Creative Director
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Speaking of product identity, Orcus is one of the most popular D&d Demon Lords. He's featured in a lot of settings and has been cast as the villain of a lot of adventures, like Dead Gods in Planescape. His name and description are in Book of the Damned II: Lords of Chaos, but so far he hasn't really been a big part of Pathfinder lore.
Did you guys choose to downplay Orcus, or is this just more WoTC copyright bullcrap?
The mythological Orcus isn't a fat animal-headed demon who wields a death-dealing wand. That version of Orcus would normally be protected under WotC's intellectual property... but they gave permission to Necromancer Games to use that version in the Tome of Horrors, so they went and statted up that version of Orcus in an open-license product. That's the only reason you even see us mentioning Orcus to the extent you do in our books.
As for why we're downplaying him? Becuase he's kinda been played out. Of ALL the game's demon lords over the past 40 years, Orcus has been used the most. Beyond Dead Gods, he was also the main bad guy of the Bloodstone Pass adventures earlier on, and he played a big role in 4th edition D&D I believe (at the very least, they put him on the cover of their Monster Manual). He also had a big role in our own Savage Tide Adventure Path, so even we at Paizo did some stuff with him. And beyond that, he was featured in a big way in both Slumbering Tsar and in Rapan-Athuk.
We've got 30 or so demon lords, most of which are brand new. We focus on those new demon lords because they deserve stories as well, and by NOT focusing much at all on Orcus, we keep the current stories out there viable for home games.
And last but certainly not least... please don't phrase things that way. "WoTC copyright bullcrap" is in fact a pretty antagonistic way to talk, and that's not appropriate on these boards. In fact, a big part of the reason why any of us gamers know about Orcus and are interested in him at all in the first place is because of stuff TSR and WotC created for Orcus. I know that's why I'm interested in him. It's more appropriate to THANK WotC (and TSR before them) for their work on Orcus than to bicker that they dare to protect any part of their intellectual property so that they can profit from it. That's the whole point of an RPG company. We do the same at Paizo—you'll note that none of the demon lords we've invented for Golarion are open content beyond their stats.
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Creative Director
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I've been seeing a lot of art questions lately, and it made me curious about this:
1. Has Paizo ever considered utilizing any of the classic TSR artistic talent? (Elmore, Caldwell, Easley, etc.)
2. If not, any particular reason?
1) Not really.
2) Multiple reasons, but two of the big ones are...
... those artists aren't always comfortable with the contract requirements we place on artists who produce art for us, and...
... sometimes those artists are out of our price range for what we can pay for art.
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Creative Director
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Dear James, here're some questions:
1. Don't You know if there are going to be books fot Neutral and Evil Aligments, as the "Champions of Purity" for Good ones?
2. In Your vision, could the alchemist's Breath Weapon Bomb discovery be combined with the Fast Bombs discovery to make several breath attacks in one round?
3. Can You explain how does the Boar Style feat's additional damage actually work and how does it work in bound with Boar Shred feat's bleed damage?
1) If I did know, I wouldn't say, since they haven't yet been announced.
2) No. If only because fast bombs is already WAY too good and too powerful as-is.
3) I can't, since I wasn't involved in the design or development or editing of those feats at all. That's a question for the rules design team.
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Creative Director
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I'm playing through Oblivion and was wondering if you remember the Daedra Lords real well. Did you have a favorite one?
Did you have a favorite quest for one in one of the Elder Scrolls games?
I have it narrowed down to the 4 that I feel fit your brand of evil...
Heh... of course! I've played ALL of the Elder Scrolls game, with the exception of Battlespire (which came out at a time when my computer couldn't run it, and by the time I upgraded, I was looking at newer games). They're all pretty cool. Clavicus Vile and Mehrunes Dagon and Sheogorath and Azura are all cool, but my current favorite is a tie between Nocturnal (for the cool role she played for thieves in Skyrim) and Hermaeus Mora (thanks to Dragonborn and the fact that his form isn't human but is instead very Lovecraftian).
My current favorite quest in all the Elder Scrolls games was probably the search for the Black Book through Hermaeus Mora's realm of Apocrypha... but the one where you wake up with no memories after an epic drunkenness in Skyrim is probably my actual favorite, where you have to backtrack all over the region to piece together what you did. Ha!
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Creative Director
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How do you feel that it's more interesting? I'm intrigued, because to me it feels a bit cliche ("a-ha, he thinks he's smartest, but a demon still outsmarted him because he wasn't expecting it!"). Even giving just that little bit more to demons in general than they need or should get, although that might just be my demon-fatigue speaking (after WotR is done, I think I, at least, will be ready for a long break from demons; granted, others and Paizo may feel differently).So, given my reading of the text in Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth, I'd be willing to bet cash money that the following scenario wasn't close to your(meaning paizo's creative team more than you specifically) intention given that the possibility isn't even remotely hinted at, but given that I have an overwhelming bias in favor of devils rather than demons, I'd like to run this by you and get your thoughts;
** spoiler omitted **
Not all that much a fan.
** spoiler omitted **
For one, the underdog is always more interesting to me, and in this case, Baphomet's the underdog two times over, with Asmodeus and with Lamashtu.
For another, I've always preferred demons over devils—devils feel too samey to me, and plots where demons get the better on devils appeal to me.
And for another, it's specifically designed to be a story that shows that chaotic evil does NOT mean chaotic stupid—the idea that demons, being chaotic, are incapable of planning or the like has always annoyed me, and now that I'm in a position to make game products happen that showcase demons acting intelligently and sneaky and getting the upper hand on devils... I'm delighted!
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Creative Director
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Sure would seem to, hmm? Did you really believe Asmodeus was telling the whole truth?Asmodeus. Absolutely not, but I thought that account in the book was from Tabris's writings in the Book of the Damned? Of course there is no telling where he got that info from.
All three of those books have intentionally contradicting information in them. In-world, the contradicting info is more blatant, of course... all part of the book's evil, after all.
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Creative Director
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1) Desna didn't come from any one place. A few of the Greyhawk deities, particularly Celestian and Fharlanghn, were partially responsible for the basic idea of a god of space and travel, but the rest? All over. In fact, of all the deities in the setting, she's probably the one whose personality and take on reality I like to think most closely matches my own.Any double takes on the staff when Desna was being used for a boy's name in "The Legend of Korra"? (Although admittedly he's one half of a very androynous set of mixed gender fraternal twins.)
Not that I've heard. I've not yet seen any of that show myself, but that does indeed amuse me. I'm pretty sure I came up with the name before them (back in the late 80s'), but since there's a limited number of combinations of 5-letter words you can form with the English alphabet, doesn't surprise me that duplicates happen!
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Creative Director
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Do you think oracles have more freedom then the cleric when useing the spell Miracle
No.
Their limitations are the same. The fact that the player gets to decide what their personal religion is for a player character oracle does mean that in that case makes it weirder, since the player, in that case, sets up the religion's themes (unless they actually do worship a deity or existing religion, which many oracles do) doesn't make the spell any less restrictive. In fact, I'd say it makes the spell kind of HARDER to cast since the player needs to play the casting out the way he's established his oracle's faith, which may not be 100% in compliance with whatever miracle he wants to cast.
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Hi James,
will Pathfinder #100 be in any way a special issue, or will it be just a standard part 4 of 6?
Would you ever consider having one-shot special issues in the Pathfinder AP monthlies series? Or two, three-shots, or anything really other than one six-parter after another?
What about the 10th anniversary of the Pathfinder monthly, around #120ish? Could there be a one-shot somewhere around there between six-parters?
Would you ever consider anything like those? Or is the Pathfinder monthly strictly for six-part APs?
I was also curious if there'd be a 10th anniversary remake of Crimson Throne or something.
Anyway... Would a Divine Source character with miracle as a spell-like be able to make requests to themselves? That just seems like unbelievably awesome flavor.
Do you have a favorite Daedric Artifact? I was partial to Azura's Star in Morrowind after I trapped Vivec's soul inside...
And does your favorite artifact change from game to game?
How do the ACG classes interact with archetypes?
JUST LIKE AN EDIT IN THE DARK: Do force, positive and negative energy spells count as elemental energy? Meaning, could a sorcerer with the Elemental bloodline use their arcana to turn Magic Missile into an elemental spell?
I was wondering is Todd Lockwood still making rpg art? If is it possible that he will make art for Pathfinder in the future?
Would you allow sorcerer players taking the Draconic bloodline to flavor their ancestry as a different category of true dragon? For instance, using the red or gold dragon blood and flavoring it as magma or solar. No mechanical benefits, just pure fluff.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
will Pathfinder #100 be in any way a special issue, or will it be just a standard part 4 of 6?
Would you ever consider having one-shot special issues in the Pathfinder AP monthlies series? Or two, three-shots, or anything really other than one six-parter after another?
What about the 10th anniversary of the Pathfinder monthly, around #120ish? Could there be a one-shot somewhere around there between six-parters?
Would you ever consider anything like those? Or is the Pathfinder monthly strictly for six-part APs?
We've been trying to figure out what to do with #100 for a while now, in fact. Since it's part 4 of that AP, though... it's a complicated and strange thing to solve. We might not do anything. We might do something. We'll have to wait and see... we're still quite a few volumes away, after all, but I do know what that AP and that adventure are gonna be about.
One-shot specials? Since we're barely able to keep the APs on schedule now with 12 a year... I can't imagine that adding a 13th would be good for our morale and energy and sanity. Not something I'm eager to do.
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Creative Director
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Do you have a favorite Daedric Artifact? I was partial to Azura's Star in Morrowind after I trapped Vivec's soul inside...
And does your favorite artifact change from game to game?
Azura's Star is definately awesome, but the eternal lockpick is nice too... even though by the time I find it, I'm always carrying hundreds of lockpicks around anyway. Molag-Bal's mace is cool, but I'm never in a position to make use of it.
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Creative Director
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Hi James!
I was told you'd appreciate this cosplay of Merisiel the Rogue and to let you know here.
We definitely think it is an amazing costume. (All respect to Melody Tripp, the creator!)
http://www.rpgbooster.com/merisiel-pathfinder-rogue-cosplay/
Yup; saw that. It's INCREDIBLE! Favorite cosplay EVER!!!
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Creative Director
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How do the ACG classes interact with archetypes?
JUST LIKE AN EDIT IN THE DARK: Do force, positive and negative energy spells count as elemental energy? Meaning, could a sorcerer with the Elemental bloodline use their arcana to turn Magic Missile into an elemental spell?
The same way any other class does—they can take archetypes for their class. That means that on the outset, the ACG classes won't have many archetypes at all to choose from; there will probably be a few in the book as well. But frankly... the classes themselves are brand new! Give them a chance before you start swapping things out!
Force, positive, and negative energies aren't elemental energies.
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Creative Director
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I was wondering is Todd Lockwood still making rpg art? If is it possible that he will make art for Pathfinder in the future?
I believe he is.
As for doing art for us? Unlikely, alas. I suppose given the right timing and project and luck and fortune and fate, anything is possible... but I wouldn't hold your breath.
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Creative Director
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Would you allow sorcerer players taking the Draconic bloodline to flavor their ancestry as a different category of true dragon? For instance, using the red or gold dragon blood and flavoring it as magma or solar. No mechanical benefits, just pure fluff.
I wouldn't all it without changing the mechanics. And I would design the mechanics OR would let the player do it and then approve/adjust.
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One-shot specials? Since we're barely able to keep the APs on schedule now with 12 a year... I can't imagine that adding a 13th would be good for our morale and energy and sanity. Not something I'm eager to do.
Sorry, I meant taking that monthly spot.
As in,
Feb #102 part 6 of 6
Mar #103 BIG ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
Apr #104 part 1 of 6
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Creative Director
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I meant in the Paizo office.Did anyone win some good bets on the Superbowl?I suspect someone somewhere did. Not that I know of. Don't pay attention to that facet of sportsball.
I figured that as well. I'm not aware of any other bets or anything there, but pretty much the entire building was pretty delighted with the results of the game. If they were into the sportsball at all, of course. Not everyone at Paizo is.
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Creative Director
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One-shot specials? Since we're barely able to keep the APs on schedule now with 12 a year... I can't imagine that adding a 13th would be good for our morale and energy and sanity. Not something I'm eager to do.Sorry, I meant taking that monthly spot.
As in,
Feb #102 part 6 of 6
Mar #103 BIG ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
Apr #104 part 1 of 6
Oh. Yeah... that's not really an option either. We really value having the first part of an AP available at Gen Con, and offsetting that with something like a one-shot or a strangely long or short AP would mess with that.
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Oh. Yeah... that's not really an option either. We really value having the first part of an AP available at Gen Con, and offsetting that with something like a one-shot or a strangely long or short AP would mess with that.
Fair enough, James! I'll be waiting with curiosity to see if anything unusual turns up in #100, even if only a retrospective article.
1) What's your favorite entity capable of granting spells for each alignment axis in Pathfinder, whether god, demigod, demigod-level outsider, or great old one/outer god?
2) Do hobgoblins generally worship the barghest demigods and/or Lamashtu like regular goblins do, and have a similar origin myth to that of goblins?
3) What is your favorite creature of each type (aberration, animal, construct, dragon, fey, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, outsider, plant, undead, vermin) presented in Bestiary 4?
I'm going to hazard a guess that his favorite aberration is Cthulhu.
What video games have you gotten yourself into lately?
I posted this on Reddit's r/pathfinder, but I figure it could be said here.
What do you think the people of Golarion would be like in a modern setting? Things to consider:
-Technology doesn't necessarily mean that magic is obsolete, far from it. In fact, they can be seamlessly integrated into the form of powerful constructs.
-On Golarion, gods come and go. Universal staples like Asmodeus, Pharasma and Rovagug are obviously going to still be around, but what gods might have died in that time? What new gods may have come? Would some of the demigods, such as Nocticula, have ascended in that time?
-How would the various races adapt to the march of technology and culture? I can see lizardfolk, for instance, as being basically reptilian Amish people, kobolds as being the best home security firm you could hope for, and Andoran as a superpower society of people struggling with obesity and political stupidity.
REDDIT: Someone on my original post said "Shadowrun. /thread". While I find that amusing, I know nothing about Shadowrun and, as I did here, I was asking about Golarion specifically.
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James, I'm curious about this since the rules seem to be silent ...
When a cleric casts animate dead on a corpse in order to create a zombie, and he wants that zombie to have a template (say, a Plague Zombie) he also needs to cast an additional spell (in this case contagion). Does this require an additional standard action, in addition to the standard required to cast animate dead or do both spells happen at the same time?
If both spells are in fact cast separately, over two rounds, one after the other, are there any rules stating which order these spells need to be cast, and if they need to happen immediately? In other words, could a cleric cast animate dead to create the zombie, let the zombie fight for a few rounds and then cast contagion on the same zombie, turning him into a Plague Zombie? Or, could the cleric cast contagion on a corpse first, and then come back a few rounds later and cast animate dead so that the resulting zombie created is a Plague zombie? Or, as I theorized before, do both spells somehow get cast simultaneously during the same standard action?
Thanks!
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Creative Director
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1) What's your favorite entity capable of granting spells for each alignment axis in Pathfinder, whether god, demigod, demigod-level outsider, or great old one/outer god?
2) Do hobgoblins generally worship the barghest demigods and/or Lamashtu like regular goblins do, and have a similar origin myth to that of goblins?
3) What is your favorite creature of each type (aberration, animal, construct, dragon, fey, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, outsider, plant, undead, vermin) presented in Bestiary 4?
1) LG: Iomedae
NG: SarenraeCG: Desna
LN: Irori
N: Gozreh
CN: Calistria
LE: Zon-Kuthon
NE: Norgorber
CE: Nocticula
2) Hobgoblins mostly worship archdevils. Very few of them worship the goblin barghest deities or Lamashtu.
3) The following list is more a "first one that comes to mind" than "guarenteed 100% favorite"...
Aberration: Hastur
Animal: velociraptor
Construct: wickerman
Dragon: void dragon
Fey: ankou
Humanoid: samsaran
Magical Beast: Bokrug
Monstrous Humanoid: nightgaunt
Ooze: colour out of space
Outsider: Pazuzu
Plant: mi-go
Undead: pickled punk
Vermin: xenopterid
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Creative Director
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I'm going to hazard a guess that his favorite aberration is Cthulhu.1) What's your favorite entity capable of granting spells for each alignment axis in Pathfinder, whether god, demigod, demigod-level outsider, or great old one/outer god?
2) Do hobgoblins generally worship the barghest demigods and/or Lamashtu like regular goblins do, and have a similar origin myth to that of goblins?
3) What is your favorite creature of each type (aberration, animal, construct, dragon, fey, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, outsider, plant, undead, vermin) presented in Bestiary 4?
Nope. That'd be my 2nd favorite in the book.