Creative Director
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Poor overlooked Incubus.Glabrezu or Succubus, using magic to appear as something else. Both of those demons have some pretty powerful temptation powers.I'm thinking about using a Rumplestiltskin-esque mythic outsider as the figure handing out plot cards in a dream sequence. I was thinking of using a devil or demon with bigger plans that the PCs don't nessecarily need to find out, but I'm thinking maybe a chaotic being who isn't evil may be better. Can you recommend an outsider type?
Or do you think tying the cards to an in game event could be detrimental?
More like poor misunderstood incubus. Like the erinyes, the incubus isn't so much a seducer as he is a taker. He's more blatant and combat focused when it comes to taking what he wants. An incubus could work fine as a Rumplestiltskin, but that's not their strength, really, when compared to a succubus or glabrezu.
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Creative Director
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how do Agathions/Angels/Archons and Azatas view mortals
Depends on the mortal and the outsider.
Questions like these, alas, are FAR to wide reaching to have a single answer.
It's like asking "How do humans view horses?" Some use them as mounts, some keep them as pets, some don't care at all, some eat them, some build societies around them... it's complex and doesn't have one answer.
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Creative Director
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Hello James, I had no luck regarding this question in Curse of the Crimson Throne forum, so I thought I'd ask here.
In Escape from Old Korvosa, there are three painting by a painter influenced by Kazavon. Their description is very detailed, but the AP doesn't explain what exactly do they represent and whether it has something to do with the backstory or the rest of the AP.
The first depicts a full portrait of a thin humanoid wearing shadows as he stands framed by a dolmen of great size. The figure’s brilliant blue eyes are the only true points of color in the piece, and they seem to almost glow with anger.
The second picture depicts a rugged mountain range above a desert under a brilliant blue sky. In the foreground, a quartet of Vudran tusked camels ridden by N’darr tribesmen race across dunes that, upon closer examination, consist of tiny skulls.
The final portrait is perhaps the most disturbing, for it depicts a handsome man in the process of peeling away the flesh of his arms as if he were taking off a pair of gloves - underneath, his arms are muscular and covered with glittering blue scales. The man’s expression is one of delight, yet his eyes are empty pits of blackness. Half seen in the shadows beyond him are what can only be thousands of humans impaled on towering wooden poles erected in the shadow of an indistinct shape looming on the horizon - perhaps a castle, maybe a mountain, but likely something more.
The third one is obviously Kazavon, and the indistinct shape is Scarwall, I assume.
But if the third one is Kazavon, is that him in the first one also? Why is it of importance that he is thin? And what's with the dolmen?
I'm assuming the second one doesn't have anything to do with CotCT, but am I wrong?
The first two don't really have anything to do with the plot. The point here is that there are 3 paintings, but the most disturbing of them is the only one that serves as a subtle bit of foreshadowing as to what's going on. The images are little more than mysterious story hooks you can expand upon later, but not everything that the painter paints needs to be a vision on canvas.
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They have dark red blood. Their skin is blue.Are they blue-blooded? Or is it their skin alone?If you choke a samsaran, what color does she turn?Darker blue. And you're a bad person for wondering!!!
I believe the reason people are asking is because the Dragon Empires Gazeteer (Page 11, under physical description) states that Samsaran blood is crystal clear.
Have you ever taken a look at the Homebrew section of the messageboards?
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I built a character around using items to add natural attacks to elemental form for a druid including a ring of rat fang and helm of the mammoth lord.
I had read the rules regarding polymorph subschool that magic items with continuous effects continue to work while polymorphed. However, rereading the description suggests that its the horns on the helm itself providing the gore attack. Does this mean that it doesn't work in wild shape? Does the ring of rat fang?
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Creative Director
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I believe the reason people are asking is because the Dragon Empires Gazeteer (Page 11, under physical description) states that Samsaran blood is crystal clear.They have dark red blood. Their skin is blue.Are they blue-blooded? Or is it their skin alone?If you choke a samsaran, what color does she turn?Darker blue. And you're a bad person for wondering!!!
Well then there you go. That book is correct.
Samsarans have transparent blood. Skin is blue.
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Creative Director
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James, what is your opinion of Cracklin' Oat Bran?
No opinion. Also I tend not to watch youtube at work. Not because it's banned, but because my computer doesn't play well with high-tech stuff like moving pictures. :-P
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Creative Director
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I built a character around using items to add natural attacks to elemental form for a druid including a ring of rat fang and helm of the mammoth lord.
I had read the rules regarding polymorph subschool that magic items with continuous effects continue to work while polymorphed. However, rereading the description suggests that its the horns on the helm itself providing the gore attack. Does this mean that it doesn't work in wild shape? Does the ring of rat fang?
I would say that it doesn't work in wild shape. It's an item intended to augment you when it's worn, not when you're something else.
Cool or Not Cool
Using a Lodging Room (Ultimate Campaign, Downtime System) as dress rooms in a theater?
Does a mythic character with Divine Source know who is praying to them for spells or why?
Can they refuse to grant a spell if its aim is for something they wouldn't approve of?
Mr. James Jacobs,
Which of golarion deities and outsider demigods would you say are more likely to be worshiped on other prime material worlds?
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Creative Director
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Does a mythic character with Divine Source know who is praying to them for spells or why?
Can they refuse to grant a spell if its aim is for something they wouldn't approve of?
Good question!
I'd say that the mythic character WOULD know who's praying to them for spells, but wouldn't know the worshiper's reasons for picking the spells they worshiped. And it's alway part of a deity/demigod/hero god/whatever's prerogative to deny those spells if they want, since that's how ex-clerics come around. A player who just arbitrarily and for no reason denies a worshiper's spells will quickly find themselves without worshipers though as word spreads!
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Creative Director
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Mr. James Jacobs,
Which of golarion deities and outsider demigods would you say are more likely to be worshiped on other prime material worlds?
That depends entirely on the other world, and would have to be chosen by the creator of that world as they felt would be best represented.
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Creative Director
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Hello again James,
A couple of pages back in this thread you noted the difference between mythic characters with Divine Source ("quasi-deities") and CR 26-30 demigods ("demigods").
Setting those in context with full deities and the Positive Energy Plane, could mythic characters with Divine Source (making them "demigods" or perhaps more accurately "quasi-deities" in theory) still access it? Or does the nature of the Positive Energy Plane and its disallowal of any deific entry also extend to characters who have the Divine Source path ability? And if so, does this also extend to other not-quite-demigods (e.g. CR 25 or less entities like Lorthact who can grant spells)
It seems to me that it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for quasi-deities to also be blocked from entry to the Positive Energy Plane, but for any mythic adventures that involve planar travel it could potentially become restrictive if the party wanted/needed to go there and one or more of them would be stuck on the "front porch" of the plane.
The whole idea that the Positive Energy Plane doesn't allow deities in it is, frankly, a bit weird, and it's something that I wouldn't be surprised to see us retcon out. If we don't, thoguh, the plane wouldn't make a difference between a full deity or a hero god—if you can grant spells, you'd be shut out.
Which would suck if you happen to be a divine source character in a party going to the Positive Material Plane, which is a VERY good reason to ret-con out that bit of lore.
Why do Androids age? They seem very heavily modeled off Data from Star Trek TNG. Thin runny blood, difficulty processing emotions, no morale bonuses. Yet they age like a human and die, which doesn't seem to really fit (to me anyway). I understand things wearing out over time, but routine maintenance and replacement of worn out parts should allow them to effectively live a very very long time. I keep having these great ideas around things like trapped androids going into 'down mode' and waiting to be rescued, out of time wanderers, but without fiat, it's moot. So curious why androids eat and age.
So, my PCs saved these refugees from a city ruined by an earthquake (massive tragedy, only 50,000 survivors from a metropolis of 500,000) and they founded their own settlement to try and give these people a home. But its winter now and the region they're all in is comparable to the Seattle / Vancouver area. So now I'm having to roll up how many people are sick, how many people die of illness, etc.
Got any other suggestions for things that could happen to that many survivors?
Also, what is the most "Oh, damn" moment you've ever had as a PC / GM. Mine would probably be the realization of the immense loss of life that happened in my world at the aforementioned earthquake.
When you design characters for campaigns that you're playing in, how do you approach the character? Do you write the character's build all the way to Level 20 and then come up with a personality later, or do you decide on who you want to buy and then make choices that are appropriate to that persona? Or do you do something entirely different, perhaps?
Why do Androids age? They seem very heavily modeled off Data from Star Trek TNG. Thin runny blood, difficulty processing emotions, no morale bonuses. Yet they age like a human and die, which doesn't seem to really fit (to me anyway). I understand things wearing out over time, but routine maintenance and replacement of worn out parts should allow them to effectively live a very very long time. I keep having these great ideas around things like trapped androids going into 'down mode' and waiting to be rescued, out of time wanderers, but without fiat, it's moot. So curious why androids eat and age.Because they're essentially organic machines. (like Bishop in Aliens, as opposed to Data in Star Trek.) and like all other organics, they're subject to wear, tear, and age?
And adding to that, machines don't age? Tell that to my last four computers.
2) We're unlikely to ever create new domains for Pathfinder.Interesting... why is that? I like the design philosophy of "keeping a small number of core option but making sure these core options are very wide with a lot of variance", but the same does not apply to classes, races, bloodlines, etc.
So why limit specifically new domains?
It's because we don't have a good way to get them into the game without introducing new deities, which isn't something we are keen to do a lot of, and it's because we would then start to agonize about why current deities don't have the new domains.
Classes, races, bloodlines, and the like don't depend on in-world flavor. Domains do.
But that makes literally no sense: There isn't a Pestilence domain, despite the fact that there are several Pestilence deities in Pathfinder, like Apollyon.
I hope Paizo reconsiders at some point, there's a lot of new ground to be covered in terms of cleric domains.
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Creative Director
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if a mythic character with Divine Source has a worshiper that uses Planar Ally how would it work
The worshiper gets to choose the planar ally in most cases, unless you want to meddle and pick for them. That's something your GM gets to decide if you do much with... for the most part, though, since that type of thing won't directly influence the game, it's generally best left in the background.
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Creative Director
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Why do Androids age? They seem very heavily modeled off Data from Star Trek TNG. Thin runny blood, difficulty processing emotions, no morale bonuses. Yet they age like a human and die, which doesn't seem to really fit (to me anyway). I understand things wearing out over time, but routine maintenance and replacement of worn out parts should allow them to effectively live a very very long time. I keep having these great ideas around things like trapped androids going into 'down mode' and waiting to be rescued, out of time wanderers, but without fiat, it's moot. So curious why androids eat and age.
They're much more modeled after the androids of Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus than Star Trek, actually. But they're also more like the androids from Blade Runner, which DID have a very short lifespan.
But the main reason is that I wanted them to be pretty close to the baseline expectations for player races, and that means aging. Or in an Android's case... weathering and running down, in the same way a battery in a laptop computer eventually loses its ability to hold a charge.
As for eating... Same reason we do. That's how they power themselves.
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Creative Director
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So, my PCs saved these refugees from a city ruined by an earthquake (massive tragedy, only 50,000 survivors from a metropolis of 500,000) and they founded their own settlement to try and give these people a home. But its winter now and the region they're all in is comparable to the Seattle / Vancouver area. So now I'm having to roll up how many people are sick, how many people die of illness, etc.
Got any other suggestions for things that could happen to that many survivors?
Also, what is the most "Oh, damn" moment you've ever had as a PC / GM. Mine would probably be the realization of the immense loss of life that happened in my world at the aforementioned earthquake.
** spoiler omitted **
That type of situation is kind of exactly what the Kingdom rules are built for; check out Ultimate Campaign for the rules!
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Creative Director
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When you design characters for campaigns that you're playing in, how do you approach the character? Do you write the character's build all the way to Level 20 and then come up with a personality later, or do you decide on who you want to buy and then make choices that are appropriate to that persona? Or do you do something entirely different, perhaps?
** spoiler omitted **
The first thing I do is come up with a story for the character, and something of a history and some personality. That usually means I have a pretty good idea of race and class. Once I've got that sorted, I roll up the character. I often also have an idea of where I wanna go with the character... what prestige classes or types of feats or spells or whatever I want to take... but I don't level up before hand.
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Creative Director
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But that makes literally no sense: There isn't a Pestilence domain, despite the fact that there are several Pestilence deities in Pathfinder, like Apollyon.
I hope Paizo reconsiders at some point, there's a lot of new ground to be covered in terms of cleric domains.
Not every rule mechanic benefits from endless expansion.
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Creative Director
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For learning about Mythos creatures and the Old Cults should I use Knowledge (Arcana) or (Dungeoneering) i.e. What makes the best Knowledge (Ocult) ?
For mythos creatures, use the correct skill for the monster type. For learning about the Great Old Ones, Outer Gods, and the Old Cults, use Knowledge (religion).
So I'm getting ramped up to run Rise of the Runelords and I have one player who's all jacked up, has a background already set up and his character rolled, and even ordered his mini already. He wants to take the Liberator Story Feat from ultimate campaign which needs him to rescue 200 slaves to accomplish it. Are there specific points you can think of where there are good places to add in slaves? I figure anytime they miss an event in the AP, I can fill in some XP with a slaver side quest also.
Also, with story feats, is there a range of levels it should take as rule of thumb to accomplish it? It could be relatively easy to free 50 at a time, I'm thinking of starting small and slowly having them free more and more at a time as they level, maybe slowly breaking down a pirate ring capturing Varisians.
So I'm reading Giants Revisited... apparently, fire giants are oversized, burning duergar.
Now for a much more baffling question: How is Kazavon considered Lawful Evil? From what I've read about him, there's no system or order to his evil, and he isn't as manipulative as other blue dragons. Kazavon honestly seems more neutral evil to me, maybe even chaotic.
Hope you are not getting _too_ tired on all the Divine Source questions! This may also fall within things you want to leave unsaid so far, but in case it's not:
1. When something grants divine spells, is it providing the energy for the spell, the insight needed to shape that energy, or both?
2. If the being that is a divine source is also the source of the energy for the spell, does that energy come solely from that being's mythically resplendent self, or is the spell-granting being rather a gateway or conduit to some external source of power?
3. If the latter, is such an external source of power ultimately the same source as that which arcane spellcasters draw from, such as some ambient background field of magical energy?
4. If the latter, would it be appropriate to describe the ability to grant divine spells as the ability to draw upon ambient magical energy to prepare spells just as e.g. a wizard would, only you're using your cleric's slots to do so in instead of your own? E.g. so that the fundamental difference between arcane and divine magic would be that in the first case, the caster prepares the spell, in the latter, the sponsor that the caster has faith in does it for them, but in a sense making a "divine" spell "arcane" from the perspective of the deity, but "divine" from the perspective of the cleric?
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So I'm reading Giants Revisited... apparently, fire giants are oversized, burning duergar.
Now for a much more baffling question: How is Kazavon considered Lawful Evil? From what I've read about him, there's no system or order to his evil, and he isn't as manipulative as other blue dragons. Kazavon honestly seems more neutral evil to me, maybe even chaotic.
IANJJ, but I believe it has primarily to do with his worship of Zon-Kuthon, who is also LE. And not manipulative? He tricked Ustalav into giving him a kingdom to use as his playground! How's that NOT manipulative?
I believe the reason people are asking is because the Dragon Empires Gazeteer (Page 11, under physical description) states that Samsaran blood is crystal clear.They have dark red blood. Their skin is blue.Are they blue-blooded? Or is it their skin alone?If you choke a samsaran, what color does she turn?Darker blue. And you're a bad person for wondering!!!Well then there you go. That book is correct.
Samsarans have transparent blood. Skin is blue.
So to return to the original question that would mean a rush of blood to any particular body part would cause that part to become more translucent of anything, not really changing color or hue.
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Creative Director
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James,
Aklo seems to be the language of the various Mythos inspired critters/races.
Is it in the same family as Orvian?
Do they share similar origins?
Nope.
The real world origin of Aklo is in a short story called "The White People" by Arthur Machen, written a century or so ago. This story was one of Lovecraft's favorites, and he picked up the use of the Aklo language there. WE picked it up as the "spooky evil magic language" for Pathfinder; it's a great one for evil fey, Lovcraftian things, and other spooky critters.
The real world origin of Orvian is my homebrew campaign; I invented it about 20 years ago to be the language of a race of half-living clear-skinned vampiric creatures called Urdefhans who were led by a powerful necromancer named Nocticula. When I transplanted them into the Darklands, they became daemon worshipers instead of demon worshipers, and I had the language become a sort of "Deep Underdark" common.
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Creative Director
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So I'm getting ramped up to run Rise of the Runelords and I have one player who's all jacked up, has a background already set up and his character rolled, and even ordered his mini already. He wants to take the Liberator Story Feat from ultimate campaign which needs him to rescue 200 slaves to accomplish it. Are there specific points you can think of where there are good places to add in slaves? I figure anytime they miss an event in the AP, I can fill in some XP with a slaver side quest also.
Also, with story feats, is there a range of levels it should take as rule of thumb to accomplish it? It could be relatively easy to free 50 at a time, I'm thinking of starting small and slowly having them free more and more at a time as they level, maybe slowly breaking down a pirate ring capturing Varisians.
There's a few places you can add slaves; you can add a few to Thistletop, and a few more to the Skinsaw Cult, but the best two places to add those slaves are to adventures 3 and 4. Have the ogres keep a lot more rangers alive as slaves, along with others, to work in their forges. Or have LOTS more slaves for the PCs to free from the stone giants in adventure 4.
The range of levels is left entirely to the GM.
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Creative Director
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So I'm reading Giants Revisited... apparently, fire giants are oversized, burning duergar.
Now for a much more baffling question: How is Kazavon considered Lawful Evil? From what I've read about him, there's no system or order to his evil, and he isn't as manipulative as other blue dragons. Kazavon honestly seems more neutral evil to me, maybe even chaotic.
Kazavon is lawful evil in that he was the champion of Zon-Kuthon and was in a lot of ways the classic evil general warlord when he lived.
Alignments are easy to argue about though, and my preference is that if anyone thinks someone is the wrong alignment, it's easy enough to change for their games in most cases. I don't think he's acting neutral evil or chaotic evil at all, in any event.
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Creative Director
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Hope you are not getting _too_ tired on all the Divine Source questions! This may also fall within things you want to leave unsaid so far, but in case it's not:
1. When something grants divine spells, is it providing the energy for the spell, the insight needed to shape that energy, or both?
2. If the being that is a divine source is also the source of the energy for the spell, does that energy come solely from that being's mythically resplendent self, or is the spell-granting being rather a gateway or conduit to some external source of power?
3. If the latter, is such an external source of power ultimately the same source as that which arcane spellcasters draw from, such as some ambient background field of magical energy?
4. If the latter, would it be appropriate to describe the ability to grant divine spells as the ability to draw upon ambient magical energy to prepare spells just as e.g. a wizard would, only you're using your cleric's slots to do so in instead of your own? E.g. so that the fundamental difference between arcane and divine magic would be that in the first case, the caster prepares the spell, in the latter, the sponsor that the caster has faith in does it for them, but in a sense making a "divine" spell "arcane" from the perspective of the deity, but "divine" from the perspective of the cleric?
1) It's unclear. Probably both, but the worshiper provides some of that as well.
2) Mostly from the faith in the worshiper.
3) Unrevealed, but probably.
4) Probably not.