It’s that time again! Though I failed in my sacred duty to announce the Annual Gen Con Pathfinder Cosplay Contest well ahead of time, we still had a number of unbelievably strong contenders this year, and it would be a shame not to crown one of them as the winner—a title which, in addition to bragging rights, confers $50 in paizo.com store credit. So let’s get voting!
Here’s how it works: Presented below are the photographs (and names, where possible) of this year’s contestants. In the comments thread for this blog, you can pick the ONE winner who you think has the most awesome Pathfinder-related costume and shout out your vote. You have until next Thursday at noon to get in your choices, after which we’ll announce the winner.
Your options are:
Jessica as a Gray Maiden
Leslie as Seoni
Jean-Marc as a paladin of Sarenrae and Luc as a paladin of Iomedae
Eric as our Iconic Alchemist
Bonnie as our Iconic Witch (and Corey as kilted barbarian)
Nani as a Harrower
Natalie (with the metal plates), Nicole the alchemist, Amy the ranger, Megan the pregnant sorcerer, Mike the cleric.
Illustrations by Alex Aparin and Roberto Pitturru. Widescreen version here.
Everything She Does Is Magic!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Seoni is by far one of the most popular iconics we've ever written. The classic high charisma sorcerer, she's graced the pages of Pathfinder products from the very beginning. Now she can grace your desktop along with Alhazra, the iconic oracle, in this Inner Sea Magic themed wallpaper.
So, Inner Sea Magic has been off to the printer for a few weeks now, but this is really the first chance I've had to say much more about it. And since the editors are still scrambling with various convention-season-related projects, I'll keep this blog short and just show off some art that goes with the winter witch archetype and the tattooed sorcerer archetype. It should probably be pretty obvious which one goes with which. (And also—first ever illustration of Seoni's familiar!)
So, I was out sick yesterday, and as a result missed out seeing Pathfinder #46 get sent off to the printer. Which is pretty exciting, since that volume's got more Lovecraftian awesomeness in it than anything we've done to date? The proof is in these out-of-context illustrations by Scott Purdy that are sure to get everyone thinking that the Carrion Crown Adventure Path will be taking some pretty drastic and unexpected turns! (Fans of Carrion Crown's Ustalav locations can breathe easy, though, since these pictures are from the foreword and the bestiary of the book, and thus don't actually depict events that occur in this volume's adventure.)
For some of us, Valentine's Day is just another day. We go to work, come home, maybe hang out with our significant others a bit or send the kids off to the sitter for a rare night out. For other people, however, Valentine's Day carries more significance, and flat-out demands acknowledgement. They see it as an excuse to truly cut loose, to go all-out with the romance and treat it like a real holiday.
And then, apparently, there's a third type of person: the type for whom Valentine's Day means a chance to go totally insane. Such appears to be the case with Pathfinder Tales author Kevin Andrew Murphy. How else can you explain the fact that he chose the occasion to, without any prompting or warning, write us an entire heroic crown of sonnets immortalizing the iconic characters' backgrounds in prose. (For those of you who've forgotten your 400-level literature classes, a "heroic crown of sonnets" is a specialized form of poetry in which you have 14 sonnets, each linked by their first and last lines, plus a fifteenth which is made up exclusively of the previous sonnets' linking lines, in order. Needless to say, it's incredibly difficult to do well.)
I'd say more, but I'm still processing the whole thing, so I think it's better to just post the sonnets in their entirety. Happy Valentine's Day!
The Fifteen Loves of Golarion
A Heroic Crown of Sonnets for Valentine's Day 2011
by Kevin Andrew Murphy
1. Alain, the Cavalier, "For Love of Glory" I am the one who lives to tell the tale.
The victor is the braggart of his fame,
The first to know the glory of his name
But not the last. The bards now all regale
The common folk with ballads of my deeds,
The battles won by force of my prowess,
The ransomed kings who've bowed to my duress,
And Donahan, the noblest of steeds.
Sometimes I think he is my only friend.
The men I ride with? Those I can replace.
The maids I bed? Each just a pretty face.
Yet Donahan is mine till journey's end.
If he falls first, then part of me is dead.
I've said the words that needed to be said.
2. Alahazra, the Oracle, "For Love of Truth" I've said the words that needed to be said,
For Truth is blind, and I am blind in truth.
My clouded eyes see little but forsooth
My inner eye sees clearly. I have read
The fates of men with but the barest glance.
I know the future as I know the past,
Which seeds will sprout and which of them will last,
For Destiny leaves nothing up to Chance.
It was not Chance that burned me with its fire.
The simoom's breath is but the Wind of Fate
That claimed me with its Flame. I now relate
The Fate of Love, if that is your desire:
All present loves become in days ahead
Mementos kept in memory of the dead.
3. Seelah, the Paladin, "For Love of Those Now Gone" Mementos kept in memory of the dead,
Reminders of what nothing can restore.
The wingéd helm that dead Acemi wore
Now hides my face and my unworthy head.
I feel its weight: part guilt, part gift, part theft.
Part love. She saw and yet forgave her thief,
The child who stole her helm. Ergo, my grief.
Acemi is still dead and I am left.
I have no words to say in my defense.
I know my deeds. I must have faith in grace
So now I wear her helm and take her place.
What Iomedae learned: Inheritance,
A gift of trust from those you must not fail
Now silent in the realm beyond the pale.
4. Harsk, the Ranger, "For Love of Solitude" Now silent in the realm beyond the pale,
My brother lies–and those who took his life.
I ended theirs with crossbow quarrel and knife.
The giants dead, now I alone prevail.
My kin who dwell below with bended backs
To toil at the forge or in the mines,
Or worshiping our gods at dwarven shrines,
Have my regard, and yet my brother's axe
Is all I bear away from whence I hail.
A hunter's life is love of solitude.
A Spartan camp, a pot of tea fresh-brewed
Will keep him more alert than mugs of ale.
My quarry's tracks are runes left for the sage.
I know the letters written on this page.
5. Ezren, the Wizard, "For Love of Scholarship" I know the letters written on this page,
My father charged with some impiety
Against our god, some awful blasphemy
Too dire for words, and nothing can assuage
The gossips' tongues, for rumor needs no proof.
And Abadar? The merchant god cares not
Who prospers or who fails nor what is bought.
The Golden One stays in his Vault, aloof.
I spent my youth to clear my father's name,
In quest to save the business that he built,
But in the end I only proved his guilt.
Now scholarship's the only love I claim.
Yet law for arcane law can be exchanged.
Old orders sometimes must be rearranged.
6. Sajan, the Monk, "For Love of a Sister" "Old orders sometimes must be rearranged."
So said the monks when taking twin from twin.
My sister Sajni's gone. I should begin
Describing how we came to be estranged.
We were conceived. Our lives were intertwined
Like threads of web and woof strung on a loom,
So were our limbs locked in our mother's womb.
Though born as two, we're more when we're combined.
We trained with temple swords and so time passed
Till at twelve years we each were sent away
And battle woes lost her to Jalmeray.
I left, deserting all I knew, my caste,
To seek my sister. Far too far I've ranged.
I've changed some facts which never should be changed.
7. Damiel, the Alchemist, "For Love of Change" I've changed some facts which never should be changed
And yet that is the goal of alchemy:
Quicksilver shifting, mutability.
The philosophic art just seems deranged
To those too dull to grasp aetheric heights
Or dream of fixing one's perfected form,
Not living with the dull and banal norm.
You reach out when the stars are in your sights,
Yet what you grasp may be the fulgent dark
For nightmares ride as well between the stars.
Like Shelyn's smile can hide Zon-Kuthon's scars,
The bright quicksilver sea conceals a shark,
And from the left the villain steps onstage
To let men feel the battle fury's rage.
8. Amiri, the Barbarian, "For Love of Oneself" To let men feel the battle fury's rage,
The Six Bears tribesmen donned the skins of bears
They'd taken from our totems in their lairs.
Each boy was sent to do it at an age.
We girls were told to sit inside and spin,
Awaiting a barbarian's return.
This never was a name that women earn.
I brought a she-bear's hide back to my kin.
The time came that a warband of my clan
All dared me to bring back a giant's blade.
When I returned, they mocked me as a maid.
The blood rage came. I slew them to a man.
That bastard blade I bear with me. Beware
To taste the kiss of malice and despair.
9. Seltyiel, the Magus, "For Lack of Love" To taste the kiss of malice and despair,
One needn't know the touch of love or hope–
At very least, not of an equal scope–
And pain is seldom more than one can bear,
And when it is? Well, there is always death.
My mother died the moment I was born.
My sister's cries, those spared my life that morn.
I often think she should have saved her breath.
Sioria, oh how could you divine
The babe you saved would still be here alive
Or on a feast of wormwood one could thrive.
I'll kill your father once I first kill mine.
Foul Lairsaph was a fool to teach his spawn
To walk the road with weapons sheathed or drawn....
10. Valeros, the Fighter, "For Love of Adventure" To walk the road with weapons sheathed or drawn
Is how a sellsword passes most his days.
That much at least is truthful in bards' lays.
The rest? Well yes, there is a need for brawn–
The same goes for an ox that pulls a plow–
But when your sword-arm makes some villain yield,
That's better than some plowshare in a field.
At least it's more exciting anyhow.
One day I may retire to a farm,
Grow beans and beets or brew a bit of beer,
But now I love my freedom and I hear
A distant village sounding the alarm.
If there's adventure calling, I'll be gone
To greet the hope that rises with the dawn.
11. Kyra, the Cleric, "For Love of Hope" To greet the hope that rises with the dawn,
The Crown of Our Beloved Sarenrae
Who cast the Beast below to Asmodae,
Is how a priestess prays for I'm Her pawn.
Whate'er the Dawnflower wishes I will do.
When bandits burned my village and Her shrine,
That's when I saw the face of the divine.
Through streaming tears the sun shone and I knew
The Everlight had filled me with Her power
To heal the sick and ailing with Her light
And cleanse those past redemption of their blight
By scimitar, like Dawn's Eternal Flower.
One day I'll join my goddess in the air
To live a life of joy and forswear care.
12. Merisiel, the Rogue, "For Love of Freedom" To live a life of joy and forswear care
Is what I always felt the world should be.
See something that you like? Then take it. Free!
If you don't like your lot, then folk should share.
They call it thievery, who gives a fig?
My knives can teach their tongues to be polite,
And while some think I could be more contrite
It's not like they're not working the same gig.
This knife I got from some Azlanti queen.
This one? From Galt. Belonged to some coquette
And these? From Geb. But most I just forget.
I only care if I can keep them keen.
You make life up like some bard's folderol.
I sing the songs that rise up from my soul.
13. Seoni, the Sorcerer, "For Love of Magic" I sing the songs that rise up from my soul
And write the runes appearing in my dreams.
The ones I walk with talk about my "schemes,"
If schemes they are, or just an unknown goal.
I'd like to say I like just who I am,
Yet who can say just who they are? Not I.
Or what I am, or how I am, or why.
That statement just might be my epigram.
I only know when spells wish to be wrought,
The way they say that love pulls at the heart.
Just so I feel the call of arcane art.
It springs to mind like any other thought.
I'd work alone, but I lack that control
For love and friendship are what make one whole.
14. Lini, the Druid, "For Love of a True Companion" "For love and friendship are what make one whole."
So spake the norn who whispered in the wood.
She vanished but her fey advice is good
And with it I can talk to mouse or mole.
The purest love is love you get from beasts.
My friend Droogami taught me this is true.
It's something though that I already knew.
I never bought the nonsense from the priests
About the love of gods as the most pure.
Who can believe a love you never see?
My love is for the leopard next to me
And she for me and that's what shall endure.
She's great and strong where I am small and frail.
I am the one who lives to tell the tale.
15. Lem, the Bard, "For Love of Happy Endings" I am the one who lives to tell the tale.
I've said the words that needed to be said,
Mementos kept in memory of the dead
Now silent in the realm beyond the pale.
I know the letters written on this page.
Old orders sometimes must be rearranged.
I've changed some facts which never should be changed
To let men feel the battle fury's rage,
To taste the kiss of malice and despair,
To walk the road with weapons sheathed or drawn,
To greet the hope that rises with the dawn,
To live a life of joy and forswear care.
I sing the songs that rise up from my soul
For love and friendship are what make one whole.
Crystal: Stuff from the future, huh? Sounds neat! Open it and see if a paradox destroys us all! Hedgehog.
Sara Marie: Wow! These are amazi-- ...Umm... I just heard a "click" sound. Is that bad? Porcupine.
Crystal: You've either stepped on a mine, or else let her lucky cricket out of its cage. Possibly both. I'm not certain if the cricket explodes. Hedgehog.
Sara Marie: PORCUPINE IS LEAVING THE NEST! REPEAT PORCUPINE IS LEAVING THE NEST!
...
Crystal: Sara? Sara, are you okay?
...
Crystal: SARA?!
...
Sara Marie: I'M OK! COPY THAT? I AM OK!
Crystal: Stop yelling or the cave raptors will find us again. Hedgehog.
Sara Marie: Where ever you are... Watch out! These people know how to lay traps! On the up-side, I made it out with two incredible pieces of artwork!
Just a quick reminder that this is your last chance to start getting things ready for the Third Annual Paizo Gen Con Costume Contest! For more details, you can always refer back to the official announcement, but the short version is that if you come by the booth during Gen Con wearing quality Pathfinder cosplay, you've got the chance to win both cash and cred from the Paizo staff. So bust out those sewing machines and start working!
Now, since no blog would be complete without art, here's Jenny Poussin as Seoni, her costume courtesy of Paizo messageboard regular Laithoron. It's unclear whether their powerhouse partnership will actually be competing this year, but at the very least they should give you some inspiration.
James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor
(And yes, you've seen this picture before—the question is, have you seen it enough?)
Two weeks and counting until the start of Gen Con 2010 and the release of the Advanced Player's Guide. If you have not already done so, you might want to reserve it with your FLGS or order online now. To help encourage you to pick up this hefty tome, I am giving you a guided tour of the goodies inside. In the past weeks we have looked at some new race and class material. This week we will be jumping around quite a bit, looking at feats, gear, spells, and magic items. We've got a lot of ground to cover, so let's get going.
Starting out with Chapter 3, let's take a look at feats. This 26-page chapter is loaded down with 163 new feats, from combat and metamagic feats, the new teamwork feats that grant large bonuses when you and an ally use them together. But that's not all, not by a long shot. There are a host of feats in this chapter designed to let you add to your existing class features, like Extra Rage Power and Extra Hex. There are also a host of feats based on your race, like this one.
Ironguts
You have an especially strong stomach. Prerequsitites: Con 13; dwarf, half-orc, orc. Benefit: You gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against any effect causing the nauseated or sickened conditions and against all ingested poisons (but not other poisons). In addition, you receive a +2 bonus on Survival skill checks to find food for yourself.
As was mentioned at the preview banquet, a number of the powers of the 3.5 archmage prestige class have found their way into the Pathfinder RPG as feats that most spellcasters can take. Take a look at Minor Spell Expertise.
Minor Spell Expertise
You are able to cast a 1st-level spell as a spell-like ability Prerequsite: Ability to cast 4th-level spells. Benefit: Chose one 1st-level spell that you know. You may cast that spell twice per day as a spell-like ability. The caster level for this spell-like ability is equal to your caster level in that class from whose spell list the spell is taken. The spell-like ability's save DC is Charisma-based. You cannot apply metatmagic feats to this spell.
Moving on from feats, the gear chapter is short, but jam-packed with new tools and tricks to help properly equip your character. From an Lucerne hammer to wooden armor, from an hourglass to rope made from spider silk, there's plenty here for everyone. There are also a lot of tools for each of the new classes, including the portable alchemist's lab and the witch's cauldron. What has me most excited is the wealth of alchemical items in the book. Take a look at this gem.
Weapon Blanch (adamantine, cold iron, or silver): These alchemical powders have a gritty consistency. When poured on a weapon and placed over a hot flame for a full round, they melt and form a temporary coating on the weapon. The blanching gives the weapon the ability to bypass one kind of material based damage reduction, depending on its type. The blanching remains effective until the weapon makes a successful attack. Each dose of blanching can coat one weapon or up to 10 pieces of ammunition. Only one type of blanch can be used on a weapon at one time, although if the weapon is made of a special material, that material still applies.
Next up is a rather large chapter on spells. Discounting the tables at the beginning, there are 57 pages of spells here, containing spells for characters of every class and every level. This chapter also includes the elemental spell lists for those wizards who wish to focus on elemental schools of magic. Let's take a look at a spell that I am particularly excited to use on my players. It might not be incredibly powerful, but it is a lot of fun.
Enemy Hammer School Transmutation; Level sorcerer/wizard 6 Casting Time 1 standard action Range long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level) Target one creature Duration 1 round/level (D) Saving Throw Fortitude partial; Spell Resistance yes
You grab a creature with telekinesis and use it to batter nearby opponents or objects. You must target a specific creature when casting this spell, and once you select that creature, you cannot switch to another. Each round, as a standard action, you can attempt to hurl the target at any creature or object within 30 feet of it. You must make an attack roll whenever you use the target as a weapon. The attack bonus for this attack is equal to your caster level plus either your Intelligence or Charisma modifier (whichever is higher). If you successfully hit the new target with the creature, both it and the creature take damage based on the creature's size (Fine 1d4, Diminutive 1d6, Tiny 1d8, Small 1d10, Medium 2d6, Large 2d8, Huge 2d10, Gargantuan 3d6, Colossal 3d8). The target creature can make a Fortitude saving throw each time you attempt to use it as a weapon. If it makes its saving throw, it can act normally, but if it fails its save, it loses all action for the round and ends its turn prone in a square adjacent to the target of your attack.
Finally, this book contains a large chapter containing all sorts of magic items, from inexpensive soul soap to the mighty cloud castle of the storm king. Of course, it's not all wonderful. There are a host of new cursed items to inflict upon your PCs, lurking in this book. Take a look at ring of truth.
Ring of Truth Aura moderate enchantment; CL 9th Slot ring; Weight —
Deceptively pleasant looking, a ring of truth bears images of childlike angels and broadly smiling divine creatures holding onto links of a heavy chain. The wearer of this cursed ring is rendered unable to tell a deliberate lie, in either speech or writing. The wearer may simply omit the truth or choose not to communicate, but even then must succeed on a DC 20 Will saving throw to avoid answering a direct question truthfully.
And there you go. The Advanced Player's Guide is just two weeks away now. Next week's preview will be the last before release, so we will wrap up our tour of the book by looking at the new prestige classes and new rules systems hiding in this book.
With PaizoCon just a few days away, some of you reading this blog may be thinking, "Man, I can't believe I can't make it to Gen Con and PaizoCon this year. The world is so unfair!"
While that is undoubtedly true, never fear, gentle GenConian! Because this is your official reminder that the Third Annual Pathfinder Gen Con Cosplay Contest is less than 2 months away at this point! (Shock! Gasp!)
Here's the deal: At some point during Gen Con, you show up to the Paizo booth dressed in your best Pathfinder costume. (That means monsters and characters with obvious ties to Golarion itself, not generic cosplay—that wizard hat could be from anywhere.) In addition to drawing a crowd of happy gawkers, the contestants will have their pictures taken by whatever staff members are handy. Those folks with the best costumes, as decided by us, will end up on the Paizo blog once we return from Gen Con, at which point we'll allow the posters on the messageboards to pick their favorite. What criteria that mad and merry crew will use is anybody's guess—creativity? recognizability? skin-to-clothing ratio?—but whoever they select as the best Pathfinder cosplayer will walk away with 50 dollars in store credit! But more importantly, the winner will go home knowing that he or she (or they, if folks want to team up to make a life-sized linnorm) have entered the exclusive cadre of the Paizo Cosplay Winner's Circle.
And now ('cause you knew it was coming), a note for PaizoCon attendees: While there's no official costume contest at PaizoCon this year, folks attending both cons are encouraged to bust out their costumes early and show the colors this weekend, to give the competition a taste of what they're up against. (And, of course, to get as much fun as possible out of that Hellknight armor you spent all winter forging.)
So what are you waiting for? Fire up that old sewing machine and see if you have what it takes to compete with folks like the already announced model-and-designer team of Jenny Poussin and Laithoron from the Paizo messageboards, whose amazing realization of Seoni (pictured above) is bound to set the bar high this year. But forewarned is also forearmed, and there's still time to get in on the game...
James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor and General Rabble-Rouser
My day... week... life as of late has pretty much been dominated by putting the final (-ish) touches on our next big hardcover, the GameMastery Guide. It's at that weird and exciting point right now where it's making that transition between a maddening number of .doc files and something at actually looks like a book. So between the dozens of tables, charts, stats, and hundreds of pages of advice, some pretty awesome art and incredible layouts are creeping in. While I'll save most of the really exciting parts for previews closer to this behemoth's release, I wanted to throw one of my favorite new half-page illustrations out there. For now, though, it's back to those endless tables. 100 dungeon features, here I come...
With most of the Paizo editorial staff being transplants from across the country, the holidays tend to be the one time of the year where we put aside talk of goblins and statblocks and deadlines for a few days (or at least try to). With much of the crew making treks across the country to spend a few days with much neglected family members, things might get a little spotty here on the blog up through the New Year. Even with the dedicated folks staying behind to man the walls, the holiday fever can get a little distracting, so to tide things over till January 4th, here's Eva Widermann's fantastic artwork for our 2009 holiday card. But that's it from us for 2009, everybody! Thanks to everyone for an incredible year, and do me a favor and yell at James Jacobs if you see him on the boards over the course of the next week. Happy holidays from all of us here at Paizo and we'll see you in 2010!
It's already starting to feel like a ghost town here at Paizo headquarters as the majority of the staff packs up and heads off for Gen Con Indy. With the debut of the Pathfinder RPG, we're totally excited, but also expecting the convention to be four days of absolute madness. So what are we doing? Oh, we're adding fuel to that fire, of course! There's already going to be tons of opportunities to get Paizo swag just by stopping by our booth, but in addition to the Pathfinder RPG, the annual Paizo delve, tons of Pathfinder Society Events, and way more, we're adding buttons! That's right, special, collectible Gen Con '09 Pathfinder Buttons. For as long as they last on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we'll be giving away a different button, allowing you to show your love for the grim gray maidens, those madcap goblins, or the lovely Seoni. So hurry on over to the Paizo Booth (#2312) every day to pick up the whole set!
And that's it! We're off. We'll see you all at Gen Con Indy!
Howdy Paizonians! As you may have noticed, there's been a dearth of blogs lately. You can blame that on the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, as almost all of the editorial staff (including the interns) are furiously working on getting the Bestiary ready for release and ensuring that other projects (such as the one that bears this cover!) stay on schedule. It's a busy and exciting time, but it means that blogs may be sparse for a little while. Still, Hank and I will do our best to make sure that you have something new to enjoy every day (or almost every day) here on the blog! In the meantime, here's some art! Enjoy Jesper Ejsing's awesome cover for Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #24: The Final Wish, in which a poor sitarist is skewered by a brass golem's sword.
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook is set to release on August 13th, 2009, and in anticipation, we are releasing a preview of the game each week until the game hits store shelves. This week, we are taking a look at Seoni, the iconic sorcerer.
Seoni
Female human sorcerer 10 Init +2; Senses Perception +11 Defense AC 23, touch 15, flat-footed 20; (+4 armor, +2 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 shield) hp 57 (10d6+20) Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +12 DR 10/adamantine Offense Spd 30 ft. Meleestaff of fire +4 (1d6–1) Ranged ray +7 (by spell) Special Attacks metamagic adept (2/day) Spells Known (CL 10th)
5th (4/day)—cone of cold (DC 22)
4th (6/day, 5 remaining)—dimension door, ice storm, stoneskin, wall of fire
3rd (7/day)—dispel magic, fly, haste, lightning bolt (DC 20)
2nd (7/day, 6 remaining)—invisibility, mirror image, resist energy, scorching ray, web (DC 17)
1st (8/day, 7 remaining)—burning hands (DC 18), enlarge person, identify, mage armor, magic missile, shield
0 (at will)—acid splash, arcane mark, daze (DC 15), detect magic, light, mage hand, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic StatisticsStr 8, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 20 Base Atk +5; CMB +4; CMD 19 Feats Alertness (from familiar), Dodge, Eschew Materials, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Focus (evocation), Quicken Spell, Spell Focus (evocation), Spell Penetration, Still Spell Skills Bluff +14, Climb +2, Fly +11 (+16 using fly), Knowledge (local) +9, Perception +11, Spellcraft +9 Languages Common SQ arcane bloodline, arcane bond (familiar, lizard), bloodline arcana (+1 DC to metamagic spells) Combat Gearlesser metamagic rod of empower, potion of cure serious wounds (2), scroll of greater dispel magic, scroll of wall of force; Other Gearcloak of resistance +2, headband of mental prowess +2 (Wis and Cha), ring of feather falling, ring of protection +2, slippers of spider climbing, staff of fire
Starting off, Seoni has a few precast spells, whose effects are already calculated in as part of her stat block, including an extended shield, mage armor, and stoneskin. She could increase these protections with haste, mirror image, and resist energy if given a few rounds to prepare.
As a sorcerer, Seoni can choose from one of ten different bloodlines. We chose the arcane bloodline, which is the default bloodline for existing 3.5 sorcerers as it is the only bloodline that grants a familiar. All bloodlines grant a number of bonuses as the sorcerer gains levels, such as additional spells known (Seoni receives identify at 3rd level, invisibility at 5th level, dispel magic at 7th level, and dimension door at 9th level), a bonus class skill (Seoni receives a free Knowledge skill of her choice), and a number of special bloodline powers (which we will talk about in a bit). New to the final version of the game is bloodline arcana. Each bloodline now grants a special bonus to a specific group of spells. In Seoni's case, any time she casts a metamagic version of a spell that increases the level by at least 1, the DC of that spell increases by +1 (total, not per level increased). This means that if Seoni casts a still lightning bolt the DC to halve the damage is increased to 21. Other bloodlines grant similar abilities. For example, the destined bloodline grants the sorcerer a luck bonus on saving throws for 1 round whenever she casts a spell with a range of personal.
In addition to the arcane bond ability (which allows Seoni to have a familiar), the arcane bloodline grants two additional abilities. The first is metamagic adept, which allows her to cast metamagic spells without increasing their casting time. At her current level, she can use this ability twice per day. It should be noted that quicken spell has been changed to allow sorcerers to use it without increasing the casting time, meaning that Seoni can save her metamagic adept ability for extended and still spells. The second ability is new arcana, which grants Seoni an additional spell known (she chose stoneskin).
If we were to continue to advance Seoni, she would receive a school power at 15th level, which would grant her a +2 bonus to the DC of all spells from one school of magic. At 20th level, she would undergo an arcane apotheosis, which would allow her to cast any metamagic spell without increasing the casting time and allow her to burn spell slots to power magic items that expend charges.
Moving on, we get to Seoni's spell list. There have been a few changes to some of these spells, mostly to make them simpler to use, but in some cases to increase their power a bit. Ice storm, for example, deals the same amount of damage, but now also includes an effect that makes the area difficult terrain and imposes a penalty on Perception checks.
Of all the spells in the game, none has the power to bring things screeching to a halt faster than dispel magic. Not only did this spell take a while to adjudicate, it also forced the target to recalculate a host of statistics if the spell was particularly successful. Now dispel magic requires only a single caster check, and the result is applied to all the spells active on the target. It dispels the spell with the highest caster level that it can affect. While this reduces its power a bit (although it no longer has the +10 limit to the check), it makes the spell a whole lot easier to use. Greater dispel magic still allows you to strip off multiple spells, but it too only requires a single check. It dispels one spell per four caster levels, taking out the spells with the highest caster level that it can effect. I should note that you can still use either one of these spells to target a specific spell to end that effect, allowing you to try and knock out the enemy's fly or stoneskin when it really counts.
Mirror image has also received a bit of a facelift, making it simpler to use. Take a look.
Mirror Image School illusion (figment); Level bard 2, sorcerer/wizard 2 Casting Time 1 standard action Components V, S Range personal Target you Duration 1 min./level
This spell creates a number of illusory doubles of you that inhabit your square. These doubles make it difficult for enemies to precisely locate and attack you.
When mirror image is cast, 1d4 images plus one image per three caster levels (maximum eight images total) are created. These images remain in your space and move with you, mimicking your movements, sounds, and actions exactly. Whenever you are attacked or are the target of a spell that requires an attack roll, there is a possibility that the attack targets one of your images instead. If the attack is a hit, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a figment. If it is a figment, the figment is destroyed. If the attack misses by 5 or less, one of your figments is destroyed by the near miss. Area spells affect you normally and do not destroy any of your figments. Spells and effects that do not require an attack roll affect you normally and do not destroy any of your figments. Spells that require a touch attack are harmlessly discharged if used to destroy a figment.
An attacker must be able to see the figments to be fooled. If you are invisible or the attacker is blind, the spell has no effect (although the normal miss chances still apply).
I also want to take a moment to talk about Seoni's staff of fire. Like the previous rules for staves, Seoni can cast all the spells in the staff using her caster level (10th) instead of the staff's, which is only 8th. She can also use her Charisma modifier and feat bonuses when calculating the save DCs. Staves in the new rules contain a total of 10 charges, but they can be recharged. Once per day, Seoni can expend a 4th level spell slot (the highest level spell contained in the staff of fire) to add 1 charge to the staff. Most of the staves have been rebuilt to work within these new rules.
That is about all for this week. Next week Harsk comes stomping on to the stage as we take a look at the iconic ranger. I hear he has favored terrain (the internet), so we better watch out!
We're all crazy busy here today making sure you get the awesome products you've come to expect from us. While we're at it, here's a pretty picture of the ever-popular Seoni from Pathfinder Module LB1: Tower of the Last Baron. Enjoy! :D
Back by popular demand, the second in our line of Wayne-Reynolds-designed iconic characters is the beautiful and mysterious sorceress Seoni.
Unlike the barbarians-gone-native on the eastern plateau or the colonial Chelliaxian immigrants of the south, Seoni is a native Varisian, a nomadic race whose closest real-world cultural analogue is the Romani. Or at least, she's mostly Varisian—as might be apparent from her otherworldly grace, there's something not quite human in her ancestry. Though she doesn't have any hard facts, Seoni herself has picked up on some of this, and is constantly pushed to search deeper into the mysteries of her heritage by strange dreams that she doesn't understand.
More than just ornamentation, Seoni's runic tattoos play a large role in her personality. Coming from a people where tattoo magic maintains a strong following, hers are simultaneously a manifestation of her power and a tool to aid in her castings. The sheer number adorning her skin, as well as the similar patterns woven into her clothes, are a mark of status among her tribe, though many of the so-called "civilized" residents of Varisia look upon such body modification with distaste.
Despite being a consummate adventurer, Seoni is something of an enigma to her compatriots. Quietly neutral on most matters, bound by codes and mandates that she rarely feels compelled to explain, the sorceress keeps her emotions tightly bottled. Extremely detail oriented—what the more pugnacious members of her party call a "control freak"—Seoni is a careful and meticulous planner, a schemer who frequently finds herself frustrated by the improvised plans of her more impulsive companions. Despite all of this, Seoni has stuck by her comrades through numerous tight spots, a fact that continues to amaze and confuse Valeros, who wonders loudly (although not altogether unappreciatively) about "the witch and her schemes."
As with so many things, however, if Seoni understands her motivations, she's keeping that knowledge to herself.
New Blog Entries
