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Kind of an awkward set of questions; changelings are always female when they're born. What happens if a changeling is transgendered, and transitions through alchemical treatments? Are they effectively male changelings, or would this cause some kind of transformation into a human essentially? What about instances of magical transitioning like with the elixir of sex shift? How would a trans changeling's hag mother react to his transition? Would he be "cut off" from her in effect, or could she still change him into a hag, effectively undoing his transition?
Creative Director
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Kind of an awkward set of questions; changelings are always female when they're born. What happens if a changeling is transgendered, and transitions through alchemical treatments? Are they effectively male changelings, or would this cause some kind of transformation into a human essentially? What about instances of magical transitioning like with the elixir of sex shift? How would a trans changeling's hag mother react to his transition? Would he be "cut off" from her in effect, or could she still change him into a hag, effectively undoing his transition?
They would be male changelings, regardless of how they transitioned. How the character's mother would react would depend entirely on the mother's personality... but hags are generally evil, so don't expect them to be nice!
Am I correct that the only way for a priest to identify a divine spell effect in place is via Knowledge (arcana)? Would you consider houseruling that divine spells can be identified with detect magic and Knowledge (religion) instead/as well? Or do you think that would cause too much bookkeeping to keep track of which spells were cast by arcane or divine casters?
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Am I correct that the only way for a priest to identify a divine spell effect in place is via Knowledge (arcana)? Would you consider houseruling that divine spells can be identified with detect magic and Knowledge (religion) instead/as well? Or do you think that would cause too much bookkeeping to keep track of which spells were cast by arcane or divine casters?
Correct. That's the primary reason Knowledge (arcana) is a class skill for clerics. I wouldn't substitute Knowledge (religion) in there at all, and not just because Knowledge (religion) already has PLENTY to do... but frankly, because clerics aren't really supposed to be the overall experts on magic. They CAN be, but they should have to spend resources apart from their main thematic knowledge skill to do so.
EDIT: One house rule I CAN get behind, though, is rolling Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft into a single skill, and calling that skill Knowledge (arcana).
Is there a reason gods can't/won't/don't/seldom use money? Not in a silly, "Sarenrae spent 2 copper on some apples," way, but maybe "Sarenrae had her church give X thousand platinum to the church of Abadar to aid in project Y," or such?
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What sort of a relationship does Restov have with Mivon? It's implied in the Kingmaker AP that Restov has a very antagonistic relationship with Pitax, even before attempting to settle the Stolen Lands by proxy, but it's not as clear what sort of relationship the Swordlords have with their kin in Mivon.
Similarly, does Restov have diplomatic ties to any of the city-states over in Iobaria? If not for the mountain range in the way, it seems like Kridorn would be an ideal trading partner and might take interest in new kingdoms in the area for trade, but it's unclear whether anyone actually braves the wilderness to conduct trade across the Icerimes.
I asked Jason this, so figured I'd ask you too :)
James, do you ever check out homebrewed classes on the forums and critique them at all?
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I still think it's because Rahadoum is narrow-minded and frightened. They still seem to me to be more suited toward an antagonistic region built for PCs to adventure in but not live in, along the lines of the Worldwound or Razmiran or Irrisen or Geb.{. . .}
The destruction wrought by the war between faiths may have been only part of the reason for banning religion in Rahadoum, although the one that the rulers like to advertise as being the only reason. {. . .} But if the Dawnflower militants were truly faithful to the ideals of Good, they would likely have tried to eliminate slavery, which is practiced and important in Rahadoum in current times, but is likely not at all new. THAT would anger and scare those who depend upon slavery even more than the murderhobo activities of the other two cults. {. . .}
The two explanations are not mutually exclusive . . . .
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Is there a reason gods can't/won't/don't/seldom use money? Not in a silly, "Sarenrae spent 2 copper on some apples," way, but maybe "Sarenrae had her church give X thousand platinum to the church of Abadar to aid in project Y," or such?
Why would a god need money? That's a mortal conceit. Gods have what they want, and if they don't have what they want, it couldn't be bought anyway, and they need to go about another method to get it. NOTE: This is VERY different than the church itself having money.
Put another way... deities don't have statistics, so they couldn't use money even if they needed it. Which they do not.
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What sort of a relationship does Restov have with Mivon? It's implied in the Kingmaker AP that Restov has a very antagonistic relationship with Pitax, even before attempting to settle the Stolen Lands by proxy, but it's not as clear what sort of relationship the Swordlords have with their kin in Mivon.
Similarly, does Restov have diplomatic ties to any of the city-states over in Iobaria? If not for the mountain range in the way, it seems like Kridorn would be an ideal trading partner and might take interest in new kingdoms in the area for trade, but it's unclear whether anyone actually braves the wilderness to conduct trade across the Icerimes.
It's a strained relationship at best, but beyond that, we've not done much further detailing that whole scene at all. They don't have much contact at all with Iobaria; there's too much monsters and wilderness and cranky centaurs in the way.
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James,
Okay so we know that Unity is confined to Divinity but as Iron Gods has shown not his influence. What are the chances of Unity's followers showing up outside Numeria aside from members of the Technic League?
Zero until you start running Iron Gods, and then it depends on how successful your PCs are in that AP.
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I asked Jason this, so figured I'd ask you too :)
James, do you ever check out homebrewed classes on the forums and critique them at all?
Nope. Never.
Unless it's for RPG Superstar or its something I'm paying someone to do for Paizo, I don't critique others' writing. I try not to even look at it, for time management and legal reasons.
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It's a strained relationship at best, but beyond that, we've not done much further detailing that whole scene at all. They don't have much contact at all with Iobaria; there's too much monsters and wilderness and cranky centaurs in the way.
Speaking of cranky centaurs... the Nomen tribe is described as only having 200 members, which doesn't seem enough to actually present a significant threat to Restov. Should it be assumed that there are several other such tribes in the region, but making their home further east/northeast/etc and thus off the map from Varnhold Vanishing? (And thus, that there might be opportunities for trade with those tribes if peace can be made with the Nomens.)
As a GM, do you still have to send a mail to Paizo community when you take over a campaign you didn't start?
Do you have to bring the corpse of the previous GM?^^
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Thanks for the answers again! Sorry about the huge question block, I started typing and I kept thinking of little nuances of questions.
Still, as usual, more questions.
1.) What do you think about providing trade goods as loot instead of coins, items, etc? For example, is it hideously (or perhaps hilariously) evil of me to reward a fifth level party for an encounter with 38 tons of beans (1,550gp value)?
2.) What's your opinion as a DM on 'pet' classes as PCs? Such as the Master Summoner archetype, or a necromancer type cleric who keeps a cadre of bloody skeletons around to fight for him?
3.) Troop rules seem like a way to keep hordes of otherwise cannon-fodder opponents still dangerous even at higher levels. Are there any plans for a future bestiary to include more in depth troop rules? I honestly expected to see them in the monster codex.
Will there ever be published a complete world map of Golarion as then currently revealed? By this I mean a map of all states, major cities and landmarks, trade routes, etc. There is at least one low-detail map in Distant Worlds, but I am thinking of the kind of quality map that goes with the Inner Sea World Guide.
As well, fanmade maps have surfaced over time as expositions of different people's headcanon. What's the most accurate fanmade map you have seen that most closely resembles your own vision of Golarion world geography?
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What's the worst place in the Inner Sea to bring someone on a Valentine's Day date?
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It's a strained relationship at best, but beyond that, we've not done much further detailing that whole scene at all. They don't have much contact at all with Iobaria; there's too much monsters and wilderness and cranky centaurs in the way.Speaking of cranky centaurs... the Nomen tribe is described as only having 200 members, which doesn't seem enough to actually present a significant threat to Restov. Should it be assumed that there are several other such tribes in the region, but making their home further east/northeast/etc and thus off the map from Varnhold Vanishing? (And thus, that there might be opportunities for trade with those tribes if peace can be made with the Nomens.)
I suspect there are more centaurs than those in the Nomen tribe. But even then, it's not just centaurs alone that make the region dangerous.
And yes, absolutely, there are PLENTY more centaur tribes in the area; the Nomens are the ones most prevalent in the tiny little slice that shows up in the adventure, but Iobaria's MUCH bigger than that. Check out the 3rd Reign of Winter installment for more; it's got a whole gazetteer of Iobaria—a gazetteer that we hadn't written at the time of Varnhold, obviously, so you, unlike us, have the advantage of drawing upon that gazetteer for more information as you need.
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As a GM, do you still have to send a mail to Paizo community when you take over a campaign you didn't start?
Do you have to bring the corpse of the previous GM?^^
I have no idea what you're talking about.
That said, I haven't taken over any campaigns other GMs have started for over a decade...
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Thanks for the answers again! Sorry about the huge question block, I started typing and I kept thinking of little nuances of questions.
Still, as usual, more questions.
1.) What do you think about providing trade goods as loot instead of coins, items, etc? For example, is it hideously (or perhaps hilariously) evil of me to reward a fifth level party for an encounter with 38 tons of beans (1,550gp value)?
2.) What's your opinion as a DM on 'pet' classes as PCs? Such as the Master Summoner archetype, or a necromancer type cleric who keeps a cadre of bloody skeletons around to fight for him?
3.) Troop rules seem like a way to keep hordes of otherwise cannon-fodder opponents still dangerous even at higher levels. Are there any plans for a future bestiary to include more in depth troop rules? I honestly expected to see them in the monster codex.
1) I think it's cool, but not in excess. There's a reason coins exist—everyone uses them because they're so much more portable than bushels of wheat or barrels of brandy. Now and then I'll put trade goods in an adventure as treasure to be a sort of puzzle for the PCs; how do they get that 400 pound load of grain back to town if they want to make money off it? But don't do that often, or else your players will post angry messages on the boards about Paizo not letting their characters have enough treasure...
For your specific example, before you hand out 38 tons of beans, I'd stop for a reality check. Do some research; find out how much volume 38 tons of beans actually takes up, and if they'd even fit in the area you have them stashed, and if the fit... WHY are they there? That is so outlandish that the mystery of how 38 tons of beans got into the dungeon room (or whatever) becomes the adventure, not what you wanted the adventure to be.
2) I think pet classes are a lot of fun, but work best in smaller groups. Once you have 5 or more players, pet classes tend to get in the way of everyone taking their turns. ESPECIALLY if the pet class has more than one pet.
3) That's exactly what troop rules are for. I would LOVE to get troop rules into a hardcover book... but doing so is a weird, frustratingly complex process since everyone here at Paizo seems to have a different idea of where and how they should be handled, and as a result... they remain "stranded" in Reign of Winter. I'll probably use them again in Hell's Rebels, but I'll probably need to reprint all the rules for them in the adventure, alas. PERSONALLY: Since troops are handled similarly to swarms, my personal opinion is that they should appear in a Bestiary, like swarms do.
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Will there ever be published a complete world map of Golarion as then currently revealed? By this I mean a map of all states, major cities and landmarks, trade routes, etc. There is at least one low-detail map in Distant Worlds, but I am thinking of the kind of quality map that goes with the Inner Sea World Guide.
As well, fanmade maps have surfaced over time as expositions of different people's headcanon. What's the most accurate fanmade map you have seen that most closely resembles your own vision of Golarion world geography?
Some day, yes, we'll publish a map of the world of Golarion, showing all the continents and oceans. We've already done a rough version of this map (intentionally inaccurate) in the Inner Sea World Guide on page 204; it gives the basic shapes and locations of the continents, but the sizes aren't 100% nailed down. In particular, the oceans are much bigger than depicted, and Avistan is smaller.
Not gonna say which one is "most accurate" of the fan maps, because I haven't seen all of them and I don't wan't to set false expectations—it's not in print yet, an official world map, and until then, I reserve the right to make adjustments.
Can mythic surge be used to make a roll of 1 on a saving throw not an automatic failure?
What's the worst place in the Inner Sea to bring someone on a Valentine's Day date?Hermea.
Hermea is worse even than the Gallowspire or Cenotaph? (Although I suppose if your date is a necromancer, vampire, or otherwise interested in the undead, those might rank in the top 5 best places for said date.)
What's the worst place in the Inner Sea to bring someone on a Valentine's Day date?Hermea.
And I was going to suggest the Chapel of Rent Flesh...
James: There are many very, very dark-themed places in Golarion (like the above). When you GM, how dark do you tend to go?
I asked Jason this, so figured I'd ask you too :)
James, do you ever check out homebrewed classes on the forums and critique them at all?Nope. Never.
Unless it's for RPG Superstar or its something I'm paying someone to do for Paizo, I don't critique others' writing. I try not to even look at it, for time management and legal reasons.
I understand the time constraints, but what legal reasons?
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Flight and space occupied....
If a creature can fly will its wingspan affect the space taken?
If you're playing a half-dragon and you're a medium creature could you fly down a 5 foot wide hallway?Thank you for your help!
Cheers,
Timbo234
A flying creature's wings affect the space taken no more than a walking creature's footsteps or strides affect it's space: AKA: not at all.
You can fly down a 5 foot wide hallway if you yourself have a space of 5 feet. Wingspan isn't hardcoded into the rules, in other words; it's assumed that all your limbs used for whatever sort of locomotion utilize your space to move you around. If your space is larger than the area you're in, you're stuck or squeezing, but if it's equal to or larger, you're not.
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Hermea is worse even than the Gallowspire or Cenotaph? (Although I suppose if your date is a necromancer, vampire, or otherwise interested in the undead, those might rank in the top 5 best places for said date.)What's the worst place in the Inner Sea to bring someone on a Valentine's Day date?Hermea.
For a necromancer, Gallowspire might be romantic.
For someone seeking to pursue love, Hermea is a terrible choice, since if you live there, you don't get to pick who you love.
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James: There are many very, very dark-themed places in Golarion (like the above). When you GM, how dark do you tend to go?
As a general rule, my games generally have the possibility of going into hard-R territory, or beyond. Depends on the game, of course. But yeah... as dark as it needs to be. I'll adjust lighter if I've got a group that isn't comfortable with, say, Clive Barker or David Cronenberg or George Martin levels of darkness... but I tend to prefer to avoid those groups.
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I understand the time constraints, but what legal reasons?I asked Jason this, so figured I'd ask you too :)
James, do you ever check out homebrewed classes on the forums and critique them at all?Nope. Never.
Unless it's for RPG Superstar or its something I'm paying someone to do for Paizo, I don't critique others' writing. I try not to even look at it, for time management and legal reasons.
That's actually something that most authors avoid doing—reading fan submissions or the like. Since an author will generally be approached by someone whose got similar tastes, chances are pretty much guaranteed that what the fan writes will be similar in theme to the work the author creates for a living. I don't want to put either of us in a situation where, 1 month or 1 year or 1 decade down the road, I publish something that bears a resemblance (either intentionally or accidentally) to something you wrote and showed me and you think I stole your idea and then sue me.
In other words, I'm covering myself from possible legal actions.
I understand the time constraints, but what legal reasons?I asked Jason this, so figured I'd ask you too :)
James, do you ever check out homebrewed classes on the forums and critique them at all?Nope. Never.
Unless it's for RPG Superstar or its something I'm paying someone to do for Paizo, I don't critique others' writing. I try not to even look at it, for time management and legal reasons.
That's actually something that most authors avoid doing—reading fan submissions or the like. Since an author will generally be approached by someone whose got similar tastes, chances are pretty much guaranteed that what the fan writes will be similar in theme to the work the author creates for a living. I don't want to put either of us in a situation where, 1 month or 1 year or 1 decade down the road, I publish something that bears a resemblance (either intentionally or accidentally) to something you wrote and showed me and you think I stole your idea and then sue me.
In other words, I'm covering myself from possible legal actions.
Well... I'm pretty sure that you're covered, legally speaking, as long as the content is posted directly to the forums and not hosted off site.
Who owns my comments?
While Paizo Inc does not pre-screen message content, Paizo Inc does reserve the right to edit or remove submitted messages or material at any time. Paizo Inc is not responsible for the content of messages submitted by users of the site. Users posting messages to the site automatically grant Paizo Inc the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, sublicense, copy and distribute such messages throughout the world in any media.
So as long as you work for Paizo, and the content was published directly to the website, you should be legally in the clear. But if you ever stop working for Paizo, or the content it hosted off sight, you could get in trouble.
Probably a good policy to maintain regardless of your legality. Especially if an underage person were to have an account here, parents could say the child "wasn't legally fight to agree to a contract".
Crazier things have happened, though; we are a 'law suit happy' population after all.
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I understand the time constraints, but what legal reasons?I asked Jason this, so figured I'd ask you too :)
James, do you ever check out homebrewed classes on the forums and critique them at all?Nope. Never.
Unless it's for RPG Superstar or its something I'm paying someone to do for Paizo, I don't critique others' writing. I try not to even look at it, for time management and legal reasons.
That's actually something that most authors avoid doing—reading fan submissions or the like. Since an author will generally be approached by someone whose got similar tastes, chances are pretty much guaranteed that what the fan writes will be similar in theme to the work the author creates for a living. I don't want to put either of us in a situation where, 1 month or 1 year or 1 decade down the road, I publish something that bears a resemblance (either intentionally or accidentally) to something you wrote and showed me and you think I stole your idea and then sue me.
In other words, I'm covering myself from possible legal actions.
Well... I'm pretty sure that you're covered, legally speaking, as long as the content is posted directly to the forums and not hosted off site.
...Who owns my comments?
While Paizo Inc does not pre-screen message content, Paizo Inc does reserve the right to edit or remove submitted messages or material at any time. Paizo Inc is not responsible for the content of messages submitted by users of the site. Users posting messages to the site automatically grant Paizo Inc the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive
That bit is indeed in there to cover us for precisely that reason... but I take the whole thing seriously enough that I'd rather overprotect myself.
1. The wording regarding skills of a Synthesist Summoner (I know, another question about what is the most complicated archetype ever) seems a bit vague. I can see that the Synthesist would not gain the eidolons skill ranks, since that would give you a large pool of points. What is less clear to me, from a logical standpoint is the question of whether you would gain the eidolons class skills while fused? It seems logical that if eidolons have perception as a class skill, that you should also have perception as a class skill when you are fused. Could be wrong, but the wording of the ability seems vague to me, and it seems there is a lot of debate on this issue around.
2. If a Synthesist Summoner chooses the Quadruped base form, is he able to cast spells while fused?
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1. The wording regarding skills of a Synthesist Summoner (I know, another question about what is the most complicated archetype ever) seems a bit vague. I can see that the Synthesist would not gain the eidolons skill ranks, since that would give you a large pool of points. What is less clear to me, from a logical standpoint is the question of whether you would gain the eidolons class skills while fused? It seems logical that if eidolons have perception as a class skill, that you should also have perception as a class skill when you are fused. Could be wrong, but the wording of the ability seems vague to me, and it seems there is a lot of debate on this issue around.
2. If a Synthesist Summoner chooses the Quadruped base form, is he able to cast spells while fused?
Even if I WAS answering hardcover rulebook questions here and not redirecting those questions to the rules forums so they can get hit with an FAQ tag... I'd send all synthesist questions on to that forum anyway.
My personal recommendation is that you just don't use the archetype. It's too much trouble.
Any chance for a Eidolon Player Companion book in the future?
I agree. Eidolons need more options. Maybe Eidolon Archetypes.
Also James, why so little love for the Shadow Plane?
As a GM, do you still have to send a mail to Paizo community when you take over a campaign you didn't start?
Do you have to bring the corpse of the previous GM?^^
I have no idea what you're talking about.
That said, I haven't taken over any campaigns other GMs have started for over a decade...
I'm talking about that lines just over the Online Campaign threads:
Did you inherit a play-by-post?
If you are the GM for a play-by-post campaign but didn't start the thread, please email community@paizo.com.We need:
A link to your profile page (click on your name at the top where it says "Welcome, your name!"
A link to the gameplay and discussion threads for the campaigns you have inherited.
Just copy and paste these links from the address bar in your browser, please.
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Any chance for a Eidolon Player Companion book in the future?
Player Companions generally don't focus that tightly on a single element of a single class, so no, not much of a chance of a Player Companion focused entirely on eidolons.
There is the Monster Summoner's Handbook coming later this year though.
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Also James, why so little love for the Shadow Plane?
Council of Thieves. Midnight Mirror. Several PFS Scenarios. All the kytons that keep popping up in adventures.
That's more love than most other planes get.
We'll do more with the Shadow Plane some day, of course, but it's not like we've ignored it.
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As a GM, do you still have to send a mail to Paizo community when you take over a campaign you didn't start?
Do you have to bring the corpse of the previous GM?^^
I have no idea what you're talking about.
That said, I haven't taken over any campaigns other GMs have started for over a decade...
I'm talking about that lines just over the Online Campaign threads:
Did you inherit a play-by-post?
If you are the GM for a play-by-post campaign but didn't start the thread, please email community@paizo.com.We need:
A link to your profile page (click on your name at the top where it says "Welcome, your name!"
A link to the gameplay and discussion threads for the campaigns you have inherited.
Just copy and paste these links from the address bar in your browser, please.
I have no idea. I'm pretty much not involved in the play by post stuff. It's good sense and polite to let folks know the history of a game if you've inherited control over it though.
We're running Jade Regent right now. In the Necropolis of Iqtaal our snowcaster elf cleric of Findeladlara 8 just died. Turns out, our druid is reincarnating him.
Given that Findeladlara doesn't answer the prayers of non-elves, would she make an exception if the soul of the humanoid in question was elven even if his body was not? Or would she just look on his outward appearance and say, "No, not an elf. I'm not listening."?
I mean, if an elf cleric reincarnates as a human, goblin, or bugbear, would that matter to Findeladlara?
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We're running Jade Regent right now. In the Necropolis of Iqtaal our snowcaster elf cleric of Findeladlara 8 just died. Turns out, our druid is reincarnating him.
Given that Findeladlara doesn't answer the prayers of non-elves, would she make an exception if the soul of the humanoid in question was elven even if his body was not? Or would she just look on his outward appearance and say, "No, not an elf. I'm not listening."?
I mean, if an elf cleric reincarnates as a human, goblin, or bugbear, would that matter to Findeladlara?
She would absolutely make an exception, especially if that means that the dead PC gets to play again.
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Why doesn't the sarrissa double as a tool for pole vaulting?
What happens if you throw it?
What does amiri think of it?
I'm not sure where you're getting the sarrissa from, but looking at it elsewhere on the internet, it's a weapon, not a tool for pole vaulting. If it had some real-world pole vaulting use, that might be a different story. If you want spear-like weapons to aid in pole vaulting, all you need is the GM's permission.
Since I'm not sure where you're getting it from in a Pathfinder book... if it doesn't have a range, it's not a throwing weapon, and thus it behaves the same as any non-throwing weapon. As an improvised thrown weapon.
Amiri's never seen one.
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I still want an audio recording of amiri when she sees that thing. It fits her character sooo well. A fifteen foot long spear.
I always liked amiri, shes got to have moments when shes not seriously terrifying and has a look of I AM GOING TO DESTROY EVERYTHING I SEE on her face.
The sarrissa is the big spear that triples your range from the giant hunters handbook.