JJ, how do you feel about getting post # 15000 in the Ask James Jacobs topic?
She is attacking you with a massive claymore sword while her friends play rousing songs on their bagpipes.
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Ever had some red wine Kelsey? That's from purple grapes, I personally find the, I want to say tannin but I could be wrong, in the skin a bit too strong myself making them too tart.
James, this has probably been asked before but I haven't spotted it in my perusal of the thread, so, which is your favorite variety of Dragon in Pathfinder?
Are there stats for sabre toothed cats anywhere?
Are there stats for sabre toothed cats anywhere?Yup. Page 265 of the Bestiary (they'e listed as dire tiger/smilodon).
Should I beat myself for my stupidity?
Gordon Ramsay. Is he awesome?
Speaking of Linnorms.
How do they fly?
What sort of life span do tengu have? Similar to humans?
1) how common is the worship of the empyreal lords in the inner sea region?
2) how would the average towns person react to a cleric of an empyreal lord? Would their faith be recognized and accepted or would they be regarded as strange?
3) how many empyreal lords are there? Are they as numerous as demon lords or is there a set number like archdevils?
What sort of life span do tengu have? Similar to humans?That info's revealed on page 8 of the Dragon Empires Gazetteer.
They reach adulthood at 15 years and have a maximum age of 70+2d20 years.
Thanks, James. I actually have that book but haven't looked at it yet. Guess it's time to crack the spine.
How bizarre is it that it's actually quicker and easier to ask Paizo's Creative Director a question and get an answer than go find the right book on my shelf and look it up myself?
James, will Paizo ever publish a Bestiary type book with no monsters, but a ton of templates (A Paizo version of the Green Ronin Advanced Bestiary)?
Is it bad that I altered the Kitsune to have a lifespan of thousands of years, but to only be born as a "freak mutation" of another race of foxfolk in my campaign? 0_0
Is it bad that I altered the Kitsune to have a lifespan of thousands of years, but to only be born as a "freak mutation" of another race of foxfolk in my campaign? 0_0
No. Race alterations that fit your campaign are a good thing.
Creative Director
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1) how common is the worship of the empyreal lords in the inner sea region?
2) how would the average towns person react to a cleric of an empyreal lord? Would their faith be recognized and accepted or would they be regarded as strange?
3) how many empyreal lords are there? Are they as numerous as demon lords or is there a set number like archdevils?
1) Not all that common... although technically Sarenrae is one of the Empyreal Lords, so if you include her... quite common indeed. Worship of the other ones is common in places here and there; in Magnimar, for example, it's pretty common.
2) The average townsperson would probably be curious if he'd not really heard of the Empyreal Lords, but not frightened. Again... depends entirely on the region.
3) There are as many as we need there to be, same with Demon Lords. No set number.
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How bizarre is it that it's actually quicker and easier to ask Paizo's Creative Director a question and get an answer than go find the right book on my shelf and look it up myself?
As long as you don't stop buying my books, or until they pay me extra to answer questions here... it's VERY BIZARRE! DON'T DO IT!!! (panics)
James, it seems like Paizo is trying hard to make Golarion a three-ring circus; something for everybody, with fences to keep my steampunk from getting into your Gothic horror, etc. Is this a thing that limits what you can publish, in practice? Does anybody ever say, "No, we can't do that because it will bleed out into the larger setting and narrow Golarion's appeal"?
What does Pharasma think of Immortality gained through means other than undeath, for example, the level 20 Wizard's "Immortality" Arcane Discovery? Bit more of what I mean based on the player answer below me (which makes a very good point), I more mean immortality as in "unaging", since the wizard arcane discovery is just that, not like you can't be killed like a TRUE "Immortality"
Also, could you see a good aligned wizard or sorcerer worshipping one of the elemental lords if they were an elemental specialist/bloodline and not being evil themselves?
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This question might belong in the Kingmaker forums but it tends to take a while to get a response and I know JJ has previously answered questions on mass combat. I have tried searching for these answers in the KM forum and specifically the mass combat thread.
1. I can't see it listed anywhere in KM #5 explicitly what a leader's charisma modifer changes with regards to army stats. It seems to very loosely imply that it affects the morale roll, if so is it limited to the -4/+4 that morale is limited to, or is it treated seperately?
2. How long should a mass combat 'round' last. I was thinking of house ruling half an hour or an hour for each round- I believe the third party book for Kingmaker specifies a minute but the idea of one conventional army potentially wiping another out in sixty seconds of combat doesn't sit well with me.
Interesting thought I just had:
Assuming you and the rest of Paizo HQ ever managed to get some free time to create a 'proper' Guild and make your own Kingdom, what would you name it, and who would be the 'King' (or 'Queen).
Also, to avoid shenanigans in the Jade Empire Campaign, we've modded the Leadership feat a bit, removing the Followers and granting the Cohort either the Elite Stats array for Humanoid Cohorts or +2 to three Scores of the Player's choice for Monstrous Cohorts. Do you think this will be too broken or will it 'fix' the 'army of excruciatingly vulnerable peons' that the Leadership Feat brings with it.
Dear James,
are there any data about the lifespans of the elemental-touched races (Ifrit, Oread, Sylph and Undine)?
When as a GM have you most scared your players?
Conversely, when as a player have you been most scared by a GM?
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Any chance of a big book of prebuilt NPCs? or several more little books?
I know there are some npcs in the GMG, and I remember a softcover that had some potential enemies statted out with lots of fluff, but:
There's currently no "Orcs of Varying CRs through class levels", Gnolls of Varying CRs through class levels, etc. to fill out the ranks in more humanoid focused campaigns.
As a part 2: Yes I realize there could potentially be alot of these, given the number of Races that exist for PF.
I would definitely buy them for the mountain of work they'd save me.
On the subject of your cat, get her used to baths as quickly as you can. I managed to get my cats bathed a few days after they opened their eyes, same temperature as you would a human baby, with their mother going "mwah mwah mwah!" at my side, then wiping them dry then giving them to her to nurse.
Now when it's time for their monthly bath, I just grab them by the scruff of the neck and the base of the tail and give them the sheep dip treatment, and not one scratch on me to date, although the fact I bribe them with special cat-milk also factors into the equation!
Actual question: So you guys actually have a specific thing in mind for why Aroden died? Will it remain one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Golarion campaign setting (akin to "What happened to Cyre?")Although at the very start, I don't think Erik had a specific thing in mind for how Aroden died—if he did, he's never told me.
I, on the other hand, have a pretty detailed "behind the scenes" scenario as to what happened during the onset of the Age of Lost Omens that describes not only how Aroden died, but why the Eye of Abendego formed, why the Worldwound happened, why there were storms all over, why Lung Wa collapsed, and all of that. A few vague hints about this mystery have appeared in print... but I doubt we'll ever reveal it all. The death of Aroden in particular isn't something we're likely to EVER reveal.
But yes, I have a VERY specific thing in mind for all of that, and have been keeping it in mind whenever other subjects brush up against it, so that if we DO ever reveal the truth... folks will be able to look back at what we've published to that point from the beginning and it will make sense in retrospect.
That's quite interesting, but it begs a question for me.
Did you have the causes/reasons for the death of Aroden, the Worldwound, the Eye of Abendego, etc. in your mind at the outset, or did you decide they should exist and then later create a reason?
I ask because I find myself doing a combination of the two. Sometimes, I establish that event X happened and then determine what the side effects would have been, resulting in things A, B and C, while other times I decide that I want things A, B and C to exist without thinking of a rationale, and later determining they were caused by event X, where event X makes sense in the campaign world.
1) Not all that common... although technically Sarenrae is one of the Empyreal Lords, so if you include her... quite common indeed. Worship of the other ones is common in places here and there; in Magnimar, for example, it's pretty common.
Which ones (not counting The Dawnflower) are most commonly worshipped in Magnimar?
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1) What are your thoughts on iterative attacks at higher levels? Is there any point to them, with such a large penalties?
2) Do you have any plans for gunslinger support in APs? Perhaps in a Mana Wastes or Numeria AP?
3) Do you have any plans for intelligent construct type of race, such as Warforged or Ironborn? I think that there are a lot of players who would love them.
James, will Paizo ever publish a Bestiary type book with no monsters, but a ton of templates (A Paizo version of the Green Ronin Advanced Bestiary)?
I really hope they do this, then those Templates won't haunt/spoil or destroy precious monster pages in the monster books anymore, never liked Templates in monster books as they are too different from normal monsters and they mostly take up more than one page.
My questions:
1: What are you thoughts on Alraune? Do you like this monster, do you hate it, or are you neutral to it?
2: Are Akhluts taken from mythology/folklore or made up by Paizo? What was your/their inspiration for this monster, why a wolf and not a polar bear?
3) Are Antlions and Dust Diggers similiar in roles? Can one replace the other? Which do you prefer?
4)While most creaturs are mostly 100% based on their folklore counterparts the Rusalka made a very big change from the normal folklore, why was this done? Same question for Leshy and Vodyanoi.
5) What is the biggest difference between the Brain Ooze and Intellect Devourer?
6) I don't really like the Cold Rider yet... can you tell me something new about the Cold Rider (not told in bestiary 3) that probably makes me like him? :p
7) Are Crucidaemons designed after Iron Maidens?
8) Is the coloxus the most vain creature in all three bestairies combined? Or is there a monster that is even more vain?
9) Why are Succubi CR7 and Incubi Cr6?
10) Why did Iguanodon get the picture and the much cooler Dimentrodon didn't? ;)
11) Which undead do Ecorche mostly serve?
12) Do you think the Aranea in Monster Manual 1 is based on the Jorogumo?
13) What color does a Jubjub Bird becomes when hit by sonic damage?
14) Let me get this straight, a Kyton, Interlocutor cuts off his own legs/parts and replaces them with mechanical parts or what?
15) Is the Fjord Linnorm based on the Jormundr Serpent from norse mythology? If not which linnorm is based on that serpent?
Last) Why are there so many lizard-monsters in the bestiary 3?
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Creative Director
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James, it seems like Paizo is trying hard to make Golarion a three-ring circus; something for everybody, with fences to keep my steampunk from getting into your Gothic horror, etc. Is this a thing that limits what you can publish, in practice? Does anybody ever say, "No, we can't do that because it will bleed out into the larger setting and narrow Golarion's appeal"?
We're trying to make Golarion appeal to lots of folks, but we can't make it appeal to EVERYone.
We don't have a very strong steampunk area, frankly, because the Inner Sea region's already got enough going on that's unusual—the region's big, but not infinitely big.
And steampunk's not the only genre we aren't covering. We don't really have a strong Mayan/Aztec region. We don't really have a strong Arthurian legend region. We don't have an Ancient Greece region.
That said... those regions can and DO exist elsewhere on Golarion or on other worlds or in the Great Beyond.
The problem with steampunk as opposed to, say, gothic horror, is that steampunk requires a Numeria-level amount of support work to it. We can do gothic horror without writing a single new rule, but we simply can't do that with steampunk.
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Creative Director
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What does Pharasma think of Immortality gained through means other than undeath, for example, the level 20 Wizard's "Immortality" Arcane Discovery? Bit more of what I mean based on the player answer below me (which makes a very good point), I more mean immortality as in "unaging", since the wizard arcane discovery is just that, not like you can't be killed like a TRUE "Immortality"
Also, could you see a good aligned wizard or sorcerer worshipping one of the elemental lords if they were an elemental specialist/bloodline and not being evil themselves?
Depends on the situation. Immortality, as Pharasma would point out, only defeats death from old age. It does not defeat death from choking on a chicken bone or slipping in the bathtub.
Good and evil don't mix. A good character of ANY class shouldn't pick an evil deity, because that either means he's a devout worshiper who'll change alignment because being a devout worshiper of an evil deity means you do evil things... or because he's a terrible worshiper and only pays lip service to the evil deity and that deity's followers might take offense if they find out.
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Creative Director
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This question might belong in the Kingmaker forums but it tends to take a while to get a response and I know JJ has previously answered questions on mass combat. I have tried searching for these answers in the KM forum and specifically the mass combat thread.
1. I can't see it listed anywhere in KM #5 explicitly what a leader's charisma modifer changes with regards to army stats. It seems to very loosely imply that it affects the morale roll, if so is it limited to the -4/+4 that morale is limited to, or is it treated seperately?
2. How long should a mass combat 'round' last. I was thinking of house ruling half an hour or an hour for each round- I believe the third party book for Kingmaker specifies a minute but the idea of one conventional army potentially wiping another out in sixty seconds of combat doesn't sit well with me.
I've not looked at the mass combat rules for YEARS so I'm a bit rusty there... but!
1) Yes, an army leader's charisma modifier adjusts morale rolls.
2) In real time, a mass combat round should take as short an amount of time as possible. In real time, we've kept it vague precisely because that allows GMs to decide what works best for them. In fact, that's partially why we didn't do a SUPER DETAILED mass combat system—we didn't have room either.
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Creative Director
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Interesting thought I just had:
Assuming you and the rest of Paizo HQ ever managed to get some free time to create a 'proper' Guild and make your own Kingdom, what would you name it, and who would be the 'King' (or 'Queen).
Also, to avoid shenanigans in the Jade Empire Campaign, we've modded the Leadership feat a bit, removing the Followers and granting the Cohort either the Elite Stats array for Humanoid Cohorts or +2 to three Scores of the Player's choice for Monstrous Cohorts. Do you think this will be too broken or will it 'fix' the 'army of excruciatingly vulnerable peons' that the Leadership Feat brings with it.
Paizo's already a guild! At least, on Warcraft we are. FEAR THE ANVIL POUNDERS!
And it's the "Jade REGENT" campaign. Jade Empire is a (very good) Bioware game.
Cohorts aren't supposed to be as good as PCs, first of all—they're sidekicks. If they're as powerful, or as your rule makes them, MORE powerful than the PCs are of equal level... that can be very frustrating for some players. And cohorts already make players a LOT more powerful than any other effect in the game.
The followers you gain from Leadership are not meant to literally follow you on adventures. In most games I run, players just completely ignore the followers granted and so do I, since gaining a cohort is already a huge advantage.
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Creative Director
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Dear James,
are there any data about the lifespans of the elemental-touched races (Ifrit, Oread, Sylph and Undine)?
Not yet.
In cases like this, for zero HD races who you're using as PC options, the best bet is to just assume human lifespans. Since aging effects very very rarely matter in games anyway, it's not likely to ever be needed. If you're the GM, you can just arbitrarily decide things anyway for NPCs.
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Creative Director
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Any chance of a big book of prebuilt NPCs? or several more little books?
I know there are some npcs in the GMG, and I remember a softcover that had some potential enemies statted out with lots of fluff, but:
There's currently no "Orcs of Varying CRs through class levels", Gnolls of Varying CRs through class levels, etc. to fill out the ranks in more humanoid focused campaigns.
As a part 2: Yes I realize there could potentially be alot of these, given the number of Races that exist for PF.
I would definitely buy them for the mountain of work they'd save me.
To a certain extent, we already do books with prebuilt NPCs: Adventures. Each one has several NPCs that a GM can use as he needs—often, when I'm running an adventure for which I'm ad-libbing a lot or for which I expect the PCs to get distracted by NPCs I've not built, I'll keep a couple of level-appropriate adventures handy so I can just grab one up and use an NPC stat block out of that book as I need.
That said, an NPC bestiary type book is a great idea, and one we've been contemplating doing for a few years. Stay tuned!
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Creative Director
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What is Shimmy's favorite toy? Feather, string, box?
Does she let you pet her belly or attack your hand if you try?
If you ever felt the urge to paint your cat, what would you paint her to look like?
Shimmy enjoys lasers, toy mice (especially squeaky ones on strings), paper bags, cardboard boxes, and my fingers or toes (especially when I wiggle them accidentally under a blanket).
Yes.
I wouldn't have that urge. It's an alien concept.
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Creative Director
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That's quite interesting, but it begs a question for me.
Did you have the causes/reasons for the death of Aroden, the Worldwound, the Eye of Abendego, etc. in your mind at the outset, or did you decide they should exist and then later create a reason?
I ask because I find myself doing a combination of the two. Sometimes, I establish that event X happened and then determine what the side effects would have been, resulting in things A, B and C, while other times I decide that I want things A, B and C to exist without thinking of a rationale, and later determining they were caused by event X, where event X makes sense in the campaign world.
Not at the outset, but it became bluntly obvious relatively quickly that I needed to have SOMETHING in mind so that the rest of the world made sense.
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Creative Director
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Which ones (not counting The Dawnflower) are most commonly worshipped in Magnimar?
1) Not all that common... although technically Sarenrae is one of the Empyreal Lords, so if you include her... quite common indeed. Worship of the other ones is common in places here and there; in Magnimar, for example, it's pretty common.
That question will be discussed (as will the 3 new Empyreal Lords) in the upcoming Magnimar book.