James Jacobs Creative Director |
So I bought Lands of Linnorm Kings a few weeks ago and one of the plot hooks that I thought was very interesting was the Valley of Birthing Death. Doubly since that most fantasy settings talk about progressing age, but never regressing it.
Have you guys already determined what the mystery in the valley is and will we ever learn about it?
So far, all we've said about it is what's in that book. No plans yet to expand on it...
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Is Korvosa's house Zenderholm of Chelish descent or Taldan? I think I remember reading somewhere that some noble families in Cheliax, despite their loyalty to the nation, have origins in Taldor, and Zenderholm's coat of arms does feature the crown symbol uniquely associated with Taldor. Or am I reading too much into the symbol?
Chelish.
But all of Cheliax is, in the end, pretty much from Taldor. So there certainly is some legacy going all the way back to Taldor there.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs wrote:Somehow someone who thinks of the entire Earth as a midday meal and could stand and take that meal while the entire armed forces of a world were doing their best to whale on him... I would argue that a 10 CR bump doesn't do it justice. Or someone who could erase an entire multiverse by emptying his blood on a scribed Pattern... At some point I think, we just go places where CR simply can't scale.Sauce987654321 wrote:Superheroes don't really match up well to the CR system in my opinion. I guess... I'd put Spiderman at CR 15, Magneto and Doctor Doom at CR 20, and Galactus at 30? Dunno.What CR ranges would you place Magneto, Doctor Doom, Spiderman, and Galactus at?
I don't know enough about Galactus to say... does he behave more or less like a god? If so... then yeah, he's not something that gets a CR.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Samy |
Referring to the Kyra thing in the other thread, but I figured you might check in on this thread more often...
If one were working under the assumption that most people aren't ambidextrous -- which isn't the case, I'm glad to assume that everyone is ambidextrous, but humor me here -- have you made any decisions which iconics are right-handed and which iconics are left-handed? In the same way as you have determined sexualities. Or is it something that has been more or less too trivial for you to get interested in?
All of the above with the caveat, of course, that I won't hold you to any of it regarding any of the art. :) Any art picture could of course always be just us seeing them through a mirror...
But from a purely mechanical standpoint unrelated to the artistic representation, have you thought about whether any iconics are whatever-handed?
James Jacobs Creative Director |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yep. Was just going to ask the same thing. After having just finished watching the True Detectives finale I know where I stand on the show as a whole, so now I'm curious, does it stay in your top 5? Obviously I get that this question may take a while before you can answer it depending on when you get a chance to watch it.
Not only did it stay in my top 5... it's now in my top 2.
The ending was perfect.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
If you woke up and found yourself in the land of golarion, what would you be?
What happens if a gripplis meets a murlock?
I would hope to be a citizen of Sandpoint.
A clash of intellectual properties creates a time/space vortex from which I would hope the murlock wins since I like them better than gripplis.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
James, you mentioned on another thread that in Herald of the Ivory Labryinth, Baphomet's reactions if you destroy some keepsakes of his was cut due to lack of space.
Any chance you can post what was supposed to happen mechanically?
==Aelryinth
Basically, it would have damaged his psyche somehow. The best way to model that is to inflict a few negative levels on the creature.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs wrote:
Easy now.As I just said, that was indeed a poorly written sentence, and we should have caught it and fixed it.
It's the person who gets offended that gets to decide if something is offensive, after all. Please don't try to call out folks like that.
I apologize, I understand you're a company in a very Liberal part of the country and have to deal with PR, while I'm just an anonymus citizen on the internet.
On the other hand, don't you feel focusing on PC can harm your product? I fear the day when I read one of your products and alignment for someone is listed as Lawful/Doubleungood.
I would understand if the person had turned from Ulfen to Mwangi, but I feel like winged beasties would have evil in their souls.
Focusing too much on any one element can harm the overall whole. Doesn't matter if what you're focusing on is good or bad. Finding the right balance is the key, and I feel like we're doing a pretty good at finding that right balance. I'm not worried at all that we'll eventually list someone as lawful doublegood.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
This is more of a Wes question, so I've asked him already, but I figured I could get your input as well.
I'm having an idea for an adventure, but I need a little insight into the mind of Asmodeus first. Would he ever be the kind to strike up a deal with Charon? Also, would Asmodeus ever be the kind to trick someone into signing a contract through deceit (e.g. artifact paper that looks like one contract but is actually a completely contract altogether)?
Asmodeus is all about making deals, ESPECIALLY when he feels he can get the upper hand. Which he usually can. And he'd absolutely be into tricking someone into signing a contract through deceit. He may be lawful... but that doesn't mean he's not evil!
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James,
I don't know if you can talk about this since it's product identity stuff, but aside from inability to use the exact names and the names and stats of the varieties introduced in later monster manuals or other books, have you at Paizo made any point of differentiating Agathions from Guardinals or Azatas from Eladrin? It's interesting to me since they share some of the same monsters, but not all of them (due to aforementioned product identity stuff).
The question came to mind mostly from when I was looking to see if there was a Bear Guardinal/Ursinal since there wasn't a Bear Agathion, and then realizing that since there was one, and it was from the Book of Exalted Deeds, there probably couldn't be. Then again, you made a Deer Agathion (Cervinal) even though there was a Deer Guardinal (Cervinal), just with significantly different stats. So could there be a later Bear Agathion, but with different name and abilities?
Since WotC themselves have significantly redefined what the terms Guardinals and Eladrin mean, it's not really a big deal to find new "roles" for those characters, in my opinion.
The term "Agathion" is from greek myth, and refers to a familiar spirit that appears as a human or animal, and that's why we took the route of making them all various forms of anthropomorphic animals. "Azatas" on the other hand are capricious free spirited forces of good, so we focused their nature on a fey-like or elf-like theme. There could certainly be a bear agathion , and that'd make a lot of sense... but when you go about making anthropomorphic animals, there's always going to be overlaping design.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
Referring to the Kyra thing in the other thread, but I figured you might check in on this thread more often...
If one were working under the assumption that most people aren't ambidextrous -- which isn't the case, I'm glad to assume that everyone is ambidextrous, but humor me here -- have you made any decisions which iconics are right-handed and which iconics are left-handed? In the same way as you have determined sexualities. Or is it something that has been more or less too trivial for you to get interested in?
All of the above with the caveat, of course, that I won't hold you to any of it regarding any of the art. :) Any art picture could of course always be just us seeing them through a mirror...
But from a purely mechanical standpoint unrelated to the artistic representation, have you thought about whether any iconics are whatever-handed?
Nope. We don't make any decisions about iconic or NPC handedness at all ever, because we don't want to limit the art team in that way by preventing them from mirroring artwork in order to make page layouts work better.
Hitdice |
Jeff Erwin wrote:It is the highest quality TV show I've ever seen. I like Game of Thrones better, but not much. True Detective is brilliant. I was looking forward to it before, but had no idea how great it would end up being.What is your opinion of True Detective? I see you referenced it above.
This maybe a bit of an oddball question, but have you ever watched Rubicon on AMC?
James Jacobs Creative Director |
James Jacobs wrote:This maybe a bit of an oddball question, but have you ever watched Rubicon on AMC?Jeff Erwin wrote:It is the highest quality TV show I've ever seen. I like Game of Thrones better, but not much. True Detective is brilliant. I was looking forward to it before, but had no idea how great it would end up being.What is your opinion of True Detective? I see you referenced it above.
I have not.
James Jacobs Creative Director |
RHMG Animator |
snickersimba wrote:This is more of a staff question than a pathfinder one.
What happens if you take away chrises coffee?Which Chris? We have lots of them.
Actually, doesn't matter. Take ANYONE'S coffee away here and they freak out. Don't do it.
I assume that's also true, if the coffee is suddenly switched to Decaff.
Liz Courts Webstore Gninja Minion |
Christopher Anthony Software Developer |
snickersimba |
Lamberts. That chris.
How about I replace lizzes coffee with muddy water?
What happens then?
Anthony, go make a computerized version of pathfinder. Just at like twice the cost for the ordinary stuff.
One time I replaced all the coffee in my moms IT office with decaf.At midnight. Lots of people were working overtime.
Wraith235 |
I have a Procedural question about the Cleric Spell Murderous Command
for Reference
You give the target a mental urge to kill its nearest ally, which it obeys to the best of its ability. The target attacks its nearest ally on its next turn with a melee weapon or natural weapon. If necessary, it moves to or charges to the nearest ally in order to make this attack. If it is unable to reach its closest ally on its next turn, the target uses its turn to get as close as possible to the ally.
Ive had this situation come up more than occasionally so I decided to ask
Target of the Spell Fails his Save vs the Spell .... however on his next turn - he no longer has any allies around
I can see 3 possible outcomes
1- the Target of the spell sits there and does nothing
2- the Spell effect is nullified because there is no allies around
3- we start beating on Unconscious bodies
and then there's the other situation - what if the target has no allies at all (trap spawned summon monster for inatance)
Archpaladin Zousha |
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:Is Korvosa's house Zenderholm of Chelish descent or Taldan? I think I remember reading somewhere that some noble families in Cheliax, despite their loyalty to the nation, have origins in Taldor, and Zenderholm's coat of arms does feature the crown symbol uniquely associated with Taldor. Or am I reading too much into the symbol?Chelish.
But all of Cheliax is, in the end, pretty much from Taldor. So there certainly is some legacy going all the way back to Taldor there.
Huh. Cool. My half-Shoanti-half-Chelaxian paladiny guy is starting to take shape in my mind!
Now that Wrath of the Righteous is over, I'm so happy! It was almost like you guys wrote it for me! It's the most metal AP I've ever seen! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
And to round things out with a somewhat awkward question. There are a number of races that can't interbreed with each other, but what if someone used transmutation spells to temporarily turn the male partner in a relationship to the same race as the female partner and they attempt to conceive while the spell is in effect? Could that result in a pregnancy where the resulting child is the same race as the mother, as the parents were the same race when the child was concieved, but still biologically related to the father? Or would the genetics simply not connect or become disrupted when the spell ends and the male partner becomes their original race again?
Bob790 |
snickersimba wrote:Why are you so awesome? Will you ever hire an actual person to live as kyra/merisiel/ezren/valereos? Because that would be awesome. Though expensive, the surgery to have people made into halflings/gnomes/elves/dwarves has to cost a lotWell... we DID just launch the Rise of the Runelords full cast audio drama, which meant that we got to approve of actors playing some of our iconics. Does that count?
Which one was closest to your image of their character?
xavier c |
xavier c wrote:what would a redeemed gnoll be(or act) likeThat depends on what redeemed the gnoll. A gnoll redeemed by a paladin of Sarenrae, a gnoll redeemed by a chaotic good alchemist atheist, and a gnoll redeemed by her own guilt over slavery would all be very different NPCs, for example.
what would a gnoll redeemed by a paladin of Sarenrae be like?
Alleran |
Some Nocticula-related questions:
1) If Ayavah was right all along, and Nocticula is who Ayavah believes she is (which, with WotR, seems more than probable), where does that leave Socothbenoth? Is he really Nocticula's brother?
2) For that matter, is she even the real first succubus?
3) And is it likely that any of the other deities (such as Lamashtu) are aware of this aspect of her?
4) What deities would she forge friendships or alliances with post-ascension? Calistria seems likely.
Luthorne |
1) A friend of mine who's new to the Golarion setting asked me about pantheistic clerics (based on something from Gods & Magic) and ones who adhere to a philosophy; I told that, based on what I remembered and some of the stuff in Faiths & Philosophies, that I thought that the Gods & Magic comment about pantheist clerics was out of date, and that clerics, even if they're part of a pantheistic society, dedicate themselves to a single deity, while oracles or other characters might be less dedicated to a single deity and venerate several equally...so, for example, in a pantheistic society, there might be a shared temple for several deities or somesuch, but the clerics would be dedicated to individual deities, even if they all intermingled easily...was that right? Of course, I also told him to check with the DM because your DM is always the authoritative word even if it is the Golarion setting and if they want to allow pantheistic clerics or ones dedicated to a philosphy, that's fine too, just asking about baseline Golarion assumption.
2) If someone was playing an antipaladin with a fiendish servant, which allows them to get a permanent summon monster, but also upgrades every two levels thereafter, and they wanted to keep a fiendish servant they already had (say, for example, they had a succubus and didn't really want to trade her out for a bebelith or a vrock or a fiendish tyrannosaurus rex), how would you handle it? Just let them stay behind, but the succubus doesn't improve, figure out some way for the succubus to gain some class levels, let them take the succubus on as a cohort via leadership, etc.? Been pondering it lately, was just wondering how you would approach it...
3) What are some of your favorite fictitious curses (from any form of media), using as liberal a definition of curse as seems appropriate to you, and what did you like about them? The horror of them, the effort a character had to go through to live with it, or even finding the curse amusing?
Ross Byers RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32 |