EDIT: Actually... let's wait until the book's actually out to talk in detail about Mythic Adventures.You mentioned earlier that, as you envision it, a Mythic cleric character can have the demigod-like ability to grant spells to others, but still needs something else to be a priest of for their own spellcasting. This reminds me of how Great Cthulhu, definitely granting spells, is also said to be High Priest of the Outer Gods.
However, on that note, could a Mythic high-level oracle grant themselves spells and just be powered by their own innate divine nature? I somehow see Nyarlathotep (in the form of the Black Man of the Sabbath, the wanderer through time and space) as such an oracle (though the case could also arguably be made for Nyarlathotep as the cleric or herald of Azathoth...).
More specifically, can you see a Mythic oracle granting its own spells, on the premise that it has become a being of Mythic power?
Tease :P
I have a question regarding one of the bladebound magus blade abilities:
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Teleport Blade (Sp): As a standard action, a magus of 9th level or higher can expend an arcane point from his or his black blade’s arcane pool, and can call his black blade from as far as 1 mile away, causing it to instantaneously teleport to his hand.
***
So, other than an anti-magic field, what (if anything) is supposed prevent this from working?
James,
I told the worker at the game store I haunt about your postapoc homebrew because he was talking about a d20 modern game he was running; he said you should start a kickstarter........he wants d20 modern for pathfinder real bad apparently.
err,....no question really.....
Creative Director
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What are some of the more interesting cohorts for the Leadership game you have seen or created?A talking horse that likes to eat chicken comes to mind...Care to elaborate?
Though that reminds of a xharacter that I had who had a awaken camel that was smarter than anybody else in the party(well except for the party wizard.)
Said horse was actually a paladin's mount—a fey-touched horse or something like that who got enhanced by the paladin spending a Leadership feat to make her mount her cohort as well.
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Creative Director
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I have a question regarding one of the bladebound magus blade abilities:
***
Teleport Blade (Sp): As a standard action, a magus of 9th level or higher can expend an arcane point from his or his black blade’s arcane pool, and can call his black blade from as far as 1 mile away, causing it to instantaneously teleport to his hand.
***So, other than an anti-magic field, what (if anything) is supposed prevent this from working?
Anything that blocks teleporation. Dimensional lock, dimensional anchor, and forbiddance all come to mind.
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Creative Director
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James,
I told the worker at the game store I haunt about your postapoc homebrew because he was talking about a d20 modern game he was running; he said you should start a kickstarter........he wants d20 modern for pathfinder real bad apparently.
"Starting a Kickstarter" isn't that easy. It's something that requires a lot of time... it's essentially a new job. I don't have time to start a kickstarter for my own project at this point, and I'm not interested in launching one and then doing a half-assed job getting it done. Maybe some day after I'm not working at Paizo, perhaps, but I'm not intending to change that anytime soon! :-)
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Creative Director
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I have no idea where to ask this and even though I found the question being asked, I can never find an answer. Even just directing me to the right place to ask this would be a great benefit if you don't know the answer.
In the Advance Race Guide, I have a question about seducer. Here it is for ease:
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Seducer (2 RP)
Prerequisites: The race has at least a +2 racial bonus to Charisma.
Benefit: Members of this race add +1 to the saving throw DCs for their spells and spell-like abilities of the enchantment school. In addition, members of this race with a Wisdom score of 15 or higher gain the following spell-like ability (the caster level is equal to the user's character level):1/day—charm person
-----------------Why do you need 15 Wisdom to have charm person? Shouldn't this be Charisma, especially since you need a +2 racial bonus to charisma to even take this trait for a race.
I would have made it Charisma, since spell-like abilities should ALWAYS be associated with Charisma. Further, seduction is more a Charisma thing than Wisdom thing. Not sure why they chose Wisdom; makes no sense to me, but I wasn't involved in that book's creation so who knows what I might be missing? That said, there are certainly errors waiting for errata in that book (aasimar/tiefling/other planetouched ages come to mind!). Post the question in the rules fourms and FAQ it.
"Starting a Kickstarter" isn't that easy. It's something that requires a lot of time... it's essentially a new job. I don't have time to start a kickstarter for my own project at this point, and I'm not interested in launching one and then doing a half-assed job getting it done. Maybe some day after I'm not working at Paizo, perhaps, but I'm not intending to change that anytime soon! :-)James,
I told the worker at the game store I haunt about your postapoc homebrew because he was talking about a d20 modern game he was running; he said you should start a kickstarter........he wants d20 modern for pathfinder real bad apparently.
See, I....I....tried to tell him that, but......he was so sad.
I told him you'd definitely do it tomorrow. You can't make me a liar, dude.j/k
That's what I figured; I'm just throwing some anecdotal stuff out there and whatnot.
Anything that blocks teleporation. Dimensional lock, dimensional anchor, and forbiddance all come to mind.I have a question regarding one of the bladebound magus blade abilities:
***
Teleport Blade (Sp): As a standard action, a magus of 9th level or higher can expend an arcane point from his or his black blade’s arcane pool, and can call his black blade from as far as 1 mile away, causing it to instantaneously teleport to his hand.
***So, other than an anti-magic field, what (if anything) is supposed prevent this from working?
Thanks. I knew I was suffering from some sort of brain spasm that kept me from coming up with things.
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If it's still unrewarding for you, though, it might be time for you to ask the players if they wouldn't mind leaving the cohorts at home and having the familiars take a more background role. Not much you can do about animal companions and eidolons and that means players will probably get frustrated at perceptions of favoritism.Actually, ask the players about Animal Companions too. My Spell-less Ranger in RotRL leaves his Griffon AC outside any time we adventure in a closed environment. This way, I can still get some use out of its special abilities (fly and once Pounce) but it usually stays off the table. It works wonders for the Companion's life expectancy too ;-)
You might ask the Eidolon to leave its familiar (aka the Summoner PC) at home :-P
Woo hoo ... Spell-less Ranger!
Ahem, sorry - carry on :)
So, I was reading a review from The Insidious Bogleech (a site which you should totally check out) about burburs and digesters, which got me thinking.
Is Paizo ever going to take on the challenge of reinventing crappy monsters again?
Said horse was actually a paladin's mount—a fey-touched horse or something like that who got enhanced by the paladin spending a Leadership feat to make her mount her cohort as well.What are some of the more interesting cohorts for the Leadership game you have seen or created?A talking horse that likes to eat chicken comes to mind...Care to elaborate?
Though that reminds of a xharacter that I had who had a awaken camel that was smarter than anybody else in the party(well except for the party wizard.)
Was the horse named Black Beauty, and said "oh just because I'm black you think I like chicken?!" because I think Chris Rock did that bit.
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Creative Director
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James,
Are there any members of House Rogarvia that didn't disappear after the Vanishing? One of the Kingmaker Traits seems to imply that this may be the case (Bastard, I think). Or is this simply one of the "let people make their own conclusions" things?
Thanks.
It's currently in the "Make your own conclusions" stage still.
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Creative Director
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So, I was reading a review from The Insidious Bogleech (a site which you should totally check out) about burburs and digesters, which got me thinking.
Is Paizo ever going to take on the challenge of reinventing crappy monsters again?
Maybe... time will tell!
Any chance of us seeing more infomation on Taldane sometime within a year?
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Creative Director
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What would the RP cost for Four-Footed Run (Ex) A festrog can run on all fours at speed of 50 feet if it doesn’t hold or carry anything in its hands. When running on all fours, it is treated as if it had the Run feat be?
Also are you guys going to put out more material for race building?
We've no plans to further supplement the race building rules, although when we print new Zero HD Races we'll break down the RP costs for their abilities, as we did in Inner Sea Bestiary.
As for the cost of something like Four-Footed Run, it's not quite as good as a mediocre feat (Run), and therefore should cost SLIGHTLY less than a bonus feat should cost, I suppose.
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Creative Director
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Was the horse named Black Beauty, and said "oh just because I'm black you think I like chicken?!" because I think Chris Rock did that bit.Said horse was actually a paladin's mount—a fey-touched horse or something like that who got enhanced by the paladin spending a Leadership feat to make her mount her cohort as well.What are some of the more interesting cohorts for the Leadership game you have seen or created?A talking horse that likes to eat chicken comes to mind...Care to elaborate?
Though that reminds of a xharacter that I had who had a awaken camel that was smarter than anybody else in the party(well except for the party wizard.)
Nope.
Maybe... time will tell!So, I was reading a review from The Insidious Bogleech (a site which you should totally check out) about burburs and digesters, which got me thinking.
Is Paizo ever going to take on the challenge of reinventing crappy monsters again?
To leap off that line of inquiry, what is your favorite stupid or silly monster?
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Creative Director
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To leap off that line of inquiry, what is your favorite stupid or silly monster?Maybe... time will tell!So, I was reading a review from The Insidious Bogleech (a site which you should totally check out) about burburs and digesters, which got me thinking.
Is Paizo ever going to take on the challenge of reinventing crappy monsters again?
Hmmmmmm. Trick question, since the monsters I like I don't think are stupid or silly.
How dose the delay pain spell affect concentration checks to cast while taking damage?
I am going to run an NPC (stop reading here, Lucent, I know your tricks) in my upcoming RotR campaign, or possibly Shattered Star. The plan is this: A pre-collapse Thassalonian Inquisitor (Sin Eater) of Lissala. He is lawful good, coming from a time when his sect of her church was combating the slide from the Seven Virtues of Rule to the Seven Mortal Sins. When he arrives in the modern day, his deity is now lawful evil. He adds the Heretic archetype so he can continue to gain levels in inquisitor.
The question is, Being a LG Heretic of a LE deity/philosophy, can he cast spells with the Good descriptor?
Thanks much.
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Creative Director
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I am going to run an NPC (stop reading here, Lucent, I know your tricks) in my upcoming RotR campaign, or possibly Shattered Star. The plan is this: A pre-collapse Thassalonian Inquisitor (Sin Eater) of Lissala. He is lawful good, coming from a time when his sect of her church was combating the slide from the Seven Virtues of Rule to the Seven Mortal Sins. When he arrives in the modern day, his deity is now lawful evil. He adds the Heretic archetype so he can continue to gain levels in inquisitor.
The question is, Being a LG Heretic of a LE deity/philosophy, can he cast spells with the Good descriptor?
Thanks much.
That's pretty far-off from canon and the world assumptions that Lissala is an evil deity, so you're firmly in the home-brew realm at this point, so do what's right for your game. That said, it's not your deity that determines if you can cast good spells as much as it is your alignment.
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Creative Director
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As well as a will save from someone who has it in his direct posession?Anything that blocks teleporation. Dimensional lock, dimensional anchor, and forbiddance all come to mind.I have a question regarding one of the bladebound magus blade abilities:
***
Teleport Blade (Sp): As a standard action, a magus of 9th level or higher can expend an arcane point from his or his black blade’s arcane pool, and can call his black blade from as far as 1 mile away, causing it to instantaneously teleport to his hand.
***So, other than an anti-magic field, what (if anything) is supposed prevent this from working?
Yup.
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Creative Director
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James, have you seen the movie "Highlander"? If so, what did you think of it and do you think it might make a good basis for a Mythic campaign?
The theme song "Princes of the Universe" from that movie just made me think about the mythic rules and how it would make a really cool backstory.
I've seen it, yah. It was a lot more interesting and fun to me back in High School when I first saw it. No sure if it's the deluge of shabby sequels, backlash against the fan base, or simply because the movie isn't aging all that well, but I'm not really a fan of it these days.
It would be a great basis for a Mythic campaign. Or a normal campaign, for that matter. Just as long as you keep the goofy out of the game.
That's pretty far-off from canon and the world assumptions that Lissala is an evil deity, so you're firmly in the home-brew realm at this point, so do what's right for your game. That said, it's not your deity that determines if you can cast good spells as much as it is your alignment.I am going to run an NPC (stop reading here, Lucent, I know your tricks) in my upcoming RotR campaign, or possibly Shattered Star. The plan is this: A pre-collapse Thassalonian Inquisitor (Sin Eater) of Lissala. He is lawful good, coming from a time when his sect of her church was combating the slide from the Seven Virtues of Rule to the Seven Mortal Sins. When he arrives in the modern day, his deity is now lawful evil. He adds the Heretic archetype so he can continue to gain levels in inquisitor.
The question is, Being a LG Heretic of a LE deity/philosophy, can he cast spells with the Good descriptor?
Thanks much.
I may have mislead myself with older ambiguous quotes about Lissala and her relationship with the Seven Virtues of Rule and the Thassilonian slide into venerating the negative sides (Sins) of those Virtues.
So she was always evil?
[Edited for typo]
Hmmmmmm. Trick question, since the monsters I like I don't think are stupid or silly.To leap off that line of inquiry, what is your favorite stupid or silly monster?Maybe... time will tell!So, I was reading a review from The Insidious Bogleech (a site which you should totally check out) about burburs and digesters, which got me thinking.
Is Paizo ever going to take on the challenge of reinventing crappy monsters again?
Liking a monster because of its absurdity/silliness?
To leap off that line of inquiry, what is your favorite stupid or silly monster?Hmmmmmm. Trick question, since the monsters I like I don't think are stupid or silly.
Okay, you cheeky bugger, let me rephrase the question. What is your favorite monster with a bad reputation?
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Creative Director
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That's pretty far-off from canon and the world assumptions that Lissala is an evil deity, so you're firmly in the home-brew realm at this point, so do what's right for your game. That said, it's not your deity that determines if you can cast good spells as much as it is your alignment.I am going to run an NPC (stop reading here, Lucent, I know your tricks) in my upcoming RotR campaign, or possibly Shattered Star. The plan is this: A pre-collapse Thassalonian Inquisitor (Sin Eater) of Lissala. He is lawful good, coming from a time when his sect of her church was combating the slide from the Seven Virtues of Rule to the Seven Mortal Sins. When he arrives in the modern day, his deity is now lawful evil. He adds the Heretic archetype so he can continue to gain levels in inquisitor.
The question is, Being a LG Heretic of a LE deity/philosophy, can he cast spells with the Good descriptor?
Thanks much.
I may have mislead myself with older ambiguous quotes about Lissala and her relationship with the Seven Virtues of Rule and the Thassilonian slide into venerating the negative sides (Sins) of those Virtues.
So she was always evil?
[Edited for typo]
Yup. Not as evil as, say, Asmodeus, but always evil.
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Creative Director
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Okay, you cheeky bugger, let me rephrase the question. What is your favorite monster with a bad reputation?To leap off that line of inquiry, what is your favorite stupid or silly monster?Hmmmmmm. Trick question, since the monsters I like I don't think are stupid or silly.
Do froghemoths have a bad reputation? Them if they do.
Oh! The decapus, I think, fits the bill.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
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The expanded Kingdom Building rules in Ultimate Campaign are frickin awesome! Did you make those? Or did you just make the originals for Kingmaker?I made the ones for Kingmaker. I helped a little bit on the expanded ones, but they were mostly designed, based on my original rules, by Jason Nelson I think, and then developed by Sean. I would have LOVED to do the expansion... but had demons to deal with.
Yep. There was some conversation about how much different we wanted to make the kingdom-building rules in UCam from the originals, but the final choice was to keep close to that as the baseline framework, fixing some of the commonly observed problems, and expanding the options you had in a lot of different directions. That chapter was pretty much my summer project between PaizoCon and turnover in August. :)
Then, of course, once Sean got to developing it, there were many conversations about why I changed this or that, or how these things were supposed to work together. It was good creative teamwork and lots of fun to work on.
James,
You mentioning the decapus above reminds me of something and a question leading from it. Have you ever had a moment when your players did something that was so totally unexpected that it threw your adventure design for a loop?
Here is an example:
My group had just finished The Keep on the Borderlands. During that adventure, we killed the medusa without anyone being turned to stone, so I (i was a player)kept the vial of stone to flesh she had on her. Our next adventure was Palace of the Silver Princess (yay for the first showing of the decapus!). After figuring everyone in the palace was turned to stone somehow, we happened upon the petrified palace wizard. I judged him important enough and used the vial to turn him back to flesh. So here we were, a group of 3rd level PCs, with a 7th level magicuser in tow. The DM was totally thrown for a loop on what to do...
Any similiar experiences you care to share?
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The expanded Kingdom Building rules in Ultimate Campaign are frickin awesome! Did you make those? Or did you just make the originals for Kingmaker?I made the ones for Kingmaker. I helped a little bit on the expanded ones, but they were mostly designed, based on my original rules, by Jason Nelson I think, and then developed by Sean. I would have LOVED to do the expansion... but had demons to deal with.Yep. There was some conversation about how much different we wanted to make the kingdom-building rules in UCam from the originals, but the final choice was to keep close to that as the baseline framework, fixing some of the commonly observed problems, and expanding the options you had in a lot of different directions. That chapter was pretty much my summer project between PaizoCon and turnover in August. :)
Then, of course, once Sean got to developing it, there were many conversations about why I changed this or that, or how these things were supposed to work together. It was good creative teamwork and lots of fun to work on.
Well I'm glad you guys had fun making it cause we're having a lot of fun using them :3
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Creative Director
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James,
You mentioning the decapus above reminds me of something and a question leading from it. Have you ever had a moment when your players did something that was so totally unexpected that it threw your adventure design for a loop?
Here is an example:
My group had just finished The Keep on the Borderlands. During that adventure, we killed the medusa without anyone being turned to stone, so I (i was a player)kept the vial of stone to flesh she had on her. Our next adventure was Palace of the Silver Princess (yay for the first showing of the decapus!). After figuring everyone in the palace was turned to stone somehow, we happened upon the petrified palace wizard. I judged him important enough and used the vial to turn him back to flesh. So here we were, a group of 3rd level PCs, with a 7th level magicuser in tow. The DM was totally thrown for a loop on what to do...Any similiar experiences you care to share?
I've been asked this a few times before—my favorite example is the time the players were in White Plume Mountain and in a fit of desperation one of them stuck a bag of holding into a portable hole in an attempt to defeat a vampire, and ended up only killing himself and his allies in the resulting rift. The vampire died as well, but came back after an hour, went back to their bodies, and then turned them over to a cult of necromancers who then resurrected and geased the PCs into doing adventures for them that eventually resulted in the return of an ancient empire of powerful wizardly overlords from thousands of years in the past that the PCs eventually had to fight. Those wizards had names like Belmarius and Krune—the whole "return of the Necromancer empire" had a huge influence several years later in inspiring large parts of Thassilon.
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Creative Director
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Have levels or areas of video games influenced how you design areas and encounters in the things you write? A lot or a little if so?
Yup; nothing specifically comes to mind, although the way that Warcraft and other games structure climactic "boss fights" has helped shape my philosophy for the same in Adventure Paths. Note the difference between the boss fight against Karzoug in the original Runelords release (him, alone, in a circular room) and the Anniversary edition (him with lots of minions in a complex room with lava and hanging chains and more).
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Have levels or areas of video games influenced how you design areas and encounters in the things you write? A lot or a little if so?Yup; nothing specifically comes to mind, although the way that Warcraft and other games structure climactic "boss fights" has helped shape my philosophy for the same in Adventure Paths. Note the difference between the boss fight against Karzoug in the original Runelords release (him, alone, in a circular room) and the Anniversary edition (him with lots of minions in a complex room with lava and hanging chains and more).
So RoTR 2 will have a Tombs of Horror style dungeon on top of all that with all his past incarnations going "You see what I just did? Don't do that." :3
Do you plan on make DC's for extreme skill checks?
I made a character that can manage DC 70 knowledge checks, but I have found that I might that over max-mined because a DC 70 knowledge check never tells you anything a DC 40 wouldn't.
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Creative Director
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Do you plan on make DC's for extreme skill checks?
I made a character that can manage DC 70 knowledge checks, but I have found that I might that over max-mined because a DC 70 knowledge check never tells you anything a DC 40 wouldn't.
At a certain point, all the checks in the game, be they attack rolls or saves or skill checks, delve into the realm of diminishing returns. Being able to make DC 70 checks (and I'm not sure how that's even possible, by the way) is pretty pointless in a game where we assume at the highest level, DC 40 is a tough roll.