Creative Director
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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...
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Creative Director
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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.
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Creative Director
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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.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.
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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?
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Creative Director
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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.
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Creative Director
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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.
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Creative Director
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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.
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Creative Director
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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.
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Creative Director
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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!
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Creative Director
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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.
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Creative Director
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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.
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?
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Creative Director
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This maybe a bit of an oddball question, but have you ever watched Rubicon on AMC?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.
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.
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I assume that's also true, if the coffee is suddenly switched to Decaf.
Do not do this thing.
For the love all that is holy and unholy, do not do this thing.
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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.
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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)
It seems allot of your co-workers also follow your "Ask" thread. How often do they point out new questions to you to be answered when you are busy with other stuff? (kinda like "Hey James did you see what THEY asked THIS time?!")
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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?
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An Alot sighting! Yay!
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?
Hello James!
Any suggestions on a first Ramsey Campbell anthology of short fiction to start with? I'm in mood for some Mythos reading. :)
Thanks!
When will products for the second half of 2014 and beyond be announced?
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Xavier, slow down. Try ending your questions with a question mark and starting them with a capital letter.
When can we see a picture of an Akiton human?
Does anyone in the office drink tea?
And is it tea that tastes like tea, rather than some fruit or berry?