Seltyiel - "evil" version


Homebrew and House Rules


Here’s another in the “If Tyler Ran the Zoo” project to create a magus class deck. This is the “evil” Seltyiel (relative to “good” Seltyiel).

Here’s the base character:
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Quote:

SELTYIEL

Male Half-Elf Magus

SKILLS
Strength d8 □+1 □+2 □+3 □+4
-Melee: Strength +1
Dexterity d6 □+1
Constitution d6 □+1 □+2
Intelligence d10 □+1 □+2 □+3 □+4
-Arcane: Intelligence +2
-Knowledge: Intelligence +1
Wisdom d4 □+1 □+2
Charisma d8 □+1 □+2
-Diplomacy: Charisma +1

Powers
Hand Size 5 □6
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons

Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6) and that card’s traits to the check.

At the end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell from your discard pile.

You may discard a spell to reduce damage before (□ or after) you act by 2.

Cards List
Favored Card Type: Weapon or Spell

Weapon 3 □4 □5 □6
Spell 4 □5 □6 □7
Armor 2 □3
Item 2 □3
Ally 1 □2
Blessing 3 □4

Players familiar with Seltyiel’s rules from the Skull & Shackles base set will notice two areas where there are distinct differences.

First, this character’s additional skills are capped at 5 instead of 7 (i.e., Skull & Shackles Seltyiel has Melee: Strength +3, Arcane: Intelligence +3, and Craft: Intelligence +1 whereas “evil” Seltyiel has Melee: Strength +1, Arcane: Intelligence +2, and Knowledge: Intelligence +1, and Diplomacy: Charisma +1). Compared to “good” Seltyiel, this version is more focused on using magic.

Second, this character has a third power, whereas Skull & Shackles Seltyiel only has two. I figured that removing two additional skills justified adding a minor power.

Overall, this version is intentionally similar to the Skull & Shackles version.

As far as the roles go, I built each around a different focus.

The first role is that of the manipulator, inspired by a lore box on page 373 of the core rulebook. This role focuses on using others to either distract the enemy or to aid in an effort while Seltyiel seals the deal.

Quote:

SELTYIEL (MANIPULATOR)

Friends and allies serve as useful tools, allowing the manipulator to complete his goals.

Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons

Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)( □ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.

At the end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell in your discard pile.

You may discard a spell to reduce damage before (□ or after) you act by 2.

□ If another character at your location would fail to defeat monster, you may discard a spell with the Attack trait (□ or a weapon) to add 1d4 (□ 2d4) and the Magic trait to the result.

□ You may recharge a spell to add 1d4 (□ +2) to your Diplomacy check.

□ For your check to defeat a bane you may discard an ally to add 1d4 plus the adventure deck number of the ally, if any.

This version is basically a bastard, tricking people into helping him or doing the dirty work for him while he gets all of the glory. The initial role power where he can add to another character’s combat check allows him to husband his resources, only using the power if the bonus will help (and not using it if the other character’s roll was too low – better luck next time, pal). He has a low ally count in his deck, so the power to enhance his Diplomacy is intended to help out a bit, further promoted by only having to recharge a spell to get it (think of Obi Wan Kenobi waving his hand to befuddle the weak-minded into helping him). All of that goes to enhancing his ability to defeat a bane (any bane, not just in a combat check). Think of Tom Sawyer roping a bunch of neighborhood kids into whitewashing the fence for him and you can get an idea of how this Seltyiel operates.

The next role is that of the hexcrafter, one of the magus archetypes found in Ultimate Magic. I wasn’t overly creative with this role, simply taking some of Feiya’s powers and tweaking them a bit (and the flavor text is a slight re-wording of the description of that archetype in the book).

Quote:

SELTYIEL (HEXCRAFTER)

The hexcrafter combines martial skill with the ability to cast magical hexes that affect friend and foe alike.

Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons

Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6) and that card’s traits to the check.

At the end of your turn, you may attempt to recharge a spell in your discard pile.

You may discard a spell to reduce damage before (□ or after) you act by 2 (□ 4).

□ When you play a spell that has the Arcane trait, you may examine the top card of your deck; if it’s a spell (□ or weapon), you may add it to your hand.

□ You may discard (□ recharge) a spell to reduce the difficulty of a non-combat check at your location by 1 (□ 2) plus the adventure deck number of the recharged card, if any.

□ If you acquire a spell that has the Arcane trait on your turn, you may immediately explore your location.

There’s really not much to say on this one – it starts out as Seltyiel and then brings Feiya into the mix. It was a distinctive archetype, though, and could be represented in the card game relatively easily (unlike a few of the other PFRPG magus archetypes).

These roles are distinct from each other and from the other Seltyiel roles I’ve presented. Any suggestions for improving this character would be appreciated.


This character is part of my custom magus class deck project. I had originally created two different Seltyiel characters for this project – a “good” (i.e., less evil) version and an evil version. In narrowing the project down to a single deck consisting of three characters, however, I removed one of the Seltyiel characters, pushing one of the roles over to the Raziya and focusing the Seltyiel roles on those that I think are appropriate for the character.

Here’s the base character:

Quote:

SELTYIEL

Male Half-Elf Magus

SKILLS
Strength d8 □+1 □+2 □+3 □+4
-Melee: Strength +2
Dexterity d6 □+1 □+2
Constitution d8 □+1 □+2
Intelligence d10 □+1 □+2 □+3 □+4
-Arcane: Intelligence +2
-Knowledge: Intelligence +1
Wisdom d4 □+1
Charisma d6 □+1 □+2

Powers
Hand Size 5 □6
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons

Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6) and that card’s traits to the check.

You may discard a weapon to reduce combat damage to you by 2.

You may recharge a spell to add 2 to your check to acquire a spell (□ or a weapon).

Cards List
Favored Card Type: Weapon or Spell

Weapon 3 □4 □5 □6
Spell 4 □5 □6 □7
Armor 1 □2
Item 2 □3
Ally 1 □2
Blessing 4 □5

The basic construct of the Skull & Shackles Seltyiel magus power remains the same. With the increased Arcane, however, Seltyiel has a better chance of recharging his spells (once he takes enough feats), so I’ve replaced the power allowing him to attempt to recharge a spell in his discard pile. He can also use his spells to augment his checks to acquire additional spells (and later weapons).

I’ve kept the hexcrafter role (it seems wholly appropriate to Seltyiel given his background) as well as the eldritch knight role (which used to be part of the “good” Seltyiel version and was based on his original incarnation as the iconic version of that prestige class).

Quote:

SELTYIEL (HEXCRAFTER)

The hexcrafter combines martial skill with magical hexes that affect friend and foe alike.

Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons

Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)(□ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.

You may discard a weapon to reduce combat damage to you by 2.

You may recharge a spell to add 2 (□ 4) to your check to acquire a spell (□ or a weapon).

□ You may recharge a spell to attempt to recharge a spell with the Arcane trait in your discard pile, adding the adventure deck level of the recharged spell to the check.

□ You may discard (□ recharge) a spell to reduce the difficulty of a non-combat check at your location by 1 (□ 2) plus the adventure deck number of the recharged card, if any.

□ If you acquire a spell that has the Arcane trait on your turn, you may immediately explore your location.

This role remains a combination of the Skull & Shackles Seltyiel base character combined with elements of Skull & Shackles Feiya’s powers, which seems appropriate for a magus that utilizes hexes in a manner similar to a witch.

Quote:

SELTYIEL (ELDRITCH KNIGHT)

Those who must face eldritch knights in combat fear them greatly, for their versatility on the battlefield is tremendous.

Powers
Hand Size 5 □6 □7
Proficient with Light Armors and Weapons

Choose a weapon that doesn’t have the 2-Handed trait and a spell that has the Attack trait. When you play one for your combat check, you may recharge the other (□ or shuffle it into your deck) to add 1d6 (□ 2d6)( □ 3d6) and that card’s traits to the check.

You may discard (□ recharge) a weapon to reduce combat damage to you (□ or a character at your location) by 2 (□ 4).

You may recharge a spell to add 2 to your check to acquire a spell (□ or a weapon).

□ When a character encounters a bane, you may display any number of spells that have the Attack trait. For each card displayed, add 1d4 and the Magic trait to checks at your location against that bane. At the end of the turn, recharge the displayed cards.

□ When you acquire a boon with the Magic trait on your turn, you may immediately discard (□ recharge) the boon to explore your location.

This role is very much a “helper” and is most useful when at a location with other characters in the party.

Any feedback in making this character better is appreciated.

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