>>Ask *James Jacobs* ALL your Questions Here!<<


Off-Topic Discussions

11,601 to 11,650 of 83,732 << first < prev | 228 | 229 | 230 | 231 | 232 | 233 | 234 | 235 | 236 | 237 | 238 | next > last >>
Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:

1)Does the Bestairy 3 have any Giants named for there environment/element(ex:fire, frost, sylvan,etc.)?

2)Are the Nephilim going to be Giants like in the old testimant or something else entirelly?

3)I am happy about the Vanara being a "playable race" but I am surprised that you guys didn't make them on par with the Garudas and Nagas because in the myths weren't they fighting against each other? What made you guys go with the "weaker" version?

4)Are there going to be any design/stat changes(other than artwork) to the monsters from the bonus beastairy for when they are in the Beastairy 3?

5)As a fighter class what are your weapons of choice? As a arcane spellcaster what are your favorite spells? and as for skills wich are your favorite(s) to use?

6)Are there actually any musicals that you like at least somewhat(ex:The rocky horror picture show)? What kind of music do you like?

7)Why is the Yuki-onna a LE Undead and not CN(or any C) Fey? Also they are incorpereal and yet have str score? In the myths they could do good, evil, or both.

8)Of the Four elements(Air, Earth, Fire, Water) wich is your favorite?

9)Why are ghosts the only undead that can be a non-evil alignment?

10)I looked up the Slender man and that would be an interesting creature. But is it public domain? What about the Boogy man or the classic monster under the bed type creature, can we have stats for them one day?

1) Yes.

2) We statted up Nephilim already in Pathfinder #23. They're native outsiders if I recall correctly.

3) As a "playable race," the vanara have all the capacity of humans and their ilk to gain levels. I can certainly see humans and gnomes and elves and the like fighting against garudas and nagas, so I can just as easily see the vanara doing the same. (Although garudas in Patfhinder are good guys... so...)

4) Yes. We built the monsters in the bonus bestiary before the rules were finalized and before our monster design philosophy was figured out. They'll have a few changes here and there.

5) Fighter: I prefer the bastard sword or falchion. Arcane spellcaster: I prefer enchantment spells. Favorite skills: Diplomacy, Perform, Use Magic Device.

6) Nope. Don't like musicals. As for music... I have pretty wide tastes. Right now, on my Pandora stations, I have radio stations based on Dead Can Dance, Pink Floyd, Juno Reactor, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Phillip Glass, Muse, Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails, Duran Duran, E. S. Posthumus, and Popol Vuh. I'd probably say Dead Can Dance and Pink Floyd are tied for my favorite musicicans/bands, with Nine Inch Nails and Franz Lizst coming in tied at second.

7) Because we chose to make her an undead, not a fey. We don't always exactly follow the myths exactly.

8) Water.

9) Because ghosts are the only ones who have well-written stories about them where the ghosts are tragic, not evil, undead. Vampires come close... I suppose I could see a non-evil vampire out there... but not really, since with the exception of "True Blood" and "Near Dark" I can't really think of a movie or story where a non-evil vampire didn't annoy the heck out of me.

10) The Slender Man is not public domain... it's a weird situation, but the guy who created them apparently sold the rights to someone else. It's something we're looking into though! The boogeyman IS in the public domain, and you'll see him in Bestiary 3.


James Jacobs wrote:
Freiya Fireheart wrote:
Dear James: what is your opinion of this endeavor? Would you like to see something like this? If so, did I not list any features you think it should have?

There's plenty of books out there already on real-world fortifications and the like. A game book version of a book like that, in my opinion, would have to not only function as an educational look at real world fortification (complete with working stats for those fortifications), but would also incorporate magic into the mix to account for how one might fortify against foes who can fly, dragons, leprechauns, druids, balors, succubi, seugathis, and so on.

And it should have a LOT of maps. A LOT.

Thanks for the reply. I can do all of this.


Thank you for once again answering my many questions James.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Dragon78 wrote:
Thank you for once again answering my many questions James.

No problem! Tis fun!


What's your favorite Halloween candy?

Who was better on MST3K, Joel or Mike?


sorry to ask more rule questions, and I promise I can harass you with my off-topic non-sense with my next few posts, as to a question on Alchemist bombs...in particular the Stink bomb.
They do damage in addition to their extra effects? I have some players asking due to the "can chose to have it create a thick cloud of smoke when it detonates" is too similar to say, the frost bomb "can chose to have it deal cold damage". Some think it does not do damage, but makes the spell effect in the area. What is your wording on it?

and let's see.....

If you were to be given the chance to play a character with perfect stats, what would you play? would you go into any prestige classes? wierd backround? and why


I ended up playing around with the hex a little bit, but realized my first version wasn't really what I wanted. So I rebuilt it and here it is. I'm going to classify it as a Major Hex (Level 10+) for now. What do you think in terms of general power and flavor? I'm thinking of it as more of an NPC Story-Jumper hex, to be honest.

Death-Throes Spell: The most powerful hexes a witch can muster are those made with their dying breaths, for they are said to contain the full force of the witch’s awful power and their patron’s furor. When a witch with this hex dies, they can forever damn their own soul to enact this hex. A witch that uses this hex cannot be resurrected, except by true resurrection. In return, they can immediate cast a spell of their choice as part of this hex. The chosen spell must have been prepared when they were slain and it must meet at least one of the following criteria: is a necromancy (aging) spell, is a transmutation (polymorph) spell, or has the curse descriptor. The witch casts the selected spell against the creature that slayed them as part of the action to use this hex (even if the spell’s normal casting time is longer than 1 immediate action). The spell’s saving throw becomes equal to 10 + ½ your witch level + your Intelligence modifier). In addition, the witch gains a +4 bonus to the spell’s saving throw DC and on caster checks to overcome spell resistance with the spell.

If the creature fails its saving throw, they become affected by the spell normally. The spell does not affect the target’s mind in any way, shape or form; even if it normally would. “Affecting a target’s mind” is defined as any effect that possesses the mind-affecting descriptor, alters the target’s mental ability scores, or otherwise interferes with the creature’s cognitive abilities (such as altering memories or rewriting a creature’s mind). Spells that have multiple components (such as baleful polymorph) ignore the mind-altering portion of the spell and affect the subject’s body normally. In addition, the effect’s duration becomes permanent. Once affected by a death-throes curse, the spell can only be removed in one of two ways; through the use if wish or similarly powerful magic, or by completing the witch’s contingency (see below). Spells like remove curse or break enchantment can be used to suppress the effects of a death-throes curse for one minute per caster level of the spell.

Witch’s Contingency: Upon using a death-throes curse, the witch must select a single event that, when it occurs, dispels their death-throes curse. This event is treated as contingency. A death-throes creature is not intrinsically aware of their curse’s contingency, though many undergo great lengths to learn the way by witch their curse can be removed.

A creature that has been affected by this hex cannot be the target of it for 24 hours. A creature can only have one death-throes spell active on them at a time; even from multiple witches.

*Note: The aging subschool is something intrinsic to my campaign world. You can ignore that phrase.

James Jacobs wrote:
I've actually not done any real design work on witches or hexes, so I can't really offer much advice, other than that it makes sense that if you're building a hex that causes a baleful polymorph effect, it should probably be something that doesn't kick in before 9th level, since that's the earliest a spell caster could get that effect.


James Jacobs wrote:


3) We'll be keeping the NPC sections at the end of adventures for future APs.

Cool. Does this include the RotR rewrite? Any word on who'll be going in it?

How about what new maps we'll be seeing?

Any changes to the treasure? I've found that the loot itself falls real close to the WBL values, but it means the players have to personally strip down every goblin, which my players are (understandably) a little reluctant to do. How do you handle treasure in your games? Do your players tend to steal everything that isnt boarded down or do you rely on handouts?

Tangentially, do you think Thistletop drags on a little long? I remember leaving out a good half of the dungeon as my players were getting a little tired of the affair, and I've been slapping myself ever since because of all the foreshadowing on the basement level.

I've just been throwing together an annotated map this afternoon, and I think I'll be able to turn the attack on the keep into a much more fluid encounter (as it was written). I felt like popping in to hi-five you on what's a truly awesome dungeon. *hi-five*

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I just got back from watching Paranormal Activity 3. Although it was more of the same as the first two, I still enjoyed it a lot.

I have a question, is it cruel to unleash an invisible monster on my PCs, that stalks them and tosses them about just when they think it's safe to camp?


If you kill a tarn linnorm to become a Linnorm King, are you expected to present both heads to your possible subjects? Could a party of dragonslayers get away with claiming two kingdoms off one linnorm?

...Come to that, there's a low-level spell now that lets you re-flesh skeletons. I wonder if anyone's tried finding some old linnorm skull, mending it back to good condition, using that spell to make it look recently dead, and trying that hack...


DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

I just got back from watching Paranormal Activity 3. Although it was more of the same as the first two, I still enjoyed it a lot.

I have a question, is it cruel to unleash an invisible monster on my PCs, that stalks them and tosses them about just when they think it's safe to camp?

I am not James, but I think it is funny, but then again I am not the one being thrown around. :)

Liberty's Edge

Golden-Esque wrote:

I ended up playing around with the hex a little bit, but realized my first version wasn't really what I wanted. So I rebuilt it and here it is. I'm going to classify it as a Major Hex (Level 10+) for now. What do you think in terms of general power and flavor? I'm thinking of it as more of an NPC Story-Jumper hex, to be honest.

....

Nice.

Not James, but:

I think it is good as some kind of NPC special power and as a Story Jumper, not like something a player can get.
If he has to chose it as a hex he will never take them (a power that is activated when you die ...) or he could abuse it if he has access to true resurrection ("it is your 5th Death throes curse" "well, it is good to curse my enemy if I get killed").

Still it is useful to stat it to get an idea of the potential power level.


1)How many traits should a character start with?

2)Have you seen "Little monsters", "Howard the duck", or "Caveman"?

3)Who are your top 5 Actresses? Top 5 actors?

4)Who do you think are the top ten monst beautiful woman(actress, model, singer, etc.)?

5)What would you think of creatures made of light, energy, sound, or thought?

6)When a paladin smites evil and ignores DR does this include untyped or epic?

7)What would you think of a "monkey's paw" magic item?

8)Which do you like best Daemons or Qlippoths? Aeons or Psychpomps?

9)What your top 5 favorite pics from the Beastairy I? Beastairy II? Beastairy III?

10)The Wax Golem in AP#47 says it has vulnerability to fire but it's description says fire slows it? So does fire attacks do damage or just slow it or both?

11)Will there be Psychopomps in the Beastairy 3?

12)Will you guys ever reprint all the god's Heralds in one book?

13)Are there any other play tests in the near future?

14)Would you consider a spell that summons undead an evil spell? Would you consider the act of controlling undead an evil act?

15)Have you ever DMed a campain were you gave the players unusual abilities, powers, skills, tools, or advantages of any kind? if so what?


Hay James,
Hypothetically speaking how would you build a spell-less Bard?

Sovereign Court

Is Golarion slated to be destroyed on 21 Kuthona, 4712 AR?


Diego Rossi wrote:

Nice.

Not James, but:

I think it is good as some kind of NPC special power and as a Story Jumper, not like something a player can get.
If he has to chose it as a hex he will never take them (a power that is activated when you die ...) or he could abuse it if he has access to true resurrection ("it is your 5th Death throes curse" "well, it is good to curse my enemy if I get killed").

Still it is useful to stat it to get an idea of the potential power level.

That's basically what I was going for. It's more of an NPC option, for sure. I've always liked the idea of a person who curses the protagonist (or villain, as it could be) with their final breath.


DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:

I just got back from watching Paranormal Activity 3. Although it was more of the same as the first two, I still enjoyed it a lot.

I have a question, is it cruel to unleash an invisible monster on my PCs, that stalks them and tosses them about just when they think it's safe to camp?

If you have access to a few books i can tell you for a fact no!

In the forgotten realms module "shadowdale, the scouring of the land"
there is an encounter called Killers in the night(4cr above the pcs)
2 banestalkers.(invisible stalker, beasts of bane) they attack when the pcs are sleeping and target the same creature to feed on. performing a coupe de grace on a character. if he dies, 50% chance even a wish or miracle won't work to restore life.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

ANebulousMistress wrote:

What's your favorite Halloween candy?

Who was better on MST3K, Joel or Mike?

Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups.

Mike.


Can I ask a question about the website censors? How come I can say a very rude word for Mexican that I will not repeat here and a offensive term for Rromani, but I can't say b~*$#&%s? Now, I'm not saying the website doesn't need or shouldn't have a censor or that we should be able to say whatever we want. I understand perfectly why you guys don't want constant vulgarity flying around the forums. It's just a bit weird that I can say very naughty ethnic slurs without being censored and I can't say a British word for balls.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Sean Terrill wrote:

sorry to ask more rule questions, and I promise I can harass you with my off-topic non-sense with my next few posts, as to a question on Alchemist bombs...in particular the Stink bomb.

They do damage in addition to their extra effects? I have some players asking due to the "can chose to have it create a thick cloud of smoke when it detonates" is too similar to say, the frost bomb "can chose to have it deal cold damage". Some think it does not do damage, but makes the spell effect in the area. What is your wording on it?

and let's see.....

If you were to be given the chance to play a character with perfect stats, what would you play? would you go into any prestige classes? wierd backround? and why

Unless otherwise specified, I believe that the variant alchemist bombs DO still do damage in addition to the other effects. My wording is irrelevant, in any case, since most of the discoveries were not written by me. I can't remember which ones I came up with in my original draft.

There's no such thing as "perfect stats." But given the chance to play a character with, say, all 18s, I'd play a bard/fighter multiclass swashbuckly type. Because I like them!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Golden-Esque wrote:
...wrote about a Death-Throes Spell hex...

It's an interesting idea, but the flavor and effects make it work better, in my opinion, as an NPC witch hex. Effects that make it more difficult for a PC to be resurrected are also stealth ways to make players never use that ability.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Twigs wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


3) We'll be keeping the NPC sections at the end of adventures for future APs.

Cool. Does this include the RotR rewrite? Any word on who'll be going in it?

How about what new maps we'll be seeing?

Originally I thought about putting some NPC spreads into the Hardcover... but there ended up not being room for them, so no NPC sections like that in the Hardcover.

Twigs wrote:
Any changes to the treasure? I've found that the loot itself falls real close to the WBL values, but it means the players have to personally strip down every goblin, which my players are (understandably) a little reluctant to do. How do you handle treasure in your games? Do your players tend to steal everything that isnt boarded down or do you rely on handouts?

No significant changes to the treasure, no. If your players are reluctant to completely scrounge all treasure from their fallen foes, you know that going in and should change things as appropriate. In my games, my players generally do a pretty good job stripping fallen NPCs of their gear... although as they level up, they increasingly begin to ignore nonmagical gear.

Twigs wrote:
Tangentially, do you think Thistletop drags on a little long? I remember leaving out a good half of the dungeon as my players were getting a little tired of the affair, and I've been slapping myself ever since because of all the foreshadowing on the basement level.

Nope; I think Thisletop is about the right length. Whether or not it drags or goes by too quickly is something that each group will have a different response to, and it's the GM's job to know the players going in to an adventure and adjust things as appropriate.

Twigs wrote:
I've just been throwing together an annotated map this afternoon, and I think I'll be able to turn the attack on the keep into a much more fluid encounter (as it was written). I felt like popping in to hi-five you on what's a truly awesome dungeon. *hi-five*

Yay! Thanks!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
I just got back from watching Paranormal Activity 3. Although it was more of the same as the first two, I still enjoyed it a lot.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. AKA: More of the same, in this case and in my opinion, equals more quality and more entertainment. It's true that the TYPE of scares aren't as effective as they were in the first one, but the movie was still very fun and enjoyable!

DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
I have a question, is it cruel to unleash an invisible monster on my PCs, that stalks them and tosses them about just when they think it's safe to camp?

Nope! In fact, sounds like you're looking for the possession devil, which, I believe, was in Pathfinder #28 or thereabouts. (It got into the book pretty much because Wes and I got a bit too obsessed with Paranormal Activity back in the day...)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:

If you kill a tarn linnorm to become a Linnorm King, are you expected to present both heads to your possible subjects? Could a party of dragonslayers get away with claiming two kingdoms off one linnorm?

...Come to that, there's a low-level spell now that lets you re-flesh skeletons. I wonder if anyone's tried finding some old linnorm skull, mending it back to good condition, using that spell to make it look recently dead, and trying that hack...

You only need one head from a linnorm, but if you kill a tarn linnorm and DON'T come back with both heads, folks will doubt your dedication to the kingdom. The other head's RIGHT THERE? Why NOT take it along? As for two would-be kings claiming a tarn linnorm's head... they'd probably have to fight each other to the death to find out who's the REAL king to be.

Linnorm skulls aren't really all that common, and remember that if you DO pose as a linnorm king, you'll have lots of challengers who themselves might stand a chance to fight a linnorm coming up to you to have you prove to them you're powerful. AKA most cheaters don't live long in the Linnorm Kingdoms.


James,
Any chance we'll see more Nightshades in the future? I just read their chapter in Undead Revisited, and i LOVED IT!!! I've always liked them, and that chapter made me absolutely love them. It would rock if a couple of more showed up eventually.

Also,
What are your thoughts on a Gamemaster type book that is solely about ways to enhance monsters, be it with new feats, spells, PrCs, etc but really only for monsters??


Monkeygod wrote:


What are your thoughts on a Gamemaster type book that is solely about ways to enhance monsters, be it with new feats, spells, PrCs, etc but really only for monsters??

I WANT IT. I WANT IT BAD.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:

1)How many traits should a character start with?

2)Have you seen "Little monsters", "Howard the duck", or "Caveman"?

3)Who are your top 5 Actresses? Top 5 actors?

4)Who do you think are the top ten monst beautiful woman(actress, model, singer, etc.)?

5)What would you think of creatures made of light, energy, sound, or thought?

6)When a paladin smites evil and ignores DR does this include untyped or epic?

7)What would you think of a "monkey's paw" magic item?

8)Which do you like best Daemons or Qlippoths? Aeons or Psychpomps?

9)What your top 5 favorite pics from the Beastairy I? Beastairy II? Beastairy III?

10)The Wax Golem in AP#47 says it has vulnerability to fire but it's description says fire slows it? So does fire attacks do damage or just slow it or both?

11)Will there be Psychopomps in the Beastairy 3?

12)Will you guys ever reprint all the god's Heralds in one book?

13)Are there any other play tests in the near future?

14)Would you consider a spell that summons undead an evil spell? Would you consider the act of controlling undead an evil act?

15)Have you ever DMed a campain were you gave the players unusual abilities, powers, skills, tools, or advantages of any kind? if so what?

Woah... might wanna try to limit these question walls to 10 at a time (or less)...

Anyway!

1) 2.

2) No, yes, yes.

3) Actresses: Sigourney Weaver, Keira Knightley, Rachel Weisz, Jodie Foster, and Kate Beckinsale. Actors: John Cusack, Jason Statham, Clint Eastwood, Kurt Russell, and Toshiro Mifune.

4) Hmmm... Keira Knightley, Asia Argento, Kate Beckinsale, Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, Kate Winslet, Zoe Saldana, Ziyi Zhang, Mila Kunis.

5) Neat! We've got a few of them in the game already, in fact.

6) Nope. Not in my games, at least.

7) I like! That's a great story!

8) Qlippoth are the best. And Psychopomps are so much better than Aeons that I kinda wish I had a time machine to go back to Bestiary 2 to fix that.

9) Bestiary 1: Glabrezu, Yeti, Shoggoth, Shaitan, Mite. Bestiary 2: Worm that Walks, Black Scorpion, Seugathi, Giant Amoeba, Locathah. Bestiary 3: Nice try.

10) The type of vulnerability to fire the wax golem has only slows it. Doesn't do extra damage. Probably should have just said "slowed by fire."

11) Nope.

12) Maybe.

13) Nope.

14) Yes. Yes.

15) Yup. All of my campaigns. In the one I'm currently running for the office, I had a harrow reading that gave out specific bonuses and abilities (such as permanent bonuses to Will saves or the ability to reroll one save in the future).

Paizo Employee Creative Director

SquishyPoetFromBeyondTheStars wrote:

Hay James,

Hypothetically speaking how would you build a spell-less Bard?

By instead playing a rogue.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Runnetib wrote:
Is Golarion slated to be destroyed on 21 Kuthona, 4712 AR?

Nope.

At once point there was gonna be some Arcadians attacking the Shackles about that time, but we decided against it.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Vinland Forever wrote:
Can I ask a question about the website censors? How come I can say a very rude word for Mexican that I will not repeat here and a offensive term for Rromani, but I can't say b!$*!#+s? Now, I'm not saying the website doesn't need or shouldn't have a censor or that we should be able to say whatever we want. I understand perfectly why you guys don't want constant vulgarity flying around the forums. It's just a bit weird that I can say very naughty ethnic slurs without being censored and I can't say a British word for balls.

Because when we were building the website, we forgot to include that word.

That was, actually, a very surreal meeting; several of us sitting around brainstorming as many profanities and epithets and insults as we could come up with. We missed a few is all. I'll try to remember to mention it to the web team if they don't see this post already.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Monkeygod wrote:

James,

Any chance we'll see more Nightshades in the future? I just read their chapter in Undead Revisited, and i LOVED IT!!! I've always liked them, and that chapter made me absolutely love them. It would rock if a couple of more showed up eventually.

Also,
What are your thoughts on a Gamemaster type book that is solely about ways to enhance monsters, be it with new feats, spells, PrCs, etc but really only for monsters??

Yup; there's a new Nightshade coming soon, in fact, but I forget WHERE it ended up...

A book that's all about how to enhance monsters with new feats and spells and prestige classes and templates and the like is a very interesting book. Althouugh that book is already kind of being done every month with Pathfinder Adventure Path, which often presents new rules for monsters or unusual monster builds.


James Jacobs wrote:
Vinland Forever wrote:
Can I ask a question about the website censors? How come I can say a very rude word for Mexican that I will not repeat here and a offensive term for Rromani, but I can't say b!$*!#+s? Now, I'm not saying the website doesn't need or shouldn't have a censor or that we should be able to say whatever we want. I understand perfectly why you guys don't want constant vulgarity flying around the forums. It's just a bit weird that I can say very naughty ethnic slurs without being censored and I can't say a British word for balls.

Because when we were building the website, we forgot to include that word.

That was, actually, a very surreal meeting; several of us sitting around brainstorming as many profanities and epithets and insults as we could come up with. We missed a few is all. I'll try to remember to mention it to the web team if they don't see this post already.

That must have been a very fun meeting.

Although, I'm not 100% sure about the word gypsy (which is the second word I was referring to). It certainly is an ethnic slur, but it's also in common usage despite that fact, and isn't really recognized as an ethnic slur. Regardless, I'm not Paizo staff, so I don't need to worry about it. I just wanted to point out that you can get away with that particular word.


Why is the Bestiary vampire so heavily Dracula-based, yet killed by sunlight? The Stokerian Dracula was not harmed by sun exposure. Come to think of it, what's with the running water thing?


1) I am trying to create a Small Fey race usable as a choice for PC, Would winged flight 30 feet (average) be too much?

2) they want an answer from their god AKA James Jacobs

3) Expert (NPC class) should have more than 10 skills to choose as class skills, in theory, they can have 12-13 skill points at first level.

4) Am I annoying?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Vinland Forever wrote:
Although, I'm not 100% sure about the word gypsy (which is the second word I was referring to). It certainly is an ethnic slur, but it's also in common usage despite that fact, and isn't really recognized as an ethnic slur. Regardless, I'm not Paizo staff, so I don't need to worry about it. I just wanted to point out that you can get away with that particular word.

The fact that that word's in common usage doesn't excuse it from being what many regard as an ethnic slur. It's not a word I care to use in print, in any event—you'll note that in describing classic Varisians we are very careful to avoid using that word. Whether or not we can "get away with the word" isn't really a factor.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:
Why is the Bestiary vampire so heavily Dracula-based, yet killed by sunlight? The Stokerian Dracula was not harmed by sun exposure. Come to think of it, what's with the running water thing?

There's about 340,208 different vampire myths. We chose to use 20 or so of them in building the Pathfinder vampire. Some were from Stoker's novel. Some from movies based on his novel. Some from other sources entirely.

The ones we chose to go with, as it turns out, are pretty much the same ones the game's used since the start, in any event.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Void Munchkin wrote:

1) I am trying to create a Small Fey race usable as a choice for PC, Would winged flight 30 feet (average) be too much?

2) they want an answer from their god AKA James Jacobs

3) Expert (NPC class) should have more than 10 skills to choose as class skills, in theory, they can have 12-13 skill points at first level.

4) Am I annoying?

1) As a general rule... flight of any speed is too much. It's an ability that spellcasters can't use until 5th level, so giving it out as an ability at any level earlier than that is over the top.

2) I've given that answer a thousand times before, but since they're not into doing the research, I'll head over and answer again, I guess... :-P

3) Why 10? Why not 11 or 9 or 12 or 18? It's an arbitrary number in any event.

4) Nope!


James Jacobs wrote:
Vinland Forever wrote:
Although, I'm not 100% sure about the word gypsy (which is the second word I was referring to). It certainly is an ethnic slur, but it's also in common usage despite that fact, and isn't really recognized as an ethnic slur. Regardless, I'm not Paizo staff, so I don't need to worry about it. I just wanted to point out that you can get away with that particular word.
The fact that that word's in common usage doesn't excuse it from being what many regard as an ethnic slur. It's not a word I care to use in print, in any event—you'll note that in describing classic Varisians we are very careful to avoid using that word. Whether or not we can "get away with the word" isn't really a factor.

I was referring to the censors with that last sentence. In retrospect, that was pretty confusing how I put it.

Yea, it's a complicated situation. Kudos for avoiding use of the word. I prefer to use Rromani unless making a specific example, in which point I'll use it for example purposes like I did last post.


James Jacobs wrote:
Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:
Why is the Bestiary vampire so heavily Dracula-based, yet killed by sunlight? The Stokerian Dracula was not harmed by sun exposure. Come to think of it, what's with the running water thing?

There's about 340,208 different vampire myths. We chose to use 20 or so of them in building the Pathfinder vampire. Some were from Stoker's novel. Some from movies based on his novel. Some from other sources entirely.

The ones we chose to go with, as it turns out, are pretty much the same ones the game's used since the start, in any event.

Hmm. Why does there even have to be a single vampire in Pathfinder? There are lots of myths, so why not have lots of different types? You could put a whole bunch in Bestiary 3 or 4. Or publish a separate supplement filled with new vampires. You could call it Bite Me. Such an awesome name.


James,

1) Is it reasonable to allow a skeleton or zombie to apply a magic oil, which it is currently carrying in hand, on its master upon command?

2) What about the same question for an unseen servant?

Warmest regards...


Wail of the banshee; does 10 pts of damage per caster level to 1 target/2 caster levels but those closest are effected first....
does that mean that the total is limited to say...200hp divided amongst the targets? or does it do 200/target and just effects those closest first?


James Jacobs wrote:


1) As a general rule... flight of any speed is too much. It's an ability that spellcasters can't use until 5th level, so giving it out as an ability at any level earlier than that is over the top.

If it's limited (light or no armor, light load only... Limited time per day)?

*Goes to rethink about his concept*


Here a rough concept, first time Trying this.

first concept:

Mixie (pending a better name

Mixies are Fey that fled their original world in small, successive waves, they mostly hid for centuries, but have recently started to show up, having partly accustomed themselves to this strange world

Physical Description: Mixies' appearance range from looking like Elve/Half-Elves children to looking like Halflings, with wild bright colored hair, bright shinny eyes and skin colors that would fit plants more.

Society: Mixies are matriarcal by nature, their large groups tend to be well structured, those who leave the groups tend to fend off for themselves and are more free-spirited.

Relations: Mixies get along well with Gnomes, for their origins, and with Elves, for their respect of nature, they appraciate the presence of Halflings, are curious and a bit fearful about Humans and have mixed feelings for Dwarves and Orcs.

Alignment and Religion: Mixies are usually Neutral or Good, those who live in groups tend to be Neutral or Lawful, those who strike on their own tend to be Neutral or Chaotic. Mixies worship Nature itself and sometimes the god(dess)s who represent it.

Adventurers: Mixies who left their groups are a bit mischivious and aventurous, there love of Nature make them favor Druid and Ranger.

Mixie Racial Traits

+2 to One Ability Score: Mixie characters get a +2 bonus to either Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma at creation to represent their somewhat varied nature.

Small: Mixies are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.

Slow Speed: Mixies have a base land speed of 20 feet.

Low-Light Vision: Mixies can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.

Bonus Skills: At character creation, a Mixie add three of the following skills as class Skills; Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature), Perception, Perform, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Survival, Swim, Use Magic Device.

Languages: Mixies begin play speaking Common and Sylvan. Mixies with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Draconic, Elven, Giant, Gnome, Goblin, and Orc.

James Jacobs wrote:


1) As a general rule... flight of any speed is too much. It's an ability that spellcasters can't use until 5th level, so giving it out as an ability at any level earlier than that is over the top.

- Rogue pick Locks before the wizard can do it with magic.

- 1st level Barbarian could outdamage 1st level spells.
- in the Pthfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide, there is the Strix, a no racial hit dice humanoid with winged flight who is supposed to be usable as a PC (but that can be changed)

Anyway, here's the concept with limited flight:

second concept:

Mixie (again, pending a better name)

Mixies are Fey that fled their original world in small, successive waves, they mostly hid for centuries, but have recently started to show up, having partly accustomed themselves to this strange world

Physical Description: Mixies' appearance range from looking like Elve/Half-Elves children to looking like Halflings, with wild bright colored hair, bright shinny eyes and skin colors that would fit plants more, they have (x) type of wings.

Society: Mixies are matriarcal by nature, their large groups tend to be well structured, those who leave the groups tend to fend off for themselves and are more free-spirited.

Relations: Mixies get along well with Gnomes, for their origins, and with Elves, for their respect of nature, they appraciate the presence of Halflings, are curious and a bit fearful about Humans and have mixed feelings for Dwarves and Orcs.

Alignment and Religion: Mixies are usually Neutral or Good, those who live in groups tend to be Neutral or Lawful, those who strike on their own tend to be Neutral or Chaotic. Mixies worship Nature itself and sometimes the god(dess)s who represent it.

Adventurers: Mixies who left their groups are a bit mischivious and aventurous, there love of Nature make them favor Druid and Ranger.

Mixie Racial Traits

+2 to One Ability Score: Mixie characters get a +2 bonus to either Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma at creation to represent their somewhat varied nature.

Small: Mixies are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks, and a +2 size bonus on Fly checks.

Slow Speed: Mixies have a base land speed of 20 feet.

Limited Flight: 3 times per day, if wearing light or no armor and when carrying no more than a light load, a Mixie can fly at a speed of 30 feet (average) for 2 minutes/level.

Low-Light Vision: Mixies can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.

Bonus Skills: At character creation, a Mixie add Fly + three of the following skills as class Skills; Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature), Perception, Perform, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Survival, Swim, Use Magic Device.

Languages: Mixies begin play speaking Common and Sylvan. Mixies with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Auran, Draconic, Elven, Giant, Gnome, Goblin, and Orc.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
I've played in a game where one of the characters was mute, and it was frankly really pretty frustrating. Not only did it make certain elements of gameplay awkward and annoying, but worse (in my opinion) the fact that the other character was mute meant that we learned NOTHING about that character's personality. In a novel... it's different. You get to see a mute character's thoughts and all that. In an RPG, though, that doesn't work out, and so we basically just had one of the PCs in the group be little more than a stack of numbers that did a little more damage on its turn in combat. For players like me who really enjoy the interplay and interactions between the rest of the group... a mute character is a walking disappointment. Just something to keep in mind.

Noone in your group thought of the fact that there's very likely to be some sort of sign language in whatever setting you're playing in? That's the way we do it in our group. It's still a drawback, nonetheless, but it doesn't impede roleplaying in any way.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:
Hmm. Why does there even have to be a single vampire in Pathfinder? There are lots of myths, so why not have lots of different types? You could put a whole bunch in Bestiary 3 or 4. Or publish a separate supplement filled with new vampires. You could call it Bite Me. Such an awesome name.

There's not. There's a single vampire in the Bestiary, but we've detailed variant vampires several times. The nosferatu is in Pathfinder #8, for example, and the vrykoloakas is in some later Pathfinder. There's a few more variant vampires coming in Bestiary 3 as well, and there's even more variants in "Classic Horrors Revisited."

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Mr Haldol wrote:

James,

1) Is it reasonable to allow a skeleton or zombie to apply a magic oil, which it is currently carrying in hand, on its master upon command?

2) What about the same question for an unseen servant?

Warmest regards...

1) Probably. Zombies are brainless, but they do what you tell them to do. You'd just have to order them to do it is all.

2) That's probably not an outlandish use of an unseen servant. That spell' actually quite useful; I usually have one going all the time with my bard characters. At the very least, you can have them open doors for you or close doors to slow down enemies.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sean Terrill wrote:

Wail of the banshee; does 10 pts of damage per caster level to 1 target/2 caster levels but those closest are effected first....

does that mean that the total is limited to say...200hp divided amongst the targets? or does it do 200/target and just effects those closest first?

Wail of the banshee inflicts 10 hp per caster level in all. It basically starts chewing through enemies, starting with the one closest to you, and then working its way out until it only does partial damage to the last victim. This does mean that the more folks who make their saving throw to halve the damage, the further the wail gets, which is weird.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Void Munchkin wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


1) As a general rule... flight of any speed is too much. It's an ability that spellcasters can't use until 5th level, so giving it out as an ability at any level earlier than that is over the top.

If it's limited (light or no armor, light load only... Limited time per day)?

*Goes to rethink about his concept*

Limiting it doesn't really change things, apart from further encouraging parties to rest between encounters more often.

My suggestion would be to tier the flight effects. At 1st level, the race can use its wings to effectively feather fall. At 3rd level they can effectively levitate. And then at 5th they finally grow wings strong enough to fly.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Lukas Klausner wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
I've played in a game where one of the characters was mute, and it was frankly really pretty frustrating. Not only did it make certain elements of gameplay awkward and annoying, but worse (in my opinion) the fact that the other character was mute meant that we learned NOTHING about that character's personality. In a novel... it's different. You get to see a mute character's thoughts and all that. In an RPG, though, that doesn't work out, and so we basically just had one of the PCs in the group be little more than a stack of numbers that did a little more damage on its turn in combat. For players like me who really enjoy the interplay and interactions between the rest of the group... a mute character is a walking disappointment. Just something to keep in mind.
Noone in your group thought of the fact that there's very likely to be some sort of sign language in whatever setting you're playing in? That's the way we do it in our group. It's still a drawback, nonetheless, but it doesn't impede roleplaying in any way.

Learning a language requires the expenditure of skill points, and not everyone in the group had skill points to spare. Further, you can only spend said points when you level up, so when the mute character joined the game, it was several sessions before anyone had a CHANCE to do something like this. And the mute character didn't know sign language anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered.

I'm not a fan, in other words, of players building characters that enforce rules taxes on the other players just so that the group can function as it should.


James Jacobs wrote:
Elizaveta Vladimira wrote:
Hmm. Why does there even have to be a single vampire in Pathfinder? There are lots of myths, so why not have lots of different types? You could put a whole bunch in Bestiary 3 or 4. Or publish a separate supplement filled with new vampires. You could call it Bite Me. Such an awesome name.
There's not. There's a single vampire in the Bestiary, but we've detailed variant vampires several times. The nosferatu is in Pathfinder #8, for example, and the vrykoloakas is in some later Pathfinder. There's a few more variant vampires coming in Bestiary 3 as well, and there's even more variants in "Classic Horrors Revisited."

Ah. I don't buy the adventure paths, so I wouldn't know. Can't I get all the stuff from them from the SRD website? Are these creatures OGC? Let's say I wanted to collect them all in a PDF and distribute it (free of charge, of course) to other vampire fans so they have all the vampires in one handy document for easy reference? Is this allowed by the OGL?

11,601 to 11,650 of 83,732 << first < prev | 228 | 229 | 230 | 231 | 232 | 233 | 234 | 235 | 236 | 237 | 238 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Gamer Life / Off-Topic Discussions / >>Ask *James Jacobs* ALL your Questions Here!<< All Messageboards