Bloody time limit.
Will you ever make miniatures of the various Heralds?
Creative Director
|
You do know that while you say they are objectively better, it's still just your opinion and thus merely a subjective claim in the end?
Again, I'm not denying you having a differing preference. What I do not accept is you claiming my preference is inferior to yours.
Did you mean that with this post of yours, or something else? Because right now, you're coming off as something of an elitist.
Also, I'm pretty sure some day you'll come across a non-humanocentric work that is better than a humanocentric one. It can happen.
Of course I know it's my opinion. And I assume you know my opinion is a significant part of why I get paid to be Paizo's Creative Director, yes?
I'm not trying to be an elitist at all. I'm just trying to answer your questions. And since they're apparently not doing much other than stress you out... I guess we should cease this line of question/answer altogether and move on to other topics.
|
Creative Director
|
Some things about Yamasoth and Lamashtu:
Yamasoth lairs in Sekatar-Seraktis, an endless cavern realm, per the article in Beyond Sin. It also states that he controls the largest and most centralised region of the entire Abyss in the "Kingdom of New Flesh" he's created. Lamashtu rules Kurnugia, stated in the Book of the Damned to be the largest layer of the Abyss.
How do these two reconcile? They both appear to rule the largest single area of the abyss. Is "region" in Yamasoth's entry a reference to only ruling part of an infinite layer? Or is it simply crossed wires, and one (I would assume Lamashtu, given that she's a god and Yamasoth isn't) is definitively bigger than the other?
Additionally, Lamashtu, Pazuzu, Dagon and others all seemed to have reached demon lord status at around the same time. Dagon is a qlippoth who made the jump to demon lord. Pazuzu is an obyrith in WotC's Fiendish Codex I, but I can't find any reference to qlippoth for him or Lamashtu in Golarion. Are Pazuzu and Lamashtu entities who jumped from qlippoth to tanar'ri like Dagon did, or did they start out as tanar'ri from the get-go in Golarion's cosmology?
Yamasoth's region that he controls is the largest and most centralized region in Sekatar-Seraktis, not the entire Abyss.
And there are deliberate differences between what I did when designing Pazuzu (and other demon lords) in D&D and what I did for Pathfinder. In Pathfinder, Pazuzu was never a qlippoth.
|
Creative Director
|
I can understand both side of the argument, I am human but I have little to no faith in humanity, and something I wish I was something else... hence why I want to play things not fully human (like lycanthrope), but we might more be exceptions than the rule.
But James also make a good point, it can be hard to empathize with non-human, he'll it is hard even with other humans.
Again... I should note that just because I say that Golarion is humanocentric, and that I prefer players to play human or near-human characters, that isn't stopping us from publishing books about goblins or kobolds or, in this case, lycanthropes and lycanthropic characters for both GMs and players to use.
I'm not trying to tell anyone what sorts of characters they can play, or what sorts of races they can let their players play. Not at all. The only people I feel comfortable telling that are those who play in games I run. Which is only a few of you. You know who you are!
|
Creative Director
|
Would these include Fafnheir, Daralathyxl, and Astarathian? They definitely fall under the Big Fricking Dragon label.Aside from Cadrilkasta, will you be releasing any more Big Fricking Dragon miniatures?I'm sure we will.
We've not yet really figured out how to do colossal figures, and it's kinda tricky figuring out where to do huge figures, and we only really do gargantuan figures as one-offs for our full set lists.
So... whether or not we do another named dragon or what will depend in large part on the types of adventure paths and sets we're supporting in the future.
I'd like to see the Grim White Stag, but you said that Colossal minis are a problem, so I'd be fine with Mother's Maw, Stabbing Beast or the Prince in Chains.
Hi James, first off, awesome of you to answer all these questions...
and now for 2 of my own.
1)any chance that there will be a PF (official) version of the "Improved caster level" feat or something that has a similar effect it? i love multi classed characters and spellcasters are pretty brutal to do it with.
2)Urgotha is one of my favorite, and one of the most interesting gods to ever appear in an RPG. will we be seeing anymore specific information about her/her followers etc...?
How does one make miniatures? I know that sometimes people make their own for home games and such.
Also, what's your favorite in each category of true dragon? For me, that'd be blue, silver, crystal (shiny!)... And I keep forgetting what the imperial dragons are like.
Hi James,
Paizo reps (including yourself I believe) have mentioned that there are things which either have not been revealed or may never be revealed (e.g. what is going on with Aroden). This suggests there is a pretty well mapped out view for Golarion. I'm curious as to how this is managed internally? Is it just sort of gestalt knowledge, not written down anywhere but just passed along from person to person verbally? Is it in some sort of internal wiki-like arrangement so that anyone authorized to do so may contribute, discuss or look up such things given the right permissions? Or is there a Master of Secrets, a sole entity in charge of keeping track of everything and who is the single point of contact internally to both update and request such information?
I ask because it seems like with the amount of information already exposed via published material and the additional amount of information you keep to yourselves, there would be a lot of information management going on.
What was the most common alignment of the average Azlanti citizen?
From what I have seen, it's either been Lawful Neutral or any Evil alignment.
|
Creative Director
|
Hi James, first off, awesome of you to answer all these questions...
and now for 2 of my own.1)any chance that there will be a PF (official) version of the "Improved caster level" feat or something that has a similar effect it? i love multi classed characters and spellcasters are pretty brutal to do it with.
2)Urgotha is one of my favorite, and one of the most interesting gods to ever appear in an RPG. will we be seeing anymore specific information about her/her followers etc...?
1) There's a trait that does something like this; check Advanced Player's Guide.
2) Yes. We've done a lot about Urgathoa already, but we are not done talking about her.
|
Creative Director
|
And there are deliberate differences between what I did when designing Pazuzu (and other demon lords) in D&D and what I did for Pathfinder. In Pathfinder, Pazuzu was never a qlippoth.Ah, okay, I just couldn't see any reference to it, and the hint that they all reached demon lord status at around the time was something I took as a potential indicator. So Lamashtu was never a qlippoth either, then?
Also, another question on the Positive Energy Plane:
"The glowing heart of life and creation, the origin-spark of mortal souls and the Material Plane itself, this plane remains out of bounds for most planar travelers, and somehow forbidden to gods."
(From The Great Beyond.)
When it says that it is forbidden to gods (which I take to mean that no god can go there), does that include demigods as well, or only full deities?
Lamashtu was never a qlippoth.
Yes; the center of the Positive Energy Plane is forbidden to all gods; deity or demigod. Further implications of that are for future development.
|
Creative Director
|
How does one make miniatures? I know that sometimes people make their own for home games and such.
Also, what's your favorite in each category of true dragon? For me, that'd be blue, silver, crystal (shiny!)... And I keep forgetting what the imperial dragons are like.
I don't make my own minis so I can't really answer that question for you. Professional minis are sculpted out of green stuff and then sent on to a foundry to be cast into metal or plastic. It's a good question to ask elsewhere on these boards though!
Red, bronze, umbral, forest.
|
Creative Director
|
Hi James,
Paizo reps (including yourself I believe) have mentioned that there are things which either have not been revealed or may never be revealed (e.g. what is going on with Aroden). This suggests there is a pretty well mapped out view for Golarion. I'm curious as to how this is managed internally? Is it just sort of gestalt knowledge, not written down anywhere but just passed along from person to person verbally? Is it in some sort of internal wiki-like arrangement so that anyone authorized to do so may contribute, discuss or look up such things given the right permissions? Or is there a Master of Secrets, a sole entity in charge of keeping track of everything and who is the single point of contact internally to both update and request such information?
I ask because it seems like with the amount of information already exposed via published material and the additional amount of information you keep to yourselves, there would be a lot of information management going on.
This type of thing is mostly my responsibility to keep track of, but other folks know about it as well. When we DO talk about Aroden the developer's responsibility is to come talk to me and we then sort out what to say. The secret itself is written down, in any event, along with a few others.
So I'm pretty much the Master of Secrets.
And there's a lot of information management going on for canon stuff, for sure. That's increasingly becoming Mark Moreland's job.
Are there kobolds descended from metallic, primal and imperial dragons? What would they look and act like in the latter two cases?
In the case of crystal dragons, probably shiny.
What are the other secrets of Golarion besides how or why Aoreden died?
Whether Ihys really existed, if Peace through Vigilance is Iomedae and Apsu's son, whatever the heck happened to Dou-Bral to turn him into Zon-Kuthon, the true nature of the Speakers of the Depths, what Groetus will do when Pharasma judges the last soul... there are plenty of secrets in the Great Beyond.
Who is Peace Through Vigilance?
A celestial gold dragon serving Iomedae. He calls her Mother Iomedae.
I can understand both side of the argument, I am human but I have little to no faith in humanity, and something I wish I was something else... hence why I want to play things not fully human (like lycanthrope), but we might more be exceptions than the rule.
But James also make a good point, it can be hard to empathize with non-human, he'll it is hard even with other humans.
Again... I should note that just because I say that Golarion is humanocentric, and that I prefer players to play human or near-human characters, that isn't stopping us from publishing books about goblins or kobolds or, in this case, lycanthropes and lycanthropic characters for both GMs and players to use.
I'm not trying to tell anyone what sorts of characters they can play, or what sorts of races they can let their players play. Not at all. The only people I feel comfortable telling that are those who play in games I run. Which is only a few of you. You know who you are!
Any chance of running a game here in the Detroit area sometime JJ? Thx and keep up the great work at Paizo!
Is there any rhyme or reason for why a monster's CL isn't the same as their HD?
Is there any rhyme or reason for why a monster's CL isn't the same as their HD?
I noticed a lot of them have their CL equal to their HD - 3. Perhaps that may help?
|
Creative Director
|
Are there kobolds descended from metallic, primal and imperial dragons? What would they look and act like in the latter two cases?
In the case of crystal dragons, probably shiny.
Kobolds aren't really "descended" from dragons in that way. They generally have scales that match the colors of the classic chromatic dragons, but some other colors like purple exist as well.
|
Creative Director
|
What are the other secrets of Golarion besides how or why Aoreden died?
There's plenty. A few right off the top of my head include:
What caused the Eye of Abendego?
Who or what were the Vault Builders?
Who or what is the Dominion of the Black?
What is the status of the other 6 runelords?
What lies beyond the outer sphere?
Etc. We'll answer some of these eventually. Most of them in fact. But not all mysteries will be resolved.
Kobolds aren't really "descended" from dragons in that way. They generally have scales that match the colors of the classic chromatic dragons, but some other colors like purple exist as well.Are there kobolds descended from metallic, primal and imperial dragons? What would they look and act like in the latter two cases?
In the case of crystal dragons, probably shiny.
Are there any that have the traits of those other dragons? That'd be interesting to see.
And now I'm tempted to stat them all out, tiefling/aasimar heritage-style.
|
Creative Director
|
Is there any rhyme or reason for why a monster's CL isn't the same as their HD?
EDIT: Thought you were asking about CR.
Caster level varies. Some monsters are particularly strong casters, and others are dabblers. We vary CL because we want to vary the challenges a monster might present, and that means that CR, like HD and all the other stats a monster possesses, needs to be flexible.
CR is a numerical approximation of ALL of a monster's stats, of which CL is but one.
Are you a fan of board games? If so, which games?
So James my character who is a human LG cleric of Iomedae, who has some celestial blood (nothing stat wise just cosmetic effects pupiless eyes and white hair from birth) just found out he is a descendant of Tabris. How should he react to said knowledge? He did roll a 35 on his knowledge religion as too who Tabris is so his knowledge is there. I don't know how to react as a player since the GM just sprung it on me.
|
Creative Director
|
So James my character who is a human LG cleric of Iomedae, who has some celestial blood (nothing stat wise just cosmetic effects pupiless eyes and white hair from birth) just found out he is a descendant of Tabris. How should he react to said knowledge? He did roll a 35 on his knowledge religion as too who Tabris is so his knowledge is there. I don't know how to react as a player since the GM just sprung it on me.
How your character reacts is up to you—it's not my call to make. I would ask your GM to provide you with some information about Tabris—a DC 35 Knowledge check should be more than enough to give you a big chunk of info.
Any chance of running a game here in the Detroit area sometime JJ? Thx and keep up the great work at Paizo!Not really. I've no plans to ever go to Detroit.
Bummer...if someone wanted to write novels based in Galorian/PathFinder world, what would be necessary for the legalities of that happening?
Legend of Korra...have you seen it and, if you have, would it make a cool Pathfinder type campaign...
Are there kobolds with similar traits to non-chromatic dragons?
|
Creative Director
|
Bummer...if someone wanted to write novels based in Galorian/PathFinder world, what would be necessary for the legalities of that happening?Any chance of running a game here in the Detroit area sometime JJ? Thx and keep up the great work at Paizo!Not really. I've no plans to ever go to Detroit.
Well... if you just wanted to write novels based on Golarion (first, make sure you spell the world right!), you can use the community use license to do so—you just can't sell them or charge money for folks to read them. If you want to make money writing these, you'd have to get your story approved for publication by Paizo... and we generally don't work with novelists who haven't already published a novel before.
Are all evil outsiders considered fiends? I'm just not sure if it's a stretch to group wendigos, evil titans, shining children and urdefhans under that title.
|
Creative Director
|
Are all evil outsiders considered fiends? I'm just not sure if it's a stretch to group wendigos, evil titans, shining children and urdefhans under that title.
"Fiend" is a generic term we use as a catch-all when referring to evil outsiders from Abaddon, Hell, and the Abyss. It doesn't include evil outsiders from other planes. It also doesn't carry with it any real game mechanics—it's just an easy one-word-way of saying:
"Lawful evil, neutral evil, and chaotic evil outsiders from the evil outer planes who belong to or are closely related to one of the several evil outsider categories such as devil, demon, daemon, div, etc."
Sometimes we extend it to include some native outsdiers like rakshasas or oni, and sometimes we exclude outsiders from other planes.
Question, as I'm building a monster and am unsure how two abilities combine. If a creature has unnerving aura and turns invisible, does the aura still affect animals? I'm inclined to say yes, and it'd make a great way to foreshadow it.
|
Creative Director
|
Question, as I'm building a monster and am unsure how two abilities combine. If a creature has unnerving aura and turns invisible, does the aura still affect animals? I'm inclined to say yes, and it'd make a great way to foreshadow it.
Up to you; building monsters lets you make up new combinations and powers and interactions of powers as you wish. The concept of an invisible monster that unnerves animals is cool since it causes animals to get spooked for no reason, but having that aura not work until the monster is visible lets it ambush victims better without giving warning. Both are cool ideas depending on the direction you want to go with the monster.
Roger. I do like the first one. While it would certainly give it away, it'd be great foreshadowing :)
James I did what you told me
I'd say no... but these are better questions to be asking the rules team.The better question here would be, can an Alchemist prepare a personal spell extract with the infusion discovery and pass it down to someone else so they drink it? Can my party get affected by my ''personal'' extract infusions if they drink it? I've seen it so many times that people in the forums usues ''personal'' spells(extracts) with the infusion discovery on their party ....
Infusion
Benefit: When the alchemist creates an extract, he can infuse it with an extra bit of his own magical power. The extract created now persists even after the alchemist sets it down. As long as the extract exists, it continues to occupy one of the alchemist’s daily extract slots. An infused extract can be imbibed by a non-alchemist to gain its effects.
First of all I do respect the asnwer and the time you took to answer these questions that I made but I just felt that it didn't had too much of an explanation and it is one of the reasons that I went to the rules team forums plus you told me to go over there and ask :p. Second, for my surprise personal infusions its something that have been used for a long long time, there are many people using it this way (including people from the rules questions forum)so even tho this question is not an FAQ candidate(its not asked frequently) it should be errated or clarified maybe to fix further miss understandings about passing personal infusions to allies(with infusion discovery)?
So I went to the rules team and revived an old thread about personal infusions http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2ma9s&page=2?Personal-Range-Alchemist-Infus ions but for my surprise I got the opposite answer of what you answered, confusing me even more. It wasn't answered by the rules team staff, instead it was answered ''globally'' by active players around the forums. They said that I can actually make personal infusions has an alchemist and get my allies to use them. They've been using this method for a long time, its nothing new to the community.
How can I get one of ur rules team to answer this question completely and end this chaos once and for all?
How hilariously awesome is an awakened bat sorcerer (draconic) that can cast Shapechange? "Hi, I'm nonthreatening, except I'm a fully grown dragon now. Nom Nom Nom!"
The First Vault...anything you've in mind involving this in the future? Near or far?