Aid Another checks are always against DC 10.
Nope. Once you're grappling a foe, the grab ability is a waste of calories to use. You can't use the grapple check granted by grab to sneak in additional pins and the like.That clears up a lot.
One more tiny little question:
Yes. An aid another attempt with a grapple check is a grapple check (aka, a CMB check).Is this CMB check tested against the opponents CMD like any other grapple check, or against a CMD of 10 (the equivalent of the AC 10 that is normally used on an "Aid Another").
Thanks a lot for your time. You've helped nail down quite a few loose ends in the grappling rules for me.
A while back, you briefly described a scenario:
Nope... what I described was merely an opening ambush type attack. Once a rogue stabs someone after he sneaks up on him, OBVIOUSLY (at least, I hope it's obviously) that victim will now know that the rogue is after him. At that point, the game assumes that the victim is keeping an eye on the rouge so that the rogue has to flank in order to keep doing sneak attacks. If there's concealment, a rouge CAN slip into hiding, but that DOES require a place for him to hide. He can't just "go behind the victim" because the victim is now aware of the rogue.
In a scenario like this one, with the rogue being observed, would he be able to just step into the concealment and roll for Stealth? He's still observed right? Wouldn't he need something to completely break line of sight like a bluff check, total concealment, etc...?
will inner sea races have more fetchling stuff????Dunno. Probably not a lot.
Every little bit counts. Fetchling is one of my favorite races.
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2) Faiths and philosophies was, in my opinion, wrong when it said arcane casters are mostly atheists, and had I seen that, I would have cut the sentence before it went to print. There are PLENTY of religious arcane spellcasters. There's gods of magic, for crying out loud! There's nothing intrinsic about arcane magic that makes it counter to faith at all.
2)How do arcane casters and Religion interact? as the faiths and philosophies book said arcane casters are mostly atheists?
For the record, this is not what Faiths and Philosophies says. It comments that Sorcerers and Wizards are more likely to be atheists than many other classes (due basically to pride in their own abilities), not that most of them are atheists.
The Forgotten Realms setting had the Chosen of Mystra who were arcane casters who served the Goddess of Magic.
If I recall correctly, Pharasma is lifted in part (or completely) from your homebrew campaign. Traditionally speaking, Death gods had been Evil but it seemed in the 1990s there was a move toward Nuetral Death gods, like the switch to Kelemvor during the Time of Troubles. My question for you is: does Pharasma predate or post date this move?
Hi James!
Has the River Styx been mentioned much other than it's origins in Abaddon and where it flows to?
What would be the implications if a small piece of it were passing through the Material Plane (for one reason or another)?
The General leads his army to the large river intending to cross the only bridge and trap the pursuing army. As they reach the bridge the General sees a little girl who steps onto the other end of the bridge and draws a knife. He looks back and sees the pursuing army approaching.
What is the best course of action for the General to take?
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The General leads his army to the large river intending to cross the only bridge and trap the pursuing army. As they reach the bridge the General sees a little girl who steps onto the other end of the bridge and draws a knife. He looks back and sees the pursuing army approaching.
What is the best course of action for the General to take?
the daily special at the local diner is the best course for the general to take
I find it hard to believe you didn't mention this one: In People of the Stars, what happens if you point a Harvesting Lens at the Sun?
While I'm at it, the back inside cover shows a red star at the tip of the Fang constellation. Would you be able to collect red starlight from it?
Hello!
I have a "process" question.
With the two 2015 APs now out there for everyone to talk about, where are you at in the process for deciding on the 2016 APs?
To clarify, I'm only asking in the sense of:
"Good God let me get through these two first"
"Still kicking around ideas"
"Narrowed it down to a final list"
"Actually already have it penciled in but anything can happen in the next year"
"Other Appropriate Response"
Thanks!
Creative Director
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Actually, I think it was Wednesday night chocolate. Right after we got in. ;-)Hey James,
Any highlights and/or lowlights of Gencon?
Yes. Here are 10 of each.
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **I guess the best highlight is that I had a harder time coming up with lowlights for the list this year!
OH! Right!
Next year, when said tradition is inevitably repeated, I need to get more chocolate. I ran out halfway through the show.
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Creative Director
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2) Faiths and philosophies was, in my opinion, wrong when it said arcane casters are mostly atheists, and had I seen that, I would have cut the sentence before it went to print. There are PLENTY of religious arcane spellcasters. There's gods of magic, for crying out loud! There's nothing intrinsic about arcane magic that makes it counter to faith at all.Perhaps maybe there is a perception that the practice of arcane magic is a gateway drug to hubris? Lords know that literature is full of wizards that eventually go crazy enough to see themselves as gods.
There's something to be said to that no? After all divine magic is about entreating a power to do something for you. Arcane magic is about ripping the essential fabric of the universe and forcing it to do your bidding. And arcane magic seems to require a certain level of self confidence Wouldn't that naturally tend to produce folks who tended enough towards the egomaniac side to have their religion tendencies decline?
I wouldn't say so. There's plenty of ways for religious people to be egomaniacal as well...
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Creative Director
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This...this Wes. Bring him to me. I wish to speak to him. About Castlevania. Can you make that happen? (Haha, I must be missing his forum name should he have one) I always love seeing concepts come to life that are backed up by a few egregious feat and class selections. Normally when I make a character, I have this idea of what I want it to do.. and then I start to craft it; optimization be damned. If it's good and works, its awesome.
How about you? Ever make that character out of an idea or movie or video game that you're like 'Man that would be awesome to play but I don't think it'd be viable in Pathfinder rules' then suddenly there it is in front of you and it's awesome?
(Err, ran into a forum error..sorry if this double or triple posts or some weird stuff.)
Wes Schneider. Editor in Chief of Paizo. He has his own ask thread somewhere around here.
I've yet to come across a character idea I'm excited to play that I've not thought I could build in the rules, in any event.
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Creative Director
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Okay, thanks! One question left - is the First World still 'behind' the rest of the multiverse? It has a mechanical effect - the outdated article that says fey don't have souls (in AP36) also says that since the First World is behind reality rather than within it, getting there from the Material Plane requires Gate level spells, or finding a natural breach. Can we now just use Plane Shift?
Behind the Material Plane, not the entire multiverse. Think of the First World as the sketch of a scene behind the actual painting—in that case, the Material Plane is itself the paint of the painting. And yes... plane shift can work but only in the right places... you can't just pop in there from anywhere.
Inner Sea World Guide has the most up-to-date info about the First World at this point.
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Creative Director
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And arcane magic seems to require a certain level of self confidence Wouldn't that naturally tend to produce folks who tended enough towards the egomaniac side to have their religion tendencies decline?Arcane magic is more commonly associated with a high Intelligence score or a high Charisma score. Divine magic is more commonly associated with a high Wisdom score (which modifies Will saves, and is therefore all about the 'self confidence').
If there was anything to that notion, it would be divine casters who would be more likely to become egomaniacs and succumb to hubris, solipsism, etc.
That doesn't pass logic. to practise divine magic you have to entreat outside yourself. (for the purposes of this discussion let's leave godless clerics out of it) When every miracle you perform is something you ask Iomedae for, it's far from the same thing as chanting arcane formulae and commanding the universe to produce lightning from your fingertips.
There isn't a single spell that a cleric or druid performs that she does under her own power... It involves asking someone or Nature for something. Arcane magic is the complete opposite of that.
And that's as far as I will debate here, it's not the place, we should either post a thread or you can PM me.
Indeed. Time for its own thread elsewhere, thanks!
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Creative Director
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In the thread for the Technology Guide regarding power armour's artifact status:
It's basically an artifact because the total gp cost went over 200,000 gp. Same reason we made the autodoc an artifact.There have been a couple of other cases (off the top of my head, the Sacred Avenger in Mythic Adventures is about 203k, while the Prismatic Force Field in the Tech Guide is 220k) where going over 200k gp has happened without the item becoming an artifact. Can you explain a little bit of the design philosophy behind it?
Additionally, I noticed that while there was "armour" of varying types in the Tech Guide, there wasn't much in the way of futuristic clothing/jumpsuits that isn't armour (e.g. something like what Lirianne is wearing on the cover, except clothing rather than armour). Is this something that might be rectified in Iron Gods, or is the "futuristic space jumpsuit" thing being limited to armour?
The cases where they go above the 200,000 gp cost without becoming an artifact are exceptions to the general rule, nothing more and nothing less.
The thing Lirianne is wearing on the cover is in fact a white scatterlight suit. Getting the art to match the cover and the images inside is often a bear. That and the inssuit are both good examples of "futuristic clothing," as is the neraplast armor from Fires of Creation.
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Creative Director
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A while back, you briefly described a scenario:
Nope... what I described was merely an opening ambush type attack. Once a rogue stabs someone after he sneaks up on him, OBVIOUSLY (at least, I hope it's obviously) that victim will now know that the rogue is after him. At that point, the game assumes that the victim is keeping an eye on the rouge so that the rogue has to flank in order to keep doing sneak attacks. If there's concealment, a rouge CAN slip into hiding, but that DOES require a place for him to hide. He can't just "go behind the victim" because the victim is now aware of the rogue.In a scenario like this one, with the rogue being observed, would he be able to just step into the concealment and roll for Stealth? He's still observed right? Wouldn't he need something to completely break line of sight like a bluff check, total concealment, etc...?
That's pretty much what I said in the quote. "If there's concealment, a rogue CAN slip into hiding..."
Concealment gives the rogue (or ANYONE for that matter) the opportunity to make a Stealth check. If she's successful, the person observing her loses track of her, and she can then make a sneak attack or whatever when she's next able to do so.
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Creative Director
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For the record, this is not what Faiths and Philosophies says. It comments that Sorcerers and Wizards are more likely to be atheists than many other classes (due basically to pride in their own abilities), not that most of them are atheists.2) Faiths and philosophies was, in my opinion, wrong when it said arcane casters are mostly atheists, and had I seen that, I would have cut the sentence before it went to print. There are PLENTY of religious arcane spellcasters. There's gods of magic, for crying out loud! There's nothing intrinsic about arcane magic that makes it counter to faith at all.
2)How do arcane casters and Religion interact? as the faiths and philosophies book said arcane casters are mostly atheists?
Excellent. Makes me feel a lot better that our writers and developers and editors and I are indeed on the same page.
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Creative Director
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If I recall correctly, Pharasma is lifted in part (or completely) from your homebrew campaign. Traditionally speaking, Death gods had been Evil but it seemed in the 1990s there was a move toward Nuetral Death gods, like the switch to Kelemvor during the Time of Troubles. My question for you is: does Pharasma predate or post date this move?
Pharasma is indeed lifted from my homebrew, although she got a name change, and as she exists today is as much from me as it is from Wes Schneider and James Sutter—she's more or less equal parts all of our combined brains.
And I wouldn't say that death deities are traditionally evil. Wee Jas has been a goddess of death in Greyhawk for decades—and she's lawful neutral. As far as I remember... but yeah, Wee Jas is one of several inspirations for Pharasma.
She was known as Turthonir in my setting, in any event... I came up with her in the late 80s, and thus she does indeed predate Kelemvor, but does not predate Wee Jas.
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Creative Director
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Hi James!
Has the River Styx been mentioned much other than it's origins in Abaddon and where it flows to?
What would be the implications if a small piece of it were passing through the Material Plane (for one reason or another)?
Yes. It pops up now and then all over; we mention it in a few of the Books of the Damned and in a few places in Wrath of the Righteous, for example.
The implications of it passing into the Material Plane would be that undeath and daemons would be more common on the Material Plane.
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Creative Director
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The General leads his army to the large river intending to cross the only bridge and trap the pursuing army. As they reach the bridge the General sees a little girl who steps onto the other end of the bridge and draws a knife. He looks back and sees the pursuing army approaching.
What is the best course of action for the General to take?
To hold the bridge and save the little girl from being crushed by the pursuing army.
Thanks James!
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Creative Director
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I find it hard to believe you didn't mention this one: In People of the Stars, what happens if you point a Harvesting Lens at the Sun?
While I'm at it, the back inside cover shows a red star at the tip of the Fang constellation. Would you be able to collect red starlight from it?
I didn't mention it because this is the first I'm hearing of a "harvesting lens." I wasn't much involved in the creation of that book. That's a better question for Patrick. Both of them are.
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Creative Director
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Hello!
I have a "process" question.
With the two 2015 APs now out there for everyone to talk about, where are you at in the process for deciding on the 2016 APs?
To clarify, I'm only asking in the sense of:
"Good God let me get through these two first"
"Still kicking around ideas"
"Narrowed it down to a final list"
"Actually already have it penciled in but anything can happen in the next year"
"Other Appropriate Response"Thanks!
Rob and I know what the two 2016 APs are already. We ALMOST announced one of them at Gen Con, but decided not to for various reasons. And the one we didn't ALMOST announce already has a rough outline and rough titles for all six parts.
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Rob and I know what the two 2016 APs are already. We ALMOST announced one of them at Gen Con, but decided not to for various reasons. And the one we didn't ALMOST announce already has a rough outline and rough titles for all six parts.Hello!
I have a "process" question.
With the two 2015 APs now out there for everyone to talk about, where are you at in the process for deciding on the 2016 APs?
To clarify, I'm only asking in the sense of:
"Good God let me get through these two first"
"Still kicking around ideas"
"Narrowed it down to a final list"
"Actually already have it penciled in but anything can happen in the next year"
"Other Appropriate Response"Thanks!
Did you refrain from the announcement because you knew that news about the inevitable Distant Worlds Feb 2016 AP could cause heart attacks and cerebral haemorrhages at the Con Floor?
Rob and I know what the two 2016 APs are already. We ALMOST announced one of them at Gen Con, but decided not to for various reasons. And the one we didn't ALMOST announce already has a rough outline and rough titles for all six parts.Hello!
I have a "process" question.
With the two 2015 APs now out there for everyone to talk about, where are you at in the process for deciding on the 2016 APs?
To clarify, I'm only asking in the sense of:
"Good God let me get through these two first"
"Still kicking around ideas"
"Narrowed it down to a final list"
"Actually already have it penciled in but anything can happen in the next year"
"Other Appropriate Response"Thanks!
That's awesome how far in advance you guys work. Happy writing!!
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Creative Director
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Can Rovagug obliterate an entire galaxy?Yes. But he'd likely be stopped by other gods before he does so.1)If other gods did not stop him how long would it take him to obliterate 100 galaxies. I'm trying to get an idea of his power level.
2)Can Rovagug Create Greater Spawn of Rovagug that are more powerful then the normal Spawn of Rovagug such as(Ulunat/The Tarrasque). And what i mean by Greater Spawn of Rovagug is can Rovagug Create monsters that can destroy planets and solar systems?
1) That's kidna precisely the type of quantification I don't want to give, in fact. It'd take him as long as it takes to tell the story we want to tell in the best possible way.
2) Yes... especially if we want to tell that story.
The gods can do whatever we want them to do, in other words.
1)Any reason why there is more info about Hell's Rebels then there is for the Giant Slayer AP?
2)So for the Innersea Races book don't expect any of the exotic races like Catfolk, Lashunta, Syrinx, Nagaji, etc. even if they can be found there, correct?
3)What about races that can only be found there like the Kuru?
4)Why did you almost give away what the first 2016 AP will be? Sleep deprived? Too excited?
5)Have you seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet? If so what did you think?
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Creative Director
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| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Did you refrain from the announcement because you knew that news about the inevitable Distant Worlds Feb 2016 AP could cause heart attacks and cerebral haemorrhages at the Con Floor?Rob and I know what the two 2016 APs are already. We ALMOST announced one of them at Gen Con, but decided not to for various reasons. And the one we didn't ALMOST announce already has a rough outline and rough titles for all six parts.Hello!
I have a "process" question.
With the two 2015 APs now out there for everyone to talk about, where are you at in the process for deciding on the 2016 APs?
To clarify, I'm only asking in the sense of:
"Good God let me get through these two first"
"Still kicking around ideas"
"Narrowed it down to a final list"
"Actually already have it penciled in but anything can happen in the next year"
"Other Appropriate Response"Thanks!
Nope. We refrained because we wanted Hell's Rebels and Giantslayer more time in the limelight and more time to build anticipation.
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Creative Director
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
1)Any reason why there is more info about Hell's Rebels then there is for the Giant Slayer AP?
2)So for the Innersea Races book don't expect any of the exotic races like Catfolk, Lashunta, Syrinx, Nagaji, etc. even if they can be found there, correct?
3)What about races that can only be found there like the Kuru?
4)Why did you almost give away what the first 2016 AP will be? Sleep deprived? Too excited?
5)Have you seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet? If so what did you think?
1) I guess I'm more chatty than Rob.
2) Correct.
3) We'll see. They might be mentioned.
4) I didn't almost. It was an option we discussed—we know what it is, but in the end we decided instead to just focus on Hell's Rebels and to not dilute it and Giantslayer's recent announcement with too much information.
5) I have. Best Marvel movie yet.
What do Golarions use for toilet paper ?
would there be a market for "Everlasting Rolls of Toilet Paper" based off the Prestigitation spell ?
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Creative Director
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Did you enjoy being able to write for the AP line again? Its been brought up elsewhere that AP 100 will be your first solo credit since Brinewall Legacy.
Was it hard balancing writing an AP with the amount of other work you do for Paizo? Or did Lisa/the others give you a slight break to concentrate on writing?
Which of the Paizo Staff will be the next to author an AP Volume? or are you not ready to disclose this yet(since you mention not wanting to take limelight away from the 2015 AP's).
I enjoy it in theory, but things are so busy now that I've actually not had a chance to actually start writing. I hope to enjoy it. We'll see.
Yes. Very very hard. That's why I didn't write all of "The Midnight Isles." It's why you aren't seeing any adventures by Erik or Wes or Jason these days.
I have no idea. At this point, we're too busy scrambling with the day to day of trying to keep to the schedule.
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Creative Director
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Have you read this article yet?
I would like to draw your attention to the final few sentences of it where Eric comments that there is no Pathfinder Movie yet.
If there were to be a movie do you think it should star the Iconics? If it did who would you like to see cast as each Iconic and which Iconics do you think it should star(Other than Merisiel of course)?
Yes.
I don't have the brain bandwidth to answer the casting question, but I've answered similar ones before; think of it as an internet challenge to search these boards for it, I suppose?
What is your favorite kind of settings, and could you list and rank them?
And on the same note, what is your opinion of "Magic VS Technology" or are you more fan of a setting where those are combined rather than opposed?
Are draconic creatures reptiles? Synapsids? What?