Shadow Piercing vs Magical Tattoo costs


Rules Questions


So I was looking at all the Item Creation Feats, reading the ones I didn't know, and I was on Craft Shadow Piercing. It's for evil characters, but I noticed something odd in it. It says:

"Since shadow piercings don’t interfere with other magic items in the same slot, but can only have one piercing per slot, the base price is multiplied by 1.5 instead of doubled as if they had no space limitation."

But Magical Tattoos, which also don't interfere with items in the same slot and also limit you to one tattoo per slot, have their prices doubled, as if they were slotless.

Shadow Piercings don't have anything that limits them from doing everything a Wondrous Item - or a Magical Tattoo - can, if I'm not reading this incorrectly, so they have the same capabilities.

The Shadow Piercing rules are from Champions of Corruption, a 2014 book, while the Magical Tattoo rules are from Inner Sea Magic, a 2011 book, so I would assume the rulesmiths have thought more on the value of one extra slot. I looked around, and couldn't find an FAQ or errata on this topic. Is there one, and I'm not finding it? If not, would you apply the standards of the later book, and knock the tattoo costs down to a 1.5 multiplier?


1st: nothing in Craft Shadow Piercing requires evil

2nd, I assume the 1.5 cost is because it gives you [slot +1] instead of actual slotless. As a house-rule, I don't think there would be an issue with tattoo also having 1.5 cost. As a rule though, there is no FAQ, errata or general rule for changing the cost that I know of.


graystone wrote:

1st: nothing in Craft Shadow Piercing requires evil

2nd, I assume the 1.5 cost is because it gives you [slot +1] instead of actual slotless. As a house-rule, I don't think there would be an issue with tattoo also having 1.5 cost. As a rule though, there is no FAQ, errata or general rule for changing the cost that I know of.

Thanks, I thought it might have slipped through the cracks. I'll run it past my GM.

And while nothing in Craft Shadow Piercing requires evil... when you look at the fluff instead of the crunch, we get stuff like this:

Champions of Corruption wrote:

Many who embrace evil want to reflect that decision in their appearance, not simply stand out from normal society. Look for true evil among those who revel in showing the world their rotten core by butchering their flesh in devotion to their evil ways or branding their foreheads with their foul deity’s symbol.

...

Nidalese Shadow Piercings: True Nidalese savor pain, and they proudly wear this delight in the torturous piercing of their bodies. Shadow piercers are some of the most skilled pain artisans in Nidal’s depraved culture. They create magical pieces of jewelry, formed partially of shadowstuff, and use them in all manner of surface piercings for their discerning clients.

And while most of that can be rationalised by saying the same designs could be used by a masochist (since I'm pretty sure it's implied that they continue to cause pain the entire time you wear them, unlike normal/RL piercings) or just someone who wanted to prove they were tougher than tough, the fact that all the numbered bonuses they give that are not competence are profane (which the linked page doesn't show, you need to go to the specific pages for the shadow piercings in the Wondrous Items index), and that they're in a book that is all about evil character-specific stuff made me think that they're probably an evil-specific thing. (Also, I don't remember - is shadowstuff considered an evil kinda thing?)

I'm not saying there couldn't be an alignment-neutral version of these out there - I would hope there was, in fact! But as written, I'm pretty sure the existing Shadow Piercings are meant for evil characters.

Same as Sin Runes - nothing requires evil, and there's probably an alignment-neutral version out there, but the version that's given in the book is pretty clearly meant for evil characters IMO.


RecklessPrudence wrote:
I'm not saying there couldn't be an alignment-neutral version of these out there - I would hope there was, in fact! But as written, I'm pretty sure the existing Shadow Piercings are meant for evil characters.

All you have to do is look at the prerequisites: no evil there. Look through the actual rules text for the feat: no evil. Now some of the default items do profane bonuses, but I'll go into that in fluff.

The fluff is... well fluff. All it tells me is that the people that invented the technique where evil. And that evil people like piercings. that's about it. It's most likely why some base items have profane bonuses: the feat was invented by evil people so they'd pick profane bonuses.

For me, this is simple/easy. It's like wondering if a Drow Razor was evil because evil drow invented it.

Shadow-stuff: The plane is "Mildly Neutral-Aligned", so I don't think there is any hidden evil there.


Okay, fair enough. Guess I might be trying to get a Rune of Contingency, then!


RecklessPrudence wrote:
Okay, fair enough. Guess I might be trying to get a Rune of Contingency, then!

LOL Yeah, a tattoo that needs the Inscribe Rune feat instead of the tattoo feat. ;)


graystone wrote:
RecklessPrudence wrote:
Okay, fair enough. Guess I might be trying to get a Rune of Contingency, then!
LOL Yeah, a tattoo that needs the Inscribe Rune feat instead of the tattoo feat. ;)

Yeah, and by FAR the best of them. Wonder if it'd be possible to multiply the cost by 1.5 and see if I could get it as a chest tattoo instead of a rune?

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