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James Jacobs wrote:
Albatoonoe wrote:
So, I'm a fan of flame throwers or anything that shoots a continuous spout of flame. Any thoughts on how rules could replicate a flamethrower? Is that something you would ever want to do officially (namely, more than one round of attacking with a spell)?

There are rules for flamethrowers in the penultimate Reign of Winter adventure, so if you can wait a month or so, you'll have that available.

As for a spell that persists for multiple rounds... we do those already. In fact, flaming sphere kind of does this, although it's descriptive text is different than a flamethrower.

:O

Take all of my money!


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

1) What are some of your favorite aberrations out there, and why?

2) Speaking of the First World, which is your favorite of the Eldest, and why?

3) Asura ranas, kyton demagogues, rakshasa immortals, and other such; are these groups on par with the other outsider demigods like the archdevils, demon lords, eldest, elemental lords, empyreal lords, and horsemen? And has there been any details on particular ones beyond a list of names in the Bestiaries thus far? I'm definitely curious!

4) Samsarans, how does their reincarnation function? It says that the children of samsarans are not samsarans themselves, does this mean they get born to random parents? Are they born to human races only, or only statistically more likely to do so? Are they born knowing what they are, or do they slowly become aware of it? Is there a geographic component, since they seem to mostly be in Tian Xia, or could one hypothetically be reincarnated anywhere on Golarion...or off it? And presuming they are born to random parents, how are they likely to react? And is their previous incarnation also previously either a human or samsaran, or could it be any creature who managed to become 'enlightened', even a giant or a centaur or something like that? Is Tsukiyo involved in directing this reincarnation, or does it happen naturally and he's just their patron?

5) Any favorite constructs out there? If so, which ones and why?

6) What groups on Golarion do you think would be most likely to evolve some method of space travel that doesn't rely on a 9th level spell, both via capability and via motivation? Magitech spacecraft for preference, but anything would be fine. If such a method existed, do you think other groups would try to emulate it?

7) Demiplanes, if you're out on the Astral or Ethereal Planes and wandering around, can you just stumble across them, or are they kept separate despite being 'attached' to them? Are there any existing methods to locate demiplanes? If a demiplane created by a create demiplane spell is made permanent, does it last indefinitely, or would they eventually fade? I ask mostly because I can't help but think that if they do last indefinitely, even though spellcasters with the ability and motivation to make them must be relatively rare, over the aeons you'd think you'd have a bunch piling up...

8) Have you had players use the rules for researching spells to research new spells often? What are some of the more interesting custom spells you've had players come up with to research, if any?

9) What do you think of the idea of a party of various dinosaur lycanthropes fighting moroi vampire lizardmen in the Mwangi?

10) You said earlier if there was a Garund book like Dragon Empires Gazetteer for Tian Xia, catfolk would almost certainly be in it. Speaking of Arcadia, are there any existing non-core player races that you think would almost certainly be featured? I doubt you'd answer if I asked about new ones, though.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Alan_Beven wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Alan_Beven wrote:
Hi James, Role Playing games often involve complex social interactions amongst players. With you playing in so many games do you often strike out of game issues, with players and GMs?
If you mean "Do you often physically or verbally assault players due to conflicts in game play?" by "strike out of game issues", no, I do not. I've seen this happen lots, and it does no one any favors, ESPECIALLY the game itself.
My bad wording! I meant more, how often do you see it happen. I was trying to ask with your breadth of playing experience do you often see it. Thanks for t he answer!!

First year in college I saw this happen a LOT, mostly between two pretty immature players.

I've not seen it happen much since then... but it has happened now and then, alas.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

TerminalArtiste wrote:
So Chelaxians call halflings 'slips' and tieflings 'hellspawn.' Do they have similar 'nicknames' for any other races?

I'm sure they do. Cheliax is nothing if not creative in its racisim.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Jaçinto wrote:
Something weird came up in our skulls and shackles game with a player that made a shark shaman druid. He took the death domain since it is available to the and used animate dead. Now, I always thought that undead were abominations and crimes against nature so why would any druid have access to that domain and spell? Just trying to make sense of it here.

Because of a rule that was written without stopping to consider the story ramifications. Happens more often than I'd like in our rulebooks, alas. I would suggest replacing the Death domain with the Destruction domain for shark shamans if this bothers you. It certainly bothers me.

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
Atrocious wrote:
Okay, so can I interpret this answer as "A spell that duplicates the new body function of Reincarnate, but you have control over which body you get and it doesn't require you to be dead, would be roughly a fifth level spell"?
I suppose. But the EASIEST way to do this spell is "This works as alter self, but the duration is permanent and it costs 2,500 gp in rare components." That way you limit the amount of times characters (be they PCs or NPCs) do this.

Thanks for all the answers. I'll make it a 5th level spell that works as a permanent alter self, usable on self or a willing or helpless creature and that costs 2500 gp in material components.

My old gaming group is getting back together this summer for the next one last adventure and their old nemesis is returning to hound them, but in secret this time with a new face. This old villain isn't a spellcaster so I kind of have to be able to answer how he altered himself, and polymorph any object is a bit high level for this campaign. I guess it's just my OCD that needs to be able to answer the what, when and how of the scenario...

By the way, how would an effect like this, regardless of the source, work with age. Could a venerable age man use this to extend his life by making himself younger?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Atrocious wrote:


By the way, how would an effect like this, regardless of the source, work with age. Could a venerable age man use this to extend his life by making himself younger?

Penalties to age are never negated by polymorph effects, nor can polymorph effects extend your life. That's necromancy.

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
The Golux wrote:
Daethor wrote:


4) You've mentioned before that in a hypothetical 2nd Edition, you think iterative attacks should be replaced by everyone getting the Vital Strike chain automatically. Do you think that, unlike the Vital Strike chain, bonus damage would get multiplied if this were implemented?

Actually, a question related to this... would it be that you get a choice to make one attack with more damage dice or a series of separate attacks, or would it be vital strike only base, with maybe a series of iterative attack feats?

Also, in pathfinder as it is, thoughts on houseruling vital strike to be one scaling feat instead of a series?

No choice. Iterative attacks slow the game down and trick/force fighters and other martial characters into bad tactics and/or make combat boring AND overly complex.

Hello Mr. Jacobs, I have been thinking about your comments, regarding iterative attacks and how vital strike could help in that area. I really like the idea, and just gave everyone in my current campaign (Kingmaker part 6) the vital strike feat chain for free (as soon as they fulfill the requirements). The change was mostly well received, of course the ninja (with two weapon fighting) and the ranger (bow) always try everything, to get the maximum number of attacks (even buying boots of speed, for that one action before the summoner can cast haste) but that gets old rather fast, and calculating damage takes quite some time.

I noticed that giving monster vital strike (everyone gets the feats) improved their damage output considerably, since my players have managed to stack their AC pretty high (the eidolon is usually the worst offender with a huge armor class and terrible touch AC) unfortunately touch attacks are rather rare. So I actually welcome the change to have one good chance to deal serious damage, instead of having to roll multiple attacks, just for the chance to roll a natural 20.

I am very exited, to get my hands on the mythic rules and the new adventure path, and wanted to ask when we can expect previews (the itch is staring again, I need a new fix of mythic goodness, I have been playing the mythic playtest in hero lab for months).

Now some questions:

1. Is there any chance of Paizo publishing something like a book of houserules and alternative systems, like removing iterative attacks, no spell memorization for any class ….. ? (I ask, since I love making NPCs and PC with hero lab, and once you print it, there is a pretty good chance to get it integrated I guess)

2. In your opinion, how much are players responsible for the way they invest their loot ? (This came up in my kingmaker game, where the my players repeatedly had serious trouble dealing with invisible enemies. They almost died towards the end of War of the River Kings when they had no reliable ways to deal with the spells of two bards.) I guess my question is, is it my fault as GM that they prefer to invest their wealth in the next +1 on their weapon, instead of investing in some consumables (scrolls of of see invisible, fly, lesser restoration) or is it part of the their freedom to make mistakes?

3. How much preparation should you reasonably expect from your players? These days my (beloved collection) of rulebooks usually stays off the table, and I prefer to look up things in the SRD, since it is quicker for me to find, but I have come to the conclusion that my players should have as much material for their character with them, preferably in print. Hero lab has a huge help in this area, since it allows me to print pretty much everything with all the rules text(feats, magic items, spells, class abilities).
Is this level of preparation reasonable, or a bit overkill? (I try my best to minimize the time each turn takes, since all the other players waiting).
4. The Gamemastery combat pad is the single best gaming aid, I have every purchased, and I love the various decks. Can we expect more gaming aids like that in the future?

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer all our questions, this thread is always an entertaining read.


I have a question about creating deities and other beings. How do you guys decide what areas of concern/spheres of influence a demigod-like being (demon lord, empyreal lord, etc) has? Are they simply more specific concerns that overlap with deities?


1. Who would be best to consult for questions regarding Ultimate Campaign?

2. What effect would crafting magic such as a lyre of building or polymorph any object have on generating capital?

3. Does moment of prescience work with scrying or contact other plane?

4. If a room generates both gp and capital, does the bonus from furnishings apply to both or just to capital?

5. Which noble house of Brevoy would be most likely to have wizards?

6. Where would transmuters most likely be doing in Brevoy?

7. In Council of Thieves, how would you reconcile being famous with working with secret rebels? How would you reconcile it if some of the rebels were in the play?

8. Do the friendship bonuses with fellow cast members (Pathfinder #26, p.11-13) apply to rehearsals as well?

9. In the mirror room of the Nessian Spiral (Pathfinder #28, p.44), do the mirrors only disappear if the PCs fail their saves?

10. How would Thrune react if they found out about a 15th level wizard helping tieflings in Westcrown? How would the Council of Thieves?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sebastian Hirsch wrote:

I am very exited, to get my hands on the mythic rules and the new adventure path, and wanted to ask when we can expect previews (the itch is staring again, I need a new fix of mythic goodness, I have been playing the mythic playtest in hero lab for months).

Now some questions:

1. Is there any chance of Paizo publishing something like a book of houserules and alternative systems, like removing iterative attacks, no spell memorization for any class ….. ? (I ask, since I love making NPCs and PC with hero lab, and once you print it, there is a pretty good chance to get it integrated I guess)

2. In your opinion, how much are players responsible for the way they invest their loot ? (This came up in my kingmaker game, where the my players repeatedly had serious trouble dealing with invisible enemies. They almost died towards the end of War of the River Kings when they had no reliable ways to deal with the spells of two bards.) I guess my question is, is it my fault as GM that they prefer to invest their wealth in the next +1 on their weapon, instead of investing in some consumables (scrolls of of see invisible, fly, lesser restoration) or is it part of the their freedom to make mistakes?

3. How much preparation should you reasonably expect from your players? These days my (beloved collection) of rulebooks usually stays off the table, and I prefer to look up things in the SRD, since it is quicker for me to find, but I have come to the conclusion that my players should have as much material for their character with them, preferably in print. Hero lab has a huge help in this area, since it allows me to print pretty much everything with all the rules text(feats, magic items, spells, class abilities).
Is this level of preparation reasonable, or a bit overkill? (I try my best to minimize the time each turn takes, since all the other players waiting).
4. The Gamemastery combat pad is the single best gaming aid, I have every purchased, and I love the various decks. Can we expect more gaming aids like that in the future?

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer all our questions, this thread is always an entertaining read.

1) Not a big chance; but never say never.

2) If you want players to invest their wealth in something other than your character, you need to give them a REASON to spend money elsewhere. Alternately, give them other currencies to spend on non-gear stuff, like build points. Awarding them XP or other perks for investing is a good way to handle things.

3) Players and GM should be prepared enough that they can enjoy the game without it getting bogged down. A player who isn't good at preparing his character should limit his character choices—the cost of using every single book for your PC is that you need to know the rules your PC uses. Same goes for the GM.

4) Now and then, yes.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Odraude wrote:
I have a question about creating deities and other beings. How do you guys decide what areas of concern/spheres of influence a demigod-like being (demon lord, empyreal lord, etc) has? Are they simply more specific concerns that overlap with deities?

We pick areas of concern that sound flavorful and interesting; they're a few key concepts that you can read and know a fair amount about the deity's personality and interests, in the same way its alignment can tell you a lot about it with two letters. But as for what areas to pick? Personal choice; same as deciding what color hair an NPC has or how a new monster hunts its prey or what the national anthem of a region is. We just make it up.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

AlgaeNymph wrote:

1. Who would be best to consult for questions regarding Ultimate Campaign?

2. What effect would crafting magic such as a lyre of building or polymorph any object have on generating capital?

3. Does moment of prescience work with scrying or contact other plane?

4. If a room generates both gp and capital, does the bonus from furnishings apply to both or just to capital?

5. Which noble house of Brevoy would be most likely to have wizards?

6. Where would transmuters most likely be doing in Brevoy?

7. In Council of Thieves, how would you reconcile being famous with working with secret rebels? How would you reconcile it if some of the rebels were in the play?

8. Do the friendship bonuses with fellow cast members (Pathfinder #26, p.11-13) apply to rehearsals as well?

9. In the mirror room of the Nessian Spiral (Pathfinder #28, p.44), do the mirrors only disappear if the PCs fail their saves?

10. How would Thrune react if they found out about a 15th level wizard helping tieflings in Westcrown? How would the Council of Thieves?

1) It being a rulebook—Jason, Sean, and Stephen are the best choices. I can answer some questions; I worked on some parts of it and did the initial design for the mass combat and kingdom building rules, but I won't have ALL the answers.

2) Depends how you use it; those rules are meant for the core game though, and not so much for the subsystems we built for Ultimate Campaign. That said, the "Magic" currency used to build is what should model the use of things like this.

3) If you make one of the types of rolls mentioned in moment of prescience, then you can.

4) Both, I believe.

5) Not sure. Haven't thought about the noble houses of Brevoy in years, but none of them seem particularly more interested in wizardry than any other.

6) Nowhere in particular. Anywhere you want them to be, in other words.

7) You don't advertise being in a secret rebel group when you're in public. Plenty of actors today have secret lives and non-public goings-on.

8) Yes.

9) Huh? Where does it say that the mirrors are involved in saving throws at all?

10) "Helping tieflings" is a pretty nondescriptive term. A powerful wizard who publicly supported tieflings would find himself increasingly shunned by society, and increasingly watched by the government. Simply being nice to tieflings isn't enough for the House of Thrune or any other Chelish group to come down on you like a bag of hammers. At least, not immediately. If a high level ANYONE (not just wizard) were doing something like trying to organize tieflings into a standing army or otherwise doing something obviously anti-government, though... that character would find himself being confronted by a lot of high level antagonists ranging from Hellknights to inquisitors to priests of Asmodeus to high-ranking Thrune agents to bound devils and more.


I want to make a party of goblin NPCs who put goblin-y twists on different classic types of heroes from fiction, but i'm short on ideas.

All i have so far is a Lamashtu-worshipping inquisitor that is the opposite of the Van Helsing-type vampire/monster/demon hunter (he instead hunts civilized people, horses, dogs and good aligned outsiders that threaten innocent monsters).

Got any ideas for me?


Can you take Improved Familiar at 1st level? The feat specifically says "when choosing a familiar, the creatures listed here are also available to you" meaning you could still use a normal familiar. The caster level requirement seems to only come in to play when you actually summon an improved familiar.

For example, a witch gets Improved Familiar at 1st level, Craft Wondrous Item at 3rd, and Master Alchemist at 5th. She uses a standard familiar until 3rd-level, at which point in time she swaps it for a fiendish familiar, then again at 5th for an elemental.

Would that work?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Threeshades wrote:

I want to make a party of goblin NPCs who put goblin-y twists on different classic types of heroes from fiction, but i'm short on ideas.

All i have so far is a Lamashtu-worshipping inquisitor that is the opposite of the Van Helsing-type vampire/monster/demon hunter (he instead hunts civilized people, horses, dogs and good aligned outsiders that threaten innocent monsters).

Got any ideas for me?

Check the PCs in We Be Goblins; they're a ready-made group of goblin adventurers.

Personally, I'm not fond of using goblins as surrogates for characters—they're strongest when they're doing goblin things, not people things.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Meredith Nerissa wrote:

Can you take Improved Familiar at 1st level? The feat specifically says "when choosing a familiar, the creatures listed here are also available to you" meaning you could still use a normal familiar. The caster level requirement seems to only come in to play when you actually summon an improved familiar.

For example, a witch gets Improved Familiar at 1st level, Craft Wondrous Item at 3rd, and Master Alchemist at 5th. She uses a standard familiar until 3rd-level, at which point in time she swaps it for a fiendish familiar, then again at 5th for an elemental.

Would that work?

Nope; look at the prerequisites again: the 3rd one is "sufficiently high level." In orde to take this feat, you need to be high enough level to gain the familiar you want. Earliest you could take this feat is 3rd level for a celestial hawk, dire rat, or fiendish viper.


Mr. James Jacobs,

How Sarenrae respond to interact to a CG demigod and maybe later full god of Endurance, Darkness, and Retribution? Particularly if this demigod was once a mortal whose patron is Desna?

Endurance of the physical and emotional/spiritual kind. Physical darkness not moral darkness. Also, retribution: where the law cannot go he does kind of retribution and not the (as he would see it) petty vengeance of Calistria.

What was Curchanus's holy symbol?


"You don't advertise being in a secret rebel group when you're in public."

1. How would you be able to visit the secret rebel base without anyone following you?

"Where does it say that the mirrors are involved in saving throws at all?"

2. Pathfinder #28, p.44:
"The viewer must make a DC 16 Will save—failure […] causes ability damage or another effect before the mirror itself vanishes for 24 hours to reveal a 5-foot-square alcove."

""Helping tieflings" is a pretty nondescriptive term."

3. Suppose said wizard wanted to set up an orphanage/community center/job training service, what then?

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Hi James, what are your thoughts on a feat that would turn any weapon into a trip weapon?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The NPC wrote:

Mr. James Jacobs,

How Sarenrae respond to interact to a CG demigod and maybe later full god of Endurance, Darkness, and Retribution? Particularly if this demigod was once a mortal whose patron is Desna?

Endurance of the physical and emotional/spiritual kind. Physical darkness not moral darkness. Also, retribution: where the law cannot go he does kind of retribution and not the (as he would see it) petty vengeance of Calistria.

What was Curchanus's holy symbol?

She'd probably get along pretty well with such a deity, although the darkness element would make for arguments and conflicts. Depends on the deity's personality. Depends even more on what kinds of stories you wanted to tell about this new deity.

Curchanus's symbol has never been described.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

AlgaeNymph wrote:

"You don't advertise being in a secret rebel group when you're in public."

1. How would you be able to visit the secret rebel base without anyone following you?

"Where does it say that the mirrors are involved in saving throws at all?"

** spoiler omitted **

""Helping tieflings" is a pretty nondescriptive term."

3. Suppose said wizard wanted to set up an orphanage/community center/job training service, what then?

1) By not being important enough to be followed. By taking pains to avoid being followed. By meeting your allies at the secret base in other places. And by not letting folks know you're a rebel in the first place, and thus not giving anyone a reason to follow you in the first place.

2) Oh! I see where I was confused; I read that as being from Pathfinder #26, which as it works out, has an encounter involving mirrors on page 44 as well. Weird. As for your question... the encounter itself talks about how to get to the alcoves hidden behind the mirror. Failing the save is the "easiest" way, but you can smash them down, deactivate them as described, or just use normal tricks like passwall or dimension door.

3) He'd be hit with so much red tape and government taxes and meddling both subtly destructive and overtly destructive that he'd probably go broke and/or be shamed/killed/exiled pretty fast. Cheliax is not a good place for someone to do this, regardless of level.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kieviel wrote:
Hi James, what are your thoughts on a feat that would turn any weapon into a trip weapon?

Kinda boring. If I were building a character who is all about tripping foes, I'd pick a weapon that's already about tripping foes. They're not that much gp to buy, and that way I get to take a feat that makes that weapon better, rather than save a few coins by letting the other weapon I picked be one that can trip foes. Furthermore... the visual of someone tripping a foe with a non-trip weapon isn't as cool as the visual of someone doing so with a tripper weapon.

Yeah; not a fan of this feat idea, since it erodes visual style by generalizing weapon qualities.

Contributor

James Jacobs wrote:
Kieviel wrote:
Hi James, what are your thoughts on a feat that would turn any weapon into a trip weapon?

Kinda boring. If I were building a character who is all about tripping foes, I'd pick a weapon that's already about tripping foes. They're not that much gp to buy, and that way I get to take a feat that makes that weapon better, rather than save a few coins by letting the other weapon I picked be one that can trip foes. Furthermore... the visual of someone tripping a foe with a non-trip weapon isn't as cool as the visual of someone doing so with a tripper weapon.

Yeah; not a fan of this feat idea, since it erodes visual style by generalizing weapon qualities.

It would be a pretty poor feat to begin with considering that all the trip quality does is allow its wielder to drop the weapon to avoid being tripped on a failed CMB check. You can trip with any weapon as it is.

If you needed the trip quality to trip a foe, then you wouldn't be able to trip an opponent with your legs (an unarmed strike), and that's downright silly.

Sovereign Court Contributor

I assume you saw last night's GoT episode. I won't go into it here, but my thought - though admittedly I read it before I watched it - was that here's a fundamental difference between a game and a book.

You can't do these things in adventure and expect the players to show up again. Do you have any thoughts on handling extremely difficult, inescapable, events in gaming?

Now we don't want to railroad as DMs, and players provide their own disasters often enough, but the problem of foreshadowing, hopelessness - it's not something I could do at my table, unless (perhaps) I was running CoC. It's hard enough for the players when the villain teleports away...

Have you ever constructed an adventure or campaign around the PC's own personal loss?


Hey, James! I've been thinking of ways to get a cleric a celestial familiar, like a cassisian angel, lyrakien azata, silvanshee agathion, or harbinger archon. The flavor of a servant of the gods having the guidance of an appropriately aligned celestial just tickles me...but I haven't found a way to do that. In my mind, it's purely a flavor idea, but it will obviously have mechanics repercussions. If I were to simply grant celestial familiars to clerics as a house rule, do you think that would be really unbalancing? Would an archetype that swaps a celestial familiar for some other powers be a better idea, in your opinion? I'm just wondering how you would do such a thing, with your design experience.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Jeff Erwin wrote:

I assume you saw last night's GoT episode. I won't go into it here, but my thought - though admittedly I read it before I watched it - was that here's a fundamental difference between a game and a book.

You can't do these things in adventure and expect the players to show up again. Do you have any thoughts on handling extremely difficult, inescapable, events in gaming?

Now we don't want to railroad as DMs, and players provide their own disasters often enough, but the problem of foreshadowing, hopelessness - it's not something I could do at my table, unless (perhaps) I was running CoC. It's hard enough for the players when the villain teleports away...

Have you ever constructed an adventure or campaign around the PC's own personal loss?

I've actually had events like that occur in my games and in games I'm playing in and had the players return. The key is to have players who trust the GM and are on board with where the story is going. And I've not only built campaigns that have elements of the PC's own loss as significant elements, but I've also shifted a campaigns entire storyline due to PC losses.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Wildebob wrote:
Hey, James! I've been thinking of ways to get a cleric a celestial familiar, like a cassisian angel, lyrakien azata, silvanshee agathion, or harbinger archon. The flavor of a servant of the gods having the guidance of an appropriately aligned celestial just tickles me...but I haven't found a way to do that. In my mind, it's purely a flavor idea, but it will obviously have mechanics repercussions. If I were to simply grant celestial familiars to clerics as a house rule, do you think that would be really unbalancing? Would an archetype that swaps a celestial familiar for some other powers be a better idea, in your opinion? I'm just wondering how you would do such a thing, with your design experience.

Familiars are arcane things, for the most part. If you want one of those things as a buddy or pet, Leadership is the best bet.

I don't think that granting familiars to clerics would be all that unbalancing, but it would ABSOLUTELY be unfair, and wizard players in your game would be right to be jealous if you didn't give wizards something back in return. Clerics are already quite strong.

I think the best way to handle something like giving a cleric a familiar is via a prestige class. That means they have to earn the right to take that class by meeting the prerequisites, and it's not something they can do at the start of their careers.

The Exchange

James Jacobs wrote:
Wildebob wrote:
Hey, James! I've been thinking of ways to get a cleric a celestial familiar, like a cassisian angel, lyrakien azata, silvanshee agathion, or harbinger archon. The flavor of a servant of the gods having the guidance of an appropriately aligned celestial just tickles me...but I haven't found a way to do that. In my mind, it's purely a flavor idea, but it will obviously have mechanics repercussions. If I were to simply grant celestial familiars to clerics as a house rule, do you think that would be really unbalancing? Would an archetype that swaps a celestial familiar for some other powers be a better idea, in your opinion? I'm just wondering how you would do such a thing, with your design experience.

Familiars are arcane things, for the most part. If you want one of those things as a buddy or pet, Leadership is the best bet.

I don't think that granting familiars to clerics would be all that unbalancing, but it would ABSOLUTELY be unfair, and wizard players in your game would be right to be jealous if you didn't give wizards something back in return. Clerics are already quite strong.

I think the best way to handle something like giving a cleric a familiar is via a prestige class. That means they have to earn the right to take that class by meeting the prerequisites, and it's not something they can do at the start of their careers.

Clerics are broken. They have familiars and full lv Animal Companions.

Animal Domain + Boon Companion feat = full lv Animal Companion
Skill Focus + Eldritch Heritage(Arcane bloodline) = familiar

Druids and Summoners were in an embarrassing position.


Takes two feats and a domain to do it. Not really broken >.>

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

If a character survives on a ring of sustenance, do they still need to go to the bathroom? Or just a #1 or #2?


James Jacobs wrote:
Threeshades wrote:

I want to make a party of goblin NPCs who put goblin-y twists on different classic types of heroes from fiction, but i'm short on ideas.

All i have so far is a Lamashtu-worshipping inquisitor that is the opposite of the Van Helsing-type vampire/monster/demon hunter (he instead hunts civilized people, horses, dogs and good aligned outsiders that threaten innocent monsters).

Got any ideas for me?

Check the PCs in We Be Goblins; they're a ready-made group of goblin adventurers.

Personally, I'm not fond of using goblins as surrogates for characters—they're strongest when they're doing goblin things, not people things.

I know, I want them to do goblinized people things. Or peoply goblin-things.

Silver Crusade

If someone was to worship/work for the Four Hoursemen as a pantheon, theoretically what would their Domains, Portfolio, and favored weapon be?


Rysky wrote:
If someone was to worship/work for the Four Hoursemen as a pantheon, theoretically what would their Domains, Portfolio, and favored weapon be?

Allow me to enlighten you on the subject:

Apollyon; Portfolio: pestilence; Domains: Air, Darkness, Destruction, Evil; Weapon: Scythe
Charon; Portolio: Death; Domains: Death, Evil, Knowledge, Water; Weapon: Quarterstaff
Szuriel; Portfolio: War; Domains: Evil, Fire, Strength, War; Weapon: Greatsword
Trelmarixian; Portolio: Famine; Domains: Earth, Evil, Madness, Weather; Weapon: Spiked Gauntlet

They are also listed in the inner sea world guide.

Book of the Damned, Volume 3 will give you more details.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Dear Magnanimous King Tyrant Lizard,

Does Desna have Inquisitors? If so, what would she have them inquire about?

Also, Harrow Decks have a decidedly Varisian feel to them. Varisians also tend to worship Desna. Aside from this circumstantial link, is there anything canonical that associates Harrow Decks with worshipers of Desna?

Thank you!

Silver Crusade

Threeshades wrote:
Rysky wrote:
If someone was to worship/work for the Four Hoursemen as a pantheon, theoretically what would their Domains, Portfolio, and favored weapon be?

Allow me to enlighten you on the subject:

Apollyon; Portfolio: pestilence; Domains: Air, Darkness, Destruction, Evil; Weapon: Scythe
Charon; Portolio: Death; Domains: Death, Evil, Knowledge, Water; Weapon: Quarterstaff
Szuriel; Portfolio: War; Domains: Evil, Fire, Strength, War; Weapon: Greatsword
Trelmarixian; Portolio: Famine; Domains: Earth, Evil, Madness, Weather; Weapon: Spiked Gauntlet

They are also listed in the inner sea world guide.

Book of the Damned, Volume 3 will give you more details.

Umm thankies but I was wondering about a Pantheon, as in all of them in a group as opposed to worshipping them each individually.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
wingermage wrote:

Clerics are broken. They have familiars and full lv Animal Companions.

Animal Domain + Boon Companion feat = full lv Animal Companion
Skill Focus + Eldritch Heritage(Arcane bloodline) = familiar

Druids and Summoners were in an embarrassing position.

Not seeing a question there.

Please refrain from turning the thread into "complain to James Jacobs about anything" thread! :-)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:
If a character survives on a ring of sustenance, do they still need to go to the bathroom? Or just a #1 or #2?

Nope; they no longer have to poop or pee. And the ring itself maintains the health of the digestive tract so that it doesn't atrophy while you wear the ring.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rysky wrote:
If someone was to worship/work for the Four Hoursemen as a pantheon, theoretically what would their Domains, Portfolio, and favored weapon be?

Domains and favored weapons aren't associated with pantheons.


we can have outsider cohorts and followers ?!


How does Sarenrae interact with other Deities

such as Iomedae) Abadar) Desna) Erastil) Shelyn) Torag) Kofusachi)

Shizuru) Pharasma) Qi Zhong)


James Jacobs wrote:
wingermage wrote:

Clerics are broken. They have familiars and full lv Animal Companions.

Animal Domain + Boon Companion feat = full lv Animal Companion
Skill Focus + Eldritch Heritage(Arcane bloodline) = familiar

Druids and Summoners were in an embarrassing position.

Not seeing a question there.

Please refrain from turning the thread into "complain to James Jacobs about anything" thread! :-)

What if the complaint is in the form of a question?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Memento Mortis wrote:

Dear Magnanimous King Tyrant Lizard,

Does Desna have Inquisitors? If so, what would she have them inquire about?

Also, Harrow Decks have a decidedly Varisian feel to them. Varisians also tend to worship Desna. Aside from this circumstantial link, is there anything canonical that associates Harrow Decks with worshipers of Desna?

Thank you!

Yes; Desna has some inquisitors, but they're not all that common. I suspect their primary goals would be in the opposition of oppressive lawful societies and the opposition of Dark Tapestry elements and the fight against demons.

Desna is, among other things, the goddess of luck, and there's a lot of luck elements associated with the Harrow. Likewise, elements of dreams and dream interpretation, and the fact that the Harrowing module has ties to dreams ties it to Desna. While the Harrow traditions come from Varisian culture and not from Desna's teachings, they do fit together pretty well. In fact, I'd say that of all the core 20 deities, Desna is probably the one who's faith is the most accepting and approving of Harrowing.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

xavier c wrote:
we can have outsider cohorts and followers ?!

Yes, but your GM will need to determine what the outsiders' effective character level is for the purposes of how powerful they will be as cohorts. The bestiary already lists a few examples on page 316— hell hounds and hound archons are effectively 7th level, for example, while an erinyes is effectively 16th level and a babau is 11th.

Contributor

What upcoming movies are you looking forward to?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

xavier c wrote:

How does Sarenrae interact with other Deities

such as Iomedae) Abadar) Desna) Erastil) Shelyn) Torag) Kofusachi)

Shizuru) Pharasma) Qi Zhong)

The best place to go to currently for Sarenrae info is Pathfinder #20.

As for her relationships with other deities:

Iomedae: Mutual respect, although Sarenrae thinks Iomedae is too quick to turn to war and combat to solve problems, and too strict on how she handles enemies.

Desna: Sarenrae's good friends with Desna, but is often frustrated by Desna's emotional outbursts and Desna's penchant for acting on impulses.

Shelyn: Sarenrae's good friends with Shelyn as well, and she considers Shelyn as something like a sister.

Torag: Sarenrae doesn't interact with Torag much, but she appreciates his skill at crafting and his ability at tactics, although she feels he's got the opposite problem as Desna in that he tends to overanalyze situations and thus allow problems to go on too long before solving them. Of the two, Sarenrae prefers Desna's quirks to Torag's in this area.

Pharasma: She greatly respects Pharasma and thinks of her almost as a mother figure. She's also kind of afraid of her.

Tian Xia deities: She doesn't have much direct interaction with the Tian Xia deities.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

JMD031 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
wingermage wrote:

Clerics are broken. They have familiars and full lv Animal Companions.

Animal Domain + Boon Companion feat = full lv Animal Companion
Skill Focus + Eldritch Heritage(Arcane bloodline) = familiar

Druids and Summoners were in an embarrassing position.

Not seeing a question there.

Please refrain from turning the thread into "complain to James Jacobs about anything" thread! :-)

What if the complaint is in the form of a question?

That's perfectly fine.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

donato wrote:
What upcoming movies are you looking forward to?

The five movies I'm most looking forward to this year are:

Elysium
Pacific Rim
Last Days on Mars
Exists
The Conjuring


(Sarenrae is afraid of Pharasma whoa) what about Abadar and Erastil and Calistria


Does she really love me?

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