Hi James
you mentioned upthread how you want to start a star frontiers game..ive never played but i have the old core pink box set..what if anything else would you recommend i get..
Creative Director
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James,
What "point buy" average do your groups have that you run? I am just curious what your average power level is.
I put point buy in quotes because some groups roll, other don't, but everyone seems to use what the equivalent would be as a benchmark.
Our games tend to be on the higher side of the power curve. I'd prefer to roll stats, but my friends prefer the balance and equality of point buy.
When I'm in a group that uses point buy, we usually do 20 point buy. But it's just as common, if not MORE common, for us to roll our dice in the old fashioned way.
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Creative Director
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A question about Abadar, being the god of civilization I'm assuming he has adapted his appearance as civilizations have advanced and come and go and hasn't always had the fatherly well groomed business man type look to him.
If he did have other forms he used to take on what did he look like? Or was he the primeval mustache?
All the gods and goddesses have adapted their appearance. Or to be more exact, their faiths have adapted how they depict their deities.
It's unrevealed what Abadar looked like back in his Azlant days.
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Creative Director
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Hi James
you mentioned upthread how you want to start a star frontiers game..ive never played but i have the old core pink box set..what if anything else would you recommend i get..
That's enough to get started!
If you want to expand to space fights, get the Knight Hawks box set. I was never all that fond of those rules though.
I've been reading through old Dungeon Magazines lately, so expect a few trips down memory lane.
1. Did the Wizard Azlanist use The Sceptre of the Underworld to help create Golarian? (Sorry, couldn't resist this given the name)
2. How is Jan? Did you create that character specifically for the adventure, or was he just one of your characters you got to immortalize?
3. What provoked a bigger reaction out of you, joy at seeing your adventure in print in Issue #12, or rage at the nerve of the editors for putting a dinosaur on the cover of Issue #13 instead of #12.
James,
Andoran is my favorite region of Golarion. Are there plans in the future for doing an AP in that region?
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Hi James,
I have 3 questions for you, and I hope I'm not repeating something that has been answered elsewhere.
First up a couple of rules related questions that have come up in my recent games:
1) If a character with a whip attacks another character that is 10’ away, could the target of the attack make an attack of opportunity to sunder the whip?
2) The ‘Fast Learner’ feat in the Advance Race Guide generated an argument when a player was leveling up after the last session. Normally a character (without the feat) can take one of the following when they get a level in a favored class: Hit Point or Skill Point or Race/Class alternate feature. Can a character with the feat basically pick any two of those three items?
And finally, on a non-rules issue:
3) I’ve heard you will be at GenCon this year and will be manning some of the Pathfinder panels. Assuming that Paizo is planning to hand out the cool Pathfinder buttons again this year, would you be willing to smuggle me a complete set of one of each of them as I rarely manage to get to the dealer’s room every day soon enough to get one?
1) What language did the psychopomps keep records in before the invention of abyssal? What languages came before abyssal, if any?
2) Does the Abyss predate the Boneyard?
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James sir, my DM is putting a goodly amount of effort into creating a old world pathfinder game, set in -582 AR, and I had a couple of questions about then.
1)What would be the date? I don't think the pharaohs counted in BC.
2)Was the mantis god still worshiped only as the god of murder or had the red mantis assassins begun developing in Rahadhoum?
1) Ummm... the date would be –582 AR if you set it in –582 AR. I'm not sure what you're asking.
2) Achaekek was worshiped all the way back in Azlant times. The Red Mantis is a relatively recent group, but he had worshipers before they were founded.
I think Glutton was trying to ask how would the people living in -582 AR refer to the date they live in? obviously they will have a different counting method, just like no one on Earth never said "Tommorow would be 100 years BC"... well, barring time travel.
Question of my own: As goddess of disease, could Urguthoa be considerd responsible for cancer as well as germ-based illness? Are magical diseases also a part of her influence?
Death or Glory (Combat)
Even when facing a larger foe, you aren’t afraid to take great risks in order to finish the fight.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Power Attack, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: Against a creature of size Large or larger, you can make a single melee attack as a full-round action, gaining a +4 bonus on the attack roll, damage roll, and critical confirmation roll. You gain an additional +1 on this bonus at base attack bonus +11, +16, and +20 (for a maximum of +7 at base attack +20). After you resolve your attack, the opponent you attack can spend an immediate action to make a single melee attack against you with the same bonuses.
Special: You can combine the full-round action attack this feat allows with the benefit of Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike.
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Question 1
Can I still have this bonus if I'm large with for example using an Enlarged Potion and I'm fighting a Giant, Stone (Large)? Because we would be of the same size.
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Devastating Strike (Combat)
Pitting all of your strength and resolve against your enemy, you deliver a strike that is impossible to ignore.
Prerequisites: Vital Strike, base attack bonus +9.
Benefit: Whenever you use Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, you gain a +2 bonus on each extra weapon damage dice roll those feats grant (+6 maximum). This bonus damage is multiplied on a critical hit.
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Question 2 (This one is confusing)
If I use a Greatsword and Im enlarged (Greatsword do 3d6 dmg) and I use Vital Strike which doubles my weapon dmg, granting me +3d6 extra dmg.
Would I get +6 extra damage for just using Vital Strike? Or I only get +2 for Vital Strike, +4 when using Improved Vital Strike and/or +6 when using Greater Vital Strike?
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Is Caiden Caylean based in part on Malcom Reynolds, with Thais, his herald, being a Inara Serra stand in?
Mal and Cayden are/were both mercenaries who sometimes didn't finish jobs because it ran up against their scrupples. Both seem to get into awkward positions, like becoming a god.
As for their relations with Inara/Thais.
Both were 'companions' when not adventuring.
They both are their principles 'Ambassador'.
Mal/Caiden and Inara/Thais both bicker constantly with each other.
On the other hand they both seem to care about each other and will take steps to protect each others interests, sometimes stupidly.
Is this on purpose?
What do you use for your character sheets?
Do you prefer sheets that hold a lot of information for you, or do you prefer a minimalist approach?
How do you assign ability scores to NPCs? Both in your home games and for Paizo material.
1) If one wants to give exceptional wealth to a monster with class levels, just give them PC-level wealth equal to their CR, correct?
2) Do you happen to know when Ultimate Campaign will be on the PRD? Are there any parts that won't appear there?
3) What are some tips for making a town in an RPG seem realistic and alive? Right now, my locations seem to be falling a bit flat.
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Creative Director
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I've been reading through old Dungeon Magazines lately, so expect a few trips down memory lane.
1. Did the Wizard Azlanist use The Sceptre of the Underworld to help create Golarian? (Sorry, couldn't resist this given the name)
2. How is Jan? Did you create that character specifically for the adventure, or was he just one of your characters you got to immortalize?
3. What provoked a bigger reaction out of you, joy at seeing your adventure in print in Issue #12, or rage at the nerve of the editors for putting a dinosaur on the cover of Issue #13 instead of #12.
1) Ha! Nope. Alaznist is actually an NPC from my homebrew, but he and the creator of the Scepter of the Underworld and the runelord are 3 different people.
2) I created the character specifically for the adventure. He didn't even have a name in my turnover to the editors—they named him during development (none of the choose-your-own-adventure type books I'd been reading up till then had named protagonists).
3) The joy at seeing my adventure in print, easily. I liked the dinosaur cover for 13, but never ever felt jealous of it. That said... I could have done with a different cover than green cows... but I got my revenge in Dungeon #24, with arguably one of the best covers for the magazine ever.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
I have 3 questions for you, and I hope I'm not repeating something that has been answered elsewhere.
First up a couple of rules related questions that have come up in my recent games:
1) If a character with a whip attacks another character that is 10’ away, could the target of the attack make an attack of opportunity to sunder the whip?
2) The ‘Fast Learner’ feat in the Advance Race Guide generated an argument when a player was leveling up after the last session. Normally a character (without the feat) can take one of the following when they get a level in a favored class: Hit Point or Skill Point or Race/Class alternate feature. Can a character with the feat basically pick any two of those three items?
And finally, on a non-rules issue:
3) I’ve heard you will be at GenCon this year and will be manning some of the Pathfinder panels. Assuming that Paizo is planning to hand out the cool Pathfinder buttons again this year, would you be willing to smuggle me a complete set of one of each of them as I rarely manage to get to the dealer’s room every day soon enough to get one?
1) If the target threatens the whip user, yes.
2) Good question for the rules forum—especially since it seems to have caused an argument. I'm afraid there's no way for me to answer that without someone using the "he's not a designer" argument to keep the argument going. Better yet, go with the GM's decision.
3) We will indeed most likely have buttons at the convention, but I can't "smuggle" them to anyone, since if I do it for one person, I have to do it for everyone who asks, and that starts to defeat the purpose of the buttons (which is to drive traffic to our booth), to say the least of exponentially increasing the likelihood of me stabbing myself with a pointy button pin. Sorry!
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Creative Director
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Death or Glory (Combat)
Even when facing a larger foe, you aren’t afraid to take great risks in order to finish the fight.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Power Attack, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: Against a creature of size Large or larger, you can make a single melee attack as a full-round action, gaining a +4 bonus on the attack roll, damage roll, and critical confirmation roll. You gain an additional +1 on this bonus at base attack bonus +11, +16, and +20 (for a maximum of +7 at base attack +20). After you resolve your attack, the opponent you attack can spend an immediate action to make a single melee attack against you with the same bonuses.
Special: You can combine the full-round action attack this feat allows with the benefit of Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike.
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Question 1Can I still have this bonus if I'm large with for example using an Enlarged Potion and I'm fighting a Giant, Stone (Large)? Because we would be of the same size.
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Devastating Strike (Combat)
Pitting all of your strength and resolve against your enemy, you deliver a strike that is impossible to ignore.
Prerequisites: Vital Strike, base attack bonus +9.
Benefit: Whenever you use Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, you gain a +2 bonus on each extra weapon damage dice roll those feats grant (+6 maximum). This bonus damage is multiplied on a critical hit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2 (This one is confusing)
If I use a Greatsword and Im enlarged (Greatsword do 3d6 dmg) and I use Vital Strike which doubles my weapon dmg, granting me +3d6 extra dmg.
Would I get +6 extra damage for just using Vital Strike? Or I only get +2 for Vital Strike, +4 when using Improved Vital Strike and/or +6 when using Greater Vital Strike?
Good questions for the rules forum and some FAQ clicks; sorry I can't answer them here.
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Creative Director
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Is Caiden Caylean based in part on Malcom Reynolds, with Thais, his herald, being a Inara Serra stand in?
Mal and Cayden are/were both mercenaries who sometimes didn't finish jobs because it ran up against their scrupples. Both seem to get into awkward positions, like becoming a god.
As for their relations with Inara/Thais.
Both were 'companions' when not adventuring.
They both are their principles 'Ambassador'.
Mal/Caiden and Inara/Thais both bicker constantly with each other.
On the other hand they both seem to care about each other and will take steps to protect each others interests, sometimes stupidly.Is this on purpose?
Caiden Caylean is not based on Firefly characters. Both are based on the same basic hero archetypes, though.
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Creative Director
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What do you use for your character sheets?
Do you prefer sheets that hold a lot of information for you, or do you prefer a minimalist approach?
Depends on the game. I'm using Hero Lab for the iPad in one game (despite a few frustrations at not being able to add in custom content easilly), and a Hero Lab printout for another, and a Paizo character sheet for a third game.
I prefer sheets that hold lots of info but are well-designed and easy to reference and manipulate.
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Creative Director
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How do you assign ability scores to NPCs? Both in your home games and for Paizo material.
For NPCs in my home games and in Paizo material I do the same thing: All NPCs have the following stats: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. Arranged as how best makes sense. For significant characters, like Karzoug, I'll instead custom build their stats from a 25 point buy and increase their CR as appropriate. And for NPCs who have racial HD, I simply add the following adjustments to their baseline ability scores as best fits the theme: +4, +4, +2, +2, +0, –2.
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Creative Director
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1) If one wants to give exceptional wealth to a monster with class levels, just give them PC-level wealth equal to their CR, correct?
2) Do you happen to know when Ultimate Campaign will be on the PRD? Are there any parts that won't appear there?
3) What are some tips for making a town in an RPG seem realistic and alive? Right now, my locations seem to be falling a bit flat.
1) As a general rule, if you give a monster class levels, they should have gear equal to an NPC of an equal level to their final adjusted CR.
2) I don't know; I assume pretty soon after it's released, and it will include everything but the artwork, as per normal.
3) Gamemastery Guide has a "Top 30 questions to ask yourself about your city" that is INCREDIBLY useful in building interesting and unusual cities. In addition to having lots more advice. It's too big a topic for me to go into here, apart from advising "read lots of adventures and supplements that present various kinds of cities for inspiration."
1) As a general rule, if you give a monster class levels, they should have gear equal to an NPC of an equal level to their final adjusted CR.
Right, but if I wanted to represent say...a wealthy frost giant warlord that has more treasure than a typical frost giant NPC with class levels, what should I do?
James here are the pictures from my trip to Drumheller and the Royal Tyrell Museum. I hope you enjoy them.
...Death or Glory (Combat)
Even when facing a larger foe, you aren’t afraid to take great risks in order to finish the fight.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Power Attack, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: Against a creature of size Large or larger, you can make a single melee attack as a full-round action, gaining a +4 bonus on the attack roll, damage roll, and critical confirmation roll. You gain an additional +1 on this bonus at base attack bonus +11, +16, and +20 (for a maximum of +7 at base attack +20). After you resolve your attack, the opponent you attack can spend an immediate action to make a single melee attack against you with the same bonuses.
Special: You can combine the full-round action attack this feat allows with the benefit of Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 1Can I still have this bonus if I'm large with for example using an Enlarged Potion and I'm fighting a Giant, Stone (Large)? Because we would be of the same size.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Devastating Strike (Combat)
Pitting all of your strength and resolve against your enemy, you deliver a strike that is impossible to ignore.
Prerequisites: Vital Strike, base attack bonus +9.
Benefit: Whenever you use Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, you gain a +2 bonus on each extra weapon damage dice roll those feats grant (+6 maximum). This bonus damage is multiplied on a critical hit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2 (This one is confusing)
If I use a Greatsword and Im enlarged (Greatsword do 3d6 dmg) and I use Vital Strike which doubles my weapon dmg, granting me +3d6 extra dmg.
Would I get +6 extra damage for just using Vital Strike? Or I only get +2 for Vital Strike, +4 when using Improved Vital Strike and/or +6 when using Greater Vital Strike?
A bit dissapointed since in this topic had been answered many rule questions, but alright I Understand and posted it in the Rules forum.
I love Pathfinder because it's a really solid game system, but would be nice that devs were a bit more around Rule forums to answer tough questions and/or update FAQ more frequently. One of the main reason we left 3.5 was because Wizards cut all the 3.5 support to give it to 4.0 and soon to the 5.0.
Thanks anyhow. ^^
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Creative Director
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1) As a general rule, if you give a monster class levels, they should have gear equal to an NPC of an equal level to their final adjusted CR.
Right, but if I wanted to represent say...a wealthy frost giant warlord that has more treasure than a typical frost giant NPC with class levels, what should I do?
Same thing. He'll still have a CR. Give him NPC gear appropriate for his level, treating his CR as his level. Or give him PC appropriate gear and kick up his CR by +1 once all is said and done.
Or just give him what you want. There's nothing wrong with giving an NPC a lot of wealth, as long as you're comfortable with the possibility of the PCs acquiring it.
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Creative Director
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James here are the pictures from my trip to Drumheller and the Royal Tyrell Museum. I hope you enjoy them.
Cool! Thanks for sharing!
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Creative Director
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A bit dissapointed since in this topic had been answered many rule questions, but alright I Understand and posted it in the Rules forum.
I love Pathfinder because it's a really solid game system, but would be nice that devs were a bit more around Rule forums to answer tough questions and/or update FAQ more frequently. One of the main reason we left 3.5 was because Wizards cut all the 3.5 support to give it to 4.0 and soon to the 5.0.
Thanks anyhow. ^^
Whether or not I'll answer a rules question depends significantly on how it's asked and my gut reaction as to whether or not it's better for a rules question to be asked in the right forum or not. Generally, the longer a question gets and the more books that get involved, the more likely it is that I'll refer you to the other threads. But if you ask something like, "How does enlarge person work with vital strike?" or otherwise keep the questions simply phrased, there's a better chance I'll answer. And my answer will probably be pretty simply phrased as well. The game, in my opinion, does NOT benefit from overanalysis of every single possible rule ever printed.
That said, I agree it would be nice if the designers had a stronger presence on these boards. But that would come with a trade-off—namely, less free time for the designers. Paizo asks its employees to maintain a presence on these boards, but it doesn't ask them to do so after hours. It takes a special kind of madness to post here at, say, 12:40 AM on a Saturday morning... ;P
1) As a general rule, if you give a monster class levels, they should have gear equal to an NPC of an equal level to their final adjusted CR.
Right, but if I wanted to represent say...a wealthy frost giant warlord that has more treasure than a typical frost giant NPC with class levels, what should I do?
Same thing. He'll still have a CR. Give him NPC gear appropriate for his level, treating his CR as his level. Or give him PC appropriate gear and kick up his CR by +1 once all is said and done.
Or just give him what you want. There's nothing wrong with giving an NPC a lot of wealth, as long as you're comfortable with the possibility of the PCs acquiring it.
Perfect. Thanks James!
Whether or not I'll answer a rules question depends significantly on how it's asked and my gut reaction as to whether or not it's better for a rules question to be asked in the right forum or not. Generally, the longer a question gets and the more books that get involved, the more likely it is that I'll refer you to the other threads. But if you ask something like, "How does enlarge person work with vital strike?" or otherwise keep the questions simply phrased, there's a better chance I'll answer. And my answer will probably be pretty simply phrased as well. The game, in my opinion, does NOT benefit from overanalysis of every single possible rule ever printed.
That said, I agree it would be nice if the designers had a stronger presence on these boards. But that would come with a trade-off—namely, less free time for the designers. Paizo asks its employees to maintain a presence on these boards, but it doesn't ask them to do so after hours. It takes a special kind of madness to post here at, say, 12:40 AM on a Saturday morning... ;P
Hmm Alright that make sense. I will keep that in mind and make the questions more simple in the future. I understand that reading and answering TOO many questions can be exhausting. I just copy/paste the abilities so they were handy to help a bit because looking around many books can take serious time.
Anyhow I appreciate the time you take to answer this late night or early in Saturday hehe since not many devs do what you do. It was just a wishful thinking if we could get more support from Paizo Staff than we got now, but yah makes sense devs need time to develop new stuffs.
About the overanalysis thing I agree with you but if players would accept Gamemasters answers as "true" even if it were temporary it would be awesome but Im afraid thats not the case. Players tend to feel cheated when rules tend to go away from what they want, so I try to be as fair and just as possible so they dont feel like I cheat them. ^^
Thanks again man for the time you take reading these.
Would you stat up Arya Stark as an Expert or a Rogue? I think there's a strong argument that she gets retraining into a PC class level or two pretty early on in the first book / season.
Thanks! Assigning NPC scores is always hard for me, so that's very helpful. A completely unrelated set of questions:
I'm building a joint campaign with a friend set in Golarion. The basic premise is that a couple of bored mythic gnome siblings have decided to play chess with the Inner Sea region, using the PCs as pawns. I will be running the mystic theurge Felmvruumstaeriffokkolis' party, and my friend will run that of his sister, the deva bard Quijit. They will each have a set of eight allies (one of every allignment save TN) from around the Inner Sea, and the parties will be tasked with systematically dealing with each ally of the respective rival gnome.
1) Do you have suggestions for specific people from around the Inner Sea to be allies/targets/rivals in this campaign?
2) Do you have any advice for running a joint campaign? There will be some sessions run seperately, and the occasional session run with both parties present and both GMs running the table concurrently.
Any other thoughts would also be appreciated!
NPC Codex have only Corebook classes.
Will Paizo release more NPC Codex 2-3? With only the remaining classes from Advanced Players Guide plus Magus, Gunslinger, Ninja and Samurai?
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Creative Director
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Thanks! Assigning NPC scores is always hard for me, so that's very helpful. A completely unrelated set of questions:
I'm building a joint campaign with a friend set in Golarion. The basic premise is that a couple of bored mythic gnome siblings have decided to play chess with the Inner Sea region, using the PCs as pawns. I will be running the mystic theurge Felmvruumstaeriffokkolis' party, and my friend will run that of his sister, the deva bard Quijit. They will each have a set of eight allies (one of every allignment save TN) from around the Inner Sea, and the parties will be tasked with systematically dealing with each ally of the respective rival gnome.
1) Do you have suggestions for specific people from around the Inner Sea to be allies/targets/rivals in this campaign?
2) Do you have any advice for running a joint campaign? There will be some sessions run seperately, and the occasional session run with both parties present and both GMs running the table concurrently.
Any other thoughts would also be appreciated!
1) Wow. That's a pretty outlandish plotline! AKA: It's outlandish enough that you can really justify just about any allies and rivals and targets. Pick the ones you like the best or that your players will enjoy meeting/fighting the most!
2) I've run joint campaigns before and played in them before... and they're really hard to pull off. Worst case, one of the GMs favors his player character or plays favorites with other payers, and you end up with some unhealthy competition. So make sure you trust your co-GM!
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Creative Director
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NPC Codex have only Corebook classes.
Will Paizo release more NPC Codex 2-3? With only the remaining classes from Advanced Players Guide plus Magus, Gunslinger, Ninja and Samurai?
We'll see about additional NPC Codex type books. If we DO do more, incorporating non-core products is an obvious option. We chose to only focus on the core for the first book for 2 big reasons:
1) To keep the book simple to build and use.
2) To enforce the fact that the non-core options are NOT as overwhelmingly common; the core rules need to be the most represented in the game, if only to established a common ground baseline.
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James,
While I am fairly sure Iomadae is the main religion of Lastwall, what other religions would be prominent? I would guess on Erastil and prolly Saranrae, but am rather curious.
Also, is there a plan to eventually do a gazetteer of each of the individual nations of Golarion, like there has been with Taldor?
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Creative Director
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James,
While I am fairly sure Iomadae is the main religion of Lastwall, what other religions would be prominent? I would guess on Erastil and prolly Saranrae, but am rather curious.
Also, is there a plan to eventually do a gazetteer of each of the individual nations of Golarion, like there has been with Taldor?
We've done an article about Vigil that has some more information about it. I don't remember off the top of my head who's big there, but beyond Iomedae, I wouldn't be surprised to find Torag and Abadar have strong roles there.
There's no plan to eventually do a gazetteer on each region and nation, no. But if we keep publishing Golarion content at the rate we have been for several more years, we'll get there anyway.
James,
While I am fairly sure Iomadae is the main religion of Lastwall, what other religions would be prominent? I would guess on Erastil and prolly Saranrae, but am rather curious.
Also, is there a plan to eventually do a gazetteer of each of the individual nations of Golarion, like there has been with Taldor?We've done an article about Vigil that has some more information about it. I don't remember off the top of my head who's big there, but beyond Iomedae, I wouldn't be surprised to find Torag and Abadar have strong roles there.
There's no plan to eventually do a gazetteer on each region and nation, no. But if we keep publishing Golarion content at the rate we have been for several more years, we'll get there anyway.
Off the top of my head, I seem to recall their being mention of Rangers in service to Lastwall often worshiping Erastil.
And considering the martial nature of the place - Gorum.
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Creative Director
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what are Asmodeus and Abadar's relationship? how does this play out in Cheliax?
They're rivals. Abadar's clergy is very regulated and restricted in what they're allowed to do in Cheliax, which frustrates the church a lot. It's hard to be a god of law when your church has to increasingly function in the social underground.
Hey James, hope you're having a good Memorial Day Weekend. We're going to be putting ribeye, tiger prawns, scallops, and hotdogs on the BBQ ourselves. If you're really into BBQ, get a BBQ basket (The one with the handle) for BBQing scallops, basting them in olive oil and garlic ahead of time. Then, get a BBQ going using grapewood for your smoke. The scallops -really- soak in that wonderful grapewood smoke flavor. Even though we can't get the fresh scallops here in Fresno, with that nice smoke to it they taste awesome.
Anyhoo, time for my... I believe it's yearly question? Seems about the frequency I toss these at you.
So, my question is on the Stonelord, and one of his abilities.
The Stone Servant ability is described with the following (With emphasis added):
At 5th level, a stonelord may call a Small earth elemental to her side, as a paladin calls her mount. This earth elemental is Lawful Good in alignment and possesses the celestial template, and it increases in size as the stonelord gains levels, becoming Medium at 8th level, Large at 11th level, Huge at 14th level, Greater at 17th level, and Elder at 20th level. This ability replaces divine bond.
So for me, it's understandable that you can call it to your side magically with a Full Action 1/day (And more at later levels). Though, what isn't clear to me is... if it dies, does the Stonelord suffer the usual penalty of not being able to summon it for 30 days, along with the -1 to AB/Damage? At the beginning it only has 13hp, so that makes it likely that it will die often.
What do you think was intended and/or how would you rule it?
Thanks again James!
Oh mighty J.J.,
Is this the most-posted thread on the forums?
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Creative Director
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Hey James, hope you're having a good Memorial Day Weekend. We're going to be putting ribeye, tiger prawns, scallops, and hotdogs on the BBQ ourselves. If you're really into BBQ, get a BBQ basket (The one with the handle) for BBQing scallops, basting them in olive oil and garlic ahead of time. Then, get a BBQ going using grapewood for your smoke. The scallops -really- soak in that wonderful grapewood smoke flavor. Even though we can't get the fresh scallops here in Fresno, with that nice smoke to it they taste awesome.
Anyhoo, time for my... I believe it's yearly question? Seems about the frequency I toss these at you.
So, my question is on the Stonelord, and one of his abilities.
The Stone Servant ability is described with the following (With emphasis added):
At 5th level, a stonelord may call a Small earth elemental to her side, as a paladin calls her mount. This earth elemental is Lawful Good in alignment and possesses the celestial template, and it increases in size as the stonelord gains levels, becoming Medium at 8th level, Large at 11th level, Huge at 14th level, Greater at 17th level, and Elder at 20th level. This ability replaces divine bond.So for me, it's understandable that you can call it to your side magically with a Full Action 1/day (And more at later levels). Though, what isn't clear to me is... if it dies, does the Stonelord suffer the usual penalty of not being able to summon it for 30 days, along with the -1 to AB/Damage? At the beginning it only has 13hp, so that makes it likely that it will die often.
What do you think was intended and/or how would you rule it?
Thanks again James!
So far, so good on the long weekend, since it ends my one-week staycation. No plans for Memorial Day itself, and certainly no plans for BBQ since I'm on a pretty hard-core diet at the moment.
The stonelord's mount is weird and exotic, but if it dies, the paladin suffers the same way that any other paladin does.