Esse foi o sabor que não passou pela equipe de design.
Quando apareceram pela primeira vez, em Legacy of Fire 4 (que era 3.5 ), eles tinham a seguinte descrição:
A folha deles, no entanto, é muito parecida com a que obtivemos no Bestiário 2. Ele foi simplesmente convertido, as habilidades mudaram, alguns talentos mudaram, mas quase todo o resto é o mesmo.As this serpentine creature slithers forward, its body combining elements of snake, bird, and human, a visible shiver shudders through the fabric of reality. Its unblinking eyes reveal a patient and powerful intelligence, while from nowhere and everywhere at once resonates a susurrus of infectiously spreading whispers.
(...)
However, their most marked trait is the subtle telepathic whisper that constantly surrounds them, reaching out to touch the minds of those they encounter, capable of confusing the weak-minded and even temporarily altering their alignments.
Parece que essa habilidade deve estar de alguma forma relacionada à sua habilidade warpwave , mas todos os resultados na jogada (B2 é um d20, em 3.5 era um d10) são mudanças físicas no alvo. Além disso, ele tem um efeito línguas permanentemente, mas eu não consigo ver como isso é mais indutor caótico do que tentar descobrir o que este texto do sabor está falando .
Intrigado, perguntei ao autor da maioria dos materiais relacionados à planar da equipe de paizo, Todd Stewart , e esta foi sua resposta :
I think that this was a case of the original flavor text being retained, but an ability reflective of that being replaced at some point along the way. I've always played them as surrounded by that whispering aura that may or may not be talking to anyone specifically near them (and in fact it might keep talking to you in dozens of different voices, all at different volumes, all in different languages, all from different apparent points of origin including inside your own head).
I'd have to go dig up my original draft of the imentesh, but I do know that my original protean trio ended up being tweaked and reworked considerably by several others before we ended up with the final stats in Bestiary 2. I'm considerably happy with where they ended up, let me be very clear about that.
Without looking, I strongly suspect that the warpwave ability (which is amazing but takes up a lot of space) ended up replacing a few other things, including a bevy of SLAs and probably an aura that dovetailed on that fluff.
The imentesh are also one of my favorite monsters to use just in non-combat encounters with PCs. I had one of them show up in the Maelstrom borderlands and just fall in with them, badgering them about where they were going (while actively bending the landscape around them to keep them walking in circles), and then keep showing back up at odd points and insist that it wasn't them, but another imentesh altogether who'd been making an ass of themselves to the PCs.
O sabor original que ele menciona pode ser visto no livro The Great Beyond , que foi escrito para o 3.5, e descreve os planos para o cenário de campanha:
The imentesh proteans seek the same, but through subtlety and persuasion, like wandering prophets of chaos infecting minds, philosophies, and even religions.
Em Legacy of Fire , vemos que Imentesh não é que caótico, a criatura tenta discutir razoavelmente com o PC (vou tentar não estragar nada a aventura para os leitores):
As she moves to greet the PCs, trusting her shape to keep them from attacking, she watches and waits to see what the PCs do. Lahapraset’s initial goal is to determine if the PCs’ curiosity and temper are such that they would be capable of reasonable discussion, or if they are merely mindless slayers and killers. If the PCs attack, she simply regards them with an expression of mixed disappointment and anger before resuming its true form as a free action.
Existem três Imentesh no Pathfinder Cenário # 04-20 " Worlds of the Ancients , com mais informações sobre como eles se comportam quando em um grupo ou pequena comunidade. Suas habilidades são exatamente as que conseguimos Bestiário 2, embora.
E finalmente, o Ultimate Magic também oferece suporte a ideias de gostos de Todd para eles:
Imentesh (SR 21): These heralds of chaos often heed the call of binders who wish to utilize the power of proteans. In conversation they are often talkative, seemingly helpful, and polite, but they are always plotting their escape in order to unleash as much chaos as possible.
A resposta de James Jacobs , a direção criativa de paizo foi semelhante, mas também adiciona mais informações:
It was flavor that we had to cut because it was both too much to fit on a page and it was a case of flavor text not being properly supported by rules, which is a problem we had now and then a decade or so ago when we were using the 3.5 rules and still finding our feet, I guess. We probably should have toned down even further the implications that their telepathy has weird side effects before printing them in Bestiary 2.
Então, aparentemente, eles não tiveram uma boa maneira de reproduzir esse efeito naquele momento, e decidiram mudar a habilidade da criatura de fazer outra coisa, o que explica a habilidade warpwave , que quase não tinha menciona de volta em Legacy of Fire .