 30 feet with a DC 20 Perception check."
Then the table say that noticing someone using stealth while invisible use: "Stealth check +20".
Someone read that a two different values that you should add together, so noticing someone invisible using stealth has a DC of 40+ the stealth check result.Pinpointing the invisible entity would have a DC of 60+ the stealth check result and so on.
My opinion is that the static DC of 20 and the +20 to the stealth check are the same modifier and that it should be applied only once.
How do you play that when playing with the other Paizo employees?
I don't think rules questions are ever "safe," alas.
How I play: Invisibility grants a +40 bonus on your Stealth, or only a +20 if you're noisy.
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Creative Director
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We aren't planning to significantly involve mythic rules in the next two APs after Wrath of the Righteous. If they're really popular, we'll do another mythic AP at some point in the future. And we certainly could well throw in a mythic foe now and then in a normal AP. None of that will really help non-mythic APs hit 20th level though.A shame - I was sort of hoping that the Mythic rules would be at least partly integrated into future APs, rather than limited to specific all-Mythic adventures. Will there be some standalone Mythic adventure modules, at least?
In the Golarion-specific mythic bestiary, will we see examples of mythic characters as well? As in, NPCs (such as the Runelords or similar) who progressed up the mythic tiers to a certain point, and who will be statted up in that fashion? Or should we expect to see the standard Mythic template applied to those NPCs instead to signify their mythic abilities?
We won't really know how much folks dig how the mythic rules work in an AP until a few months after the last Wrath of the Righteous volume is out in January of 2014. By that point, the adventures for the 2014 AP will allready be in writing, at which point it's too late to pull back and make the AP a mythic one. It's just the way it is. Furthermore, we've got the modules more or less planned out until 2015, and none of them are mythic.
If folks REALLY love the mythic rules, we'll see if we can't take evasive action to give them more, but my suspicion is that they won't eclipse the popularity of the Core Rules. If they do, I'll be pleasantly surprised.
NOTE: They don't have to eclipse the popularity of the Core Rules to be successful. No other book we've done yet has, I would say, eclipsed the popularity of the core rules in toto.
As for seeing mythic creatures and characters statted up... stay tuned!
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I have trouble with the following clause in the polymorph rules:
"While under the effects of a polymorph spell, you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities that depend on your original form (such as keen senses, scent, and darkvision)"
If form means "physical makeup" then I would have thought that all Ex abilities were based on form and all Su weren't, just from my understanding of what Ex and Su means. We don't generally get *explanations* for abilities so I'm not entirely sure how to go beyond this simple classification.
What's your view?
Richard
My view is that it's something you and the GM need to decide the details of when it happens. In order to keep the polymorph spells from being impossibly long and instantly outdated once we publish a new monster with a new ability, we HAVE to keep the wording vague.
Original form means your biological organs, though, be they extraordinary organs or supernatural ones. Not all supernatural abilities come from organs.
Ok, understood.
Could I ask you your opinion on some specific cases, though?
Richard
Do you think that the situation I brought up (powerful devil in the service of a mortal child, thanks to a contract by the kid's late grandfather) could be written into a module or adventure path?
Also, if it was a Duke of Hell, could the devil in question be able to disguise itself as a humanoid? I doubt most people would want to come near a guy who obviously has a monster in his service, no matter how well-spoken either of them are.
And hey, Kuroshitsuji's Sebastian looks like a human. A very classy and well-groomed human.
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Creative Director
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Do you think that the situation I brought up (powerful devil in the service of a mortal child, thanks to a contract by the kid's late grandfather) could be written into a module or adventure path?
Also, if it was a Duke of Hell, could the devil in question be able to disguise itself as a humanoid? I doubt most people would want to come near a guy who obviously has a monster in his service, no matter how well-spoken either of them are.
And hey, Kuroshitsuji's Sebastian looks like a human. A very classy and well-groomed human.
Now that we actually have rules for young creatures, the mechanics are in place for such a plot. Paizo, though, is kind of hesitant these days about doing plots that feature children in peril or other dangerous situations.
How well a devil can disguise itself depends on its disguise ranks and supernatural abilities—most devils are pretty good at it.
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Creative Director
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Questions:
1. Does Mind Fog allow the caster to know who failed their save against it. If it doesn't Mind Fog sounds like a blind dip, as it doesn't tell the caster or the caster can't see who is vulnerable.
2. Distant Worlds says Golarion casters will find "numerous differences" between their magic and that of their Triaxan Counterparts. How is this covered, if at all, in the next issue of Pathfinder. Different spell effects? Different Schools? Different systems as opposed to Vancian (and spontenaeous?
3. Where can I find the 3.5 statblock to Graz'zt that you wrote for Dungeon 360? I want to convert him.
1) A caster always knows if a target of a spell makes or fails its save unless rules specifically say otherwise.
2) I'm not sure that's really covered at all—with limited space to cover an entire planet's worth of differences, we had to pick and choose what we focused on. That said, I wasn't involved in the writing, development, or editing of that volume, so I can't say for sure; that's a Rob and Adam question.
3) The Graz'zt volume of the Demonomicon was one I wrote for an early online Dragon, a few months or so after the magazines stopped being in print. I'm not sure how to get to it these days, but it would be on WotC's site. I suspect you'll need a D&D Insider sub to see it.
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Creative Director
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Since rules questions are never safe and I like to live Dangerously, lets talk about ultimate Campaign for a second. Do you ever use any of the optional Rulesets in Ultimate Campaign in your own campaigns? if so, which ones do you find most useful for your own GM purposes?
Yes. In fact, some of the optional rulesets in Ultimate Campaign, such as the rules for exploration/hex crawling, more or less CAME from my own campaings. I've used other similar rules as well, such as traits/story feats and rules for building and running businesses.
I'm currently statting the kid out so that he's in his late teens or early twenties (meaning the Duke has been in his service a while), as a True Neutral 4th-level infernal sorcerer. Stat block in progress.
The Duke, meanwhile, is currently a 3rd-level magus. Not sure if I should do something else with him, but whatever.
Should I be worried about Rob not answering my question, or is he just a busy guy?
Which places on Golarion have the highest numbers of hags? Would Varisia and Ustalav be two such places?
I had players ask me if Paizo had ever converted their adventure paths and adventure models into D&D 4E. I answered no but it made me wonder if converting these to 4E would be a good or bad thing. In your opinion, is it possible for Paizo to convert the adventure paths and models to 4E? Why or why not?
If one was to strand one each all three behemoth types, each type of titan, and the tarrasque on a barren world and made them all aware of each other, what would survive?
Not the world, I'm sure.
But... if I had to get right down to it, and could only pick ONE of my possessions to keep, it would be this.
Ha! Do you actually believe you (or any human) can possess a cat?
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Creative Director
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Where in golarion would trench warfare take place? I'm guessing the Mana Wastes and/or Numeria.
It's not so much a gun and technology related question as it is that I just like the solemn brooding aesthetic of trenches and fighting in them.
Ustalav has some trench warfare stuff going on.
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Creative Director
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Should I be worried about Rob not answering my question, or is he just a busy guy?
Which places on Golarion have the highest numbers of hags? Would Varisia and Ustalav be two such places?
How'd you ask his question? He IS a busy guy though. We're all busy, in fact, and if we're not used to answering questions in forums we don't check that often, we miss them.
Ustalav probably has the most hags, but Irrisen has a fair amount as well.
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Creative Director
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I had players ask me if Paizo had ever converted their adventure paths and adventure models into D&D 4E. I answered no but it made me wonder if converting these to 4E would be a good or bad thing. In your opinion, is it possible for Paizo to convert the adventure paths and models to 4E? Why or why not?
I do know that there's plenty of groups out there who are converting our adventures to 4E... but that's not something we are interested in pursuing as an official service offered by Paizo. We'd rather you play Pathfinder, because it's our game. Furthermore, the legal complications and licensing requirements that WotC would demand would not be worth it to Paizo to engage in.
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Creative Director
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If one was to strand one each all three behemoth types, each type of titan, and the tarrasque on a barren world and made them all aware of each other, what would survive?
Not the world, I'm sure.
Fortunately, all of those creatures have stats, so an enterprising person could fight them all against each other to find out!
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Ustalav has some trench warfare stuff going on.Where in golarion would trench warfare take place? I'm guessing the Mana Wastes and/or Numeria.
It's not so much a gun and technology related question as it is that I just like the solemn brooding aesthetic of trenches and fighting in them.
... Awesome.
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Creative Director
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But... if I had to get right down to it, and could only pick ONE of my possessions to keep, it would be this.Ha! Do you actually believe you (or any human) can possess a cat?
I do. More importantly, society as a whole does. And even more importantly, if I'm gonna save ONE THING IN MY HOME OUT OF EVERYTHING, it'd be my cat, whether or not anyone considers her a possession.
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Have you ever thought about making a wyrm that walks?
(I am so sorry)
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Sure, as long as you promise not to use my replies as crowbars to leverage out advantages for your character from your GM! ;-)Could I ask you your opinion on some specific cases, though?
Richard
My role, funnily enough, is module-writer rather than player or even GM.
If I'm going to include something which can polymorph then I need to decide on an interpretation of this rule which most players and GMs would be happy to accept as reasonable.
So I'll start with the very specific case of a vampire which turns into a bat.
According to the rules, this works like beast shape II, which doesn't include blindsense.
So if a vampire loses darkvision when it changes shape into a dire bat then, as far as I can see, it's not going to be able to see very well at night.
Which means that old vampire up in his castle isn't going to be making very many night-time sorties in the local woods because he'll keep bumping into all the trees.
Would you agree with that?
Richard
Should I be worried about Rob not answering my question, or is he just a busy guy?
Which places on Golarion have the highest numbers of hags? Would Varisia and Ustalav be two such places?
How'd you ask his question? He IS a busy guy though. We're all busy, in fact, and if we're not used to answering questions in forums we don't check that often, we miss them.
Ustalav probably has the most hags, but Irrisen has a fair amount as well.
I sent him a PM.
Also, which places have the most Sea Hags?
Hey James, I'm thinking of coming up with some demon lords for my homebrew setting and was wondering what you typically do to design them.
1) Do you first find a niche for them and then design their appearance to complement that? Or vice versa?
2) Should a demon lord always have a sin or sinful act associated with it?
3) Where is a good place to look for inspiration for demon lords? Is there a book you particularly like for demons in mythology?
4) Finally...can there ever be too many demon lords? :o
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Seriously though, has anyone considered making a WtW out of a dragon of any kind?
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Creative Director
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Sure, as long as you promise not to use my replies as crowbars to leverage out advantages for your character from your GM! ;-)Could I ask you your opinion on some specific cases, though?
Richard
My role, funnily enough, is module-writer rather than player or even GM.
If I'm going to include something which can polymorph then I need to decide on an interpretation of this rule which most players and GMs would be happy to accept as reasonable.
So I'll start with the very specific case of a vampire which turns into a bat.
According to the rules, this works like beast shape II, which doesn't include blindsense.
So if a vampire loses darkvision when it changes shape into a dire bat then, as far as I can see, it's not going to be able to see very well at night.
Which means that old vampire up in his castle isn't going to be making very many night-time sorties in the local woods because he'll keep bumping into all the trees.
Would you agree with that?
Richard
Honestly, my preference from a module writer stand is to go with the interpretation that makes for the best story.
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Creative Director
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Should I be worried about Rob not answering my question, or is he just a busy guy?
Which places on Golarion have the highest numbers of hags? Would Varisia and Ustalav be two such places?
How'd you ask his question? He IS a busy guy though. We're all busy, in fact, and if we're not used to answering questions in forums we don't check that often, we miss them.
Ustalav probably has the most hags, but Irrisen has a fair amount as well.
I sent him a PM.
Also, which places have the most Sea Hags?
He's busy. I'll mention he has a PM next time I see him though.
Dunno about sea hags. They're kinda found anywhere.
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Creative Director
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Hey James, I'm thinking of coming up with some demon lords for my homebrew setting and was wondering what you typically do to design them.
1) Do you first find a niche for them and then design their appearance to complement that? Or vice versa?
2) Should a demon lord always have a sin or sinful act associated with it?
3) Where is a good place to look for inspiration for demon lords? Is there a book you particularly like for demons in mythology?
4) Finally...can there ever be too many demon lords? :o
1) Niche first, appearance later.
2) A demon should always have a sin associated with it. A demon lord doesn't.
3) My favorite place for demon lord inspirations is horror writers, be they from the pulp era with Lovecraft and crew or the modern era with King and crew. Mix this in with a big dose of decades of RPGs, and an even bigger dose of real-world mythology, and presto!
4) Yes.
Seriously though, has anyone considered making a WtW out of a dragon of any kind?WtW?
Thinking he means a Worm That Walks.