Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
it says that Intelligent devours host still have a “modicum of awareness” despite their brain being eaten. and i presume it is basic emotional states like fear and surprise. but i’d like to know what exactly “modicum of awareness” means.
I'm not sure what you're asking exactly about (seems like you skipped a word or two in the question), but the phrase "modicum of awareness" means that you retain a little bit of the ability to sense the world around you, sort of as if you were suffering from extensive brain damage or a lobotomy or the like—you're very limited in how you react to the world, and I"d say basic emotional states would be completely gone.
Hello Mr. Jacobs!
I was wondering if you could tell me what the overall gun commonness is for Galorian on the average--I know Alkenstar and Numeria exist and have pretty common guns, but what 'level' of availability as described in the rules would Galorian on the whole be considered? Or does it really just differ depending on what nation or continent you are in?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hello Mr. Jacobs!
I was wondering if you could tell me what the overall gun commonness is for Galorian on the average--I know Alkenstar and Numeria exist and have pretty common guns, but what 'level' of availability as described in the rules would Galorian on the whole be considered? Or does it really just differ depending on what nation or continent you are in?
For the guns detailed in Guns & Gears, it's as presented therein. That book assumes Golarion as the baseline. Most of them are Uncommon, which means that the GM gets to choose to allow access. For Numeria's high-tech stuff, that's more likely in the Rare category.
The GM gets to decide how widespread these are, but unless we're setting a story in Numeria or in the Mana Wastes/Alkkenstar, you will usually not see us include those elements in adventures, since doing so dilutes the themes and feel of regions like Alkenstar/Mana Wastes and Numeria.
Hi James, have you seen the Kickstarter for Brindlewood Bay: Cozy Murder Mystery RPG? It's basically Murder, She Wrote meets H.P. Lovecraft. I am excited because my wife, who has zero interest in RPGs, is actually interested in this one and might finally play a game with me.
Here is a link to the Kickstarter if you're interested in checking it out. Have a nice day!
Are there any gods/goddesses associated with parenting / child raising?Yes: Erastil.
I expected the list to be short, but damn...
Any deities good with children even if it's not part of their "god job"/areas of concern?
|
Creative Director
|
Hi James, have you seen the Kickstarter for Brindlewood Bay: Cozy Murder Mystery RPG? It's basically Murder, She Wrote meets H.P. Lovecraft. I am excited because my wife, who has zero interest in RPGs, is actually interested in this one and might finally play a game with me.
Here is a link to the Kickstarter if you're interested in checking it out. Have a nice day!
I haven't seen it. Checking it out, the art style isn't my cup of tea, so I'll pass (in part because I've got plenty of Kickstarted games already that I haven't yet and probably will never play). Thanks for the heads-up though!
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hey James,
So, planar etymology question - is abyssal the original language of the qlippoth, or was it only invented by the demons and the qlippoth used something else/telepathy before then?
It's the original language of the Abyss, although I suspect qlippoth speak it with an archaic accent. Kinda like the difference between modern English and middle or even old English.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hello Mr. Jacobs,
what happens if a bad Hastur hating cultist managed to perform "The king in Yellow" in either Alyushinnyrra (pre Nocticulas ascension) or Dis, both cities whose ruling authorities would probably prevail other Hastur.
Does Hastur "has to come" if the play is performed? Does the play even work on a non material plane?
Could other Demon Lord perform it to invade Carcosa?
Looking at it from purely a 1st Edition lens (we'd keep these creature's levels the same as their CR if/when we do update them, as appropriate)... Dispater is CR 27, Nocticula is CR 30, and Hastur is CR 29. So Hastur would have trouble facing off against Nocticula, but not nearly as much facing off against Dispater.
But Carcosa is bigger than Hastur. Carcosa isn't a creature, it's a primevial supernatural force that works with story, not rules, so if one wanted Dis or Alyushinnyra to get pulled into Carcosa, one could.
I would not. The draw and allure to the story of Carcosa "eating cities" (which is, as far as I know, something I came up with for that location and how it works in Pathfinder, although heavily inspired by well over a century of other much more brilliant than me authors working on building the lore) is when Carcosa targets a mortal city with normal folks in it. The fall to decadence and decay and corruption and eventual transformation into something alien like Carcosa is MUCH more compelling and interesting if it happens to a city like Paris or Absalom or Greyhawk or Waterdeep or King's Landing. Against a city like Dis or Alaushinnyrra, that story is much less interesting, since the starting situation in a supernatural alien city like those is equally strange to us. Putting Carcosa over Absalom is like painting a wood wall plaid. Putting Dis or Alyushinnyrra is like painting a plaid wall plaid... just in a different color. It's not nearly as affecting.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Are there any gods/goddesses associated with parenting / child raising?Yes: Erastil.I expected the list to be short, but damn...
Any deities good with children even if it's not part of their "god job"/areas of concern?
There are plenty of other deities. We have over 300 of them. I wasn't eager to sift through that list and call out every one of them that are associated with parenting and child raising, so I just went for the primary one from the core 20.
"Inner Sea Gods" for 1st edition has the most complete list of deities. A truncated version (with some new editions) of that list appears at the end of 2nd Edition's "Gods & Magic." One can look through those lists to find several suitable choices.
As for deities "good with children even if it's not a part of their job" I'd say you could excise all of the evil ones, most of the neutral ones, and a few of the good ones. What's left would fit the bill.
Picking just one from the core 20 who is good with children even though it's not their main job, that would be Sarenrae.
I should probably already know the answer to this, but... when a strigoi kills someone, turning that person into a strigoi, what happens to his soul?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I should probably already know the answer to this, but... when a strigoi kills someone, turning that person into a strigoi, what happens to his soul?
Same as pretty much any other person turned undead—that soul gets corrupted and "stuck" in the dead body and now serves as the animating force for the undead creature.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Thanks! Of course, I do have a follow up - is the same true of Infernal, with devils and asuras?It's the original language of the Abyss, although I suspect qlippoth speak it with an archaic accent. Kinda like the difference between modern English and middle or even old English.Hey James,
So, planar etymology question - is abyssal the original language of the qlippoth, or was it only invented by the demons and the qlippoth used something else/telepathy before then?
Yup, but on a much shorter timespan. Not that "shorter" in this case would be perceived as short by mortal minds, of course. Just that the qlippoth vastly predate the asuras.
I almost think that the qlippoth might even predate the concept of language, and that them speaking Abyssal is an evolution, and that before they either didn't communicate at all or used some other method of communication that isn't something humanity can comprehend. Something like the ideas of language that are explored in "The Arrival" for example.
|
Creative Director
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Ah, very cool. Makes sense!
And now for a question about your personal dming philosophy, since I know answers to this question vary hugely from table to table.
So, in pathfinder 1e, it was noted that repeatedly casting a spell with the [evil] descriptor could corrupt a character, changing their alignment to evil. It wasn't really ever mentioned whether [good], [lawful] etc spells could redeem someone or make them more orderly, but presumably that was the case.
My question is, how would you DM something like that? If in 2nd edition the sorcerer's been chucking a lot of hellfire flumes, but also likes using holy cascade, is that enough to keep them Good? Does regular use of Good spells wash away the taint of Evil ones?
Again, definitely just asking for your personal perspective since I know different players and DMs have different points of view.
In my games...
In this specific case, if I had a sorcerer casting lots of hellfire flumes and holy cascades, I'd look at it from the angle of "Why are they doing this?" If they're just raw-numbers trying to pick the optimized spell for each encounter for damage types and not paying attention to the morality of the spell, then they'll shift toward chaotic and/or evil—even if you're casting equal evil and good spells, the REASONS you're casting those spells isn't good. It's mercenary.
There are SO many spells out there to choose from, and the reasons why a PC chooses the spells they choose are not random reasons. And since I feel that evil is the "easier" path to follow than "good" (just as chaos is "easier" than law), if someone's doing 50% evil and 50% good... they'll slip toward evil. You see some of this philosophy and psychology in messageboard posts. If half of the posts are supportive and complimenting me and half are cruel trolling of me... the trolling half is going to be what I focus on, and the result is depression rather than delight—even though half of the posts were supportive. I guess that makes me a pessimist (as in a glass-half-empty way), which informs my take on how to view alignments.
If a player does seem to be drifting toward evil, I'll chat with them in private after the game and ask them if that's their intent. I have no issue with evil PCs as long as the players all work together and have fun (for the record, I've personally had FAR more disruptions to games I play or run caused by lawful characters than any other alignment), but if the player claims something like "I only use hellfire flume because it's the only fire option I have for that level and you keep having us attacked by creatures with fire vulnerability" then I will work with that player to allow them to have their character discover or research or create a custom spell that isn't evil that still does fire. ALTERNATELY: One thing I also do is run mature games where folks have to make tough calls—if it's a situation where I'm playing the tempter role by giving the PCs evil options that make their quest easier, but if they do the good options things will be tougher, I will be up front with the players to begin with about that theme and, in theory, it'd all be above the table and not out of the blue when/if a PC slides toward the evil side.
Kind of a wall of text, but... yeah it's a complex thing to handle.
TL;DR: If the player doesn't seem to care that a spell they keep casting is evil, or they pedantically claim "If I cast just as many good spells I keep it balanced" then, to me... they're being evil. In a "by the letter of the law pedantic way" sort of evil criminals use to skirt the law to continue being criminals.
Hey James! Pathfinder has a lot of creatures from the Lovecraft mythos. There are a lot of great old ones and outer gods. How did you all decide which entities would become an official part of the Pathfinder setting?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Wow! Thanks so much for the detailed reply, James! Definitely helpful for thinking about those spells.
A question about aligned damage in 2e (good, evil, chaotic, lawful). I noticed that evil damage has no effect on neutral creatures. What are the setting implications there, in your opinion? Is it mainly just for symmetry purposes with other alignment damage? Does evil not care about killing neutral people? Or is it just that particularly good and pure people are more vulnerable than the neutral masses to unholy energy?
And if it's an artifact of alignment damage being symmetrical, I definitely don't mean this as a critique! I was just surprised that an evil wizard throwing hellfire could inflict fewer civilian casualties than if they chucked a fireball.
It's for symmetry purpouses and game balance against good damage, but also because evil attacks and harms goodness, and if you're neutral, you have no goodness to attack. Evil can still delight in killing neutral targets, for sure—they've got PLENTY of tools to do that with.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hey James! Pathfinder has a lot of creatures from the Lovecraft mythos. There are a lot of great old ones and outer gods. How did you all decide which entities would become an official part of the Pathfinder setting?
That was mostly my decision, since I'm probably the one most knowledgable about Lovecraftian stuff and what parts are and aren't in the public domain. That was the main decider—which creatures are in the public domain. Anything from Lovecraft is allowable, as are entries from thematic precursors to his writing (Hastur/Carcosa being a big one there, since that's from Ambrose Bierce, along with the King in Yellow, which is from Robert Chambers). Brand new inventions by us created specifically for the setting are also fine (Nhimbaloth, Xhamen-Dor, Orgesh, and Mhar are good examples there).
When it comes to elements created by more recent authors, we'd need to secure specific licenses. In particular, the creations of Lovecraft contemperaries Robert E Howard and Clark Ashton Smith are not yet in public domain, nor are the creations of August Derleth, who's the man responsible for preserving Lovecraft's writings after his death. It's particularly Derleth's creations that a lot of gamers assume Lovecraft created that he did not that are tricky—things like Ithaqua and the byakhee, for example. There's further muddying of those waters when you take into account how Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu game has presented things. They have a MUCH fuller license to use a MUCH wider range of content from authors than we do, which is why when we did the Strange Aeons Adventure Path we partnered with Chaosium and those six volumes are covered under their license—in effect, we licensed their license to include some of the other classics that we otherwise wouldn't have included. Which is why some of those creatures are called out as Product Identity in the legal text and are NOT open content.
And of course, some of Lovecraft's legacies have been in D&D from the start. The way ghouls are presented, and even moreso how ghasts are presented, comes to mind.
That’s all very insightful! Follow up question. If Paizo wanted to use mythos creatures previously used with Chaosium’s permission in future Pathfinder products, would that be covered under the old license agreement or would you need a new license?
For the kids related questions, kinda came after a previous convo, from around the time Mythic Adventure came out, that the children of the gods would probably be born as quasi-deities and demigods level, but for a while I have been thinking "what if an exception happened and there was now and adorable 2~3 years old with Phenomenal Cosmic Powers?", what kind of interactions they might have with other deities, how different gods might react to silly uses of divine powers, etc.
the questions about gods and children, and the ones about other interests the gods might have were born from that.
is it a bit too weird?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
That’s all very insightful! Follow up question. If Paizo wanted to use mythos creatures previously used with Chaosium’s permission in future Pathfinder products, would that be covered under the old license agreement or would you need a new license?
We'd need a new license, since the previous one only covered the six volumes of Strange Aeons.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For the kids related questions, kinda came after a previous convo, from around the time Mythic Adventure came out, that the children of the gods would probably be born as quasi-deities and demigods level, but for a while I have been thinking "what if an exception happened and there was now and adorable 2~3 years old with Phenomenal Cosmic Powers?", what kind of interactions they might have with other deities, how different gods might react to silly uses of divine powers, etc.
the questions about gods and children, and the ones about other interests the gods might have were born from that.
is it a bit too weird?
I don't think it's a bit too weird... but it's also not something we'd explore in print because we tend to tread carefully around storylines that put children in danger—and the younger the child, the more we avoid it. A story where a 3 year old with strange cosmic powers is absolutely compelling and interesting, but it's not really appropriate for us to publish, considering the game's focus on violence and dangerous situations.
We COULD do something that avoids violence and dangerous situations, of course, but that's such a different theme than the baseline assumption of Pathifnder that it'd probably work best with a different set of rules entirely.
I don't think it's a bit too weird... but it's also not something we'd explore in print because we tend to tread carefully around storylines that put children in danger—and the younger the child, the more we avoid it. A story where a 3 year old with strange cosmic powers is absolutely compelling and interesting, but it's not really appropriate for us to publish, considering the game's focus on violence and dangerous situations.
We COULD do something that avoids violence and dangerous situations, of course, but that's such a different theme than the baseline assumption of Pathifnder that it'd probably work best with a different set of rules entirely.
on the other hand, a 3 years old with and almost full set of divine powers could potentially be the source of dangers.
The idea is less about endangering the kid, but make sure they don't endanger reality.
Could be light hearted, making sweets rain from sugary skies might be funny, as lond as the jawbreakers aren't too big.
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I don't think it's a bit too weird... but it's also not something we'd explore in print because we tend to tread carefully around storylines that put children in danger—and the younger the child, the more we avoid it. A story where a 3 year old with strange cosmic powers is absolutely compelling and interesting, but it's not really appropriate for us to publish, considering the game's focus on violence and dangerous situations.
We COULD do something that avoids violence and dangerous situations, of course, but that's such a different theme than the baseline assumption of Pathifnder that it'd probably work best with a different set of rules entirely.
on the other hand, a 3 years old with and almost full set of divine powers could potentially be the source of dangers.
The idea is less about endangering the kid, but make sure they don't endanger reality.
Could be light hearted, making sweets rain from sugary skies might be funny, as lond as the jawbreakers aren't too big.
Please keep posts here to questions for me. In the meantime though, maybe check out Monte Cook's "No Thank You, Evil" game? I haven't checked it out myself, but it might be more appropriate a game to tell a story like this? (I'm certainly not the right person to tell this story.)
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Have you ever done a Jurassic Park style story/encounter, where a zoo full of dinosaurs or other dangerous creatures break out and endanger the parkgoers/neighbors?Yup; not dinosaurs, but monsters.Yay!
Does Alushinyrra have a dinosaur zoo?
Probably, although it's not a NICE one.
|
Probably, although it's not a NICE one.Have you ever done a Jurassic Park style story/encounter, where a zoo full of dinosaurs or other dangerous creatures break out and endanger the parkgoers/neighbors?Yup; not dinosaurs, but monsters.Yay!
Does Alushinyrra have a dinosaur zoo?
So the likelihood that fiendish T-Rexes have broken out at one or more points in time and rampaged in Alushinyrra's entertainment district is a high possibility?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So the likelihood that fiendish T-Rexes have broken out at one or more points in time and rampaged in Alushinyrra's entertainment district is a high possibility?Probably, although it's not a NICE one.Have you ever done a Jurassic Park style story/encounter, where a zoo full of dinosaurs or other dangerous creatures break out and endanger the parkgoers/neighbors?Yup; not dinosaurs, but monsters.Yay!
Does Alushinyrra have a dinosaur zoo?
It is, but not as high a possiblity of the zookeepers abusing the dinosaurs so much that they're super hateful and then they deliberately let them use so a bunch of traumatized dinosaurs run amok on everything, just so the zookeepers can get a kick out of the pain and mayhem.
It's not a nice place.
(In small part because I kinda am personally torn on zoos—I like that they bring animals to folks to enjoy who might not get the chance and I like that they can preserve and save endangered animals... but I'm really not cool with putting animals in cages on display for the gawking masses. Responsible and caring zoos are the best. They aren't all that.)
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is there anyway to permanently incapacitate in someway a spawn of Rovagug?
and by incapacitate i don’t necessarily mean destroy. it could be throw them into a deep layer of the Abyss. but actually giving the nature of Rovagug you might have actually just make a family union.
plus why would anyone ever worship Rovagug? like I can understand Nov, Lam, Z-K, and Aszie but why Rovagug he just wants to see everything destroyed.
Yeah, but it'd be customized to the story/adventure for the PCs to figure out, not something that's spelled out in the monster's stat block. That way it's a mystery to be solved.
And people worship all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons. Some folks might worship something like Rovagug out of fear. Others because they're awful and love how destructive he is. Others because they think that by worshiping him they'll be given rewards or spared when he destroys the world. Others because they want to see everything destroyed as well. Others because they got tricked into it. Etc.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
James how much are you involved with Pathfinder cross-media products like the Dynamite Comics and the Owlcat games? do you think other media could help get newcomers into Pathfinder and other TTRPGs like how many people get into DnD because of Critical Roll?
also would Abadar support unions and other Worker moments? people seem to meme on him being the “God of Capitalism” when he actually is the god of trade and cited neither of which are inherently capitalist.
I'm not particularly involved in those things at all beyond helping to consult on initial pitches and outlines and doing some early-in-the-process advice.
Abadar would be more likely to support corporations than unions. I suspect Erastil would be much more into supporting unions than corporations. Just one of the many ways those two similar deities are polar opposites. (I created Abadar for my home-brew SPECIFICALLY to have a compelling non-evil but antagonistic faith, so I'm sort of biased in seeing him as not a particularly nice guy to the people.)
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
oh Abadar was original a antagonistic faith that you couldt just kill to solve your issues.
what has changed between your campaign and official published Pathfinder lore?
That's reading an awful lot into my comment. The interesting part of lawful neutral antagonists to me is that they're NOT things you can "just kill to solve your issues." There are plenty of stories to tell where the antagonist isn't something you fight, and that, to me, is the value of Abadar being lawful neutral. In fact, with D&D (and now Pathifnder) having quantifiable evil in the game in the form of the alignment system, it's VERY difficult to tell stories where the antagonist is not mustache-twirling obvious evil while still having them be evilly aligned, because it's just one detect evil away from most players feeling justified in rolling for initiative. By setting up antagonists who are neutral (be that lawful, chaotic, or true neutral) you inject into the game rules-supported ambiguity to players who then can't rely upon a detect evil spell for permission to go full murder-hobo.
What changed between my campaign and official published Pathfinder lore is that Pathifnder is a game created by hundreds of employees and freelancers to be played by tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of players. Not just me and my group. As such, it needs to be MUCH more diverse and customizable and adaptable to a much wider range of play interests. I haven't personally done much work on expanding Abadar's faith in Pathifnder—the majority of that work has been done by other people, and obviously many of them find more positive values for him. Which is the value of having a published setting be created by such a large team of different writers.
You can STILL tell stories with Abadar's faith being the antagonist, obviously, but you can also tell stories where he's the ally. Which you could also do with my homebrew, of course, but since I was the only one telling those stories, that's not how it worked out.
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
reading fluff on Calistia. it seems to be that prostitution seems to generally legalized and destimatized. at least where the Savored Sting is worshiped. is that correct?
on what places on Golarion is sex work illegal?
I also Head cannon the church of Calista or the nicer ones consider all sex workers under their protection and inflect violent revenge on those that try to harem or corece sex workers.
and another question does Calistia have any specific associations with Parastoidic wasps? types of wasp that lay eggs in a host and then est them form the inside out?
Please use a word like "flavor" or "lore" instead of "fluff," because fluff is insulting.
For the most part, prostitution is not particularly criminalized on Golarion. Places where sex work is illegal would tend to be areas that are particularly puritanical or controlling in their themes, but that's not something we cover much in print because sex isn't an appropriate topic for Pathfinder rules to delve into the details of; that's better left to individual tables to discuss as fits each group's comfort level.
Calistria's faith is less about parasitic wasps and more about honey-producing wasps. AKA: A helpful creature that stings hard if you cross it.
Hey James! How powerful are demigods compared to deities?
|
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hey James! How powerful are demigods compared to deities?
Deities are immeasurably more powerful.
A demigod has a stat block and plays by the rules... rules we don't yet have for 2nd edition, but still. All demigods are level 26 to level 30.
Deities do not have stat blocks. They do whatever the story wants them to do.
What would a hypothetical level 31, spell granting entity be considered as? Would they still be a demigod?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
it says that Intelligent devours host still have a “modicum of awareness” despite their brain being eaten. and i presume it is basic emotional states like fear and surprise. but i’d like to know what exactly “modicum of awareness” means.I'm not sure what you're asking exactly about (seems like you skipped a word or two in the question), but the phrase "modicum of awareness" means that you retain a little bit of the ability to sense the world around you, sort of as if you were suffering from extensive brain damage or a lobotomy or the like—you're very limited in how you react to the world, and I"d say basic emotional states would be completely gone.
Wait. So if an intellect devourer burrows into the brain of a human and eat the brain, the human is still technically alive? And the human's soul still resides in his own body? Perhaps the human can become healthy again if a cleric casts heal or regenerate?
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi James,
In a world where good and evil are objective fact, and detect alignment is a level 1 spell, I was wondering how you roleplayed evil aligned villains who still believe their actions are morally justified even when either they or their underlings cast spells like that and realize they're not actually holier than thou.
Could they reject the objective truth as wrong? Or accidentally be casting the spell to screen for the wrong alignment? I'm curious how you present non-mustache-twirling extremists like that.
Those villains are still evil. I just don't play them as obvious evil, and don't have players who spam detect alignment spells... and when they do I let them figure it out. You can be evil and not mustache-twirling.