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James, got two questions for you. One personal (including co-workers), and one game related.
1) The people who write the books, novels, adventures, etc, do any of you guys have writing degrees, English degrees, or have at least taken Creative Writing classes? If so, what do you guys have? If not, are you guys just writing prodigies?
2) Staking a vampire. In the template it tells you that you can stake a vampire with a wooden stake to "slay" it, but what it doesn't mention is how a plain wooden stake gets past DR 10/magic and silver, and what the proper way of them slaying is. Like, can you Buffy the Vampire Slayer stab with it, or do you need to go ala Bram Stoker and use a hammer and stake and chisel your way into the rib cage? If you do use a hammer of some kind, does it give you any kind of bonuses? Also, how does one know exactly where to stake them? Do they need to make a Heal check?
This was brought up in a game last night while fighting spawns.
Cool or not cool:
My current campaign takes place in a region with some strong fjord-age going on. I like to have at least one weird/fantastic landscape item per region and for this particular region, there is a river that has a random branch that drills off against the water's natural flow in what is nearly a perfectly straight path to the ocean.
Why does such an anomaly exist? 4,000 years ago, a mythic magus lived in the area during what was basically an undead apocalypse caused by a powerful occult lich. This magus ascended during the chaos and lived alone in the region for several thousand years (gogo Longevity!) thanks to a deal he struck with a jinushigami (powerful kami, served as the character's moment of ascension).
During this time, he tried to destroy the undead legions alone and without hope for reinforcements. The river exists as a direct result of the magus's confrontation with the lich, as both character scarred and destroyed the land in a heated duel.
Fun Factoid: Today, the two rivers (the original river plus this artificially constructed branch) are referred to as "the tails" because this magus is a kitsune.
Creative Director
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Do you try and stay true to her build, or mix it up some?When you play video games where you can make your own character, do you ever roll up versions of your tabletop characters? Or do you mainly roll up new ones? Do you use a similar name repeatedly?I use "Shensen" for pretty much ALL my videogame characters. When I play a game where I need more than one name, I throw in other names from other characters I've played, such as Bezlarue, Tyralandi, Merisiel, Echo, Sasha, Ameiko, Lavinia, Rowyn, etc.
I don't stay true to her build even in the same game rules, honestly. Her first incarnation in Jason Nelson's game was as a cleric/bard who went into a few prestige classes (dervish dancer and an Eilistraee one, if I remember correctly). Her build in Golarion is quite different. And the build I'm using in Erik Mona's "Lords of Absalom" campaign is different as well.
In Warcraft, she's a night elf hunter. In the Fallout games, she's generally a sniper. In Dark Souls, she ended up being a heavy-armor wearing katana fighter.
So... yeah. I guess you could say I mix it up! :-)
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Note that the Starstone doesn't make you a deity. Just a demigod.But every known starstone user is a full god. (Aroden, plus the three who passed the test.)
Did they all simply manage to make the leap from demigod to god? Or is it something like their demigods in the great scheme, but full gods local to Golarion (whereas Asmodeus, for instance, is also in Earth mythology.)
Those ascended deities are full deities now... but they weren't full deities, necessarily, when they each first ascended so many centuries ago. They've had plenty of time to build up from mere demigod to full-on deity.
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Creative Director
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James, got two questions for you. One personal (including co-workers), and one game related.
1) The people who write the books, novels, adventures, etc, do any of you guys have writing degrees, English degrees, or have at least taken Creative Writing classes? If so, what do you guys have? If not, are you guys just writing prodigies?
2) Staking a vampire. In the template it tells you that you can stake a vampire with a wooden stake to "slay" it, but what it doesn't mention is how a plain wooden stake gets past DR 10/magic and silver, and what the proper way of them slaying is. Like, can you Buffy the Vampire Slayer stab with it, or do you need to go ala Bram Stoker and use a hammer and stake and chisel your way into the rib cage? If you do use a hammer of some kind, does it give you any kind of bonuses? Also, how does one know exactly where to stake them? Do they need to make a Heal check?
This was brought up in a game last night while fighting spawns.
1) Varies. I have a degree in English with a creative writing focus, as does James Sutter, I believe. Wes has a degree in English with a literature focus. Jason has a degree in architecture. Sean has one in chemistry. And so on. It's kinda all over the place, in other words. Having a degree outside of english can actually be a boon, since that specialization lets you bring something new to the field... but not having a strong background in english is often a bane, since if you can't write well, it doesn't matter what else you bring to the table.
2) To stake a vampire in the game, you don't need to get past DR. You don't even need to do damage. You just need to stake it. In the game as written, that pretty much means the vampire needs to be helpless, as in "has retreated to its coffin after being defeated and is slowly recovering." But a victim of halt undead would be stakable as well. The best way to think of it is that it's a coup de gras type action, I suppose. It's NOT something you can do in game like you see it in, say, the Blade movies. AKA: Not something you can do during combat. It's an after combat action.
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Creative Director
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Cool or not cool:
My current campaign takes place in a region with some strong fjord-age going on. I like to have at least one weird/fantastic landscape item per region and for this particular region, there is a river that has a random branch that drills off against the water's natural flow in what is nearly a perfectly straight path to the ocean.
Why does such an anomaly exist? 4,000 years ago, a mythic magus lived in the area during what was basically an undead apocalypse caused by a powerful occult lich. This magus ascended during the chaos and lived alone in the region for several thousand years (gogo Longevity!) thanks to a deal he struck with a jinushigami (powerful kami, served as the character's moment of ascension).
During this time, he tried to destroy the undead legions alone and without hope for reinforcements. The river exists as a direct result of the magus's confrontation with the lich, as both character scarred and destroyed the land in a heated duel.
Fun Factoid: Today, the two rivers (the original river plus this artificially constructed branch) are referred to as "the tails" because this magus is a kitsune.
Cool.
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1) Varies. I have a degree in English with a creative writing focus, as does James Sutter, I believe. Wes has a degree in English with a literature focus. Jason has a degree in architecture. Sean has one in chemistry. And so on. It's kinda all over the place, in other words. Having a degree outside of english can actually be a boon, since that specialization lets you bring something new to the field... but not having a strong background in english is often a bane, since if you can't write well, it doesn't matter what else you bring to the table.
2) To stake a vampire in the game, you don't need to get past DR. You don't even need to do damage. You just need to stake it. In the game as written, that pretty much means the vampire needs to be helpless, as in "has retreated to its coffin after being defeated and is slowly recovering." But a victim of halt undead would be stakable as well. The best way to think of it is that it's a coup de gras type action, I suppose. It's NOT something you can do in game like you see it in,...
That's fair. I guess I have to understand that writing isn't for everyone, but that schooling would probably help considerably if I can find the right university to train at.
So, having a hammer doesn't actually help the stake get through the rib cage in any way. That'll disappoint my players a bit, but visually it's still cool.
A question I just got asked by a new player looking to be a witch in the Way of the Wicked campaign. Is there currently a proper thematic patron that would best represent Asmodeus at this point in time? If not, what would best work? Will you guys be coming up with a way to make Asmodeus, the Master of Witches, a proper patron?
I've played a few games like Dark Souls where they give like little story during gameplay and kind of pepper it in, it's really odd after playing the Elder Scroll games and and especially Bioware where the story is the game.
Is it a Action Adventure vs RPG thing, Developer style, Japanese vs America/Western style, or do you think it's something else entirely?
Do you prefer having the story front and center or do you like discovering it?
Sidebar I just thought of, did the Witcher have any influence on the Alchemist class? I feel like it does a really good job emulating it with a quick weapon proficiency.
"I've always liked fjords. they add a nice baroque feel to a continent, don't you think?"
Slartibartifast to Arthur Dent "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
Nice quote.
I like fjords in my fantasy because I feel like they're ripe for adventure. Very old, very cool places. Lots of varied landscape in a very small region. And there's something that's simply majestic about them.
James,
two questions:
1: Is there any chance of an Empyreal Lord/Demon Lord/Archdevil/etc. of Small or smaller size? If so, how likely and what kind? If not, why?
2: You've said that in your game Breath of Life is Cure Mortal Wounds and can be spontaneously cast by clerics. Do Oracles who choose cure spells also get it as a bonus spell known, and if so is that in addition to or instead of mass cure light wounds?
On a writing related note:
When I am working on figures/number crunching/similar stuff, I often like to have netflix or something similar running as background noise, since usually I consider the above tasks fairly mindless so the distraction helps.
When writing, I can't have that stuff on, but enjoy listening to punk/indie rock music in the background.
I also have a really weird attention span...I can either work in very large continous blocks, or short hour blocks followed by long breaks. For some reason can't do the intermediate size writing blocks well
So for the question: When you are working do you like or need to have anything on in the background? And do you prefer to work in large continuous blocks, or short intervals with lots of breaks?
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Is there a way to utilize the tower shield's cover abilities without actually having it strapped to your arm? A character concept I've had rolling around in my head for several months now has been inspired by the historical Genoese crossbowmen, who strictly used their tower shields as something to crouch behind so they weren't exposed while reloading their crossbows. From what I've read of the rules so far, a tower shield only works if it's wielded, which would limit such a character to hand crossbows, as you can't use a two-handed weapon like the heavy crossbow with a shield of any kind, much less a tower shield.
Speaking of fjords - why aren't there any (that we've seen so far) on Golarion?
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Creative Director
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1) Varies. I have a degree in English with a creative writing focus, as does James Sutter, I believe. Wes has a degree in English with a literature focus. Jason has a degree in architecture. Sean has one in chemistry. And so on. It's kinda all over the place, in other words. Having a degree outside of english can actually be a boon, since that specialization lets you bring something new to the field... but not having a strong background in english is often a bane, since if you can't write well, it doesn't matter what else you bring to the table.
2) To stake a vampire in the game, you don't need to get past DR. You don't even need to do damage. You just need to stake it. In the game as written, that pretty much means the vampire needs to be helpless, as in "has retreated to its coffin after being defeated and is slowly recovering." But a victim of halt undead would be stakable as well. The best way to think of it is that it's a coup de gras type action, I suppose. It's NOT something you can do in game like you see it in,...
That's fair. I guess I have to understand that writing isn't for everyone, but that schooling would probably help considerably if I can find the right university to train at.
So, having a hammer doesn't actually help the stake get through the rib cage in any way. That'll disappoint my players a bit, but visually it's still cool.
A question I just got asked by a new player looking to be a witch in the Way of the Wicked campaign. Is there currently a proper thematic patron that would best represent Asmodeus at this point in time? If not, what would best work? Will you guys be coming up with a way to make Asmodeus, the Master of Witches, a proper patron?
Schooling absolutely helps writing. But even better? Writing a lot and reading a lot and being open to criticism on how to improve your writing helps a lot. Combine them all for best results.
Witch patrons aren't linked to actual outsiders or deities. As such, we won't be making existing named outsiders or deities into witch patrons. Therefore, you can pick any patron that seems to match a deity if you want to play a religious witch.
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Creative Director
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Cool or not cool:
My current campaign takes place in a region with some strong fjord-age going on.
"I've always liked fjords. they add a nice baroque feel to a continent, don't you think?"
Slartibartifast to Arthur Dent "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
Have you ever had an urge to design a continent with all fjords?
Nope.
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Creative Director
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I've played a few games like Dark Souls where they give like little story during gameplay and kind of pepper it in, it's really odd after playing the Elder Scroll games and and especially Bioware where the story is the game.
Is it a Action Adventure vs RPG thing, Developer style, Japanese vs America/Western style, or do you think it's something else entirely?
Do you prefer having the story front and center or do you like discovering it?
Sidebar I just thought of, did the Witcher have any influence on the Alchemist class? I feel like it does a really good job emulating it with a quick weapon proficiency.
All sorts of things, really.
As for my preference... I like both. Dark Souls was an INCREDIBLE game experience, but so was Mass Effect.
The Witcher is pretty much the reason the Alchemist class exists, in fact. It was the #1 inspiration for me when I designed the first version of the class.
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Creative Director
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James,
two questions:
1: Is there any chance of an Empyreal Lord/Demon Lord/Archdevil/etc. of Small or smaller size? If so, how likely and what kind? If not, why?
2: You've said that in your game Breath of Life is Cure Mortal Wounds and can be spontaneously cast by clerics. Do Oracles who choose cure spells also get it as a bonus spell known, and if so is that in addition to or instead of mass cure light wounds?
1) There's absolutely a chance. None scheduled for anytime soon though.
2) Yes, oracles would get cure deadly wounds as a bonus spell in the same way they get cure light wounds. They would get cure deadly wounds instead of mass cure light wounds.
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Creative Director
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On a writing related note:
When I am working on figures/number crunching/similar stuff, I often like to have netflix or something similar running as background noise, since usually I consider the above tasks fairly mindless so the distraction helps.
When writing, I can't have that stuff on, but enjoy listening to punk/indie rock music in the background.
I also have a really weird attention span...I can either work in very large continous blocks, or short hour blocks followed by long breaks. For some reason can't do the intermediate size writing blocks well
So for the question: When you are working do you like or need to have anything on in the background? And do you prefer to work in large continuous blocks, or short intervals with lots of breaks?
When I'm writing I generally have music on to listen to... preferably stuff that I'm very familiar with or that has a medatative quality to it so it's not distracting. I prefer to write in longer blocks... several hours at a time, but often with micro-breaks in there.
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Creative Director
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Is there a way to utilize the tower shield's cover abilities without actually having it strapped to your arm? A character concept I've had rolling around in my head for several months now has been inspired by the historical Genoese crossbowmen, who strictly used their tower shields as something to crouch behind so they weren't exposed while reloading their crossbows. From what I've read of the rules so far, a tower shield only works if it's wielded, which would limit such a character to hand crossbows, as you can't use a two-handed weapon like the heavy crossbow with a shield of any kind, much less a tower shield.
Nope. The whole point of the tower shield is that it takes a lot to control it. It's really big. And that means it needs to be strapped to your arms and consciously wielded. You can't mix a tower shield with anything that requires 2 hands to use.
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Speaking of fjords - why aren't there any (that we've seen so far) on Golarion?
Because they're complicated to draw?
I only mapped Varisia, in any case. In my original version of Varisia, there were indeed a lot more fjords to the northwest corner... but that ended up being too much for that part of the world so it got simplified.
Erik drew the rest of the map, so you'd have to ask him about the fjord lack.
In a soccer game between two Orc teams, who would start brawling first: the players or the spectators?
And would the Orc word for football-spectator be the same as the one for football-hooligan?
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Witch patrons aren't linked to actual outsiders or deities. As such, we won't be making existing named outsiders or deities into witch patrons. Therefore, you can pick any patron that seems to match a deity if you want to play a religious witch.
Unfortunately that doesn't quite answer my question regarding "Is there currently a proper thematic patron that would best represent Asmodeus?" His domains/subdomains are "Evil, Fire, Law, Magic, Trickery, Arcane, Ash, Deception, Devil, Divine, and Smoke" and he represents "Tyranny Slavery, Pride, and Contracts" About all I can see that's made so far is Deception and Trickery. I guess in time we might see Fire, as there is Water, but right now that doesn't seem to exist. There's a 3pp Summer patron from Jon Brazer, but that's about it so far.
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Is there a way to utilize the tower shield's cover abilities without actually having it strapped to your arm? A character concept I've had rolling around in my head for several months now has been inspired by the historical Genoese crossbowmen, who strictly used their tower shields as something to crouch behind so they weren't exposed while reloading their crossbows. From what I've read of the rules so far, a tower shield only works if it's wielded, which would limit such a character to hand crossbows, as you can't use a two-handed weapon like the heavy crossbow with a shield of any kind, much less a tower shield.Nope. The whole point of the tower shield is that it takes a lot to control it. It's really big. And that means it needs to be strapped to your arms and consciously wielded. You can't mix a tower shield with anything that requires 2 hands to use.
So what option is there for someone who wants to utilize a pavise the way they were used historically?
Damn, it seems like the more I play Total War games and read historical fiction, the more glaring the lack of these sorts of things in Pathfinder feels...
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Creative Director
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Witch patrons aren't linked to actual outsiders or deities. As such, we won't be making existing named outsiders or deities into witch patrons. Therefore, you can pick any patron that seems to match a deity if you want to play a religious witch.Unfortunately that doesn't quite answer my question regarding "Is there currently a proper thematic patron that would best represent Asmodeus?" His domains/subdomains are "Evil, Fire, Law, Magic, Trickery, Arcane, Ash, Deception, Devil, Divine, and Smoke" and he represents "Tyranny Slavery, Pride, and Contracts" About all I can see that's made so far is Deception and Trickery. I guess in time we might see Fire, as there is Water, but right now that doesn't seem to exist. There's a 3pp Summer patron from Jon Brazer, but that's about it so far.
Deception and Trickery both sound like excellent choices!
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Creative Director
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Is there a way to utilize the tower shield's cover abilities without actually having it strapped to your arm? A character concept I've had rolling around in my head for several months now has been inspired by the historical Genoese crossbowmen, who strictly used their tower shields as something to crouch behind so they weren't exposed while reloading their crossbows. From what I've read of the rules so far, a tower shield only works if it's wielded, which would limit such a character to hand crossbows, as you can't use a two-handed weapon like the heavy crossbow with a shield of any kind, much less a tower shield.Nope. The whole point of the tower shield is that it takes a lot to control it. It's really big. And that means it needs to be strapped to your arms and consciously wielded. You can't mix a tower shield with anything that requires 2 hands to use.So what option is there for someone who wants to utilize a pavise the way they were used historically?
Damn, it seems like the more I play Total War games and read historical fiction, the more glaring the lack of these sorts of things in Pathfinder feels...
Not much, I'd guess. Remember, the game is as much a game as anything else—fully accurate historical simulation isn't really the point of Pathfinder.
What are the official stats for grey elves?
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"Is there currently a proper thematic patron that would best represent Asmodeus?"
For Magic, the Occult patron might fit.
For Trickery, Deception and Trickery patrons.
For Evil, Fire and Law, nothing official leaps out. (Although there's no shortage of fire spells to make your own 'Summer' patron or 'Desert' patron, and the Evil and Law domain spell lists could be pillaged for ideas for an 'Order' or 'Wickedness' patron, replacing any that are already on the witch list with other evil or lawful spells. Indeed, what could be cooler than a 'Wicked' patron Witch?)
For his 'slavery and contracts' angle, the Enchantment patron perhaps.
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Any date on that then?any idea when the Play Test will be out for Advanced Class Guide will be starting Runelords in a couple of weeks.. and was hoping to get a peak before then... amy hoping for a Artificer/Engineer.The playtest will not be ready in a couple of weeks.
"Soon."
Stay tuned. It'll happen when it's ready, but I'm not gonna say when we think it'll be ready because that means it has to happen whether or not it's ready.
If that makes any sense.
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Creative Director
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The Witcher is pretty much the reason the Alchemist class exists, in fact. It was the #1 inspiration for me when I designed the first version of the class.Out of interest, if you were statting out Geralt, what would you make him? I sort of figure him as a Bastard sword focused Ranger (possibly with some sort of template or more likely a custom race for his longevity and "Witcher" abilities) who multiclassed with Alchemist myself, but do you have any thoughts on the matter?
Well... since you can vary his build so greatly in the game, it's hard to say for sure what the best build would be as an alchemist. I wouldn't multiclass him, and I would certainly give him a template or a custom race.
Why can't I fall asleep?
How rare is a Chaotic Good Cleric of Yog-Sothoth or Azathoth?
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Greetings, oh great and wise James Jacobs.
Impart thine knowledge on me and answer me this:
How does the feat Fast Healer work with fast healing?
And if it does work with fast healing, does in activate on every tick or just once?
You have my gratitude in advance.
Fast Healer:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/fast-healer
Fast healing:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rules #TOC-Fast-Healing-Ex-
Rest and natural healing:
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/combat.html#_healing
Well... since you can vary his build so greatly in the game, it's hard to say for sure what the best build would be as an alchemist. I wouldn't multiclass him, and I would certainly give him a template or a custom race.The Witcher is pretty much the reason the Alchemist class exists, in fact. It was the #1 inspiration for me when I designed the first version of the class.Out of interest, if you were statting out Geralt, what would you make him? I sort of figure him as a Bastard sword focused Ranger (possibly with some sort of template or more likely a custom race for his longevity and "Witcher" abilities) who multiclassed with Alchemist myself, but do you have any thoughts on the matter?
I've been wanting to toy with the Race Creator options, but mainly like playing Humans or really-near-humans, you may have just given me the perfect reason.
Demon hunting Alchemist sounds really awesome for Wrath of the Righteous...
Have you read up much on The Witcher 3? The Developers said the same thing as Bioware pretty much and said "After Skyrim, we need to work on better environments!"
Is there an area or group in Golarion you think would be good for adapting the Witcher schools? I feel like subjecting people to dangerous experiments for the greater good would be more chaotic good, if it could be considered good at all...
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I know this one.
Oh yeah, question, was I right? Or has your avatar already been mythic?