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Why did you make the Marilith Demon (In demons Revised) even cooler than she already was? ;-)

How would Dybbuks and Invidiaks/Shadow Demons react to eachother on Golarion? Would the Shadow Demon worship a creature like the Dybbuk because of its extreme power of possession? Or would its envy go berserk and mindlessly attack the much more powerful dybbuk?

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
I have absolutely no idea. Never even heard of him/her/it before this post. I wasn't a designer or developer for "Chronicle of the Righteous." This is, as a result, a better question for Patrick or Wes.
Oh, I know that. I just wanted your personal opinion as to what'd be cool! ;)
Ah... well , at this point I have no opinion. :P

T'is cool! I'll work on it. Currently my idea is some variation of a sword stabbed through a dragon skull! B)


What is your opinion of how the U.S. market will handle Metal Gear Solid V?
Theres 2 versions of trailers from E3 this year uncut version is almost 10 mins long.

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 8

James, thanks for the Paizo on button on Friday. I wasn't sure it was you until I attended the Paizo 2013 Beyond panel (your name tag was flipped around at the time so I didn't want to embarrass myself if it wasn't you).

Question- How happy was Shimmy to see you when you got home?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Memento Mortis wrote:

Dear Magnanimous King Tyrant Lizard,

I have two questions. The first is silly and probably doesn't deserve a serious answer. The second is something that's bothered me as a GM for a long time.

1) A question you probably didn't hear at Gen Con/Paizo Con. How DIDN'T Aroden die? What's your best theory?

2) How do you (as a GM) deal with PC death in terms of wealth? What happens to that character's gear? Do you make the party pay to have that character raised?

I tend to run fairly lethal games and my players enjoy it. But when their characters die they feel like rerolling is the optimal choice because paying for a Raise Dead would leave them behind according to the Wealth-By-Level guidelines. Worse they argue that a player whose character just died should come back with wealth-by-level so that they're on-par with the rest of the party, despite the fact that the party tends to hawk the dead character's equipment to bolster themselves.

Are they wrong? Are we thinking too much? Should we just shut up and enjoy the game?

Thanks!

1) Every thing I confirm as a way he didn't die narrows the opposite answer's field of possibilities, so I'm not gonna answer it either. YOU CAN'T TRICK ME!!! I SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!

2) Generally, I leave the decision of what to do with a character's gear up to the players. They may "bury it with the character." They may donate the treasure to the character's relatives. They may split it up among themselves. They may sell it off and split the proceeds. They may just give it to the player's new character. They may sell it and give the gold to the new character. It really varies, but I very much believe that's a decision the PCs need to make.

Once that decision is made, then I adjust things as appropriate, either dialing back the treasure or whatever in order to accommodate things going forward. I do try to encourage them to do the "bury it with the dead PC" or donate the treasure to a relation, though, but do make sure that plot-important treasures remain with the party.

If you do have a character that dies and is then replaced... that character SHOULD come back with wealth that puts him/her on par with the wealth of the other characters. The wealth-by-level guidelines are just that: GUIDELINES. If you don't strictly adhere to them and constantly audit your player characters to make sure they're staying on the baselines... their gear will shift in value. I much prefer to let this happen organically. In fact, the point where a new character is being brought in to a game is a great point to have all the players submit their wealth totals to you, at which point I generally would say give the new character wealth equal to the average possessed by the group. And at that point, keep in your mind who had below average wealth and skew treasures found so that those characters catch up.

If your group hawks the dead player's gear, and the player of the dead character is in on that decision, my suggestion is to let the players sell the gear at FULL PRICE and then give the new character ALL OF THAT GOLD to buy his new character's gear. Or perhaps 80% or so... since being able to buy all the gear you want generally results in a better situation than building up your gear over time.

Anyway... it's up to you. Every GM has a different style.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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mark kay wrote:

James,

On the whole taking away from the accomplishments of the Iomedean Crusaders notion, what in the main do you feel they've accomplished to date?

I ask largely because the Worldwound book itself presents such few victories as they've managed to be against initial disorganized mobs of demons, and that even those were a "just as planned" sort of thing by Deskari, that a large part of them getting by seems to come down to the demons specifically not trying as hard as they could be, again as part of more "just as planned" sort of things by Deskari, and that they amount to a degraded, easily corrupted force, whose strugglings in the main provide the higher up demons with amusement. The book notes the entire demonic plan to basically be to wait and let the Crusaders ruin themselves, for all that they could be doing more.

In that sense, particularly when the Inner Sea World Guide itself presented the situation as a more valiant defense that happened to have issues, it doesn't really feel like the Crusades have accomplished much of anything. The various Crusades to date are given detail as to why they've been failures or just the Crusaders having been gulled, whereas the ISWG at least presents some of the later ones in a context of having some relative triumphs as far as either purging corruption, tamping down on extremism, or what have you.

The whole point of the Worldwound situation is that it's supposed to be grim and dark and depressing, so that when and if heroes arise to solve the situation, those heroes feel suitably mythic.

The MAIN thing the crusaders have accomplished is the containment of the demons, though. This, coupled with their creation of the wardstones, is huge. And they DID manage to defeat the first wave of demons to erupt from the Worldwound. The 1st crusade was a GREAT success... it was just, unfortunately, not the main invasion as the crusaders had originally assumed.

If the crusaders weren't there at the start, our campaign setting would have been MUCH darker. A post-apocalyptic setting where humanity was scrabbling for survival in a world ruled by demons. The future of the Terminator movies, basically, except with demons instead of robots. Which to me actually sounds like a cool setting idea... but it's not what we wanted to do with Golarion.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Gancanagh wrote:

Why did you make the Marilith Demon (In demons Revised) even cooler than she already was? ;-)

How would Dybbuks and Invidiaks/Shadow Demons react to eachother on Golarion? Would the Shadow Demon worship a creature like the Dybbuk because of its extreme power of possession? Or would its envy go berserk and mindlessly attack the much more powerful dybbuk?

Yay! Thanks!

The loumarra version of the dybbuk, as presented in 3rd edition D&D, is not a demon. It can exist side-by-side with demons without causing much trouble. Shadow demons exist, after all, in 3rd edition already. They would generally avoid each other and would likely fight if they encountered each other, but they certainly wouldn't worship one or the other.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Neko Witch wrote:

What is your opinion of how the U.S. market will handle Metal Gear Solid V?

Theres 2 versions of trailers from E3 this year uncut version is almost 10 mins long.

No opinion. That's not a video game franchise I've ever played or payed much attention to.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

John Benbo wrote:

James, thanks for the Paizo on button on Friday. I wasn't sure it was you until I attended the Paizo 2013 Beyond panel (your name tag was flipped around at the time so I didn't want to embarrass myself if it wasn't you).

Question- How happy was Shimmy to see you when you got home?

Ha! I try to make sure my nametag doesn't stay flipped... but yeah. it happens.

Shimmy was SUPER attention starved! Poor thing!

Liberty's Edge

Would a ratfolk who rolled high on his height/weight chart bump up to medium? (4'3", 89lbs the size category table shows medium starting at 4' 60lbs)


James, I read a houserule that sounded great to me on paper and I wanted your FAR-more-experienced opinion on it before causing a trainwreck with it in my game...

Rather than using spell level to calculate spell save DCs, use 1/2 caster level, rounded down. (So, a level 10 wizard casts grease using 10 + 5 + Int, instead of 10 + 1 + Int.) Mechanically, this simplifies things by making it just one, single DC for all spells. Easy to remember. Thematically, a more powerful, experienced caster will cast spells more effectively. (edit: Consequently, it also nullifies Heighten Spell.)

Thoughts?


James Jacobs wrote:
mark kay wrote:

James,

On the whole taking away from the accomplishments of the Iomedean Crusaders notion, what in the main do you feel they've accomplished to date?

I ask largely because the Worldwound book itself presents such few victories as they've managed to be against initial disorganized mobs of demons, and that even those were a "just as planned" sort of thing by Deskari, that a large part of them getting by seems to come down to the demons specifically not trying as hard as they could be, again as part of more "just as planned" sort of things by Deskari, and that they amount to a degraded, easily corrupted force, whose strugglings in the main provide the higher up demons with amusement. The book notes the entire demonic plan to basically be to wait and let the Crusaders ruin themselves, for all that they could be doing more.

In that sense, particularly when the Inner Sea World Guide itself presented the situation as a more valiant defense that happened to have issues, it doesn't really feel like the Crusades have accomplished much of anything. The various Crusades to date are given detail as to why they've been failures or just the Crusaders having been gulled, whereas the ISWG at least presents some of the later ones in a context of having some relative triumphs as far as either purging corruption, tamping down on extremism, or what have you.

The whole point of the Worldwound situation is that it's supposed to be grim and dark and depressing, so that when and if heroes arise to solve the situation, those heroes feel suitably mythic.

The MAIN thing the crusaders have accomplished is the containment of the demons, though. This, coupled with their creation of the wardstones, is huge. And they DID manage to defeat the first wave of demons to erupt from the Worldwound. The 1st crusade was a GREAT success... it was just, unfortunately, not the main invasion as the crusaders had originally assumed.

If the crusaders weren't there at the start, our campaign setting would have...

The first crusade though was specifically noted as just Deskari wanting to give the impression of demons as a defeatable, disorganized mob that he intended to lose, and largely otherwise more or less provide cover for various demons bopping off to other corners of Golarion to fester and monger influence there.

The book even goes so far as to note that nothing is really stopping the demons from marching out to the north or west if they really, really wanted to, and that Deskari is keeping a focus on the Crusade because he wants them to ruin themselves by falling completely into corruption, with accompanying allowing wine to come to flavour over time metaphor.

It seems difficult to read into that the Crusades having ever really accomplished anything in their time.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Coridan wrote:
Would a ratfolk who rolled high on his height/weight chart bump up to medium? (4'3", 89lbs the size category table shows medium starting at 4' 60lbs)

Nope. Not without GM fiat.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Wildebob wrote:

James, I read a houserule that sounded great to me on paper and I wanted your FAR-more-experienced opinion on it before causing a trainwreck with it in my game...

Rather than using spell level to calculate spell save DCs, use 1/2 caster level, rounded down. (So, a level 10 wizard casts grease using 10 + 5 + Int, instead of 10 + 1 + Int.) Mechanically, this simplifies things by making it just one, single DC for all spells. Easy to remember. Thematically, a more powerful, experienced caster will cast spells more effectively. (edit: Consequently, it also nullifies Heighten Spell.)

Thoughts?

That makes the wizard's level the big thing that determines spell power, and makes the spell level itself essentially meaningless. It also means that metamagic spells get more powerful than intended.

While it does simplify the calculations... the fact that you can do the calculations before hand (we include all those DCs, for example, in our stat blocks already) makes that a non issue for game play.

A more powerful, experienced caster DOES cast spells more effectively, because concentration checks and caster level checks are modified by this. Also, there's plenty of existing ways a low level spell already gets more powerful—range increases, damage increases, etc.

Furthermore, the fact that lower level spells are easier to resist helps to prevent option paralysis from setting in at higher level play, where the sheer number of spells available can slow down turns.

So, the only advantage you really gain (ease of calculation) is a non-issue if you take a bit of time before a game to prep (or goes away entirely if you use a published stat block), but what you lose is pretty significant in my opinion.

I wouldn't use this house rule in my game.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

mark kay wrote:

The first crusade though was specifically noted as just Deskari wanting to give the impression of demons as a defeatable, disorganized mob that he intended to lose, and largely otherwise more or less provide cover for various demons bopping off to other corners of Golarion to fester and monger influence there.

The book even goes so far as to note that nothing is really stopping the demons from marching out to the north or west if they really, really wanted to, and that Deskari is keeping a focus on the Crusade because he wants them to ruin themselves by falling completely into corruption, with accompanying allowing wine to come to flavour over time metaphor.

It seems difficult to read into that the Crusades having ever really accomplished anything in their time.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish here.

If you're trying to find a way to justify the return of Nexivar to the setting... this isn't going to help. The "it marginalized the accomplishments of the crusaders" is a relatively minor part of the reason why I ret-conned Nexivar out of the setting.

The major reason is that from a storytelling viewpoint it felt WAY too convenient and lazy. Nexivar isn't coming back in our print products, in any event, and I'm hoping it'll not come back any more in PFS, so that's not an issue.

In any event, the crusade HAS accomplished a lot in their time. Trust me, if they hadn't spent the last better part of a century doing what they did, the Worldwound would be MUCH larger. The reason the Worldwound is the shape it is today is because of the Crusaders (and to a lesser extent the barbarians of the Mammoth Lords to the west and the siabraes to the north)


Justin Franklin wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Justin Franklin wrote:

Yep, it was a last day of Con joke idea, since Paizo will never tell us how Aroden died. Just trying to have a little fun, live and learn.

James, are you looking forward to having a Hard Root Beer, (Daigle put them on the truck.)?

Perhaps. Although I'm probably going back on my diet tomorrow, and since said diet prohibits me from ingesting sugar OR alcohol, chances are good that hard root bear will be guzzled down by others.
Is hard root beer something i could buy at the store or something you mix yourself at home, if so what goes in it?
This one is from Sprecher and is brewed in Milwaukee. Not sure how far distribution on it has spread yet.

i live in the midwest so shouldn't be too hard to find, i'm not much of a drinker but this sounds interesting enough to try:)


James Jacobs wrote:
mark kay wrote:

The first crusade though was specifically noted as just Deskari wanting to give the impression of demons as a defeatable, disorganized mob that he intended to lose, and largely otherwise more or less provide cover for various demons bopping off to other corners of Golarion to fester and monger influence there.

The book even goes so far as to note that nothing is really stopping the demons from marching out to the north or west if they really, really wanted to, and that Deskari is keeping a focus on the Crusade because he wants them to ruin themselves by falling completely into corruption, with accompanying allowing wine to come to flavour over time metaphor.

It seems difficult to read into that the Crusades having ever really accomplished anything in their time.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish here.

If you're trying to find a way to justify the return of Nexivar to the setting... this isn't going to help. The "it marginalized the accomplishments of the crusaders" is a relatively minor part of the reason why I ret-conned Nexivar out of the setting.

The major reason is that from a storytelling viewpoint it felt WAY too convenient and lazy. Nexivar isn't coming back in our print products, in any event, and I'm hoping it'll not come back any more in PFS, so that's not an issue.

In any event, the crusade HAS accomplished a lot in their time. Trust me, if they hadn't spent the last better part of a century doing what they did, the Worldwound would be MUCH larger. The reason the Worldwound is the shape it is today is because of the Crusaders (and to a lesser extent the barbarians of the Mammoth Lords to the west and the siabraes to the north)

I don't have some hidden intent here as regards retconned out special materials, is what I guess I would say to that. My question wasn't particularly inspired by nexavar, I don't honestly care about that stuff one way or another, it was more the notion of the Crusade as a force that managed anything being mentioned. It seemed to fly in the face of how the Crusades were presented in the Worldwound.

To get to the heart of it, it was something of a massive bummer, that book, coming in the midst of stuff like Champions of Purity, Chronicles of the Righteous, so forth. And I don't mean in the sense of painting a depressing picture of a situation, I mean in the sense of organized good having come off as, well, easily manipulated and somewhat shmucky, and getting by on the largesse of evil not quite wanting to step all over them yet as part of master plans their enemies don't even have an inkling of.

It's nice to hear these things in an ask James Jacobs thread and all, but that's just not how their presentation in Worldwound comes off, which is mostly a talk on the Crusades as easily suborned and corrupted failures, that as an overall effort largely played into what Deskari wants anyway, even from the get go.


speaking of the mendevean crusades,

would it be out of place for in various cities in Cheliax, as well as other nations but I am mainly looking at cheliax, to have members of the church of Iomedea urging others to fight the righteous fight against demons of the worldwound and join in a crusade?

-vyshan


will you post a video of you doing a happy dance of some sort when you get to 1,000 pages:)


James Jacobs wrote:
1) You can hear their prayers if you listen, but even when you don't, you have a nice warm tingly feeling or something like that that lets you know you're being worshiped. I suspect it'd be like a pleasant buzz of endorphins or adrenaline or like falling in love or falling in hate or the like. A strong emotional and chemical buzz.

So demigods are basically on a constant high/buzz? Sounds amusing (probably not what you intended, but amusing all the same).

Is this something that all gods/demigods would feel, even when they aren't actually granting spells or if they avoid worship wherever possible? I remember asking you some questions about demigods who choose not to grant spells or the like and "forge their own path" instead ("forgotten gods") - if they're venerated by mortals (even if they ask not to be or don't tell people and said people find out and decide to worship them on their own), will they feel this buzz no matter what?

When listening to prayers, is there a chance that you could be overwhelmed by suddenly hearing thousands of people asking for things? I'm reminded of that scene in a Jim Carrey movie, where the main character had all God's powers and could hear the prayers of everybody on Earth at the same time - it was simply overwhelming.

Grand Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:

1) You can hear their prayers if you listen, but even when you don't, you have a nice warm tingly feeling or something like that that lets you know you're being worshiped. I suspect it'd be like a pleasant buzz of endorphins or adrenaline or like falling in love or falling in hate or the like. A strong emotional and chemical buzz.

Did you ever see the Jim Carrey movie "Bruce Almighty"? I was thinking about how he handled prayer in that segment.


Two questions, one of which is more of a personal opinion/desire question, the other of which is a general GM question.

1) Are you guys ever planning on statting up some of the old Dragon Mag dragons? I.E. Tome, Mercurial, Adamantine, etc for Pathfinder proper?

2) With the inclusion of Mythic into the general system, several of my players are clamoring for tiers. While I do have a general story for down the road that may lead them on that path, it's getting slight aggravating for me when about twice a session my players are asking where they can find a "suitably MYTHIC" adventure, essentially saying without saying that they want their ascension to happen post-haste. How do you feel is the best way to manage this, as currently I feel like my only two options are to either ignore them or start murdering their characters until they get the point.


James, if a party were to be on another plane, and a spellcaster wished to use Planar Binding to summon a dragon, should this be allowed?


Dear James Jacobs,

In Golarion, does becoming a mythic character always require some sort of external agency or event as portrayed in the material? Or could a character become mythic in the setting by dint of their own volition and efforts?

Seems somewhat personally unsatisfying to at all times require some sort of Deus ex Machina in order to attain mythic ascension.

After all, some characters (e.g. sorcerers, oracles, clerics) seem to fit well with an externalist trope, while others (e.g. wizards, monks) might go well with a sort of self-deterministic origin story, in effect studying or meditating their way to superhuman stature.

Thanks for your take.


Good evening James,

I am about to start playing skulls and shackles in my real-life group, and I was considering an emberkin aasimar dawnflower dervish as a character.

That said, I am a little worried about having a good alignment in this adventure path. Everyone else in the group so far is CN and I've heard that "this is not the best campaign to be good".

As I know you have a similar character, and has experience in the same campaign, do you have any advice regarding making a CG (or worst case scenario true neutral) whorshiper of Sarenrae for Skulls and Shackles?

Thank you!

Silver Crusade

I don't have Demons Revisted so my apologies if this is answered there,

Aside from seduction and corruption what hobbies or other jobs do Succubi do?

Also since its kinda you=Demons and Wes=Devils, who do I go to for Daemons?

Liberty's Edge

How do you view Psionics flavor wise on golarion? As presented as it was in 3.5? To clarify, I prefer psionics to be more subdued and limit it to telekinetic and telepathic powers. The energy ray amd astral construct powers and the like are too flashy and belong with arcane imho.


Ok so I had this idea to help keep my players head in the game and want to know what you thought.
As a DM I would not roll a single D20 for monsters (attacks, skills, abilities, initiative, or CMB,) for anything that a monster or NPC would roll for I would make it a static DC by adding 10. My players however would no longer have any static DCs (AC, DC, CMD, or spell resistance) all the +10 bonuses would be gone and they will have to roll a D20.

So it would look like this
Bob shoots his crossbow at the skeleton, gets 22 and hits, bob rolls damage.
The skeleton attacks with its broken scimitar +0 to hit, but he charged so we add a+2 making a DC of 12 to dodge.
Bob rolls a 3 on the die he adds a +7for his AC bonus which is still less the 12 so the skeleton deals damage

I really think this could keep the players in the game speed it up on my part won’t have to take as many notes.


Rysky wrote:

I don't have Demons Revisted so my apologies if this is answered there,

Aside from seduction and corruption what hobbies or other jobs do Succubi do?

Also since its kinda you=Demons and Wes=Devils, who do I go to for Daemons?

Todd Stewart did BotD3, so i would ask him:)

Liberty's Edge

Would you like one of the ten ACG iconics to be an Arcadian? Hiw about Catfolk or other noncore race!


1) In your opinion, would writing new, original music require a Craft check, or would an appropriate Perform check suffice? I could see the former, though the latter might be preferred for simplicity's sake...just curious as to which way you would view it...at least, I imagine it wouldn't be a Profession check...

2) Will Brigh (or her followers) be involved in Iron Gods in any way, or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

3) Are outsiders religious in the same way that mortals tend to be, or is their perspective on it different because they're either past or were never part of mortality, and thus some things humans and other races are forced to take on faith or figure out are no longer mysteries to them, and might even directly serve the deity they choose to follow (if any)?


Hello James,

One question regarding Demons Revisited.

A summoned Succubus's profane gift ends when the summoning spell times out.
Question is, what else happens?
Does the stat bonus just disappear?
Or does ending the bonus in such a way carry the same effect as it would if the Succubus withdrew it; i.e, does the Cha drain take place?

Silver Crusade

captain yesterday wrote:
Rysky wrote:

I don't have Demons Revisted so my apologies if this is answered there,

Aside from seduction and corruption what hobbies or other jobs do Succubi do?

Also since its kinda you=Demons and Wes=Devils, who do I go to for Daemons?

Todd Stewart did BotD3, so i would ask him:)

Thankies

Radiant Oath

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

In your mind, is it possible for some catfolk to have manes or stripes like big cats? Or are the cats they're related to strictly house cats?


What do you think of this character concept, a squire/wizard's apprentice for Grand Prince Stavian III?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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mark kay wrote:

I don't have some hidden intent here as regards retconned out special materials, is what I guess I would say to that. My question wasn't particularly inspired by nexavar, I don't honestly care about that stuff one way or another, it was more the notion of the Crusade as a force that managed anything being mentioned. It seemed to fly in the face of how the Crusades were presented in the Worldwound.

To get to the heart of it, it was something of a massive bummer, that book, coming in the midst of stuff like Champions of Purity, Chronicles of the Righteous, so forth. And I don't mean in the sense of painting a depressing picture of a situation, I mean in the sense of organized good having come off as, well, easily manipulated and somewhat shmucky, and getting by on the largesse of evil not quite wanting to step all over them yet as part of master plans their enemies don't even have an inkling of.

It's nice to hear these things in an ask James Jacobs thread and all, but that's just not how their presentation in Worldwound comes off, which is mostly a talk on the Crusades as easily suborned and corrupted failures, that as an overall effort largely played into what Deskari wants anyway, even from the get go.

Well, the Worldwound is not intended to be a happy place. It's a place where hope is being murdered slowly but surely, where the demons are winning, where madness and cruelty rules. My intent with that book was to build a region that was so devastated and horrible that it would make sense that it takes a group of mythic heroes to do anything about it. It was also intended to combat the common perception that "chaotic = stupid," because nothing is further from the truth.

Imagine the entire Inner Sea World Guide reading like "The Worldwound." That's what the Inner Sea World Guide would be like if the crusaders hadn't been able to do what they did over the past 100 years. The fact that Deskari's plans are so devious and horrible and that they're actually going exactly to plan is the reason the crusaders need mythic heroes (aka the PCs) to help, but the reason Deskari hasn't just done to the Inner Sea Region what he did to the Worldwound is because of the sacrifice of the crusaders and barbarians and others who have stood against the demons.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

vyshan wrote:

speaking of the mendevean crusades,

would it be out of place for in various cities in Cheliax, as well as other nations but I am mainly looking at cheliax, to have members of the church of Iomedea urging others to fight the righteous fight against demons of the worldwound and join in a crusade?

-vyshan

Cheliax is kind of short-sighted regarding the Worldwound. The basic thought there is that the Worldwound is doing them a favor by distracting Iomedae's faithful, allowing the House of Thrune to do what it's done to Cheliax over the past 80 years or so. The church of Iomedae certainly is looking to recruit new crusaders all the time, but Cheliax is not very welcoming to them and as such they're not really spending much of their efforts there.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

captain yesterday wrote:
will you post a video of you doing a happy dance of some sort when you get to 1,000 pages:)

Nope! I'll maybe post a "THUMBS UP!" message though.

MAYBE.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Alleran wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
1) You can hear their prayers if you listen, but even when you don't, you have a nice warm tingly feeling or something like that that lets you know you're being worshiped. I suspect it'd be like a pleasant buzz of endorphins or adrenaline or like falling in love or falling in hate or the like. A strong emotional and chemical buzz.

So demigods are basically on a constant high/buzz? Sounds amusing (probably not what you intended, but amusing all the same).

Is this something that all gods/demigods would feel, even when they aren't actually granting spells or if they avoid worship wherever possible? I remember asking you some questions about demigods who choose not to grant spells or the like and "forge their own path" instead ("forgotten gods") - if they're venerated by mortals (even if they ask not to be or don't tell people and said people find out and decide to worship them on their own), will they feel this buzz no matter what?

When listening to prayers, is there a chance that you could be overwhelmed by suddenly hearing thousands of people asking for things? I'm reminded of that scene in a Jim Carrey movie, where the main character had all God's powers and could hear the prayers of everybody on Earth at the same time - it was simply overwhelming.

Maybe. The "buzz" analogy is mostly just that, an analogy. I assume that some divinities don't care for the feeling, and that's certainly why there are some forgotten gods and the like.

Part of being mythic and powerful and godlike and being able to grant followers spells is the ability to NOT get overwhelmed. What I'm saying is that mythic creatures and gods capable of granting spells are in an entire tier of capability above Jim Carrey. Probably multiple tiers.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

3 people marked this as a favorite.
LazarX wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

1) You can hear their prayers if you listen, but even when you don't, you have a nice warm tingly feeling or something like that that lets you know you're being worshiped. I suspect it'd be like a pleasant buzz of endorphins or adrenaline or like falling in love or falling in hate or the like. A strong emotional and chemical buzz.

Did you ever see the Jim Carrey movie "Bruce Almighty"? I was thinking about how he handled prayer in that segment.

Nope. Not a big fan of Jim Carrey.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

FlySkyHigh wrote:

Two questions, one of which is more of a personal opinion/desire question, the other of which is a general GM question.

1) Are you guys ever planning on statting up some of the old Dragon Mag dragons? I.E. Tome, Mercurial, Adamantine, etc for Pathfinder proper?

2) With the inclusion of Mythic into the general system, several of my players are clamoring for tiers. While I do have a general story for down the road that may lead them on that path, it's getting slight aggravating for me when about twice a session my players are asking where they can find a "suitably MYTHIC" adventure, essentially saying without saying that they want their ascension to happen post-haste. How do you feel is the best way to manage this, as currently I feel like my only two options are to either ignore them or start murdering their characters until they get the point.

1) Nope; those dragons are owned by Wizards of the Coast. We COULD stat up a new type of dragon for those names, but they'd have to be 100% different in power and abilities. I'd rather just make up new dragons for Pathfinder, since the end result is the same but by making up new ones for us, we avoid the stigma of folks wishing we did it different and avoid the danger (however small) of a lawsuit.

2) If you start murdering their characters, you'll solve the problem by driving off your players. Which will give you more time to read game products... but you'll need to find new players if you want to PLAY the game. AKA: Don't do that.

Talk to your players. Let them know your concerns, and tell them that your current plans for the campaign do not include mythic. If your players don't respect you enough to understand, and/or your players still want to become mythic, then tell them "Okay... but I need some time to prepare for it." Take a month or whatever off gaming after wrapping up the current plot, study the mythic book, and prepare for it until you're ready to go. Simply jumping head-first into mythic before you and your players are ready is a good way to mess up and ruin a campaign.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
James, if a party were to be on another plane, and a spellcaster wished to use Planar Binding to summon a dragon, should this be allowed?

Planar binding only works on outsiders... so no.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Friendlyfish wrote:

Dear James Jacobs,

In Golarion, does becoming a mythic character always require some sort of external agency or event as portrayed in the material? Or could a character become mythic in the setting by dint of their own volition and efforts?

Seems somewhat personally unsatisfying to at all times require some sort of Deus ex Machina in order to attain mythic ascension.

After all, some characters (e.g. sorcerers, oracles, clerics) seem to fit well with an externalist trope, while others (e.g. wizards, monks) might go well with a sort of self-deterministic origin story, in effect studying or meditating their way to superhuman stature.

Thanks for your take.

We go into the nature of mythic power on Golarion more next month in the books "Mythic Realms" and "Mythic Origins." The short answer is that you can become mythic in a wide number of ways; all of those mentioned in Mythic Adventures could work on Golarion.

For Wrath of the Righteous, I wanted there to be a single shared trigger that starts the PCs on their way, and since the whole adventure is building up to that event, and since the foundations of that event are laid in previous events that happened years ago, it's hardly a deus ex machina in my opinion.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Ral' Yareth wrote:

Good evening James,

I am about to start playing skulls and shackles in my real-life group, and I was considering an emberkin aasimar dawnflower dervish as a character.

That said, I am a little worried about having a good alignment in this adventure path. Everyone else in the group so far is CN and I've heard that "this is not the best campaign to be good".

As I know you have a similar character, and has experience in the same campaign, do you have any advice regarding making a CG (or worst case scenario true neutral) whorshiper of Sarenrae for Skulls and Shackles?

Thank you!

I would go with chaotic good. Play your character somewhat like Robin Hood or a similar lovable rascal or the like, and you should be fine.

My character in the Skull & Shackles game is a worshiper of Besmara; I believe she's either chaotic good or chaotic neutral, but she IS generally nicer and more kind-hearted than the other players. That does cause a few conflicts now and then, but they're pretty fun roleplaying opportunities.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Rysky wrote:

I don't have Demons Revisted so my apologies if this is answered there,

Aside from seduction and corruption what hobbies or other jobs do Succubi do?

Also since its kinda you=Demons and Wes=Devils, who do I go to for Daemons?

There's a LOT of hobbies that succubi enjoy... 99% of them sexual in nature. Demons Revisited does go into more detail there, but yeah... they enjoy building harems or legions of slaves or worshipers or cults or guilds that they manipulate from behind the scenes. Trickery and con artistry are popular diversions. Ruining reputations is a big hobby. And of course, getting mortals to submit to self-destructive lusts so that when they die, their souls go to the Abyss and become larvae.

For information on daemons, you can ask either me or Wes. One of us should be able to answer.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Coridan wrote:
How do you view Psionics flavor wise on golarion? As presented as it was in 3.5? To clarify, I prefer psionics to be more subdued and limit it to telekinetic and telepathic powers. The energy ray amd astral construct powers and the like are too flashy and belong with arcane imho.

This is a complicated question. In short, I see psychic magic as a third type of magic that exists alongside the current two types—divine magic and arcane magic. We don't have plans yet to do much with psychic magic, but the types of things that I would draw inspiration from would mostly be things like horror stories and science fiction stores. A LOT of Stephen King's novels and stories are about psychic magic, and so you'd see things like you see in Carrie, Firestarter, The Shining, The Dark Tower books, Hearts in Atlantis, Insomnia, The Tommyknockers, Duma Key, and more showing up. Further, real-world ESP type stuff is another inspiration, be it stuff like remote viewing or fakirs and swamis or spiritualists or occultists or whatever.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Kyras Ausks wrote:

Ok so I had this idea to help keep my players head in the game and want to know what you thought.

As a DM I would not roll a single D20 for monsters (attacks, skills, abilities, initiative, or CMB,) for anything that a monster or NPC would roll for I would make it a static DC by adding 10. My players however would no longer have any static DCs (AC, DC, CMD, or spell resistance) all the +10 bonuses would be gone and they will have to roll a D20.

So it would look like this
Bob shoots his crossbow at the skeleton, gets 22 and hits, bob rolls damage.
The skeleton attacks with its broken scimitar +0 to hit, but he charged so we add a+2 making a DC of 12 to dodge.
Bob rolls a 3 on the die he adds a +7for his AC bonus which is still less the 12 so the skeleton deals damage

I really think this could keep the players in the game speed it up on my part won’t have to take as many notes.

I've seen variants to the game like that before. I believe that's how things go in Monte's Numenera—if I heard right, the GM never rolls dice in that game. It certainly keeps the players of the game involved, but I'd worry that it makes the job of GM a little dull. Rolling dice is fun!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

captain yesterday wrote:
Rysky wrote:

I don't have Demons Revisted so my apologies if this is answered there,

Aside from seduction and corruption what hobbies or other jobs do Succubi do?

Also since its kinda you=Demons and Wes=Devils, who do I go to for Daemons?

Todd Stewart did BotD3, so i would ask him:)

That's certainly an option... but keep in mind that he's not an employee and isn't privy to all the in-house conversations and plans that we have for all things Pathfinder.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Coridan wrote:
Would you like one of the ten ACG iconics to be an Arcadian? Hiw about Catfolk or other noncore race!

Nope.

Advanced Class Guide, like ALL of our rulebooks, is world-neutral. It's absolutely NOT the right place to start building stuff about Arcadia. Furthermore, the races are iconic characters, and that means that their races need to be iconic races... which pretty much means they're all going to be core races. No catfolk, in other words.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Luthorne wrote:

1) In your opinion, would writing new, original music require a Craft check, or would an appropriate Perform check suffice? I could see the former, though the latter might be preferred for simplicity's sake...just curious as to which way you would view it...at least, I imagine it wouldn't be a Profession check...

2) Will Brigh (or her followers) be involved in Iron Gods in any way, or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

3) Are outsiders religious in the same way that mortals tend to be, or is their perspective on it different because they're either past or were never part of mortality, and thus some things humans and other races are forced to take on faith or figure out are no longer mysteries to them, and might even directly serve the deity they choose to follow (if any)?

1) Craft (music) would be the skill I use to create new music. That's a VERY different skillset than performing music, although the best musicians would certainly have lots of ranks in both skills.

2) Yes. There'll be a Brigh article in Iron Gods. What role her religion plays in the AP is unrevealed at this time.

3) Some of them are, yes. Some of them aren't. And some of them interact with gods in a way more akin to friendships or fellow workers or the like.

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