Creative Director
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Hello James,
As much as I enjoy running Pathfinder for my group, I do find that the amount of work I need to do to fully flesh out a locale to be tedious and time consuming.As a (cough) older DM, I don't have as much time these days, with work and family commitments taking up most of my free time.
What I am fortunate to have is a disposable income to buy the things to save me time.
Which is why things like the Waterdeep boxed set from WOTC, detailing every building and it's inhabitants appealed to me.
Alas, that level of time-saving rarely appears in Golarion, mores the pity.
I get that you paint the world in many broad strokes, which is fine, and could be kept that way.
But would it be possible to commission a series of greater in depth material for time-limited DM's like myself?
A sort of "Volo's Guide" to Magnimar, for example?
A "Venture Captain's" series?
Thank you James.
Beyond something the size and scope of Guide to Magnimar, you mean? Something much bigger than that is really not a type of product we're set up to do, or in the case of box sets... really something ANY RPG publisher is set up to do, alas. Box sets are incredibly expensive.
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What do you think of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien?
C. S. Lewis: Kinda boring and not a big fan of the Christian elements. Even less a fan of the talking animals.
J. R. R. Tolkein: BRILLIANT world and language design. I enjoyed reading Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, but not so much that I felt the need to read much else, nor is he in my top 10 authors of all time. Or the top 20. He MIGHT be in the top 50, and is certainly in the top 100.
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Godd evening James!
1)Within the city of Magnimar, how common would you say are polyamorous relationships?
2)Would you say this kind of relationship is more common among common people within the nobility?
3)Are there specific factions that you can think of that would actively oppose such practice?
4)How different would those answers be in regards to Korvosa?
Thank you so much.
1) Not that often, but they're not unheard of.
2) They're more scandalous among nobility.
3) None significant come to mind.
4) Korvosa is much less tolerant about it, and much more willing to turn a blind eye to it when the nobles get involved.
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Mr. James Jacobs,
What are your thoughts on transhumanism in fiction and reality?
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Who came up with Proteans as Chaotic Neutral incarnate? I'd like to give whoever it was a metaphorical pat on the back, because I was never satisfied with Slaadi, and think Proteans are superior in every way (so you could call that one positive outcome of Wizards of the Coast's miserly tendencies).
Contributor
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Who came up with Proteans as Chaotic Neutral incarnate? I'd like to give whoever it was a metaphorical pat on the back, because I was never satisfied with Slaadi, and think Proteans are superior in every way (so you could call that one positive outcome of Wizards of the Coast's miserly tendencies).
1: Building off of this quote, who is the protean champion at Paizo (the way Wes champions kytons, for example)? I'd really like to see more of them; either new types or more presence in adventures. The last time something was about proteans, it was 3.5. More please. :)
2: Are restaurants a thing in Golarion (especially in Westcrown or Korvosa)? If so, how do they differ from the contemporary model?
3: Were you excited for The Divinity Drive's
If so, what do you think about broadening this sort of thing? More things like that, where appropriate?
A simple question to try get an idea of scale:
Is the entirety of Hell larger than our solar system?
@ David Neilson:
The actual Merlin was a burly (and surly) Scotsman.
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Creative Director
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What do you think of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien?C. S. Lewis: Kinda boring and not a big fan of the Christian elements. Even less a fan of the talking animals.
J. R. R. Tolkien: BRILLIANT world and language design. I enjoyed reading Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, but not so much that I felt the need to read much else, nor is he in my top 10 authors of all time. Or the top 20. He MIGHT be in the top 50, and is certainly in the top 100.
1)I see, what do you like and don't like about the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit?
2)you do know that J. R. R. Tolkien was More Christian then C. S. Lewis right? the only reason C. S. Lewis was a Christian was because of J. R. R. Tolkien.
3)What is wrong with talking animals? pathfinder has a lot of that.
4)Who are your top 10 authors of all time?
1) The lack of any really interesting woman characters. Eowyn and Shelob are my favorite characters from the novel. Also, the fact that the plot and character stuff is frequently not all that interesting. Also, I just feel like his writing style is dry... it's more scholastic and less engaging to me than I prefer my fantasy fiction to be.
2) I do know this. I also know that Tolkien is a better writer than Lewis, and that Tolkien did a much better job incorporating his views into his writing in a way that doesn't diminish them or distract from them, but in fact enhances them. I do not begrudge C. S. Lewis for being a Christian. I just think that he ham-handedly utilized those themes in his writing in a way that makes me like the stories a lot less.
3) I generally find talking animals to be silly. There are several exceptions. Rocket Raccoon is one. So is Babe. And you'll note that talking animals are not all that common in our adventures. They're there, but not a lot. Cause usually they're silly and distracting. Speak with animals is a better way to handle that kind of communication.
4) H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Robert E. Howard, Ramsey Campbell, T.E.D. Klein, Algernon Blackwood, and F. Paul Wilson.
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Kind of like what happens when Gandalf starts speaking the Dark Tongue of Mordor at the White Council?Nothing, other than the fact that traditionally, authors include Aklo as one of those languages that has power of a destructive or forbidden nature.Which is a good thing, considering what Aklo can do!I am intrigued. James, what are you alluding to?
Pretty much. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Tolkien was inspired by Arthur Machen and Aklo in that regard. I can't imagine he didn't know about Aklo.
In my semi-hombrew Pathfinder campaign "Champions of Old Korvosa," I have a PC who's an undead-bloodline sorcerer who's walking on the edge of evil and neutrality. (And role-playing it REALLY well!)
He's interested in the spell pain strike, which is listed in the Advanced Players Guide as being in the evocation school.
To me, this spell feels like it would make far more sense to be in the necromancy school, so I'm changing the spell's school for my home game. (I think that would make the player happier, as he's taken Spell Focus (necromancy) as a feat). Would you foresee any problems doing that?
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Creative Director
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Who came up with Proteans as Chaotic Neutral incarnate? I'd like to give whoever it was a metaphorical pat on the back, because I was never satisfied with Slaadi, and think Proteans are superior in every way (redacted).
Wes and I pretty much came up with it, and then had Todd run with the idea to flesh out our initial concepts of them being primal serpent like entities with the heads of prehistoric sea monsters.
Also... let's all avoid badmouthing other companies if we can. Thanks! :-)
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Creative Director
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Who came up with Proteans as Chaotic Neutral incarnate? I'd like to give whoever it was a metaphorical pat on the back, because I was never satisfied with Slaadi, and think Proteans are superior in every way (so you could call that one positive outcome of Wizards of the Coast's miserly tendencies).1: Building off of this quote, who is the protean champion at Paizo (the way Wes champions kytons, for example)? I'd really like to see more of them; either new types or more presence in adventures. The last time something was about proteans, it was 3.5. More please. :)
2: Are restaurants a thing in Golarion (especially in Westcrown or Korvosa)? If so, how do they differ from the contemporary model?
3: Were you excited for The Divinity Drive's ** spoiler omitted **
If so, what do you think about broadening this sort of thing? More things like that, where appropriate?
1) There's not really a champion here for them per se. I suspect Sutter likes them the most though. We do have more to say about them going forward, and we have said more about htem since the 3.5 days, if only in Bestiary 2. They also played a role in Emerald Spire.
2) Yes, they're a thing. We typically call them "taverns" or "eateries" or something more archaic than "restaurant" though.
3) Yup! And we'll do it again when it makes sense.
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So have you ever read the "Screw Tape Letters"? also I did like the twist in "That Hideous Strength"
** spoiler omitted **
Nope. Thought I'd never even heard of it, but then Google informs me it's Lewis, which explains why I forgot about it.
I've got plenty of more interesting things to read for the rest of my life than Lewis.
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Creative Director
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A simple question to try get an idea of scale:
Is the entirety of Hell larger than our solar system?
@ David Neilson:
** spoiler omitted **
Unrevealed. But I suspect strongly that it is.
And let's keep the side-discussions to private messages or other threads, please, even if you use spoilers to hide them.
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But How? the realm is on material plane. What type of petitioners/outsiders do they become?If a god's planar realm is on the material plane(like when Urgathoa use to have a realm on the material plane) what happen to the souls of there worshipers?They go to that realm. No change. They're still petitioners/outsiders.
Turns out a divine realm on the Material Plane gets to break rules, that's how. And it's also why we don't do things like this often at all... and even when we DO, that deity tends to either also have a realm in the Outer Sphere (such as the case with Desna) or doesn't really take petitioners anyway (such as the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods). For Urgathoa's case, I doubt she got petitioners at all until she moved on to Abaddon; her time on the Material Plane being relatively short in comparison to the total time she's spent as a deity. Same would go for all the once-mortal deities.
They become the same type of petitioners that any of their alignment become, and turn into outsiders appropriate for the deity.
Pretty much. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Tolkien was inspired by Arthur Machen and Aklo in that regard. I can't imagine he didn't know about Aklo.Kind of like what happens when Gandalf starts speaking the Dark Tongue of Mordor at the White Council?Nothing, other than the fact that traditionally, authors include Aklo as one of those languages that has power of a destructive or forbidden nature.Which is a good thing, considering what Aklo can do!I am intrigued. James, what are you alluding to?
Lazarx, Aklo has a history of being the language of the unfathomable and unimaginably horrid. Just learning the language twisted your mind and turned it into something non-human. Aklo wasn't a language, it was a state of being, and that being was not-human.
That's what James is referring to when he refers to the history of Aklo. It's not just a bunch of words. Learning it actually twisted who and what you were!=+Aelryinth
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Creative Director
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In my semi-hombrew Pathfinder campaign "Champions of Old Korvosa," I have a PC who's an undead-bloodline sorcerer who's walking on the edge of evil and neutrality. (And role-playing it REALLY well!)
He's interested in the spell pain strike, which is listed in the Advanced Players Guide as being in the evocation school.
To me, this spell feels like it would make far more sense to be in the necromancy school, so I'm changing the spell's school for my home game. (I think that would make the player happier, as he's taken Spell Focus (necromancy) as a feat). Would you foresee any problems doing that?
Do what feels right for your game. And be willing to change it back if it feels bad.
I personally feel like it should be necomancy too, frankly. So no, I don't see any problems doing that, especially since it's not like you're gonna be giving tens of thousands of players the chance to play in your game and find ways to abuse it. ;P
AKA: Making changes like this to a game is kinda one of the points of being a GM, and you SHOULD do things like this. It's what helps you become a better GM.
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Lazarx, Aklo has a history of being the language of the unfathomable and unimaginably horrid. Just learning the language twisted your mind and turned it into something non-human. Aklo wasn't a language, it was a state of being, and that being was not-human.
That's what James is referring to when he refers to the history of Aklo. It's not just a bunch of words. Learning it actually twisted who and what you were!=+Aelryinth
Not seeing any questions there... let's keep this thread to questions. Thanks!
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Head Transplants/Body Transplants could become a thing.
1) Does this feel right out of a horror movie?
2) Likewise, a science fiction movie?
3) Would you want a new body?
4) Do you think a villain that swaps his head with other bodies would be creepy to go against?
5) How would you regulate special abilities of such a villain? Like Darkvision, or Spell-like Abilities, or Fast Healing?
6) Would this, perhaps, be better as a unique encounter, rather than trying to nail down rules for it? Anyone who does this is custom built, for example.
Any other thoughts you have on this?
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Head Transplants/Body Transplants could become a thing.
1) Does this feel right out of a horror movie?
2) Likewise, a science fiction movie?
3) Would you want a new body?
4) Do you think a villain that swaps his head with other bodies would be creepy to go against?
5) How would you regulate special abilities of such a villain? Like Darkvision, or Spell-like Abilities, or Fast Healing?
6) Would this, perhaps, be better as a unique encounter, rather than trying to nail down rules for it? Anyone who does this is custom built, for example.Any other thoughts you have on this?
1) Yes, in that it's the plot of a lot of horror movies going back decades and decades.
2) Same.
3) Yes.
4) If the author of said villain was a good author, then yes. That's kinda the same for any villain concept though.
5) Probably by making it a template.
6) It's a weird enough and complex enough power that, yes, it's better suited for one foe rather than lots.
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James, I've two topics.
Topic the first: A huge pet peeve of mine has always been spells and abilities that remove a player from playing the game–paralysis, fear, etc. This is especially true of 3e/OGL-based systems (of which Pathfinder is one) where combat takes a long time. Anything that take a player out of playing the game for an hour or more, especially in a PFS scenario with an assumed three-to-four hour time slot, is not a good thing.
Topic the second: Many times I've run up against scenarios where and enemy does not represent a substantial threat to a party of even moderately capable adventurers but Said enemy is given a passel of abilities–DR and concealment are common ones–that do nothing to increase the challenge of the encounter but rather to artificially increase the length, often frustrating or boring players whose PC's lack the necessary skill/feat/McGuffin to overcome or bypass the speed bump.
I am curious as to your thoughts on these points.
Cheers.
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Who came up with Proteans as Chaotic Neutral incarnate? I'd like to give whoever it was a metaphorical pat on the back, because I was never satisfied with Slaadi, and think Proteans are superior in every way (redacted).Wes and I pretty much came up with it, and then had Todd run with the idea to flesh out our initial concepts of them being primal serpent like entities with the heads of prehistoric sea monsters.
Also... let's all avoid badmouthing other companies if we can. Thanks! :-)
I think proteans and slaadi complement each other very nicely. Proteans are chaos focused outward, destabilizing orderly systems; slaadi are chaos focused inward, existing for their own hedonistic desires. Both exist in my campaign.
And the fact that the primordial chaos gods of ancient Egypt had the heads of snakes and frogs seems too on-the-nose to be a coincidence.
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Creative Director
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James, I've two topics.
Topic the first: A huge pet peeve of mine has always been spells and abilities that remove a player from playing the game–paralysis, fear, etc. This is especially true of 3e/OGL-based systems (of which Pathfinder is one) where combat takes a long time. Anything that take a player out of playing the game for an hour or more, especially in a PFS scenario with an assumed three-to-four hour time slot, is not a good thing.
Topic the second: Many times I've run up against scenarios where and enemy does not represent a substantial threat to a party of even moderately capable adventurers but Said enemy is given a passel of abilities–DR and concealment are common ones–that do nothing to increase the challenge of the encounter but rather to artificially increase the length, often frustrating or boring players whose PC's lack the necessary skill/feat/McGuffin to overcome or bypass the speed bump.
I am curious as to your thoughts on these points.
Cheers.
Toning down these so-called "save or suck" spells was in fact one of the goals of Pathfinder. Could we have toned them down more? Sure. At the time, we didn't feel comfortable doing that, since no one yet entirely trusted us to be stewards of the gameplay style we all enjoyed. But we did tone things down; look at the way cockatrices and basilisks work now, for an example, as compared to their 3.5 incarnations. One thing I regularly do in my games is allow players a new save each round to recover from fear and paralysis and the like, similarly to how hold person works. I don't think the game would be better if these types of effects went away, though... there HAS to be things that paralyze and fear and all that. It's too much a part of the genre and mythology to ignore.
If a particular type of defense is particularly frustrating for your group... don't use it. Change it to something more fun. We build the adventures for the entire world; we can't customize them to each table's preference. For PFS... that's obviously not an option, in that case WE are the ones customizing things to create the anticipated play experience, not the table's GM. That does mean that it's gonna be more or less fun for some groups. We pay attention and do constantly adjust PFS in response to customer feedback... but it could well be that you'd enjoy a home-game style play experience more than PFS since that'd let you or your GM customize the experience to one you and your table enjoy more.
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Who came up with Proteans as Chaotic Neutral incarnate? I'd like to give whoever it was a metaphorical pat on the back, because I was never satisfied with Slaadi, and think Proteans are superior in every way (redacted).Wes and I pretty much came up with it, and then had Todd run with the idea to flesh out our initial concepts of them being primal serpent like entities with the heads of prehistoric sea monsters.
Also... let's all avoid badmouthing other companies if we can. Thanks! :-)
I think proteans and slaadi complement each other very nicely. Proteans are chaos focused outward, destabilizing orderly systems; slaadi are chaos focused inward, existing for their own hedonistic desires. Both exist in my campaign.
And the fact that the primordial chaos gods of ancient Egypt had the heads of snakes and frogs seems too on-the-nose to be a coincidence.
Not seeing a question there... let's keep the posts from folks here to questions, please. The rest of the boards here are good for discussions, but this thread is enormous enough that anything that we can do to keep it focused is good. Thanks!
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In my semi-hombrew Pathfinder campaign "Champions of Old Korvosa," I have a PC who's an undead-bloodline sorcerer who's walking on the edge of evil and neutrality. (And role-playing it REALLY well!)
He's interested in the spell pain strike, which is listed in the Advanced Players Guide as being in the evocation school.
To me, this spell feels like it would make far more sense to be in the necromancy school, so I'm changing the spell's school for my home game. (I think that would make the player happier, as he's taken Spell Focus (necromancy) as a feat). Would you foresee any problems doing that?
Do what feels right for your game. And be willing to change it back if it feels bad.
I personally feel like it should be necomancy too, frankly. So no, I don't see any problems doing that, especially since it's not like you're gonna be giving tens of thousands of players the chance to play in your game and find ways to abuse it. ;P
AKA: Making changes like this to a game is kinda one of the points of being a GM, and you SHOULD do things like this. It's what helps you become a better GM.
Sort of a similar question, and sorry if it has been covered before. But, why is Cure Light Wounds a conjuration spell? I'm not sure if that is something you guys thought about at all since it seems WotC made that change. But, if you did happen to, what was your reasoning?
Have you ever run any D&D adventures converted to Pathfinder, and if so how did they go?
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Creative Director
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Sort of a similar question, and sorry if it has been covered before. But, why is Cure Light Wounds a conjuration spell? I'm not sure if that is something you guys thought about at all since it seems WotC made that change. But, if you did happen to, what was your reasoning?
In earlier editions, it wasn't. It was a necromancy spell. I suspect that the designers of 3rd edition changed it to conjuration because they redefined necromancy to be more about afflictions, which was (if I remember correctly) something I argued against during the 3rd edition Alpha (I was obviously less successful here than I was in getting the implosion spell put in the game). I still think it works better as necromancy, but during the switch to Pathfinder, it was something we were too timid about changing for backwards compatibility.
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Have you ever run any D&D adventures converted to Pathfinder, and if so how did they go?All the time.
I'm currently running Necropolis (a 3.5 adventure) and Temple of Elemental Evil (a 1st edition adventure) and they're a blast!
Cool! I was thinking of doing something similar with I6: Ravenloft.
When you convert an adventure from an earlier edition, how do you do it? Do you re-work each encounter area ahead of time (effectively re-writing the earlier work)? Or do you convert on-the-fly, running it straight out of the module and just substituting in the Pathfinder version of the monsters/NPCs?
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When you convert an adventure from an earlier edition, how do you do it? Do you re-work each encounter area ahead of time (effectively re-writing the earlier work)? Or do you convert on-the-fly, running it straight out of the module and just substituting in the Pathfinder version of the monsters/NPCs?
I generally don't do much work before hand. I just run the adventure as written, more or less, and substitute in Pathfinder stats as needed. For monsters, that's easy. For NPCs or unique creatures, I either stat them up before hand or just use an appropate NPC stat block from an Adventure Path or NPC Codex or Monster Codex.
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What's a good way to present the idea that there's room in the world of gaming for everyone and a company taking risks by being inclusive in their content isn't going to damage the industry as a whole? You know, since you guys at Paizo are living proof of it?
Ummm... the way we're doing it already and have been for the past decade is the best way I can think of to present that idea. I don't think Paizo's damaged the industry at all.
Has anyone asked you what color this dress is?
If not, what color is it?
What's a good way to present the idea that there's room in the world of gaming for everyone and a company taking risks by being inclusive in their content isn't going to damage the industry as a whole? You know, since you guys at Paizo are living proof of it?Ummm... the way we're doing it already and have been for the past decade is the best way I can think of to present that idea. I don't think Paizo's damaged the industry at all.
Wouldn't you say that the 5e PHB mentioning LBGT characters in the character customization chapter is evidence that Paizo has had beneficial effect on the industry?
. . .
Look, I know it's a leading question, but this is the Ask James Jacobs Anything thread, so I had phrase it as a question instead of just congratulating you on getting there the first. :)
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I agree. Following that line, I'm trying to convince a friend that Jennifer Hepler, formerly of BioWare, and her ideas are no threat to the industry. What's a good way to present it so they might actually listen?
That sounds like Gamer Gate issues. My current stance on that is to cut ties with people who support that stuff, in the same way I prefer to cut ties with all people once I find out they belong to a group of hatemongers. AKA Someone who supports those hateful, misinformed, and destructive views isn't someone I'd call a friend or be interested in keeping as a friend.
Instead, I would point you toward people better equipped to address this kind of problem. Namely, the women being targeted by this. Fight it by giving the victims a greater voice.
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Has anyone asked you what color this dress is?
If not, what color is it?
No one has. It's obviously the same color as the colour out of space though. Since it's driving people crazy.
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Creative Director
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What's a good way to present the idea that there's room in the world of gaming for everyone and a company taking risks by being inclusive in their content isn't going to damage the industry as a whole? You know, since you guys at Paizo are living proof of it?Ummm... the way we're doing it already and have been for the past decade is the best way I can think of to present that idea. I don't think Paizo's damaged the industry at all.Wouldn't you say that the 5e PHB mentioning LBGT characters in the character customization chapter is evidence that Paizo has had beneficial effect on the industry?
. . .
Look, I know it's a leading question, but this is the Ask James Jacobs Anything thread, so I had phrase it as a question instead of just congratulating you on getting there the first. :)
I would LOVE to think that we might have influenced WotC's decision to include that paragraph in their book. I wish they'd done more than that, but it's a good start!
I would RATHER believe that WotC included that in the book because the world as a whole is waking up and abandoning nonsensical hatred and accepting diversification.