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Reading through this entire thread, I'm reminded of when my 4 year old really wants my attention. Kudos on your patience and persistence.
Have you thought about locking this thread for a week or so and taking a break?
Hey James,
My campaign draws to a close and in the nature of Cosmic Horror the ending appears to be bittersweet at best. Have you played/GMed in any Pathfinder campaigns where the heroes tried their best but still failed? Care to share a sentence or two about it?
Also, what might possibly be the direct consequences of releasing a Hundun from its divine imprisonment?
Thanks for all your wonderful and inspired advice in this thread and others.
Creative Director
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Hey James,
My campaign draws to a close and in the nature of Cosmic Horror the ending appears to be bittersweet at best. Have you played/GMed in any Pathfinder campaigns where the heroes tried their best but still failed? Care to share a sentence or two about it?
Also, what might possibly be the direct consequences of releasing a Hundun from its divine imprisonment?
Thanks for all your wonderful and inspired advice in this thread and others.
I have. It's frustrating and unfulfilling to have a campaign end suddenly with failure.
As for a hundun... whatever you want. I prefer not to do design type work on this thread.
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To recap: I would love for us to produce a book in the Campaign Setting line that covers topics like trade, resources, local customs, ceremonies, folklore, weather, and stuff like that. Information that is INCREDIBLY useful when building other content, especially adventures and stories set in the world, or for coming up with histories for characters (be they PCs or NPCs) that would cover the Inner Sea Region.
First, here is one more player that would LOVE to see that book, as well. Anywhere else on the boards we should post that to help nudge it along?
Second, a question: Before the Chelaxians began colonizing Varisia, and in areas of Varisia where there is minimal outside presence, how to the native Varisians and Shoanti get along? Do they largely avoid each other, do they have any sort of relationship that lingers from pre-Earthfall?
Also, are there stories of Earthfall that have survived, in some way, down the ages among those two peoples?
Thanks!
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Thanks for all of your help. I am still confused about one thing. The time oracle's revelation Time sight is a bit confusing.
"Time Sight (Su): You can peer through the mists of time to see things as they truly are, as if using the true seeing spell. At 15th level, this functions like moment of prescience. At 18th level, this functions like foresight. You can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to your oracle level, but these minutes do not need to be consecutive. You must be at least 11th level to select this revelation."
Does this mean at level 18 a time oracle can no longer choose to use this revelation as moment of prescience? Or at 18 can a time oracle choose to use the previous incarnations of the ability?
Now this is a rules question and needs to be asked in the rules forum.
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Creative Director
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To recap: I would love for us to produce a book in the Campaign Setting line that covers topics like trade, resources, local customs, ceremonies, folklore, weather, and stuff like that. Information that is INCREDIBLY useful when building other content, especially adventures and stories set in the world, or for coming up with histories for characters (be they PCs or NPCs) that would cover the Inner Sea Region.First, here is one more player that would LOVE to see that book, as well. Anywhere else on the boards we should post that to help nudge it along?
Second, a question: Before the Chelaxians began colonizing Varisia, and in areas of Varisia where there is minimal outside presence, how to the native Varisians and Shoanti get along? Do they largely avoid each other, do they have any sort of relationship that lingers from pre-Earthfall?
Also, are there stories of Earthfall that have survived, in some way, down the ages among those two peoples?
Thanks!
What would help nudge a book along is folks buying more of the books we do that focus on world content, and giving more positive reviews to world content books, and letting us know that there IS an appetite for world content rather than rules content.
Varisians and Shoanti get along, mostly, by not encraching on each other's territories. When they do cross over, they're relatively friendly to each other, but less so now that Cheliax has poisoned the concept somewhat.
There are stories about Earthfall among all races; that's why it's called the Age of Darkness across most cultures.
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Are there any examples of such "world content" books that you would recommend? The Inner Sea World Guide comes to mind, but I'm curious if there are others that you think might be even better (or at least equivalent).
Thank you! ^_^
Ummm... all of them? It really depends on what portion of the world you're interested in, frankly. But specifically, the regional campaign setting books and city campaign setting books and Revisited books all come to mind as lore-heavy examples.
Bestiary 6 is really awesome and I have several questions about the lore and ideas behind the monster but this in particular piqued my interest the most: where does the idea of the Horseman of Famine having 3 heads come from?
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So uh, turns out that out of all books, for some reason Tombs of Golarion(Tomb of the Necrophage one) fixes my pet peevee with polytheism being referred as pantheism, it has polytheistic blessing feat that is called out to be fixed and updated version of pantheistic blessing ._. Do you know which writer I can thank for including that in this book?
Anyhoo, back to my AP questions:
Through shenanigans, Hellion survived.(they let him go on condition that he transfers himself into crappy robot body when he surrendered. Didn't see that coming that they would essentially propose to him what he would have tried to do anyway.) So I'm going to make "just in case" questions related to him for when I bring him back:
So can Hellion take over Binox(or any robot body not already under his control for that matter) from fourth book? Would he share his memory problem(or any other glitches from robot body) if he did that?
If Hellion would assimilate Casandlee, what would happen?(besides campaign being severely derailed)
Hellion's gear mentions aggression & ego facet, I guess those were installed on chassis and got destroyed when it got blown up? Does losing them affect this personality?
If Hellion would return to Silver Mount, would Unity instantly take control of him again or would he still be independent?
Unity's original plan for Hellion was "enhanced annihilator robot", what is that exactly? Just an advanced annihilator or like unique variant of it?
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Creative Director
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Bestiary 6 is really awesome and I have several questions about the lore and ideas behind the monster but this in particular piqued my interest the most: where does the idea of the Horseman of Famine having 3 heads come from?
That was from Todd Stewart. Of the four horsemen, the other three are based on real world mythology—for the fourth one, we more or less turned Todd loose to come up with whatever he wanted. With in-house development on the far side of his design, of course, as per normal for content we publish.
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So uh, turns out that out of all books, for some reason Tombs of Golarion(Tomb of the Necrophage one) fixes my pet peevee with polytheism being referred as pantheism, it has polytheistic blessing feat that is called out to be fixed and updated version of pantheistic blessing ._. Do you know which writer I can thank for including that in this book?
Anyhoo, back to my AP questions:
Through shenanigans, Hellion survived.(they let him go on condition that he transfers himself into crappy robot body when he surrendered. Didn't see that coming that they would essentially propose to him what he would have tried to do anyway.) So I'm going to make "just in case" questions related to him for when I bring him back:
So can Hellion take over Binox(or any robot body not already under his control for that matter) from fourth book? Would he share his memory problem(or any other glitches from robot body) if he did that?
If Hellion would assimilate Casandlee, what would happen?(besides campaign being severely derailed)
Hellion's gear mentions aggression & ego facet, I guess those were installed on chassis and got destroyed when it got blown up? Does losing them affect this personality?
If Hellion would return to Silver Mount, would Unity instantly take control of him again or would he still be independent?
Unity's original plan for Hellion was "enhanced annihilator robot", what is that exactly? Just an advanced annihilator or like unique variant of it?
I don't know.
If Helion survives... if ANY NPC villain survives... that's a great opportunity for you the GM to play with the very rewarding but difficult/impossible to script concept of a recurring villain. You can and should have him take over whatever other robotic villain in the AP you want, as long as you justify it with a compelling story and reason and make sure the PCs have opportunities to learn this story and reason so they don't you're just being lazy or "cheating" by making them fight multiple times. So... in effect, you have a blank check to do what you want and reshape the AP as you will... and that's not something I want to or can help you with. It should be something you come up with on your own to make the AP more memorable for your group. (Also, for time-management reasons, I try not to set up precedents of me re-designing the campaign setting or an Adventure Path to this extent as custom variants for folks, because I can't do this for everyone...).
An "enhanced annihilator robot" is an annihilator advanced to a higher CR. It never happens in the AP so I never bothered with details, but if it did, I would build it as a CR 20 annihilator with unique abilities combined with Hellion's powers.
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How is your office at Paizo set up?
Ummm...
A whiteboard on the wall.
Three chairs—one for me and two for others to use when I have meetings in my office.
A C-shaped desk that holds a lot of books and 2 monitors and coffee and office supplies and decorations ranging from Bigfoot to Godzilla to Black Phillip to Stitch to Hastur to Arya Stark and more.
A pair of overly full bookshelves, which when combined with the overflow stacked on my desk behind me, means I need another bookshelf.
A space heater/fan (our HVAC is kinda... unpredictable...) and a foot massager and lots of minis.
Art on the walls—the original paintings of the goblins from Burnt Offerings, the dragon fight from the cover "A Song of Silver", and Shensen from the cover of "Song of Silver." (I've got the original of Merisiel and the original for the last cover of Age of Worms, along with a few others, at home.)
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Was the Leng Hound in Bestiary 6 something you worked up, or did you "merely"* develop it?
'Cause it's nifty. A neat take on one of my favorite stories.
* Quotation marks for sarcasm, if it's not clear.
Aside from a Pathfinder series... what fantasy book or series would you most like to see HBO pick up for their next high-profile show after Game of Thrones ends its run?
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How is your office at Paizo set up?Ummm...
A whiteboard on the wall.
Three chairs—one for me and two for others to use when I have meetings in my office.
A C-shaped desk that holds a lot of books and 2 monitors and coffee and office supplies and decorations ranging from Bigfoot to Godzilla to Black Phillip to Stitch to Hastur to Arya Stark and more.
A pair of overly full bookshelves, which when combined with the overflow stacked on my desk behind me, means I need another bookshelf.
A space heater/fan (our HVAC is kinda... unpredictable...) and a foot massager and lots of minis.
Art on the walls—the original paintings of the goblins from Burnt Offerings, the dragon fight from the cover "A Song of Silver", and Shensen from the cover of "Song of Silver." (I've got the original of Merisiel and the original for the last cover of Age of Worms, along with a few others, at home.)
Cool!
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Creative Director
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Was the Leng Hound in Bestiary 6 something you worked up, or did you "merely"* develop it?
'Cause it's nifty. A neat take on one of my favorite stories.
* Quotation marks for sarcasm, if it's not clear.
The Leng Hound is one I assigned, but gave a LOT of details on what the author should do to create it, and then had a pretty in-depth development at the other end.
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Creative Director
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Aside from a Pathfinder series... what fantasy book or series would you most like to see HBO pick up for their next high-profile show after Game of Thrones ends its run?
A horror anthology based on "Weird Tales." This was on the to-do list for HBO I believe a while back but it fell apart. But an anthology show that did one-hour adaptations of stories by Lovecraft, Howard, Smith, Moore, and other pulp-era writers would be RAD.
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So uh, turns out that out of all books, for some reason Tombs of Golarion(Tomb of the Necrophage one) fixes my pet peevee with polytheism being referred as pantheism, it has polytheistic blessing feat that is called out to be fixed and updated version of pantheistic blessing ._. Do you know which writer I can thank for including that in this book?
Anyhoo, back to my AP questions:
Through shenanigans, Hellion survived.(they let him go on condition that he transfers himself into crappy robot body when he surrendered. Didn't see that coming that they would essentially propose to him what he would have tried to do anyway.) So I'm going to make "just in case" questions related to him for when I bring him back:
So can Hellion take over Binox(or any robot body not already under his control for that matter) from fourth book? Would he share his memory problem(or any other glitches from robot body) if he did that?
If Hellion would assimilate Casandlee, what would happen?(besides campaign being severely derailed)
Hellion's gear mentions aggression & ego facet, I guess those were installed on chassis and got destroyed when it got blown up? Does losing them affect this personality?
If Hellion would return to Silver Mount, would Unity instantly take control of him again or would he still be independent?
Unity's original plan for Hellion was "enhanced annihilator robot", what is that exactly? Just an advanced annihilator or like unique variant of it?
I don't know.
If Helion survives... if ANY NPC villain survives... that's a great opportunity for you the GM to play with the very rewarding but difficult/impossible to script concept of a recurring villain. You can and should have him take over whatever other robotic villain in the AP you want, as long as you justify it with a compelling story and reason and make sure the PCs have opportunities to learn this story and reason so they don't you're just being lazy or "cheating" by making them fight multiple times. So... in...
Sorry about asking that kind of stuff :'D I do have my own ideas of what I want to do, but I have low trust in myself so I try to get confidence by figuring out what would be "right" answer... Which is kinda dumb since everyone's campaign is different I guess..
My own plan was be that if he survives rematch, then he shows up during Godmind encounter. Though I do kinda wonder what I should do with Hellion's stats if he shows up there, but I guess I have time to figure out, he probably won't survive rematch anyway and that is still like year or half in advance. But yeah, I try to keep ap related questions either to ap threads or just avoid topic of what if :' D
Would somebody who knows about the "sacred apocrypha" of the Chronicle of the Righteous (that the celestials have lots of dirty deals and other unpleasant secrets), but not the specifics, still be barred from the upper planes?
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Would somebody who knows about the "sacred apocrypha" of the Chronicle of the Righteous (that the celestials have lots of dirty deals and other unpleasant secrets), but not the specifics, still be barred from the upper planes?
Depends entirely on the story the GM or writer wants to tell.
Something I've noticed: by the time most PCs are at the end of an adventure path, they're at the right level to cast gate. For the relatively low price of 10K gp, a wizard or cleric can summon a solar that's almost certainly a higher CR than the final boss battle. What's your suggestions regarding that sort of situation?
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Something I've noticed: by the time most PCs are at the end of an adventure path, they're at the right level to cast gate. For the relatively low price of 10K gp, a wizard or cleric can summon a solar that's almost certainly a higher CR than the final boss battle. What's your suggestions regarding that sort of situation?
When you cast gate to summon a solar, you probably can't control it because it likely has more HD than you. Thus, you, the GM, get to run the solar in the fight, not the PC. You also get to decide if the solar WANTS to help in the fight. And furthermore... what the PCs do, you can do. If they summon a solar, then fight fire with fire. Have your NPCs do the same, calling upon high CR allies as well. Or use spells like dismissal or banishment or the like to get rid of extraplanar threats.
Don't underestimate the sting of spending 10K on a spell only to have someone banish your buddy!
Or perhaps you can simply adjust the way gate works in your game so that you can't call creatures with higher HD than you unless you call specific ones by name, and this way you can control whether a PC learns a solar's name.
That probably goes exponential for empyreal lords. Which reminds me...
While we're on the topic of high-level spells, what are the bonds of a wish? I mean besides what's explicitly mentioned.
Supposed I wished for a happy childhood, and the granter wasn't a literal or jackass genie. How would that work? Would that level of de-facto time travel work?
Suppose I wished to be praised for my knowledge? A single wish only grants +1 Int, so what would be the alternative?
Digressing abruptly, where is everybody? Is there a holiday I don't know about?
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That probably goes exponential for empyreal lords. Which reminds me...
While we're on the topic of high-level spells, what are the bonds of a wish? I mean besides what's explicitly mentioned.
Supposed I wished for a happy childhood, and the granter wasn't a literal or jackass genie. How would that work? Would that level of de-facto time travel work?
Suppose I wished to be praised for my knowledge? A single wish only grants +1 Int, so what would be the alternative?
Digressing abruptly, where is everybody? Is there a holiday I don't know about?
We did an article about wishcraft back in Legacy of fire; check that out for an in-depth exploration of the topic. The short version is that if you go beyond the things it explicitly says wishes can do in the actual text... it's 100% left to GM discretion.
As for "where is everybody?" I hadn't noticed anything to indicate they were gone in the first place.
It's occurred to me that the Occult Adventures spell Microcosm provides a handy way to deal with a truly outrageous Wish, like wanting the entire multiverse to worship you and to never age and die. Ok, you get a self targeting Microcosm where you live in a fantasy land in your head where everything you wanted is true. Meanwhile, your real body continues to age and starve...
Is that the sort of thing you'd consider for dealing with really childish or far beyond the bounds of the rules wishes?
I've seen a monster called Horla on the Bestiary 6. Is it based on the story of Guy de Maupassant?
I've not looked a lot about it yet (I try not to spoil a lot the new monsters unless I plan to use them so I'm surprised if I face them) but I was very curious.
Was this monster your idea or was it another author? I found it really cool as I love classic stories.
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It's occurred to me that the Occult Adventures spell Microcosm provides a handy way to deal with a truly outrageous Wish, like wanting the entire multiverse to worship you and to never age and die. Ok, you get a self targeting Microcosm where you live in a fantasy land in your head where everything you wanted is true. Meanwhile, your real body continues to age and starve...
Is that the sort of thing you'd consider for dealing with really childish or far beyond the bounds of the rules wishes?
Since I would consider anything for dealing with wishes like this, yes, it's something I would consider... although as a general rule, I usually prefer making the results of such wishes be far more unpleasant for the foolish wisher.
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Hello, Jacobs.
In Corerule book, a spell called "MAGE'S LUCUBRATION"
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/coreRulebook/spells/mageSLucubration.htm l
In its Level section,only write "wizard 6"
Does that mean "normally, only the Wizard can choose and prepare and use this spell, Sorcerer can't(exclude UMD ,Class Archetypes , and so on)."
Thanks.
That's absolutely and exactly what it means. Since the spell manipulates prepared wizard spells, a non-wizard (including a sorcerer) gains zero benefit from the spell, thus it's a wizard-only spell.
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I've seen a monster called Horla on the Bestiary 6. Is it based on the story of Guy de Maupassant?
I've not looked a lot about it yet (I try not to spoil a lot the new monsters unless I plan to use them so I'm surprised if I face them) but I was very curious.
Was this monster your idea or was it another author? I found it really cool as I love classic stories.
It absolutely is based on that Horla. This is an example of a monster I've been trying to get into print in a Bestiary for many years... in this case, since Bestiary 2. Took a while, but I finally managed to make it happen.
(Pretty much all of the non-reprinted monsters [and a fair number of the reprinted ones] in the book were my idea, with the exceptions of a very few [the daitengu and the lovelorn and the dantheienne I think are the only three never-before-in-print monsters that I either concepted or chose from literary or mythological or cryptozoological or other real world sorces].)
Between the Bestiaries, Carrion Crown, and Strange Aeons, we now have a fairly robust roster of Elder Mythos monsters for Pathfinder. Are there any more Elder Mythos monsters you want or hope to introduce into the game?
What are the restrictions on using and adapting Elder Mythos elements from various authors and sources?
Personally, I hope to see the lloigor and Tcho-Tcho adapted into Pathfinder someday.
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Between the Bestiaries, Carrion Crown, and Strange Aeons, we now have a fairly robust roster of Elder Mythos monsters for Pathfinder. Are there any more Elder Mythos monsters you want or hope to introduce into the game?
What are the restrictions on using and adapting Elder Mythos elements from various authors and sources?
Personally, I hope to see the lloigor and Tcho-Tcho adapted into Pathfinder someday.
Absolutely. There's a LOT of them that aren't open content or public domain; the lloigor and Tcho-Tcho are two examples of that. We were able to publish several as an arrangement with Chaosium, but others would also require permission from the authors or the author estates. And it gets trickier tracking down those rights for a lot of them since what gamers consider to be one creature is in fact often an amalgamation of several authors working over the course of a century to arrive at something; the Byakhee is a great example of that. Hastur is as well.
Since I would consider anything for dealing with wishes like this, yes, it's something I would consider... although as a general rule, I usually prefer making the results of such wishes be far more unpleasant for the foolish wisher.It's occurred to me that the Occult Adventures spell Microcosm provides a handy way to deal with a truly outrageous Wish, like wanting the entire multiverse to worship you and to never age and die. Ok, you get a self targeting Microcosm where you live in a fantasy land in your head where everything you wanted is true. Meanwhile, your real body continues to age and starve...
Is that the sort of thing you'd consider for dealing with really childish or far beyond the bounds of the rules wishes?
So that's what happened to Aroden.
But seriously, don't you think that's kind of mean? Wouldn't the wish simply not working (and no 25K gp expended, if relevant) be sufficient?
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But seriously, don't you think that's kind of mean? Wouldn't the wish simply not working (and no 25K gp expended, if relevant) be sufficient?Since I would consider anything for dealing with wishes like this, yes, it's something I would consider... although as a general rule, I usually prefer making the results of such wishes be far more unpleasant for the foolish wisher.It's occurred to me that the Occult Adventures spell Microcosm provides a handy way to deal with a truly outrageous Wish, like wanting the entire multiverse to worship you and to never age and die. Ok, you get a self targeting Microcosm where you live in a fantasy land in your head where everything you wanted is true. Meanwhile, your real body continues to age and starve...
Is that the sort of thing you'd consider for dealing with really childish or far beyond the bounds of the rules wishes?
I don't think that's mean at all. That said, in my games, I am generally pretty permissive with wishes, and at the same time let my players know at the start once wishes enter play that if the DO abuse them... all bets are off. If you're gonna blow 25K on making a foolish wish... you deserve to lose that 25K.
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So restricting myself to non "how to do this" questions.. So fewer questions overall .-.
Is Ayruzi, the planetar in final book who pcs can save from binding, "she" because she identifies by that gender or because Paizo hadn't yet established angels being referred with "they" policy?
Angels can be any gender or no gender. (Sarenrae, for example, is our most "famous" angel in the setting, and she's a woman.)
I don't think that's mean at all. That said, in my games, I am generally pretty permissive with wishes, and at the same time let my players know at the start once wishes enter play that if the DO abuse them... all bets are off. If you're gonna blow 25K on making a foolish wish... you deserve to lose that 25K.But seriously, don't you think that's kind of mean? Wouldn't the wish simply not working (and no 25K gp expended, if relevant) be sufficient?Since I would consider anything for dealing with wishes like this, yes, it's something I would consider... although as a general rule, I usually prefer making the results of such wishes be far more unpleasant for the foolish wisher.It's occurred to me that the Occult Adventures spell Microcosm provides a handy way to deal with a truly outrageous Wish, like wanting the entire multiverse to worship you and to never age and die. Ok, you get a self targeting Microcosm where you live in a fantasy land in your head where everything you wanted is true. Meanwhile, your real body continues to age and starve...
Is that the sort of thing you'd consider for dealing with really childish or far beyond the bounds of the rules wishes?
Okay...what are some examples of abusive or foolish wishes?
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Okay...what are some examples of abusive or foolish wishes?
Read "The Monkey's Paw" for the classic example of a good-intentioned but foolish wish.
Beyond that, in an RPG... a foolish wish can be just either poorly worded (I wish I had all the good stuff!), a blatant power grab (I wish for more wishes!), or intentionally disruptive to the game (I wish I had a weapon that never misses!).
Okay...what are some examples of abusive or foolish wishes?Read "The Monkey's Paw" for the classic example of a good-intentioned but foolish wish.
Beyond that, in an RPG... a foolish wish can be just either poorly worded (I wish I had all the good stuff!), a blatant power grab (I wish for more wishes!), or intentionally disruptive to the game (I wish I had a weapon that never misses!).
I read the summary: the first wish was for a mere £200 to get the house payments done with. The next wish is undoing the BS of the first (and quite reasonable withing the bounds of wish, i might add). The Whites are so scared of resurrection that Mr. White use the last wish to undo that.
How exactly were Mr. White's modest wishes foolish?
Also, is there a reason you prefer to twist wishes rather than just say 'no?'
I'm curious, why was the description/art of the Shadow Giant changed? I rather liked the original look in the book they originated.
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Okay...what are some examples of abusive or foolish wishes?Read "The Monkey's Paw" for the classic example of a good-intentioned but foolish wish.
Beyond that, in an RPG... a foolish wish can be just either poorly worded (I wish I had all the good stuff!), a blatant power grab (I wish for more wishes!), or intentionally disruptive to the game (I wish I had a weapon that never misses!).
I read the summary: the first wish was for a mere £200 to get the house payments done with. The next wish is undoing the BS of the first (and quite reasonable withing the bounds of wish, i might add). The Whites are so scared of resurrection that Mr. White use the last wish to undo that.
How exactly were Mr. White's modest wishes foolish?
Also, is there a reason you prefer to twist wishes rather than just say 'no?'
Summaries don't count. That's like reading an abridged Wikepedia entry for a description of a painting that isn't illustrated.
They're foolish because they "meddle in God's domain" or "meddle with the natural order" or however you wish to interpret it.
I DON'T prefer to twist wishes. They're powerful magic, and it's lame and childish to reward a PC for gaining access to powerful magic by ruining it. But at the same time, it's lame for a player to abuse powerful magic in an attempt to ruin a story. It's a give and take.