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Cultic Cryptomancia (PFRPG)

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Cults are a classic element in fantasy from the historical to the horrific, and the Cultic Cryptomancia explores the uses of cults of every kind in your campaign, from secret sects that live in the shadows and prey upon the weak-willed or disillusioned dregs of society to the near-forgotten relic rituals echoing down from ancient times and still practiced by scattered adherents, covens, and rural traditions handed down from the oldest folkways far from the watchful eyes of the younger gods and civilized ideals of modern society. This product is replete with rules elements to bring any cult to life, including archetypes for apostate inquisitors and sublime bards, and the Eldritch mystery for oracles containing 14 new revelations. For cultic characters of all types there are 8 new feats, from Ectastic Euphoria and Flagellant Focus to Sacrificial Summons and the dreaded Heart Ripper. Of course, no cultic product would be complete without a trove of forbidden magical mysteries, with 13 new spells including exsanguinate, torch-wielding mob, and orgiastic rite. The Cultic Cryptomancia is an ideal complement to a Gothic Adventure Path or any game where characters encounter eldritch writings, forbidden rites, and the masked, robed, or empty-eyed cultists who have given themselves body, mind, and soul to powers beyond.

Designed by Jason Nelson with the Legendary Games design team of Clinton J. Boomer, Liz Courts, Crystal Frasier, Matt Goodall, Jim Groves, Tim Hitchcock, Neil Spicer, Todd Stewart, Russ Taylor, Greg A. Vaughan, and Clark Peterson, with amazing illustrations by Tim Kings-Lynne and Colby Stevenson. Who better to provide you with creepy constructs and alternate rules for creating and using them in your Adventure Path campaign than the very writers of those adventures themselves? Answer: no one. Legendary Games' Adventure Path Plug-Ins supplement and enrich your campaign experience, offering adventures and supporting products that incorporate and expanding upon unique concepts, themes, and rules subsystems introduced in the Adventure Paths while filling in the background characters, items, and locations that make those adventures come alive in delightful (and often dangerous) detail. Legendary Games combines stellar writing talent with innovative layout and product design and top-notch artistic values that we think will bring you back again and again.

Download includes TWO files: a full color version AND a stripped printer-friendly version, both versions extensively hyperlinked internally and to online Pathfinder resources for easy interactive reference.

Check out this 14-page gothic-themed accessory and Make Your Game Legendary!

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An Endzeitgeist.com review

5/5 —

This pdf is 14 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, 1 page introduction/how-to-use, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 11 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

Cultists, as the pdf goes on to discuss, need not be evil and may spring from oppressive governments and overtly restrictive dominant cultural streams. Of course, in fantasy gaming, cults tend to be even more problematic factor, often dabbling in the demonic and strange, being often associated with the things that hail from the Dark tapestry. As such, several of these rules tie in optionally with the neat madness rules from Legendary Games' excellent Tomes of Ancient Knowledge, which imho should by now grace the virtual shelves of DMs by now. If you opt against these madness rules, you can still adhere to the standard-rules for insanity - so either way you're covered!

First, roles particularly likely to interact with cults like exorcist and infiltrator inquisitors are discussed, as are ideas like Master Spies etc. and how existing class options may interact, for wela or woe with the cults. But what are cultic options? For the purpose of this book, the poor cultists that investigators and PCs mow down get finally new options, first of which would be an array of archetypes:

First of which would be the Apostate inquisitor, a heretic among heretics who is not limited to the domains and inquisitions of his deity. He gets an array of spells that help misleading his adversaries and maintaining his cover. Against adversaries of his former faith, the efficiency of his judgments is increased even further and may even use the bane ability /the Bane Magic-feat against members of his former faith.

The Sublime Bard is particularly suited for bards that already have the demagogue archetype and may circumvent language barriers with their bardic performances, cast dream and nightmare and compel others to bring him tributes and even grants his servants/cronies bonuses and keep them fighting even when he has been knocked unconscious - a prime candidate for the role of cultist leader.

The Oracle may now take the Eldritch Mystery, which comes with 13 new revelations that include the option to join/create covens, wilder in witch hexes and major hexes, convince mobs to do your bidding, sacrifice minions to take hits or use veil to create uniform cultist appearances to protect the identities of your allies/minions. Have I mentioned that the oracle may create wooden golems to serve as his/her personal wicker men? Hell yeah!

A total of 8 feats are also part of this supplement, allowing you to enhance your spells via certain creature types and subtypes you have researched via metamagic, increasing your damage output against them, gain additional benefits from the consumption of an opiate or sexual release - the latter being especially efficient when having intercourse with something alien. Disturbing - I like it! By inflicting damage upon yourself, you may grant yourself DR, providing teh first viable mystic masochism-feat with solid rules for PFRPG - good to see, also that neither of these feats require evil alignments - I whole heartedly approve! And then there's a badass feat for monks that allows you to make your unarmed attacks more lethal and rip the hearts from the chests of your adversaries, thus preventing resurrection. Of course, sacrificing foes to power your spell focus, spell penetration and greater versions as well as directly powering your calling and summoning spells via sacrifices like that. Finally, you may benefit longer from successful intimidations.

13 new spells are also included - from 3 spells to take on an aberrant form to creating shadow magic-based angry mobs (and a version with torches...) as well as spells to drain blood and impede the cartilages, these new spells are literally all killer, no filler. Especially the greater exsanguinating spell is neat, as its mechanics potentially can tie in with The Mad Doctor's Formulary's surgery rules. Enchant fires, obscure grimoires, incite allies into a rapture that your enemies will dread and conjure up primal lusts that result in orgiastic rites - spells that are terribly cool and terrible in their results - but not their execution.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to Legendary Games' beautiful 2-column full-color standard and the pieces of full color artworks by Colby Stevenson and Tim Kings-Lynne are gorgeous and on Paizo-levels of beauty. The pdf comes extensively bookmarked with nested bookmarks, hyperlinks and an additional printer-friendly version.

Sooo....this is essentially the grand cultist's crunch-box - great class options, awesome feats, evocative spells, nothing to complain content-wise, as crunch and fluff meet in the best possible of ways. But is everything perfect? No - at least not for me - while content and production value-wise, there's nothing to complain, this pdf falls on the very short side for the asking price and the final page essentially only features a couple of lines of text.

Also, perhaps that's me, but I would have loved for at least one type of incantation or some items- they feel so culty to me. In the end, this feels like a great first part of a book and can definitely use a sequel - cultists have been woefully neglected so far and this book is an excellent addition for both players and DMs to add options to their arsenal. The only reason I'm not awarding my seal of approval is due to this one remaining the relative brevity of the offering for the asking price. Thus, I remain with a final verdict of 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

Creepy Cultic Gooodness Right Here!

5/5 —

Cultic Cryptomancia is the latest PDF from Legendary Games, covering, you guessed it, cults in gaming. It's 14 pages long, with one page for the title, one for the credits, one explaining what you can expect inside, and one for the back cover (listing various of their other products for sale). This leaves ten pages for the meat so let's get started.

First comes a section on character options, listing various classes and archetypes that would probably work best with a cult-related adventure. It's rather heavy on clerics, inquisitors (both hunting and serving a cult), oracles, and bards for phony cults, and has hyperlinks to all archetypes listed. It also has a brief section on just what different cults can be like, ranging from benevolent if secretive good-guys to the vilest of villains.

After that we get the new archetypes. There's the apostate for formerly-faithful inquisitors who've turned against their fellow believers, with altered abilities and a spell list centered around deception. This is a great archetype for either tales of internal corruption or playing a character out to change his faith regardless of the cost. There's the sublime bard for would-be cult leaders and master manipulators, which it's recommended you combine with the demagogue for even nastier effect.

Lastly we get one of the real prizes of this PDF, the Eldritch mystery for oracles. What can this one do? What can't it do? Revelations included can grant witch hexes, various bardic performances, the ability to transform into an aberration, and a multitude of cult-creating and controlling abilities. If you want to buy this PDF for any one thing, get it for this mystery.

Next come some fine cultic feats, nearly all of them with a well-done sinister air. You can make mind-altering drugs work better on yourself, cast bane spells, get a morale bonus from coupling with fey, outsiders, or (ugh!) aberrations, become a flagellant, or learn how to punch an enemy's heart out, literally.

But the best here are two feats revolving around the offering of sacrifices for enhanced magical power. Really, why DO those cults keep slicing up nosy locals and meddling tourists? When you read sacrificial power and sacrificial summons, you'll know why. Really, these are feats that Pathfinder villains should have had long ago.

And then we get the spells. First come the various aberrant form spells, which work like beast shape or monstrous form and again, they're something I've long wanted to see done for the game. There are the angry mob and torch-wielding mob spells, good for any spellcaster who wants to have some backup when they go to confront the local witch's coven or deranged mythos cult; fire charm to enthrall budding pyromaniacs; fearful rapture to both enhance your allies and terrorize your foes; demand offering to force someone to hand over whatever they have in hand, and foster hatred to get some intergroup strife going. There's the inscrutable grimoire to keep people out of your occult tomes, and orgiastic rite to, ahem, keep groups of opponents 'occupied' while you make an escape.

The two most stunning in description spells would, however, have to be avasculate and exsanguinate. The latter causes an already wounded opponent to bleed out with horrifying speed, but the former? It rips the opponent's blood vessels out and entangles both them and nearby targets with them! Now that's the kind of inventively sick spellcasting evil cults should be doing!

Really, a great PDF with lost of good and some amazing ideas within. Get it today and start making some truly horrible cults for your PCs to defeat -- or control.

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Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

Woo, come and get it! The cults are already coming to get YOU, so beat em to the punch! :)

I just put my review up! This is a great PDF.
Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

Thanks for the great review, Eric! Glad you enjoyed the Cultic Cryptomancia, and thanks also for buying from our webstore! Enjoy your discount... :)

This one looks like great fun. Five dollars seems a bit much for supplement of this size. Better start saving those pennies.
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

A minor point, hopefully, but the Sublime bard archetype replaces Versatile Performance twice, once with Fanatic Zeal and once with Manipulate Emotions.
Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
Lareg wrote:
This one looks like great fun. Five dollars seems a bit much for supplement of this size. Better start saving those pennies.

If you'd like to save a bit, head over to our webstore. The base price is the same, but if you are one of the first 10 people to buy any of our products, we'll send you a discount code for 10% off your next product, so your next purchase will be cheaper!

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
Paul Watson wrote:
A minor point, hopefully, but the Sublime bard archetype replaces Versatile Performance twice, once with Fanatic Zeal and once with Manipulate Emotions.

Fie upon slipshod editing!

My apologies and I'll post up a fix probably after church tomorrow.

Happy Easter everybody!
Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

To follow up on the above issue, keep Manipulate Emotions where it is as replacing Manipulate Emotions.

Delete the Leadership ability gained at 10th level and replace it with:

Fanatic Zeal (Ex): Any creature under a sublime's direct control (including animal companions, cohorts, followers, called or summoned creatures, or creatures acting under a charm or dominate effect) automatically gains the benefit of her inspire courage ability as long as they are adjacent to the sublime, without needing to expend rounds of performance. Controlled creatures within 30 feet are also affected by this ability, but all bonuses are halved.

At 13th level, when the sublime is killed, knocked unconscious, or permanently incapacitated by, as an immediate action he can spend a number of rounds of bardic performance equal to his Charisma modifier, triggering the effect of inspire greatness (as if he had that ability) on one or more directly controlled creatures with a duration equal to the number of rounds of performance he expended. At 16th level, a sublime can perform a similar feat, but granting an effect equivalent to inspire heroics instead. This replaces jack of all trades.

It's great to see that this is currently your top seller.

Reviewed first on Endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to GMS magazine and Nerdtrek and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop. Cheers!
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Terrific review as always, End. And I think your idea/hope for a sequel is great. I know I'd get one!

By the by, you've mentioned 'incantations' several times in past reviews; just where can I find some Pathfinder rules covering them? I'm assuming they're something third party.

Hej Eric! Thanks for your kind words - I actually do read your reviews, by the way, and consider them well-written and trustworthy, for what that's worth. :)

Regarding Incantations: They are essentially a system of ritual magic that allows anyone to use magic - but unreliably so and at a price.

The basic rules can be picked up for a measly two bucks here. (And ALL of my campaigns feature these since I stumbled across them - they made my Top Ten list of 2010. It's also quite hilarious: "The wizard MUST be behind the the recent extraplanar incursions..." - And then watch PCs gasp in disbelief when the commoner widow was behind it all...)

If you want some sample incantations cut out for you, there's also a bigger book that has some Dark Tapestry/Slavic Folklore/Voodoo-themed incantations ready, I'd suggest this one -it contains the aforementioned pdf as well.

From what I could glean of your taste, I'm willing to bet you'll like them!

Tales of the Old Margreve and several other Kobold Press-products (like Northlands) also feature incantations, so it's not a one-product-then-forget-deal.
Endzeitgeist wrote:

Hej Eric! Thanks for your kind words - I actually do read your reviews, by the way, and consider them well-written and trustworthy, for what that's worth. :)

Regarding Incantations: They are essentially a system of ritual magic that allows anyone to use magic - but unreliably so and at a price.

The basic rules can be picked up for a measly two bucks here. (And ALL of my campaigns feature these since I stumbled across them - they made my Top Ten list of 2010. It's also quite hilarious: "The wizard MUST be behind the the recent extraplanar incursions..." - And then watch PCs gasp in disbelief when the commoner widow was behind it all...)

If you want some sample incantations cut out for you, there's also a bigger book that has some Dark Tapestry/Slavic Folklore/Voodoo-themed incantations ready, I'd suggest this one -it contains the aforementioned pdf as well.

From what I could glean of your taste, I'm willing to bet you'll like them!

Tales of the Old Margreve and several other Kobold Press-products (like Northlands) also feature incantations, so it's not a one-product-then-forget-deal.

Incantations in its d20 incarnation actually first appeared in Unearthed Arcana. :)

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

I have UA but never really used the incantation rules. If it seems like there's a desire for products including them, though, I'm sure we can work on including some in future products.

I should point out, though, that as far back as the original Tomes of Arcane Knowledge, one of the rules we introduced was that any spell with the mythos descriptor or in a mythos spellbook could be cast by anyone, regardless of spellcasting ability, through the use of a simple form of ritual magic. Not exactly healthy for your sanity, of course, but you COULD do it if you didn't mind the crazies... :)
The Exchange
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Hey Jason! Big fan of your products and this one is one of my favorites, 5/5.

Recently one of my characters started getting into the business of starting a cult and deific ascension is a possibility and let's just leave it at "Poor Westcrown." Anyway, I got into developing a bit of homebrew mechanics... specifically a new subdomain.

Now, I was hoping to necro up a favorite thread of mine in the homebrew forums (Hey! All cults engage in a bit of necromancy, right?) and post this subdomain up their for a bit of peer review. I was also hoping to potentially add a page to the Pathfinder Database website.

Now, admittedly, I am not quite a master of Open Gaming Content-fu and so I am a bit lost on this subject. I was hoping one of the spells from this product could potentially be a part of this subdomain as I feel it adds a great deal to it. There are currently no plans for actual publishing on my part (though it is something I would love to get into) but I was hoping that when I posted this homebrew material, that I would also post the full text of this spell in that same post as not everyone in that thread will necessarily have this product.

Rather then jump head first into a potential debacle on my part, I was hoping you could shed some light on any rules I should follow or rather you preferred I didn't post this spell or if you would like a link to material I posted to insure it didn't go to into a place you would rather not have your material be associated with (a possibility with this material but I don't think it goes that far) or that type of thing.

Thanks for your time!
Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games
xevious573 wrote:

Hey Jason! Big fan of your products and this one is one of my favorites, 5/5.

Recently one of my characters started getting into the business of starting a cult and deific ascension is a possibility and let's just leave it at "Poor Westcrown." Anyway, I got into developing a bit of homebrew mechanics... specifically a new subdomain.

Now, I was hoping to necro up a favorite thread of mine in the homebrew forums (Hey! All cults engage in a bit of necromancy, right?) and post this subdomain up their for a bit of peer review. I was also hoping to potentially add a page to the Pathfinder Database website.

Now, admittedly, I am not quite a master of Open Gaming Content-fu and so I am a bit lost on this subject. I was hoping one of the spells from this product could potentially be a part of this subdomain as I feel it adds a great deal to it. There are currently no plans for actual publishing on my part (though it is something I would love to get into) but I was hoping that when I posted this homebrew material, that I would also post the full text of this spell in that same post as not everyone in that thread will necessarily have this product.

Rather then jump head first into a potential debacle on my part, I was hoping you could shed some light on any rules I should follow or rather you preferred I didn't post this spell or if you would like a link to material I posted to insure it didn't go to into a place you would rather not have your material be associated with (a possibility with this material but I don't think it goes that far) or that type of thing.

Thanks for your time!

Hi Xevious,

As the product is released under the OGL, any game mechanics, including spells and such, can be reproduced in other OGL products, as long as the source product is properly credited. Now I suppose a homebrew give-away product doesn't need to use the OGL, so that may not be relevant. :)

What would be nice would be if some kindly volunteer could start putting some of our spells up on d20pfsrd.com; then it would be easy to just hyperlink stuff. Hint, hint...

Email me what you'd like to use at makeyourgamelegendary@gmail.com, and I think we can work it out.
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