Sir,
Will the Sahir-Afiyun / Sahir-Afiyun spells be brought up to the current Pathfinder edition from their (current) 3.5 editions?
Respectfully Submitted,
Your Emperor
Remember that whole "Pit Fiend bound to the service of a child by a dying spellcaster" thing?
Have you put any more thought into that?
Creative Director
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So in your estimation is a class feature that adds the good descriptor to spells equal to a class feature that grants a +2 to overcome spell resistance?There's a fair amount of archetypes, classes, prestige classes, feats, monsters, and stuff that augment or otherwise enhance good spells.Mr. James Jacobs,
What would be the benefit of adding the good descriptor spells that don't otherwise have them?
I don't buy the "Is this ability as good as/balanced with this other ability?" because you can't really say without knowing the exact circumstances of the game. If you're playing in a game where you're always facing humanoids and creatures without spell resistance, the "+2 to overcome spell resistance" ability is useless. Likewise, if you're in a game where no alignments exist, the good spell ability is kinda pointless.
The whole point of offering so many different choices in how to build your character is so that you can not only build the character you want, but so that you can adapt your choices as needed to fit into the game your GM is running.
Back to the original topic, yes, I would probably say that both of those class features are about equal in power and viability and that if you wanted to swap one out to replace it with the other that'd probably be fine, but I'd require you to back that up with some cool flavor text to explain WHY it's happening.
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I've always thought that being level 15 or higher was meant to be that you are among cool legendary guys of history. However, the mythic adventures have come up. What is the difference between being just a high level character and being a low level character with mythic levels? Could you give some examples of famous people of Golarion?(either high-level non-mythic or low-level mythic)
My favorite way to explain this is to use The Avengers.
In that movie, there's a LOT of equally famous and powerful and notable characters, but some are more powerful than others.
Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America would all be mythic heroes. Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Nick Fury would be non-mythic heroes.
On Golarion, Karzoug is a non-mythic villain, but Sorshen is mythic. OR: The tarrasque is a non-mythic monster, but a kaiju would be mythic.
Mythic foes and heroes are in general a lot rarer than the rest.
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Remember that whole "Pit Fiend bound to the service of a child by a dying spellcaster" thing?
Have you put any more thought into that?
I don't remember that. Where was that from? Are you talking bout the Queen of Cheliax?
(AKA: Haven't put any more thought at all into it, apparently...)
James,
Do you know the reason (or if there is one) why sorcerers get their bloodline spells the level after they get spells of that level, rather than at the same time as other spells of that level (which is already a level behind wizards)? It seems kind of awkward both because of the level break and because presumably bloodline spells are ones that the sorcerer's nature favors. Additionally, in your opinion, would the game be harmed in any way by changing it to the same level?
I Love Lastwall, where's the product love? Or does Knights of the Inner Sea have a whole lot more support for it than I expect?
Also, where's my Knightly Fiction? I get rough tough Fighter group mates, but haven't seen Cavalier or Paladin types all too often.
And I am really excited for Wrath of the Righteous to the point I may convince my GM he needs to take a break and let me take over for a bit.
And I love this thread. It will take me months to read just your posts.
1)Will the Outer Dragons be the 5 new "true" dragons for bestiary 4?
2)Will the Juggernauts be mythic creatures?
3)Since the World Wound is an "infection" from the Abyss, is there any place on Golarion that is "infected" by the chaotic realm of the Maelstrom?
4)Can a Kaiju be any creature type?
5)Are there any rules in the Mythic Rules book about how characters can gain fast healing or regeneration?
6)Can you tells us the names of the 3 Kaiju in the Bestiary 4?
7)What are the odds of seeing a "Races of Golarion" hardcover book one day?
8)Which continent would you like to see done next in the campaign setting line between Arcadia, Garund, Vudra, Azlanti, or Sarusan?
9)Are there any other planets in the solar system other then Golarion that the Aboleth can be found on?
10)I know you guys reprint monsters from the APs for hardcover bestiaries but what about the modules?
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Creative Director
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James,
Do you know the reason (or if there is one) why sorcerers get their bloodline spells the level after they get spells of that level, rather than at the same time as other spells of that level (which is already a level behind wizards)? It seems kind of awkward both because of the level break and because presumably bloodline spells are ones that the sorcerer's nature favors. Additionally, in your opinion, would the game be harmed in any way by changing it to the same level?
I believe that's because getting a new level of spell is already pretty big, and by offsetting your bonus bloodline spell by 1 level the game spreads out the fun stuff so that you've got more of a cool thing happening every level rather than clumping on certain levels and leaving other levels in threat of being "dead" levels.
I wouldn't change it because I like the fact that the fun stuff is spread out more equally across levels.
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Creative Director
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I Love Lastwall, where's the product love? Or does Knights of the Inner Sea have a whole lot more support for it than I expect?
Also, where's my Knightly Fiction? I get rough tough Fighter group mates, but haven't seen Cavalier or Paladin types all too often.
And I am really excited for Wrath of the Righteous to the point I may convince my GM he needs to take a break and let me take over for a bit.
And I love this thread. It will take me months to read just your posts.
There's some Lastwall stuff in the Carrion Crown Adventure Path, and also more info in Cities of Golarion, Paths of Prestige, Knights of Golarion, and a few other locations. It's not the focus of a whole book yet, but there's stuff about it all over the place.
There's gonna be some knightly stuff coming up in Wrath of the Righteous. Not a LOT, but some. The rules for Mounted Combat are a little underdeveloped and prone to misuse and can cause confusion, alas, and the core theme of the game being "explore dungeons" is at odds with Large mounts, so it's kinda hard to do much with knights. But we do stuff now and then.
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Creative Director
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1)Will the Outer Dragons be the 5 new "true" dragons for bestiary 4?
2)Will the Juggernauts be mythic creatures?
3)Since the World Wound is an "infection" from the Abyss, is there any place on Golarion that is "infected" by the chaotic realm of the Maelstrom?
4)Can a Kaiju be any creature type?
5)Are there any rules in the Mythic Rules book about how characters can gain fast healing or regeneration?
6)Can you tells us the names of the 3 Kaiju in the Bestiary 4?
7)What are the odds of seeing a "Races of Golarion" hardcover book one day?
8)Which continent would you like to see done next in the campaign setting line between Arcadia, Garund, Vudra, Azlanti, or Sarusan?
9)Are there any other planets in the solar system other then Golarion that the Aboleth can be found on?
10)I know you guys reprint monsters from the APs for hardcover bestiaries but what about the modules?
Again... we're not quite ready to reveal much more about Bestiary 4 yet—the book's not coming out for months. But I can answer some of these...
1) Yes.
2) No.
3) Yes, but not NEARLY on the scale of the Worldwound. Malestrom planar bleeds, and bleeds with other planes, all exist here and there, but generally not to a greater scale than a single encounter area or 3.
4) Yes, in theory, although some creature types (animal, vermin) wouldn't make sense as kaiju have supernatural abilities.
5) Maybe.
6) Not yet.
7) Pretty good. Better once our current 32 page race books for the core races are closer to being sold out. Even better once we get to a year where we're not already breaking Paizo records for "number of hardcover and hardcover-equivalent products released in a year."
8) That's probably a tie between Arcadia and Garund. Vudra, by the way, is not a continent. It's part of the continent of Casmaron.
9) Yes.
10) Yes. The slurk shoggoth all first appeared in modules, and they're in Bestiaries now. There'll be a few more in Bestiary 4.
I Love Lastwall, where's the product love? Or does Knights of the Inner Sea have a whole lot more support for it than I expect?
Also, where's my Knightly Fiction? I get rough tough Fighter group mates, but haven't seen Cavalier or Paladin types all too often.
And I am really excited for Wrath of the Righteous to the point I may convince my GM he needs to take a break and let me take over for a bit.
And I love this thread. It will take me months to read just your posts.
There's some Lastwall stuff in the Carrion Crown Adventure Path, and also more info in Cities of Golarion, Paths of Prestige, Knights of Golarion, and a few other locations. It's not the focus of a whole book yet, but there's stuff about it all over the place.
There's gonna be some knightly stuff coming up in Wrath of the Righteous. Not a LOT, but some. The rules for Mounted Combat are a little underdeveloped and prone to misuse and can cause confusion, alas, and the core theme of the game being "explore dungeons" is at odds with Large mounts, so it's kinda hard to do much with knights. But we do stuff now and then.
I avoid Mounted Combat personally, I would love a Mountless Cavalier archetype.
I like how you used the word "Yet" for not the focus of a whole book.
I avoid Mounted Combat personally, I would love a Mountless Cavalier archetype.
There are two, the Musketeer and the Huntmaster, which are both decent (though musketeer uses a gun). Neither gets heavy armor, though.
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Finally going to shoot a question to you, James. Lovecraft and pulp horror are also the kinds of stories that vibe with me the most, so I look forward to some of your answers!
I am running Rise of the Runelords, and I am introducing a personal side-quest for one of my players [a Witch, Patron: The dark, deceptive side of Desna, throwback from when she swam the stars in ancient days] in which I am slowly and randomly allowing [her] to explore the Dreamlands. I was thinking of inserting some tidbits from Dreamquest into her adventures and eventually tie it into the 6th chapter (near Shalast) and possibly into Shattered Star. I would like your thoughts on the Dreamlands in relation to the rest of Golarion, some cool ideas to throw in, and perhaps a bit of canon lore you might grace me with to throw in my game?
I have read most of the Dreamlands info Paizo has published, and have a history of Chaosium's Dreamlands book as well as the normal literature on the matter.
Random questions as well: Do Ghoul warrens, if one would follow them deep enough, connect to the Underworld of Dream, and perhaps, other waking worlds? In your view, could one find Randolph Carter there, perhaps as the new King of Ilek-Vad?
Thanks, I really appreciate any answer you might give. You have no idea how pleased I am that the creative director of my favorite tabletop shares a like-mind with my love for horror.
What do you think the chances are that the Blame Cosmo thread will elevate him to Pun-Pun like status?
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Creative Director
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Finally going to shoot a question to you, James. Lovecraft and pulp horror are also the kinds of stories that vibe with me the most, so I look forward to some of your answers!
I am running Rise of the Runelords, and I am introducing a personal side-quest for one of my players [a Witch, Patron: The dark, deceptive side of Desna, throwback from when she swam the stars in ancient days] in which I am slowly and randomly allowing [her] to explore the Dreamlands. I was thinking of inserting some tidbits from Dreamquest into her adventures and eventually tie it into the 6th chapter (near Shalast) and possibly into Shattered Star. I would like your thoughts on the Dreamlands in relation to the rest of Golarion, some cool ideas to throw in, and perhaps a bit of canon lore you might grace me with to throw in my game?
I have read most of the Dreamlands info Paizo has published, and have a history of Chaosium's Dreamlands book as well as the normal literature on the matter.
Random questions as well: Do Ghoul warrens, if one would follow them deep enough, connect to the Underworld of Dream, and perhaps, other waking worlds? In your view, could one find Randolph Carter there, perhaps as the new King of Ilek-Vad?
Thanks, I really appreciate any answer you might give. You have no idea how pleased I am that the creative director of my favorite tabletop shares a like-mind with my love for horror.
All of that sounds cool, frankly. We've not done much with the Dimension of Dreams yet, but using Lovecraft's Dreamlands as the setting works pretty much perfectly. And having ghoul warrens connect to the underworld works fine too, although that's thematic for Lovecraft it's not how it works in canon Golarion, but it is still cool.
And yes, you could probably meet Randolph Carter there.
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I was thinking that the "My Lord" part of it would be genre independent ego stroking.In the Doctor Who, RPG, The Time Traveler's Companion addresses the person running the game as "My Lord GameMaster." Would you like that?Nope. Not a Doctor Who fan.
I am actually kinda weirded out by ego stroking to be honest.
Hello again James!
1) What would daemons and followers of the Whispering way think of each other?
2) Same as above but between daemons and elder cultists.
Thanks!
My favorite way to explain this is to use The Avengers.
In that movie, there's a LOT of equally famous and powerful and notable characters, but some are more powerful than others.
Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America would all be mythic heroes. Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Nick Fury would be non-mythic heroes.
But mythic isn't simply about powerful, right? For instance, I can totally buy Captain America as having some mythic Marshal or Guardian juju, despite being a lot closer to Hawkeye than to Thor on the powerhouse scale. Conversely, Ironman strikes me as very very powerful but not necessarily mythic (as a warrior, that is - Tony Stark as a mythic tinker of some kind sounds pretty great).
All that said, I don't think low-level mythic examples get much better than "dumb teenage Hercules".
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My favorite way to explain this is to use The Avengers.
In that movie, there's a LOT of equally famous and powerful and notable characters, but some are more powerful than others.
Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America would all be mythic heroes. Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Nick Fury would be non-mythic heroes.
But mythic isn't simply about powerful, right? For instance, I can totally buy Captain America as having some mythic Marshal or Guardian juju, despite being a lot closer to Hawkeye than to Thor on the powerhouse scale. Conversely, Ironman strikes me as very very powerful but not necessarily mythic (as a warrior, that is - Tony Stark as a mythic tinker of some kind sounds pretty great).
All that said, I don't think low-level mythic examples get much better than "dumb teenage Hercules".
I've put a little bit of thought into this myself and have a HeroLab file I've been messing with (don't judge me).
My current thoughts are as follows with 25 pt buy and advanced simple template as indicated:
The Hulk (Advanced Human Barbarian[Titan Mauler] 14/Champion 7) - Generally unarmed
Thor (Fighter[Maybe Viking, maybe Weapon Master] 13/Champion [Dual Pathed Guardian] 6) - Of course wields a artifact hammer (Mjolnir)
Iron Man Mk 6/Mk 7/Mk 42 (CR 15 Wearable Construct[robot])
Tony Stark (Expert 5/Fighter 4, Maybe a pinch of mythic here to represent his unique capabilities for machine craft, dunno)
Captain America (Advanced Human Fighter[Trench Fighter] 14)
Black Widow(Monk[Martial Artist] 4/Rogue 5/Fighter 4)
Hawkeye(Fighter 6/Ranger 2/Rogue 5)
Loki is a lot harder to fit into the class system though I'd probably start with Sorcerer...
Sorry to derail your thread James, I'll start up this thread later.
Now 2 (Completely unrelated) questions:
1. I'm pretty excited about the Mythic rules coming out in a few weeks. How are you feeling about its pending release. I imagine excited but also a bit nervous.
2. So I was curious on how you personally might go about this. In the Inner Sea Magic campaign setting book, the Acadamae of Korvosa faction/school allows students to add monsters to the summon monsters list by spending prestige and can eventually learn how to summon monsters with the Advanced template by adding an expensive material component to the spell.
Now, I have a bit of a personal problem with the Faction system in that it can be really hard to have every member of a party be a part of different factions without it feeling kinda weird (Why is a student of the Acadamae in Westcrown? Doesn't he need to taking his lessons?).
The Actual Question: I was looking for a way to mimic the idea of adding monsters to the summon monster list through gold piece expenditure and spellcraft/knowledge(planes) checks. I was thinking using the Spell Research system from Game Mastery Guide or Ultimate Campaign would do the trick. Do you think this would be an acceptable way to do the trick without requiring the faction? Would you have your own way?
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Creative Director
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Hello again James!
1) What would daemons and followers of the Whispering way think of each other?
2) Same as above but between daemons and elder cultists.
Thanks!
The answer to both is: It depends on the daemon and the cult member interacting. Daemons cover a WIDE range of interests and themes. Some daemons would see cultists as food and nothing more. Others as pawns. Others as collaborators. For the most part, though, daemons see mortals as soul-holders and are more interested in what happens to them when they die than what they do while they're alive.
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Creative Director
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My favorite way to explain this is to use The Avengers.
In that movie, there's a LOT of equally famous and powerful and notable characters, but some are more powerful than others.
Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America would all be mythic heroes. Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Nick Fury would be non-mythic heroes.
But mythic isn't simply about powerful, right? For instance, I can totally buy Captain America as having some mythic Marshal or Guardian juju, despite being a lot closer to Hawkeye than to Thor on the powerhouse scale. Conversely, Ironman strikes me as very very powerful but not necessarily mythic (as a warrior, that is - Tony Stark as a mythic tinker of some kind sounds pretty great).
All that said, I don't think low-level mythic examples get much better than "dumb teenage Hercules".
My Avengers example still works if you backtrack to all of those characters' origin stories. They still have mythic potential before they invent an Iron Man suit or get irradiated by gamma rays.
And while Mythic isn't always about high-level... a mythic character will ALWAYS be more powerful than a character of equal level, regardless of level.
A 1st level mythic character is more powerful than a 1st level normal character. Maybe not more powerful than a 5th level normal character, but still more powerful than a 1st level one.
The difference between Thor's mythic power and Captain America's is best quantified by saying Thor's a tier 10 champion, while Captain America is only a tier 3 one, or something like that.
And Tony Stark is mythic because he does something pretty much no one who's normal can do—build an iron man suit while being held hostage by terrorists in a cave. Mythic doesn't always equate to magic powers—it also equates to the force of your destiny.
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Creative Director
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1. I'm pretty excited about the Mythic rules coming out in a few weeks. How are you feeling about its pending release. I imagine excited but also a bit nervous.
2. So I was curious on how you personally might go about this. In the Inner Sea Magic campaign setting book, the Acadamae of Korvosa faction/school allows students to add monsters to the summon monsters list by spending prestige and can eventually learn how to summon monsters with the Advanced template by adding an expensive material component to the spell.
Now, I have a bit of a personal problem with the Faction system in that it can be really hard to have every member of a party be a part of different factions without it feeling kinda weird (Why is a student of the Acadamae in Westcrown? Doesn't he need to taking his lessons?).
The Actual Question: I was looking for a way to mimic the idea of adding monsters to the summon monster list through gold piece expenditure and spellcraft/knowledge(planes) checks. I was thinking using the Spell Research system from Game Mastery Guide or Ultimate Campaign would do the trick. Do you think this would be an acceptable way to do the trick without requiring the faction? Would you have your own way?
1) Super super super nervous. I think in the end folks will love it, but there's gonna be some amount of disappointment, as always, either because the rules don't do what folks want, or because something someone liked in the playtest changed (likely because it was too powerful or just wrong). But yeah... I really hope folks end up liking it, since if they don't, then the adventure path I've been spending the last 8 months and the next 3 months working on will more or less be wasted...
2) Factions work best if everyone in the group is part of the same faction. Otherwise, you really do run into a situation where each PC has different goals based on different factions. It's best if you have that situation to come up with ideas for adventures that somehow manage to combine all of their goals into one location. But further, yeah—if you REALLY want to do a "students of the Acadamae" then you shouldn't be sending them out of Korvosa. In the same way you shouldn't have a bunch of paladin characters if you want to run an adventure where the PCs are all members of the thieves' guild—not all character options are equally usable in every campaign.
Actual Answer) There's lots of ways. One way is to simply invent new spells that summon new monsters—we've done that before in books like the Rival Guide and Book of the Damned III: Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Another way is to simply add a few new on-theme monsters to match the worshiper's religion; we do this all the time in our deity articles in Pathfinder Adventure Path. Feats are also a good way to add new monsters to the existing spells.
If you want to use spell research, then the best solution is to simply let the character or whoever research a brand new variant spell.
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James, could you explain some of the reasoning behind why you chose to go the route of Mythic Adventures rather than updating the existing Epic Level rules to Pathfinder? It seems to be a somewhat risky move to take it in this direction, rather than the more obvious Epic Level route. You've always said that Pathfinder would be compatible with D&D 3.5, but you've sort of stepped away from that effectively canning the epic level ruleset in favor of Mythic Adventures.
Also, have you seen the 2007 movie "There Will Be Blood", if so what did you think of it?
I saw it just recently and it struck me that the main character would fit right into the Aspis Consortium. How would you peg Daniel Plainview's alignment?
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Creative Director
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James, could you explain some of the reasoning behind why you chose to go the route of Mythic Adventures rather than updating the existing Epic Level rules to Pathfinder? It seems to be a somewhat risky move to take it in this direction, rather than the more obvious Epic Level route. You've always said that Pathfinder would be compatible with D&D 3.5, but you've sort of stepped away from that effectively canning the epic level ruleset in favor of Mythic Adventures.
Also, have you seen the 2007 movie "There Will Be Blood", if so what did you think of it?
I saw it just recently and it struck me that the main character would fit right into the Aspis Consortium. How would you peg Daniel Plainview's alignment?
The main reason, and Jason can speak to this better than I, is that the Epic rules break the underlying math of the game. Saves and attack rolls get way too stretched out at those levels. Further, the lack of a level cap means that there's no way for a publisher to support the rules as there's no baseline of what span of power the rules cover—all "low level epic characters" (aka 21st level) are at the same power level, but how do you support a "high level epic character"? Is that 25th level? 35th level? 100th level? 1492nd level? The epic rules don't say, and that's a HUGE flaw.
Furthermore, the epic rules more or less require you to move the setting of your campaign to somewhere else from where the first 20 levels were set, and that's not something we wanted to do.
FURTHERMORE... the only people who get to enjoy the epic level rules are those who have reached 20th level, and that's a relatively small subset of the whole. With Mythic rules allowing you to use the rules at the start of a game at 1st level, we drastically increase the usability of the book to, potentially, EVERY player, not just those who have 20th level characters.
I have seen "There Will Be Blood." I loved it—GREAT movie. I would say Daniel Plainview's alignment is probably neutral at start but by the end of the movie he's chaotic evil.
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The main reason, and Jason can speak to this better than I, is that the Epic rules break the underlying math of the game. Saves and attack rolls get way too stretched out at those levels. Further, the lack of a level cap means that there's no way for a publisher to support the rules as there's no baseline of what span of power the rules cover—all "low level epic characters" (aka 21st level) are at the same power level, but how do you support a "high level epic character"? Is that 25th level? 35th level? 100th level? 1492nd level? The epic rules don't say, and that's a HUGE flaw.Furthermore, the epic rules more or less require you to move the setting of your campaign to somewhere else from where the first 20 levels were set, and that's not something we wanted to do.
FURTHERMORE... the only people who get to enjoy the epic level rules are those who have reached 20th level, and that's a relatively small subset of the whole. With Mythic rules allowing you to use the rules at the start of a game at 1st level, we drastically increase the usability of the book to, potentially, EVERY player, not just those who have 20th level characters.
I have seen "There Will Be Blood." I loved it—GREAT movie. I would say Daniel Plainview's alignment is probably neutral at start but...
Thank you James, that is a very solid explanation.
For what it's worth, I'm very encouraged by what I've seen of the rules thus far, from the playtest and Baba Yaga's statblock. I mean Baba has a mythic wish spell prepared. What could you possibly do to make wish stronger without being insanely overpowered? I eagerly anticipate the 14th to find out...
Probably been asked before, but...
What would happen if someone cast Animate Object on a corpse?
You'd get a Medium animated object with hardness 0. One that would probably trick clerics into wasting channel energy.Probably been asked before, but...
What would happen if someone cast Animate Object on a corpse?
Huh. Never really looked at Animate Objects or their stats. When you cast the spell Animate Objects, do you get to assign Construction Points? Or are those only used when it comes to crafting one via Craft Construct?
Within the Inner Sea region, how common are wayfinders outside the hands of the Pathfinder Society? Do they attempt to maintain a monopoly on them, or are they fairly widespread? (Well, as widespread as any magic item.)
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Cheliax has a negative attitude to Tieflings because it means their ancestors couldn't control themselves when infernal binding (and that they may possibly be descended from Demons and not Devils). Do they have any unique cultural opinion on Aasimar? The 4 elemental touched races?
I'm not James, but I think I can help there. According to Blood of Angels, most aasimars just simply blend in with the populace, a fact that many tieflings resent. Those that have clearly inhuman features are treated as if they were non-devil-blooded tieflings. They don't know where the aasimar's provenance came from, and given their inherent nature, all they'd seek to do in devil-loving Cheliax is cause trouble and disrupt the order the love so.
No word on the other elemental races, but I imagine the reaction is similar. If it doesn't come from Hell, it can't be trusted.
I also have a question for James, so this post has some on-topic purpose.
Would you say it's true that there are certain kinds of stories Golarion simply isn't built to contain? I think of something like the Trojan War, certainly an epic tale, but one that would be difficult to reproduce on Golarion. The gods likely wouldn't be petty enough to goad mortals into a decade-long war that results in the flower of the lands' youth perishing, snuffing out one of the greatest cities in the world and ending an age of heroes, over a single woman being used as a bribe to the judge of a divine beauty contest, started because one goddess got angry that she wasn't invited to a wedding. Gods like Shelyn, Iomedae or Sarenrae would likely be the FIRST to say "something like this is wrong."
Would you say that playing a Greek tragedy in Golarion doesn't exactly work? A campaign where heroes soar to great heights and ultimately lose everything from their inherently flawed nature, the justice the gods provide is not good or noble, but merely an assertion of their power over mortals' lives and demands of their behavior, even though they themselves are egocentric beings that treat mortals as expendable pawns in their petty games of one-upmanship and revenge for everything from percieved slights (Athena's treatment of Arachne, Apollo and Artemis' cruel slaying of Niobe's children, etc.) to genuine grievances that can't actually be rectified (Hera's continual harassment of Zeus' lovers and children because she can't take justice from Zeus himself, and Poseidon's revenge against Odysseus for the blinding of Polyphemus)?
...Trojan War in Golarion...
You know, I think someone like Calistria might endeavor to start such a war, and she's tricky enough to do so. She kind of personifies the "Hell hath no fury" saying. Also, to spurn the Gods into such a war, I would imagine it simply requires pushing the right buttons. One might see Calistria seeking the aid of some of the neutral gods like Gorum, Nethys, Gozreh etc. in unleashing vengeance on the kingdom that spurned her by manipulating them into viewing their actions in a negative light. Gorum might join in for the thrill of the battle, one could possibly trick Nethys into thinking the enemy kingdom is a threat to magic or something, and Gozreh might unleash his wrath if they believed they were tampering with nature.
A war isn't hard to start, you just need to push the right buttons.
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James, what movie do you think is the...
1) Scariest?
2) Funniest?
3) Best Action?
4) Best Drama?
5) Best Sci-Fi?
6) Best Fantasy?
James,
A void elementalist wizard (dragon empires primer), has to choose another elemental school as his forbidden school (air/water/fire/earth).
There are certain spells listed as belonging to all elemental schools, but not to the void school (e.g.resist energy, protection from energy, elemental body, summon monster, etc).
My question is:
How do I treat the spells belonging to the All elementalist school as a void wizard? Should I treat them like the universal spells from the standard wizard? or do I lose access to them when I choose my forbidden elemental school?
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...Trojan War in Golarion...You know, I think someone like Calistria might endeavor to start such a war, and she's tricky enough to do so. She kind of personifies the "Hell hath no fury" saying. Also, to spurn the Gods into such a war, I would imagine it simply requires pushing the right buttons. One might see Calistria seeking the aid of some of the neutral gods like Gorum, Nethys, Gozreh etc. in unleashing vengeance on the kingdom that spurned her by manipulating them into viewing their actions in a negative light. Gorum might join in for the thrill of the battle, one could possibly trick Nethys into thinking the enemy kingdom is a threat to magic or something, and Gozreh might unleash his wrath if they believed they were tampering with nature.
A war isn't hard to start, you just need to push the right buttons.
True, it isn't hard to start a war, but a big part of the Trojan War was that the gods deliberately took sides in this war and sabotaged attempts for peace because they wanted to see their side win as a way of humiliating their rivals in the pantheon, treating it like a football game they'd placed bets on. I doubt any god of good or law would stoop that low. Yes, some gods might get in on this action, but it wouldn't be one where the only outcome is a lot of dead mortals and the gods still glaring at one another across the table, waiting for the next opportunity to vent their catty jealousies and marital strife on each other. I mean, for starters none of the gods are married, so there's no extramarital affairs to get upset over in the first place...
Mythic Adventures will feature rules for legendary weapons. Are these meant to be only for mythic characters or will there be the option to have these weapons as a non-mythic option?
Mr. James Jacobs,
What real language did the language Jatambe spoke or wrote his magic in sound like? Also, what real world language Atzlanti sound like?
James,
I understand that the best attempt at balance was made when picking the six mythic paths (and I'm very glad it's 6 rather than 4, like the "traditional 4 classes"), but do you think that will cover every type of character? Are there plans for more mythic paths for more unusual character types, or is 6 all there will be? If you introduce new base classes, like a swashbuckling combatant, psychic mage or a monk-like psychic partial caster, would new mythic paths be likely or necessary for them, or would the existing ones work?
Monks and Alchemists are probably the two base classes I'm most concerned about fitting in to the existing mythic paths. Do you think there are any that would work well for them?
And actually, is the expectation for mythic paths that they are mostly predictable by class, or that there are a few a given class could choose from, or that any class should be able to take almost any path?
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I have a question about the Yenchabur and Daggermark. It says the Daggermark Assassin's Guild was formed from refugees from the city state of Yenchabur in Casmaroon. Would it be safe to say that these Yenchabur were Keleshites, one of the other races, or a new race entirely?
Would they have their own language?
Yup; most of those from Yenchabur were Keleshites.
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Creative Director
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Huh. Never really looked at Animate Objects or their stats. When you cast the spell Animate Objects, do you get to assign Construction Points? Or are those only used when it comes to crafting one via Craft Construct?You'd get a Medium animated object with hardness 0. One that would probably trick clerics into wasting channel energy.Probably been asked before, but...
What would happen if someone cast Animate Object on a corpse?
You do indeed get to assign the Construction Points. Within reason and subject to GM approval, of course.
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Creative Director
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Within the Inner Sea region, how common are wayfinders outside the hands of the Pathfinder Society? Do they attempt to maintain a monopoly on them, or are they fairly widespread? (Well, as widespread as any magic item.)
It's not too uncommon to see non-Pathfinders with wayfinders. They do attempt to buy back wayfinders (or perhaps steal back, depending on the agent) when they see them in use outside of the society, but sometimes (as seen in Shattered Star) they're given as gifts to non-members.
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Creative Director
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Cheliax has a negative attitude to Tieflings because it means their ancestors couldn't control themselves when infernal binding (and that they may possibly be descended from Demons and not Devils). Do they have any unique cultural opinion on Aasimar? The 4 elemental touched races?
They'd generally see aasimar as troublemakers and do-gooders, in the same way they'd react to paladins and obvious worshipers of good deities. Not people to immediately attack and persecute, but certainly people to keep tabs on, and perhaps jump the gun on arresting given the chance.
They don't really have a view on the elemental races, unless they mistake them for tieflings.