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In Second Edition, some dragons gain the change shape ability. In First Edition it would be a supernatural ability. But what about in Second Edition? Is it an innate spell? If so, would it be negated by a dispell magic, antimagic field or disjunction spell?


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I've always assumed there are six adventures in an AP not because that's the ideal storytelling number for a campaign, but just because the 3.5 XP system means that's how many adventures you need to get close to maximum level.

So, two related questions: is that correct? And if so, did you consider changing it either when PF1 or PF2 came out? (I ask partly because I find 6 45-page adventures slightly on the long side for a campaign.)

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Set wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
I just am not a big fan of orcs for a lot of reasons.

Any particular favorite humanoid race to put in the 'traditional bad guy' role? Gnolls, hobgoblins, other humans...

Humans are my favorite humanoid race to serve as bad guys. See Adventure Paths like Rise of the Runelords, Return of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, and Hell's Rebels for examples of my favorite human villains.

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Aenigma wrote:
In Second Edition, some dragons gain the change shape ability. In First Edition it would be a supernatural ability. But what about in Second Edition? Is it an innate spell? If so, would it be negated by a dispell magic, antimagic field or disjunction spell?

From the common sense side of things, it HAS to be supernatural, because that's the only way something the size and shape of a dragon can pull off the ability to change into a human shape.

From the rules side of things, look on page 104 of the 2nd edition Bestiary where the rules for the new version of change shape for dragons lives. You'll see in the parentheticals of the ability:

(arcane, concentrate, polymorph, transmutation)

The word "arcane" tells you the ability is arcane magic. The word "transmutation" tells you the type of magic is transmutation magic. Both of those words tell you it's a magic ability. The word "supernatural" has no rules load in 2nd edition. It's merely a real-word english word that we can use for its real-world definition: "of, relating to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal." As a synonym for the word "magic" in other words.

It's not an innate spell, because it's not listed as an innate spell in the dragon' sstat block.

It IS a magic effect, and as such can be dispelled or countered by effects like dispel magic, antimagic field, or disjunction.

There isn't a category of "magic effects that can't be dispelled by dispel magic" in 2nd edition; that's kinda nonsensical when you think about it and it created some unfortunate weirdness in 1st edition we've scrubbed from the game.

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DavidW wrote:

I've always assumed there are six adventures in an AP not because that's the ideal storytelling number for a campaign, but just because the 3.5 XP system means that's how many adventures you need to get close to maximum level.

So, two related questions: is that correct? And if so, did you consider changing it either when PF1 or PF2 came out? (I ask partly because I find 6 45-page adventures slightly on the long side for a campaign.)

The reason there's 6 adventures in an Adventure Path is because we wanted to do two a year, and we wanted them to be equally representative of a span of time. It's very important for us to be able to launch an Adventure Path on Gen Con, so that locks in one of a year's start points, and it's also very important that they represent as wide a range of play, since they exist to support longer campaigns.

Some folks might think they're too short, others too long, others just right. For me, a campaign of this lake feels about right.

If you think they're on the long side, you always have the power as the GM to trim and adjust. Likewise, if you think they're too short you can always slow down XP progression and add more adventures.

We never really considered changing it when editions change, because it's a formula that we've seen works very well, and thus it lives under the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" category. Once we've got a few Adventure Paths under our belts in 2nd edition, we might consider adjusting or expermienting with lengths, but that's not gonna happen this year or next year for sure.


Do you ever sit back in wonder at what you have built with Paizo?

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Kelseus wrote:
Do you ever sit back in wonder at what you have built with Paizo?

Yes.


Can a simulacrum reproduce?


To make a dragon spellcaster, I should remove the dragon's Draconic Frenzy and Draconic Momentum abilities. I'm not sure. Why should I do that? I remember in First Edition we didn't have to remove the dragon's abilities to make him a spellcaster. Also, if I give a dragon spells but don't remove Draconic Frenzy and Draconic Momentum abilities, would the dragon's level increase somehow?


111phantom wrote:
Can a simulacrum reproduce?

Or at least, can it try repeatedly and vigorously?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

111phantom wrote:
Can a simulacrum reproduce?

No.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:
To make a dragon spellcaster, I should remove the dragon's Draconic Frenzy and Draconic Momentum abilities. I'm not sure. Why should I do that? I remember in First Edition we didn't have to remove the dragon's abilities to make him a spellcaster. Also, if I give a dragon spells but don't remove Draconic Frenzy and Draconic Momentum abilities, would the dragon's level increase somehow?

Because too many abilities on a monster makes them too complicated to run, and to focus the dragon's choices in combat to spellcasting rather than to attacking.

If you wanna not remove those abilities, that's fine, but you might find in play that you're not using the abilities often enough before combat ends. It's overcomplicating for no real gain.

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GM PDK wrote:
111phantom wrote:
Can a simulacrum reproduce?
Or at least, can it try repeatedly and vigorously?

It can do that.


Hmm. Then if I make a dragon spellcaster without removing the dragon's Draconic Frenzy and Draconic Momentum abilities, should I increase the dragon's level? Or I don't have to, because it wouldn't enhance the dragon's combat power significantly?

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Aenigma wrote:
Hmm. Then if I make a dragon spellcaster without removing the dragon's Draconic Frenzy and Draconic Momentum abilities, should I increase the dragon's level? Or I don't have to, because it wouldn't enhance the dragon's combat power significantly?

Don't increase the dragon's level. Giving a monster more abilities doesn't make it more powerful, since it doesn't increase the number of actions that it can do in a round, and doesn't fundamentally extend how long the dragon will be in play before the PCs defeat it or it defeats the PCs.

It just makes it more complicated to run and increasingly ensures that you'll be wasting some of your game prep time since it won't be able to use all those abilities.


I have always been frustrated by the fact that while chromatic dragons have one breath weapon, metallic dragons have two. I thought it's really unfair. So I really wished Paizo to remove the secondary breath weaopns of metallic dragons in Second Edition. Did Wizards of the Coast give them two breath weapons because metallic dragons were considered inherently more powerful than chromatic dragons?

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Aenigma wrote:
I have always been frustrated by the fact that while chromatic dragons have one breath weapon, metallic dragons have two. I thought it's really unfair. So I really wished Paizo to remove the secondary breath weaopns of metallic dragons in Second Edition. Did Wizards of the Coast give them two breath weapons because metallic dragons were considered inherently more powerful than chromatic dragons?

That's a legacy thing that goes back to the roots of D&D. I like it because it helps to differentiate the dragons and give them more variety. Reducing those breath weapon options was never considered.


What we called traits in First Edition we call backgrounds in Second Edition. I remember a PC can have multiple traits in First Edition. Does that mean a PC can have multiple backgrounds in Second Edition too?

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Aenigma wrote:
What we called traits in First Edition we call backgrounds in Second Edition. I remember a PC can have multiple traits in First Edition. Does that mean a PC can have multiple backgrounds in Second Edition too?

Nope, it doesn't mean that.


Some spell, such as dispel magic, can be used to eliminate the effects of other spells. In First Edition, supernatural abilities cannot be counterspelled because they are not spells. But since all supernatural abilities are now innate spells in Second Edition, can I counterspell a dragon's breath weapon or a medusa's petrifying gaze with dispel magic?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:
Some spell, such as dispel magic, can be used to eliminate the effects of other spells. In First Edition, supernatural abilities cannot be counterspelled because they are not spells. But since all supernatural abilities are now innate spells in Second Edition, can I counterspell a dragon's breath weapon or a medusa's petrifying gaze with dispel magic?

All these rules questions should actually be directed to the product page or the design team.


What we called derros in First Edition we call deros in Second Edition. Is it a typo, or a deliberate change?


What is was the Mezlan inspired by?

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Aenigma wrote:
What we called derros in First Edition we call deros in Second Edition. Is it a typo, or a deliberate change?

Deliberate change to go back to the creature's original spelling from when it first appeared in Amazing Stories several decades ago.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Paizoxmi wrote:
What is was the Mezlan inspired by?

I believe it was Adam's desire to have an intelligent ooze AND a high level monster that was Medium that inspired it.


I heard in this post that shoggoths are not oozes in Second Edition because the design team felt it was important to keep creatures with the ooze trait as being relatively simple and very unintelligent. If so, will mezlans be aberrations instead of oozes in Second Edition?

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Aenigma wrote:
I heard in this post that shoggoths are not oozes in Second Edition because the design team felt it was important to keep creatures with the ooze trait as being relatively simple and very unintelligent. If so, will mezlans be aberrations instead of oozes in Second Edition?

I guess so.


Among all the proteans, only voidworms have an English name, unlike naunets, imenteshes and keketars, who have their unique names. Do they have a real, unique name? I really wish it would be revealed in the near future.

Silver Crusade

Hi ,JJ

One of my player chose a Elf Heritages called"Cavern Elf"

And I never heard this(I think they are not the drows), and I can't found any setting about them in PF1 setting.

So I just assume they are elves living in the Cavern.

Does "Cavern Elf" have any story or setting I haven't find?

Thanks you.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:
Among all the proteans, only voidworms have an English name, unlike naunets, imenteshes and keketars, who have their unique names. Do they have a real, unique name? I really wish it would be revealed in the near future.

Nah, they're not important enough to proteans to have a "real" name. They'd probably just call them vermin or pest or critter or whatever, in the Protean language, and since we avoid filling the game up with other language words like that to keep from having to imply entire languages that we'd then have to track the rules for, it's not something we're likely to touch upon.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Kamiizumi Nobutsuna wrote:

Hi ,JJ

One of my player chose a Elf Heritages called"Cavern Elf"

And I never heard this(I think they are not the drows), and I can't found any setting about them in PF1 setting.

So I just assume they are elves living in the Cavern.

Does "Cavern Elf" have any story or setting I haven't find?

Thanks you.

As far as I know, no, no specific setting lore.


How do you pronounce sahuagin, Krelloort(chieftain of the sahuagin tribe from Raiders of the Fever Sea), malenti and adacthys(names of two sahuagin mutations)?


Is it possible to put magical horseshoes on an obsidian steed figurine of wondrous power?

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Aenigma wrote:
How do you pronounce sahuagin, Krelloort(chieftain of the sahuagin tribe from Raiders of the Fever Sea), malenti and adacthys(names of two sahuagin mutations)?

saw-WHO-ah-gin

KRELL-ort

mah-LEN-tee

ah-DAK-this

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JDawg75 wrote:
Is it possible to put magical horseshoes on an obsidian steed figurine of wondrous power?

I'd say yes, but that they'd fall off when the horse goes back to statue form.


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James Jacobs wrote:
Paizoxmi wrote:
What is was the Mezlan inspired by?
I believe it was Adam's desire to have an intelligent ooze AND a high level monster that was Medium that inspired it.

Cool,I like then because they would make great tricksters and spies characters do to their shapeshifing ablities.


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On Earth, while the South Pole lies on a continental land mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. What about on Golarion? Does the South Pole of Golarion lie on a continental land mass as well just like the Crown of the World?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:
On Earth, while the South Pole lies on a continental land mass, the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. What about on Golarion? Does the South Pole of Golarion lie on a continental land mass as well just like the Crown of the World?

Nope, it's reversed. Land to the north, water to the south.


The standard unit was the gold piece in First Edition. But in Second Edition, the standard unit is the silver piece instead. Why did Paizo change it?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:
The standard unit was the gold piece in First Edition. But in Second Edition, the standard unit is the silver piece instead. Why did Paizo change it?

To make gold more valuable.


Is there a canonical answer to whether Leng lies in the Dimension of Dreams or is just only accessible via the Dreamlands? (I ask because there are mechanical implications for encountering Denizens of Leng in the Dreamlands; I don't mind making up an answer if there isn't one already).


quibblemuch wrote:
Is there a canonical answer to whether Leng lies in the Dimension of Dreams or is just only accessible via the Dreamlands? (I ask because there are mechanical implications for encountering Denizens of Leng in the Dreamlands; I don't mind making up an answer if there isn't one already).

I'm in no way trying to answer your question instead of James but there is very specific info in regards to that in this Pathfinder Society scenario.

James, what are the top 3 'permanent structures' found in the Dimension of Dreams? (from your perspective; I'm not asking for a literary review of all that's been published thus far. Thanks!)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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quibblemuch wrote:
Is there a canonical answer to whether Leng lies in the Dimension of Dreams or is just only accessible via the Dreamlands? (I ask because there are mechanical implications for encountering Denizens of Leng in the Dreamlands; I don't mind making up an answer if there isn't one already).

Leng is adjacent to the Dimension of Dreams, and you can travel between the two via ship or flight or even land, but it's a dangerous journey that's "safer" if you plane shift or teleport or whatever. Usually safer, that is. Denizens of Leng treat anywhere other than Leng as otherplanar.

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GM PDK wrote:


James, what are the top 3 'permanent structures' found in the Dimension of Dreams? (from your perspective; I'm not asking for a literary review of all that's been published thus far. Thanks!)

Don't have any favorite permanent structures, but plenty of favorite locations. My top 3 locations would be Ulthar, the Underworld, and Sarnath. If you expand it to include Leng, then knock Sarnath off and replace it with Kadath.

Verdant Wheel

I allways have had some expectations that the word ESPer would mean something in Pathfinder or Starfinder, given her origins in sci-fi stories and Victorian Occultism. What are your feelings about the word being worth of being a Class or Ancestry ?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Draco Bahamut wrote:
I allways have had some expectations that the word ESPer would mean something in Pathfinder or Starfinder, given her origins in sci-fi stories and Victorian Occultism. What are your feelings about the word being worth of being a Class or Ancestry ?

Doesn't make sense to me as an ancestry, but it's been a class in my Unspeakable Futures game for almost two decades, so it works for me well in that regard.


So I'm playing a Living Grimoire Inquisitor and I wanted something clarified. For my Sacred Word ability, I can add bane to my holy book, but I can only choose one set of enhancements per day as a Warpriest does. Does that mean I can only choose bane against one group of creatures per day, or could I change that bane when I activate sacred word?
For example, if I activate Sacred Word and give my book +1, shocking, and bane (humanoids: Orcs) could I later make it into +1, shocking, and bane (undead)?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Teratoma wrote:

So I'm playing a Living Grimoire Inquisitor and I wanted something clarified. For my Sacred Word ability, I can add bane to my holy book, but I can only choose one set of enhancements per day as a Warpriest does. Does that mean I can only choose bane against one group of creatures per day, or could I change that bane when I activate sacred word?

For example, if I activate Sacred Word and give my book +1, shocking, and bane (humanoids: Orcs) could I later make it into +1, shocking, and bane (undead)?

Dunno; I haven't looked at this at all. Rules questions should be directed to the design team.


Previous Q&A:
James Jacobs wrote:
TheKillingJay wrote:

Hi James! We met at Paizocon this year, at the banquet I was the one pestering you with questions about Runelords and Rune magic.

That whole convention I had a lot of questions and what not going into my mind to ask you about Sandpoint, Runelords, this and that, and one big one that flew from my mind at one of the panels right when it was my turn to ask *finally* came back to me!

What's at the end of the Turandarok river?

Also, I stumbled across your discussion on The Pit as a megadungeon and how some 200 pages were cut from Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast and ohhhh myyyy, they really dropped the ball on that one haha. I bet it would have been so much more epic! Any idea if that content will ever be finished? I'd love to get that signed too if it does!

I have some ideas bouncing around about the Pit but man not on the scale you hinted at. I'll have to include Pazuzu and Lamashtu's true showdown and influences in a later adventure I run I suppose!

The Temple of Lissala I was working came out well I think, but real life struggles have decimated actually playing through it.

Sorry this got long, I don't post around here much and don't know the true spirit of this thread yet. Hope life's treating you well, and maybe I'll see you next year!

I pretty much reveal what's at the end of the Turandarok River in the Sandpoint Book.

And it's not that 200 pages were cut from the book. I wrote the contents to fill a 96 page book. It went a little over and I had to cut maybe a dozen pages or so, but not 200. My original outline for the book was for a 320 page hardcover, but once management decided that Paizo wanted to focus its hardcover editing and layout and printing resources elsewhere, I rebuilt that outline for the 96 page book that exists today. I COULD write hundreds of more pages about Sandpoint and the hinterlands, but I haven't yet, so there was nothing to cut. It never physically existed in the first place to BE cut. I doubt there'll be much more...

Hope you've been enjoying your holidays Mr. Jacobs, and thank you for answering my previous question! I'm not used to not getting notifications on Forums so I completely missed it haha.

That said, I apologize I misconstrued what I read, I'm sure you get that a lot and I'm sorry I contributed to that.

I for one would be really excited to see further adventures in the Sandpoint/Varisia regions; especially The Pit you've hinted at! I don't think the currently released APs that have Sandpoint in them will be the only campaigns I run with Sandpoint starring, its just such a fun place!

I come to you with, surprise, some questions about Sandpoint. I'm running Rise of the Runelords and have some intrigue going on with the Scarnetti family. I've run a social dinner encounter with them, and Titus has managed to get the Heroes juuuust a bit under his thumb, and its looking like they will be so for some time.

Titus is looking to use the Heroes as an instrument to sway votes in his favor on the upcoming election day (RiotR, Neth 7)

1. What kind of issues does the town council meet on to decide? What kind of power does the Mayor have vs the rest of the council?
2. How do the Mayoral/Elected Council seats get decided? Is it like a sort of voluntary/elected caucus that occurs complete with a stage, ballot, and speeches?
3. What crops are grown in Sandpoints hinterlands, aside from the confirmed corn?
4. How much money would you say each of the four houses has and the town has to spend frivolously each year? i.e on PC heroics or some such

All of these things involve the Scarnetti plan and some additions/changes I'm making to RiotR. Essentially, the last mill in Sandpoint is going to sink into the river due to the underground ghoul problem that will be linked a bit to Aldern. Titus is going to turn the bad luck into a profit by making a big public display about personally funding the reconstruction of the mills; that combined with bribing the Heroes of Sandpoint may be enough to sway the election in his favor.

Sorry for pestering, and if you read any of it, thank you!

Hope your new years rings in well, and also I really enjoyed that last live stream you did with Mr. Loza, sign me up for more like it in the future ^_^


What do Kyton think of oozes?

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