Creative Director
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I have a Question Mr. Jacobs, about the Spellscar Oracle from Inner Sea Magic.
For their 6th level bonus spell they get Antimagic Field an 8th level spell.
Now my question. Does this spell count as 6th level for the Oracle or is a mistake giving an 8th level spell to someone who shouldn't be able to cast it yet?
That's correct. One of the advantages of being a spellscar oracle is that she gains access to antimagic field as a 6th level spell, like a sorcerer or wizard, rather than having to wait until 8th to cast it.
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Creative Director
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I have some Question for you Mr. Jacobs this time about the monks Abundant Step class feature coupled with Dimensional Dervish.
1) Can your Abundant Step while grappled? I can find no rules that say you can use supernatural powers while grappled only that they don't provoke AOO.
2) Can you use Dimensional Dervish to attack a creature in the water (or air) and then end on dry land?
1) Yes. That's actually one of the BEST times to use an ability like this.
2) When you teleport, you have to arrive on something that can bear your weight. If you can't fly, you can't teleport into the air. If you teleport into the water, you splash down into it and need to make a swim check in order to be able to continue moving or acting or doing anything other than sputtering and perhaps drowning. Of the two, I could see using the abundant step stunt against waterborne targets, but not flying ones. Unless you can fly also.
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Creative Director
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So, here's a question. What are the best ways to avoid the harmful effects of a succubus' Energy Drain?
1) Being enough of a friend that she chooses NOT to drain your life.
2) Death ward.
3) Being immune to energy drain (such as by virtue of being undead).
4) Being fast so that you can get away and get some restorations before you die.
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Creative Director
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Is it possible for a CE character to be more noble than an LE character? If so, how?
Depends on how you define "noble."
If it's "belonging to a high social class," then you need look no further than the drow for LOTS of examples.
If it's "having or showing high moral principles and ideals," that's another way of saying "Good" and in this definition, lawful evil and chaotic evil are equally unable to live up to this definition.
do the planes of heaven and nirvana have large cities like disAbsolutely. There are large cities on all the outer planes. Some moreso than others. Some are ONLY cities.
*coughAxisbahack*
Is it possible for a CE character to be more noble than an LE character? If so, how?Depends on how you define "noble."
If it's "belonging to a high social class," then you need look no further than the drow for LOTS of examples.
If it's "having or showing high moral principles and ideals," that's another way of saying "Good" and in this definition, lawful evil and chaotic evil are equally unable to live up to this definition.
I more meant "standards." And I just remembered one: the Joker and the Red Skull. Derp!
I was having a, somewhat, unexpected issue with my players and the nature of good.
We're currently running Worldwound Incursion and my players have just finished part 2
[spoiler]The players succeeded in capturing the 2 cultists from area H10, one by knocking to negative hp then stabilizing, the other failed her save vs. sleep.[spoiler]
The problem came up when the players had to decide what to do with the prisoners. One wanted to just slit their throats, one asked them to repent but would kill them if they chose that over repenting, and a third wanted to tie them up, but leave them alive while proceeding to part 3.
My question is
1) would any of these actions necesarily be evil i.e. is killing a helpless but clearly evil enemy a problem for a Good character (what about a worhsiper of Iomedae)? What about leaving them helpless?
2) the disagreement became fairly heated, what would you do as a DM to defuse the situation.
3) What kind of check would you suggest a player attempt to try and bring an evil cultist away from the "dark side" if you will, or at least succeed enough to not have my players concerned that they will regret letting them go later?
how hard is it to get hold of religious texts in Golarion? specifically for lawful deities? is it possible to walk into a church of a faith, make a deal and leave with a book?
... and on this note, which Golarion religions are most likely to have devout missionaries handing out pamphlets or abridged versions of their holy books? :)
Is it possible for a CE character to be more noble than an LE character? If so, how?Depends on how you define "noble."
If it's "belonging to a high social class," then you need look no further than the drow for LOTS of examples.
If it's "having or showing high moral principles and ideals," that's another way of saying "Good" and in this definition, lawful evil and chaotic evil are equally unable to live up to this definition.
Doing the 'necessary' chaotic and evil thing the society 'needs' so other don't have to?
Around Page 228, you spoke about interest in higher level modules and play being much lower than low level modules.
Is this why Mythic rules became something you could add onto any level rather than requiring someone to pass Lvl 20?
Seems like rather savvy thinking. I really enjoy how clever you guys are.
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THE WORLD ENDS WITH EDIT: What could cause a Mythic lemure to come into being? What could infernal dukes make from such beasts?Via a super unique and interesting story element.
It's not a lemure... but at the end of Wrath of the Righteous... ** spoiler omitted **
*blink-blink*
This...is...NUTS! Now I can't wait for the next books even more!
Earlier you mentioned that something you'd do to improve Second Darkness was give a proper wrap-up to the Riddleport part of the story. What elements or events would you, as a GM, use to do so? I'm looking to run it myself, and am hunting for tips.
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Creative Director
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I was having a, somewhat, unexpected issue with my players and the nature of good.
We're currently running Worldwound Incursion and my players have just finished part 2
[spoiler]The players succeeded in capturing the 2 cultists from area H10, one by knocking to negative hp then stabilizing, the other failed her save vs. sleep.[spoiler]
The problem came up when the players had to decide what to do with the prisoners. One wanted to just slit their throats, one asked them to repent but would kill them if they chose that over repenting, and a third wanted to tie them up, but leave them alive while proceeding to part 3.My question is
1) would any of these actions necesarily be evil i.e. is killing a helpless but clearly evil enemy a problem for a Good character (what about a worhsiper of Iomedae)? What about leaving them helpless?
2) the disagreement became fairly heated, what would you do as a DM to defuse the situation.
3) What kind of check would you suggest a player attempt to try and bring an evil cultist away from the "dark side" if you will, or at least succeed enough to not have my players concerned that they will regret letting them go later?
1) Slitting the throat of a prisoner you captured isn't good. It's not necessarily evil though, but it is if you wake them back up so they can suffer. If you capture victims and then just execute them without giving them a chance to trail or redemption, that's not good. It's DEFINITELY chaotic.
2) I would tell the players... the PLAYERS (not the PCs) that you're not intending to use captives as traitors to spring attacks on them every single time, and that redemption is a significant theme for this AP, and that if the players are worried that you'll just use their prisoners to ambush or betray them, ask them to trust that in the majority of cases you will not. And then follow that advice. And give them full XP for captured foes. Maybe even bonus XP. And telling them that ahead of time can help solve problems too.
3) Diplomacy. More detailed rules for redemption can be found reprinted in the Wrath of the Righteous player's guide.
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Creative Director
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how hard is it to get hold of religious texts in Golarion? specifically for lawful deities? is it possible to walk into a church of a faith, make a deal and leave with a book?
Not hard at all. Most churches in most locations have copies of their religious texts to read and consult. I don't see it being any more or less difficult to get those texts for any alignment. In most cases, you'd likely need to make the priest feel as if you were legitimately interested in the religion, requiring a Bluff or Diplomacy check... but bookstores probably carry copies as well.
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Creative Director
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how hard is it to get hold of religious texts in Golarion? specifically for lawful deities? is it possible to walk into a church of a faith, make a deal and leave with a book?... and on this note, which Golarion religions are most likely to have devout missionaries handing out pamphlets or abridged versions of their holy books? :)
The top three most likely to do this type of thing would be Abadar, Iomedae, and Asmodeus.
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Creative Director
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Around Page 228, you spoke about interest in higher level modules and play being much lower than low level modules.
Is this why Mythic rules became something you could add onto any level rather than requiring someone to pass Lvl 20?
Seems like rather savvy thinking. I really enjoy how clever you guys are.
Mythic rules is something you can add to any level so that ANY player or GM can, in theory, pick up the book. If we said you had to wait until 20th level... aka, if we said you have to wait until you adventure for a few years to build your PCs up to 20th level... before you get to use Mythic Adventures... we would sell a LOT fewer copies of the book.
This way, the book's available for use by anyone at any level of play. Not only available to the level of play most likely to be the end of a campaign anyway.
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Creative Director
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Earlier you mentioned that something you'd do to improve Second Darkness was give a proper wrap-up to the Riddleport part of the story. What elements or events would you, as a GM, use to do so? I'm looking to run it myself, and am hunting for tips.
You're asking me to basically rewrite large portions of one adventure and write a whole level's worth of adventure for another. Not something I've got time to do right now, alas...
I went back and looked at your favorite Bosses in Dark Souls since I'm now 3/4 Lord Souls and was surprised you listed Ceaseless Discharge as one of your favorites. Why was it one of your favorites?
Is there a boss you found least fun to fight?
Is one you found most fun to fight not one of your favorite bosses?
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Creative Director
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I went back and looked at your favorite Bosses in Dark Souls since I'm now 3/4 Lord Souls and was surprised you listed Ceaseless Discharge as one of your favorites. Why was it one of your favorites?
Is there a boss you found least fun to fight?
Is one you found most fun to fight not one of your favorite bosses?
I liked Ceaseless Discharge because he's really cool looking, has a fun name, and was a boss that I just happened to KICK THE ASS OF the first time I met him despite him being like 40 feet tall. Very satisfying.
My absolute LEAST FAVORITE? Hands down, no contest. Ornstein and Smough. I was stuck on these guys for about 9 months until I finally managed to defeat them, after which point I was 100th level or thereabouts, and found the remainder of the game comparatively easy.
I went back and looked at your favorite Bosses in Dark Souls since I'm now 3/4 Lord Souls and was surprised you listed Ceaseless Discharge as one of your favorites. Why was it one of your favorites?
Is there a boss you found least fun to fight?
Is one you found most fun to fight not one of your favorite bosses?
I liked Ceaseless Discharge because he's really cool looking, has a fun name, and was a boss that I just happened to KICK THE ASS OF the first time I met him despite him being like 40 feet tall. Very satisfying.
My absolute LEAST FAVORITE? Hands down, no contest. Ornstein and Smough. I was stuck on these guys for about 9 months until I finally managed to defeat them, after which point I was 100th level or thereabouts, and found the remainder of the game comparatively easy.
Oh man, I got pretty lucky with them because I had Solaire and at least one person to help, but it still took me far too many tries. Since I used that area to level a whole bunch, I don't get a lot of people to help me anymore D:
Which one did you kill first? Was it pure chance or did you specifically pick one to get a certain soul for a weapon or armor set?
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Creative Director
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Oh man, I got pretty lucky with them because I had Solaire and at least one person to help, but it still took me far too many tries. Since I used that area to level a whole bunch, I don't get a lot of people to help me anymore D:
Which one did you kill first? Was it pure chance or did you specifically pick one to get a certain soul for a weapon or armor set?
I ended up killing Ornstein first both times (first playthrough and new game +). More or less chance.
In our Recent Pathfinder game, we're playing in FR because it's my GM's comfort zone. He is referencing Jade Regeant number 3 or 4 for our dip into the Asian inspired lands.
There was an encounter where we were crossing a frozen lake and when we looked through the ice, there were Aboleths swimming all around who dominated our NPC dual axe fighter to break the ice open and let them come after us.
Was this one of your diabolical plots or is my GM more clever than I'm giving him credit?
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So. I'm reading through old Dungeon issues to see what gems I can gleam and I get to Dungeon #12 and...
Lo and behold.
"Scepter of the Underworld" by James Jacobs. Written when you where a sophomore in high school? (Lots of adventures in the early issues by high schoolers, I see.) The write-up doesn't list any previous publications, was this your first published adventure?
Any thoughts, looking back? :)
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So. I'm reading through old Dungeon issues to see what gems I can gleam and I get to Dungeon #12 and...
Lo and behold.
"Scepter of the Underworld" by James Jacobs. Written when you where a sophomore in high school? (Lots of adventures in the early issues by high schoolers, I see.) The write-up doesn't list any previous publications, was this your first published adventure?
Any thoughts, looking back? :)
And a quick skim reveals a familiar name: ALAZNIST.
...Whoa.
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Creative Director
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In our Recent Pathfinder game, we're playing in FR because it's my GM's comfort zone. He is referencing Jade Regeant number 3 or 4 for our dip into the Asian inspired lands.
There was an encounter where we were crossing a frozen lake and when we looked through the ice, there were Aboleths swimming all around who dominated our NPC dual axe fighter to break the ice open and let them come after us.
Was this one of your diabolical plots or is my GM more clever than I'm giving him credit?
Dunno. I didn't develop that adventure, so I'm not sure if there's an aboleth encounter in there, to be honest. That's a Rob question. Or better yet, a GM question!
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Creative Director
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So. I'm reading through old Dungeon issues to see what gems I can gleam and I get to Dungeon #12 and...
Lo and behold.
"Scepter of the Underworld" by James Jacobs. Written when you where a sophomore in high school? (Lots of adventures in the early issues by high schoolers, I see.) The write-up doesn't list any previous publications, was this your first published adventure?
Any thoughts, looking back? :)
Yup! Turns out, Alaznist has been a significant NPC in my homebrew setting from pretty much the start, back in the early '80s. There may be a few other familiar names showing up in my other adventures as well, of course!
That was indeed my first published adventure, in any event.
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Earlier you mentioned that something you'd do to improve Second Darkness was give a proper wrap-up to the Riddleport part of the story. What elements or events would you, as a GM, use to do so? I'm looking to run it myself, and am hunting for tips.You're asking me to basically rewrite large portions of one adventure and write a whole level's worth of adventure for another. Not something I've got time to do right now, alas...
Oh. That sounds hard...
So. I'm reading through old Dungeon issues to see what gems I can gleam and I get to Dungeon #12 and...
Lo and behold.
"Scepter of the Underworld" by James Jacobs. Written when you where a sophomore in high school? (Lots of adventures in the early issues by high schoolers, I see.) The write-up doesn't list any previous publications, was this your first published adventure?
Any thoughts, looking back? :)
And a quick skim reveals a familiar name: ALAZNIST.
...Whoa.
.... jealous...
James, what would you say to someone young and inexperienced about to jump into the 3PP field? I'm a computer science/game design major in college, but my intended specialty is in writing, and I need to have some actual stuff to show an employer later on. Having something of a record within the 3PP field gives me something to point at when I say I can write creatively for a game, and it gives me experience in working with stuff people will play with later. On the off hand, I have little business training, I'm not sure whether to start my own company or join another, and I have no idea how I would join another. What does the mighty king of the industry have to say on this matter?
Those would have to be big chess pieces...I'd put money on Cthulhu.Soon we will have stats for him so we can finally end the question once and for all:
Who would win, Treerazer vs. Cthulhu ?
:3
You say that without even knowing what the contest is?
What if we're not talking about a fight, but a game of chess, a dance-off or a children's card game?
Hilarious. Reminds me of a CofC where we went to Ryleh, and met the Big Guy himself. My PC went bonkers of course and jumped into some portal. Good news, took me to some moon of Jupiter with air etc and a library of scrolls with spells and Knowledge. Bad news (other than having only 9 SAN left) was that the scrolls were the size of large rugs, I had to read them by standing on them!
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Creative Director
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James, what would you say to someone young and inexperienced about to jump into the 3PP field? I'm a computer science/game design major in college, but my intended specialty is in writing, and I need to have some actual stuff to show an employer later on. Having something of a record within the 3PP field gives me something to point at when I say I can write creatively for a game, and it gives me experience in working with stuff people will play with later. On the off hand, I have little business training, I'm not sure whether to start my own company or join another, and I have no idea how I would join another. What does the mighty king of the industry have to say on this matter?
My suggestion is to start by freelancing for existing companies so you can start building up credits that way and get to know the ways of the industry and start building contacts. Then, after a few years, you'll have some contacts in the industry to learn from, and some of them should be able to point you to folks like accountants or lawyers or the like who can further advise and answer questions.
It's not a thing I would enter into lightly, in other words. It's super fun... but it's also a great way to lose money and drive yourself kinda insane.
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Hey James have you seen this yet?
And if the answer is yes is there any chance we could get one of these guys or one of the other monsters crossbreeds like this?
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Creative Director
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Hey James have you seen this yet?
And if the answer is yes is there any chance we could get one of these guys or one of the other monsters crossbreeds like this?
Yes.
Maybe!
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Hey James have you seen this yet?
And if the answer is yes is there any chance we could get one of these guys or one of the other monsters crossbreeds like this?
Yes.
Maybe!
0.0
Is this a sly way of hinting at things in bestiary 4?
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Creative Director
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Hey James have you seen this yet?
And if the answer is yes is there any chance we could get one of these guys or one of the other monsters crossbreeds like this?
Yes.
Maybe!
0.0
Is this a sly way of hinting at things in bestiary 4?
No.
It's me saying I've seen the art and like it a lot and it inspires me and will doubtless some day inspire me to create a similar creature, but that art in and of itself is not owned by Paizo and therefore we can't turn that specific piece of art into a monster without buying it and the rights etc. from the artist. Whoever he or she might be.
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Hey James have you seen this yet?
And if the answer is yes is there any chance we could get one of these guys or one of the other monsters crossbreeds like this?
Yes.
Maybe!
0.0
Is this a sly way of hinting at things in bestiary 4?
No.
It's me saying I've seen the art and like it a lot and it inspires me and will doubtless some day inspire me to create a similar creature, but that art in and of itself is not owned by Paizo and therefore we can't turn that specific piece of art into a monster without buying it and the rights etc. from the artist. Whoever he or she might be.
Darn it. Anyway we will be getting a mythos template anytime soon?
Hi, James.
I'm interested in the three Empyreal lords in Bestiary 4. From what I understand, Ragathiel will not be one of them.
Are the three that will be included from Chronicle of the Righteous?
And if Paizo has a policy of only allowing deities with a real-world background in setting-neutral books, wouldn't that disqualify most of the Empyreals?
And lastly, will Ragathiel ever be statted up, period?
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Creative Director
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Darn it. Anyway we will be getting a mythos template anytime soon?Hey James have you seen this yet?
And if the answer is yes is there any chance we could get one of these guys or one of the other monsters crossbreeds like this?
Yes.
Maybe!
0.0
Is this a sly way of hinting at things in bestiary 4?
No.
It's me saying I've seen the art and like it a lot and it inspires me and will doubtless some day inspire me to create a similar creature, but that art in and of itself is not owned by Paizo and therefore we can't turn that specific piece of art into a monster without buying it and the rights etc. from the artist. Whoever he or she might be.
I'd rather not.
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Creative Director
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Hi, James.
I'm interested in the three Empyreal lords in Bestiary 4. From what I understand, Ragathiel will not be one of them.
Are the three that will be included from Chronicle of the Righteous?
And if Paizo has a policy of only allowing deities with a real-world background in setting-neutral books, wouldn't that disqualify most of the Empyreals?
And lastly, will Ragathiel ever be statted up, period?
We're VERY close to the book being out, so I'm not going to reveal the surprises this close to release.
Ragathiel COULD be statted up. Whether or not he ever will depends if we ever do a story that would benefit from having his stats, or we have an author who wants to include his stats as part of something else.
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I'd rather not.Darn it. Anyway we will be getting a mythos template anytime soon?Hey James have you seen this yet?
And if the answer is yes is there any chance we could get one of these guys or one of the other monsters crossbreeds like this?
Yes.
Maybe!
0.0
Is this a sly way of hinting at things in bestiary 4?
No.
It's me saying I've seen the art and like it a lot and it inspires me and will doubtless some day inspire me to create a similar creature, but that art in and of itself is not owned by Paizo and therefore we can't turn that specific piece of art into a monster without buying it and the rights etc. from the artist. Whoever he or she might be.
What about Deep One Hybrids?
Are you familiar with Rifftrax?
Do you think that if the iconics had access to films, they'd make their own Rifftrax?
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Hi, James.
I'm interested in the three Empyreal lords in Bestiary 4. From what I understand, Ragathiel will not be one of them.
Are the three that will be included from Chronicle of the Righteous?
And if Paizo has a policy of only allowing deities with a real-world background in setting-neutral books, wouldn't that disqualify most of the Empyreals?
And lastly, will Ragathiel ever be statted up, period?
We're VERY close to the book being out, so I'm not going to reveal the surprises this close to release.
Ragathiel COULD be statted up. Whether or not he ever will depends if we ever do a story that would benefit from having his stats, or we have an author who wants to include his stats as part of something else.
I'd say that's for the best. Once you stat Ragathiel up, people will just wanna kill him anyway.
What's the general mix of Tian immigrants/travelling traders living in Kalsgard and the Lands of the Linnorm Kings in general? Are they exclusively Tian-Min and Tian-La (those are the ones that I know have direct access to the Path of Aganhei as described in Jade Regent), or are there others like Tian-Shu or Tian-Hwan, etc?
I'd say that's for the best. Once you stat Ragathiel up, people will just wanna kill him anyway.
Well, the same goes for the three Empyreal lords that are going to be released. Why do you think they would even bother statting them up, anyway? As the antagonists of Evil campaigns?
And sure, SOME people might want to kill Ragathiel...but there are some players who want to literally kill everything that moves.
I'd say that's for the best. Once you stat Ragathiel up, people will just wanna kill him anyway.Well, the same goes for the three Empyreal lords that are going to be released. Why do you think they would even bother statting them up, anyway? As the antagonists of Evil campaigns?
And sure, SOME people might want to kill Ragathiel...but there are some players who want to literally kill everything that moves.
I think his point was, even good guys might want to kill Ragathiel.
Doing the 'necessary' chaotic and evil thing the society 'needs' so other don't have to?
"necessary" sounds very lawful in this context. The need of others (society)....
But yeah, what would JJ's take on lawful vs chaotic be ?
So, here's a question. What are the best ways to avoid the harmful effects of a succubus' Energy Drain?1) Being enough of a friend that she chooses NOT to drain your life.
2) Death ward.
3) Being immune to energy drain (such as by virtue of being undead).
4) Being fast so that you can get away and get some restorations before you die.
Wait. How DOES one befriend a succubus?