Creative Director
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Have a hell Vengence question for you if you dont mind
In the Ap it states Iolmodae dosent really seem to be offering much support to the reclemation is there a specific reason for that?
First, it's Iomedae (there's no "L" in her name).
Second, the reason she and her church aren't lending much support is because the bulk of the faith views the Glorious Reclamation as jumping the gun—with so much else of greater danger going on (particularly the Worldwound), and the fact that starting an all-out civil war in Cheliax will in the end cause a lot more pain and death and misery than the nation currently causes, the majority of the faith feels that the Glorious Reclamation is going to cause more harm than help.
And since we generally assume that the PCs "win" their adventure paths, since this AP is about evil PCs... then the Glorious Reclamation is doomed to failure and those who threw in with the group are going to meet lots of bad ends. AKA: The church was right.
Have a hell Vengence question for you if you dont mind
In the Ap it states Iolmodae dosent really seem to be offering much support to the reclemation is there a specific reason for that?
First, it's Iomedae (there's no "L" in her name).
Second, the reason she and her church aren't lending much support is because the bulk of the faith views the Glorious Reclamation as jumping the gun—with so much else of greater danger going on (particularly the Worldwound), and the fact that starting an all-out civil war in Cheliax will in the end cause a lot more pain and death and misery than the nation currently causes, the majority of the faith feels that the Glorious Reclamation is going to cause more harm than help.
And since we generally assume that the PCs "win" their adventure paths, since this AP is about evil PCs... then the Glorious Reclamation is doomed to failure and those who threw in with the group are going to meet lots of bad ends. AKA: The church was right.
Mr. James Jacobs,
Would Cheliax be in a vulnerable position after defeating the Glorious Reclamation? After spending time resources, and man power on quelling them would they weaker against outside aggression?
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As a flip-side from the Hell's Rebels end of things...
Once the Glorious Reclamation is crushed and the internal situation is more secure, how likely is Cheliax to try and find away to snag Ravounel back?
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So in the Andoran setting book there is a man named Blooded Stag who is a human druid 15 with the fey creature template. How did he get the template? Is there a ritual similar to the ritual that can turn you into a demon but instead of demon it can turn you into a fey?
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Would Cheliax be in a vulnerable position after defeating the Glorious Reclamation? After spending time resources, and man power on quelling them would they weaker against outside aggression?
Certainly vulnerable enough to lose the Archduchy of Ravounel, which is what Hell's Rebels is all about. As for how the nation handles the repurcussions after the events of Hell's Vengeance... check out the continuing the campaign articles for BOTH of the Cheliax APs.
Short version: Yes, they're more vunlerable, but they're certainly not sitting ducks, and in fact the close call will make them stronger once they shed Ravounel and focus more on the heartland of the country.
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As a flip-side from the Hell's Rebels end of things...
Once the Glorious Reclamation is crushed and the internal situation is more secure, how likely is Cheliax to try and find away to snag Ravounel back?
That's also left up to the individual games... but pretty much as written the assumption is that Cheliax will NOT try to reclaim Ravounel, because they can't without risking their agreement with Hell and because they lack the resources after the events of Hell's Vengeance to risk it. In short, Ravounel becomes a new nation for you to develop as you see fit.
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Not unusual at all.Times like this, I really wish paizo forums allowed posts to display youtube videos...
If it makes you feel any better, I make a habit of NOT watching youtube links folks post here. :P
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Creative Director
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So in the Andoran setting book there is a man named Blooded Stag who is a human druid 15 with the fey creature template. How did he get the template? Is there a ritual similar to the ritual that can turn you into a demon but instead of demon it can turn you into a fey?
If we didn't detail how he got the template, then it's a mystery. There could be a ritual, or he could have gained it as a blessing/curse from a deity or demigod like one of the Eldest, or he could have been exposed to raw fey energy from the First World, and so on.
Think of all the ways superheroes gain their powers, then adjust those methods to account for sources that are fey or nature-themed and presto. A whole slough of possibilities!
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Just a quick re-flavoring question:
Would extreme obesity be a good reflavoring for the Lame curse for an oracle of Urgathoa? Considering that the oracle is TN (not a PC, but may battle for or against the party depending on the circumstances) and focuses on the more pleasant aspects of Urgathoa's faith (extreme self-indulgence and gluttony, if I remember correctly), I thought it was more fitting than the other curses, but I'm curious as to your opinion.
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Hello James
First a couple of general questions:
1) when you run APs do you hand out XP or level the party up according to the advancement track?
2) If/when you use XP and your players end up doing things outside the scope of the AP, how do you handle them out leveling the AP content?
I ask because in my RotR game I did away with XP because they started to get too far ahead of the XP track. However now in Fortress of the Stone Giants I'm faced with a bit of a problem:
They have infiltrated the interior of Jorgenfist which should put them at level 12, but due to meeting Conna and being stealthy they are about to bypass the caverns and head straight to the library level, which should put them at level 13 without any more encounters. This kinda rubs me the wrong way because they gain a level for little effort, but I don't know whether to just let them do it or withholding level 13 until they delt with the library and thus may be too low level for that content?
How would you handle it?
Cheers
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Have a hell Vengence question for you if you dont mind
In the Ap it states Iolmodae dosent really seem to be offering much support to the reclemation is there a specific reason for that?
First, it's Iomedae (there's no "L" in her name).
Second, the reason she and her church aren't lending much support is because the bulk of the faith views the Glorious Reclamation as jumping the gun—with so much else of greater danger going on (particularly the Worldwound), and the fact that starting an all-out civil war in Cheliax will in the end cause a lot more pain and death and misery than the nation currently causes, the majority of the faith feels that the Glorious Reclamation is going to cause more harm than help.
And since we generally assume that the PCs "win" their adventure paths, since this AP is about evil PCs... then the Glorious Reclamation is doomed to failure and those who threw in with the group are going to meet lots of bad ends. AKA: The church was right.
...
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Another FotSG question spoilered for my players at least:
Can a soul only transmit its greed to Karzoug once if it is brought back to life?
I'm asking because I wonder if, with the Rune Cauldron Mokmurian could kill a giant with the Sihedron mark, stuff it in the cauldron and out comes a Runeslave through true resurrection and then kill it again and repeat the process again and again?
Reading through the Runeslave template there doesn't seem to be a built in way to control it?
Why would the dissenters Mokmurian puts through it be more inclined to serve afterwards?
Cheers
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What is Gorthoklek? Is he a standard pit fiend, or is he intended as something nastier (like a Duke of Hell)?
Or would it be fair to say that his status has been deliberately left wide open?
(He's conspicuously absent from both Hell's Rebels and Hell's Vengeance, which surprised me.)
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Hi James,
Since Golarion is in the Age of Lost Omens, how would various divination spells work when Aroden was still around? I guess what I'm curious about is would the divination spells we have today still be written the same way they are if the setting timeline were rolled back to that period? For instance, would augury have always succeeded? Or, were divinations in general more robust allowing for lengthy prophecies rather than simple responses such as "weal" or "woe"?
Thank ya!
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Creative Director
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Just a quick re-flavoring question:
Would extreme obesity be a good reflavoring for the Lame curse for an oracle of Urgathoa? Considering that the oracle is TN (not a PC, but may battle for or against the party depending on the circumstances) and focuses on the more pleasant aspects of Urgathoa's faith (extreme self-indulgence and gluttony, if I remember correctly), I thought it was more fitting than the other curses, but I'm curious as to your opinion.
Sounds fine to me!
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Creative Director
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Hello James
First a couple of general questions:
1) when you run APs do you hand out XP or level the party up according to the advancement track?
2) If/when you use XP and your players end up doing things outside the scope of the AP, how do you handle them out leveling the AP content?
I ask because in my RotR game I did away with XP because they started to get too far ahead of the XP track. However now in Fortress of the Stone Giants I'm faced with a bit of a problem:
They have infiltrated the interior of Jorgenfist which should put them at level 12, but due to meeting Conna and being stealthy they are about to bypass the caverns and head straight to the library level, which should put them at level 13 without any more encounters. This kinda rubs me the wrong way because they gain a level for little effort, but I don't know whether to just let them do it or withholding level 13 until they delt with the library and thus may be too low level for that content?
How would you handle it?
Cheers
1)
2)
In your situation, if I were handing out XP and the PCs bypassed several encounters like that and did so successfully, I would treat that the same as if they had fought those fights and would award them XP as appropriate. It doesn't really matter HOW they "defeat" those encounters, really.
What I would do in your case would be to run the adventure normally, but would have Conna tell them that she fears the PCs are too weak to face Mokmurian and his guardians as they are, since if they just confront him head on, he'll use resources to draw additional help from the upper level. Pick out your favorite monsters from the caves level and have Conna tell the PCs that if they sneak through the upper caves and take out, say, the Lamashtan lamias and the dragons and a few of the key giants that they'll destabilize the level's power and then they should be able to infiltrate the lower one without fear of an entire level of giants and monsters chasing them down the stairs.
That said, the PCs did manage to find a way past all those levels. The fact that they did so without fighting doesn't lessen the accomplishment, and it's not giving them a level for "little effort" at all. It's giving them a level for efficiently progressing the story.
When you give out individual XP awards and track level by XP increases, the game focuses more on the micro level of periodic advancement. It's the encounters that advance you, in other words. So if you miss encounters and stumble into a bigger area, you'll be able to retreat and go back and take on the lesser content to "power up."
When you give out progression XP and let the PCs level up when they reach certain parts of the story, you absolutely DO run the "risk" of having a level happen quickly should the PCs manage to find a way that believably allows them to "fast forward" through content to the next story milestone. Since you've already established that the PCs gain XP for reaching milestones (as set out by the adventure), then they need to realize that if they rush ahead they may well end up being overpowered, since they'll be missing out on treasure and clues and other elements that would have helped them along the way, but at the same point, getting a quick level boost because of luck or skill or whatever that lets the group bypass content can be a huge confidence boost for a party, and that's not a bad thing either.
That all said... if the PCs were good enough at their job that they defeated an entire level via stealth and conversation, then guess what? They're tough enough to deal with that level. Because obviously, they just did.
My final thoughts: Level the PCs up and proceed as normal; it's not a reward for little effort. It's a reward for outstanding effort!
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Creative Director
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...Have a hell Vengence question for you if you dont mind
In the Ap it states Iolmodae dosent really seem to be offering much support to the reclemation is there a specific reason for that?
First, it's Iomedae (there's no "L" in her name).
Second, the reason she and her church aren't lending much support is because the bulk of the faith views the Glorious Reclamation as jumping the gun—with so much else of greater danger going on (particularly the Worldwound), and the fact that starting an all-out civil war in Cheliax will in the end cause a lot more pain and death and misery than the nation currently causes, the majority of the faith feels that the Glorious Reclamation is going to cause more harm than help.
And since we generally assume that the PCs "win" their adventure paths, since this AP is about evil PCs... then the Glorious Reclamation is doomed to failure and those who threw in with the group are going to meet lots of bad ends. AKA: The church was right.
Not sure what your ellipsis mean.
I feel it's pretty obvious...
If we wanted to present the Glorious Reclamation to win and to become a significant group of note in the setting, we would not have put them in an adventure where they were expected to lose because they're the antagonists.
We EXPECT the Glorious Reclamation to lose.
And the gods, being all-knowing and all that, know what we know. Iomedae knows that the Glorious Reclamation is probably going to lose, but she's not going to directly intervene and stop them. Because mortals have free will, after all. She can visit visions and omens and what not on her church, and those who receive them and interpret them normally (the bulk of her church's leadership) will thus have the information to act, again of their own free will, but those Glorious Reclamation punks are stubborn and foolhardy and won't listen to common sense. And they're gonna get themselves THRUNED for it.
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Creative Director
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Another FotSG question spoilered for my players at least:
Spoiler:Can a soul only transmit its greed to Karzoug once if it is brought back to life?
I'm asking because I wonder if, with the Rune Cauldron Mokmurian could kill a giant with the Sihedron mark, stuff it in the cauldron and out comes a Runeslave through true resurrection and then kill it again and repeat the process again and again?Reading through the Runeslave template there doesn't seem to be a built in way to control it?
Why would the dissenters Mokmurian puts through it be more inclined to serve afterwards?
Cheers
Once you die, your soul's greed is harvested by the runewell and the Sihedron. If you're brought back to life, you're still greedy (because you're still the same you), but the part of your soul that was ripe for harvest has already been harvested, so in order to be worth harvesting again, you'd have to spend another lifetime or whatever to build that resource up.
Runeslaves obey because their minds have been broken; that's represented by their penalties to Int, Wis, and Cha. The pain and torment they suffer makes them compliant.
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What is Gorthoklek? Is he a standard pit fiend, or is he intended as something nastier (like a Duke of Hell)?
Or would it be fair to say that his status has been deliberately left wide open?
(He's conspicuously absent from both Hell's Rebels and Hell's Vengeance, which surprised me.)
He's not in Hell's Rebels because the queen is not really able to use any of her personal resources to fight that battle; she's distracted.
He's not in Hell's Vengeance because he's held "in reserve" to protect the queen should the need arise, and if things play out as the AP is written and the PCs are successful, that need never rises.
That said, we should have said somewhere what he is... he IS in fact just a normal pit fiend, which at CR 20 is more than enough to do the job he's doing.
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Hi James,
Since Golarion is in the Age of Lost Omens, how would various divination spells work when Aroden was still around? I guess what I'm curious about is would the divination spells we have today still be written the same way they are if the setting timeline were rolled back to that period? For instance, would augury have always succeeded? Or, were divinations in general more robust allowing for lengthy prophecies rather than simple responses such as "weal" or "woe"?
Thank ya!
No difference. Divination spells work completely the same before Aroden's death as they did after it. With one exception; commune doesn't work post death if you try to talk to Aroden. :-P
The notion isn't that "Divination magic is broken" at all. The notion is that "Prophecy is broken." Those are two very different things.
You can still use divination magic to find information or predict the future, but things like "Only when the seventh son of the seventh house rises on a tide of blood during the Midnight Sun shall the lords of bones and cinders be thrown down!" are not accurate anymore... usually. When they ARE accurate, it's accidental or coincidental.
Prophecies are among the most cliched and overused fantasy tropes, and by breaking them, and thus banning their use as story elements in Paizo products, we not only aimed at making Golarion feel different than all those other prophecy-filled fantasy settings, but also set up rule #1 for ourselves to avoid this cliche.
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Thanks for the other answer!
He's not in Hell's Rebels because the queen is not really able to use any of her personal resources to fight that battle; she's distracted.
He's not in Hell's Vengeance because he's held "in reserve" to protect the queen should the need arise, and if things play out as the AP is written and the PCs are successful, that need never rises.
That said, we should have said somewhere what he is... he IS in fact just a normal pit fiend, which at CR 20 is more than enough to do the job he's doing.
Does this frustrate him or does he happily serve?
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Thanks for the other answer!
Does this frustrate him or does he happily serve?He's not in Hell's Rebels because the queen is not really able to use any of her personal resources to fight that battle; she's distracted.
He's not in Hell's Vengeance because he's held "in reserve" to protect the queen should the need arise, and if things play out as the AP is written and the PCs are successful, that need never rises.
That said, we should have said somewhere what he is... he IS in fact just a normal pit fiend, which at CR 20 is more than enough to do the job he's doing.
Unrevealed.
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Unrevealed.
Eeeexcellent. Speaking of, do you ever feel like a Mr. Burns figure, weaving your plots and all?
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Are you enjoying your break from GenCon this year?
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Are you enjoying your break from GenCon this year?Absolutely! Hope I get to do it again next year!
Well if they make you go, I am going back next year. So just have to come up with something low key for you to do. :D
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Do you feel like you've written your magnum opus yet? If yes, what was it? If not, what might you think it'd be?
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...Have a hell Vengence question for you if you dont mind
In the Ap it states Iolmodae dosent really seem to be offering much support to the reclemation is there a specific reason for that?
First, it's Iomedae (there's no "L" in her name).
Second, the reason she and her church aren't lending much support is because the bulk of the faith views the Glorious Reclamation as jumping the gun—with so much else of greater danger going on (particularly the Worldwound), and the fact that starting an all-out civil war in Cheliax will in the end cause a lot more pain and death and misery than the nation currently causes, the majority of the faith feels that the Glorious Reclamation is going to cause more harm than help.
And since we generally assume that the PCs "win" their adventure paths, since this AP is about evil PCs... then the Glorious Reclamation is doomed to failure and those who threw in with the group are going to meet lots of bad ends. AKA: The church was right.
Not sure what your ellipsis mean.
I feel it's pretty obvious...
If we wanted to present the Glorious Reclamation to win and to become a significant group of note in the setting, we would not have put them in an adventure where they were expected to lose because they're the antagonists.
We EXPECT the Glorious Reclamation to lose.
And the gods, being all-knowing and all that, know what we know. Iomedae knows that the Glorious Reclamation is probably going to lose, but she's not going to directly intervene and stop them. Because mortals have free will, after all. She can visit visions and omens and what not on her church, and those who receive them and interpret them normally (the bulk of her church's leadership) will thus have the information to act, again of their own free will, but those Glorious Reclamation punks are stubborn and foolhardy and won't listen to common sense. And they're gonna get themselves THRUNED for it.
I guess.
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Creative Director
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Do you feel like you've written your magnum opus yet? If yes, what was it? If not, what might you think it'd be?
I don't. It would be a series of novels, I think. I've got several potential ones bumping around in my head...
As far as gaming goes, while I've been involved in a lot of significant products and releases... I've not yet written one from start to end all on my own that I'd call anything approaching a magnum opus. Again... there are some contenders, but nothing that I've produced yet that I'd call anything close to a magnum opus... 'cause if I did, that'd be kinda depressing.
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Just picked up the Horror Adventures PDF. If you had to be given a Corruption which one would you want? Which one would you least want?
I'd probably want the Demonic corruption, which isn't in Horror Adventures—it's coming in Horror Realms. The one I'd least want is probably Plagued. Which is also in Horror Realms.
AKA: I don't recall all of the ones in Horror Adventures off the top of my head since I didn't work on the book... I did work on Horror Realms, though, which is why those come to mind.
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Are you happy with what Chris did with the Spoilers?I'm not sure what you're talking about.
** spoiler omitted **
Not sure what you're talking about... not seeing any change to how spoilers work, unless I'm just being dense...
Sorry, the spoilered text is now indented a bit so you can better differentiate it from other text in posts.
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Just picked up the Horror Adventures PDF. If you had to be given a Corruption which one would you want? Which one would you least want?I'd probably want the Demonic corruption, which isn't in Horror Adventures—it's coming in Horror Realms. The one I'd least want is probably Plagued. Which is also in Horror Realms.
AKA: I don't recall all of the ones in Horror Adventures off the top of my head since I didn't work on the book... I did work on Horror Realms, though, which is why those come to mind.
Yay! Thankies!
*glomps T-Rex*
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What's canon in regards to the Rogarvias and their disappearance? Are hitherto unknown Rogarvia descendants who didn't disappear viable PCs, or is it clear that anyone with even a HINT of Rogarvia blood went poof, no exceptions?
Check out Kingmaker #6's Continuing the Campaing... that is, I believe, the only place we might have said something in print about it all. I don't remember if we did or not off the top of my head though. It's been many years since I've spent much thought on the topic.
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Isn't that a just a hypothetical sort of set-up?
I'm trying to figure out whether writing up a Kingmaker player character as an unknowing Rogarvia descendant is a good idea, or if that's not really appropriate for Kingmaker...
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James,
Have you ever ran a "total Golarion experience" kind of game that contains pretty much all facets of the world? To give a product tie (as that's how I understand the setting unlike you, most likely), that would be occult stuff, horror stuff, sleeping (or not) runelords, mythic stuff, etc. all in one campaign? Or, do your campaigns usually have a more narrow focus? What do you see as the unique challenges to such a campaign?
Happy Friday
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Dear James,
my question comes after this scenario:
vigilante stalker is after his target. target is completely unaware. Stalker uses his surprise round to special charge for some hidden strike (or if u have the talent up close and personal use that) damage. he has leave an opening talent as well. say they roll initiative and the prey goes first. the preys turn starts and the stalker gets an AOO from leave an opening.the question then becomes does the stalker get the lowered hidden strike dice on this AOO and is the target flat footed since it "has not acted yet"?
JJ actually prefers not to be asked non-Golarion specifc rules questions, you might have better luck asking people in the rules forums.
(Granted he also doesn't like other people responding to question in his thread too...)
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Hello James
First a couple of general questions:
1) when you run APs do you hand out XP or level the party up according to the advancement track?
2) If/when you use XP and your players end up doing things outside the scope of the AP, how do you handle them out leveling the AP content?
I ask because in my RotR game I did away with XP because they started to get too far ahead of the XP track. However now in Fortress of the Stone Giants I'm faced with a bit of a problem:
They have infiltrated the interior of Jorgenfist which should put them at level 12, but due to meeting Conna and being stealthy they are about to bypass the caverns and head straight to the library level, which should put them at level 13 without any more encounters. This kinda rubs me the wrong way because they gain a level for little effort, but I don't know whether to just let them do it or withholding level 13 until they delt with the library and thus may be too low level for that content?
How would you handle it?
Cheers
1) ** spoiler omitted **
2) ** spoiler omitted **...
Thank you for the excellent feedback :-)
This is the first time I've tried going story reward rather than XP and I guess I need to adjust my mindset for it.Out of curiosity: if you ran FotSG and they managed to stealth all the way past the trolls and into the library level would you award them XP for the enire level? Or only for the encounters they bypass along the "branch" of the caverns they took?
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So with Ruins of Azlant announced, are we finally going to find out about the eyeless krakens?