Creative Director
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Re-posting, since it looks like this was missed:
1) Does Calistria predate elves? I saw she was listed in Gods & Magic as part of the throwdown with Rovagug, which would indicate she's been around for a long, long time.
2) Did Golarion exist before Rovagug was sealed there? I've alwas sbeen under the impression that Golarion was formed to be Rovagug's prison, but then I read something somewhere about Rovagug being fought on the surface of the world. So a little confused there.
1) Whether or not she predates elves is unrevealed, but elves have certainly existed for longer than humans. Calistria has indeed been around for a long, long time.
2) Yes. Golarion existed long before Rovagug was imprisoned there. But as with #1 above... these events are so far back in the past that they're more or less creation myths, and we don't present those as facts, but as deliberately contradictory myths.
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Hi James !
I'm sorta new to these boards (been more of a lurker than anythings else), but I got an issue that I can't resolve.
I don't know if it is the right place to ask such a question but in anycase it's worth a shot ? Your thread says ALL QUESTIONS after all !
So here is the problem :
I've seen on the boards (can't trace back where) stated that special material HP/inch is simply taken into account for objects other than weapons/armor. For weapons/armor you use stats provided in the Table Common Armor, Weapon, and Shield Hardness and Hit Points. Hardness seemed more of a consensus. You have an adamantium sword ? Hardness 20. Alchemical silver sword ? Hardness 8.
Adamantium is noted as giving the property : Objects made of adamantium have 1/3 more hit points (multiple references). But adamantium objects can only be objects that are made of iron first (a sword for example).
Iron has 30hp/inch. Adamantium 40hp/inch. In my sense there is the 1/3 more HP.But my question arises as this :
Therefore shouldn't we calculated the HP of an alchemical silver sword as 1/3 of it's steel counterpart ? Thus giving a longsword with hardness 8 and 1 hp (rounddown) ? Therefore having a sword that is less resistant than an axe ?
Also on a related note. Does the enhancement bonus provided by mastercrafting a weapon (or armor) apply to its hardness and hit points ?
Thanks in advance for any help and sorry for the wall of text !
Nope; silver has the same hardness and hp as iron. The way we model silver being a less desirable weapon material than iron is by saying it does 1 less point of damage when it hits, and frankly, I think that's too fiddly a rule and in my games I dispose of it and treat silver as iron for purposes of hardness, hp, and quality. Might not be "realistic," but I'd rather have streamlined non-fiddly rules in my game.
Enhancement bonuses by making a masterwork weapon does not increase hardness or hit points.
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(Sarenrae is afraid of Pharasma whoa) what about Abadar and Erastil and CalistriaThey're afraid of Pharasma too.Let's make this easy: which gods are NOT afraid of her, at least a little bit?
Also, if you want a neat hunter experience like from WoW with pets and all, you should play a ranger in Guild Wars 2. They have a stupidly large number of potential pets they can discover and use, plus the ability to swap between one of two critters in combat with both their above ground and in the water set of pets. Also, the rest of the game is pretty cool too.
There's dozens and dozens of gods and goddesses, and I'm not gonna go through each one and decide which ones are or aren't afraid of her. Most of them don't have REASON to be afraid of her though.
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If a dragon for some reason wielded a sword would its bite do 1.5xStr or .5x Str.
Now apply the same concept to a Dragon Disciple, would anything change.
Dragons don't wield swords, because their hands don't work that way and because the creative director of the game thinks that they look silly when they wield weapons.
That said, if a dragon DID wield a weapon, all of its other attacks would immediately drop; they'd have a –5 penalty to hit for being secondary attacks, and they'd all do .5 STR damage.
A dragon disciple who wields a weapon treats his bite as any other creature that does the same; the bite becomes a secondary attack; -5 to hit, .5 STR damage.
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hey James, do you think you will ever truly say what happened to Aroden? Is he truly dead, missing, ceased to care for humanity and remains silent, etc. I think it would be a very interesting story to find out what truly happened.
No. That's not a secret we plan to ever reveal. At this point, no matter how awesome I made that revelation (and yes, I do know what happened to him, so that things we CAN talk about remain consistent), it'll be not only disappointing to plenty of folks who prefer their own ideas and explanations, but it'll remove the single biggest mystery of the setting. It's more important that folks are talking about and trying to solve the mystery than knowing the solution. People don't actually WANT solutions.
That's all what I learned from Lost, in any event.
There's dozens and dozens of gods and goddesses, and I'm not gonna go through each one and decide which ones are or aren't afraid of her. Most of them don't have REASON to be afraid of her though.(Sarenrae is afraid of Pharasma whoa) what about Abadar and Erastil and CalistriaThey're afraid of Pharasma too.Let's make this easy: which gods are NOT afraid of her, at least a little bit?
Also, if you want a neat hunter experience like from WoW with pets and all, you should play a ranger in Guild Wars 2. They have a stupidly large number of potential pets they can discover and use, plus the ability to swap between one of two critters in combat with both their above ground and in the water set of pets. Also, the rest of the game is pretty cool too.
Hmm, fair enough. More questions!
1) How about Asmodeus, Lamashtu, and Urgathoa? I'd ask about ol' Rovy, but I'm betting the answer is 'no'.
2) Are any of the gods mentioned so far (including these 3) afraid of her for some reason beyond simply that she's the final authority on what happens to them when they die?
3) Has Pharasma always been as she is now? I'm not asking about her current form of a humanoid-looking woman, but as the impartial, ancient judge of all that lives.
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There's dozens and dozens of gods and goddesses, and I'm not gonna go through each one and decide which ones are or aren't afraid of her. Most of them don't have REASON to be afraid of her though.(Sarenrae is afraid of Pharasma whoa) what about Abadar and Erastil and CalistriaThey're afraid of Pharasma too.Let's make this easy: which gods are NOT afraid of her, at least a little bit?
Also, if you want a neat hunter experience like from WoW with pets and all, you should play a ranger in Guild Wars 2. They have a stupidly large number of potential pets they can discover and use, plus the ability to swap between one of two critters in combat with both their above ground and in the water set of pets. Also, the rest of the game is pretty cool too.
Hmm, fair enough. More questions!
1) How about Asmodeus, Lamashtu, and Urgathoa? I'd ask about ol' Rovy, but I'm betting the answer is 'no'.
2) Are any of the gods mentioned so far (including these 3) afraid of her for some reason beyond simply that she's the final authority on what happens to them when they die?
3) Has Pharasma always been as she is now? I'm not asking about her current form of a humanoid-looking woman, but as the impartial, ancient judge of all that lives.
1) Nope to all 3. Asmodeus knows he doesn't have anything to worry about her because he plays by the rules, Lamashtu's too arrogant and self-assured and knows Pharasma's more focused on daemons than demons anyway, and Urgathoa's undead and therefore knows no fear.
2) They could well be afraid of her because she operates by her own rules that aren't known to anyone else.
3) Yes.
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Asked Wes Schnieder this, but I figured I'd ask you too, just for your opinion:
In order to practice Ragathiel's obedience and gain his boons, as described in Chronicle of the Righteous, you are required to slay a wrongdoer every single day. I find this obedience...problematic. How would a devout follower of Ragathiel meet this commitment in, say, an urban-based campaign like Curse of the Crimson Throne or Council of Thieves, without being treated like a serial killer? Every day, someone in the city is killed to appease a wrathful celestial being. I imagine in places like these (especially since they're strongly aligned with devil-worshiping Cheliax), the law would come down pretty hard. Not to mention that for a Lawful Good faith, this sounds a lot like human sacrifice, something that most paladin-types object to. While its true that the Adventure Paths have no shortage of unrepentant villains to slay, this obedience requires you kill an evil person every. Single. Day. How does this account for stretches of downtime where a PC might not be out for villain slaying? What if you're in a place where villainous people are hard to find (especially if you're cleaning up the town anyway)? Are you required to run an extra encounter where you track down and kill an evildoer every day? Most of the other Empyreal Lords aren't nearly as demanding in terms of their obediences, even if some DO seem equally strange or excessive? I mean, I know Ragathiel's daddy was an Archdevil but COME ON!
What happens when a half-elf or half-orc has kids with a human? Or with the appropriate non-human race? Are the kids still 'half?'
Me: "What effect would crafting magic such as a lyre of building or polymorph any object have on generating capital?"
You: "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."
Maybe some more specific questions will help clarify things.
1. What is magic capital? Ultimate Campaign doesn't detail it beyond "magic power at your disposal."
2. A rephrase of my earlier question: What bonuses would crafting magic such as a lyre of building or polymorph any object have on generating capital? I have a hard time thinking that a wizard would only generate as much capital as an (NPC class) expert of equal skill.
3. What forms does magic capital take when generated by crypts and observation domes?
Is there any entity in the multiverse as powerful as Pharasma? More powerful?
How much inspiration should one draw from real life mythology when making their own campaign world, in your opinion?
What is your favourite fruit?
How about least favourite?
Which race is the most widespread and populous on Golarion after Humans? Would be neat to see who might destroy the tyranny of man now that Aroden is gone...
In your games, do you use any of the variant rules found in APG, UM or UC, such as Hero Points, Words of Power, Armor as DR etc?
Dear James Jacobs,
Why do nogitsune oni only manifest as women?
Can you spill the beans on whether or not Bestiary 4 will include more oni? I actually didn't know that the nogitsune was even printed until this week when an Adventure Path subscriber pointed it out to me, so it would be awesome to see the nogitsune in a hardcover book.
1) Now that we have rules for young characters, will we see a Golarion "Little Red Riding Hood"?
2) what stop Outsiders, Aberrations and the like from trading technologies, knowledge, lifeforms, etc... across different planes/world/planets/etc?
Have you ever dealt with child characters in your campaigns? If so, how'd that go/ what'd you do with them/ were they PCs/ were they combatants, etc.? I'm planning on running the younger brother of one of the PCs in the game I GM for the next few sessions due to some plot stuff, and am hoping for some insight.
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Asked Wes Schnieder this, but I figured I'd ask you too, just for your opinion:
In order to practice Ragathiel's obedience and gain his boons, as described in Chronicle of the Righteous, you are required to slay a wrongdoer every single day. I find this obedience...problematic. How would a devout follower of Ragathiel meet this commitment in, say, an urban-based campaign like Curse of the Crimson Throne or Council of Thieves, without being treated like a serial killer? Every day, someone in the city is killed to appease a wrathful celestial being. I imagine in places like these (especially since they're strongly aligned with devil-worshiping Cheliax), the law would come down pretty hard. Not to mention that for a Lawful Good faith, this sounds a lot like human sacrifice, something that most paladin-types object to. While its true that the Adventure Paths have no shortage of unrepentant villains to slay, this obedience requires you kill an evil person every. Single. Day. How does this account for stretches of downtime where a PC might not be out for villain slaying? What if you're in a place where villainous people are hard to find (especially if you're cleaning up the town anyway)? Are you required to run an extra encounter where you track down and kill an evildoer every day? Most of the other Empyreal Lords aren't nearly as demanding in terms of their obediences, even if some DO seem equally strange or excessive? I mean, I know Ragathiel's daddy was an Archdevil but COME ON!
Ragathiel's obedience is, in my opinion, too tough to pull off. In building the obediences for the demon lords, whenever I had one that was something like that, I made sure that there was an alternative.
That said, you don't have to have your obedience active every single day.
Were I the developer for the book, though, I would have added this to his obedience: "If you don't have an evil creature handy to slay, you must instead spend an hour philosophizing and studying the nature of chivalric duty with at least two students listening to your pontifications." That's just off the top of my head, but basically, if you don't have a wrongdooer to kill, you need to spend an hour with some help to get your obedience.
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Me: "What effect would crafting magic such as a lyre of building or polymorph any object have on generating capital?"
You: "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."
Maybe some more specific questions will help clarify things.
1. What is magic capital? Ultimate Campaign doesn't detail it beyond "magic power at your disposal."
2. A rephrase of my earlier question: What bonuses would crafting magic such as a lyre of building or polymorph any object have on generating capital? I have a hard time thinking that a wizard would only generate as much capital as an (NPC class) expert of equal skill.
3. What forms does magic capital take when generated by crypts and observation domes?
1) Magic capital is a generic term for anything magic. Could be one-shot items like potions of lesser restoration to remove fatigue from workers to make them work more. Could be healing cast to fix workplace accidents. Could be a lyre of building helping out. Could be a wizard summoning earth elementals to dig a trench. Whatever; it's kept vague, because there are literally thousands of spells, magic items, and supernatural abilities in the game and publishing how each one impacts downtime events is not feasible. But since they DO exist, it was not feasible to ignore the existence of magic and how it might impact the building of a tavern, say. And so the Magic capital exists as a bridge between two impractical solutions, one that your GM can use as a starting point in describing how your magic helps things out.
2) Frankly, if you use a lyre of building, you shouldn't use the downtime system at all. The lyre itself has rules for how fast it builds things. Use those instead. It's a "construction replacement tool."
3) Again... whatever the GM wants it to mean. Visiting priests or arcanists who want to help build the location volunteering some resources, for example.
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Creative Director
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1) How much inspiration should one draw from real life mythology when making their own campaign world, in your opinion?
2) What is your favourite fruit?
3) How about least favourite?
4) Which race is the most widespread and populous on Golarion after Humans? Would be neat to see who might destroy the tyranny of man now that Aroden is gone...
1) Enough to inspire, but not so much that you make others who read about or play in your setting uncomfortable.
2) Raspberry.
3) Grapefruit.
4) Unrevealed.
Hey James. A while back I asked if one GM and two PCs can run the APs with Mythic rules. The players are now approaching Thistletop from RotRL without any problems. We really enjoy the Mythic rules! We really appreciate you and your fellow Paizo employees for their hard work and can't wait to see more!
Oh yeah! We are also rooting for a Mystic Bestiary for Core or Campaign products.
Thanks again!
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In your games, do you use any of the variant rules found in APG, UM or UC, such as Hero Points, Words of Power, Armor as DR etc?
I use Plot Twist/Flashback cards as a form of "hero point," but don't use the actual Hero Point rules. Or any of the other variant rules, to be honest. With the exception of traits, which I don't consider to be variant rules at all, but as core as feats or skills.
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Dear James Jacobs,
Why do nogitsune oni only manifest as women?
Can you spill the beans on whether or not Bestiary 4 will include more oni? I actually didn't know that the nogitsune was even printed until this week when an Adventure Path subscriber pointed it out to me, so it would be awesome to see the nogitsune in a hardcover book.
Because they do—it's part of the flavor of that type of oni.
There are not more oni showing up in Bestairy 4. That said, there's a LOT more information about oni in the Jade Regent Adventure Path—in fact, the only reason there's oni in Bestiary 3 in the first place is because we needed them for Jade Regent. If you're eager for more information about oni, including a couple of new types of oni*, the Jade Regent AP is the best place to go.
*New oni introduced in Jade Regent include:
#49: Yamabushi oni (tengu); also a large article about the "ecology" of the oni
#50: Nogitsune oni (kitsune)
#51: Atamahuta oni (ettin)
#52: Ja noi oni (hobgoblin)
#53: Earth yai oni (stone giant)
#54: Wind yai oni (cloud giant)
And the entire AP itself is essentially about an oni plot, so the adventures each have lots of oni stuff going on in them.
None of those oni are going into Bestiary 4.
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Another few questions on the Orbs of Dragonkind, which I've been puzzling over for a little while. Mengkare is handing out shards that would seem to be the Gold Orb to diplomats, based on "research suggests the truth of the dragon's claim" - it would seem that the Gold Orb is shattered in pieces and was scattered through the vaults of several Inner Sea nations (as well as Mengkare possessing the other shards). Interesting choice, since the Gold Orb is basically the most powerful/varied of the orbs (possessing powers that the others do not).
1) If this is the case, an Orb of Dragonkind will immediately shatter if it is caught in the breath weapon of a dragon who is a blood relative to the dragon spirit within it. Since Mengkare is passing around bits of a shattered Orb, does this imply that it might have been broken by one such relative in the distant past?
2) Possibly Mengkare himself, in order to prevent the Orb from being used against dragonkind? (Dragons are stated to at the very least think no non-dragon should have possession of an Orb.)
3) If all the pieces were gathered, would it likely involve a reassembly (i.e. spellcasters channeling magic into it) along the same lines as the Sihedron?
3) Did the Gold Orb, when it was in one piece, have any power over or link to the Imperial or Primal variants, which allow control over that sort of dragon? Or was it limited to the "True Dragon" category (i.e. standard chromatics and metallics)?
4) When the Orbs can communicate to other bearers, does that include bearers of lesser orbs as well as greater?
5) Besides Mengkare, do any other dragons (that you can reveal, if there are any) in particular have one of the Orbs?
6) Do the dragons come after people who possess the lesser orbs with the same fervor that they do the greater?
7) Stormsheart (the big blue dragon super-orb) is locked away in Erebus, and over a thousand blue dragons were sacrificed to create it. Was it Asmodeus who created it? Or another archdevil, perhaps Mammon?
8) If you can say who created Stormsheart, can you say why? Or at least why blue dragons, specifically?
9) At the last convocation of dragons, one of the topics raised was what to do about Daralathyxl, the CR 26 red in the NW of Andoran. Did they come to any specific conclusion? Was it a "wait and see" posture, or one of encouraging up-and-coming heroes? (Golds are apparently fond of living among the mortal races, according to Dragons Revisited, as well as careful manipulation from behind the scenes.)
Wes Schneider wrote the Artifacts & Legends book, which includes most of what we've said about the orbs of dragonkind. I've not yet had a chance to read that book in full—just the parts that I need to for projects I'm working on as the need arises, so he's probably the best person to ask about these artifacts.
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1) Now that we have rules for young characters, will we see a Golarion "Little Red Riding Hood"?
2) what stop Outsiders, Aberrations and the like from trading technologies, knowledge, lifeforms, etc... across different planes/world/planets/etc?
1) People get weirdly freaked out when we put children into perilous situations. George Martin and Stephen King and J. K. Rowling have a lot more freedom in this realm; we created these rules mostly so folks can play games based on characters like Arya or Harry Potter or Jake, but whether or not we start using them in our products for child adventurers or child NPCs is an open question. I'd like to say yes... but we can't do a lot of what other entertainment industries do, be they video games or comic books or novels or movies or television or cable shows.
2) Nothing. Of course, most outsiders aren't all that interested in that kind of thing, but there are some who are specifically all about that, such as the mercanes.
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Have you ever dealt with child characters in your campaigns? If so, how'd that go/ what'd you do with them/ were they PCs/ were they combatants, etc.? I'm planning on running the younger brother of one of the PCs in the game I GM for the next few sessions due to some plot stuff, and am hoping for some insight.
I have. I've had child NPCs serve as allies, victims, informants, villains, and more. They're just another type of NPC you can use; and examples of how to use them are all over the place in the form of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, the Dark Tower books, and so on.
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Hey James. A while back I asked if one GM and two PCs can run the APs with Mythic rules. The players are now approaching Thistletop from RotRL without any problems. We really enjoy the Mythic rules! We really appreciate you and your fellow Paizo employees for their hard work and can't wait to see more!
Oh yeah! We are also rooting for a Mystic Bestiary for Core or Campaign products.
Thanks again!
Excellent!
Hi James, glad to see you'll be at Paizocon this year. I was wondering if you or any of the editors will be reviewing submissions this year? as I have written a short adventure and am looking for a place to send it. I was thinking Kobold Quarterly,but I've heard it's not in print anymore,is this true?
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Hi James, glad to see you'll be at Paizocon this year. I was wondering if you or any of the editors will be reviewing submissions this year? as I have written a short adventure and am looking for a place to send it. I was thinking Kobold Quarterly,but I've heard it's not in print anymore,is this true?
We don't review submissions at all, actually—all of our adventures and books are written by established freelancers assigned their projects specifically by us to match their design strengths. The primary two ways we accept unsolicited manuscripts these days are via RPG Superstar and by the Pathfinder Society open call (which is currently not a top priority as we're working on getting other things handled).
That said, if you'll be at Paizocon, there'll be a LOT of seminars where folks from Paizo and from other companies talk about how to break into the industry, and if you can find me while I'm wandering around, don't be afraid to introduce yourself and I'll chat with you a bit about the topic as well. Certainly, attending conventions and taking that kind of interest is a GREAT way to get a foot in the door.
If any new base classes are ever made, will we see child iconics (could be the kids of current iconics)?
Probably not.If any new base classes are ever made, will we see child iconics (could be the kids of current iconics)?
What about the iconics reduced to child form?
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What about the iconics reduced to child form?Probably not.If any new base classes are ever made, will we see child iconics (could be the kids of current iconics)?
We've done illustrations of them as children before. In particular, we illustrated Seelah as a child in one product. We might do it again, but only if it makes sense at the time, and not for an Adventure Path.
First off James Jacobs you are the man! But why? Second, did Forum participate in imprisoning Rovagug? I mean if the god of pathfinder wasn't involved it makes one wonder if he is worthy of his title.
We've done illustrations of them as children before. In particular, we illustrated Seelah as a child in one product. We might do it again, but only if it makes sense at the time, and not for an Adventure Path.What about the iconics reduced to child form?Probably not.If any new base classes are ever made, will we see child iconics (could be the kids of current iconics)?
A Wizard trying to imitate Pup Shape? More iconics backgrounds? For the fun of it? For the shock?
We've done illustrations of them as children before. In particular, we illustrated Seelah as a child in one product. We might do it again, but only if it makes sense at the time, and not for an Adventure Path.What about the iconics reduced to child form?Probably not.If any new base classes are ever made, will we see child iconics (could be the kids of current iconics)?
To build off of James' answer, Ultimate Campaign gives us a picture of Kyra as a child, Seelah and Lem as teenagers, and a picture of what looks suspiciously like Valeros training his daughter.
The picture of Seelah is extremely tragic when applied to her origin story.
Ever had a merchant character in a game saying: "Everything's for sale my friend, everything, if I had a sister, I'd sell her in a second!" ?
What class(es) would you recommend for a seductress-type character?
Hello Most Exalted Tyrant Lizard!
I have few questions for you this night:
1) What would be an appropriate CR range for a deity's herald?
2)Can demigod-like creatures (such as demon lords and empyreal lords)have heralds as well?
3)I've noticed that both the monadic and the movanic devas (from bestiary II) have a lot more immunities than the other (more powerful) angels.
both of those devas in question are immune to fire and eletricity, as opposed to being just resistant to those energies. I imagine those immunities make sense to the monadic deva, since it travels a lot to the inner planes, but wonder if in the case of movanic it was a mistake to include all of those.
What do you think?
4)Assuming empyreal lords are allowed to have heralds, and I was to create a movanic deva that wields arcane magic to serve Soralyon in that capacity, what would you recommend:
Adding wizard levels to the base creature or just making a unique deva-like servant that has unique arcane abilities?
hey James, do you think you will ever truly say what happened to Aroden? Is he truly dead, missing, ceased to care for humanity and remains silent, etc. I think it would be a very interesting story to find out what truly happened.No. That's not a secret we plan to ever reveal. At this point, no matter how awesome I made that revelation (and yes, I do know what happened to him, so that things we CAN talk about remain consistent), it'll be not only disappointing to plenty of folks who prefer their own ideas and explanations, but it'll remove the single biggest mystery of the setting. It's more important that folks are talking about and trying to solve the mystery than knowing the solution. People don't actually WANT solutions.
That's all what I learned from Lost, in any event.
Were you a fan/regular viewer of Lost yourself or is this an third party perspective on the fan reaction to the end of the series?
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Hello Most Exalted Tyrant Lizard!
I have few questions for you this night:
1) What would be an appropriate CR range for a deity's herald?
2)Can demigod-like creatures (such as demon lords and empyreal lords)have heralds as well?
3)I've noticed that both the monadic and the movanic devas (from bestiary II) have a lot more immunities than the other (more powerful) angels.
both of those devas in question are immune to fire and eletricity, as opposed to being just resistant to those energies. I imagine those immunities make sense to the monadic deva, since it travels a lot to the inner planes, but wonder if in the case of movanic it was a mistake to include all of those.
What do you think?
4)Assuming empyreal lords are allowed to have heralds, and I was to create a movanic deva that wields arcane magic to serve Soralyon in that capacity, what would you recommend:
Adding wizard levels to the base creature or just making a unique deva-like servant that has unique arcane abilities?
1) CR 15.
2) Not really, no. We've limited heralds to full deities so far.
3) Not sure why they have more immunities than other angels.
4) In pretty much all cases, I prefer unique creatures designed from the ground up for heralds.