Hi James,
When people are doing playtests or providing critiques of products in a thread, what are aspects of those critiques that are more likely to cause you to tune them out and cause eye-rolling?
And what aspects are likely to be more helpful for Paizo folks in improving products, or being taken more seriously by developers?
I'm just curious, as the tone of commentary is sometimes all over the map here, and I often imagine developers pounding there heads on keyboards at the sight of some threads.
Creative Director
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James,
Both the Blood of Angels and Blood of Fiends books describe the possibility of, and provide mechanics for, non-human Outsider mixes. Additionally the Oread have a dwarf blooded feat.
I notice that other sources handling similar things, for example, Blood of the Night doesn't provide the same insight for non-human crossbloods.
Is it a safe assumption that there might be drow-dhampir, gnome-suli, halfling-sylph, or ratfolk-ifrit out there in Golarion?
If so, would you recommend just reskinning (in this case quite literally) the human version of the race and applying any size modifiers required with very little other changes, so that say a drow-dhampir is mechanically equivalent to a normal dhampir, or are there some nature vs nurture issues to handle. For example, might a drow-dhampir have the same weapon familiarity or starting languages as a normal drow?
While it's safe to assume similar things are a possibility, I wouldn't wait for us to detail them. When we mention things like an oread with dwarf blood, we're also implying it doesn't stop there without saying "there are halfling sylphs" out there, because that sets false expectations that these types of characters have much of a presence on Golarion.
These kinds of unique characters are, in other words, best served by being PCs, not NPCs.
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Creative Director
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James so what does Baba Yaga think of the Whispering Tyrant? What does the Whispering Tyrant think of Baba Yaga?
Does Osirion have a connection to the Mi-Go?
She thinks he's a dangerous troublemaker, but hasn't yet felt the urge to put him down.
He thinks she's too far away at the moment to bother with, and arrogantly thinks he could hold his own against her.
Not really.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
When people are doing playtests or providing critiques of products in a thread, what are aspects of those critiques that are more likely to cause you to tune them out and cause eye-rolling?
And what aspects are likely to be more helpful for Paizo folks in improving products, or being taken more seriously by developers?
I'm just curious, as the tone of commentary is sometimes all over the map here, and I often imagine developers pounding there heads on keyboards at the sight of some threads.
The thing that's most likely to cause me to tune them out is when they get all insulting, abrasive, or otherwise unpleasant to us or to other posters. Impatience is also a turnoff. You may not think your question or comment would take lots of time for us to publicly respond to, but there's thousands of other comments as well, and responding online isn't the main part of our job. So... being patient and trusting that your feedback was seen and that we weighed it in the balance even if we didn't ultimately go with the suggestion is important.
Professionalism and maturity in composure make feedback the most helpful. AKA: Make us believe you're here to help us and provide honest feedback, NOT that you're here to try to impress us with your design skills or insights or that you're here just to argue with us or other posters.
James,
I listened to the horror seminar from PaizoCon and decided to pick up We Live Inside You after your teaser. Thanks for the recommendation--but now I am very scared!
Moving on to Golarion, my players just up and jumped the rails and headed off to Galt. I love when this happens, but Galt's an area I don't know a lot about. They are going to find an orphanage where the children are slowly being converted into...something strange I haven't figured out quite yet. The orphanage is run by clerical types. What do you think would be a fun cover religion and actual religion for the priests?
James so what does Baba Yaga think of the Whispering Tyrant? What does the Whispering Tyrant think of Baba Yaga?She thinks he's a dangerous troublemaker, but hasn't yet felt the urge to put him down.
He thinks she's too far away at the moment to bother with, and arrogantly thinks he could hold his own against her.
That does bring up the question of, "How would Baba Yaga deal with the Whispering Tyrant?" That whole, "A goddess of death has hidden my phylactery" thing would probably make destroying him outright difficult even for her.
Hm. As god of secrets, would Norgorber know where the Whispering Tyrant's phylactery is stashed?
Howdy james!
Just got my hands on Fires of Creation, and I wanted to pick your brain a bit.
2. Don't take this as criticism of how you guys portrayed Unity, but I really like the idea of an AI that, instead of being insane, simply wants omniscience and believes in an inherent superiority of machine over man. Humans---not machines---were subject to the Dominion's madness, therefore machines are better---in his mind, of course. Unity might be evil in his end goals, and a villain through and through. But he might perhaps be envious of androids---beings created artificially, yet have souls. The questions he might have for himself is, "can I have a soul?", thus leading his "divinity drive"---the quest for self-purpose and self-understanding. If an AI can grant spells to the faithful, does it have a soul? (Rhetorical question, I don't expect you to answer this :P)
I guess the second question isn't really a question, just me rambling. Again I don't want y'all taking this as "you're portraying AIs wrong!" I'm just mad in love with sci fi concepts that explores artificial life, and what defines being "alive" or "having a soul". That and I'm a sucker for villains whose goals can at least be understood and maybe even emphasized with, even if they're evil goals.
To piggy back on the productive critiques comment, I got my PDF of the Advance Class Guide and I was amazed by the archetypes you guys included to cover concepts people had been yelling for on the forums.
It gave me renewed appreciation for the work you all do, so thank you.
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Creative Director
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James,
I listened to the horror seminar from PaizoCon and decided to pick up We Live Inside You after your teaser. Thanks for the recommendation--but now I am very scared!
Moving on to Golarion, my players just up and jumped the rails and headed off to Galt. I love when this happens, but Galt's an area I don't know a lot about. They are going to find an orphanage where the children are slowly being converted into...something strange I haven't figured out quite yet. The orphanage is run by clerical types. What do you think would be a fun cover religion and actual religion for the priests?
Heh... yeah, that book's pretty edgy and creepy. Love it!
As for your Galt adventure... my preference would be to have them be clerics of Haagenti the demon lord posing as worshipers of Erastil (being the god of families, his faith would be the most into running orphanages).
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Creative Director
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Howdy james!
Just got my hands on Fires of Creation, and I wanted to pick your brain a bit.
Spoiler:1. One of my players really wants to play a "Commander Shepard from Mass Effect" character, and my idea for this is that he is actually a survivor of the original crew aboard the Divinity, perhaps as the chief security officer. However, neither he nor his character knows this. Will you guys be talking more about the ship's crew and the actual ship itself in Divinity Drive?2. Don't take this as criticism of how you guys portrayed Unity, but I really like the idea of an AI that, instead of being insane, simply wants omniscience and believes in an inherent superiority of machine over man. Humans---not machines---were subject to the Dominion's madness, therefore machines are better---in his mind, of course. Unity might be evil in his end goals, and a villain through and through. But he might perhaps be envious of androids---beings created artificially, yet have souls. The questions he might have for himself is, "can I have a soul?", thus leading his "divinity drive"---the quest for self-purpose and self-understanding. If an AI can grant spells to the faithful, does it have a soul? (Rhetorical question, I don't expect you to answer this :P)
I guess the second question isn't really a question, just me rambling. Again I don't want y'all taking this as "you're portraying AIs wrong!" I'm just mad in love with sci fi concepts that explores artificial life, and what defines being "alive" or "having a soul". That and I'm a sucker for villains whose goals can at least be understood and maybe even emphasized with, even if they're evil goals.
Answers...
2) The question of what an AI is, does it have a soul, and how can an AI grant spells is very much one of the central questions/themes of the Iron Gods AP. Everything Unity does is an extension of it trying to answer these questions and failing again and again... but getting closer to the truth with each attempt. These themes will be explored in greater detail in the final two adventures. But the fact that biological creatures AND the AI were subject to the Dominion weapons and madness is part of that equation—if an AI can be driven mad by the same things that drive biological entities mad, could that link be a clue as to the nature of what an AI's soul is? The choice to have both AI and biologic members be affected by the Dominion weapon was a deliberate one, and it does and will lead into elements of how these questions all play out.
In any event, there are MANY different ways that AIs have been portrayed in science fiction over the years. The way they're portrayed in Iron Gods is a synthesis of my preferences and a few bits of my own added in here and there. Hellion is really the one that's presented as the psychotic crazy evil AI in the AP (it's the primary villain of part 2), in any event, not Unity. Unity is insane, but also very much is a character that CAN be understood and empathized with. It basically wants to leave a legacy—you can interpret much of what it's been doing as its attempts to have children, in fact, to carry on its work, and how its failures have more or less convinced it that it can't rely upon "progeny" to honor and carry out its desires. In any event, it won't be until the 6th adventure that we'll have the time and luxury to explore Unity's mindset and goals and personality—until then, setting it up as a big bad end guy who must be opposed is the AP's goal, so that when the PCs do finally confront it in part 6, they'll realize there's more to the story than they might think.
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Creative Director
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To piggy back on the productive critiques comment, I got my PDF of the Advance Class Guide and I was amazed by the archetypes you guys included to cover concepts people had been yelling for on the forums.
It gave me renewed appreciation for the work you all do, so thank you.
Excellent! Good to hear! Don't tell me though. I wasn't really involved in any part of that book's creation beyond helping a little with the outline and the initial swashbuckler design and then approvals on the day the book went to the printer.
The Design team is the one that deserves those thanks.
Howdy james!
Just got my hands on Fires of Creation, and I wanted to pick your brain a bit.
** spoiler omitted **
Answers...
** spoiler omitted **...
1. Well I was planning on having the PC discover who he was in the final book, when they are already inside Silver Mount. Maybe he and whatever guide the PCs get could work together somehow, synchronizing what they know about the ship. Hmmm..I'll have to think on this.
2. That makes sense when you put it like that. Someone can be insane but not quite mindlessly destructive and completely crazy. I noticed a similar thing in Reign of Winter: Queen Elvanna is rightly afraid of what her mother will do to her, but her end goal is not quite explored in depth until the final book. I suppose my impression of Unity was based off of what little I've gotten of him thus far in the first book. You weren't kidding when you said there's a definite advantage in having all the parts of an AP before running it!
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Creative Director
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Spoiler:1. Well I was planning on having the PC discover who he was in the final book, when they are already inside Silver Mount. Maybe he and whatever guide the PCs get could work together somehow, synchronizing what they know about the ship. Hmmm..I'll have to think on this.2. That makes sense when you put it like that. Someone can be insane but not quite mindlessly destructive and completely crazy. I noticed a similar thing in Reign of Winter: Queen Elvanna is rightly afraid of what her mother will do to her, but her end goal is not quite explored in depth until the final book. I suppose my impression of Unity was based off of what little I've gotten of him thus far in the first book. You weren't kidding when you said there's a definite advantage in having all the parts of an AP before running it!
2) Yup. Until the PCs actually confront Unity in the last adventure, space used to talk about it needs to be delayed and focused mostly on how its actions impact the adventure at hand. Waiting until all six parts are in hand really is the best way to run an AP.
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1. Can a paladin worship a "false deity" like the eidolon of a Sarkorian god caller if they're genuinely ignorant to the beings actual nature?
2. What do you say if you have a PC who ignores gear that's practically tailor-made for them in an AP because they want something different, like a paladin in WotR who decides they don't want the Radiance sword or Armor of the Pious?
"Eh, it really boosts my abilities and stuff, but I really don't wanna wear full plate. Clashes with my style, man. Scale Mail for life!"
"Yeah, I know, paladins are supposed to use holy avengers, but it shapeshifted into a quarterstaff because I worship Apsu, and proper knights don't wield quarterstaves! I'll take that much weaker sword over there!"
"Sure, a vorpal sword like Briar is cool and it IS essential to the campaign, but DAMN that sword's ugly! Besides, it's a CN intelligent item and I'm LG. We aren't compatible."
3. Can Sunblades be made of cold iron or mithral, or are they solid bars of light like lightsabers? And can brilliant energy weapons be made of similar materials?
4. How do you deal with an item that's made of both metal and wood, like a shield "of willow boards covered with a layer of finely beaten silver?" Does it count as a metal or wooden shield for the purposes of special materials?
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will there be a book about fetchlings in the "blood of" series (blood of elements, blood of night, blood of angels, blood of fiends, etc.)
?????(and I mean more than there was in bastards of golarion)
Should there be?
We haven't announced one yet, in any event.
Blood of Darkness. Fetchlings, Dhampirs, Wayangs, and Changelings. Not as much on Dhampirs, but still more for them as player races than Blood of the Night had.
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Creative Director
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1. Can a paladin worship a "false deity" like the eidolon of a Sarkorian god caller if they're genuinely ignorant to the beings actual nature?
2. What do you say if you have a PC who ignores gear that's practically tailor-made for them in an AP because they want something different, like a paladin in WotR who decides they don't want the Radiance sword or Armor of the Pious?
"Eh, it really boosts my abilities and stuff, but I really don't wanna wear full plate. Clashes with my style, man. Scale Mail for life!"
"Yeah, I know, paladins are supposed to use holy avengers, but it shapeshifted into a quarterstaff because I worship Apsu, and proper knights don't wield quarterstaves! I'll take that much weaker sword over there!"
"Sure, a vorpal sword like Briar is cool and it IS essential to the campaign, but DAMN that sword's ugly! Besides, it's a CN intelligent item and I'm LG. We aren't compatible."
3. Can Sunblades be made of cold iron or mithral, or are they solid bars of light like lightsabers? And can brilliant energy weapons be made of similar materials?
4. How do you deal with an item that's made of both metal and wood, like a shield "of willow boards covered with a layer of finely beaten silver?" Does it count as a metal or wooden shield for the purposes of special materials?
1) As long as the paladin remains lawful good, I suppose so. How that paladin reacts if she finds out the deity she's been worshiping is not a real deity would likely force a tough decision. And I'd say that a paladin like this should dump stat Wisdom.
2) I generally am okay with players making non-optimal choices for their characters in play. AKA I don't say anything. Usually, the other players in the group say what needs said for me.
3) Brilliant energy weapons cannot be made of anything—they're made of brilliant energy, and that's that. Sunblades are solid, though, and can be made out of unusual materials.
4) Pick one of the two to be the primary material.
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another question involving greyhawk deities and pathfinder deities
how would these deities get along???:
*Boccob and Nethys
*Wee Jas and Uragotha
*Obad-hai and Gozreh
*Kord and Cayden
*Heironeous and Iomadae
*Pharasma and Nerull
*Rovagug and tharizduin
*Sarenae and Pelor
*Irori and Zuoken
*Abadar and St. Cuthbert
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Blood of Darkness. Fetchlings, Dhampirs, Wayangs, and Changelings. Not as much on Dhampirs, but still more for them as player races than Blood of the Night had.will there be a book about fetchlings in the "blood of" series (blood of elements, blood of night, blood of angels, blood of fiends, etc.)
?????(and I mean more than there was in bastards of golarion)
Should there be?
We haven't announced one yet, in any event.
I HOPE THIS BOOK COMES OUT!!!!
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1. Can a paladin worship a "false deity" like the eidolon of a Sarkorian god caller if they're genuinely ignorant to the beings actual nature?
2. What do you say if you have a PC who ignores gear that's practically tailor-made for them in an AP because they want something different, like a paladin in WotR who decides they don't want the Radiance sword or Armor of the Pious?
"Eh, it really boosts my abilities and stuff, but I really don't wanna wear full plate. Clashes with my style, man. Scale Mail for life!"
"Yeah, I know, paladins are supposed to use holy avengers, but it shapeshifted into a quarterstaff because I worship Apsu, and proper knights don't wield quarterstaves! I'll take that much weaker sword over there!"
"Sure, a vorpal sword like Briar is cool and it IS essential to the campaign, but DAMN that sword's ugly! Besides, it's a CN intelligent item and I'm LG. We aren't compatible."
3. Can Sunblades be made of cold iron or mithral, or are they solid bars of light like lightsabers? And can brilliant energy weapons be made of similar materials?
4. How do you deal with an item that's made of both metal and wood, like a shield "of willow boards covered with a layer of finely beaten silver?" Does it count as a metal or wooden shield for the purposes of special materials?
1) As long as the paladin remains lawful good, I suppose so. How that paladin reacts if she finds out the deity she's been worshiping is not a real deity would likely force a tough decision. And I'd say that a paladin like this should dump stat Wisdom.
2) I generally am okay with players making non-optimal choices for their characters in play. AKA I don't say anything. Usually, the other players in the group say what needs said for me.
3) Brilliant energy weapons cannot be made of anything—they're made of brilliant energy, and that's that. Sunblades are solid, though, and can be made out of unusual materials.
4)...
1) Can a paladin respect and honor the cycles of nature and gain power if they're still LG?
2) It isn't so much about it being suboptimal and more about it being ignoring the special item the campaign has specially singled you out for. In WotR, Radiance and Armor of the Pious are basically gifts to a paladin player from the GM. Doesn't ignoring them in favor of something else seem ungrateful? And it ignores the roleplaying hooks that come with them in favor of the character's fashion sense. By the time they reach the gear's former owner, who is she to them if they basically tossed her storied armor and sword to an NPC preferring to keep the weapons that were more aesthetically pleasing to them, but have no significance on the narrative? To an obsessive completionist like myself that's abomination. I feel like I'm forced to choose between the narrative of the AP and my own ideas and wants for the character.
3) Okay.
4) Makes sense. In this instance I'd say the wood is the special material, as it's the source of the shield's stopping power.
While the more recent images of the Aldori Dueling Blade resembles strongly with a Katana, was their another inspiration for the dueling blade when it was first developed? The Warder's Blade from The Wheel of Time maybe?
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Creative Director
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1) Can a paladin respect and honor the cycles of nature and gain power if they're still LG?
2) It isn't so much about it being suboptimal and more about it being ignoring the special item the campaign has specially singled you out for. In WotR, Radiance and Armor of the Pious are basically gifts to a paladin player from the GM. Doesn't ignoring them in favor of something else seem ungrateful? And it ignores the roleplaying hooks that come with them in favor of the character's fashion sense. By the time they reach the gear's former owner, who is she to them if they basically tossed her storied armor and sword to an NPC preferring to keep the weapons that were more aesthetically pleasing to them, but have no significance on the narrative? To an obsessive completionist like myself that's abomination. I feel like I'm forced to choose between the narrative of the AP and my own ideas and wants for the character.
3) Okay.
4) Makes sense. In this instance I'd say the wood is the special material, as it's the source of the shield's stopping power.
1) ALL a paladin needs to do to be a paladin is stay lawful good. The "cycle of nature" is a lawful good concept. It is, in fact, a neutral concept. That's why you don't have paladin/druids.
2) It does seem ungrateful, but some people are ungrateful. It's the way the world works. Beyond that... how your character reacts to tough questions like "Do I keep this armor or return it to its proper owner" are great ways to expand a character's personality. Tough questions like that are good for the game, and good for story development.
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Creative Director
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While the more recent images of the Aldori Dueling Blade resembles strongly with a Katana, was their another inspiration for the dueling blade when it was first developed? The Warder's Blade from The Wheel of Time maybe?
As far as I know, katana-similar was always the way it was envisioned.
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Creative Director
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1) What are the odds we'll get a robot improved familiar over the course of Iron Gods?
2) In your opinion, would a poison-immune creature (like, say, a succubus) using a poisonous lipstick be able to poison people with an ingested poison via a kiss, or would that not count/be enough, and they ought to stick with a contact poison?
3) What are the three oddest demiplanes that come to mind off the top of your head, whether you created them, heard about them, read about them, or encountered them as a player, and what made each so odd?
1) Zero, or close to it.
2) Depends on how deep the kiss got. If it was a chaste peck, then you'd need contact poison. If it was full on tongue-involved action, then ingested works.
3) Dungeonland/The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (AD&D's take on the Alice in Wonderland stories)
Baba Yaga's Hut (in its Dragon magazine incarnation as a tessaract, because tessaracts are crazy weird)
Quicksilver Hourglass (from Dragon #123; a demiplane where time is all messed up and where reality is all about challenging 30th level PCs)
Was Baba Yaga's hut where you figured out how Tesseracts worked? I'd read a Wrinkle in Time, but didn't truly understand a tesseract until I mapped out the Hut...and found the two places that didn't link and should have!
+===Aelryinth
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Creative Director
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Was Baba Yaga's hut where you figured out how Tesseracts worked? I'd read a Wrinkle in Time, but didn't truly understand a tesseract until I mapped out the Hut...and found the two places that didn't link and should have!
+===Aelryinth
It's where I first heard about them. Never read the Wrinkle in Time books.
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1) Can a paladin respect and honor the cycles of nature and gain power if they're still LG?
2) It isn't so much about it being suboptimal and more about it being ignoring the special item the campaign has specially singled you out for. In WotR, Radiance and Armor of the Pious are basically gifts to a paladin player from the GM. Doesn't ignoring them in favor of something else seem ungrateful? And it ignores the roleplaying hooks that come with them in favor of the character's fashion sense. By the time they reach the gear's former owner, who is she to them if they basically tossed her storied armor and sword to an NPC preferring to keep the weapons that were more aesthetically pleasing to them, but have no significance on the narrative? To an obsessive completionist like myself that's abomination. I feel like I'm forced to choose between the narrative of the AP and my own ideas and wants for the character.
3) Okay.
4) Makes sense. In this instance I'd say the wood is the special material, as it's the source of the shield's stopping power.
1) ALL a paladin needs to do to be a paladin is stay lawful good. The "cycle of nature" is a lawful good concept. It is, in fact, a neutral concept. That's why you don't have paladin/druids.
2) It does seem ungrateful, but some people are ungrateful. It's the way the world works. Beyond that... how your character reacts to tough questions like "Do I keep this armor or return it to its proper owner" are great ways to expand a character's personality. Tough questions like that are good for the game, and good for story development.
1) Do you mean the cycle of nature is NOT an LG concept? Think there might have been a typo there. In either case, darnit, there aren't any paladin treehuggers?
2) So what do I do? If I take the armor, I sacrifice the image I intended for the character. I wanted the character to look less like this and more like this. But if I don't take it, I'm not playing the AP as written, and thus wrecking the narrative simply because I don't like the pictures in the books.
1) Do you mean the cycle of nature is NOT an LG concept? Think there might have been a typo there. In either case, darnit, there aren't any paladin treehuggers?
2) So what do I do? If I take the armor, I sacrifice the image I intended for the character. I wanted the character to look less...
If the character really has his heart set on wearing outdated armor (as he would be if he's actively preferring scale over full plate), there's always the glamored enchant - makes your armor look like whatever the heck you want while keeping its full defensive properties.
Though this does bring up a question:
Is it normally possible to add a "slotless" enchantment like comfort or glamored to artifact armor? Or add an enchantment to any artifact, really?
Though a WotR game could easily have a mythic crafter. If any PC could, it'd be someone who took that feat.
James,
I have a doubt about one of the abilities of the infernal binder from Inner Sea Primer. Could you give me some advice on how to handle said ability?
At 1st level, you can attempt to gain control over a summoned creature by disrupting the bond between it and the caster who summoned it. You must make a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) equal to 10 + the summoning caster’s level. If you know the summoned creature’s name, you receive a +2 circumstance bonus on the check. If the check is successful, you can control the summoned creature as if you had summoned it for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your wizard level (minimum 1 round). This does not increase the duration of the original summoning. The original summoning caster can attempt to regain control of the summoned creature as a standard action by making a caster level check against your caster level + 10. When your control ends, the creature reverts to the control of its summoner.
At 9th level, you can use this ability to bargain with called creatures as if you were the caster who conjured them. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
The bolded part is the one I am unsure of. How does this bargain works?
Can the called creature resist this? If so how? Are they free to refuse the bargain and attack the caster?Thank you in advance!
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Creative Director
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1) Do you mean the cycle of nature is NOT an LG concept? Think there might have been a typo there. In either case, darnit, there aren't any paladin treehuggers?
2) So what do I do? If I take the armor, I sacrifice the image I intended for the character. I wanted the character to look less like this and more like this. But if I don't take it, I'm not playing the AP as written, and thus wrecking the narrative simply because I don't like the pictures in the books.
1) No typo at all. Nature is not good, nor lawful, nor chaotic, nor evil. It's neutral. At least, by the definition in the game going back 4 decades. That's why animals are neutral. Why druids are neutral. It's the way the game works. Paladins are not neutral.
2) What you do is up to you, and the choice you make helps to define your character's personality. Paladins are about making hard choices. If the job wasn't hard, and didn't require those hard choices, everyone would be a paladin.
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Creative Director
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Baba Yaga's Hut (in its Dragon magazine incarnation as a tessaract, because tessaracts are crazy weird) [/QUOTE
Speaking of Tesseracts did you ever read the classic short story And He Built a Crooked House" , the classic short story by Robert Heinlein
Nope.
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Creative Director
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Is it normally possible to add a "slotless" enchantment like comfort or glamored to artifact armor? Or add an enchantment to any artifact, really?
Though a WotR game could easily have a mythic crafter. If any PC could, it'd be someone who took that feat.
It's possible to do anything when it comes to making magic items, as long as the GM is cool with it and as long as the cost balances out.
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Creative Director
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This has probably been answered somewhere before, but I can't find it, sorry. What happens if a lich's phylactery is destroyed while the lich's body is still active and intact? Is he immediately slain, or does he just lose his rejuvenation ability? If the latter, can he make a new one?
Also, regarding a previous post in this thread - if Tar-Baphon's phylactery was hidden by Urgathoa (presumably somewhere outside Gallowspire) couldn't he escape by destroying his own body and rejuvenating at his phylactery?
Finally, looking back in Mythic Realms at Tar-Baphon, I remembered you saying somewhere in this thread that the only mythic runelords were Sorshen and Xanderghul, right? How did Tar-Baphon (and potentially PCs) get mythic power at the Cenotaph if Zutha wasn't mythic himself? And Zutha's body remains in the Cenotaph ... but he also needs to hijack a new one with the Gluttonous Tome?
The lich remains alive and, in theory, could craft a replacement phylactery. But if it's destroyed before it makes the replacement, it is destroyed forever.
And no, that's not how Tar-Baphon's phylactery works.
Zutha was only the latest of the runelords of gluttony, remember. It's possible, and likely, that one of his predicessors was mythic... but even then that doesn't mean they had to be. What's mythic in the Cenotaph isn't reliant on a runelord of gluttony being mythic.
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Creative Director
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James,
I have a doubt about one of the abilities of the infernal binder from Inner Sea Primer. Could you give me some advice on how to handle said ability?
At 1st level, you can attempt to gain control over a summoned creature by disrupting the bond between it and the caster who summoned it. You must make a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) equal to 10 + the summoning caster’s level. If you know the summoned creature’s name, you receive a +2 circumstance bonus on the check. If the check is successful, you can control the summoned creature as if you had summoned it for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your wizard level (minimum 1 round). This does not increase the duration of the original summoning. The original summoning caster can attempt to regain control of the summoned creature as a standard action by making a caster level check against your caster level + 10. When your control ends, the creature reverts to the control of its summoner.
At 9th level, you can use this ability to bargain with called creatures as if you were the caster who conjured them. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
The bolded part is the one I am unsure of. How does this bargain works?
Can the called creature resist this? If so how? Are they free to refuse the bargain and attack the caster?Thank you in advance!
It works the same way; make a caster level check equal to 10 + the conjurer's caster level. If you're successful, you can bargain with something conjured via a spell like planar binding, as if you had cast the spell. Which means if you mess it up, yes, the creature can attack you.
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1) Can a paladin respect and honor the cycles of nature and gain power if they're still LG?
2) It isn't so much about it being suboptimal and more about it being ignoring the special item the campaign has specially singled you out for. In WotR, Radiance and Armor of the Pious are basically gifts to a paladin player from the GM. Doesn't ignoring them in favor of something else seem ungrateful? And it ignores the roleplaying hooks that come with them in favor of the character's fashion sense. By the time they reach the gear's former owner, who is she to them if they basically tossed her storied armor and sword to an NPC preferring to keep the weapons that were more aesthetically pleasing to them, but have no significance on the narrative? To an obsessive completionist like myself that's abomination. I feel like I'm forced to choose between the narrative of the AP and my own ideas and wants for the character.
3) Okay.
4) Makes sense. In this instance I'd say the wood is the special material, as it's the source of the shield's stopping power.
1) ALL a paladin needs to do to be a paladin is stay lawful good. The "cycle of nature" is a lawful good concept. It is, in fact, a neutral concept. That's why you don't have paladin/druids.
2) It does seem ungrateful, but some people are ungrateful. It's the way the world works. Beyond that... how your character reacts to tough questions like "Do I keep this armor or return it to its proper owner" are great ways to expand a character's personality. Tough questions like that are good for the game, and good for story development.
I think this is what he meant by Typo.
What's the fastest, most efficient, no-nonsense path for my wizard to achieve flat-out five domain deity status in Golarion? Because he totally wants to be all about that.
Were the Great Old Ones meant to be "Rocks fall, everyone dies" encounters?
Some people debating about Cthulhu seem to insist that being able to defeat him is badwrongfun.
While I use the word "defeat" here, I do not necessarily mean "permanently kill", even though it's kind of related.
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Creative Director
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Were the Great Old Ones meant to be "Rocks fall, everyone dies" encounters?
Some people debating about Cthulhu seem to insist that being able to defeat him is badwrongfun.
No. They're meant to be among the toughest foes you can defeat in a fight in the game, and in fact they specifically CANNOT be killed unless the GM allows it. They can be defeated though, and the reason we made their stats is to enable such storylines if folks want them.
If a party of 20th level characters can defeat them without being designed specifically to counter them, that party's done something impressive.
That's not badwrongfun at all. It's a legitimate way to play the game.
That said... the explosive runes hack is lame and that spell needs errata as badly as telekinesis.