Creative Director
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Follow-up question:
Have you ever tried keeping your backstory to a minimum at outset (or even just starting with the necessary game stats) and letting your PC's personality and backstory evolve organically as you play?If not, why not?
If so, how did it go?
I have. It resulted in a character I was much less interested in playing.
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Can a myrmidarch magus use firearms?
I say 'No' but a fellow player says 'Yes' so we need to know who gets the extra 500 GP we bet on which of us was right?
I'm placing my bet of 5c that it's a yes, RAW anyway, the only mention of a bow is in the description, everywhere else it's a "ranged weapon" which firearms fall under
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Creative Director
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The Superbowl was yesterday and the New York Giants won. How little do you care?
When the 49rs were in the running, I was interested in football for the first time more or less ever, really. Mostly because when I was down visiting my parents over the Holidays, my dad's fandom for the 49rs rubbed off on me, and then when I watched them play their next game and they won by the skin of their teeth it was really exciting. Then, next week when they lost by the skin of their teeth to the giants... my interest in football more or less immediately reset to zero.
I had forgotten the superbowl was even on yesterday as a result until I saw someone online talking about one of the moive trailers that showed during a commercial during the game as a result.
SO: How little do I care? Pretty much not at all, I guess.
Can a myrmidarch magus use firearms?
I say 'No' but a fellow player says 'Yes' so we need to know who gets the extra 500 GP we bet on which of us was right?
Your friend is now 500 gp richer. There are absolutely no restrictions on what the ranged attack can be.
Although a trebuchet is a bit silly.
Can a myrmidarch magus use firearms?
I say 'No' but a fellow player says 'Yes' so we need to know who gets the extra 500 GP we bet on which of us was right?
I'd allow it. I see no reason it'd be unbalancing, or even particularly optimized.
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Creative Director
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Well then...Updated the note here.Hey, can you tell me if Oreads have Slow and Steady?Yes I can: They do not.
Yeah... beyond wishful thinking, I'm not sure why folks would just assume that a humanoid race with a 20 ft. speed would automatically deserve and/or require "slow and steady" in order to work would even factor into the situation.
Monsters in bestiaries are not built to be "equals."
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Creative Director
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1) In an earlier post you talked about a Paladin using lay on hands while using a light shield and a one handed weapon and said something like there were three things to do in combat, but he could only choose two.
a)Keep the shield's ac.
b)Threaten with his weapon.
c)Use lay on hands/cast a spell.Now my first question is, using the above example, would I be correct in assuming that a caster using a two handed weapon can either cast a spell (with somatic components and a standard action to cast) or threaten with their weapon for that round? If so would they be able to threaten with a two handed weapon if the spell they cast was cast as a swift action?
2) In this thread we are discussing attack rolls and damage rolls when TWFing with more than two arms. Now I have been wondering how this would work out since Ultimate Magic came out, it is possible for a Vivisectionist (or any Alchemist for that matter, but makes the most sense as a Vivisectionist) to use the Vestigial Arm discovery to grow extra arms and fight with either a greatsword and shortsword (-2/-2) or two greatswords (-4/-4). Now it's not the attack rolls that i am confused about, it's the damage rolls.
Lets assume a 3th level Vivisectionist with 14 strength fighting with two greatswords. He'd have an attack of 0/0 (2 bab + 2 strength - 4 TWFing penalties) but what is his damage for his 'main hand' greatsword and his 'offhand' greatsword? I'm assuming 2d6+3 for the main hand and 2d6+2 for the offhand but I just want to check since I cannot find any rules about TWF/MWF and two handing weapons at the same time.
EDIT:
I knew I had another question.
3)The spells Spiritual Weapon and Spiritual Ally that are on the Cleric's spell list call out the wisdom modifier to be added to attack rolls, which is fine for a Cleric, but since Oracles don't actually use wisdom it's a bit more problematic... I haven't seemed to have missed an errata or FAQ for these spells allowing an Oracle to use their charisma modifier instead, so are Oracles just boned on this one RAW?
1) Correct. 2-handed weapons aren't the best choice for spellcasters who want to be able to make somatic components.
2) The game doesn't anticipate 4-armed PCs using two 2H weapons, first of all. In a case like this where it's OBVIOUSLY a very powerful combo... my gut reaction is always to side with the less optimal choice, since being able to wield 2 two-handed weapons at once is a HUGE advantage. Of course... at that point, game balance is on its way out the window anyway, so maybe it doesn't matter any more. Ask your GM. Were I your GM, I would ban the vestigal arm discovery entirely (or at leas rule that it can't use weapons, and can only do things like make somatic components or feed you potions or whatever.)
3) Oracles don't get to rewrite spells just because they have a higher Charisma than Wisdom. Some spells are, as a result, better choices for clerics.
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Creative Director
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According to Wes in another thread (which my cunning search is having trouble locating), the word Azruverda was a slight adjustment to the word Ayurveda. So it was inspired by Indian medicine/beliefs, but the concept for the creature was all new...
Which makes it an "Ask Wes" question, I guess.
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Creative Director
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As the one who wrote the entry, I can attest to this. The word sounded familiar, but I did my best to follow Wes' outline for the monster. I now feel I may have slightly missed my mark...but only slightly. I nailed bug, gardens, good, and weird. ;)
Or... maybe an "Ask Adam" question.
Oh magnificent dinosaur,
Do you enjoy PF games involving heavy use of undead as the primary enemies?
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Creative Director
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1)Will we ever see a Gazetteer for the First World? What about Numeria?
2)Are there any well known 80's movies that you haven't seen? If so why?
3)What are the odds of seeing "Classic Fey Revisited" type book?
4)Did you like James Cameron's Avatar?
5)If/when a Golarion specific small bestairy was done would it only cover the innersea, all of Golarion, or everything you guys feal like?
6)Have you gotten your netflix copy of Sucker Punch yet?
7)Do you like high brow and/or low brow comedy?
8)Wich do you prefer the Simpsons, Futurama, Southpark, or Family Guy?
9)Would you guys ever do another misfit monsters type book?
10)Do you have a favorite type of Linnorm?
1) Pathfinder #36 had a short Gazetteer about the First World. As for 64 page books about the First World or Numeria... both could easily support such a book. In fact, I think both could easily support a 320 page hardcover. Whether or not we'll ever do something about that... we'll see! (And remember: Asking me "do you think we'll ever see" questions are inherently impossible for me to answer, since I can't reveal what sorts of books we have planned beyond what we've officially announced.)
2) Yes. Because some well-known 80s movies are not interesting to me. You can replace "80s" in that with any decade.
3) See the "and remember" to #1 above. We know there's interest in a Fey book, in any event.
4) Yes.
5) It would likely focus on the Inner Sea region, since that's where the vast majority of our books focus.
6) Nope. I pretty much spent all last week writing some freelance stuff and not watching any movies, so Sucker Punch languished at the "coming next soon as you send back a movie you already have" spot all week long.
7) Both, if they're done well.
8) Currently, I like them in this order: Family Guy, Futurama, Simpsons, and then lastly South Park.
9) I'm not sure there's 10 more misfits that deserve a chance at redemption.
10) Yes. (Tarn)
1)Are there examples of some well known 80's movies you didn't see? also some you did but didn't really care much for?
2)Do you have a favorite high brow? favorite low brow?
3)What is the likely hood of seeing the Titan version of the Cyclopes from greek myth for Pathfinder?
4)Since you like Avatar, are excited about the sequal?
5)Have you seen any new movies latelly? if so then what and did you like them?
James,
You once said, of the newer role-playing games the one you were interested in trying out was Warhammer Fantasy RPG 3rd edition (the one published by FFG). Granted that was some time ago. Did you ever get to play or run it?
If so what were your impressions?
9) I'm not sure there's 10 more misfits that deserve a chance at redemption.
Browsing through the 1E Fiend Folio, do any of the following catch your interest or amusement?
C.I.F.A.L.
Dune Stalker
Enveloper
Eye of Fear and Flame
Gibberling
Jermlaine
Nilbog
Osquip (a native of Akiton perhaps?)
Qullan
Sussurus
Terithran
Tirapheg
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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I am about to be a player in Legacy of Fire and I want to pick the Duskwalker Agent trait. There is little information that I can find on Duskwalkers and the Nightstalls. Where do you recommend a player search for that info?
Can you give further information and insight on both Duskwalkers and the Nightstalls?
Depends on the campaign. But on average, I write anywhere from 300 to a thousand words of backstory for my PCs before the first session of a new campaign begins. I'm actually starting a Skull & Shackles campaign run by Rob this Friday (yay!) and I'll be making a background about that detailed for that game.O Mighty Dinosaur,
A thread I've recently been involved in makes me wonder: how much of your own characters' backstory do you come up with before the campaign begins? Do you have a detailed background prepared? Do you leave it as vague as possible so the details can evolve organically? Or do you not get to be a player enough to have an answer?
Any interest in sharing this when it's done?
1) What is your opinion about D&D's horrible Dragonspawn?
2) Are there any plans of ever creating your own dragonspawn-like creatures in paizo product? (please say no and swear on it! :p )
3) Why the Egyptian mythology monsters are so slim in the books? Is bestiary 4 going to make up for that? Scarabs, crocodile monsters and Anubites/Anubis-minions for example?
Anyway promise me that you will never follow D&D's lead and never turn everything into elemental and dragonspawn like D&D did with their new books, there aren't new monsters anymore in their new products only new varieties of elementals, goblins, hobgoblins and worse of all Drakes and Dragonspawn... that is horrid.
1) What is your opinion about D&D's horrible Dragonspawn?
What a way to lead a question.
In the Absalom Reckoning calendar I can't figure out which days of the iweek any particular day of the month is supposed to be. Was 1 Abadius, 4711 AR on a Moonday? I'm trying to make a calendar and there doesn't seem to be anywhere that actually gives this information! Inner Sea World Guide does not say.
The Superbowl was yesterday and the New York Giants won. How little do you care?
Here's a reason to care just a little bit, James: George R. R. Martin is a huge Giants fan; we can hope that he'll channel some of his ecstasy over their championship into speeding up his writing of The Winds of Winter.
A question about playtesting: when Paizo playtests an AP, do you always/often/sometimes use a set of the iconic PFRPG characters? If so, do you use the same set of iconics that appear in the art for that particular AP? Or do the playtesters stat up their own original characters?
1)Do you have a favorite victoria secrect model?
2)When you DM have you ever given your players extra feats, extra traits, stat boost, or weird benefits like fast healing?
3)Have you ever done low magic campains? if so how do you balance it?
4)Who was your biggest celebrity crush in the 80's? 90's?
5)What is the most emperasing or pathetic death a character of yours has ever had?
O Magnificent dinosaur
How closely to traditional race roles do you hold when creating places to adventure? Do you stand by tradition as much as possible, or do you like to change things up?
1) What is your opinion about D&D's horrible Dragonspawn?What a way to lead a question.
I am a little bit irritated by those horrid Dragonspawn, as in the latest 3 new D&D products in the NEW MONSTER chapters there were only new Dragonspawns and Elementals, so excuse my way of asking it, I just hope he feels the same about them so they never ever appear (or something familiar) in bestiaries.
Mighty dinosaur, have to ever read a Legends and Lairs book? Have you ever heard of their book Necromantic Lore? Have you heard of the Necromentals in this book? Did you like the idea?
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Creative Director
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1)Are there examples of some well known 80's movies you didn't see? also some you did but didn't really care much for?
2)Do you have a favorite high brow? favorite low brow?
3)What is the likely hood of seeing the Titan version of the Cyclopes from greek myth for Pathfinder?
4)Since you like Avatar, are excited about the sequal?
5)Have you seen any new movies latelly? if so then what and did you like them?
1) I think the best well-known movie of the 80s that I didn't much care for was ET, with a close second going out to Top Gun. As for ones I've not seen... yeah, but they were in genres that I don't pay attention to so I can't remember them even if they ARE well known to the rest of the world!
2) If you mean highbrow/lowbrow movies... I've never really thought of them that way, so I guess I don't.
3) 23%
4) Yes. James Cameron's movies have not disappointed me yet! ESPECIALLY his sequels!
5) Latest movie I saw was "The Grey," which I very much liked. Spent the last week or so in writing purgatory, though... but I'm gonna be seeing "Chronicle" and whats-it-called the new Daniel Raddcliffe gothic horror Hammer film soon.
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Creative Director
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If there was a Superbowl commercial for Pathfinder (that was well budgeted and was creatively directed by you), which iconic character(s) would be the star of the commercial, and which monsters? Limit two of each due to time constraints.
Merisiel and Kyra fighting goblins! And then a dragon shows up RIGHT AT THE END to eat a football.
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Creative Director
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James,
You once said, of the newer role-playing games the one you were interested in trying out was Warhammer Fantasy RPG 3rd edition (the one published by FFG). Granted that was some time ago. Did you ever get to play or run it?
If so what were your impressions?
I bought a copy of the game, and it's insides look GREAT... but I've not yet had a chance to run it. I hear it's kind of a bear to set up or run... which would explain why I've still not had a chance to get someone here to run a game, I guess.
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Creative Director
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9) I'm not sure there's 10 more misfits that deserve a chance at redemption.Browsing through the 1E Fiend Folio, do any of the following catch your interest or amusement?
C.I.F.A.L.
Dune Stalker
Enveloper
Eye of Fear and Flame
Gibberling
Jermlaine
Nilbog
Osquip (a native of Akiton perhaps?)
Qullan
Sussurus
Terithran
Tirapheg
Woah. First of all... most of those aren't open content. Second of all, a few aren't actually what I'd call misfits at all (eye of fear and flame, gibberling, jermlaine, osquip). And a few are monsters that I just really hate from a fundamental level that before we redid them, we'd rename them and represnt them in entirely new ways (C.I.F.A.L. and Nilbog).
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Creative Director
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I am about to be a player in Legacy of Fire and I want to pick the Duskwalker Agent trait. There is little information that I can find on Duskwalkers and the Nightstalls. Where do you recommend a player search for that info?
Can you give further information and insight on both Duskwalkers and the Nightstalls?
Pathfinder #21 and "Dark Markets" are the best places to look for more info—talk to your GM for resources (I don't wanna say more to a prospective player and risk spoiling something and incurring GM WRATH as a result).
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Creative Director
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Any interest in sharing this when it's done?Depends on the campaign. But on average, I write anywhere from 300 to a thousand words of backstory for my PCs before the first session of a new campaign begins. I'm actually starting a Skull & Shackles campaign run by Rob this Friday (yay!) and I'll be making a background about that detailed for that game.O Mighty Dinosaur,
A thread I've recently been involved in makes me wonder: how much of your own characters' backstory do you come up with before the campaign begins? Do you have a detailed background prepared? Do you leave it as vague as possible so the details can evolve organically? Or do you not get to be a player enough to have an answer?
Sure!
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Creative Director
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1) What is your opinion about D&D's horrible Dragonspawn?
2) Are there any plans of ever creating your own dragonspawn-like creatures in paizo product? (please say no and swear on it! :p )
3) Why the Egyptian mythology monsters are so slim in the books? Is bestiary 4 going to make up for that? Scarabs, crocodile monsters and Anubites/Anubis-minions for example?
Anyway promise me that you will never follow D&D's lead and never turn everything into elemental and dragonspawn like D&D did with their new books, there aren't new monsters anymore in their new products only new varieties of elementals, goblins, hobgoblins and worse of all Drakes and Dragonspawn... that is horrid.
1) I think they were a good idea that was taken WAY too far. And I say this as the one who designed the first few of them—these monsters first appeared in "Red Hand of Doom," an adventure I wrote about 75% of. The mandate was to include "new Tiamat-related dragons who weren't true dragons," so I came up with the razorspawn and a couple others. I think that it was a good idea that, alas, grew into a worse idea with each additional monster that got added to the line it seemed... but that 96% of what made the monsters progressively unappealing to me was the naming convention used for them.
2) No plans at this point; our naming conventions and philosophies are different enough that if we did do something like this, I suspect the results would look different anyway.
3) We've not yet announced a Bestiary 4. And Egyptian style monsters are slim because once monsters get SUPER associated with actual deities (like anubis minions) they're really hard to justify statting up in a world-neutral book like Bestiary 4.
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Creative Director
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1) What is your opinion about D&D's horrible Dragonspawn?What a way to lead a question.
Agreed. It's best to try to keep personal opinion or the like out of questions, if you want to avoid possible awkwardness... like asking a designer what he thought about something he helped launch with the initial design work. :-)
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Creative Director
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In the Absalom Reckoning calendar I can't figure out which days of the iweek any particular day of the month is supposed to be. Was 1 Abadius, 4711 AR on a Moonday? I'm trying to make a calendar and there doesn't seem to be anywhere that actually gives this information! Inner Sea World Guide does not say.
We don't really track things down to that level officially. The EASIEST solution is to start with any date, translate it into our real-world date, then build the calendar out from there.
So:
1 Abadius, 4711 = January 1st, 2011
Therefore, 1 Abadius 4711 was a Saturday. AKA a Starday.
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Creative Director
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A question about playtesting: when Paizo playtests an AP, do you always/often/sometimes use a set of the iconic PFRPG characters? If so, do you use the same set of iconics that appear in the art for that particular AP? Or do the playtesters stat up their own original characters?
Paizo does not playtest entire APs, first of all.
The closest Paizo gets to playtesting an entire AP would be (as an example) my Serpent's Skull game. I playtested "Souls for Smuggler's Shiv" during its writing with my Saturday group—we play every 1st and 3rd Saturday for about 6 hours (save for during convention and holliday season, where it drops down to something more like 1 time a month... if that!). I finished the bulk of that adventure's playtest in time to incorporate the feedback into my adventure, and since then we've kept playing the campaign. We are currently about 1/3 of the way into "City of Seven Spears." Needless to say, it's no longer a playtest and is simply play.
Playtests of adventures are, in fact, the responsibility of the adventure's author.
What takes the place of playtests during an adventure's production cycle once the author turns the manuscript over to us is called "Development." That's when a developer (such as me, Rob, Wes, Mark, Patrick, or whoever) goes through the adventure word by word editing and revising and fixing rules and fixing plot holes and rewriting as necessary to improve the readability and playability of the adventure.
That said... now and then we DO playtest complex encounters or other strange elements. In which case we generally just use the iconics, using their stats from previous publications (we never really bother to use the ones we used to illustrate a volume, but instead use the ones we like the most—I always use Merisiel, for example.)
What monster scares you the most?
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Creative Director
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1)Do you have a favorite victoria secrect model?
2)When you DM have you ever given your players extra feats, extra traits, stat boost, or weird benefits like fast healing?
3)Have you ever done low magic campains? if so how do you balance it?
4)Who was your biggest celebrity crush in the 80's? 90's?
5)What is the most emperasing or pathetic death a character of yours has ever had?
1) Nope.
2) Yes, often. Things like that are GREAT awards and prizes for things in place of just more treasure for particularly important or unusual encounters.
3) Not as often as I want, or as often enough that I've ever really had to do extensive balancing.
4) 80s would have been my high-school years, so that probably would have been Wynona Ryder... although some of those Solid Gold dancers were HOT! Ha... Solid Gold. Aaaah, the 80s. 90s would have been my college years, so that would have probably been Gillian Anderson. Since I'm a nerd and all, after all.
5) A river-worshiping druid of Isis fell into a river and was killed by a water elemental. Doh.
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Creative Director
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O Magnificent dinosaur
How closely to traditional race roles do you hold when creating places to adventure? Do you stand by tradition as much as possible, or do you like to change things up?
I prefer tradition. No arboreal dwarves or brooding gothy halflings in my games, as a general rule. When I DO break tradition, it's on a specific eccentric character by eccentric character basis.
I prefer tradition. No arboreal dwarves or brooding gothy halflings in my games, as a general rule. When I DO break tradition, it's on a specific eccentric character by eccentric character basis.O Magnificent dinosaur
How closely to traditional race roles do you hold when creating places to adventure? Do you stand by tradition as much as possible, or do you like to change things up?
I like to mix tradition and new ideas together instead of preferring one over the other. For example, in my world dwarves do often live underground, some in mountains, some in caves below sea level. This is pretty traditional. However, I see the reason that dwarves do this as being a skill with architecture, and they use this skill in many environments, not just underground. There are tree dwarves who suspend cities between hundreds of trees, and some never step foot on the ground, spending their whole lives in these treetop communities. Other dwarves live on ships that are floating cities, capable of sustaining entire communities at sea for generations and constantly under some sort of construction.
Basically, instead of making these tree dwarves or sea dwarves to be edgy and non-traditional, I take the traditional dwarves and add non-traditional dwarves to the mix, so that both traditional and non-traditional forms of the race exist side by side.
Do you like this sort of approach?
Do you have a problem with 3.5's endless subraces for player races, such as wood elves and desert elves and arctic elves and so on?
Do you like Scooby Snacks?
What monster scares you the most?Changes all the time... currently? Creepy dogs with braids.
Reepy rogs with raids?! Where?! Where?!
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Creative Director
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I like to mix tradition and new ideas together instead of preferring one over the other. For example, in my world dwarves do often live underground, some in mountains, some in caves below sea level. This is pretty traditional. However, I see the reason that dwarves do this as being a skill with architecture, and they use this skill in many environments, not just underground. There are tree dwarves who suspend cities between hundreds of trees, and some never step foot on the ground, spending their whole lives in these treetop communities. Other dwarves live on ships that are floating cities, capable of sustaining entire communities at sea for generations and constantly under some sort of construction.
Basically, instead of making these tree dwarves or sea dwarves to be edgy and non-traditional, I take the traditional dwarves and add non-traditional dwarves to the mix, so that both traditional and non-traditional forms of the race exist side by side.
Do you like this sort of approach?
Do you have a problem with 3.5's endless subraces for player races, such as wood elves and desert elves and arctic elves and so on?
Depends on the race—some races are, in my opinion, easier and more intersting to adjust expectations with. Dwarves are not one of those races to me.
I don't have a problem with endless subrace options for PCs, but I do kind of have a problem with them if they're in the same game world. I much prefer the approach we've taken, where "subraces" are instead "ethnicities" who generally don't have much in the way of differences as far as statistics are concerned, but are VERY different in appearance and culture.
I like to mix tradition and new ideas together instead of preferring one over the other. For example, in my world dwarves do often live underground, some in mountains, some in caves below sea level. This is pretty traditional. However, I see the reason that dwarves do this as being a skill with architecture, and they use this skill in many environments, not just underground. There are tree dwarves who suspend cities between hundreds of trees, and some never step foot on the ground, spending their whole lives in these treetop communities. Other dwarves live on ships that are floating cities, capable of sustaining entire communities at sea for generations and constantly under some sort of construction.
Basically, instead of making these tree dwarves or sea dwarves to be edgy and non-traditional, I take the traditional dwarves and add non-traditional dwarves to the mix, so that both traditional and non-traditional forms of the race exist side by side.
Do you like this sort of approach?
Do you have a problem with 3.5's endless subraces for player races, such as wood elves and desert elves and arctic elves and so on?
Depends on the race—some races are, in my opinion, easier and more intersting to adjust expectations with. Dwarves are not one of those races to me.
I don't have a problem with endless subrace options for PCs, but I do kind of have a problem with them if they're in the same game world. I much prefer the approach we've taken, where "subraces" are instead "ethnicities" who generally don't have much in the way of differences as far as statistics are concerned, but are VERY different in appearance and culture.
I don't smash expectations completely. The underground-dwelling, clannish dwarves one expects still exist, and if you want to play one, they are 100% playable. I just add variations I think would be interesting, because I think the dwarven race really needs a bit of variety to make it more interesting. I really want dwarves to have something besides the traditional things they've always had.
We seem to be on agreement when it comes to subraces. I have numerous ones for dwarves, but they all share identical mechanics. It's lifestyles that make my subraces different. I'm glad Pathfinder is like this. I don't want to see elven subraces for every terrain. That annoyed me in 3.5.
On the elf subraces, I kind of agree. 2nd edition had High, Grey, Sea, and Wild elves, and then FR had Avariel (winged elves). That's enough IMO.
That said, what do you think of Avariel? Is there anything like them in Golarion?
Oh and on an unrelated note, I know that now with the creation of Tattooed Sorcerers in Inner Sea Magic Seoni would be one, but curious what bloodline is she (probably has been asked before)?
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So I think my group and I have been letting dwarves get away with carrying far more than they really can without penalties.
"Slow and Steady: Dwarves have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance."
Previously, we had interpreted this to mean that a Dwarf cannot be encumbered, but now I think that is wrong. All it says here is that their speed cant be lowered because of encumbrance or from wearing a heavy armor.
Furthermore, when looking at the 'Encumbrance Effects' chart on the PRD, 'Run' isnt listed under the 'Speed' heading, only the base 30ft movement and base 20ft movement are. To me, that appears to say that while wearing heavier armor and being encumbered wouldnt lower their speed from 20 to 15ft or 10ft, it WILL lower how far they can Run during a full-round action.
Here are the definitions for Run (x3 and x4) for reference:
"Run (×3): Moving three times speed is a running pace for a character in heavy armor (about 7 miles per hour for a human in full plate).
Run (×4): Moving four times speed is a running pace for a character in light, medium, or no armor ( about 12 miles per hour for an unencumbered human, or 9 miles per hour for a human in chainmail) See Table: Movement and Distance for details."
So based on the wording, I believe that:
A) A dwarf carrying more than their light load does take the check penalties for being encumbered, just like anyone else.
B) A dwarf who is suffering from those encumbrance penalties would only be able to Run at x3 speed.
What say you, Almighty Tyrannosaurus-Who-Can-Type?