Creative Director
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In your opinion, was Unit 731 a horrible, evil abomination, or a legitimate, if perhaps distastefully executed, series of experiments?
If its relevant, I believe the latter.
I'd rather not delve too deeply into real world atrocities in this thread, frankly. But take my use of the word "atrocities" as my thinking it was a horrible, evil abomination. And I'd rather not derail this thread into an argument or discussion about such.
James,
When I'm scrolling through the forums and my 15 month old son sees your profile pic, he roars like a dinosaur... How does that make you feel?
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Creative Director
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How long does it take to get back into the normal swing of things after a major con like Gen-Con?
I know what it is like when I travel for work, but I am curious how it is for you.
Well... I was out of the office for 4 days due to Gen Con, with ancillary outages on either side... so at the very least Gen Con puts me a week behind schedule where I should be, assuming no con crud. In truth, it's probably more like 2 weeks behind.
Things get back to normal for me after about 2 weeks as a result, assuming nothing major exploded while I was out...
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Creative Director
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This recently came up over on the rules forums, so I thought I'd ask James' opinion over here.
James: When a spell has a particular area of effect, or specifies a range 'tying' two targets together, when is that range measured - is it checked constantly throughout the round, or only at the end of the turn after everyone's movement is complete?
Two examples:
1. Invisibility Sphere states that any creature within a 10-foot radius of the caster at the time of casting is invisible. It also states that if someone who is invisible due to the sphere leaves that area, the spell effect ends. Does this 'check' occur at the end of the round (after both caster and subject have moved), or is it a constant check, meaning that the spell ends instantly if the subject moves more than 10 feet from the caster?
Shield Other says that if the caster and the target move out of range (25' + 5' per caster level) the effect ends. Is this checked at the end of the round (after both party's movements) or is it checked constantly?
** spoiler omitted **
Hi there, and welcome to the thread!
Now that said... we've had problems before with folks asking rules questions here when they felt they weren't being answered "Fast enough" on the rules threads. And while I can understand that frustration... it's kind of a necessary evil.
Your best solution is to simply FAQ the question on the rules thread and try to be patient in waiting for an answer there.
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Creative Director
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James,
What is your favorite Mythic spell?
** spoiler omitted **
I'm still wading through the spells, frankly, but I've been pretty delighted with the mythic glyph of warding + mythic harm combo. And mythic blade barrier is pretty solid as well. Mythic dispel magic is pretty bad ass also.
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Creative Director
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How much have the various Ask (insert name here) threads helped, hurt, or shaped what you guys do at Paizo for Pathfinder and Golarion?
Dunno, frankly. I'm pretty sure they've helped build Paizo's reputation as being a company that listens to its customers though, which is good! So in that way, by engaging our customers, we've built a healthier company, and that's allowed us to do more and more stuff with Pathfinder and Golarion.
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Creative Director
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Is allowing players and npcs to add nexavar to bronze to overcome cold iron damage reduction something interesting?
How long have the properties of Nexavar been known?
Since Nexavar makes a blueish metal is allowing it to make a blue glass a good idea?
Actually... nexavar is no longer part of Golarion. (I felt it was a far too convenient and kind of lazy way to explain why the Worldwound hasn't expanded, and also sort of undermined the accomplishment of the Iomedan crusade as a result, and so it's been removed from the world as of Inner Sea World Guide.)
Since nexavar is not part of Golarion anymore... I don't really have much else to say about it—if you want to keep its presence in your version of Golarion, though, that's fine! :-)
So...
A PFS boon came out at Gen Con 2013 that involved characters receiving weapons made of Nexavarian Steel. I know that the novella "Certainty" came out in 2010 and you made the above comment in 2012, but with the focus the Worldwound is getting with Wrath of the Righteous and PFS Season 5...has something changed regarding Nexavarian Steel / Nexavar?
Thanks!
Ugh... Yeah, I had a conversation at the Con with someone about this. This is an unfortunate case of someone writing up a boon without realizing we've essentially retconned Nexavar out of the campaign setting for being a FAR to convenient mechanism to explain why the demons are stuck in the Worldwound and also marginalizing the crusaders' accomplishments in holding the line by having a far-too-convenient deus ex machina in the rivers surrounding the Worldwound.
I took Nexavar out of the setting because it weakened the crusaders' accomplishments, felt too lazy in world design, and simply wasn't as interesting as having the demons and crusaders rely on other means that weren't completely circumstantial, almost accidental developments that just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Needless to say, Nexavar and its related materials aren't playing a role at all in Wrath of the Righteous. I wish I'd seen that boon before it went to print... or alternatively, wish the boon writer had realized that we'd retconned Nexavar out of the setting... but these things happen.
For now, the boon works as indicated. Don't expect any in-world support for the flavor of the boon though.
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Creative Director
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Have there been any homebrew races that you've personally approved of as a player or as a DM?
I'm not sure what you're asking. Approved of as "Yes, put this in print for Golarion!" or as "Oooh, that's a cool idea that I like?"
If the former, yes: Androids are from my homebrew game Unspeakable Futures.
If the latter, I think so, but I can't think of any examples at the moment.
I try to avoid reading/commenting/providing feedback on stuff like this for time management and legal reasons... sorry!If you care to, take a short look at what I wrought and say if you think yours would look so differently.
Of course I'll perfectly understand if you don't have the time/don't care/can't look because it's like fan-fiction/other reasons. Take your pick :p
No problem, it's about the same explanation comic writers and writers of novels give why they can't look at fan-fiction. Still, I am happy that you guys are probably going to do the Swashbuckler soon. 2014 can't come soon enough!
Apologies for not making the question more clear. Either way, thanks for replying to both forms of it!
Hi james i hope you had fun at the con ( i know there not your favorite thing )
i was wondering is there somewhere on the website that lists all the product announcements from the con..mostly iv'e seen the stuff about the iron gods ( yayayayayayayayayayayaya )
thanks
James,
Have you contemplated during either of your Osirion games into Mythic Adventures?
Personally, I'm running a game where I have two worshipers of Athena who just managed to retrieve Perseus's shield from his trap-ridden tomb, so all of the Mythic, Greek-inspired stuff was a big, "Heck yes!" for me.
I am curious James where can I find information upon Qadira and the Kelish Empire?
Was Iron Gods decided, and set in stone, as a future AP before or after Rasputin Must Die?I've been wanting to do Iron Gods for a few years. I've had the title on my whiteboard in my office for over a year now—I knew this title before we knew the title of "Wrath of the Righteous." Before that, it was known in my head and on my APs to be spreadsheet as "Metal Men and Flying Cars." It's been on the AP to do list for about 5 years or so, but wasn't "Set in stone" and on the schedule until about a month ago.
Golarion is going to get flying cars before we do?! :(
Hi James I've been listening to a lot of Cradle of Filth's song Nymphetamine & was wondering do any Fey have necromantic spells like raise/control undead?
hey james
will there be more drawback style traits in more upcoming player guides/companions and books?
-vyshan
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Thanks for clearing up that controversy, sir.
As the Empyreal Lord Smiad (he's an archon and exhorts his followers to be honorable and slay evil dragons while aiding good ones) doesn't have a holy symbol in the books (he's one of the lesser ones in the back of Chronicle of the Righteous, and as a result doesn't have a full-page writeup), what, in your mind, would be a good holy symbol for his faithful to use? What would be a good obedience for his cultists to practice?
Yep, it was a last day of Con joke idea, since Paizo will never tell us how Aroden died. Just trying to have a little fun, live and learn.
James, are you looking forward to having a Hard Root Beer, (Daigle put them on the truck.)?
O I messed up on the title of player's companion dragonslayer's handbook, I was thinking of monster manual when I typed it last week lol.
James, do you use the Flaws in the Mythic rulebook? If you did, would your players know their flaws or would they not?
Personally I like them not knowing (unless it really makes sense for the character) because it gives me a hook for a fun side adventure for knowledge.
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Hello!
First, I must comment on all the impressive fortitude saves you must have rolled to catch up with the thread so quickly, while also attempting to catch up with your job. Inspiring :)
So a question about the "Advanced Class Guide". If I understood correctly, the book is about creating 10 new base classes that will each be the intersection of two existing core classes. So for example, we might get a bard-cleric or something.
1) First I want to make sure I got the idea right - will the new classes be similar to, say, the ranger? who is sort of a cleric-fighter character?
2) If yes, then I'm really excited to see what options will the book bring! While the ranger is a "fighter-cleric", it doesn't feel like just a multiclass. A ranger has quite a few unique abilities of his own, and stands as a class.
3) If not, then what are the new classes supposed to be?
4) On a different note, is Paizo worried from "class blot"? if so, then what is the long term plan to avoid it? If not, why?
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Creative Director
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Haha! You're back! Now I can bombard you with questions once more!
And I do hope GenCon went well for you.
Well, just two or three questions right now, really, since I've seen Pacific Rim a couple times in the last few days (it's been out for ages, but I was traveling for a while when it first hit cinemas). And because I'm looking forward to Bestiary 4, which will have kaiju in them.
In the Iron Gods AP, will there be a chance to control/pilot the "iron gods" (or "flying cars" to use the term you had just above) in some fashion? Possibly into battle? With a buddy, maybe? And how big will said "iron gods" be? The term calls up images in my head of, well, giant mecha, for better or for worse (I think better).
Now that Mythic Adventures is out, are you any closer to deciding on things like the point of Ascension for people like Runelords Sorshen and Xanderghul, Tar-Baphon, and so on?
Have you had a chance to, or are you planning to, GM or play in a Mythic adventure at any time soon? Or introduce anything like that to the groups you're running/a part of?
Gen Con went VERY well. Still super stressful though.
There are no plans for there to be giant robots in Iron Gods. In fact, there are no plans to do much at ALL with vehicles in Iron Gods. I'm not a huge fan of our vehicle rules, for one thing—they're kinda complex and I still haven't figured them out, and unless I've figured something out, it isn't gonna be a part of an AP I'm developing! ;-P In any event, I have a LOT of stuff planned for Iron Gods, and none of those plans involve giant mecha or kaiju at all.
Closer? Yes. In fact, we reveal some of that info for Tar-Baphon at least next month in Mythic Realms.
I've not had a chance to GM or play in any mythic adventures yet... but I'm developing Wrath of the Righteous, which is more or less the same thing.
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Creative Director
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Hi james i hope you had fun at the con ( i know there not your favorite thing )
i was wondering is there somewhere on the website that lists all the product announcements from the con..mostly iv'e seen the stuff about the iron gods ( yayayayayayayayayayayaya )
thanks
Eventually, we'll probably have a "catch up" blog post or something like that. That's not something I'll be organizing though. Not sure if or when it'll happen.
The big announcements were Iron Gods and Advanced Class Guide, in any event.
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Creative Director
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Anyways!
1) What do you imagine it being like to being able to grant people spells as a demigod? Can you hear their prayers and what they're asking for, or just know that someone follows you and desires magic, somewhere in between? What's the connection like? It's a pretty interesting concept...
2) I believe you've said that a summon monster spell actually creates the given creature temporarily out of planar substance? In that case, does the antipaladin's fiendish servant ability, which is said to work like summon monster, work the same way? That is, the antipaladin or his patron creates a servant creature for him?
3) Out of curiosity, would you say that someone with telepathy can make perform (oratory) and/or perform (sing) checks purely telepathically, or would that be a different kind of perform altogether?
1) You can hear their prayers if you listen, but even when you don't, you have a nice warm tingly feeling or something like that that lets you know you're being worshiped. I suspect it'd be like a pleasant buzz of endorphins or adrenaline or like falling in love or falling in hate or the like. A strong emotional and chemical buzz.
2) Something like the antipaladin's fiendish servant ability should be played more like the summoner's eidolon; it summons the same creature each time, and it should retain memories of what happened the last times it was summoned.
3) I would probably let someone use telepathy to make Perform (oratory) checks, but NOT to make Perform (sing) checks, since being able to sing requires physical biological sound produced by your throat.
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Creative Director
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James,
Have you contemplated during either of your Osirion games into Mythic Adventures?
Personally, I'm running a game where I have two worshipers of Athena who just managed to retrieve Perseus's shield from his trap-ridden tomb, so all of the Mythic, Greek-inspired stuff was a big, "Heck yes!" for me.
Yes. Not sure if my players realize that I have yet though...
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Creative Director
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Now if you want guidelines on homeruling pantheon worship, you might want to see how it was handled in the Eberron setting. Which has examples of pantheons being a diety choice themselves. Golarion itself doesn't really seem to have pantheon groups as it has comparatively fewer gods compared to any of the TSR produced worlds save Dragonlance.(where for obvious reasons, pantheon worship would be logically impossible.)James,
Is it possible for a cleric to worship more than one deity at a time? I'm thinking about making a cleric who worships Besmara, Calistria, and Cayden Cailean; would doing so require me to put one deity above the other two as the primary or would the concept equate more or less to the Godclaw faith the Hellknight sect uses and the Ebon Cult?
Nope; that's the definition, more or less, of an oracle.
Clerics worship one deity. Multiple deities (even only 2) create a pantheon, and that's what oracles are focused on.
You can have a cleric who adheres to a pantheon, but a cleric will always have one deity in that pantheon that he/she devotes their time to above all others.
I have seen how it was handled in Eberron... and that method REALLY didn't appeal to me at all. Your mileage may vary, of course... but it was one of several creative decisions made in the creation of Eberron that really kept me from ever really liking the setting.
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Creative Director
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I am curious James where can I find information upon Qadira and the Kelish Empire?
The best place to start would be to check out the Inner Sea World Guide.
We published a Qadira player's companion several years ago; that'd be the best next place to go.
Beyond that, we've dropped bits here and there about both, but we haven't actually said a LOT about the Kelish Empire yet.
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Creative Director
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Golarion is going to get flying cars before we do?! :(Was Iron Gods decided, and set in stone, as a future AP before or after Rasputin Must Die?I've been wanting to do Iron Gods for a few years. I've had the title on my whiteboard in my office for over a year now—I knew this title before we knew the title of "Wrath of the Righteous." Before that, it was known in my head and on my APs to be spreadsheet as "Metal Men and Flying Cars." It's been on the AP to do list for about 5 years or so, but wasn't "Set in stone" and on the schedule until about a month ago.
Nope.
As I mentioned a few posts up... vehicles are not going to play a role in Iron Gods. One of many reasons why I decided not to keep the placeholder title. The main reason being it was goofy.
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Creative Director
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Hi James I've been listening to a lot of Cradle of Filth's song Nymphetamine & was wondering do any Fey have necromantic spells like raise/control undead?
Some fey do, yes. ALL fey, as with all intelligent creatures, can take class levels, and that means they can take levels as clerics of Urgathoa or necromancers or whatever. There are also a few fey that have some ties to undeath, but those are rare, since in many ways fey occupy the opposite "niche," cosmically-speaking, that undead do.
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Creative Director
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Thanks for clearing up that controversy, sir.
As the Empyreal Lord Smiad (he's an archon and exhorts his followers to be honorable and slay evil dragons while aiding good ones) doesn't have a holy symbol in the books (he's one of the lesser ones in the back of Chronicle of the Righteous, and as a result doesn't have a full-page writeup), what, in your mind, would be a good holy symbol for his faithful to use? What would be a good obedience for his cultists to practice?
I have absolutely no idea. Never even heard of him/her/it before this post. I wasn't a designer or developer for "Chronicle of the Righteous." This is, as a result, a better question for Patrick or Wes.
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Creative Director
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Yep, it was a last day of Con joke idea, since Paizo will never tell us how Aroden died. Just trying to have a little fun, live and learn.
James, are you looking forward to having a Hard Root Beer, (Daigle put them on the truck.)?
Perhaps. Although I'm probably going back on my diet tomorrow, and since said diet prohibits me from ingesting sugar OR alcohol, chances are good that hard root bear will be guzzled down by others.
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Creative Director
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James, do you use the Flaws in the Mythic rulebook? If you did, would your players know their flaws or would they not?
Personally I like them not knowing (unless it really makes sense for the character) because it gives me a hook for a fun side adventure for knowledge.
I don't use the flaws, and my feedback was part of the reason why they were reduced to an optional element in the book, I think. Flaws don't play a role at all in Wrath of the Righteous.
If I did, I would let my players know what their flaws were.
I LOVE building in side things and surprises for players. For example, in one of my office games, Wes found out that his character has been cloned numerous times by an unknown entity, and he's not even sure if he is the original source or not. This doesn't give his character any advantage or disadvantage, mechanically speaking, though.
Perhaps. Although I'm probably going back on my diet tomorrow, and since said diet prohibits me from ingesting sugar OR alcohol, chances are good that hard root bear will be guzzled down by others.Yep, it was a last day of Con joke idea, since Paizo will never tell us how Aroden died. Just trying to have a little fun, live and learn.
James, are you looking forward to having a Hard Root Beer, (Daigle put them on the truck.)?
Is hard root beer something i could buy at the store or something you mix yourself at home, if so what goes in it?
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Creative Director
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Hello!
First, I must comment on all the impressive fortitude saves you must have rolled to catch up with the thread so quickly, while also attempting to catch up with your job. Inspiring :)
So a question about the "Advanced Class Guide". If I understood correctly, the book is about creating 10 new base classes that will each be the intersection of two existing core classes. So for example, we might get a bard-cleric or something.
1) First I want to make sure I got the idea right - will the new classes be similar to, say, the ranger? who is sort of a cleric-fighter character?
2) If yes, then I'm really excited to see what options will the book bring! While the ranger is a "fighter-cleric", it doesn't feel like just a multiclass. A ranger has quite a few unique abilities of his own, and stands as a class.
3) If not, then what are the new classes supposed to be?
4) On a different note, is Paizo worried from "class blot"? if so, then what is the long term plan to avoid it? If not, why?
Oh... I'm not out of the woods yet. Con Crud can hit you well after the show, especially if fellow workers suffering it give it to you on the ride back or by coming to work while they're sick... we'll know for sure if I dodged it in a few weeks.
1) The best analogy would be to the magus, who is a sort of fighter/wizard. The ranger is more of a unique niche than the magus, I think—he's more of a druid/fighter/rogue which is more than Advanced Class Guide is attempting to handle.
2) This wasn't really a question.
3) They're hybrids. They are very much intended to be base classes that take a 2 class combo and expand them out from there while giving them a new set of abilities to go along with some of the shared abilities they inherit from their "parent" classes.
4) Class bloat is what you assumed to say, I assume. We ARE concerned with it. What we're doing long term to avoid it is to limit the rate at which we introduce classes to the game, and when we do, we introduce the new classes along tight themes so that they're relatively easy for GMs to avoid if they don't like the theme.
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Creative Director
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I have absolutely no idea. Never even heard of him/her/it before this post. I wasn't a designer or developer for "Chronicle of the Righteous." This is, as a result, a better question for Patrick or Wes.Oh, I know that. I just wanted your personal opinion as to what'd be cool! ;)
Ah... well , at this point I have no opinion. :P
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Creative Director
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Is hard root beer something i could buy at the store or something you mix yourself at home, if so what goes in it?Perhaps. Although I'm probably going back on my diet tomorrow, and since said diet prohibits me from ingesting sugar OR alcohol, chances are good that hard root bear will be guzzled down by others.Yep, it was a last day of Con joke idea, since Paizo will never tell us how Aroden died. Just trying to have a little fun, live and learn.
James, are you looking forward to having a Hard Root Beer, (Daigle put them on the truck.)?
It's like hard lemonaide and the like. Not as COMMON as it, but something you should be able to buy wherever beer and cider and the like is sold. Your chances increase greatly the more specialized the venue selling the booze is.
Dear Magnanimous King Tyrant Lizard,
I have two questions. The first is silly and probably doesn't deserve a serious answer. The second is something that's bothered me as a GM for a long time.
1) A question you probably didn't hear at Gen Con/Paizo Con. How DIDN'T Aroden die? What's your best theory?
2) How do you (as a GM) deal with PC death in terms of wealth? What happens to that character's gear? Do you make the party pay to have that character raised?
I tend to run fairly lethal games and my players enjoy it. But when their characters die they feel like rerolling is the optimal choice because paying for a Raise Dead would leave them behind according to the Wealth-By-Level guidelines. Worse they argue that a player whose character just died should come back with wealth-by-level so that they're on-par with the rest of the party, despite the fact that the party tends to hawk the dead character's equipment to bolster themselves.
Are they wrong? Are we thinking too much? Should we just shut up and enjoy the game?
Thanks!
James,
On the whole taking away from the accomplishments of the Iomedean Crusaders notion, what in the main do you feel they've accomplished to date?
I ask largely because the Worldwound book itself presents such few victories as they've managed to be against initial disorganized mobs of demons, and that even those were a "just as planned" sort of thing by Deskari, that a large part of them getting by seems to come down to the demons specifically not trying as hard as they could be, again as part of more "just as planned" sort of things by Deskari, and that they amount to a degraded, easily corrupted force, whose strugglings in the main provide the higher up demons with amusement. The book notes the entire demonic plan to basically be to wait and let the Crusaders ruin themselves, for all that they could be doing more.
In that sense, particularly when the Inner Sea World Guide itself presented the situation as a more valiant defense that happened to have issues, it doesn't really feel like the Crusades have accomplished much of anything. The various Crusades to date are given detail as to why they've been failures or just the Crusaders having been gulled, whereas the ISWG at least presents some of the later ones in a context of having some relative triumphs as far as either purging corruption, tamping down on extremism, or what have you.
Is hard root beer something i could buy at the store or something you mix yourself at home, if so what goes in it?Perhaps. Although I'm probably going back on my diet tomorrow, and since said diet prohibits me from ingesting sugar OR alcohol, chances are good that hard root bear will be guzzled down by others.Yep, it was a last day of Con joke idea, since Paizo will never tell us how Aroden died. Just trying to have a little fun, live and learn.
James, are you looking forward to having a Hard Root Beer, (Daigle put them on the truck.)?
This one is from Sprecher and is brewed in Milwaukee. Not sure how far distribution on it has spread yet.