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Have you seen Wer? (its a movie)Not yet, but it has been on my "to see someday" list for a few years.
I recommend it. It's not overall a great movie, but watching them delve into the lore, which is more science, than supernatural in the beginning, as one of the characters themselves begins to turn is a good ride.
What did you think of Dark Tower?
Creative Director
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What did you think of Dark Tower?
The book series is among the best things Stephen King has ever written.
As for the movie? I thought Idris Elba was perfectly cast, but had nothing to do. And the movie itself is probably the second-most disappointing movie I've ever seen in my entire life.
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It seems that the cloud castles are very rare even among the cloud giants. Is the technology needed to build a flying castle lost a long time ago, and thus only a handful of cloud giants can make one?
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David Cronenberg, since that would transform the movie into something I'd be interested in seeing. A body horror movie about a mannequin that doesn't understand the difference between the flesh and the plastic.If the 1987 film Mannequin were to be remade by a current day film director, who do you think might do the most interesting job of it, and why?
(I enquire since the 1987 Mannequin aired on terrestrial TV earlier this month here in the UK and it got me wondering about a Del Torro version would look like...)
Dopey, fun fact - some of the interior dept. store scenes for Mannequin were filmed in a Boscov's Dept. Store just a few minutes from where I live here in Pennsylvania. I even knew a few girls that answered an extras call to be 'shoppers' when the filmed. (They also filmed some of the baseball game sequences for Major League II in a minor league baseball stadium a few minutes from where I live, as well as some of the John Travolta movie, Lucky Numbers.)
OK, I'm done now :)
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It seems that the cloud castles are very rare even among the cloud giants. Is the technology needed to build a flying castle lost a long time ago, and thus only a handful of cloud giants can make one?
It's just very expensive and time-consuming and requires powerful magic to create.
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the movie itself is probably the second-most disappointing movie I've ever seen in my entire life.
As much as I dislike the heavy focus on media the thread's taken lately, this piqued my interest. What was the most disappointing movie?
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the movie itself is probably the second-most disappointing movie I've ever seen in my entire life.As much as I dislike the heavy focus on media the thread's taken lately, this piqued my interest. What was the most disappointing movie?
If you want to know more about things other than my taste in entertainment, this is still the place to ask me those kinds of questions. Personally, I quite enjoy answering questions like that, since they're less likely to spark internet flame wars than my take on how snowball should work, for example.
But that said.
The most disappointing movie I have ever seen was Godzilla (1998). That's also my least favorite movie of all time.
While the Dark Tower comes in 2nd, it's nowhere NEAR 2nd place as my least favorite movie. Part of what disappointed me so much about the Dark Tower was how mediocre it was. It was obnoxiously average, when it should have been gloriously epic.
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At the time of Thassilon, do cloud giants in Varisia have cloud castles? I personally think they don't, because if they have, they would not have been enslaved to the runelords.
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At the time of Thassilon, do cloud giants in Varisia have cloud castles? I personally think they don't, because if they have, they would not have been enslaved to the runelords.
Some did, but most did not and instead lived on high mountain peaks, which are often in the clouds anyway. Their access to cloud castles didn't really impact their enslavement, though. Turns out, runelords have ways of dealing with cloud castles... as do all high level and often mythic wizards.
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What PC races are your personal most/least favorites?
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Varisians were originally legitimate citizens of Thassilon, but after Xin died the runelords enslaved them all. Then what about giants and goblins? They were legitimate citizens of Thassilon, but after Xin died the runelords enslaved them all?
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Was Gorum a god in your homebrew?
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James, did unchained summoner change this answer? I found a recent thread saying otherwise, though nothing official. I put a link to this thread there.
JJ,
I believe there are several (inconclusive) threads on this topic on the messageboards. So I was wondering if you could clarify something on the subject of summoning and how it works in Golarion:
1)If summoning an eidolon only summons an "aspect" of a creature, does this mean that the actual creature remains behind on its home plane?
2) Do items carried/worn by the creature representing the eidolon come over with it when it's summoned?
3) What about items that the eidolon is carrying when it's dismissed (or dies) and is sent back to its home plane?
4) If the answer to 3 is that they are left behind, does this mean the eidolon has to be re(equipped) every time it's summoned?
5) Do the answers to 1 through 4 above apply to summoned monsters as well?
6) And finally, are the answers to all the above questions Golarion-specific, or would they apply to the Pathfinder mechanic in general?
Thanks in advance!
Here's my take—how I justify and interpret the summoner.
1) The rules are unclear as to what happens to the source of a summoned creature, but basically, think of a summoned creature as a "reflection" of a creature on another plane... yet it's a real and physical creature, not just an image. It's likely that whatever the original creature on the other plane was never even realizes that it's "reflection" has been summoned to do the bidding of someone somewhere else. As for eidolons... my preference is to believe that they're not "reflections" of single creatures, but composites cobbled together from many different creatures. The summoner essentially custom-builds his eidolon from partial reflections from numerous different source creatures and then binds that specific combination together with metaphysical "glue" harvested form his own life energies (hence the shared magic rune between summoner and eidolon).
2) In the case of an eidolon, it initially comes over naked. Any gear or items given to it stay with it, vanishing into some inaccessible void when the eidolon is gone and coming back the next time it's summoned. Items can't be utilized while in this "void" but neither can they be destroyed.
3) Those items go with the eidolon, and come back the next time it's summoned. Creatures being grappled or otherwise detained by the eidolon do not vanish; they're released when the eidolon goes away.
4) Nope.
5) Summoned creatures are very different. The actual summoned creature itself has no existence before or after the summon monster/summon nature's ally spell is cast, and thus any items it's equipped with have nowhere to come from and nowhere to go. If a summoned monster is a creature that, in its actual stat block, has gear, that gear is with the monster when it arrives, but vanishes as soon as the monster or spell effect is slain/ends. And any additional gear given to a summoned monster drops to the ground as soon as the spell ends or the summoned monster is defeated.
6) I would say those interpretations should apply to the Pathfinder rules in general, because if they don't work that way, you open up a world of confusing possibilities that the rules don't currently offer solutions to. The interpretations above are the simplest and easiest to handle. If you want to interpret them in other ways, it increases the complexity beyond what the rules can currently adjudicate or cover. AKA: If you or your GM doesn't want to use these rules, he/she is going to have to do a little or a lot of work to explain things otherwise.
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Do you have any favorite deities from real world mythology like Greek, Egyptian, Japanese, Hindu, Norse, etc?
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James, did unchained summoner change this answer? I found a recent thread saying otherwise, though nothing official. I put a link to this thread there.
...JJ,
I believe there are several (inconclusive) threads on this topic on the messageboards. So I was wondering if you could clarify something on the subject of summoning and how it works in Golarion:
1)If summoning an eidolon only summons an "aspect" of a creature, does this mean that the actual creature remains behind on its home plane?
2) Do items carried/worn by the creature representing the eidolon come over with it when it's summoned?
3) What about items that the eidolon is carrying when it's dismissed (or dies) and is sent back to its home plane?
4) If the answer to 3 is that they are left behind, does this mean the eidolon has to be re(equipped) every time it's summoned?
5) Do the answers to 1 through 4 above apply to summoned monsters as well?
6) And finally, are the answers to all the above questions Golarion-specific, or would they apply to the Pathfinder mechanic in general?
Thanks in advance!
Here's my take—how I justify and interpret the summoner.
1) The rules are unclear as to what happens to the source of a summoned creature, but basically, think of a summoned creature as a "reflection" of a creature on another plane... yet it's a real and physical creature, not just an image. It's likely that whatever the original creature on the other plane was never even realizes that it's "reflection" has been summoned to do the bidding of someone somewhere else. As for eidolons... my preference is to believe that they're not "reflections" of single creatures, but composites cobbled together from many different creatures. The summoner essentially custom-builds his eidolon from partial reflections from numerous different source creatures and then binds that
Ahoy folks!
So, after taking a break for the past 5 months or so from this thread, I've decided to have it re-opened (thanks, Sara!) and start answering questions again.
But I'm no longer going to be answering ALL questions. Rules questions should not be asked here—those should continue to be asked on the appropriate forums elsewhere on these boards so the design team can interact easily with them and so they can be part of the FAQ system.
I'd also appreciate it if folks keep their questions brief and to the point. If you have a LOT of questions for me, it's best to keep them in a text file and post them one at a time after I answer them. It got to be far too time-consuming for me to answer lists of complicated questions.
Now and then, a question may well intrigue me and I'll post a long reply, but that decision will be made at my end.
Okay then! Ask away! And thanks for being patient while I took a time out!
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Varisians were originally legitimate citizens of Thassilon, but after Xin died the runelords enslaved them all. Then what about giants and goblins? They were legitimate citizens of Thassilon, but after Xin died the runelords enslaved them all?
You got that kinda wrong...
Varisians were one of several indiginous civilizations in the region that would some day become Thassilon and, thereafter, Varisia. Others include the Shoanti, the elves of Mierani, several giant and goblin societies, and so on.
When Thassilon was founded, the "legitimate" citizens were Thassilonians (aka displaced Azlanti). The original intent of Xin's plan was to have a sort of melting pot society that integrated Varisians, elves, Shoanti, giants, and perhaps a few more (goblins aren't good at joining), but his vision was flawed in that he didn't account for his fellow people's flaws, and when the runelords took over with their coup, this "integration" turned into "enslavement".
Varisians and Shoanti and giants were all oppressed by Thassilon once the runelords took over. Goblins were pretty much ignored and remained a non-issue the entire time.
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Was Gorum a god in your homebrew?
Yes. In fact, in my homebrew, the heart of his faith on the continent was on the largest island in the volcanic, pirate-infested, monster heavy Ash Gulf (a place that would have SOME influence on the development of the Shackles), on an isle called the Theocracy of the Fist. I may have dropped in references to the Theocracy of the Fist here and there a while back, but it never really got picked up by others who went on to develop Gorum stuff after I released the proverbial reins of control over him to other writers and developers, so for the moment, the Theocracy of the Fist as the heart of Gorum's faith remains a part of my home brew, and on Golarion, Gorum's faith is more focused far to the north in "barbarian lands" like Numeria and Belkzen.
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James, did unchained summoner change this answer? I found a recent thread saying otherwise, though nothing official. I put a link to this thread there.
Not to me, no, and in fact it made my answer all the more important to me to remain my answer.
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Do you have any favorite deities from real world mythology like Greek, Egyptian, Japanese, Hindu, Norse, etc?Nocticula and Lamashtu and Pazuzu are tied as my current favorites in that category.
Where is Nocticula from. :-)
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Was Gorum a god in your homebrew?Yes. In fact, in my homebrew, the heart of his faith on the continent was on the largest island in the volcanic, pirate-infested, monster heavy Ash Gulf (a place that would have SOME influence on the development of the Shackles), on an isle called the Theocracy of the Fist. I may have dropped in references to the Theocracy of the Fist here and there a while back, but it never really got picked up by others who went on to develop Gorum stuff after I released the proverbial reins of control over him to other writers and developers, so for the moment, the Theocracy of the Fist as the heart of Gorum's faith remains a part of my home brew, and on Golarion, Gorum's faith is more focused far to the north in "barbarian lands" like Numeria and Belkzen.
What's a nugget of Gorum head canon that you have that may not have carried over to PF?
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Where is Nocticula from. :-)Do you have any favorite deities from real world mythology like Greek, Egyptian, Japanese, Hindu, Norse, etc?Nocticula and Lamashtu and Pazuzu are tied as my current favorites in that category.
I've chosen the spelling of Nocticula for her, for the same reasons I slightly varied a few other demon names (Areshkagal is a good example) to help make the Pathfinder version more obviously "inspired by not not a direct interpretation of" rather than an attempt to be more faithful to mythology, as in the case for Lamashtu or Pazuzu.
In this case, it's probably more accurate to remove Nocticula from the list, frankly, since she's really NOT all that inspired from real-world mythology.
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What's a nugget of Gorum head canon that you have that may not have carried over to PF?
It's not headcanon. It's Baria canon, which is different than headcanon, but in Baria, Gorum is not really associated at all with orcs. Or even barbarians, really. He's much more focused on armored fighting, which isn't really a barbarian style.
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Other than that, is his personality as portrayed in Golarion the same as your game?
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Where is Nocticula from. :-)Do you have any favorite deities from real world mythology like Greek, Egyptian, Japanese, Hindu, Norse, etc?Nocticula and Lamashtu and Pazuzu are tied as my current favorites in that category.I've chosen the spelling of Nocticula for her, for the same reasons I slightly varied a few other demon names (Areshkagal is a good example) to help make the Pathfinder version more obviously "inspired by not not a direct interpretation of" rather than an attempt to be more faithful to mythology, as in the case for Lamashtu or Pazuzu.
In this case, it's probably more accurate to remove Nocticula from the list, frankly, since she's really NOT all that inspired from real-world mythology.
Wow! That... that explains so daggum much about the use of that (or similar) names in several different places, plus your suggested concepts of what a non-evil version of her might someday look like... so cool! Thanks!
Speaking of, do you have in-mind any AP dealing with a Nocticula (or any fiendish lord of any sort) redemption arc?
Also: any AP in mind dealing with Razmir?
(This isn't asking if it's going to be next year, or even if it's "super totally definitely going to happen" or anything, but rather, if the conversation is regularly floated, discussed or looked at.)
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Hey James. Would Pharasma have an issue with a Dirge Bard?
It seems like sense it's specifically called out as not evil and only lasts as long as the performance goes on, that it's not quite actually animating the dead using the typical method of souls and seems to be a grey area as to whether is actually disrupts the flow of souls to the the Lady of Graves.
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Where is Nocticula from. :-)Do you have any favorite deities from real world mythology like Greek, Egyptian, Japanese, Hindu, Norse, etc?Nocticula and Lamashtu and Pazuzu are tied as my current favorites in that category.I've chosen the spelling of Nocticula for her, for the same reasons I slightly varied a few other demon names (Areshkagal is a good example) to help make the Pathfinder version more obviously "inspired by not not a direct interpretation of" rather than an attempt to be more faithful to mythology, as in the case for Lamashtu or Pazuzu.
In this case, it's probably more accurate to remove Nocticula from the list, frankly, since she's really NOT all that inspired from real-world mythology.
Wow! That... that explains so daggum much about the use of that (or similar) names in several different places, plus your suggested concepts of what a non-evil version of her might someday look like... so cool! Thanks!
Speaking of, do you have in-mind any AP dealing with a Nocticula (or any fiendish lord of any sort) redemption arc?
I've had a story about Nocticula becoming the Chaotic Neutral goddess of outcasts, artists, and Midnight in mind for nearly a decade. Whether that turns into an AP or a novel or a comic book or a standalone adventure or whatever... I guess time will tell.
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Also: any AP in mind dealing with Razmir?
(This isn't asking if it's going to be next year, or even if it's "super totally definitely going to happen" or anything, but rather, if the conversation is regularly floated, discussed or looked at.)
ANY potential story we put into print for Golarion could at some point in the future... maybe next year, mabye next decade, whatever, could become an Adventure Path. There's no way for me to say yes or no to any of them without setting false expectations. A much better way to tackle this would be to take part in one of the "What do we want for the next AP" threads elsewhere on the boards, since we do pay attention to what folks ask for.
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Hey James. Would Pharasma have an issue with a Dirge Bard?
It seems like sense it's specifically called out as not evil and only lasts as long as the performance goes on, that it's not quite actually animating the dead using the typical method of souls and seems to be a grey area as to whether is actually disrupts the flow of souls to the the Lady of Graves.
Yes, she would have an issue with it. As in, she and her faith see dirge bards as much as enemies as any sort of necromancer.
And I disagree; the fact that it's creating undead calls it out as an evil archetype as much as anything else. It may not say "all dirge bards must be evil" in the rules text, but any dirge bard we create for an adventure or in print will likely be evil.
I thought Xin was a human supremacist and Azlant was a good nation. But Lost Kingdoms said that Xin was exiled from Azlant because he thought Azlant should cooperate with the lesser races. And yet the runelords, who followed him to Varisia because they shared his ideal, became ultra human supremacists after they overthrew Xin. So I'm confused. Was Azlant a human supremacist nation that despised all other races like Thassilon did? And did Azlant discriminate and despise other human races?
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I thought Xin was a human supremacist and Azlant was a good nation. But Lost Kingdoms said that Xin was exiled from Azlant because he thought Azlant should cooperate with the lesser races. And yet the runelords, who followed him to Varisia because they shared his ideal, became ultra human supremacists after they overthrew Xin. So I'm confused. Was Azlant a human supremacist nation that despised all other races like Thassilon did? And did Azlant discriminate and despise other human races?
Xin was not a human supremacist, but Azlant kinda was. Azlant was certainly NOT a good nation. It was likely lawful neutral. Xin wanted to work with other races, but Azlant was big into human supremacy, and so they exiled him, just like Lost Kingdoms (and Shattered Star) explain in detail.
The seven who became the first seven runelords did not "follow him because they shared his ideal" as much as because they were very smart and saw an opportunity to grab an empire of their own in time.
(Currently, the Shattered Star Adventure Path is the most accurate place to go for accurate information about Xin and early Thassilon. Once Return of the Runelords is out next year, that will be instead.)
I see. Then can I assume that Thassilon under the runelords became even more human supremacist than Azlant?
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I see. Then can I assume that Thassilon under the runelords became even more human supremacist than Azlant?
No.
Human Supremacy wasn't really one of Thassilon's themes at all. It was more along the lines of the seven deadly sins, with each of the seven nations of Thassilon embodying one of those seven. All the runelords were human, and they were all of the Azlanti ethnicity, but that's that. It was not a carbon copy of Azlant; it was a different nation entirely.
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Hey James. Would Pharasma have an issue with a Dirge Bard?
It seems like sense it's specifically called out as not evil and only lasts as long as the performance goes on, that it's not quite actually animating the dead using the typical method of souls and seems to be a grey area as to whether is actually disrupts the flow of souls to the the Lady of Graves.
Yes, she would have an issue with it. As in, she and her faith see dirge bards as much as enemies as any sort of necromancer.
And I disagree; the fact that it's creating undead calls it out as an evil archetype as much as anything else. It may not say "all dirge bards must be evil" in the rules text, but any dirge bard we create for an adventure or in print will likely be evil.
That's what I figured.
May I ask what you think was the point of specifically calling out the performance replicating a version of animate dead without the evil descriptor (and thus not automatically being an evil act like the spell) if its no different from normal animate dead?
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May I ask what you think was the point of specifically calling out the performance replicating a version of animate dead without the evil descriptor (and thus not automatically being an evil act like the spell) if its no different from normal animate dead?
It was a error made thanks to the fact that back then I wasn't as good at my job of informing folks in house about the creative direction of how that stuff should work.
Azlant discriminated and despised the lesser races. Do these lesser races include other human races as well? In other words, was Azlant an Azlanti supremacist nation?
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What PC races are your personal most/least favorites?Favorite PC races: human, elf, half-elf, tiefling, halfling, tengu, gnome, aasimar, samsaran
My least favorite PC race: dwarf
Do you have asimilar set of preferences for Starfinder, or is the game too young? Or just not your personal style?
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Do you have asimilar set of preferences for Starfinder, or is the game too young? Or just not your personal style?What PC races are your personal most/least favorites?Favorite PC races: human, elf, half-elf, tiefling, halfling, tengu, gnome, aasimar, samsaran
My least favorite PC race: dwarf
Lashuntas and humans, based solely on what I know about those races from Pathfinder. I haven't had time to read the Starfinder core rulebook, and I actually wouldn't be able to list all the core races from memory at this point.
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Azlant discriminated and despised the lesser races. Do these lesser races include other human races as well? In other words, was Azlant an Azlanti supremacist nation?
You should check out the current AP, Ruins of Azlant, for the most up-to-date information about Azlant. By calling them a nation who discriminated and despised "lesser races" is kind of missing the point and painting in too broad strokes.
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Is Desna also from your homebrew? Is the starknife your invention?
So you weren't happy with the summoner or the unchained version. So what is it that ether version of class didn't do (or did) that made you not a fan of the class?
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Is Desna also from your homebrew? Is the starknife your invention?
Desna is in fact the fourth deity I invented for my homebrew, and was the first GOOD aligned deity in my homebrew (she is predated by Yamasoth, Treerazer, and Obox-ob, whose name I got from the 1st edition Monster Manual II's "other demon lord list"). She's got the most history of all the core 20 deities who weren't also mythological (Asmodeus and Lamashtu), and the starknife has been her weapon of choice in my homebrew since the early 90s' (the starknife itself being inspired by the glaive from Krull).
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So you weren't happy with the summoner or the unchained version. So what is it that ether version of class didn't do (or did) that made you not a fan of the class?
Not sure where you're getting that info from.
I am VERY happy with the unchained summoner, to the extent that it's one that we now more or less consider the "official" version of the class when we stat up summoners in adventures or books (for the other three, they officially remain optional—we use the core rulebook still when statting up barbarian, monk, or rogue NPCs).
The two things that the unchained version fixed was to make the summoner's spell list work better with things like magic items (so that you can't do a wand of teleport, for example), but far more important to me, it grounded the summoner's eidolon in a way that makes eidolons fit into the mythology and flavor of the setting.
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What was Iomedae's hometown? Kantaria, or someplace else?