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Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Lou Diamond wrote:

James, I have a question on divine casters and healing the general populace. Do nations that have a large concentration of clergy have a lower death rate from disease and death from infection and deformities from broken bones due to the divine casters looking after their flocks and providing them with the gifts from the gods.

For myself my divine casters when not off adventuring do look after their flocks ensuring that they are healthy and hale they even work with the midwives in case the mothers need looking after if their any complcations from bringing new members of the community into the world.
do you consider this the norm? Also my divine casters take the max ranks in Heal to help them care for their flocks.

The resources to use magic to heal are not as universal on a nation level as they are to player characters, first of all. If you're going to think of things in this term, it's best to use hospitals and doctors and the like in our world as an analogy (including the fact that in a lot of cases, folks can't afford healing).


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I have always thought that the two most important themes of Thassilon are magic and giants. That's why I anticipated to see a new cloud castle when I heard the announcement of Return of the Runelords. Will there be a flying cloud castle in that adventure path?


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For the Golarion Pathfinder Society; are the sale of the Pathfinder Chronicles a key or signification portion of their income?

As opposed to something done primary to further the inscrutable secret plans of the decemvirate, or out of a general benevolence, or an attachment to tradition.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:
I have always thought that the two most important themes of Thassilon are magic and giants. That's why I anticipated to see a new cloud castle when I heard the announcement of Return of the Runelords. Will there be a flying cloud castle in that adventure path?

Nope. We did a flying cloud castle in Giantslayer.

And giants aren't a big theme for Return of the Runelords. There'll certainly be some giants in there, but the primary themes for that AP are other things that I'm not quite ready to reveal yet.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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DM Livgin wrote:

For the Golarion Pathfinder Society; are the sale of the Pathfinder Chronicles a key or signification portion of their income?

As opposed to something done primary to further the inscrutable secret plans of the decemvirate, or out of a general benevolence, or an attachment to tradition.

Sales of the chronicles are not a key part of income for the Pathfinder society.


What was one of your favorite parts/moments/etc. of Stranger Things 2?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Tacticslion wrote:
What was one of your favorite parts/moments/etc. of Stranger Things 2?

I'll give you five. :-P

Spoiler:
Eleven's trip to the big city. The mind flayer cameo. Steve's ascension to heroism. Dustin's hair in the last episode. The last four episodes as a whole.


Agreed with every last one of those! XD


I remember you said all kaiju are CR 26 to 30. But Yarthoon in Bestiary 6 only has 25 CR. Is it a typo and it should be changed to 26 instead?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:
I remember you said all kaiju are CR 26 to 30. But Yarthoon in Bestiary 6 only has 25 CR. Is it a typo and it should be changed to 26 instead?

Nope. Kaiju are CR 25 to 30. I changed my mind once it came to actually statting up Yarthoon, in other words, from a comment I made on the boards here.


May I ask you why did you change your mind? I ask this because I think increasing monsters' power standard at every 5 CR would be easy and regular.

Silver Crusade

*lumbers over, breathes on glass pane until it is fogged up, sits back and waits to see how James Jacobs responds*

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:
May I ask you why did you change your mind? I ask this because I think increasing monsters' power standard at every 5 CR would be easy and regular.

Because a span of 6 points (CR 25 to CR 30) gives more room for kaiju to spread out.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Koko The Gorilla wrote:
*lumbers over, breathes on glass pane until it is fogged up, sits back and waits to see how James Jacobs responds*

By asking you to not clutter the thread and focus on questions.


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Are there any living artists you wish could/would work on Pathfinder but normally wouldn't be available? (Whether it's because they don't do tabletop work, or they'd be too expensive, or they don't normally do fantasy stuff, etc.)


I found the old version of the map of the Inner Sea region in the second page of Heroes of the Darklands, Elemental Master's Handook, and Antihero's Handbook. It is just a minor error but I think Paizo should be notified. My question is this. Do you know why Paizo chose to use the old map in these books?


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Do you already have a set idea of what all the kaiju mentioned actually look like?

Liberty's Edge

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James,
Steve Prescott is one of my favorite Artists, but I haven't seen his art in Pathfinder for a while now (I think that since Council of Thieves?). Any chance of New stuff from him in the near future?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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MythicFox wrote:
Are there any living artists you wish could/would work on Pathfinder but normally wouldn't be available? (Whether it's because they don't do tabletop work, or they'd be too expensive, or they don't normally do fantasy stuff, etc.)

Yes, lots, but this isn't the place to list them.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:
I found the old version of the map of the Inner Sea region in the second page of Heroes of the Darklands, Elemental Master's Handook, and Antihero's Handbook. It is just a minor error but I think Paizo should be notified. My question is this. Do you know why Paizo chose to use the old map in these books?

I suspect it was just a mistake.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Dragon78 wrote:
Do you already have a set idea of what all the kaiju mentioned actually look like?

Nope.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Paladinosaur wrote:

James,

Steve Prescott is one of my favorite Artists, but I haven't seen his art in Pathfinder for a while now (I think that since Council of Thieves?). Any chance of New stuff from him in the near future?

I like Steve's art enough that I've got two originals from Age of Worms hanging on my wall at home.

But I'm not the art director, and so I can't answer this question; it's a Sarah question.


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If you didn't have a set idea what they would look like then what did you base their names on?

Silver Crusade

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Is the Sin Monk ex-archetype from the Antihero's Handbook is exclusive to Thassilon or it can be found in other places in the world as well? I thought to combine sin monks in my Tian-Xia game, maybe as a part of Onmyuza cult, and wanted to know if it's possible.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

The Hag monster type feeds into folkloric notions of witchcraft, adding some physical oomph into the bargain.

If one were to use the Hag as a baseline for tweaking the folkloric concept of the diabolical male wizard (rather than the "let's kill midwives and old widows because good lord was an educated woman terrifying to established power structures back in the day" notion of old witches), what traits would you emphasize?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Dragon78 wrote:
If you didn't have a set idea what they would look like then what did you base their names on?

I made them up out of the blue. In some cases, their short descriptions after their names suggest shapes, but that doesn't mean much more than that. They might be accurate descriptions or they might be metaphors.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Karth of the Mammoth Tribes wrote:
Is the Sin Monk ex-archetype from the Antihero's Handbook is exclusive to Thassilon or it can be found in other places in the world as well? I thought to combine sin monks in my Tian-Xia game, maybe as a part of Onmyuza cult, and wanted to know if it's possible.

I've no idea. I wasn't involved in that archetype's creation or that book's creation, and until you mentioned it here I didn't know it existed so I've put zero thought into it. Feel free to do what you wish with it, in any event.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Cole Deschain wrote:

The Hag monster type feeds into folkloric notions of witchcraft, adding some physical oomph into the bargain.

If one were to use the Hag as a baseline for tweaking the folkloric concept of the diabolical male wizard (rather than the "let's kill midwives and old widows because good lord was an educated woman terrifying to established power structures back in the day" notion of old witches), what traits would you emphasize?

I wouldn't. I like hags as they are.


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So basically the names could be completely misleading for example Cimurlian the Great Bear might not even remotely be bear-like or Yorak the Horned Thunder might not resemble a horned beast like a rhino or triceratops, correct?


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With planar dragons showing up in Bestiary 6, are the pyroclastic dragon and other fiendish planar dragons from Dragon #300 likely to officially show up in Pathfinder at some point ?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Dragon78 wrote:
So basically the names could be completely misleading for example Cimurlian the Great Bear might not even remotely be bear-like or Yorak the Horned Thunder might not resemble a horned beast like a rhino or triceratops, correct?

Cimurlian is 99% likely to be bear-ish in shape, since he's equally parts inspired by the monster from the 70s' movie "Prophecy" as well as Shardik from the Dark Tower series, but he's certainly MORE than just a ginormous bear. Bear is his starting point.

Yorak has horns and is associated with thunder. Nothing there guarantees anything, including rhinos or triceratopses.

Until these kaiju get looked at more, I'm not gonna limit my choices now by haphazard guesswork on my part, in other words.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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the nerve-eater of Zur-en-Aarh wrote:
With planar dragons showing up in Bestiary 6, are the pyroclastic dragon and other fiendish planar dragons from Dragon #300 likely to officially show up in Pathfinder at some point ?

Those dragons will never be in Pathfinder, since they're owned by Wizards of the Coast and are not open content.


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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Have you seen Thor: Ragnarök yet? Any thoughts?


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James,

Arazni is stated as having been 'humiliated and slain' by the Whispering Tyrant.

What exactly does 'humiliated' mean? Did he just easily kick her butt?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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FallenDabus wrote:
Have you seen Thor: Ragnarök yet? Any thoughts?

Just got back from seeing it. It was amusing and had some cool scenes and Cate Blanchett was the best part but overall, Marvel movies to me these days feel like they're trying too hard. I'm kinda watching them out of habit now, it feels like.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Monkeygod wrote:

James,

Arazni is stated as having been 'humiliated and slain' by the Whispering Tyrant.

What exactly does 'humiliated' mean? Did he just easily kick her butt?

We haven't expanded on that yet, so what it means is what you want it to mean.

Dark Archive

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Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So from Book of the Damned and certain AP's handouts, apparently infernal contracts have habit of starting with "MATERIAL PLANE, being the FOURTH Incarnation of the THIRD Cycle of Mortality," has it ever been explained in any campaign setting book or AP article what that actually means?

(whatever it means, kudos to whoever came up with that since it sounds cool and cryptic like something beyond mortal understanding)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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CorvusMask wrote:

So from Book of the Damned and certain AP's handouts, apparently infernal contracts have habit of starting with "MATERIAL PLANE, being the FOURTH Incarnation of the THIRD Cycle of Mortality," has it ever been explained in any campaign setting book or AP article what that actually means?

(whatever it means, kudos to whoever came up with that since it sounds cool and cryptic like something beyond mortal understanding)

It sure hasn't been explained! :P

Silver Crusade

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What's the population ratio of different PC classes in Golarion?

Like I can know the Base Classes would the most common, but are Paladins rarer than Druids. Are Sorcerers as common as Clerics.

I know Vigilantes are pretty rare amongst the base classes, but are they harder to find than the Occult Classes?.

Are there more Hybrid characters than Base characters. That sort of thing.

Dark Archive

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James Jacobs wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:

So from Book of the Damned and certain AP's handouts, apparently infernal contracts have habit of starting with "MATERIAL PLANE, being the FOURTH Incarnation of the THIRD Cycle of Mortality," has it ever been explained in any campaign setting book or AP article what that actually means?

(whatever it means, kudos to whoever came up with that since it sounds cool and cryptic like something beyond mortal understanding)

It sure hasn't been explained! :P

My guess is 4th incarnation of the 3rd edition of the game we all love! ;)

In Stranger Things 2, what better PRPG monster would you assign to the monstrous monstrosity squirming on the other side of that ruby-colored portal? (all of us probably yelled "NOOOOOOBS!" when Dustin was going through his mind flayer description... similarities basically stop at 'hive mind'... :P)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Laird IceCubez wrote:

What's the population ratio of different PC classes in Golarion?

Like I can know the Base Classes would the most common, but are Paladins rarer than Druids. Are Sorcerers as common as Clerics.

I know Vigilantes are pretty rare amongst the base classes, but are they harder to find than the Occult Classes?.

Are there more Hybrid characters than Base characters. That sort of thing.

That's not a ratio I'm interested in nailing down, but overall there are MUCH more members of the 11 core classes than other classes in the Inner Sea region. And the more recent a book gets, the more rare its classes are, simply because the more recent classes haven't been around for us to include in adventures or sourcebooks.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Overlap Pete wrote:
In Stranger Things 2, what better PRPG monster would you assign to the monstrous monstrosity squirming on the other side of that ruby-colored portal? (all of us probably yelled "NOOOOOOBS!" when Dustin was going through his mind flayer description... similarities basically stop at 'hive mind'... :P)

I didn't yell noob at all, I LOVED that they called it a mind flayer. Stranger Things is a celebration of the 80s, and of D&D as a result, and it feels weird to me to try to shoehorn Pathfinder into the deal.

Dark Archive

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James Jacobs wrote:
Overlap Pete wrote:
In Stranger Things 2, what better PRPG monster would you assign to the monstrous monstrosity squirming on the other side of that ruby-colored portal? (all of us probably yelled "NOOOOOOBS!" when Dustin was going through his mind flayer description... similarities basically stop at 'hive mind'... :P)
I didn't yell noob at all, I LOVED that they called it a mind flayer. Stranger Things is a celebration of the 80s, and of D&D as a result, and it feels weird to me to try to shoehorn Pathfinder into the deal.

I was also happy they pulled out the Monster Manual. I was similarly excited. Let me rephrase: Pathfinder wasn't around in the 80's, but based on the shape of the monster and its influence across the planes (especially via the possession of Will), what PRPG high-CR monster, in your opinion, would exhibit similar powers?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Overlap Pete wrote:
I was also happy they pulled out the Monster Manual. I was similarly excited. Let me rephrase: Pathfinder wasn't around in the 80's, but based on the shape of the monster and its influence across the planes (especially via the possession of Will), what PRPG high-CR monster, in your opinion, would exhibit similar powers?

For things like this, adapting monsters from stories, my preference is NOT to sub-in existing creatures but to make custom-built ones to fill the role, because my brain is wired more toward adapting to fit the creator's stuff rather than trying to pile existing stuff onto their creation.

Dark Archive

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My take on the first season was that it was well represented by the gug; but this season has me think it could be an psychic + elder gug rolled into one, with a few psychic levels (not more than 11 as she was able to shut down the portal). Elder gugs are huge sized which would roughly match the size of that thing on the other side. However its size in Will's mind is titanic/colossal/bigger than the town but that could be a result of a nightmare spell or something.

It's also interesting to note the small quadruped gug-like things running around this time (like a 'gug-like' template applied to some kind of animal... perhaps as a result of it growing mostly on the prime from tiny slug brought by Will)

When creating hive mind type monsters is your preference to create a series of different monsters for each function or caste, or to create a template applicable to everything?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Overlap Pete wrote:


When creating hive mind type monsters is your preference to create a series of different monsters for each function or caste, or to create a template applicable to everything?

Both could work. The hivemind swarm template in Bestiary 6 is a good one to use for actual swarms but just giving the central hivemind ability to a bunch of shared creatures is a quick way to do this.


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How come Empyreal Lord worship is so secretive and not so widespread so people have to join Mystery Cults? I can see the Demon Lords, but you'd think worshipping Angel Lords would be a good thing...


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James, if the gods were to play a monthly game of poker, who would host, and who would the players be?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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MGX wrote:
How come Empyreal Lord worship is so secretive and not so widespread so people have to join Mystery Cults? I can see the Demon Lords, but you'd think worshipping Angel Lords would be a good thing...

The "mystery cult" thing is mostly focused in Magnimar and Varisia itslef. There's plenty of open worship of individual empyreal lords as well.

The Mystery Cults themselves are pretty picky about who they let into the cult, though, since they don't want bad apples in their basket.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Monkeygod wrote:
James, if the gods were to play a monthly game of poker, who would host, and who would the players be?

Any combination would work, but I think the most interesting combo would be Cayden, Calistria, Sivhana, Desna, and Torag, and hosted Kurgess.

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