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James Jacobs wrote:...Does this mean we can True Resurrection Aroden?
A demigod OR a deity can be brought back from death via the normal rules.
Nope. He's been judged and has moved on.
And even if he hadn't been, I'd say that it'd take more than a mortal casting the spell to resurrect a deity.

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Back in the 170's pages of this thread, there's a lot of Paladin talk and how then you weren't fond of having them in group.
Did you ever run a game or play in a game with a Paladin you really liked? Who played them and what was the personality like?
I love my Paladins and my GM is pretty easy on the Paladin Code. As PC's, we're always fighting for the greater good and we all like to play */G characters luckily.
I played a paladin once. Thistle Ambermead. A halfling. He was killed by a devil, but I enjoyed playing him.
But to be honest... I've only seen one paladin played in a way that I felt wasn't in some way disruptive to a certain extent. And in most other cases, the paladins I've seen played were by players who are simply disruptive in their nature. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! ;-)
Note that this isn't to say that having a disruptive player is bad, as long as they moderate their disruptions!
But also... even when a paladin player isn't disruptive, there seems to always be at least one player in the group who uses the paladin to be disruptive by proxy.

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Archpaladin Zousha wrote:Not James, but... as I am Welsh, there are two vaguely Welsh names in Varisia. Kaer Maga contains the Welsh "caer, kaer," Castle or City, and Celwynvian, the Elvish city, has a Welsh "feel."I suppose there's no other way to ask this.
Where in Golarion could you say a character who uses Welsh naming conventions, like Pwyll or Blodeuwedd, could come from? Ulfen naming conventions are too Germanic, Kellid too guttural and consonant-heavy, and Taldan and its Chelaxian derivatives too Italian sounding.
Welsh mythology has such interesting names to draw on, and yet I can't find a place a character with such a name would hail from...
Ooh... that reminds me. There's some Welsh and Celtic vibes to parts of the Linnorm Kingdoms as well.

Voltron64 |
Jeff Erwin wrote:Ooh... that reminds me. There's some Welsh and Celtic vibes to parts of the Linnorm Kingdoms as well.Archpaladin Zousha wrote:Not James, but... as I am Welsh, there are two vaguely Welsh names in Varisia. Kaer Maga contains the Welsh "caer, kaer," Castle or City, and Celwynvian, the Elvish city, has a Welsh "feel."I suppose there's no other way to ask this.
Where in Golarion could you say a character who uses Welsh naming conventions, like Pwyll or Blodeuwedd, could come from? Ulfen naming conventions are too Germanic, Kellid too guttural and consonant-heavy, and Taldan and its Chelaxian derivatives too Italian sounding.
Welsh mythology has such interesting names to draw on, and yet I can't find a place a character with such a name would hail from...
And probably Saxon too?
Basically, if you wanted an Ulfen Cavalier, look at the Rohirrim. ;)

HeathenTroll |

HeathenTroll wrote:Nothing that we've publicly announced, and if there's something we haven't announced, I'm not gonna do so here! :-)James Jacobs wrote:Hrm..that is disappointing. Are there any future plans to expand upon this in the future?HeathenTroll wrote:What are good sources for lore concerning the dwarves of Golarion other than the book by the same name, race guides, or Inner Sea World Guide?At this point, that's pretty much it. We haven't done an awful lot about dwarves. There's bits here and there; one of the dungeons in "Dungeons of Golarion" is a lost dwarven mine, for example.
Completely understood! I shall practice my dwarven patience for said lore in the future, then. Thank you again for your time and knowledge!

Kreniigh |

Hi James,
I'm running my first high(ish) level campaign in Kingmaker... They're up to almost 12th, which isn't that high but is still above what I've run before. These are experienced players (1st edition D&D vets) who really know how to work a system, and it's been challenging. So, questions:
1) Primary ability score for a PC at this level -- what would you say is typical/appropriate? Armor class? Damage per round? Published NPCs don't seem to be good benchmarks for this.
2) Speaking of published material... The party is running about a level behind the Adventure Path specs, and I am still having to tinker with each encounter to make it suitably challenging. I'm using a combination of 6-player party conversions (my group is 4), tweaks to the setup to give the opponents an advantage, and simply piling on more monsters. It works, but it takes a lot of prep.
Just as an example, the party's barbarian can reach 100 pts. of damage in one round on a full attack now. Every monster with fewer HP has to be evaluated and used carefully if it's going to be more than a speed bump. And I don't see this getting any easier as they advance.
Is this just a consequence of running a group of power gamers? Are the APs written to more of a mid-level group? What are some things going forward that I can do to deal with this kind of power creep?
thanks

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Hi James,
I'm running my first high(ish) level campaign in Kingmaker... They're up to almost 12th, which isn't that high but is still above what I've run before. These are experienced players (1st edition D&D vets) who really know how to work a system, and it's been challenging. So, questions:1) Primary ability score for a PC at this level -- what would you say is typical/appropriate? Armor class? Damage per round? Published NPCs don't seem to be good benchmarks for this.
2) Speaking of published material... The party is running about a level behind the Adventure Path specs, and I am still having to tinker with each encounter to make it suitably challenging. I'm using a combination of 6-player party conversions (my group is 4), tweaks to the setup to give the opponents an advantage, and simply piling on more monsters. It works, but it takes a lot of prep.
Just as an example, the party's barbarian can reach 100 pts. of damage in one round on a full attack now. Every monster with fewer HP has to be evaluated and used carefully if it's going to be more than a speed bump. And I don't see this getting any easier as they advance.
Is this just a consequence of running a group of power gamers? Are the APs written to more of a mid-level group? What are some things going forward that I can do to deal with this kind of power creep?
thanks
1) That varies wildly according to taste and table. In my games, I wouldn't bat an eye at a primary score of 26. As for AC, I'd say that I would probably not expect an AC of much higher than 30. And as for damage per round, assuming all attacks hit and do average damage? Somewhere around 40–50? Honestly, I've never really thought about it this way—I've always just adjusted encounters in microsteps as a game progresses.
2) A typical AP is built assuming four players (and thus four characters) of average play skill. If you have more players or more characters (including cohorts!), and/or if your players are experienced gamers, they WILL do better against encounters on an average. In cases like this, the EASIEST fix is to just add hit point so all the foes. Even as much as to giving them all maximum hit points. A slightly more complex one would be to increase the number of foes per encounter. A trickier one is to make it so that the PCs don't have as many opportunities to rest and recover—make them endure more encounters at a time, so that they'll need to ration their resources rather than blowing them all on the first few encounters. I wouldn't recommend throwing higher CR monsters at the party, since that tends to increase challenge at the cost of a dramatically increased likelihood of individual sudden PC deaths.
It is, to a certain extent, a consequence of playing with power gamers. You know your players, though, and use that knowledge to make encounters more challenging. Not ALL encounters. You absolutely should let the barbarian cream monsters now and then with his 100 points of damage per round... but don't be afraid of using things like calm emotions to negate his rage, or of using creatures that use mobility to prevent full attacks, or of using creatures who actively punish full melee attacks (like monsters that do reflexive damage each time they're hit), or of using monsters that can simply avoid the land-bound barbarian and fly in the air above while using ranged attacks.
Just don't fall into the trap of "you versus them." One of the best parts of playing a longer campaign is that, eventually, you get to start feeling powerful. If every single fight is an edge of the seat near death experience, then the emotional payoff for any one fight gets too repetitive. Numbers aside, a 1st level fight ends up feeling no different than a 20th level fight. The PCs HAVE to have encounters now and then where they're obviously able to blast apart foes; that helps to make the really challenging fights stand out.

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So as I'm reading through the fantastic Rasputin Must Die!, a few questions arose in my brain about the official campaign setting.
1. Do the Pathfinder Setting deities primarily focus on Golarion, or are they meant to be just as present everywhere else in the universe? I assume that would fluctuate on location just like Golarion, but what is their general range? Aside from Baba Yaga and Rasputin, who else on Earth would have been aware of Aroden and the like?
Distant Worlds notes that the other planets in the system are aware of them in some form, so I'm curious how far their reach really is.
2. Aside from Baba Yaga, does the Pathfinder Setting go with the All Myths are True trope in regards to Earth? Did most/all of the mythical (lower case M) creatures exist/were acknowledged? Could there be a Tarrasque sleeping in a cave deep in the Himalayas?

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So as I'm reading through the fantastic Rasputin Must Die!, a few questions arose in my brain about the official campaign setting.
1. Do the Pathfinder Setting deities primarily focus on Golarion, or are they meant to be just as present everywhere else in the universe? I assume that would fluctuate on location just like Golarion, but what is their general range? Aside from Baba Yaga and Rasputin, who else on Earth would have been aware of Aroden and the like?
Distant Worlds notes that the other planets in the system are aware of them in some form, so I'm curious how far their reach really is.2. Aside from Baba Yaga, does the Pathfinder Setting go with the All Myths are True trope in regards to Earth? Did most/all of the mythical (lower case M) creatures exist/were acknowledged? Could there be a Tarrasque sleeping in a cave deep in the Himalayas?
1) The core deities as presented in the Core Rulebook are the 20 most widespread and most worshiped deities of the Inner Sea Region. Other regions on Golarion have a different core 20 deities—see Dragon Empires Gazetter for the core 20 of Tian Xia, for example. You'll note that list does have a few repeats from the Inner Sea region, but not all.
Likewise, you can expect to see some but not all of the core 20 deities worshiped on other worlds. Asmodeus and Lamashtu, for example, are both taken from real world mythology.
Aroden was very much focused on Golarion, though, and in particular on the Inner Sea region. His death was not noticed at all on other worlds as distant as Earth, and if it was noticed at all on other worlds, it would have been relatively minor.
2) Nope. We go with a subset of that. The myths we like to be true are true; the others are not.

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How accepting are the Knights of Ozem of certain types of peoples, such as half-orcs or dhampir? I imagine they'd probably check their devotion to Iomedae, but such people would be rare (and thus perfect PC material). Also, how tolerant are they of pantheists, such as someone who venerated several deities but Iomedae first and foremost?

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How accepting are the Knights of Ozem of certain types of peoples, such as half-orcs or dhampir? I imagine they'd probably check their devotion to Iomedae, but such people would be rare (and thus perfect PC material). Also, how tolerant are they of pantheists, such as someone who venerated several deities but Iomedae first and foremost?
Once someone proves their devotion to Iomedae, they're generally good to go if they want to join the Knights... but not always. In the case of creatures closely related to their traditional enemies... like half-orcs or dhampir... the character often has to overcome a LOT of racial prejudice in order to even be allowed into the vicinity of a Knight of Ozem held location.
They're a lot more tolerant of pantheists, though. Although if one joins the order, they're generally expected to venerate Iomedae more than their other deities.

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Pretty much what I expected. Thank you!
Are there instances of Knights of Ozem going bad? They seem to be on the whole a lot better at policing themselves than Mendev's crusaders.
Would this higher standard be part of the reason they're struggling right now? Not enough bodies on the front lines of the orc fights?

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James Jacobs wrote:And even if he hadn't been, I'd say that it'd take more than a mortal casting the spell to resurrect a deity.Mythic True Resurrection?
The problem with that is, if there was a mythic cleric of Aroden at the time of his death, who might have been able to cast it, he probably wasn't able to cast it after the source of his power died.
'The defribillator is out of power, and I can't seem to use it to zap the power cord and give it power...'

Threeshades |

Threeshades wrote:James Jacobs wrote:And even if he hadn't been, I'd say that it'd take more than a mortal casting the spell to resurrect a deity.Mythic True Resurrection?The problem with that is, if there was a mythic cleric of Aroden at the time of his death, who might have been able to cast it, he probably wasn't able to cast it after the source of his power died.
'The defribillator is out of power, and I can't seem to use it to zap the power cord and give it power...'
it doesn't have to be a cleric of aroden though, does it?

Alleran |
Aroden was very much focused on Golarion, though, and in particular on the Inner Sea region. His death was not noticed at all on other worlds as distant as Earth, and if it was noticed at all on other worlds, it would have been relatively minor.
Is this even though his death "tore loose the fabric of prophecy" in places other than just Golarion? Wouldn't they have noticed that happening?

Alleran |
Set wrote:it doesn't have to be a cleric of aroden though, does it?Threeshades wrote:James Jacobs wrote:And even if he hadn't been, I'd say that it'd take more than a mortal casting the spell to resurrect a deity.Mythic True Resurrection?The problem with that is, if there was a mythic cleric of Aroden at the time of his death, who might have been able to cast it, he probably wasn't able to cast it after the source of his power died.
'The defribillator is out of power, and I can't seem to use it to zap the power cord and give it power...'
And Iomedae has been quietly providing some of Aroden's surviving clerics with spells... so I wonder if it's a possibility?

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Threeshades wrote:And Iomedae has been quietly providing some of Aroden's surviving clerics with spells... so I wonder if it's a possibility?Set wrote:it doesn't have to be a cleric of aroden though, does it?Threeshades wrote:James Jacobs wrote:And even if he hadn't been, I'd say that it'd take more than a mortal casting the spell to resurrect a deity.Mythic True Resurrection?The problem with that is, if there was a mythic cleric of Aroden at the time of his death, who might have been able to cast it, he probably wasn't able to cast it after the source of his power died.
'The defribillator is out of power, and I can't seem to use it to zap the power cord and give it power...'
If I read this correctly haven't all of Aroden's "surviving clerics" being Human, died of old age by now, if not by other causes. He did die over a century ago, if I recall. While their may be an Aroden bishop in Taldor, he's never cast a spell in his life.

MMCJawa |

Reposting this because it was originally posted while you were answering questions and so got "lost" in the replies:
Had some random and mayhaps obscure questions last night...not sure if I remember them all but hope you can help.
1) Bestiary 3 mentions the existence of Oni Daimyo as being the demigod overlords of Oni. Unlike other demigods (say, Demon Lords), the list of Daimyo has the type of oni in parantheses (Nuwa, etc). Does this mean Oni Daimyo are not unique creatures like demon lords, but rather are "regular" oni with class levels or mythic tiers, or some combination of the above?
2) In Golarion, there are a range of alignments for the Eldest, all of which are some flavor of neutral or evil. Are there any good Eldest, or the possibility of good Eldest if those beings are ever elaborated on and we get new ones?
3) Do mortals which are kidnapped by Kytons and forged into new Kytons skip Pharasma's judging? Bestiary 3 seems to imply yes, but not sure if I am interpreting it correctly. How does Pharasma view Kytons?

Alleran |
Alleran wrote:If I read this correctly haven't all of Aroden's "surviving clerics" being Human, died of old age by now, if not by other causes. He did die over a century ago, if I recall. While their may be an Aroden bishop in Taldor, he's never cast a spell in his life.Threeshades wrote:And Iomedae has been quietly providing some of Aroden's surviving clerics with spells... so I wonder if it's a possibility?Set wrote:it doesn't have to be a cleric of aroden though, does it?Threeshades wrote:James Jacobs wrote:And even if he hadn't been, I'd say that it'd take more than a mortal casting the spell to resurrect a deity.Mythic True Resurrection?The problem with that is, if there was a mythic cleric of Aroden at the time of his death, who might have been able to cast it, he probably wasn't able to cast it after the source of his power died.
'The defribillator is out of power, and I can't seem to use it to zap the power cord and give it power...'
Any half-elven ones left (if any) may be old enough. I was mostly referring to this:
"In recent generations, a very few dedicated and honest acolytes of Aroden have found they do have divine spells available. This appears to be a result of lomedae taking pity on the noblest of her former lord's worshipers, giving the best of them her own divine power despite their misguided worship of the dead god whose mantle she now carries."
From Faiths & Philosophies, regarding clerics of Aroden and divine spellcasting ability.

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I am about to start RotRL AE and just finished my first read-through. It left me wondering, after the runelord is defeated, is there any way one of the PCs could take up the mantel of runelord of greed?
I asked James this very question, and his answer was "Possibly." At the very least, the PC would have to be a Thassilonian Specialist in Transmutation like he was, would have to claim his Burning Glaive, the symbol of his office, after killing him, and then become a mythic character in order to cement their legitimacy as Runelord.
In addition, he also answered a later question about the viability of such a PC by answering that the Thassilonian Specialization feature in Inner Sea Magic hasn't really been discovered by the time Rise of the Runelords occurs. It's the PCs discoveries of Thassilon and its magic that really sparks interest in the ancient empire enough to resurrect its magical techniques.

Axial |

Odraude wrote:Where can I find this information on Iron Gods?There's a thread building over in the Adventure Path forum.
I can give you the 6 titles of the adventures:
1: Fires of Creation
2: Lords of Rust
3: The Choking Tower
4: Valley of the Brain Collectors
5: Palace of Fallen Stars
6: The Divinity DriveThe clash of faith vs. science will be a big theme in this AP. Other things that will play roles include artificial intelligences, androids, the Dominion of the Black, the Technic League, and weird aliens.
There's not a lot more to say about it yet though. I'm still outlining it. More info to come!
Mi-go! :D

gracefulArmageddon |

Odraude wrote:Where can I find this information on Iron Gods?There's a thread building over in the Adventure Path forum.
I can give you the 6 titles of the adventures:
1: Fires of Creation
2: Lords of Rust
3: The Choking Tower
4: Valley of the Brain Collectors
5: Palace of Fallen Stars
6: The Divinity DriveThe clash of faith vs. science will be a big theme in this AP. Other things that will play roles include artificial intelligences, androids, the Dominion of the Black, the Technic League, and weird aliens.
There's not a lot more to say about it yet though. I'm still outlining it. More info to come!
Brain... collectors... Neh-thalggu? >had to look up the name but I remembered the monsters hm

xobmaps |

xobmaps wrote:I am about to start RotRL AE and just finished my first read-through. It left me wondering, after the runelord is defeated, is there any way one of the PCs could take up the mantel of runelord of greed?I asked James this very question, and his answer was "Possibly." At the very least, the PC would have to be a Thassilonian Specialist in Transmutation like he was, would have to claim his Burning Glaive, the symbol of his office, after killing him, and then become a mythic character in order to cement their legitimacy as Runelord.
In addition, he also answered a later question about the viability of such a PC by answering that the Thassilonian Specialization feature in Inner Sea Magic hasn't really been discovered by the time Rise of the Runelords occurs. It's the PCs discoveries of Thassilon and its magic that really sparks interest in the ancient empire enough to resurrect its magical techniques.
Awesome and thanks.
I had a feeling SOMEONE had to have asked this before, but wasn't about to search 700+ pages for it. Of course, shortly after I posted, I saw a comment somewhere else about there being a "search this thread" box >_<

Tels |

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:xobmaps wrote:I am about to start RotRL AE and just finished my first read-through. It left me wondering, after the runelord is defeated, is there any way one of the PCs could take up the mantel of runelord of greed?I asked James this very question, and his answer was "Possibly." At the very least, the PC would have to be a Thassilonian Specialist in Transmutation like he was, would have to claim his Burning Glaive, the symbol of his office, after killing him, and then become a mythic character in order to cement their legitimacy as Runelord.
In addition, he also answered a later question about the viability of such a PC by answering that the Thassilonian Specialization feature in Inner Sea Magic hasn't really been discovered by the time Rise of the Runelords occurs. It's the PCs discoveries of Thassilon and its magic that really sparks interest in the ancient empire enough to resurrect its magical techniques.
Awesome and thanks.
I had a feeling SOMEONE had to have asked this before, but wasn't about to search 700+ pages for it. Of course, shortly after I posted, I saw a comment somewhere else about there being a "search this thread" box >_<
The search box doesn't really work all that well, however. Many times I'll search for a specific post and it never shows up. Even tested it by searching for posts I already have open, and the search can't find it.

Kreniigh |

A promiscuous paladin is ABSOLUTELY plausible, especially if they're a worshiper of Shelyn.
That's the first time I've ever seen it implied that a paladin's deity can be other than LG. I ran a Varisian gunslinger/paladin of Desna for a bit, and didn't consider the issue until I started running into what seemed to be conflicts between the Desnan outlook and the classic paladin code. When I went looking, I found nothing forbidding non-LG patron deities, but no examples of it either.
It made me wonder why only LG and CE deities would have worshippers in the paladin/anti-paladin role; whether the class itself was a relic still being carried forward from D&D and in need of revision; and then if there couldn't be, e.g., LE paladins of Asmodeus, CG paladins of Desna, etc. whose adherence to LG would be replaced by an equally strict adherence to the code of their deity.
I know you love the paladin, so how do you handle paladins and non-LG deities? Have I missed anything in the published material regarding it?
thanks

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Pretty much what I expected. Thank you!
Are there instances of Knights of Ozem going bad? They seem to be on the whole a lot better at policing themselves than Mendev's crusaders.
Would this higher standard be part of the reason they're struggling right now? Not enough bodies on the front lines of the orc fights?
Not really; they're a small enough group and good enough at self policing and so on. They are, overall, more faithful and devoted than the vast bulk of the Mendevian Crusade.

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Threeshades wrote:James Jacobs wrote:And even if he hadn't been, I'd say that it'd take more than a mortal casting the spell to resurrect a deity.Mythic True Resurrection?The problem with that is, if there was a mythic cleric of Aroden at the time of his death, who might have been able to cast it, he probably wasn't able to cast it after the source of his power died.
'The defribillator is out of power, and I can't seem to use it to zap the power cord and give it power...'
Not a problem at all. If a soul has been judged, has been captured, doesn't want to come back, or several other factors no type of resurrection would work. And that's merely for mortal souls... doesn't even touch on the topic of whether or not a mortal can resurrect a god.

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Dear James,
Which color is brighter? Octarine or the Color out of Space?
Which are we more likely to be able to print in the near future?
Colour out of Space.
I'm not sure what Octarine is. But I do know that we've had the Colour out of Space in print for a few years—it appeared in Pathfinder #46.

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James Jacobs wrote:Aroden was very much focused on Golarion, though, and in particular on the Inner Sea region. His death was not noticed at all on other worlds as distant as Earth, and if it was noticed at all on other worlds, it would have been relatively minor.Is this even though his death "tore loose the fabric of prophecy" in places other than just Golarion? Wouldn't they have noticed that happening?
Prophecy works fine in other worlds that we at Paizo don't control.

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Threeshades wrote:And Iomedae has been quietly providing some of Aroden's surviving clerics with spells... so I wonder if it's a possibility?Set wrote:it doesn't have to be a cleric of aroden though, does it?Threeshades wrote:James Jacobs wrote:And even if he hadn't been, I'd say that it'd take more than a mortal casting the spell to resurrect a deity.Mythic True Resurrection?The problem with that is, if there was a mythic cleric of Aroden at the time of his death, who might have been able to cast it, he probably wasn't able to cast it after the source of his power died.
'The defribillator is out of power, and I can't seem to use it to zap the power cord and give it power...'
It's not. Aroden's death is one of the basic underlying themes and facts of Golarion. I might even go as far as to say it's the MOST basic underlying theme. He's not coming back.

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Reposting this because it was originally posted while you were answering questions and so got "lost" in the replies:
Had some random and mayhaps obscure questions last night...not sure if I remember them all but hope you can help.
1) Bestiary 3 mentions the existence of Oni Daimyo as being the demigod overlords of Oni. Unlike other demigods (say, Demon Lords), the list of Daimyo has the type of oni in parantheses (Nuwa, etc). Does this mean Oni Daimyo are not unique creatures like demon lords, but rather are "regular" oni with class levels or mythic tiers, or some combination of the above?
2) In Golarion, there are a range of alignments for the Eldest, all of which are some flavor of neutral or evil. Are there any good Eldest, or the possibility of good Eldest if those beings are ever elaborated on and we get new ones?
3) Do mortals which are kidnapped by Kytons and forged into new Kytons skip Pharasma's judging? Bestiary 3 seems to imply yes, but not sure if I am interpreting it correctly. How does Pharasma view Kytons?
1) Oni Daimyo are unique creatures. The type listed indicates what species of oni the Daimyo is associated with.
2) I suppose it's possible there's a good Eldest, but I'm pretty happy with the list we have now and don't intend to expand it. The Eldest are not supposed to be good guys in any event.
3) That's a curious question that needs more investigation than I can go into here.

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I am about to start RotRL AE and just finished my first read-through. It left me wondering, after the runelord is defeated, is there any way one of the PCs could take up the mantel of runelord of greed?
Not without going through a campaign to do so... and not without rebuilding all of Thassilon. In short, no.

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James Jacobs wrote:A promiscuous paladin is ABSOLUTELY plausible, especially if they're a worshiper of Shelyn.That's the first time I've ever seen it implied that a paladin's deity can be other than LG. I ran a Varisian gunslinger/paladin of Desna for a bit, and didn't consider the issue until I started running into what seemed to be conflicts between the Desnan outlook and the classic paladin code. When I went looking, I found nothing forbidding non-LG patron deities, but no examples of it either.
It made me wonder why only LG and CE deities would have worshippers in the paladin/anti-paladin role; whether the class itself was a relic still being carried forward from D&D and in need of revision; and then if there couldn't be, e.g., LE paladins of Asmodeus, CG paladins of Desna, etc. whose adherence to LG would be replaced by an equally strict adherence to the code of their deity.
I know you love the paladin, so how do you handle paladins and non-LG deities? Have I missed anything in the published material regarding it?
thanks
Paladins must be lawful good, but they can worship a deity who is one step away from that alignment, as can a cleric. Abadar, Sarenrae, and Shelyn all have significant groups of paladin worshipers.
A paladin of Desna wouldn't work, by the rules. Because the paladin would have to be lawful, and that means that paladin wouldn't be following the chaotic teachings of Desna's faith, which is not a lawful act, and therefore one of 2 things would happen:
1) The paladin's alignment would shift away from lawful, turning him into an ex paladin.
2) The paladin's alignment stays lawful but that means he's not properly worshiping Desna and so gets cut off.
And in fact, I don't love paladins. They're my least favorite base class.
As for in print material about paladins and non-lawful good deities, that's pretty all over the place. Inner Sea World Guide, the various deity articles in Pathfinder, Champions of Purity, Faiths of Purity, Gods and Magic, and more.
THe reason there isn't a paladin for every alignment is because:
1) That dilutes the coolness of the paladin, and...
2) There's not enough design space, and...
3) Having tried to design other alignment paladins for Dragon magazine in #310 and #312... I can say that I'm really unsatisfied with how my design worked out because they diluted paladins and there wasn't enough design space. Most of them ended up really silly.

nilesr |

Paladins must be lawful good, but they can worship a deity who is one step away from that alignment, as can a cleric. Abadar, Sarenrae, and Shelyn all have significant groups of paladin worshipers.
A paladin of Desna wouldn't work, by the rules. Because the paladin would have to be lawful, and that means that paladin wouldn't be following the chaotic teachings of Desna's faith, which is not a lawful act, and therefore one of 2 things would happen:
1) The paladin's alignment would shift away from lawful, turning him into an ex paladin.
2) The paladin's alignment stays lawful but that means he's not properly worshiping Desna and so gets cut off.
And in fact, I don't love paladins. They're my least favorite base class.
As for in print material about paladins and non-lawful good deities, that's pretty all over the place. Inner Sea World Guide, the various deity articles in Pathfinder, Champions of Purity, Faiths of...
This makes me such a sad panda....
I love the idea of the Paladin's code and the specific codes in Faiths of Purity and Champions of Purity are awesome and help differentiate the paladins of Iomedae versus say Sarenrae.

Hitdice |

James, can I ask what you mean when you say there's not enough "design space" for differently aligned paladins? Is it just that by the time you expand the paladin to embrace a different alignment, the class name paladin isn't descriptive enough to be useful anymore? Or is it some other RPG design term that I've never heard before?

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This makes me such a sad panda....
I love the idea of the Paladin's code and the specific codes in Faiths of Purity and Champions of Purity are awesome and help differentiate the paladins of Iomedae versus say Sarenrae.
Note: Being my least favorite base class does NOT mean I hate the class.
Nor does it mean that they're not gonna show up regularly in print. In fact... there's a LOT of paladins in the pages of Wrath of the Righteous.

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2 people marked this as a favorite. |

James, can I ask what you mean when you say there's not enough "design space" for differently aligned paladins? Is it just that by the time you expand the paladin to embrace a different alignment, the class name paladin isn't descriptive enough to be useful anymore? Or is it some other RPG design term that I've never heard before?
For one thing... a LOT of the paladin's abilities are keyed off of being anti chaos and anti evil. And that means that you need to come up with replacement themes for the other 8 theoretical classes. For Antipalaidn, it's anti law and anti good. That doesn't leave much for the other 7 to play around with.
If you just make them variants who all have very similar anti-alignment stuff to paladins and antipaladins... they're not really different enough to be justified as a new base class (or heck, even a new alternate class).
If you DO change things super significantly... they're not really variant paladins anymore. They start feeling more and more like variant rangers.
There's just not enough room to spread the paladin out, in other words.