Creative Director
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What part of Golarion do you (would you) hail from? Basically, what is your favorite region and why? Or at least one of your favorites? Thank you.
Sandpoint. Because it's very much based on my home town in a lot of ways ranging from the name to the environs to the attitudes to the scenery to the types of people to more.
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Creative Director
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hi james
do you like the forgotten realms and if so are you going to check out the new sundering module....
i was also wondering do you know if the new mythic adventures hardcover will be shipping before gencon
thanks
I've been a fan of the Forgotten Realms from before the start, since when they were not a published campaign setting but instead just a place that got mentioned now and then in Ed's articles for Dragon magazine.
I pretty much lost all interest in the Forgotten Realms with the changes WotC made with 4th edition. At this point, that "momentum" I used to have for the setting is pretty much lost, and I'm unlikely to jump back on board with the new stuff. I'll check it out though... we'll see.
As for when Mythic Adventures goes on sale... I'm not sure. That's not really something I track. I know we'll be selling it as soon as Gen Con opens, and I suspect we're trying to have that be as simultaneous a release with game stores and the like as we can, but again... dunno for sure. That's a customer service question.
I've been a fan of the Forgotten Realms from before the start, since when they were not a published campaign setting but instead just a place that got mentioned now and then in Ed's articles for Dragon magazine.
I pretty much lost all interest in the Forgotten Realms with the changes WotC made with 4th edition. At this point, that "momentum" I used to have for the setting is pretty much lost, and I'm unlikely to jump back on board with the new stuff. I'll check it out though... we'll see.
This is pretty much my story too :(
Hearkening back to a response you made about multi-limbed creatures that are able to initiate grapples on multiple opponents through the grab special ability, and their inability to maintain multiple grapples in their next turn:
I'm considering creating a (monster) feat that allows these kinds of creatures to maintain multiple grapples as a full round action, mainly because that kind of scene tickles my fancy, but a kraken having to drop everyone and then "attack/instagrab them again" thing tends to bring the rules (and their odd corner cases) to the forefront. My questions are:
1) Do you think this would be a balanced way (or close enough) to be able to have those scenes where three of the four heroes are flailing, suspended, in the tentacled moster's grip while their two buddies try desperately to free them? Or does it strike you as overpowered in some fashion? Would it even need to be a feat? It's not really that much more powerful than just dropping the grappled creatures and re-hitting them...
2) Would this kind of fix seem appropriate to the Core Rules if it was easy to implement (though I understand it is not)?
3) Bonus tangential question: Who would you vote for as Golarion's Top Ten Sexiest People (or Creatures)? Feel free to interpret "sexy" as broadly as you like :)
How far back into pre old ones era is pathfinder going to go with golarion basically a who watches the watchers type question? :O
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Is there anyway to make your opponent helpless by using bare hands and then use coup de grace? Think of a tough guy from a movie, pins his target and puts his knife on opponent's neck. If the target moves, he uses coup de grace and kills him. Is it possible by using RAW?
Pinned condition says no. Helpless condition is a little bit confusing. It says "A helpless character is paralyzed, 'held', bound, sleeping, unconscious, or otherwise completely at an opponent's mercy." Does pinning mean 'holding'?
I'm not sure it's possible using the RAW, but the rules DO let you do it anyway.
The easiest way to do this is to simply use unarmed strike and let that be the weapon you use to administer the coup de grace; since that's non-lethal, a success would only knock the foe out rather than kill. If you want to kill, you'd grapple and then use lethal damage as part of a sustained grapple to coup de grace instead.
So by setting aside RAW, does it work as the following?
1-) I grappled my opponent.2-) I maintained the grapple and pinned my opponent as part of standard action.
3-) I maintained the grapple and delivered coup de grace.
My character is taking Leadership soon and I've been trying to find a Monstrous Cohort for him. In Inner Sea Bestiary I stumbled across the perfect cohort for my character: the Cayhound!
I was curious what the Cohort Level you think a Cayhound would be? Also what classes would you recommend a Cayhound advancing in?
Where do souls of a Neutral person go, by this I mean anybody LN NN and CN. What happens if they worship a good or evil deity?
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Creative Director
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Hearkening back to a response you made about multi-limbed creatures that are able to initiate grapples on multiple opponents through the grab special ability, and their inability to maintain multiple grapples in their next turn:
I'm considering creating a (monster) feat that allows these kinds of creatures to maintain multiple grapples as a full round action, mainly because that kind of scene tickles my fancy, but a kraken having to drop everyone and then "attack/instagrab them again" thing tends to bring the rules (and their odd corner cases) to the forefront. My questions are:
1) Do you think this would be a balanced way (or close enough) to be able to have those scenes where three of the four heroes are flailing, suspended, in the tentacled moster's grip while their two buddies try desperately to free them? Or does it strike you as overpowered in some fashion? Would it even need to be a feat? It's not really that much more powerful than just dropping the grappled creatures and re-hitting them...
2) Would this kind of fix seem appropriate to the Core Rules if it was easy to implement (though I understand it is not)?
3) Bonus tangential question: Who would you vote for as Golarion's Top Ten Sexiest People (or Creatures)? Feel free to interpret "sexy" as broadly as you like :)
1) The best way to find the answer to that is to playtest the encounter. It might mean bumping up the monster's CR a little. My gut feeling is that it probably wouldn't be TOO overwhelming since splitting attacks among different targets means that it's, in theory, doing less and less damage per round to those targets, thus giving the PCs more and more opportunities to defeat it.
2) Not until we do a 2nd edition, which is still quite a far ways away... if ever.
3) They'd all be succubi or Desna or Merisiel, of course!
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Creative Director
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Is there anyway to make your opponent helpless by using bare hands and then use coup de grace? Think of a tough guy from a movie, pins his target and puts his knife on opponent's neck. If the target moves, he uses coup de grace and kills him. Is it possible by using RAW?
Pinned condition says no. Helpless condition is a little bit confusing. It says "A helpless character is paralyzed, 'held', bound, sleeping, unconscious, or otherwise completely at an opponent's mercy." Does pinning mean 'holding'?
I'm not sure it's possible using the RAW, but the rules DO let you do it anyway.
The easiest way to do this is to simply use unarmed strike and let that be the weapon you use to administer the coup de grace; since that's non-lethal, a success would only knock the foe out rather than kill. If you want to kill, you'd grapple and then use lethal damage as part of a sustained grapple to coup de grace instead.
So by setting aside RAW, does it work as the following?
1-) I grappled my opponent.
2-) I maintained the grapple and pinned my opponent as part of standard action.
3-) I maintained the grapple and delivered coup de grace.
You don't have to pin a foe to do damage. You could start that coup de grace on round 2 if your foe is helpless. Note that being grappled OR pinned does not make a foe helpless. A pinned creature can "take few actions," but even if a condition reduces you to only being able to take ONE action... you're still not helpless, and you have to be helpless (or willing) for a coup de grace to work.
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Creative Director
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My character is taking Leadership soon and I've been trying to find a Monstrous Cohort for him. In Inner Sea Bestiary I stumbled across the perfect cohort for my character: the Cayhound!
I was curious what the Cohort Level you think a Cayhound would be? Also what classes would you recommend a Cayhound advancing in?
A cayhoud is a CR 5 creature. It's ability to dimension door 3/day means it's at least as useful as a 7th level wizard. The closest analog there in power is probably a unicorn, which is a lower CR cohort but with more powerful spell-like abilities in the right situation; and a unicorn is an effective level of 8. Sound about right for a cayhound.
As for classes... fighter or barbarian make the most sense.
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Creative Director
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Where do souls of a Neutral person go, by this I mean anybody LN NN and CN. What happens if they worship a good or evil deity?
Lawful neutral souls generally go to Axis.
Neutral souls generally go to the Boneyard.
Chaotic neutral souls generally go to the Maelstrom.
If a soul worships a deity, it generally goes to that deity's realm, despite the soul's alignment at death. Or if the soul is from a person who significantly failed the deity or betrayed them or otherwise deserves punishment, that soul ends up going to on somewhere else to be punished (typically Hell, Abaddon, or the Abyss, regardless of alignment).
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If a soul worships a deity, it generally goes to that deity's realm, despite the soul's alignment at death.
What sort of destination awaits a worshipper of Desna, or Rovagug, who, as far as I know, don't have planar realms? (Ditto Gozreh, perhaps Nethys, etc. various other gods who aren't associated with another plane.)
Do Rovagug worshippers end up in the Cage, possibly to be immediately devoured by their god? Do Desna worshippers become sparkling motes of light that trail behind her vast wings as she flutters through the dark places of the universe? (Ooh, that sounds like a Romanticist paradise, right there!)
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Can I just say that I love, love, love the idea of the final fate for all Rovagug followers being imprisonment with the Rough Beast and being devoured by him painfully and terrifyingly. Imaging Rovagug literally sustaining itself on the souls of foolish petitioners who venerated it.
5)Will we ever see a bard archetype that focuses on art instead of music? stuff like painting, sculpting, drawing that can be used in interesting ways like paintings as pocket dimensions, animating paper, stone, ceramics, creating a wall of paint, etc..5) Art isn't really a performance—it's a craft, and while the idea of a bard that focuses more on "bardic craft" than "bardic performance" is interesting... I don't believe there are plans to explore that anytime soon.
A while back I spent some time thinking about this, specifically about an origami magic dude - the conclusion I came to at the time was that even if it was going to be artistic and bardic in theme, the alchemist felt like the best chassis to build an archetype like that on top of.
That said, I may not have the same thing in mind that you do - if it's about the media (manipulating paper, stone, etc), I think you've got an artsy transmuter on your hands.
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Creative Director
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If a soul worships a deity, it generally goes to that deity's realm, despite the soul's alignment at death.What sort of destination awaits a worshipper of Desna, or Rovagug, who, as far as I know, don't have planar realms? (Ditto Gozreh, perhaps Nethys, etc. various other gods who aren't associated with another plane.)
Do Rovagug worshippers end up in the Cage, possibly to be immediately devoured by their god? Do Desna worshippers become sparkling motes of light that trail behind her vast wings as she flutters through the dark places of the universe? (Ooh, that sounds like a Romanticist paradise, right there!)
Desna has a planar realm on Arcadia.
So does Rovagug... it's just that Rovagug's planar realm isn't on the outer planes but its own demiplane.
We should have a bit more to say about deity realms early next year!
If a soul worships a deity, it generally goes to that deity's realm, despite the soul's alignment at death.
Thus, a NG cleric of Desna will go to Desna's realm...
Question: What will happen to this petitioner later on? Will he change into (or become part of) an Azata, despite being lacking in the Chaotic department?
Ok, Paizo has won, I've broken and bought a subscription so I can get Mythic Adventures as soon as possible.
1) Does a heavily dream based mythic campaign with some Freddy Kreuger elements and quite possibly some Leng elements for good measure sound like fun?
2) What type of outsider would you say Freddy Kreuger would likely be, I'm leaning towards Daemon.
How powerful/what level does a spell caster need to be to create a small Demi-plane?
1) Will a stat block for Mhar be included in any of the upcoming mythic books? (I understand you may not be able to provide a fully truthful answer to this and the following question, but figure it's worth a shot)
2) What CR do you envision Mhar to be?
3) How does Mhar's size compare to the Oliphaunt, which we know is statted up in Mythic Realms?
Apologies if those have been asked previously but I don't remember seeing them since the mythic books were this close to release.
4) How would a drow be treated in the Shackles region? Or in the Skull and Shackles AP in general?
5) Same question as 4, but for featured/uncommon races that aren't associated with evil, like the tengu or aasimar or undine? I'm guessing a pirate culture would have more acceptance for racial outcasts but I'm curious how you see things since I think the Shackles is still a human dominated region.
Mithral is already good enough. I wouldn't do this. Instead, I'd consider inventing a new feat that lets someone apply Weapon Finesse to a one-handed melee weapon of their choice. We did as much with Dervish Dance. There's no reason there can't be lots more feats invented like that. But I'd rather make going beyond the core assumptions for what can be Weapon Finessed harder to do rather than merely spending a few thousand gold points.Thinking about a house rule that allows all Mithral light and one-handed melee weapons to be compatible with Weapon Finesse.
What are your thoughts on this house rule?
I don't agree that mithral is, "already good enough." It is definitely good enough when crafting it into armor, but aside from allowing a martial weapon to ignore DR/silver, you gain no benefits for a weapon being made of mithral, which is exceptionally odd because being made out of a silvery material has nothing to do with mithral's trademark abvility of making things lighter and less cumbersome. Adamantine weapons ignore DR/adamantine and hardness in addition to being almost impervious to sundering from lesser metals. Adamantine armor gives you DR and the aforementioned resilience against sundering. I might be comparing apples to oranges here, but almost every other special material gives benefits to both types of equipment and only mithral is truly restricted to one or the other.
I could get behind adding another feat (indeed, I have in my games, actually), but just as both Dervish Dance (specific weapon) and the agile weapon property (much wider benefits) exist, I think there's room for this houserule about mithral weapons.
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Creative Director
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If a soul worships a deity, it generally goes to that deity's realm, despite the soul's alignment at death.Thus, a NG cleric of Desna will go to Desna's realm...
Question: What will happen to this petitioner later on? Will he change into (or become part of) an Azata, despite being lacking in the Chaotic department?
Once a soul goes to deity's realm or a specific plane, its alignment changes to match that deity or plane. So a NG cleric of Desna who ends up going to her realm becomes chaotic good. It's kinda the whole way petitioners work.
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Creative Director
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1) An outsider who is killed is normally just gone forever, but since an outsider with the native type can be raised or resurrected normally, would it be safe to say that if a half-celestial dies, they would still move on to their final reward instead of facing oblivion?
2) Thinking about playing an azata-blooded/musetouched aasimar summoner who was raised by their grandparents after their parents heroically died for Wrath of the Righteous. Any thoughts on what it might be like to grow up among azata and how it might influence someone beyond the obvious nomadic lifestyle?
3) Are araneas associated with any particular place in Golarion as being where they're mainly at, or are they just kind of all over in limited small groups?
1) An outsider who is killed is not normally just gone forever. You can use miracle or wish or true resurrection to bring an outsider back to life. And deities can do that too. Other super powerful effects can do the same. And of course, some outsiders who die become undead. A half-celestial is a native outsider, and so when a half-celestial dies, its soul enters the soulstream and goes on to be judged in the Boneyard just like anyone else.
2) I would think growing up among azata would result in a character who is super creative and artistic and expressive and eager to love. One way to look at it would be like being raised by hippies, I guess?
3) We've not yet associated them with a specific region. There's a fair amount of them in Tian Xia, and I wouldn't be surprised to find more in Garund or Arcadia. But for now, they don't really have a full-on "place they're from."
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Creative Director
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Ok, Paizo has won, I've broken and bought a subscription so I can get Mythic Adventures as soon as possible.
1) Does a heavily dream based mythic campaign with some Freddy Kreuger elements and quite possibly some Leng elements for good measure sound like fun?
2) What type of outsider would you say Freddy Kreuger would likely be, I'm leaning towards Daemon.
1) hmmm... Freddy and Leng are very different themes for nightmare-based storylines. I wouldn't mix those to flavors together, really , were it me.
2) I wouldn't make him an outsider at all. I'd make him an undead.
Eew... gross. Nasty candies.Yar!
Do you know of "Smarties"?
If so, "When you eat your smarties, do you eat the red ones last?"
(reference songs: 1980's, 1988, 1991, and 1994)
~P
Well, I agree with you on American Smarties-- which are more-or-less the same thing as SweeTarts. (Yuk).
British and Canadian Smarties are more or less like M&Ms, but with better chocolate. (Yum!) This superior product seems to be what those ads were referring to. (I always buy a bunch of them when I'm in Canada!)
2) I would think growing up among azata would result in a character who is super creative and artistic and expressive and eager to love. One way to look at it would be like being raised by hippies, I guess?
Does that make the Ghaele the Azata version of an eco-terrorist?
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Creative Director
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Mithral is already good enough. I wouldn't do this. Instead, I'd consider inventing a new feat that lets someone apply Weapon Finesse to a one-handed melee weapon of their choice. We did as much with Dervish Dance. There's no reason there can't be lots more feats invented like that. But I'd rather make going beyond the core assumptions for what can be Weapon Finessed harder to do rather than merely spending a few thousand gold points.Thinking about a house rule that allows all Mithral light and one-handed melee weapons to be compatible with Weapon Finesse.
What are your thoughts on this house rule?
I don't agree that mithral is, "already good enough." It is definitely good enough when crafting it into armor, but aside from allowing a martial weapon to ignore DR/silver, you gain no benefits for a weapon being made of mithral, which is exceptionally odd because being made out of a silvery material has nothing to do with mithral's trademark abvility of making things lighter and less cumbersome. Adamantine weapons ignore DR/adamantine and hardness in addition to being almost impervious to sundering from lesser metals. Adamantine armor gives you DR and the aforementioned resilience against sundering. I might be comparing apples to oranges here, but almost every other special material gives benefits to both types of equipment and only mithral is truly restricted to one or the other.
I could get behind adding another feat (indeed, I have in my games, actually), but just as both Dervish Dance (specific weapon) and the agile weapon property (much wider benefits) exist, I think there's room for this houserule about mithral weapons.
(shrug)
That's the cool part of the game. You get to change it to make it do what works best for you. For me, mithral is good enough, and making it the "pay to Finesse" solution makes it WAY too good. But go ahead and change it if you want! :-)
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Creative Director
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Eew... gross. Nasty candies.Yar!
Do you know of "Smarties"?
If so, "When you eat your smarties, do you eat the red ones last?"
(reference songs: 1980's, 1988, 1991, and 1994)
~P
Well, I agree with you on American Smarties-- which are more-or-less the same thing as SweeTarts. (Yuk).
British and Canadian Smarties are more or less like M&Ms, but with better chocolate. (Yum!) This superior product seems to be what those ads were referring to. (I always buy a bunch of them when I'm in Canada!)
Being American myself, I was indeed referring to the gross American Smarties. SweeTarts are gross anyway. Mmmmm.... SOUR CHALK?
Haven't had any other versions, but I do kinda like M&Ms. Especially the peanut butter filled ones.
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Creative Director
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1) Will a stat block for Mhar be included in any of the upcoming mythic books? (I understand you may not be able to provide a fully truthful answer to this and the following question, but figure it's worth a shot)
2) What CR do you envision Mhar to be?
3) How does Mhar's size compare to the Oliphaunt, which we know is statted up in Mythic Realms?
Apologies if those have been asked previously but I don't remember seeing them since the mythic books were this close to release.
4) How would a drow be treated in the Shackles region? Or in the Skull and Shackles AP in general?
5) Same question as 4, but for featured/uncommon races that aren't associated with evil, like the tengu or aasimar or undine? I'm guessing a pirate culture would have more acceptance for racial outcasts but I'm curious how you see things since I think the Shackles is still a human dominated region.
1) We don't plan on statting up Mhar anytime soon.
2) He's probably CR 26 to 27. Kinda low for a Great Old One, but since he's "new" and hasn't had the honor of being around for 80 some years and wasn't invented by Lovecraft, he doesn't get to be higher CR like Cthulhu. ;-)
3) Probably bigger, but not as powerful.
4) With fear, suspicion, and distrust. They'd either be unrecognized for what they were or recognized and treated as a demon worshiper. Of course, if you let players in your game play drow, you probably should relax that somewhat.
5) Tengu are an established part of the Shackles; they're considered by the superstitious pirates to be able to "soak up" bad luck and are called "jinxeaters." They're considered to be lucky and a ship will often have a tengu member to absorb the bad luck. Of course... tengus in truth don't have any ability to soak up bad luck at all... but they enjoy the attention the superstition gets them. Aasimars are accepted, as are undines; folks know they're supernatural but understand that they're not automatically bad guys; they're pretty accepting of them, especially if they can hold their own in displays of pirate bravado.
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Creative Director
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This is a kind of relative question, but in your opinion, which wretched hive of scum and villainy on Golarion is the most wretched, scummy and villainous?
If you're asking what's the most evil city, I'd say probably Iz.
If you're asking what's the city that has the most ridiculous mix of strange and wacky and goofy and silly and weird citizens who all rub shoulders together all the time and don't seem to be phased by the fact that their neighbors are all weird races, I'd probably say Kaer Maga.
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I was actually asking which city has the largest population of criminals and thugs, where skullduggery is the law of the land, more along the lines of Tortuga in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies or Gotham City, or in more D&D like terms, places like Skullport and Luskan. Though you've shown me a different way to look at Mos Eisley. I'll never watch Star Wars the same way again!
O_O So I guess a feykin pc could worship Great Old Ones & be plausible or just a pc from a place of fey communities but not a fey itself? :)Sure!
There's actually a LOT of Lovecraftian fiction that could be interpreted as having stuff to do with fey type elements. A lot of his Dream Cycle stuff has a strong fantasy/whimsical/fae element to them, what with talking cats and all. And there's PLENTY of other authors who inspired Lovecraft who themselves wrote some pretty creepy fae/little people/classic fantasy in that genre. Particularly writers like Algernon Blackwood (check out his masterpiece "The Willows"), or Arthur Machen (who was the one who invented Aklo in "The White People").
Hmm, did this connection inspire anything about Desna's design? She's connected to both the fey and Lovecraftian stuff in a way.
On the Divine Hunter Archetype for the Paladin, you've got Righteous Hunter(a 14th level ability) replacing the paladin's Aura of Righteousness(a 17th level ability).
Which then you have the Righteous Hunter ability doing the exact same thing as the paladin's Aura of Faith(which is the 14th level ability). Which means, in a round about way, it replaces both regular paladin abilities.
Is this accurate?
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Creative Director
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I was actually asking which city has the largest population of criminals and thugs, where skullduggery is the law of the land, more along the lines of Tortuga in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies or Gotham City, or in more D&D like terms, places like Skullport and Luskan. Though you've shown me a different way to look at Mos Eisley. I'll never watch Star Wars the same way again!
Ah. When you say "wretched hive of scum and villainy" you make me think of Mos Eisley, you see, which to me is a kinda goofy bar filled with muppets. Yes, I'm aware of the fact that my opinion is not held by many geeks and nerds, but I've never been a big fan of Star Wars. ;-P
As for the city that has the largest population of bad guys... I'd be tempted to say Absalom. It's not itself a bad guy city, but it's SO BIG that even if 1/3 of its population is the 3 evil alignments, that's still more evil aligned NPCs than pretty much any other city in the Inner Sea region. Even if it's more accurately 1/6 evil, that's STILL a lot more than most cities.
If you're looking for a city where most of the folks are bad guys... I'm not sure. There's plenty of examples, between Quantium and Port Peril and Ilizamagorti and various Chelaxian cities and more that are all similar sizes with similar bad guy themes.
If you want to know my FAVORITE of these types of cities, at this point it's a tie between Vyre and Ilizamagorti.
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Creative Director
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Hmm, did this connection inspire anything about Desna's design? She's connected to both the fey and Lovecraftian stuff in a way.O_O So I guess a feykin pc could worship Great Old Ones & be plausible or just a pc from a place of fey communities but not a fey itself? :)Sure!
There's actually a LOT of Lovecraftian fiction that could be interpreted as having stuff to do with fey type elements. A lot of his Dream Cycle stuff has a strong fantasy/whimsical/fae element to them, what with talking cats and all. And there's PLENTY of other authors who inspired Lovecraft who themselves wrote some pretty creepy fae/little people/classic fantasy in that genre. Particularly writers like Algernon Blackwood (check out his masterpiece "The Willows"), or Arthur Machen (who was the one who invented Aklo in "The White People").
Absolutely. I've been a fan of Machen and Blackwood and Lovecraft for decades, and Desna's also decades old. It's inevitable that she'd have some of the creepier fey elements in her somewhere, even if she's not herself particularly "fey" in every meaning of that word.
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Creative Director
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On the Divine Hunter Archetype for the Paladin, you've got Righteous Hunter(a 14th level ability) replacing the paladin's Aura of Righteousness(a 17th level ability).
Which then you have the Righteous Hunter ability doing the exact same thing as the paladin's Aura of Faith(which is the 14th level ability). Which means, in a round about way, it replaces both regular paladin abilities.
Is this accurate?
Sounds like a good question for the rules FAQ, honestly, since it's weird for an archetype ability to replace something of a different level.
Thanks! I'll do that.
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Creative Director
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The first and so far only uses I've seen for it in PFS play are to enable second attacks for Magus characters. Until then, I'd never seen the spell cast in play since it was first invented in AD+D, unless someone was using it to mark an item for the Drawmij's Instant Summon spell.I suppose so... but I think that's kinda against the purpose of the spell's intent. It's supposed to double as your character's magical signature. If you change your signature in the real world every time you use it, it ceases being a signature, and loses value as a result. Same goes for arcane marks.
It's absolutely not the intent of the spell that it should give you a magic way to write, and the idea that it CAN be used that would be all I need in my homebrew games to state that the spell can't be changed from your personal arcane mark... or that if you DO want to change it, you need to do spell research and spend money to essentially research and learn a brand new version of the spell.
It's basically a "maker's mark" for arcane spellcasters. That's all its' really intended to be.
And that use is an unintended side effect of forgetting that 0 level spells exist during the magus design, I believe. You shouldn't, in my opinion, be able to use cantrips to enable additional attacks for a magus, since that ability is SUPPOSED to be limited to your actual spells, which are a limited daily resource. Allowing an at-will ability like a cantrip to power that was NEVER the intent of the magus. As far as I know.
1) We don't plan on statting up Mhar anytime soon.
2) He's probably CR 26 to 27. Kinda low for a Great Old One, but since he's "new" and hasn't had the honor of being around for 80 some years and wasn't invented by Lovecraft, he doesn't get to be higher CR like Cthulhu. ;-)
3) Probably bigger, but not as powerful.
4) With fear, suspicion, and distrust. They'd either be unrecognized for what they were or recognized and treated as a demon worshiper. Of course, if you let players in your game play drow, you probably should relax that somewhat.
5) Tengu are an established part of the Shackles; they're considered by the superstitious pirates to be able to "soak up" bad luck and are called "jinxeaters." They're considered to be lucky and a ship will often have a tengu member to absorb the bad luck. Of course... tengus in truth don't have any ability to soak up bad luck at all... but they enjoy the attention the superstition gets them. Aasimars are accepted, as are undines; folks know they're supernatural but understand that they're not automatically bad guys; they're pretty accepting of them,...
Thanks! Exactly what I'm looking for. I have one player who really wants to play a drow pirate when we start S&S and I'm hesitant, but I do believe in what you've said that unusual stories just need a great writer who can make a great backstory. I don't know what his story is yet, but I've been assured that it isn't Drizzt-alike, nor a traditional demon worshipper, so it seems he would sit somewhere in the neutral range which works for a pirate.
Nobody mentioned tengu though and your response has convinced me to encourage somebody to make one, or perhaps use it for inspiration for a tengu crew member when they get their own ship.
1) Perhaps obvious question. If Mhar shows up in my game and I have to put together a stat block, do you think the Bestiary 4 Old One stat blocks will serve as a good inspiration for putting his together? Or are they all so unique that you can't base one on another?
P.S. Thanks for putting Oliphaunt into Mythic Realms! My Runelords PCs are getting mythic power after Karzoug and I'm putting them through a couple difficult challenges before we start S&S so Paizo has excellent timing on this one.
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I was actually asking which city has the largest population of criminals and thugs, where skullduggery is the law of the land, more along the lines of Tortuga in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies or Gotham City, or in more D&D like terms, places like Skullport and Luskan. Though you've shown me a different way to look at Mos Eisley. I'll never watch Star Wars the same way again!Ah. When you say "wretched hive of scum and villainy" you make me think of Mos Eisley, you see, which to me is a kinda goofy bar filled with muppets. Yes, I'm aware of the fact that my opinion is not held by many geeks and nerds, but I've never been a big fan of Star Wars. ;-P
As for the city that has the largest population of bad guys... I'd be tempted to say Absalom. It's not itself a bad guy city, but it's SO BIG that even if 1/3 of its population is the 3 evil alignments, that's still more evil aligned NPCs than pretty much any other city in the Inner Sea region. Even if it's more accurately 1/6 evil, that's STILL a lot more than most cities.
If you're looking for a city where most of the folks are bad guys... I'm not sure. There's plenty of examples, between Quantium and Port Peril and Ilizamagorti and various Chelaxian cities and more that are all similar sizes with similar bad guy themes.
If you want to know my FAVORITE of these types of cities, at this point it's a tie between Vyre and Ilizamagorti.
To be fair, Mos Eisley IS the trope namer. Absalom's an interesting and understandable option, though I was referring more to cities where the corruption is part of the local culture, much like your other mentions. Places that reek of booze, vomit, body odor and tobacco spit, and ring with the raucous songs of drunken thugs and the catcalls of women leaning out windows to show off their low-cut bodices and garishly slathered on make-up, where smelly men in tattered clothes with permanent five-o-clock shadows play various card and dice games around crude wooden tables and will shank or shoot someone for cheating even though they're all cheating (the one they killed was just unlucky enough to be caught), and they all talk with vaguely menacing Cockney accents.
So Ilizmagorti sounds like that, as well as Kaer Maga.
I know, I know I'm kind of cherry-picking. The reason I ask is because I'm looking for a place for a mercenary kind of chraracter, a man that you can smell the alcohol, failed aspirations and spite emanating from, that doesn't necessarily come from one of the obvious places like Riddleport or the River Kingdoms.
Tell me more about Vyre, please. :)
Which type of fey do you use in your games more often whimsical or darker themed? :o
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I was referring more to cities where the corruption is part of the local culture, much like your other mentions. Places that reek of booze, vomit, body odor and tobacco spit, and ring with the raucous songs of drunken thugs and the catcalls of women leaning out windows to show off their low-cut bodices and garishly slathered on make-up, where smelly men in tattered clothes with permanent five-o-clock shadows play various card and dice games...
Riddleport, I think, would work well for this feel.
Ilzmagorti and Katapesh and Port Shackles also would all fit, to various degrees. (With Ilzmagorti and Katapesh having the Red Mantis and Pactmasters to keep things at least marginally under control). Golarion isn't short on seedy places, 'though, and you could probably find places that would provide that sort of atmosphere, in almost any country or larger city.
Thornkeep, the future setting of the PF MMO, seems pretty shady, for that matter, with gangs and goblins and possibly even less reputable folk skulking the streets, but even that isn't saying much, since Westcrown, one of the largest cities in iron-fist-run Cheliax also has gangs and goblins and worse dominating entire sections of the city abandoned to urban decay.
& Would a mythic tiered Nymph be any trouble in a worldwound campaign just to keep players on their toes defense wise?