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Would you really have pay Gorum though to fight Rovagug? while I'm sure Gorum likes to fight for money, I'm also pretty sure any deity of war, will have a good survival instinct. If he doesnt help out in the fight against Rovagug, and Rovagug wins, then Gorum is out of a Job, can't really have battles and wars, with that pesky creation being undone. So I think think Gorum would if neccassary aid in the opposition against Rovagug free of charge, though i am sure he would see if he could be paid first, because it's the best chance for him to win, and the oppurtunity cost of his non participation, Rovagug winning are way too great to be left to chance.
The real question is, whether or not there is a price high enough to pay Gorum to assist Rovagug, when the outcome to victory is the annhiliation of creation and Gorum himself.
The "survival instinct" works two ways. Fighting Rovagug today might kill you today, but not fighting him gives you more time before he destroys it all.
In any event, Gorum wasn't around back in that time anyway, so it's an academic question.
And there's also the scenario if (and this is a big effin IF) Rovagug got to Gorum first.
"Just you and me against all of the multiverse"
That would also highly appeal to Gorum, and then afterwards he and Rovagug could have their one-on-one match :3
5) Not intervening in some ugly player vs. player crap that ended up with one player breaking down in tears. During college. When we were supposed to be all grown up. That, actually, might be tied with having one of the players play a PC who was actually a GM plant bad guy, in the game where some of the other players really didn't like the guy playing the plant... very awkward...
You know, this is a very hard thing to do as DM, unless you are way older etc that your players. And, it does;t really matter that "we were supposed to be all grown up". I actually feel it is a adult characteristic to get involved with your character, and not treat a PC as a "toon' with a stack of newer better sheets of PC just waiting to jump in. Sure, we shouldn't let IC stuff hurt real friendships, but some people are very "friendly" as in your case.
I don't like DM plants, as they break what I consider to be the "unwritten rule"- and that is D&D is a Game, Games are supposed to be Fun, and you can't have Fun unless you're playing. So, yeah, you *DO* let the DM's out of town buddy join the group for a nite or two, instead of spending a whole game nite checking him out or worse saying "You know, our party is pretty solid as it is, thanks."
How long will live a:
1) familiar?
2) animal companion?
3) divine bonded mount or similar creature?My opinion for 1 and 3 is as long as the master race or maybe as long as their master, sharing life extending benefits that the master get.
For 2 as long as a normal specimen of the race, generally a well cared one as most character with an animal companion can get access to major cure spells, but I haven't seen anything in the rules.1) As long as the master, or as long as its normal life span, whichever comes second.
2) As long as a normal animal.
3) As long as a normal animal.
The rules themselves are silent on the matter.
Daniel Hood wrote a series about a familiar living on past it masters death : Fanuilh. This is actually one of the best Fantasy Mystery series I have read, as they don't just cast a spell and solve the murder. (Lord Darcy is even better).
Would you not think that animal companions and such would have their lifespan as long as possible for a normal animal? For example, your average feral cat lives maybe 8 years, a well cared for housecat twice that, but can live as long as 30+. Thus a Mount maybe 50-60 years?
Questions: Old ones edition
Some of the Old Ones/Outer Gods are CN. Can one be a CG Positive Energy Channeling Cleric of them?
What would such a worshipper believe, as such views would be very different from the norm.
I have an idea for a character I'll be playing soon. He's a cleric with two personalities, which worship different gods and have different domains. One of these is gods is Aroden (which amazes everyone)and the other is an old one/outer god. Which one would be most appropriate? With which domains picked (for both the lovecraftian god and Aroden, who has the domains, Law, Glory, Community, Knowledge, Protection).
Technically, yes. Although it'd be weird, and I'd likely not allow such a character in my game. Such a character would worship the Great Old One/Outer God more out of fear or respect and would seek to use the powers granted by them for good, or perhaps as a "know thy enemy" type tactic, I guess. Sort of like how a Call of Cthulhu character uses the knowledge of the mythos to fight the mythos.
What would you consider Nodens or some of the Elder gods? Any chance we might see some?
Hey James. Quick question: has there been any discussion about expanding upon certain alternate classes (like anti-paladin, ninja, etc)? I only ask because it would be nice to see new archetypes, expanded spell lists, and maybe even several new feats that take these classes into consideration.
Currently, certain classes like the anti-paladin (who only have one archetype and a very limited spell list) would probably welcome a few extra additions, so I was wondering if there were any plans to expand upon the class sometime in the near future.
Hi James,
So the ISWG is pretty cagey concerning the fate of Hermean exiles. It seems to suggest that anyone rejected from the island is incinerated at best.
So my question is this: What would be a few plausible, in canon, ways that a Hermean exile/refugee could wind up in the Pathfinder Society?
Thanks!
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What does cave fisher taste like?
My player got annoyed when the cave fisher tried to eat her PC last night and has decided to return the favor. She has sent for clarified butter.
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Would you not think that animal companions and such would have their lifespan as long as possible for a normal animal? For example, your average feral cat lives maybe 8 years, a well cared for housecat twice that, but can live as long as 30+. Thus a Mount maybe 50-60 years?
Nope.
To me, animal companions are things of nature, while familiars are things of the supernatural world. If you're supernatural and have your soul and life force bound to a spellcaster, then it makes sense that you live as long as the spellcaster.
But if you're just a mount or animal companion then that tells me that no matter how awesome you become, you're still an animal, and should live, at most, a few years longer than normal. For a druid, that's expected—the life/death cycle is a big part of being a druid, after all, as it is being a pet owner, and I'd rather not rob that from the druid's flavor.
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What would you consider Nodens or some of the Elder gods? Any chance we might see some?Questions: Old ones edition
Some of the Old Ones/Outer Gods are CN. Can one be a CG Positive Energy Channeling Cleric of them?
What would such a worshipper believe, as such views would be very different from the norm.
I have an idea for a character I'll be playing soon. He's a cleric with two personalities, which worship different gods and have different domains. One of these is gods is Aroden (which amazes everyone)and the other is an old one/outer god. Which one would be most appropriate? With which domains picked (for both the lovecraftian god and Aroden, who has the domains, Law, Glory, Community, Knowledge, Protection).
Technically, yes. Although it'd be weird, and I'd likely not allow such a character in my game. Such a character would worship the Great Old One/Outer God more out of fear or respect and would seek to use the powers granted by them for good, or perhaps as a "know thy enemy" type tactic, I guess. Sort of like how a Call of Cthulhu character uses the knowledge of the mythos to fight the mythos.
Unlike many of the "deities" in Lovecraft's fiction, Nodens was not invented by him. He was, like Dagon, taken from real-world mythology. In this case, Celtic mythology. If we were to include Nodens in Golarion, we'd treat him the same way we treat other real-world mythological deities in our setting—by having him just be one of the many deities in the world, like Asmodeus or Lamashtu or Apsu or Dahak or Dagon.
What Lovecraftian fiction calls "Elder Gods" are just "all the rest of the deities" in Golarion. So, Desna, Torag, Zon-Kuthon, Calistria, Cayden Cailean, and all the rest are the ones in the "Elder God" role, pretty much. And as such, we don't use the phrase "Elder Gods" at all in Golarion when we do Lovecraft stuff... it just doesn't fit into the world we've designed. And I'm not so sure the concept fits into the cosmology that Lovecraft ended up with in the end either, to be honest.
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Hey James. Quick question: has there been any discussion about expanding upon certain alternate classes (like anti-paladin, ninja, etc)? I only ask because it would be nice to see new archetypes, expanded spell lists, and maybe even several new feats that take these classes into consideration.
Currently, certain classes like the anti-paladin (who only have one archetype and a very limited spell list) would probably welcome a few extra additions, so I was wondering if there were any plans to expand upon the class sometime in the near future.
We've really slowed down over the past few books on the archetypes and spells and like—we more or less did 3 books in a row where they were the whole point, and as such we wanted to turn our focus to other elements for a while. We may change back to doing more archetypes and the like in the future—stay tuned!
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Hi James,
So the ISWG is pretty cagey concerning the fate of Hermean exiles. It seems to suggest that anyone rejected from the island is incinerated at best.
So my question is this: What would be a few plausible, in canon, ways that a Hermean exile/refugee could wind up in the Pathfinder Society?
Thanks!
That would depend on the GM. The problem is that Hermea is so wild and unusual and mysterious that anyone who comes from there will want to know more about it, if only so they can build their character background, and since there's not a lot of info about it and since it doesn't have a "baseline" society that makes it easy to make assumptions... it makes for an awkward location to use as a character background.
In a home game, if the GM is willing to make some decisions and do some design work on his version of Hermea and isn't worried that we might some day do something different than what he did, then it should be fine.
In a PFS game, it'd probably cause more questions and confusion than it's worth.
James,
1) What sort of ways are there for someone to attain Mythic Power?
2) Have you come up with the methods used by any of the named Mythic NPC's like Nex, Geb, or Tar-Baphon? If so, can you share any?
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James,
1) What sort of ways are there for someone to attain Mythic Power?
2) Have you come up with the methods used by any of the named Mythic NPC's like Nex, Geb, or Tar-Baphon? If so, can you share any?
1) As many as you can imagine. Every superhero origin story is a good example as a place to start.
2) I've known how those guys got their super power stuff for some time—in some cases more than others—but I'm not ready to share those secrets yet.
Have you ever seen Fantasia 2000?
If so, what do you think the Firebird would be? Some kind of advanced, fiendish phoenix/magma elemental or a unique monster all its own?
James,
1) What sort of ways are there for someone to attain Mythic Power?
1) As many as you can imagine. Every superhero origin story is a good example as a place to start.
Are you saying that myuthic characters gain their mythic status by accident? Because alot of super hero orgins gain their powers vs accidents or being just born that way.
Oh also it is mentioned that Gorum came about when humans and orcs first went to war so I take it he was wasn't around when Rovagug was up and about.
How much (if any) could he have contributed to the fight against Rovagug?
Was Ihys already dead by then or did he also help fight Rovagug?
He would have helped a lot... if someone paid him to.
And whether or not Ihys even ever existed at all is open to debate. You don't believe everything Asmodeus says, do you?
It surprises me that Gorum would require payment for that- not because I think he'd be motivated by a survival instinct, but rather because I think he'd relish the challenge of taking on Rovagug.
And I imagine that the discussion won't be so academic when Rovagug finally gets free.
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Would you not think that animal companions and such would have their lifespan as long as possible for a normal animal? For example, your average feral cat lives maybe 8 years, a well cared for housecat twice that, but can live as long as 30+. Thus a Mount maybe 50-60 years?
Nope.
To me, animal companions are things of nature, while familiars are things of the supernatural world. If you're supernatural and have your soul and life force bound to a spellcaster, then it makes sense that you live as long as the spellcaster.
But if you're just a mount or animal companion then that tells me that no matter how awesome you become, you're still an animal, and should live, at most, a few years longer than normal. For a druid, that's expected—the life/death cycle is a big part of being a druid, after all, as it is being a pet owner, and I'd rather not rob that from the druid's flavor.
My take is that an animal companion will live about as long as a well cared animal of its kind that still live free, not as long as a purely house pet than never get exposed tot eh external environment.
Essentially I think that most normal animal die when they reach old age.I am unsure about bonded creatures like the paladin mount. They seem more akin to familiars than animal companion to me.
James, could you explain why you feel that they should live as long as normal animals?
Aging categories and animal companions/familiars/bounded mounts.
For normal animals like the animal companions it seem straightforward. You look how long the real world animal live and extrapolate his age bands.
For familiar you go with the master aging bands.
For bounded animals it depend i they age as normal animal or as familiar.
The problem here is how you apply the intelligence increases.
I don't see how getting to middle age would increase a lion or horse intelligence to the point of sentience. Allowing it to learn extra tricks seem reasonable, it becoming sentient don't seem so reasonable.
What is your take, James?
On a relate note, I don't agree that rising an animal companion intelligence when it get more hd and get a increase in characteristic will make it sentient.
An animal companion is defined by being an animal, and so non sentient, in my eyes.
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James,
1) What sort of ways are there for someone to attain Mythic Power?
1) As many as you can imagine. Every superhero origin story is a good example as a place to start.
Are you saying that myuthic characters gain their mythic status by accident? Because alot of super hero orgins gain their powers vs accidents or being just born that way.
Some do, yes.
Some do not.
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I got one for you James. What's one of your all-time favourite underground adventures to play, that you would recommend everyone to play at least once?
Queen of the Spiders. A close second is Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure.
(I'm not gonna be picking any Pathfinder "favorites" because I'm too close to that scene to be an impartial source... but if you were to force me to answer, I'd say PLAY ALL OF THEM!!!!)
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Would you not think that animal companions and such would have their lifespan as long as possible for a normal animal? For example, your average feral cat lives maybe 8 years, a well cared for housecat twice that, but can live as long as 30+. Thus a Mount maybe 50-60 years?
Nope.
To me, animal companions are things of nature, while familiars are things of the supernatural world. If you're supernatural and have your soul and life force bound to a spellcaster, then it makes sense that you live as long as the spellcaster.
But if you're just a mount or animal companion then that tells me that no matter how awesome you become, you're still an animal, and should live, at most, a few years longer than normal. For a druid, that's expected—the life/death cycle is a big part of being a druid, after all, as it is being a pet owner, and I'd rather not rob that from the druid's flavor.
My take is that an animal companion will live about as long as a well cared animal of its kind that still live free, not as long as a purely house pet than never get exposed tot eh external environment.
Essentially I think that most normal animal die when they reach old age.I am unsure about bonded creatures like the paladin mount. They seem more akin to familiars than animal companion to me.
James, could you explain why you feel that they should live as long as normal animals?
Aging categories and animal companions/familiars/bounded mounts.
For normal animals like the animal companions it seem straightforward. You look how long the real world animal live and extrapolate his age bands.
For familiar you go with the master aging bands.
For bounded animals it depend i they age as normal animal or as familiar.
The problem here is how you apply the intelligence increases.
I don't see how getting to middle age would increase a lion or horse intelligence to the point of sentience. Allowing it to learn extra tricks seem reasonable, it becoming...
I thought I was pretty clear on my take where I said familiars live as long as their masters but animal companions don't. By "animal companions" I include paladin and cavalier mounts, because they use the same rules.
And the aging increases are not meant for animals. They're meant for PC races.
If you were going to apply aging increases to animals, I'd suggest only applying the penalties.
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I got one for you James. What's one of your all-time favourite underground adventures to play, that you would recommend everyone to play at least once?Queen of the Spiders. A close second is Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure.
(I'm not gonna be picking any Pathfinder "favorites" because I'm too close to that scene to be an impartial source... but if you were to force me to answer, I'd say PLAY ALL OF THEM!!!!)
lol I was hoping you'd stay neutral and pick something not PF.
An Oracle's curse can only be removed by divine aid. Would a Miracle from an artifact be sufficient?
An Oracle's curse can only be removed by divine aid. Would a Miracle from an artifact be sufficient?Nope.
Has to be from a deity. At the very least from a demigod.
Hah, I find it amusing that a level 20 tier 10 oracle would theoretically be *just short* of having the power necessary to cure his own curse since he'd be only one or two CR short of being a demigod.
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Hah, I find it amusing that a level 20 tier 10 oracle would theoretically be *just short* of having the power necessary to cure his own curse since he'd be only one or two CR short of being a demigod.An Oracle's curse can only be removed by divine aid. Would a Miracle from an artifact be sufficient?Nope.
Has to be from a deity. At the very least from a demigod.
Actually... demigods can be CR 25 or lower. The majority of them are CR 26 and above, but the ability to grant spells to your worshipers is pretty much what qualifies you as a demigod, and the ability to grant spells to worshipers is indeed something a mythic character can gain.
That still doesn't mean that we'll ever publish rules for how PCs can remove an oracle's curse, because we regard that as a fundamental element of the class.
So removing an Oracles Curse is meant to be something that requires an "Epic Quest"?
Or should I say "Mythic Quest"?
Hah, I find it amusing that a level 20 tier 10 oracle would theoretically be *just short* of having the power necessary to cure his own curse since he'd be only one or two CR short of being a demigod.An Oracle's curse can only be removed by divine aid. Would a Miracle from an artifact be sufficient?Nope.
Has to be from a deity. At the very least from a demigod.
That is where all of those 20th level 19 tier Commonrs come from...
Atleast I kinda veiw the Oracle's curse as their connection to the divine. Without it they would not get spells or those niffty class abilities.
James would you say this is a wrong way to look at Oracles? Am I missing something?
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Well Mythic Characters are more than mortal.
But I am just asking that if an Oracle didn't care about their power or sought a way to at least regain what they lost would it be such a Quest.
After all not all Oracles chose their Path.
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Question: With regards to Captivating Song/Lure, once the victim is adjacent to the captivator, would said victim defend itself from an ally trying to grab them?
Just to be thorough, is there a difference between when the victim is moving toward the source of the captivator versus when they are adjacent to the captivator?
While the both descriptions indicate the victim will "defend" themselves, neither ability discusses how the victim would view actions by an ally. Would a friendly hug (grapple) require a CMB check?
thanks
The victim would struggle to get back adjacent to the captor, but wouldn't attack someone dragging them away. They'd just try to escape and return to the captor. This does indeed mean that someone trying to drag a captivated person away needs to beat their CMD with a CMB check.
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Hah, I find it amusing that a level 20 tier 10 oracle would theoretically be *just short* of having the power necessary to cure his own curse since he'd be only one or two CR short of being a demigod.An Oracle's curse can only be removed by divine aid. Would a Miracle from an artifact be sufficient?Nope.
Has to be from a deity. At the very least from a demigod.
That is where all of those 20th level 19 tier Commonrs come from...
Atleast I kinda veiw the Oracle's curse as their connection to the divine. Without it they would not get spells or those niffty class abilities.
James would you say this is a wrong way to look at Oracles? Am I missing something?
Nope. The curse is a class ability. It's part of their power and theme. You're not missing something at all—I would say folks who want to get rid of the curse are the ones missing something.
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Nope. The curse is a class ability. It's part of their power and theme. You're not missing something at all—I would say folks who want to get rid of the curse are the ones missing something.
As a player I agree: the curse is an important part of an oracle's power and theme. Though, I do have to say that I've played an oracle character with the blackened curse who would have been very interested in getting the curse healed even if he lost some of his power (aka fire spells) in the process.
Basically I'm just saying that some people are asking just because it is something their characters would be interested in achieving. I don't think a lot of characters are going to care that the curse is a 'class feature' ;)
Say, James. The description of elves (in most PF material I've read) says they adapt to their environment physically. With this in mind…
What would you say elves living in a desert environment might look like? How about jungle?
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Say, James. The description of elves (in most PF material I've read) says they adapt to their environment physically. With this in mind…
What would you say elves living in a desert environment might look like? How about jungle?
Desert elves would be deeply tanned, with hair colors ranging from blonde to red to maybe even shades of orange.
Jungle elves would likely end up looking similar to "regular" elves, since a jungle and a forest are kinda the same type of terrain—they might look a little bit more tan though, and might have greener eyes.
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The victim would struggle to get back adjacent to the captor, but wouldn't attack someone dragging them away. They'd just try to escape and return to the captor. This does indeed mean that someone trying to drag a captivated person away needs to beat their CMD with a CMB check.Question: With regards to Captivating Song/Lure, once the victim is adjacent to the captivator, would said victim defend itself from an ally trying to grab them?
Just to be thorough, is there a difference between when the victim is moving toward the source of the captivator versus when they are adjacent to the captivator?
While the both descriptions indicate the victim will "defend" themselves, neither ability discusses how the victim would view actions by an ally. Would a friendly hug (grapple) require a CMB check?
thanks
Okay, but if the initial grapple started with the victim adjacent to the captivator, the grappler would not be required to beat the CMD because the victim would have no reason to resist. In addition, since a grapple could be established without the victim resisting, the grappler would only have to maintain the grapple and not beat the CMD every round that they were dragging the victim away.
In addition, if this grapple started underwater, when does the victim make the swim check, before they attempt to break the grapple or only after they break the grapple?
EDIT:
Hmmm. After thinking about this some more, wouldn't it make sense to adjudge that an ally can always establish a grapple (on a moving and captivated victim) and then the victim gets to attempt to break a grapple from that point on. In other words, the ally would not have to beat the CMD to establish the grapple because the victim doesn't view the ally as a threat. It's only when the victim is restrained (after a grapple has been established) does the victim attempt to resist.
This is increasingly looking like a question that would better be asked in the rules forums.
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Not really. An oracle's curse isn't meant to be something you seek to remove. It's part of your character.So removing an Oracles Curse is meant to be something that requires an "Epic Quest"?
Or should I say "Mythic Quest"?
It's like Odin healing his missing eye. He'd cease to have magical powers gained from that loss.
I think we'll find that the gods of Golarion have integral flaws or weaknesses that complement or are also their strengths.
Personally, I've always seen the Oracle as the closest to being a small god or major spirit a regular PC can be. You gain mystical power from an idea or portfolio, after all...
James, out of curiosity, have any characters or important NPCs in your campaigns apotheosized?
Depends on how it is healed really. Like Torag giving his Lame Human Oracle the use of his leg back in exchange for him recovering/saving a Dwarven Citadel.
Or Odin gaining his Eye Back or a Magical Prosthetic Eye in exchange for helping the Dwarves or another God (Maybe a more potent god from another Pantheon).
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James, out of curiosity, have any characters or important NPCs in your campaigns apotheosized?
Yup. A player in my homebrew ascended to the role of the god of neutral magic (my campaign at that point had only an evil and a good magic god) after he prevented Karzoug from using the power source of Baba Yaga's hut to become a god himself.
Had another player in a campaign succumb to the lure of chaos and evil and became the avatar of Obox-ob.
Say, James. The description of elves (in most PF material I've read) says they adapt to their environment physically. With this in mind…
What would you say elves living in a desert environment might look like? How about jungle?
Desert elves would be deeply tanned, with hair colors ranging from blonde to red to maybe even shades of orange.
Jungle elves would likely end up looking similar to "regular" elves, since a jungle and a forest are kinda the same type of terrain—they might look a little bit more tan though, and might have greener eyes.
Thanks! Got a hypothetical for you now.
What would happen if a group of elves lived in the Underdark but did not go all CE? Terms of appearance, mostly.
"I can't keep everything we've published about Sorshen in my head at once, so all these rapid-fire Sorshen questions WILL get some inaccuracies in there."
Ah. No problem then, perfectly understandable.
"Haven't looked at [nMage] in a LONG time... that's the comic with the redcaps in it, yeah?"
1. Are you being facetious? It wouldn't surprise me given the reception that nMage got (think similar to D&D 4e but with complaints about the fluff instead of the crunch).
2. What's Paizo's relationship with White Wolf?
3. What are you willing to talk about regarding other game systems?
4. Will Ultimate Campaign cover what a character can do with a city after she takes it over?
5. What's the total estimated population of Korvosa (~18K) and its holdings?
6. Will Ultimate Campaign have rules for determining what the Economy/Loyalty/Stability of a city are? I don't mean a player-built one but a canon-established one (e.g., Korvosa).
7. How did diplomacy work in Thassilon? Was it similar to proxeny?
8. How does diplomatic rank work in the Avistan/Inner Sea region? Is it similar to that established by the Congress of Vienna or does it vary by each country?
9. What's to stop a powerful wizard (level 19+) from simply going to Taldor and mind-slaving prince rat-face into forking over all his money?
10. Now that you and the other James have ask threads, I'm not entirely sure who to ask what (regarding Pathfinder). I know you're the go-to guy for demons and Varisia but what are your other specialities?