Creative Director
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I noticed the original Runelords player's guide is much different that the one for the anniversary edition. Was the new one made to be supplimentary or does it reflect changes to the layout?
Should I recommend both to my players?
No. Recommend the latest one.
The original player's guide was more of an "Introduction to Golarion" than anything else. It was the place we first introduced folks to things like our deities and human ethnicities and all that... it came out, if I recall right, many many months before we published the first Golarion gazetter.
As such, it's mostly just repeated info these days for players who know about Golarion, with a scattering of out-of-date rules elements.
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Creative Director
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Isn't Seattle considered 'west coast'?On that note...um...what's your favorite color?As a kid it was orange, but now that I've actually traveled away from the west coast, I've realized more and more that my favorite color is green.
It absolutely is.
What I'm saying is that, until I went to my first Gen Con 10 years ago, I'd never LEFT the West Coast. And with my sole "off the west coast" experience more or less being downtown Indianapolis... I've realized how much I enjoy the color green!
Also... green = nature, and I'm pretty okay with that.
1. If mortals are so insignificant then why do the gods take so much interest in them?
2. How exactly is human (or mortal if we're including other races) insignificance horrifying?
4. Do prospective students of the Academae know about the 30% mortality rate or the 3 years of de-facto slavery?
5. Given how much The Witcher has you harvesting monsters for parts, why didn't you choose to incorporate that into Pathfinder?
6. How do you determine what the CR of a demigod (empyreal, demon lord, etc.) should be?
7. If a demigod is wandering (i.e., doesn't have a realm to use those extra powers in) then would she have a reduced CR?
8. How do you determine what the INT of a demigod should be? It doesn't provide numbers that match to a chart (like on p.229 of Mythic Adventures).
9. Apart from the most obvious cases, how can I tell if a fictional character is lawful, neutral, or chaotic?
10. Does the Cyphergate do more than just peer across time?
8. How do you determine what the INT of a demigod should be? It doesn't provide numbers that match to a chart (like on p.229 of Mythic Adventures).
Mental scores (all of them) are dependent on the individual character.
THE EDIT SIDE OF THE MOON: Are there any bards that would play something approximating, oh, I dunno, metal?
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Isn't Seattle considered 'west coast'?On that note...um...what's your favorite color?As a kid it was orange, but now that I've actually traveled away from the west coast, I've realized more and more that my favorite color is green.It absolutely is.
What I'm saying is that, until I went to my first Gen Con 10 years ago, I'd never LEFT the West Coast. And with my sole "off the west coast" experience more or less being downtown Indianapolis... I've realized how much I enjoy the color green!
Also... green = nature, and I'm pretty okay with that.
My first visit to the States was to visit some relations in Seattle. We arrived at night and took the ferry over to Vashon Island. As I looked back at the receding shore, the hill was a mix of houses nestled into the trees, with their lights shining through....
I've never seen any landscape as beautiful as at that moment. : )
I just got a good look at the Spherewalker from RotRL #2. Are there any plans to rework it, or the information on Desna in General, in a later book? I think it might be nice in the upcoming Advanced Class Guide.
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Creative Director
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1. If mortals are so insignificant then why do the gods take so much interest in them?
2. How exactly is human (or mortal if we're including other races) insignificance horrifying?
** spoiler omitted **
4. Do prospective students of the Academae know about the 30% mortality rate or the 3 years of de-facto slavery?
5. Given how much The Witcher has you harvesting monsters for parts, why didn't you choose to incorporate that into Pathfinder?
6. How do you determine what the CR of a demigod (empyreal, demon lord, etc.) should be?
7. If a demigod is wandering (i.e., doesn't have a realm to use those extra powers in) then would she have a reduced CR?
8. How do you determine what the INT of a demigod should be? It doesn't provide numbers that match to a chart (like on p.229 of Mythic Adventures).
9. Apart from the most obvious cases, how can I tell if a fictional character is lawful, neutral, or chaotic?
10. Does the Cyphergate do more than just peer across time?
1) Mortals aren't insignificant. That's why the gods take an interest in them. Exactly what the gods find so interesting varies widely from god to god, but at the very best, they could well view their faithful as their children, their pets, or their experiments. The Lovecraftian world-view is not the same as the Great Beyond's interaction with Golarion.
2) The idea that nothing you do matters, and nothing anyone else does matters, and thus anyone can do anything and none of it matters doesn't horrify you?
3)
If the PCs just tear through the place metaphorical guns blazing... not really. If the PCs stop to investigate via divination magic or the like, then yes, they can learn about that, and then they'd probably need their own wishes to undo things. Or at the very least some break enchantment spells.
4) The vast majority do. Most assume that they'll be among the 70% of the survivors, of course.
5) Because Pathfinder is a different game than the Witcher, first off. Secondly, because Pathfinder & D&D have an economy based on magic items and treasure, and adding trophies and harvesting to that mix not only increases the complexity of the economy but would make monsters have to be redesigned from the ground up to account for the fact that they couldn't "afford" the gear the game expects them to have because their gall bladders and teeth would be using up that budget. In short, including a robust trophy system would have required a complete redesign of a system we already knew worked and we already liked.
6) I just pick a number, based on how powerful I want that demigod to be compared to the others. Knowing that the range is 26 to 30 lets me set aside those extremes for the weakest and the strongest ones, and then I just assign the others as the story and background and all that suggest.
7) Nope. By the same extension, if a demon can't use its summon ability, it still stays the same CR.
8) I just pick what looks right, honestly. I do the same for ALL monsters I design. Comparing them to existing monsters helps, and after you've spent 15 or so years designing monsters for the system, you get pretty good at knowing what numbers are right for what type of monster.
9) By reading about the character and making a decision based on their character. There's usually not a single right answer.
10) Unrevealed.
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Creative Director
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My first visit to the States was to visit some relations in Seattle. We arrived at night and took the ferry over to Vashon Island. As I looked back at the receding shore, the hill was a mix of houses nestled into the trees, with their lights shining through....I've never seen any landscape as beautiful as at that moment. : )
YAY!
It's pretty dang awesome looking up round these parts, I agree! :D
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Creative Director
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I just got a good look at the Spherewalker from RotRL #2. Are there any plans to rework it, or the information on Desna in General, in a later book? I think it might be nice in the upcoming Advanced Class Guide.
We might do something with some of those older prestige classes some day, but at this point there are no such plans.
I'm relatively sure there won't be prestige classes in the Advanced Class Guide, though.
Nagaji is supposed to be derived from the language spoken by Naga. Is there a Naga language? ...I haven't seen it.
Nalinivati's Neutral Alignment only has a little overlap with the Lawful tendency of Nagaji society. Is there a dichotomy in her worship by Nagaji (as their creator) and her worship by non-Nagaji Humans, etc?
How does Xa Hoi view Hermea and Mengkare? How do Dan humans recruited to it fit into the society there?
How does the Samsaran life cycle work? They give birth only to Human children who are given up for adoption, and who upon death 'sometimes' reincaranate as Samsarans. Do they reincarnate in Zi Ha (in some special temple?), in the same location as their death, or in other random places? If either of the latter two, do they intuitively know to migrate to Zi Ha (or remember from the past life)? Do all reincarnated Samsarans know of/live in Zi Ha, or is a good number reincarnated in other locations and have no link to Zi Ha?
Should Tian ethnicities referred to as Shu/La/Dtang/Min/etc peoples?
That's what I do, but most sources use a 'Tian-' prefix, although that seems strange for them to use themselves or within Tian Xia, especially since some are borderline 'barbarians' and all speak their own languages. I got the impression that the Tian- prefix was sort of an anachronism bridging the gap from when nothing much more was detailed than that Tian Xia existed and "Tian" was a generic ethnicity encompassing everything there... But it feels akin to if you appended "Avestani" to every Inner Sea ethnicity, e.g. "Avesta-Taldane", "Avesta-Varisian", "Avesta-Kellid".
I could see "Tian" alone serving a generic role for in-world use where Tian Xia isn't well known and everything is being lumped together, but where the specific ethnicities ARE known, it seems weird to still shove "Tian" into their name, or even treat "Tian" as an ethnicity with the actual groups just being "Sub-Ethnicities", when Avetani/Garundi groups are not just seen as "Sub-Ethnicities". What's the practice in Paizo offices?
Are you planning on doing more about Garundi who live outside of Garund?
They are supposed to also have spread to parts of Avestan and Vudra, but I haven't seen much on Garundi communities there.
Are we going to see more about the old serpent gods of Osirion?
THE EDIT SIDE OF THE MOON: Are there any bards that would play something approximating, oh, I dunno, metal?Not on Golarion.
What if a thundercaller archetype bard stumbles across a magic electric guitar that came through a primal magic portal? How about then?
Isn't Seattle considered 'west coast'?On that note...um...what's your favorite color?As a kid it was orange, but now that I've actually traveled away from the west coast, I've realized more and more that my favorite color is green.It absolutely is.
What I'm saying is that, until I went to my first Gen Con 10 years ago, I'd never LEFT the West Coast. And with my sole "off the west coast" experience more or less being downtown Indianapolis... I've realized how much I enjoy the color green!
Also... green = nature, and I'm pretty okay with that.
I am looking forward to making it to the west coast someday on vacation and the northwest is high on the list, but I have to admit a special place in my heart for the southern Utah/northern Arizona region. I guess if I let the geography determine the color palette, reddish-orange would have be a contender for favorite color.
Understanding your preference for your home region, is there some place you have not seen in person that you have hopes to someday? Bonus points for natural locations or phenomena.
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Creative Director
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Nagaji is supposed to be derived from the language spoken by Naga. Is there a Naga language? ...I haven't seen it.
Nalinivati's Neutral Alignment only has a little overlap with the Lawful tendency of Nagaji society. Is there a dichotomy in her worship by Nagaji (as their creator) and her worship by non-Nagaji Humans, etc?
How does Xa Hoi view Hermea and Mengkare? How do Dan humans recruited to it fit into the society there?
How does the Samsaran life cycle work? They give birth only to Human children who are given up for adoption, and who upon death 'sometimes' reincaranate as Samsarans. Do they reincarnate in Zi Ha (in some special temple?), in the same location as their death, or in other random places? If either of the latter two, do they intuitively know to migrate to Zi Ha (or remember from the past life)? Do all reincarnated Samsarans know of/live in Zi Ha, or is a good number reincarnated in other locations and have no link to Zi Ha?
Should Tian ethnicities referred to as Shu/La/Dtang/Min/etc peoples?
That's what I do, but most sources use a 'Tian-' prefix, although that seems strange for them to use themselves or within Tian Xia, especially since some are borderline 'barbarians' and all speak their own languages. I got the impression that the Tian- prefix was sort of an anachronism bridging the gap from when nothing much more was detailed than that Tian Xia existed and "Tian" was a generic ethnicity encompassing everything there... But it feels akin to if you appended "Avestani" to every Inner Sea ethnicity, e.g. "Avesta-Taldane", "Avesta-Varisian", "Avesta-Kellid".
I could see "Tian" alone serving a generic role for in-world use where Tian Xia isn't well known and everything is being lumped together, but where the specific ethnicities ARE known, it seems weird to still shove "Tian" into their name, or even treat "Tian" as an ethnicity with the actual groups just being "Sub-Ethnicities", when Avetani/Garundi groups are not just seen as "Sub-Ethnicities". What's the practice in Paizo offices?Are you planning on doing more about Garundi who live outside of Garund?
They are supposed to also have spread to parts of Avestan and Vudra, but I haven't seen much on Garundi communities there.Are we going to see more about the old serpent gods of Osirion?
Holy wall of text!
When you have a giant stack of questions, please try to keep each individual question as succinct and short as possible. Also... numbering them helps with organization in crossreferencing questions to answers.
There is no naga language. Where do we say Nagaji comes from a Naga only language?
Nalinivati's alignment is neutral for several reasons, the main one being that nagas themselves are all over the place when it comes to alignments.
Xa Hoi and Hermea have no interaction, so they don't view each other at all. They're practically on opposite sides of the planet, after all.
Samsarans die, then are reincarnated as children. They usually reincarnate near or in concentrations of other samsarans, but not always. Sometimes they reincarnate near their place of death in space and time, sometimes far from it ins space and time. It's intentionally mysterious. They don't all start life automatically knowing about Zi Ha.
The practice at Paizo is to refer to the ethnicities as we list them in Dragon Empires Gazetteer.
We have announced no plans publicly to do much more with Garund yet. There are Garundi all over the place though; they don't really make their own isolate communities though; they, like most of the ethnicities, melting pot in pretty well.
Old serpent gods of Osirion? We'll be talking more about the old gods of Osirion soon as we kick over into Mummy's Mask, and I believe one of them is related to serpents... but that's not something they all share.
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I just got a good look at the Spherewalker from RotRL #2. Are there any plans to rework it, or the information on Desna in General, in a later book? I think it might be nice in the upcoming Advanced Class Guide.We might do something with some of those older prestige classes some day, but at this point there are no such plans.
I'm relatively sure there won't be prestige classes in the Advanced Class Guide, though.
I seem to recall there being mention of prestige classes in the gods hardcovver coming out next year is it possible they may be included in that?
So, a question about druids and their source of power. If Druids gain their divine magic from nature (and can lose this magic), does that mean that nature/fate/the universe/something has a will that can grant or take away this magic?
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Creative Director
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I seem to recall there being mention of prestige classes in the gods hardcovver coming out next year is it possible they may be included in that?I just got a good look at the Spherewalker from RotRL #2. Are there any plans to rework it, or the information on Desna in General, in a later book? I think it might be nice in the upcoming Advanced Class Guide.We might do something with some of those older prestige classes some day, but at this point there are no such plans.
I'm relatively sure there won't be prestige classes in the Advanced Class Guide, though.
We don't have room in that book to do a prestige class for every deity, so we're doing something else.
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Creative Director
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how does Sarenrae and her outsider servants interact with her worshipers/ do they ever talk to them/ do they interact casually
Her minions sometimes interact with the priesthood and worshipers, either secretly or obviously, to give omens or deliver warnings or just interact. Often after the result of a spell like gate or commune or planar ally, but sometimes on their own accord.
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Creative Director
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So, a question about druids and their source of power. If Druids gain their divine magic from nature (and can lose this magic), does that mean that nature/fate/the universe/something has a will that can grant or take away this magic?
Not as such, since nature isn't conscious and thus can't make decisions. The druid version of that would be the druid drifting from neutral alignment and thus forsaking his vows and becoming an ex-druid. That's something that the druid does to himself, not something from outside cutting him off.
Which musical instruments are used to play schmaltzy romantic music on Golarion, anyway? Or is there a world in the multiverse that's mercifully free of the stuff?
James, do you know of a spell or some sort of poison you could put on a weapon that could injure a member of a royal family leading troops on the battlefield bad enough to force her to return home for months of recuperation? Something her spellcasters wouldn't be able to handle with a spell?
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The idea that nothing you do matters, and nothing anyone else does matters, and thus anyone can do anything and none of it matters doesn't horrify you?
Now you're asking the questions? No problem, I'm glad to answer! Fair warning, I'm gonna have to give a Wes-length answer.
Nothing mattering doesn't horrify me because it doesn't make sense to me. Pleasure doesn't matter because it's not essential to survival. Survival doesn't matter since the results of my actions are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Because actions don't matter even suicide is pointless. So why do we bother to do anything? Survival, at the very least. So what's the point of survival if doing so doesn't matter? There isn't any, so we might as well enjoy life while we can. Even better if we can prolong life and thus the enjoyment.
As for the ominous hint that Bad Things will happen if nothing matters, actions still have reactions. People generally don't like Bad Things happening to them and will work to stop them. And who or what do these ominous things not matter to anyway? A civilization of Mythos beings superior to us? We stay away from their real estate development long enough to become their equals. The universe that won't care when all civilizations and even the gods decay into cold radiation? Why should we care if it doesn't since it's not doing anything? By the time everything ends we won't be around to mourn its passing, will we?
Now if your concern is that I'll be the sort of player that always plays emotionless badass dudebros* then let me assure that there are things that horrify me. Small towns that band together to terrorize victims from speaking out for a start. Maryville's way scarier than Innsmouth or even Illmarsh. Falcon's Hollow would be about right (and even that place is marginally better), pity none of the published adventurers taking place there go after the most obvious villain.
If Kreed's not grand, or squamous, enough for you then how about Devils? Apparently, lawful evil doesn't preclude poaching souls of other alignments whether by the living sacrifice of children to Moloch or a no-warning trapped artifact (Book of the Damned 1, p.49). Daemons have astradaemons robbing souls of their rewards and cacodaemons defecating innocents into eons of unwarranted torment. Demons have your personal favorite, succubi, able to soul-suck anybody straight into the Abyss. "Offering a child, virgin, or a beloved family member of the caster suffices to gain the interest of the succubus" speaks for itself.
In short (tl;dr for you kids these days); cosmic indifference doesn't horrify me, cosmic injustice does.
Understanding your preference for your home region, is there some place you have not seen in person that you have hopes to someday? Bonus points for natural locations or phenomena.Loch Ness. Lake Okanoggan. Japan. Antarctica. Tunguska. Cairo. London. Providence. Hawaii. And more!
You should add Chagrin Fall, Ohio, to that list. It's the hometown of Calvin and Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson. I live about 45 minutes from there. Once you walk around the place, you can see where all his inspiration for the woods behind Calvin's house came from.
IMHO, Northeast Ohio really is one of the prettiest places on the planet, and I've done some extensive traveling.
Also, a bit closer to you, I found Multnomah Falls to be quite spectacular when I was visiting the Pacific Northwest.
Hawaii ROCKS!! I really need to go back.
Question: Were you a fan of Mystara? If so, favorite aspects?
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What was Pan's Labyrinth about? Obviously not a fantasy story since the fantasy was very limited. Certainly not about the civil war in spain, because it lacks any real political context. Certainly not about the humans characters in it, because the movie doesn't start or end with them, and rather diverts a lot of attention to the fantasy.
So what is the movie about? did you like it? if so, why?
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James,
I'd asked earlier about the Demons Revisited, and if you were going to make more books like it, but what I failed to ask is, do the half-demons in the revisited book still get Smite Good? I see new abilities like +1d6 fire to melee damage and +1d6 sneak attack, but it doesn't say whether or not it replaces the Smite Good that 99.9% of half-fiends get.
I started watching Once Upon a Time on Netflix and love the devious Rumpelstiltskin, offering magic, but always informing them that "All magic comes with a price!".
Is there a notable single being on Golarion who operates appearing to people offering deals in exchange for first borns or vague favors?
You mentioned before your plot twist cards that you give out to your players when they gain a level. I love hero points, but I really like the once a level big help verses the small everyday little boosts. Are these cards generic and you think up something on the spot, or do they draw out of a deck or something?
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Creative Director
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Which musical instruments are used to play schmaltzy romantic music on Golarion, anyway? Or is there a world in the multiverse that's mercifully free of the stuff?
Musicians are talented at finding ways to use all sorts of instruments to do this. There are a few, like the drum and the bagpipe, that resist this fate, of course.
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Creative Director
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The idea that nothing you do matters, and nothing anyone else does matters, and thus anyone can do anything and none of it matters doesn't horrify you?Now you're asking the questions? No problem, I'm glad to answer! Fair warning, I'm gonna have to give a Wes-length answer.
Nothing mattering doesn't horrify me because it doesn't make sense to me. Pleasure doesn't matter because it's not essential to survival. Survival doesn't matter since the results of my actions are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Because actions don't matter even suicide is pointless. So why do we bother to do anything? Survival, at the very least. So what's the point of survival if doing so doesn't matter? There isn't any, so we might as well enjoy life while we can. Even better if we can prolong life and thus the enjoyment.
As for the ominous hint that Bad Things will happen if nothing matters, actions still have reactions. People generally don't like Bad Things happening to them and will work to stop them. And who or what do these ominous things not matter to anyway? A civilization of Mythos beings superior to us? We stay away from their real estate development long enough to become their equals. The universe that won't care when all civilizations and even the gods decay into cold radiation? Why should we care if it doesn't since it's not doing anything? By the time everything ends we won't be around to mourn its passing, will we?
Now if your concern is that I'll be the sort of player that always plays emotionless badass dudebros* then let me assure that there are things that horrify me. Small towns that band together to terrorize victims from speaking out for a start. Maryville's way scarier than Innsmouth or even Illmarsh. Falcon's Hollow would be about right (and even that place is marginally better), pity none of the published adventurers taking place there go after the most obvious...
Well there's the rub then.
I know folks who are deathly afraid of spiders. I'm not one of them. I'm quite afraid of clowns, but I know folks who love clowns. Same goes here. I find the idea of nothing mattering to be pretty terrifying, since to a certain extent, I believe that the idea that what we do DOES matter is what drives us to excel. If nothing mattered, then my favorite artists and authors wouldn't have produced anything to entertain and inspire me, for example, and I wouldn't be working at Paizo as a result.
But if the idea of all that not mattering doesn't bother you, then there's nothing I can do to change your mind. Nor do I want to!
I know folks who are deathly afraid of spiders. I'm not one of them. I'm quite afraid of clowns, but I know folks who love clowns. Same goes here. I find the idea of nothing mattering to be pretty terrifying, since to a certain extent, I believe that the idea that what we do DOES matter is what drives us to excel. If nothing mattered, then my favorite artists and authors wouldn't have produced anything to entertain and inspire me, for example, and I wouldn't be working at Paizo as a result.
What are your feelings about a Drider in clown makeup?
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Creative Director
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3) Someone whose name I can't remember the changeling (Killed by troll rend)At least with a changeling, you can have whatever name you damn-well please - enough ranks in Bluff and nobody's going to know the difference. :P
Has much thought gone into Golarion's various secret intelligence services? Or are most spies working for private concerns, like the Aspis Consortium?
Yes; depending on the region. We've got some pretty detailed investigatory groups in the world, like the Aspis Consortium or other groups, like some of the Eagle Knights, or quite a few secret societies in Ustalav and Varisia. The Pathfinders have some agents of this type as well.
Okay, the avatar on one of my posts was suddenly a Smurf. Why is this?
And it happened again! What in Cayden's name?
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Creative Director
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James, do you know of a spell or some sort of poison you could put on a weapon that could injure a member of a royal family leading troops on the battlefield bad enough to force her to return home for months of recuperation? Something her spellcasters wouldn't be able to handle with a spell?
Jason invented the king's sleep poison (see Core Rulebook) and changed neutralize poison so it's not automatically successful for precisely this plotline. If you wanted to do a more powerful version of king's sleep that had a higher save DC, that'd do great for such a plot.
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Creative Director
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Question: Were you a fan of Mystara? If so, favorite aspects?
Absolutely a fan. My favorite aspect were the "newness" to the setting. Like Greyhawk, it was an unexplored place without much in the way of established RPG campaign setting tropes. Heck... it wasn't even called "Mystara" for a long time.
My favorite part of the setting is without a doubt the Isle of Dread. Love that enough that I devoted multiple issues of Dungeon magazine to it!
Question: Were you a fan of Mystara? If so, favorite aspects?Absolutely a fan. My favorite aspect were the "newness" to the setting. Like Greyhawk, it was an unexplored place without much in the way of established RPG campaign setting tropes. Heck... it wasn't even called "Mystara" for a long time.
My favorite part of the setting is without a doubt the Isle of Dread. Love that enough that I devoted multiple issues of Dungeon magazine to it!
As pretty much the first real campaign world I had any experience of, I'm a big Mystara fan too. My favorite module was Test of the Warlords - where the players get the chance to set up a barony in Norwold. Did that module influence Kingmaker at all, as I feel the latter is very close to the style I'd like to see it done in if it was written today.
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Creative Director
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What was Pan's Labyrinth about? Obviously not a fantasy story since the fantasy was very limited. Certainly not about the civil war in spain, because it lacks any real political context. Certainly not about the humans characters in it, because the movie doesn't start or end with them, and rather diverts a lot of attention to the fantasy.
So what is the movie about? did you like it? if so, why?
Pan's Labyrinth was the best movie of the year, and remains Guillarmo del Toro's best movie ever. And considering that I've seen pretty much all of his movies and have quite enjoyed each and every one... that's some pretty high praise, I'd say!
It's definitely a fantasy story on one level; I wouldn't say the fantasy was limited at all, but if I had to label it's genre, it's ABSOLUTELY a horror movie. It's about the atrocities of war, pretty much, and how humanity is its own worst enemy when it comes to the art of self-annihilation. That's a theme that you can see in several of del Toro's movies, in fact; he often populates his movies with outlandish and horrifying creatures, but often it's the ones who are human or attempt to appear human who are the most monstrous of them all.
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Creative Director
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James,
I'd asked earlier about the Demons Revisited, and if you were going to make more books like it, but what I failed to ask is, do the half-demons in the revisited book still get Smite Good? I see new abilities like +1d6 fire to melee damage and +1d6 sneak attack, but it doesn't say whether or not it replaces the Smite Good that 99.9% of half-fiends get.
Yes. Unless a half-demon template specifically says otherwise (such as how the half-babau doesn't gain a fly speed), the template still gains all the normal half-fiend stuff. In the case of smite good, ALL of the half-demons gain that ability, if I remember correctly.