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One should not be happy or distressed over desirables and undesirables, knowing that such feelings are just created by the mind.
-A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
So next Tuesday* we will be launching a new book in our Alternate Paths line with a focus on “ascetic characters”. Now, what does that mean? We are focusing on characters, like monks, who focus on those who employ personal, or at least non-deific, spirituality. Many aspects of the book explore “psychospiritual” practices or “martial philosophies” (rather than “martial arts”). While not a cultural source book like Heroes of the Waves was for polynesian culture- it definitely showcases a lot of Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist influences (as well as a little new age stuff). It deals a LOT with more abstract concepts that the d20 system doesn’t often focus on; more subjective, shades of grey, interpretive material than your traditional “black and white” stuff. It’s a little more sub-system/new rules heavy than our other Alt. Path books but it’s the same great content we hope you’ve come to expect from them.
The book includes:
- Awakening System: This system allows a character to reach “enlightenment” by accepting (on a personal/spiritual level) certain universal truths. When gained, they are a vulnerability (as accepting them is painful and difficult to one’s self-identity) that, once they reach a certain level of realization, is replaced by a powerful bonus. Once several have been “realized” all realized awakenings become “Enlightenments”, as it takes the realization of many fundamental truths to reach oneness with the universe.
- Chakra System Revamp: Christos Gurd has retooled the Chakra system and made it a lot easier to implement, a lot more practice to use. If you already use the current chakra system, this one is very easy to convert over to it. There are also rewritten chakra feats and 2 chakra-based archetypes.
- Investiture System: This is a sort of replacement for the magic item system in Pathfinder, but it can be used in conjunction with it too. It allows characters to “invest” part of their own aura/soul into items to give them magical power.
- Philosophy System: This new sub-system replaces the current alignment system with philosophies (Absolutism, Nihilism, Consequentialism, Virtuism, Logicism, Machiavellianism, etc) that plays nicely with the current alignment system (so, yes, you can “Smite Nihilism” as an Absolutist Paladin). The system has optional interplay with the verbal duel system from Ultimate Intrigue. It’s very easy to use and we think that it has a more depth than simple good and evil / law and chaos morality.
- Flowmaster (Base Class): An absurdist, “drunken-master”, improvisational martial artist. Drawing from inspirations like Jackie Chan, Voldo, Bruce Lee, and many more- the flowmaster knows how to roll with the punches! You can think of them as “chaotic monks”, but that doesn’t really sum them up. They lack the supernatural powers and rather rely on their own martial philosophy and eccentricities. They are masters of improvised weapons, able to counter-strike foes with debilitating blows, and have a unique style of combat that can hurt yourself if you are unlucky or destroy your opponent quickly if you are (may the RNGs ever be in your favor...)! (d10, full BAB, 4 + Int, good Fort & Ref)
- Ajna (Base Class): The Ajna is a psychic martial character with a powerful third eye. They are competent fighters on their own but when they allow their spirit to leave their body- they become an unstoppable astral warrior. However, they have an achilles heel. They leave their body behind, unprotected, while they do this. On top of their powerful “projections”, they have 6 level psychic casting, a mastery of telekinetic martial arts, limited astral projection, and unique perceptive abilities. (D8, medium BAB, 4 + Int, good Will, 6 level psychic casting)
- Kashun (Base Class): In this book we introduce a power source we hope to harness again in the future. This power source, “Kashoom” is a pervasive “cosmic energy”. Kashun are martial artists who can contort their body like an old TV antenna to get the best “reception” of this cosmic force. They strike odd, dramatic, poses and charge their kashoom energy- unleashing it in powerful and decisive ways. This class features a host of unique poses and effects that can be generated by way of those poses.
- 3 New Archetypes: This book features an “Enlightened Barbarian” archetype, a chakra based “Vajrayana Monk”, and a support focused Ajna called a “Guru”.
- New Feats: This book includes class support feats, but also a slew of new “chakra feats”, and some thematically appropriate new feats. This includes one that grants you the ability to “detect hostility”, some stuff relating to past life regression, a Heal-centric feat that allows you to cure mental conditions, and an “Opera Style” of martial arts that allows you to “fake it” (you are more a stunt-man than a martial artist). We also bring back the Qinggong Feats from Dragon Tiger Ox and give them some love!
Formatting is not finalized but it looks like this trippy book it will be 70-80 pages long and will retail for $7.99 USD.
*We are waiting on 2 pieces of art to be finished. They are in their final revision state. Provided they are done by Sunday, the book will be out Tuesday. We have all reason to believe it will be.
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How am I supposed to stay in the black if you dang 3PPs keep publishing great stuff!
Well we try our best to do our worst to your bank account despite our low prices ;-)
is all contend put in to wiki later
Some stuff.
We tend to put races and classes up on our wiki. We don't put stuff like subsystems, weapons, feats (even support feats), etc up on our wiki. They are there as a way to let folks have access to our material, in some form, but you still get the most out of buying our material. Also- we don't have a set "release date" for material on the wiki. Typically a product has to be 3-6 months after launch and we have to have some free time to add it.
is all contend put in to wiki laterSome stuff.
We tend to put races and classes up on our wiki. We don't put stuff like subsystems, weapons, feats (even support feats), etc up on our wiki. They are there as a way to let folks have access to our material, in some form, but you still get the most out of buying our material. Also- we don't have a set "release date" for material on the wiki. Typically a product has to be 3-6 months after launch and we have to have some free time to add it.
so this product in particular wont contribute much to the wiki, since it adds so much to general player options.
Just a heads up- we have our pre-final artwork in. Everything is done and ready to go but it doesn't look like the artwork will be finalized today. I can't imagine this book being released any time later than this weekend. Please pardon the delay (I swear- this only happens when I call our release date publically).
@Scott: What Chakra system has been revised? An LRGG one?
@N-D B
We've been sitting on this for a while now. I think the first things in it were written last spring. We are itching to get it out.
@Oceanshieldwolf
The one from Occult Adventures.
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Well it looks like we are good to go- should be uploaded by this evening!
Edit: Now live ~Link~
Another fantastic addition! Always love your work; any ideas on the next Alternate Paths?
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Another fantastic addition! Always love your work; any ideas on the next Alternate Paths?
We have a few ideas but nothing formal yet. We are talking about doing something socially focus. Kind of along the lines of Ultimate Intrigue. Our next book is actually going to be a super rules light, setting neutral, wargame system along with a sample setting. All within like... 50 pages. Should be fun.
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Another fantastic addition! Always love your work; any ideas on the next Alternate Paths?
Sorry for a minor bit of thread necromancy but we just finalized our next Alt. Path book. We are, for sure, going to be doing one focused on Politics. At the moment it includes a super rules light way to integrated verbal duels into actual combat, a social class (like... castes, not character class) system, urban deities, expanded rules & lists for services (price for arranging a marriage, bribing, economic destabilization of a town, etc), rules for giving a party a train (basically- camp attendants), and stuff like that. It's got an EXTENSIVE rebuild of the noble class (doesn't look the same at all), a "legionary" which is kind of a citizen solder who climbs socially while still having some unique martial options, a "ciphere" class that is about metaphorically/spiritually being "nobody", and a "showman" who is kind of a... supernatural social character (with a bit of a circus flair- plays a LITTLE similar to like a social divatti from Gonzo 2 but is... very different).
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Looking forward to it. In the middle of running a Strange Aeons game but afterwards I am doing a heavily modified Throne of the Night campaign; camp attendants in for a Darklands Expedition sounds awesome.
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Looking forward to it. In the middle of running a Strange Aeons game but afterwards I am doing a heavily modified Throne of the Night campaign; camp attendants in for a Darklands Expedition sounds awesome.
Oooo, that'll totally fit in!
It's one of those books that you'll use in a game like that but not in like a super tactical-wargame-dungeon-crawl one (kind of like Ultimate Intrigue).
We've got a shapeshifter class (seriously- the biggest single class we've ever published and super toolboxy) and a race of sentient spells (think living spells + our arma race + Highlander) prior to that but those are wrapping up so once those are done we'll release the Political book.
I think we'll tap Rui for art on that one (the guy who did Godhand, Alt. Path Divine, etc). He's got a really "refined" style that will go with it.
Oh yeah- and we are going back to that "Civilized vs Primal" mechanic we introduced in Alt. Path Primal.
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All sounds classy- looking forward to it.
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All sounds classy- looking forward to it.
Mike and I were actually talking about it for a bit today on that "Professional Goblins" podcast we did (Shameless Plug). We're moving forward on it. We have that "stray spell" race as our next release (a race of spells embodied as humanoids who can "highlander" each other). It's being playtested atm.
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Necromancy is not my intention but I feel like this is the best place to ask- still a huge fan of your Alternate Paths books, with Ascetic Characters still in my top three, but I have a few questions/concerns about one of the classes.
So I finally got the chance to join a game that is pro-3rd party that is running Carrion Crown and I decided to role up a ajna. So far I have enjoyed the class as a balanced if unorthodox member of the party, having just leveled up twice in one session. So now I am level 3, which is great but three things:
1.) At 2nd level, on the Ajna's progression chart there is a class feature called presence of mind that I cannot actually find in the PDF; was this a scraped class feature that got rolled into the book, or is there supposed to be an actual class feature for me at 2nd level aside from Astral Warrior?
2.) The self discovery I took was mind beam which I really like but two questions- one, Mind Beam does not list a range; we have house ruled it for now to be 60ft plus 10ft per level, like everything else the class does but is their an official ruling? And two- mind beam states it is a swift action to use. While a super nice ability that sounds really strong to me so I ruled myself that it must be a standard action to use. Can you clarify if this was intentional or not?
3.) Finally, for my projection and astral warrior class features- if I am (as in my character's physical shell) grappled is my projection effected by the grappled condition as well? Does my Astral Warrior make those attacks at the grappled penalty? For frame of reference, I already had my projection out when animated cuffs found my physical shell and grappled it.
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Let me look into 1&2 but 3 the answer is yes both would have the grappled condition.
Let me look into 1&2 but 3 the answer is yes both would have the grappled condition.
Thank you!