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Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Mathota wrote:
Hey James I had a thought, where do the souls of Rovagug go when judged? I presume the Dead Vault is too tightly locked for them to be sent there, but it made me wonder where they would wind up.

They do indeed go to the Dead Vault. As detailed on page 212 of Planar Adventurers. these petitioners are known as the caged.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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crognus wrote:
My group is trying to catch up on 1E APs. Which 1E APs will be most relevant for the upcoming 2E APs? Hells Rebels was relevant to Age of Ashes. I assume Tyrant's Grasp will be referenced in the next AP (since they travel around Kortos)?

All of them are. All of them helped shape the landscape of the setting in 2nd edition. Some moreso than others, but announcing those ahead of time is kinda the same as announcing Adventure Paths too early.

But all of them could potentially play significant historical or establishing roles in any upcoming product we produce.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Oliver Springett wrote:

Hey James, I noticed that aldori swords look like katana (I guess those swords also look like the European Messer, which is probably more fitting thematically but I digress.)

I re read the tale of Sirian Aldori and it feels like perhaps he journeyed to Tian Xia and was inspired or learned of samurai and katana.

I realise this could constitute a spoiler; but id love to know where he learned those moves, haha!

Not seeing a question there, really, although if you meant to ask "Where did Sirian Aldori learn his fighting style?" I don't believe we've covered that yet. We might be saying more in some upcoming books, but not that I know off at the moment.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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crognus wrote:
crognus wrote:
My group is trying to catch up on 1E APs. Which 1E APs will be most relevant for the upcoming 2E APs? Hells Rebels was relevant to Age of Ashes. I assume Tyrant's Grasp will be referenced in the next AP (since they travel around Kortos)?
Oh and modules! I noticed W2: River into Darkness was fairly relevant to Cult of Cinders. We're never going to be able to finish ALL the 1E APs and modules, but we do love understanding references.

Same, pretty much, but the further back you go, the more likely you'll be to hit some of the modules we published that didn't really fit well into Golarion. We did a few that we specifically did NOT set on Golarion, in hopes of "widening the audience" on the assumption that GMs who saw "Set in Golarion" read that as "Cannot be set anywhere else than Golarion." We abandoned that idea pretty quickly though, and I believe "Guardians of Dragonfall" is the only one that's not part of the setting now. (Crucible of Chaos was another, but the content of that adventure was so great that we adopted a lot of it in as part of the history of the Shory.)

As for River into Darkness... that one has some elements that are no longer part of the setting. The map of Bloodcove featuring a tree that's the size of a mountain, for example, is not part of the setting. Nor are elemental powered river boats, really. But other elements are.

Feel free to use what you want in your game, of course, but not everything we publish ends up sticking to Golarion. Particularly in the early years of the module line where we were being a lot more experimental.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
crognus wrote:
My group is trying to catch up on 1E APs. Which 1E APs will be most relevant for the upcoming 2E APs? Hells Rebels was relevant to Age of Ashes. I assume Tyrant's Grasp will be referenced in the next AP (since they travel around Kortos)?

All of them are. All of them helped shape the landscape of the setting in 2nd edition. Some moreso than others, but announcing those ahead of time is kinda the same as announcing Adventure Paths too early.

But all of them could potentially play significant historical or establishing roles in any upcoming product we produce.

Fair. But there's about 14,000‬ pages of 1E APs to read, 10,000 pages of 1E Campaign Setting books, 8,000 pages of 1E Modules, etc. I plan on reading them all in time (#lifegoals)...but I am human. I wish each AP included a more comprehensive list of referenced/tie-in material in the appendix.

I didn't realize some of the early published stuff actually is not canon, since I'be been trying to get through everything in publication order. That's interesting. Most of Dragonfall seems to fall in line with the setting. Augustana, Apsu, Dahak, etc. Does Dragonfall itself not exist?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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crognus wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
crognus wrote:
My group is trying to catch up on 1E APs. Which 1E APs will be most relevant for the upcoming 2E APs? Hells Rebels was relevant to Age of Ashes. I assume Tyrant's Grasp will be referenced in the next AP (since they travel around Kortos)?

All of them are. All of them helped shape the landscape of the setting in 2nd edition. Some moreso than others, but announcing those ahead of time is kinda the same as announcing Adventure Paths too early.

But all of them could potentially play significant historical or establishing roles in any upcoming product we produce.

Fair. But there's about 14,000‬ pages of 1E APs to read, 10,000 pages of 1E Campaign Setting books, 8,000 pages of 1E Modules, etc. I plan on reading them all in time (#lifegoals)...but I am human. I wish each AP included a more comprehensive list of referenced/tie-in material in the appendix.

I didn't realize some of the early published stuff actually is not canon, since I'be been trying to get through everything in publication order. That's interesting. Most of Dragonfall seems to fall in line with the setting. Augustana, Apsu, Dahak, etc. Does Dragonfall itself not exist?

Yup, it's a lot of stuff. And adding lists of references or tie-in material in each Adventure Path would erode our ability to include new content—stuff like that is probably best left to the wiki or stuff like that.

Dragonfall is not part of the setting, no. That's the only adventure we've published that we've pretty much not adopted into the setting's lore. It certainly uses a fair amount of the world lore, but the idea of a "dragon graveyard" is not part of the setting itself.


Are true dragons immortal? If not how old do they live to? I assumed they were immortal because of how old they can get and nothing mentions them dying of old age but then I noticed the stats of Time Dragon mention them specifically being immortal.

Does this mean Mengkare will die eventually?

Silver Crusade

How do you feel about Deinonychus (and fantasy Velociraptors) as mounts?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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111phantom wrote:

Are true dragons immortal? If not how old do they live to? I assumed they were immortal because of how old they can get and nothing mentions them dying of old age but then I noticed the stats of Time Dragon mention them specifically being immortal.

Does this mean Mengkare will die eventually?

True dragons are not immortal.

As established in the various 1st edition bestiaries... a dragon becomes a great wyrm upon reaching 1,201 years old. I don't believe that we've nailed down a maximum age for dragons, but they have one. At a certain point, a great wyrm runs out of life, grows infirm, and eventually passes away from natural causes. Most dragons are slain before that point; they live violent lives, after all. Those who manage to get to great wyrm status and avoid being killed by heroes or villains eventually grow old and infirm and eventually do die of old age.

Looking at the span of years in those dragon age categories, my preference would be to set the maximum age for dragons at some point between a minimum of 1,400 years and 2,000 years.

Time dragons are exceptions, in that they've got a unique association with time itself.

And yes, assuming Mengkare didn't get killed in Age of Ashes, he'll eventually die of old age in a few centuries.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Rysky wrote:
How do you feel about Deinonychus (and fantasy Velociraptors) as mounts?

Meh. I like them better in a role akin to what you see with dogs than with horses.

Silver Crusade

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James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:
How do you feel about Deinonychus (and fantasy Velociraptors) as mounts?
Meh. I like them better in a role akin to what you see with dogs than with horses.

Like this?


Have any sapphire oozes that got lost on the material plane joined the Pathfinder Society?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Age of Ashes:
How long have you known the real purpose of Promise? (Compared to when it was first written about, if it wasn't then)


Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

I'm asking this as a design question, not a rules question.

First Edition CRB wrote:
A bane weapon excels against certain foes. Against a designated foe, the weapon’s enhancement bonus is +2 better than its actual bonus. It also deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against the foe.

In second edition terms, this is equivalent to +2 additional potency and +2d6 damage, which is not quite additional "striking" because a striking rune increase the weapon's damage dice, which is not always d6.

It would be possible, I think, to just straight convert this to a 2E property rune, but I worry that it might be overpowered, because it takes the attack bonus to as much as +5, and the damage bonus to as much as +3 damage dice + 2d6, which afaik nothing else (so far anyway) can do.

If a straight conversion is overpowered, how would you tone it down?


Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

The Alara'hai are major artifacts with intelligence, purpose, and, in second edition terms maximum fundamental runes (if not more). Or at least maximum potency. That was +5 in first edition, but is +3 in second. Since these are major artifacts, I suppose they might be +5 potency even in second edition. Would that be too overpowered?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

111phantom wrote:
Have any sapphire oozes that got lost on the material plane joined the Pathfinder Society?

No.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ed Reppert wrote:

I'm asking this as a design question, not a rules question.

First Edition CRB wrote:
A bane weapon excels against certain foes. Against a designated foe, the weapon’s enhancement bonus is +2 better than its actual bonus. It also deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against the foe.

In second edition terms, this is equivalent to +2 additional potency and +2d6 damage, which is not quite additional "striking" because a striking rune increase the weapon's damage dice, which is not always d6.

It would be possible, I think, to just straight convert this to a 2E property rune, but I worry that it might be overpowered, because it takes the attack bonus to as much as +5, and the damage bonus to as much as +3 damage dice + 2d6, which afaik nothing else (so far anyway) can do.

If a straight conversion is overpowered, how would you tone it down?

It's still better to ask designers these questions. I certainly have my own theories and opinions, but I've learned not to step on the designers' toes in cases like this, since they tend to get frustrated when I pipe in with replies that might suggest to the public design philosophies they don't follow, if that makes sense. If there's a reason why they chose not to include bane weapons in 2nd edition, they haven't made clear to me what that reason is.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ed Reppert wrote:
The Alara'hai are major artifacts with intelligence, purpose, and, in second edition terms maximum fundamental runes (if not more). Or at least maximum potency. That was +5 in first edition, but is +3 in second. Since these are major artifacts, I suppose they might be +5 potency even in second edition. Would that be too overpowered?

What's overpowered for person A's game isn't for person B's game. You'll need to try it out in your game and decide for yourself. If you wanna know what the designers think, you should ask them.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

3Doubloons wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Decided on it a few years ago.


What does Asmodeus think of dominion of black?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Paizoxmi wrote:
What does Asmodeus think of dominion of black?

He probably doesn't really give them much thought and thus underestimates their significance.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Do Thassilonians in general have surnames?

This odd question is something I realized that over course of all 1e APs, there are only three npcs in Xin-Edasseril with surnames, none of Runelords and Xin have surnames :'D


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I really love Wyvaran, much more than say, WOTC Dragonborn, I know better than to ask about future products, but do you see them as having a place in the kinds of stories you want to tell in Golarion going forward?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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CorvusMask wrote:

Do Thassilonians in general have surnames?

This odd question is something I realized that over course of all 1e APs, there are only three npcs in Xin-Edasseril with surnames, none of Runelords and Xin have surnames :'D

Nope; they generally don't.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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The-Magic-Sword wrote:
I really love Wyvaran, much more than say, WOTC Dragonborn, I know better than to ask about future products, but do you see them as having a place in the kinds of stories you want to tell in Golarion going forward?

Me, personally? I don't see them having a place in Golarion, no. Sorry.

Those races were invented to proof-of-concept and test-drive and show off the race-building rules, and all of them were unfortunately built without much thought into what roles those races would fill on Golarion, or whether there were already races in the setting that could have been featured instead of making up brand new ones that didn't have any traditions in the setting. It's not my favorite thing to simply say something like "Oh these winged kobold things were here all along," when we haven't said much at all about them. Which is why the other ones ended up being either from other continents, planets, or dimensions. The wyvarans don't have much in the way of outlandish flavor to them; they're not four-armed, or infused with fey energy, or an unusual type like construct. As a result, of all those races, they're the ones that I personally am the least interested in exploring or finding a role for in the game. in small part because winged kobolds feel, to me, a bit TOO Dungeons & Dragons.

I'm sure there's other folks at Paizo who like them and have ideas for stories to tell about them, and we do have a place where they live (they're just not a lot of them and they don't "get out much"), but I'm not personally interested in exploring them much at all.


Did I catch that right? Urds are called wyvarans in pf?

Why the name change?

You mention "a place where they live" like they are a complete subrace, like 2e.

How would feel about them being more like oddities born anywhere more like sorcerers than a separate race, like in 3e?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I think wyvarans are more humanoid wyverns than winged kobolds really(with kobold-wyvern hybrid being just excuse of why they are humanoid in first place. There is really nothing kobold like about wyvarans, but I guess designer wanted to avoid flavoring them as wyvern-human experiments), but yeah sorry to hear that :'D Hopefully someone at paizo likes them, I really love their super loyal personalities.

At least I guess there will no longer be this discrepancy in future since all books have setting stuff now. Speaking of which, is there anything you can share about new mwangi ancestries(goloma, shisks, conrasu) mentioned in Lost Omens World Guide's Nantambu section or is what we know same what paizo knows about them currently? Were all of them created in that particular article?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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CorvusMask wrote:
At least I guess there will no longer be this discrepancy in future since all books have setting stuff now. Speaking of which, is there anything you can share about new mwangi ancestries(goloma, shisks, conrasu) mentioned in Lost Omens World Guide's Nantambu section or is what we know same what paizo knows about them currently? Were all of them created in that particular article?

Those are all brand new ones that we haven't done anything with yet.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Interesting Character wrote:

Did I catch that right? Urds are called wyvarans in pf?

Why the name change?

You mention "a place where they live" like they are a complete subrace, like 2e.

How would feel about them being more like oddities born anywhere more like sorcerers than a separate race, like in 3e?

They're entirely different things. They're not urds. They were created from scratch brand new to show off the way the race builder can create a flying race and have nothing to do with urds, and might not have anything to do with kobolds the more I think about them. They're just draconic humanoids.

As a monster like a gargoyle or the like I like them better. I prefer much more humanoid PCs.


Hey, Inner Sea Gods said that Norgorber's Gray Master aspect attracted True Neutral followers, right, since he's the god of thieves? The PF2 CRB seems to only allow N worshipers of the Reaper of Reputation. Was this a decision that N isn't a fit for the Gray Master?

Silver Crusade

What’s a popular snack among elves?


Why is Irrisen so awesome?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Syri wrote:
Hey, Inner Sea Gods said that Norgorber's Gray Master aspect attracted True Neutral followers, right, since he's the god of thieves? The PF2 CRB seems to only allow N worshipers of the Reaper of Reputation. Was this a decision that N isn't a fit for the Gray Master?

Because Inner Sea Gods got it wrong.

Thievery is evil, not neutral, and in order to benefit at the expense of others, you're acting pretty evil. Therefore, those who worship Norgorber as a god of thieves and are following instructions are constantly performing evil acts, thus evil.

His other aspects of assassin god and murder god (Blackfingers and Skinsaw) are full on evil.

Of the four aspects, on the Reaper of Reputation allows you to worship without performing constant evil acts. That one is the god of secrets and manipulation of knowledge, and it skews evil but you can be a keeper of secrets without being fully evil. Therefore, that aspect is and always should have been the one of the four who allows non-evil worshipers.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Rysky wrote:
What’s a popular snack among elves?

Wispy tingles.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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MadMars wrote:
Why is Irrisen so awesome?

Because you're really into winter and witches, I would guess.

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:
What’s a popular snack among elves?
Wispy tingles.

What are those?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Rysky wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:
What’s a popular snack among elves?
Wispy tingles.
What are those?

It's like cotton candy but it tastes better and is healthy for you and glows in the dark.


Is there a metaphysical component to Norgorber's different aspect or is it just he allows follower to worship differently?


Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Travel, do anything fun?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Kelseus wrote:
Is there a metaphysical component to Norgorber's different aspect or is it just he allows follower to worship differently?

He has different appearances, and presents as different personalities, but doesn't make a secret of the fact that he's all four of them. It's akin to an author like Dan Simmons, I guess. He's a writer, but he writes horror fiction sometimes, science fiction sometimes, historical fiction sometimes, and fantasy fiction sometimes depending on the book.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kelseus wrote:
Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Travel, do anything fun?

It was pretty much a non-event during which nothing happened other than missing my family. It was okay to get four days off from work, but I wouldn't call it anything close to a nice Thanksgiving.

Grand Lodge

I've never given this a second thought because it just seemed so obvious to me, but the question has come up: if a creature has telepathy, either from an ability or from the spell of the same name, does the creature "with a language" they're communicating with have to have a shared language in order for them to understand the telepathic messages? Like does a telepathic creature choose the language of the voice they throw into people's heads?

To me it seems they would, based on all pop culture examples I can think of (not needing a shared language feels like more of an empath than a telepath). Dissenters point out the telepathy spell only says the creature you attempt to communicate with needs to "have a language."

If there's no official Paizo response to this, how do you handle it in your games?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Strife2002 wrote:

I've never given this a second thought because it just seemed so obvious to me, but the question has come up: if a creature has telepathy, either from an ability or from the spell of the same name, does the creature "with a language" they're communicating with have to have a shared language in order for them to understand the telepathic messages? Like does a telepathic creature choose the language of the voice they throw into people's heads?

To me it seems they would, based on all pop culture examples I can think of (not needing a shared language feels like more of an empath than a telepath). Dissenters point out the telepathy spell only says the creature you attempt to communicate with needs to "have a language."

If there's no official Paizo response to this, how do you handle it in your games?

Nope. Telepathy bypasses language entirely. All a creature needs to have to understand telepathy is the capacity to understand a language. We've never discussed what it feels like to have someone think to you like this, really, but my assumption has always been that you receive telepathic communications in the form of your native tongue.


James Jacobs wrote:
Strife2002 wrote:

I've never given this a second thought because it just seemed so obvious to me, but the question has come up: if a creature has telepathy, either from an ability or from the spell of the same name, does the creature "with a language" they're communicating with have to have a shared language in order for them to understand the telepathic messages? Like does a telepathic creature choose the language of the voice they throw into people's heads?

To me it seems they would, based on all pop culture examples I can think of (not needing a shared language feels like more of an empath than a telepath). Dissenters point out the telepathy spell only says the creature you attempt to communicate with needs to "have a language."

If there's no official Paizo response to this, how do you handle it in your games?

Nope. Telepathy bypasses language entirely. All a creature needs to have to understand telepathy is the capacity to understand a language. We've never discussed what it feels like to have someone think to you like this, really, but my assumption has always been that you receive telepathic communications in the form of your native tongue.

That's really cool. What happens when the words don't have analogs in the native language of the receiver? I'd imagine that "boat" might end up being something like "water walker" but philosophical concepts and conversation might end up full on "Shaka, when the walls fell". Very cool to think about.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Phaedre wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Strife2002 wrote:

I've never given this a second thought because it just seemed so obvious to me, but the question has come up: if a creature has telepathy, either from an ability or from the spell of the same name, does the creature "with a language" they're communicating with have to have a shared language in order for them to understand the telepathic messages? Like does a telepathic creature choose the language of the voice they throw into people's heads?

To me it seems they would, based on all pop culture examples I can think of (not needing a shared language feels like more of an empath than a telepath). Dissenters point out the telepathy spell only says the creature you attempt to communicate with needs to "have a language."

If there's no official Paizo response to this, how do you handle it in your games?

Nope. Telepathy bypasses language entirely. All a creature needs to have to understand telepathy is the capacity to understand a language. We've never discussed what it feels like to have someone think to you like this, really, but my assumption has always been that you receive telepathic communications in the form of your native tongue.
That's really cool. What happens when the words don't have analogs in the native language of the receiver? I'd imagine that "boat" might end up being something like "water walker" but philosophical concepts and conversation might end up full on "Shaka, when the walls fell". Very cool to think about.

They translate as needed into a concept you can understand as best they can, but just as you might have trouble telling someone who speaks your language but never saw a boat, you'd have to do education there anyway.

Silver Crusade

What's a popular snack among drow?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

What which aspect does Norgorber's most common appearance(aka the one in Inner Sea Gods and in cover of Lost Omen Gods & Magic) represent?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Rysky wrote:
What's a popular snack among drow?

Elf lips.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

CorvusMask wrote:
What which aspect does Norgorber's most common appearance(aka the one in Inner Sea Gods and in cover of Lost Omen Gods & Magic) represent?

That one works for all four aspects pretty much. It's his favored form overall.

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