Finally, Backstory for Balazar, the Iconic Summoner .
Hi, James!
Did you get anything particularly amazing for Christmas?
Merry Christmas James!
Get and/or give any memorable gifts this season?
Is their anywhere on Golarion that serves as basically a mass graveyard that Dragons go to?
I am so stealing that 0_0
Is their anywhere on Golarion that serves as basically a mass graveyard that Dragons go to?
Often I do assume that if the body isn't found that the writers are being cowardly and/or canny, and as such I expect the character to come back "in a surprise development" which isn't really a surprise at all since this trope happens SO OFTEN in fiction. As such, I've really grown to appreciate it when content creators stick to their guns and keep characters dead. At the very least, those who do this more often than not CAN bring back a dead character and actually have it be a surprise.
So are you a big fan of The Walking Dead's way of killing off major characters, and making sure you know they're dead?
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Is their anywhere on Golarion that serves as basically a mass graveyard that Dragons go to?Check this out.
James, seeing that the linked module is 3.5, is the dragon graveyard still canon or something that would be retconned out?
So many things that have never been expanded/expounded upon from the 3.5 books era of books. Hard to tell was is no longer canon or what still is.
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Is their anywhere on Golarion that serves as basically a mass graveyard that Dragons go to?Check this out.
Thankies.
Check TV Tropes. Lirianne I'm not sure, but Reiko is True Neutral and Hayato is Lawful Good.
James I have read quite a bit about the wightpocalypse on these forums.
In case you have not familiar with the term it is the idea that a single wight could convert a whole village and there is not much to stop it and then for those wights to turn the whole world.
Is it possible that there ever might be some limitation added to the wight so this does not happen? Like they can't go more then a few miles from where they spawned. It just does not seem right that a CR 3 creature could end all life and there is nothing an epic level party could do to stop it.
So, sorry if this has been asked before; far as I can tell it hasn't.
Which type of non-open content demon(not demon lord, just demon), if any, do you wish you could have used for pathfinder?
Creative Director
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Merry Christmas....well it might not be there for you just yet.
Anyway a couple of Swashbuckler question...
1) What is your favorite Swashbuckler movie?
2) What is your favorite Swashbuckler novel?
3) Ever played 7th Sea?
1) I don't really have a favorite swashbuckler movie, but I do have a favorite swashbuckler character from a movie: Zorro! Or maybe Tim Roth's character from Rob Roy.
2) Same as above... my favorite swashbuckler from a novel is Arya Stark.
3) Nope.
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Creative Director
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So, Charisma. And by extension, all stats.
Do you see them as affecting EVERY aspect that is listed in the stat description, or just one, most, or somewhere in between?
Ex: By "RAW" (not really the right word but we'll roll with it), can you have a character who is very attractive, but abrasive, unpersuasive, very uncharismatic, and have that suffice for a low Cha character?
Likewise, can a character with high Dex also be a bit of a klutz, or a low Dex character have quick hands? Or a high Wis character be lacking in all common sense, but with great perceptive powers and so forth?
There seems to be some argument about this on a fairly regular basis, and while it doesn't really affect much, I'd like your input on the matter.
And apologies if this has been asked before. There are a LOT of posts in this thread. =p
Charisma affects every aspect in its stat description; that's why we included those things in that description.
You can have a hideous looking person with a high charisma, and a beautiful person who doesn't have a particularly powerful personality; in both cases their high charisma is going to inspire fans and followers. You see this all the time in movie stars. That said, physical appearance is really NOT determined or set in stone by Charisma... but honestly? A potent appearance (be it beauty or ugliness) is ENHANCED by a high Charisma. Two identical twins with identical appearances don't have exactly the same Charismas... and the one with the higher score will be regarded as the uglier/more beautiful of the two.
Other stats don't really have this going on, really.
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Creative Director
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I have another "Behind The Scenes" set of questions.
You announced the 2014 APs in July and August. Just curious as to:
1. The internal timeline of when ideas you are batting around get put on the table for real consideration and the process of whittling down those ideas.
2. The average number of scenarios you debate, and how the final "voting" is handled for the following year's APs.
3. Do the APs that didn't make it go back on the debate list for next year? Moved to other areas such as Module ideas?
4. Do some AP ideas end up being thrown out as "unworkable" for one reason or another?
5. If you can reveal any, AP ideas you have had to discard?
1) Depends on the project, but for something big like a hardcover or an Adventure Path, those ideas generally get locked in about 12-18 months before the product's print date. For smaller products it's more like 9-12 months.
2) I'm not sure what you mean about "scenarios I debate." There isn't really a debate. Paizo's not a democracy. Similarly, we don't "vote" on APs. Rob and I (whoever happens to be the one in charge of a particular AP) come up with an AP's idea, drawing upon management's requests if any, and build an outline that WE would like to work on, then build up an outline and involve each other and Adam and a few others as sounding boards along the way to help sift out the good ideas from the bad.
3) Nope. Generally an AP that "doesn't make it" is put back into the idea cauldron where it steeps and brews and falls apart into its component parts, so that parts that did work can come out later and transform into new elements for future products. But once an AP plot doesn't make it, it's because it's not good enough to make it, and no amount of sitting on the sidelines will fix that.
4) Yes.
5) Sure. We were going to do an AP where there was a STRONG dragon theme, with a dragon serving as an end boss for each adventure, with a final dragon serving as the end boss of the whole AP. But as it turns out... dragons are pretty samey, and the more dragons you use in adventures, the less magical and interesting and memorable they get and the more repetitive they start to feel. One dragon as an entire Adventure Path's boss is MUCH better than 6 of them... that starts feeling more like a Dragonlance adventure, which is cool for Krynn but doesn't work for Golarion.
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Creative Director
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Hi, James!
Did you get anything particularly amazing for Christmas?
Yup! Got a PS4 from my sister/brother-in-law/neice/nephew. And a great laptop case filled with books and video games from my parents. And a new George Foreman Grill to replace the old tired one I had. And season two of Game of Thrones. And MUCH MUCH MORE!
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Creative Director
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Merry Christmas James!
Get and/or give any memorable gifts this season?
Just listed some of the stuff I got. I gave my dad a Go Pro camera, my mom a bluetooth speaker, helped out getting my niece and nephew each a new computer, a Middle-Earth style map of the Bay Area for my Bay Area sister/brother-in-law, fancy shoes and ugly slippers, and stacks of gift certificates and pounds of candy.
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Creative Director
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Hi Mr Jacobs.
I would like to ask how often you play/gm in the high levels of PF (taking into account homegames and paizo staff games)?
Do you like games inthe high levels? (not restricted to pF but also 3.5 and older editions, or whatever in general)
I prefer to run long-term campaigns, so it depends on timing as to when and how often I run/play high level PF games. Currently, I run two high level games on alternating weeks so that works out to one high-level game per week (one group is 13th level, the other is 15th and just gained a mythic tier). I quite enjoy running and playing high level games, but they work MUCH better if your party arrives at the high levels organically, so that you come to know your characters as players and GMs over the course of many sessions of play.
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Creative Director
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Is their anywhere on Golarion that serves as basically a mass graveyard that Dragons go to?
No.
We DID publish an adventure many years ago that was about this exact thing, but that adventure ended up having a lot of problems with it. On top of that, it was published in a narrow window where we were tinkering with non-world-specific modules.
In any event, there are no mass dragon graveyards on Golarion. That presupposes a MUCH more united spiritual or social organization than we have for our dragons, who are much more individual in those aspects.
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Creative Director
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Is their anywhere on Golarion that serves as basically a mass graveyard that Dragons go to?Check this out.
That would be the module I just mentioned. It's not really part of Golarion's canon at all, since it raises far more questions than it answers and presents our dragons in a way that isn't really on-target for how we ended up wanting Golarion's dragons to be presented.
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Creative Director
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Often I do assume that if the body isn't found that the writers are being cowardly and/or canny, and as such I expect the character to come back "in a surprise development" which isn't really a surprise at all since this trope happens SO OFTEN in fiction. As such, I've really grown to appreciate it when content creators stick to their guns and keep characters dead. At the very least, those who do this more often than not CAN bring back a dead character and actually have it be a surprise.So are you a big fan of The Walking Dead's way of killing off major characters, and making sure you know they're dead?
Yes.
Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Lost, Boardwalk Empire, Deadwood, and more are also good examples of this. Some of those DO bring back characters, but they do so in ways that don't remove the safety net of "anyone can die!"
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Creative Director
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Is their anywhere on Golarion that serves as basically a mass graveyard that Dragons go to?Check this out.James, seeing that the linked module is 3.5, is the dragon graveyard still canon or something that would be retconned out?
So many things that have never been expanded/expounded upon from the 3.5 books era of books. Hard to tell was is no longer canon or what still is.
As mentioned above... this one was never really IN canon. It came out at a point where we were intentionally downplaying Golarion connections in the hope that folks would be more willing to buy the adventures even when they weren't using Golarion. That experiment only lasted for a couple of adventures before we abandoned it. In fact, this module is pretty much the ONLY ONE that I'd say isn't canon for Golarion; the other one we did under this experiment was Wolfgang Baur's adventure in the fallen Shory city, and that one, obviously, has been retconned INTO Golarion.
So, Charisma. And by extension, all stats.
Do you see them as affecting EVERY aspect that is listed in the stat description, or just one, most, or somewhere in between?
Ex: By "RAW" (not really the right word but we'll roll with it), can you have a character who is very attractive, but abrasive, unpersuasive, very uncharismatic, and have that suffice for a low Cha character?
Likewise, can a character with high Dex also be a bit of a klutz, or a low Dex character have quick hands? Or a high Wis character be lacking in all common sense, but with great perceptive powers and so forth?
There seems to be some argument about this on a fairly regular basis, and while it doesn't really affect much, I'd like your input on the matter.
And apologies if this has been asked before. There are a LOT of posts in this thread. =p
Charisma affects every aspect in its stat description; that's why we included those things in that description.
You can have a hideous looking person with a high charisma, and a beautiful person who doesn't have a particularly powerful personality; in both cases their high charisma is going to inspire fans and followers. You see this all the time in movie stars. That said, physical appearance is really NOT determined or set in stone by Charisma... but honestly? A potent appearance (be it beauty or ugliness) is ENHANCED by a high Charisma. Two identical twins with identical appearances don't have exactly the same Charismas... and the one with the higher score will be regarded as the uglier/more beautiful of the two.
Other stats don't really have this going on, really.
Sweet, thanks for the answer. I like this interpretation, if I'm reading this right. Cha determines your appearance, but not necessarily your attractiveness? Just how striking, memorable, "Wow factor"-y it is, whether it's anything special on its own or not?
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Creative Director
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James I have read quite a bit about the wightpocalypse on these forums.
In case you have not familiar with the term it is the idea that a single wight could convert a whole village and there is not much to stop it and then for those wights to turn the whole world.
Is it possible that there ever might be some limitation added to the wight so this does not happen? Like they can't go more then a few miles from where they spawned. It just does not seem right that a CR 3 creature could end all life and there is nothing an epic level party could do to stop it.
That can certainly happen if that's the story you want to tell. Or not, if you don't want to tell that story.
The baseline assumption is that something like this won't happen because wights, like the vast majority of undead, are not nomads. They don't wander around. They haunt places. A wight lurks in its crypt or dungeon or graveyard or wherever it dwells and doesn't wander around, nor does it seek to build an empire. Without those drives, it can't really cause a "wightpocalypse." It's basically a psychological limitation of most undead.
And a CR 3 monster would not require an epic level party to stop it. An angry mob with torches could take down a wight.
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Creative Director
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So, sorry if this has been asked before; far as I can tell it hasn't.
Which type of non-open content demon(not demon lord, just demon), if any, do you wish you could have used for pathfinder?
Rutterkins, yochlols, gorristros, Demogorgon, Graz'zt, Obox-ob... honestly, all of them that aren't open content. Note that some of them are based on real-world mythology and we HAVE brought those in.
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Creative Director
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Sweet, thanks for the answer. I like this interpretation, if I'm reading this right. Cha determines your appearance, but not necessarily your attractiveness? Just how striking, memorable, "Wow factor"-y it is, whether it's anything special on its own or not?
Correct. High Charisma certainly DRAMATICALLY increases the chances of a character being memorable in appearance (be that beauty or hideousness), but doesn't preclude something like the stereotyped "airhead" who's super beautiful but devoid of personality, or the village idiot who is super ugly but not particularly memorable because of a lack of significant personality. (Note that you CAN have an "airhead" or "village idiot" who DOES have a strong personalty!)
Merry Christmas....well it might not be there for you just yet.
Anyway a couple of Swashbuckler question...
1) What is your favorite Swashbuckler movie?
2) What is your favorite Swashbuckler novel?
3) Ever played 7th Sea?
1) I don't really have a favorite swashbuckler movie, but I do have a favorite swashbuckler character from a movie: Zorro! Or maybe Tim Roth's character from Rob Roy.
2) Same as above... my favorite swashbuckler from a novel is Arya Stark.
3) Nope.
Ah...I was hoping for a more ewxact list looking for suggestions.
As for 7th Sea it is great Swashbuckling Role-Playing Game. Unfortunaly it is out of print.
Now some questions...still on swashbucklers.
1) In Golarion what deities seem to attract the most swashbucklers?
2) Besides the rapier which are some of your more favorite swashbuckler weapons?
3) A three parter. What is your favorite swashbuckler Character that you played? Someone else played? Favorite Swashbuckler NPC?
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Creative Director
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1) In Golarion what deities seem to attract the most swashbucklers?
2) Besides the rapier which are some of your more favorite swashbuckler weapons?
3) A three parter. What is your favorite swashbuckler Character that you played? Someone else played? Favorite Swashbuckler NPC?
1) I'd say Sarenrae, Desna, Cayden Cailean, and Calistria.
2) Starknife, short sword, scimitar, dagger, whip.
3) Shensen is my favorite, but my pirate captain Sasha is creeping up on her. Haven't really seen anyone else play a memorable swashbuckler. Favorite NPC would be Blackjack and Ameiko. Although none of those are actually "swashbucklers" in class levels.
I have another "Behind The Scenes" set of questions.
You announced the 2014 APs in July and August. Just curious as to:
1. The internal timeline of when ideas you are batting around get put on the table for real consideration and the process of whittling down those ideas.
2. The average number of scenarios you debate, and how the final "voting" is handled for the following year's APs.
3. Do the APs that didn't make it go back on the debate list for next year? Moved to other areas such as Module ideas?
4. Do some AP ideas end up being thrown out as "unworkable" for one reason or another?
5. If you can reveal any, AP ideas you have had to discard?
1) Depends on the project, but for something big like a hardcover or an Adventure Path, those ideas generally get locked in about 12-18 months before the product's print date. For smaller products it's more like 9-12 months.
2) I'm not sure what you mean about "scenarios I debate." There isn't really a debate. Paizo's not a democracy. Similarly, we don't "vote" on APs. Rob and I (whoever happens to be the one in charge of a particular AP) come up with an AP's idea, drawing upon management's requests if any, and build an outline that WE would like to work on, then build up an outline and involve each other and Adam and a few others as sounding boards along the way to help sift out the good ideas from the bad.
3) Nope. Generally an AP that "doesn't make it" is put back into the idea cauldron where it steeps and brews and falls apart into its component parts, so that parts that did work can come out later and transform into new elements for future products. But once an AP plot doesn't make it, it's because it's not good enough to make it, and no amount of sitting on the sidelines will fix that.
4) Yes.
5) Sure. We were going to do an AP where there was a STRONG dragon theme, with a dragon serving as an end boss for each adventure, with a final dragon serving as the end boss of the whole AP. But as it turns...
Thanks!!
As to Question 2, you did answer it. I wasn't sure if the APs were decided on by committee, or if it was just you and a few others hacking away at it.
James I have read quite a bit about the wightpocalypse on these forums.
In case you have not familiar with the term it is the idea that a single wight could convert a whole village and there is not much to stop it and then for those wights to turn the whole world.
Is it possible that there ever might be some limitation added to the wight so this does not happen? Like they can't go more then a few miles from where they spawned. It just does not seem right that a CR 3 creature could end all life and there is nothing an epic level party could do to stop it.
That can certainly happen if that's the story you want to tell. Or not, if you don't want to tell that story.
The baseline assumption is that something like this won't happen because wights, like the vast majority of undead, are not nomads. They don't wander around. They haunt places. A wight lurks in its crypt or dungeon or graveyard or wherever it dwells and doesn't wander around, nor does it seek to build an empire. Without those drives, it can't really cause a "wightpocalypse." It's basically a psychological limitation of most undead.
And a CR 3 monster would not require an epic level party to stop it. An angry mob with torches could take down a wight.
Sorry not a wight a shadow CR 3 it is incorporeal so no angry mob is going to get it. Of course only int 6 so that makes sense.
As for a Wraith CR 5. They are also incorporeal and have Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 21. So a one of those could bring a Wraithpocalypse. They don't have any description about liking to hunt ruins and they hate the living. Not quite sure how to stop it if any of them actually tried.
I invented the printing press in Golarion, didn't I? The other ghosts don't believe me.
James
This is something that has been nagging at me for a while but given the multitude of religious practices running around the Mwangi Expanse and the fact that some natives consider summoners akin to devil worship is it possible that anyone might have developed a similar practice to the Sarkosian God Callers centered around worshiping their eidolons?
1) Can you give some details about the Rift of Repose? Are there any of those fossilized demon lord corpses on Golarion?
2) Could there have been a prior demon queen of lust before Nocticula, whom she defeated and replaced? Or are most of the demon lords the originators of their "offices" (or substitute any appropriate demon lord / area of concern instead of Nocticula, same question)
Can you tell me more about Illarenn the island of vanity?
What creatures live there? Coloxus? Soulslivers?
Hope you are having a nice end-of-year break. :)
Without committing yourself and etching it in Golarion canon... could we expect a halfling population in Vudra similar to the average in Inner Sea nations? How about throughout Casmaron?
James, have you seen Hellboy 2: The Golden Army?
I love the way that the evil elf prince, Nuada, fights with his spear. It's such a cool acrobatic style. I've wanted to create a character that fights in a similar way, but that style seems like it favors dexterity far, far more than strength. Obviously, you can't use Weapon Finesse, or even swashbuckler finesse, with a spear, so do you have a suggestion for simulating Prince Nuada's spear fighting style?
James, have you seen Hellboy 2: The Golden Army?
I love the way that the evil elf prince, Nuada, fights with his spear. It's such a cool acrobatic style. I've wanted to create a character that fights in a similar way, but that style seems like it favors dexterity far, far more than strength. Obviously, you can't use Weapon Finesse, or even swashbuckler finesse, with a spear, so do you have a suggestion for simulating Prince Nuada's spear fighting style?
Little note, a shortspear is a one-handed piercing weapon, and works with Swashbuckler's Finesse as written in the playtest. Because a shortspear is a 'one handed piercing weapon'. Also, nothing prevents you from using the spear with two hands as you still get your bonus from precise strike and stuff.
This may or may not change with the official printing.
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This might be an oddball question for you, James, but it's after 1 AM and my mind's racing so I had to put these thoughts in text.
Have you ever seen the Trailblazer book by BadAxe Games? Friend of mine just introduced me to it. Said I should try convince any and all DMs I know to use it instead of 3.5. Yeah, that's not happening. The DMs I know are too stubborn to adjust the games. Anyways, I noticed something tonight after looking over various 3.5 bard builds that I might take in a later game that I'm not running (I run the PF games in the group). The Sublime Chord is a great PrC for the bard, but only for the first couple of levels. The other eight suck, except for the fact that you get 9th level spells by the time you're done. That being said, the Trailblazer version of the bard allows you to get up to 8th level spells, and lists off what they are.
So my question is, why has no one in the Pathfinder world done up a bard with 8th or 9th level spells like this? Whether as an archetype or as a PrC. You'd think someone would have done one by now, or even thought about it in passing. Has it just not come up? Are bards that disliked or considered too powerful already?
Greetings Mighty Theropoda,
After Sarenrae, who would you say are the seven most notable, influential and powerful angels in Golarion?
How does Sarenrae view the worshipers of these seven?
On the flip side of the coin, if you were allowed to have incorporated Malcanthet in Golarion, how would you 'fit her in' among the other demon lords, the females in particular? Would she overshadow many of them?
How close would she be to power compared to Lamashtu?
James, have you seen Hellboy 2: The Golden Army?
I love the way that the evil elf prince, Nuada, fights with his spear. It's such a cool acrobatic style. I've wanted to create a character that fights in a similar way, but that style seems like it favors dexterity far, far more than strength. Obviously, you can't use Weapon Finesse, or even swashbuckler finesse, with a spear, so do you have a suggestion for simulating Prince Nuada's spear fighting style?
Little note, a shortspear is a one-handed piercing weapon, and works with Swashbuckler's Finesse as written in the playtest. Because a shortspear is a 'one handed piercing weapon'. Also, nothing prevents you from using the spear with two hands as you still get your bonus from precise strike and stuff.
This may or may not change with the official printing.
Huh! You're right, a shortspear would work. Thanks, Tels.
Spoiler:Also, it wasn't really spelled out clearly in Midnight Isles... but Nocticula actually KILLS Baphomet when she stops him at the end of "Midnight Isles," which means he is resurrected in his Abyssal Realm but gets really timid about further risks... which is why the PCs are able to invade his realm in the next adventure without him immediately trying to stop them.
In any case, if Baphomet didn't get away, then I presume this is a pretty dynamite isle-making kill for Nocticula? So Baphomet resurrects in his realm but with a bit of his essence left behind? Talk about phantom limb pain. Man, Nocticula is the worst, by which I mean the best.
Whom would I have to ask nicely and politely to add more squirrels to the messageboard's avatar gallery? Like the ones from animal Archive.