Pathfinder 2E Paizo drops use of the word phylactery

[Blue Orange]

On behalf of Dave Pirner, have you considered "Soul Asylum"?

Yes. Destruction of the lich's soul asylum without casting dispel magic and remove curse first summons a guardian spirit known as a runaway train, a large iron golem (AC 0, MV 500" on tracks, 120 hp, #AT 1, D 10-100, MR as iron golem, AL NE) that rams through the party once and disappears.

 

[billd91]

BTW, Green Ronin did that in 2003 in Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era. "In the world of Testament, Moses is listed as a 3rd-level paladin/7th level Levite priest/10th-level prophet of the Lord." It has Israel, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.

One BIG difference here is that Testament is an RPG focused on bringing the culture and its contexts into life in an RPG context and is at least attempting to do so with due respect - not the use of one word in a villainous context.

 

[Blue Orange]

One BIG difference here is that Testament is an RPG focused on bringing the culture and its contexts into life in an RPG context and is at least attempting to do so with due respect - not the use of one word in a villainous context.

Good point there.

I'm not that attached to the lich's phylactery, FWIW. It doesn't really bug me but it was a pretty small part of the game and if Paizo wants to change the name, whatevs.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Most people have had a lot of social interaction across a pretty wide range.

I think you're being overoptimistic on both grounds.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Anyway I'm not against a CHA stat, or even Diplomacy/Persuasion type rolls to aid GM adjudication. CHA like INT in RPGs is one of those grey areas where the ability of the player inevitably interacts with the ability of the PC. I don't see that as a bad thing. If I'm playing a game, I expect my own competence to be engaged, not delegated to the PC sheet. But a high CHA can be a resource to work with, as a low CHA can be a handicap to overcome (or not).

I think that should be true about most areas, honestly; even things like combat should involve some interaction on the players part. I'm not a fan of either extreme in any area of RPG resolution (though some are trivial enough or specialized enough it may not be worth the overhead to do anything but make a roll and move on).

 

[S'mon]

I think you're being overoptimistic on both grounds.

I'm a University lecturer in London, so I accept I may be a global outlier!

 

[TheSword]

To my mind you don’t help prevent prejudice by removing references to a religion and cultures from the wider popular culture. You do it by educating people and exposing them to those cultures.

If the only phylacteries in the game were used by evil Liches then there might be a moral or social argument for renaming them. As has been said there are also phylacteries that heal wounds and help someone stay faithful. If the use in a game encourages a person to google phylactery and find out what they are in real life, all to the good I say.

I personally dislike naming conventions that mash two words together. Games Workshop was terrible for that. There are about a thousand miniatures, abilities, items or organizations that use the word blood, skull or soul paired with another word. I’d much prefer something original even if it involves creating a new word.

 

[Cadence]

To my mind you don’t help prevent prejudice by removing references to a religion and cultures from the wider popular culture. You do it by educating people and exposing them to those cultures.

If the only phylacteries in the game were used by evil Liches then there might be a moral or social argument for renaming them. As has been said there are also phylacteries that heal wounds and help someone stay faithful. If the use in a game encourages a person to google phylactery and find out what they are in real life, all to the good I say.

I personally dislike naming conventions that mash two words together. Games Workshop was terrible for that. There are about a thousand miniatures, abilities, items or organizations that use the word blood, skull or soul paired with another word. I’d much prefer something original even if it involves creating a new word.

Keeping phylactery for the healing or protective ones seems like it would have been a great choice to me too. Is the lich use the most common one in the game (an iconic monster, instead of a few of hundreds of magic items)?

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm a University lecturer in London, so I accept I may be a global outlier!

That was probably a little terse on my part. What I'm suggesting is there are a number of kinds of social interaction that simply don't come up in many people's lives, or that they actively avoid, and when they do come up its infrequent.

As an example: there are people who can go through most of their lives not having to deal with confrontation with police, potentially even on things as trivial as a traffic ticket. So when they're trying to roleplay a similar interaction with, say, a town guard, they're going to probably model it on a very different thing than a GM who has (and if neither of them have, they may both be using faulty assumptions, and in either case can be radically on a different page).

This is true of all kinds of experiences; someone who has never gone free climbing is going to likely have a very different view of how you go about it than someone who has. Its one of the reasons I find resolving many things purely mechanic-free extremely suspect; because I expect in probably the majority of cases the GM and player(s) may have very different real world experiences which is going to lead to a jarring mismatch, but one that only one of the two gets to resolve.

 

[Blue Orange]

Keeping phylactery for the healing or protective ones seems like it would have been a great choice to me too. Is the lich use the most common one in the game (an iconic monster, instead of a few of hundreds of magic items)?

I think that's probably it. Also, like a vampire's coffin, you have to find it to make sure the monster stays dead, and the monster is a common 'big bad guy', so it becomes a quest focus in a way incidental beneficial items don't.