Creative Director
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So, actual question. How much will Sandpoint have changed in-setting from Light of the Lost Coast by the time 2E comes around?Ameiko will have done her thing in Jade Regent, but other than that, the Sandpoint in that book is as it will be in 2nd edition.Hm? I thought she wouldn't until after Return of the Runelords. Did that change?
Also, are delays in replies problematic for you? If so, I'll be more timely in the future.
Return of the Runelords deliberately avoids setting anything in the Rusty Dragon so that the GM can decide if she's there or not. But once 2E is here, all of the 1st edition APs are assumed to have happened. That includes Return of the Runelords.
Delays in replies don't bother me, as long as you keep things contextualized and remind me what was going on.
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If your character, who was a vigilante, became Blackjack, how would you feel if the GM introduced a NPC (or brought back a NPC) who took up your old identity? I’m thinking I’ll bring Trinia back in Chapter 4, having her take up the identity of the new Blackjack’s old persona, Batman and Robin style.
Depends if the GM handled it in a classy/respectful way or a lame/unfair way. AKA know your players before you do something like this, and/or talk to the player beforehand to see if they're into that sort of thing.
The black dragon Scarhorn has a brother called Black Fang. But Scarhorn and Black Fang are not their name. These are their nicknames given by humans. Scarhorn's real name is Auhlzodrue. Then what is Black Fang's real name? And how should I pronounce Auhlzodrue?
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Creative Director
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The black dragon Scarhorn has a brother called Black Fang. But Scarhorn and Black Fang are not their name. These are their nicknames given by humans. Scarhorn's real name is Auhlzodrue. Then what is Black Fang's real name? And how should I pronounce Auhlzodrue?
I'm not sure we ever gave Black Fang a real name. He died in the basic box adventure anyway so maybe he didn't deserve one! :-P
And it's pronounced: OWL-zo-droo
Too bad he doesn't have a real name. I really wish Paizo will briefly mention his real name when it eventually publishes a book that features Auhlzodrue. Anyway, I have a question. Are Scarhorn and Black Fang's parents still alive? And are their names revealed somewhere?
What were the main gods of the Jistkan Artificers and Magistrates? There’s many allusions that they were evil or at least malevolently neutral, but no mention (that I know of) of who they actually were.
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What were the main gods of the Jistkan Artificers and Magistrates? There’s many allusions that they were evil or at least malevolently neutral, but no mention (that I know of) of who they actually were.
Nope, no mention yet of this topic. We might say more some day but for now we haven't said. (And not because we know and are keeping it a secret... because we haven't actually made anything more up for them yet as far as I know.)
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Can someone with Dual Identity have more than one “Vigilante” identity by multiclassing?
I know there is an archetype that gives a Fictional identity, and you can have more than one Social identity, but I’m wondering what happens if you are a Vigilante who multiclasses into Rogue or Ninja with enough levels to take the Advanced Ninja Trick “Deep Cover”, which grants the Dual Identity class ability of the Vigilante, except the identities are Social and Ninja, or if you multiclass into Nameless Shadow Rogue, which also grants Dual Identity, or if you multiclass into Masked Performer Bard, which again, grants Dual Identity, except the identities are Social and Masked.
Rules questions should be asked of your GM first, and then posted to the rules forum or the product forum here instead. I don't answer rules questions here since the design team won't see the question, since you can't hit the FAQ button in this thread, and because too many people get confused about whether or not my rulings count or are "official" when I try to help.
BUT, yes. Your GM is going to be the most reliable and most important person to answer any questions like this.
And as I've said before, in organized play it's best to avoid complicated character builds that require unusual rules arbitration.
Dear James Jacobs,
Do you like meme and gifs? Or do you like music videos?
Suppose a player comes into contact with a more powerful devil capable of creating Infernal Contracts. The player wishes to sign a contract for "more power". The player knows fully well that there would be major drawbacks (namely, losing your soul to Hell), but does not appear to be deterred by this.
How would you handle a situation like this?
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Creative Director
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Suppose a player comes into contact with a more powerful devil capable of creating Infernal Contracts. The player wishes to sign a contract for "more power". The player knows fully well that there would be major drawbacks (namely, losing your soul to Hell), but does not appear to be deterred by this.
How would you handle a situation like this?
By using it as a chance to tell a story about how greed for power without caring about the repercussions is a bad thing. But I'd make sure the player is okay with the high likelihood that his choices would end up in perhaps wrecking his character in certain ways. If a player just wants power but doesn't want to deal with the side effects, then I wouldn't involve infernal contracts in the first place, because that's lame.
ALSO I'd try to avoid this situation setting up party strife—if the player was taking this course becasue he wanted to set up conflicts with other PCs, that's also lame.
But assuming the player AND the group had no concerns, then yeah... I'd use the Book of the Damned's advice on infernal contracts and set things up with complicated agreements inspired by my last 40-some years of reading horror stories that involve unwise bargains with devils.
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Well, I’m down on players in a group now. I only have one player. I’m thinking of buffing her. She will be a Vigilante, so I’m going to give her a few buffs for that class. Namely that 1: she gets an extra Vigilante Specialization, even if her archetype completely replaces that class ability or it normally restricts it to only one choice, and 2: rather than gaining a Social and Vigilante Talent every other level, they will be gained every level.
Is this too much? It will be for Curse of the Crimson Throne if it matters.
Whether or not adjusting the baseline assumptions for a game is too much or not enough is not something I can say. That's something each GM and their table needs to discover on their own. My only advice here is that if you DO adjust things significantly like this, make sure your player knows that you're doing an experiment and that if it ends up breaking something you'll need to adjust things back or in a different direction. Involve the player in all of these decisions, in other words—don't just make the chances and force them on someone who's expecting a game to follow different rules.
There are several sandy beaches in Sandpoint. When the tide comes in, would these beaches sink under water? For example, would Chopper's Isle be separated from Sandpoint by water once the tide rises?
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Creative Director
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Quick question about The Shroud. (Sandpoint' is an excellent sourcebook BTW.)
** spoiler omitted **
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Excellent twitch session, James. I really appreciated the insights. (If anyone didn't see it, I think it's worth checking out).
How should I pronounce Ravounel, Barzillai, Odexidie, Mangvhune, Rivozair, and Ithanothaur?
Book of the Damned tells the origin of the setting. It refers to a great mote of light as the progenitor of all life; is this the Positive Energy Plane?
In Starfinder and Pathfinder Second Edition, the monsters only have ability modifiers instead of ability scores. What is the reason behind this decision? It seems their stats are clearly missing something.
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Creative Director
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In Starfinder and Pathfinder Second Edition, the monsters only have ability modifiers instead of ability scores. What is the reason behind this decision? It seems their stats are clearly missing something.
First of all... 2nd edition isn't out yet so you can't know that yet about monsters (the playtest is a playtest for 2nd edition, but it is NOT 2nd edition).
The reason for the decision is to simplify combat and running monsters, though, with less complex mechanics than ones that force you to rebuild stat blocks in the middle of combat when a creature takes ability damage/drain, and because the only thing you normally need in combat is to know the monster's ability MODIFIER as a result, so showing it's core is meaningless clutter.
the only thing you normally need in combat is to know the monster's ability MODIFIER as a result, so showing it's core is meaningless clutter.
Why wouldn't that also be true of PCs?
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the only thing you normally need in combat is to know the monster's ability MODIFIER as a result, so showing it's core is meaningless clutter.Why wouldn't that also be true of PCs?
Because a player has only to keep track of one character the entire game and gets to spend every session getting more and more familiar and comfortable with that one character.
A GM has to keep track of a LOT more characters and they change all the time. As tough as it might be for one player to manipulate his character's stats... imagine if every time you did it you had to do it for potentially six or more at once, and that those six changed every 30 minutes or so in play.
Dear James Jacobs,
If you had a choice of running a Winter/Holiday festive adventure for low level PCs but also wanted to include Krampus, would you a) let it ride (aka make no real changes to the PCs at that level) or b) granting them temporary access to mythic power so they don't get killed if they decide to try and kill Krampus?
Also which song is better: Dropkick Murphy's "The Season's Upon Us" or The Chieftains and Elvis Costello's "St. Stephen Day's Murders"? (Feel free to ignore this if you do not want to answer.)
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Creative Director
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Dear James Jacobs,
If you had a choice of running a Winter/Holiday festive adventure for low level PCs but also wanted to include Krampus, would you a) let it ride (aka make no real changes to the PCs at that level) or b) granting them temporary access to mythic power so they don't get killed if they decide to try and kill Krampus?
Also which song is better: Dropkick Murphy's "The Season's Upon Us" or The Chieftains and Elvis Costello's "St. Stephen Day's Murders"? (Feel free to ignore this if you do not want to answer.)
I'd run a Call of Cthulhu game focusing on the Krampus myth instead of Pathfinder.
I've never heard of either of those songs. Or if I have, they made no impressions on me.
PF2 will have a new iconic Alchemist, what will happen to the old one?
^ related: will Damiel be part of what-his-name's backstory?
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Which domains and subdomains would you give Ghroth, Rlim Shaikorth, Aforgomon, or an awakened Aucturn?
I'd give them Madness and Void mostly, and then mix things up a bit. Sorry I'm not giving full details for all four, but picking out domains and subdomains for deities isn't something that's that easy to do just off the top of my head, because I like to make sure they have the best combo possible in order to both fit their themes and to give at least one domain that helps to widen their scope in some way. That's essentially design work, and I've tried to avoid doing design work in this folder for a few reasons:
1) I prefer to do so for products that'll see print, and thus will have development and editing applied.
2) I don't like "hiding" stuff like this in the messageboards, because not everyone can easily access it and if/when I publish them in a book, chances are very good I'll have completely forgotten a post here and that means that whatever I come up with on that day might be slightly or very different, which would unduly frustrate those folks who happened to see the first post. (And before anyone says this wouldn't happen... it HAS happened before, and I'd rather avoid repeating it—it's not worth the internet rage.)
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PF2 will have a new iconic Alchemist, what will happen to the old one?
^ related: will Damiel be part of what-his-name's backstory?
Just as any one table can have multiple alchemists in the party (or multiple PCs of any matching classes), Pathfinder can have multiple iconics. Fumbus, the new goblin alchemist iconic, will be the one we focus on going forward in 2nd edition. Damiel may show up here and there still in art now and then, but not nearly as often. I doubt he'll be part of Fumbus' backstory.
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Creative Director
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Who's the most positive divine figure who unambiguously represents lust/sex--not inherently dependent on love or marriage or fertility?
Not sure what you mean by "positive." If you mean "good-aligned," then Shelyn. If you mean "doesn't shame you about lust or sex" then Calistria.
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I meant good-aligned; there's no shortage of demons who are all about lust (even not counting Nocticula anymore), but it seems unpopular among good-aligned figures.
Shelyn? Really? She's the goddess of love and art, and it says in her description in Faiths of Purity: "Followers of Shelyn endeavor to make themselves beautiful, though not necessarily arousing--lust is the purview of Calistria, and while Shelyn's no prude, she knows the difference between true love and mere carnal attraction." That looks pretty inherently dependent on love to me. Am I missing something?