TheWaskally, you can aid me :) My Vigilante/Paladin has a +30 Diplomacy with the option of always taking 10 and shifting attitude by three instead of the usual two steps.
Well, aelyosos fathers, lock up your daughters!!
If I'm sad about anything it's that harpoons are exotic weapons other than polearms, and I just don't have the feats to use them as my ranged attack for when I'm forced to take make them.
For 1500, you can get a flawed opalescent white pyramid to gain weapon familiarity, which for a fighter is just as good as proficiency. It'd definitely be thematic for Gosor!
And for 500 gp more you get a wayfinder that gives you free weapon focus when slotting it.
There’s also the Boarding Pike, which is a simple weapon.
It was a labor of love, but I finally have him completed. Breath of the Gods, I will to sumbit Aenias, godling son and paladin of Psomeira. Please critique and ask as many question as you wish, for I have one for you: What is Common called in Aelyosos?
Also, if there any other godling submissions or relations to Psomeira, please let me know, so I can incorporate your submissions into Aenias's background.
It's possible one of the spirits afflicting Ktinos wants to kill Psomeira and hasn't told him. Does that count? :D
Physical Avatar (Ex) The godling adds half his level to all ability checks and skill checks based on Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.
Based on this, his initiative should be +5 rather than +1. Other than that, looking good!
Burahrum, younglings, Quercus the Thousandborn greets you all.
(This is swordwhale)
Things done:
- most crunch
- basic background
Missing stuff:
- traits
- skills (contained stuff is only a preview)
--> wanna know a neat trick? I can cast a lvl 1 spell (evolution surge) to get +8 on ANY skill for min/lvl
- non-essential gear (does anyone know whether there is a magic item providing will reroll?)
- copy-over spells (got them in an app)
- add Ghoran SLAs
- spending 3 Evo-Points
- note down Paladin class features
- note oracle features (including the fact that he can only talk&understand Terrance during a fight - Burahrum)
Everyone's welcome to review and comment.
@Evos&Baseform: I went non-optimal there. Going quadruped for rake and probably pounce would be stronger. But for now, I'll keep with biped for fluff reasons (huge humanoid tree as opposed to a ... tree cat thingy)
Wanna know a neat trick of Quercus?
He can dimension-door-CHARGE anything within ~750ft.
Sadly this is one/day trick, but a strong joker-up-the-sleeve nevertheless.
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Gauntlet of... you mean Belt of Giant Strength for gear? I'm not aware of any glove versions of that particular effect. XD
Anyway, here's Nerita's crunch! Note that as a shapeshifter, certain numbers - number of attacks, damage, speeds, et cetera - are flexible for her, and she can use the Protection sphere to significantly improve her AC. Her primary role is dealing damage, with healing as a notable secondary and various minor but useful powers otherwise. Her fluff has been added to the end for ease of reference.
Nerita
Human incanter 8/shifter 8/gestalt 8
NG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +13
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Defense
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AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 104 (8d8+40)
Fort +11, Ref +9, Will +8
Immune poison
Weaknesses aligned combatant, focus casting, lycanthropic, magical signs, mental focus, personal warp, protected soul, unnatural transformation
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee destructive blast +11 touch (4d6) or
. . bite +13 (1d6+7), 2 claws +13 (1d4+7)
Special Attacks enhanced attacks (magic), enhanced attacks (silver/cold iron)
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Statistics
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Str 20, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 20
Base Atk +6; CMB +11; CMD 24
Feats Cantrips, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Deadly Aim, Endurance, Extra Bestial Trait, Extra Bestial Trait, Extra Bestial Trait, Extra Magic Talent, Extra Magic Talent, Extra Magic Talent, Extra Magic Talent, Extra Magic Talent, Extra Magic Talent, Improved Energy Blade, Melee Blaster, Power Attack, Quicken Spell
Traits reactionary, talented
Skills Acrobatics +4, Appraise +4, Climb +13, Diplomacy +9, Disguise +9, Fly +7, Handle Animal +9, Intimidate +14, Linguistics +7, Perception +13, Perform (dance) +10, Perform (sing) +17, Sense Motive +10, Spellcraft +4, Stealth +10, Survival +10, Swim +15
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Elven, Sylvan; steal language
SQ affect fire, agile transformation, animalistic transformation, aquan transformation, armored magic, avian transformation, barrier, bestial reflexes, bestial traits (animal hide, bite, claws, improved natural armor, nightvision), bury, casting, celestial transformation, control weather, create fire, cure, deflection, destructive blast, disintegrate, dragon transformation, dust storm, elemental transformation, energy blade, entangle, expanded geomancing, extradimensional storage, finesse weapon attack attribute, geomancing, greater healing, growth, incandescent blast, invigorate, lingering transformation (4 rounds), manipulate lava, mass healing, powerful limbs, pummel, quick transformation, restore, resuscitate, revitalize (Fast Healing 3), rules changes, self-renewal, shapeshifter, shapeshifting, size change, teleport, tremor, wild empathy +13
Other Gear amulet of mighty fists +2, belt of physical perfection +2, 1,000 gp
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Special Abilities
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Aligned Combatant (Good) Your destructive blast deals full damage only to creatures of your opposed alignment
Alteration: Agile Transformation Traits: Dodge, Initiative, Evasion, Uncanny Dodge
Alteration: Animalistic Transformation You can give your shapeshift target the quadruped form
Alteration: Aquan Transformation You can give your shapeshift target the aquan form
Alteration: Avian Transformation You can give your shapeshift target the avian form
Alteration: Bestial Reflexes You can give your shapeshift target several bestial traits
Alteration: Celestial Transformation You may grant the form of a celestial outsider with your shapeshift
Alteration: Dragon Transformation You can give your shapeshift target the dragon form
Alteration: Elemental Transformation You can give your shapeshift target the elemental form
Alteration: Powerful Limbs Traits: Powerful Arms, Powerful Claws, Powerful Legs
Alteration: Shapeshifting (4 traits, DC 19) You can bestow the Blank Form
Alteration: Size Change (+/- 2 size cat.) You can change the size of your shapeshift target
Bite (Ex) You gain a bite attack
Cantrips You can create a variety of small magical effects
Casting (CL 8, MSB +16, MSD 27, Concentration +21, DC 19) You can cast sphere effects.
Claws (Ex) You gain two claw attacks
Combat Casting +4 to Concentration checks to cast while on the defensive.
Combat Expertise +/-2 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white only).
Deadly Aim -2/+4 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Destruction: Destructive Blast 4d6 Ranged or melee touch attack deals 4d6 damage
Destruction: Disintegrate Destructive Blast deals untyped damage and destroys the bodies of slain creatures
Destruction: Energy Blade Add your destructive blast to a weapon attack
Destruction: Incandescent Blast (DC 19) Destructive Blast deals untyped damage (d4's, d8's vs undead) and imposes -2 to Will and Perception for 1d4 rd
Endurance +4 to a variety of fort saves, skill and ability checks. Sleep in L/M armor with no fatigue.
Enhanced Attacks (Magic) (Su) Your natural attacks count as magic for overcoming DR
Enhanced Attacks (Silver/Cold Iron) (Su) Your natural attacks count as silver and cold iron for overcoming DR
Finesse Weapon Attack Attribute The “light weapons” category has been renamed to “finesse weapons.” Characters can choose to use either their dexterity bonus or their strength bonus to hit with these weapons, no feat required. “Finesse” is also now a weapon attribute li
Focus Casting (DC 24) You must make a concentration check to use magic without your focus item
Immunity to Poison You are immune to poison.
Improved Energy Blade Use Energy Blade as a swift action with a weapon attack
Life: Cure 1d8+24 (DC 19) Heal a target
Life: Greater Healing (2) Your cure heals 1 additional HP per caster level
Life: Invigorate (Up to 8 temp HP) Grant up to 8 temporary HP to an injured target
Life: Mass Healing Your cure can affect multiple targets
Life: Restore Heal a target's ability damage and remove negative conditions
Life: Resuscitate Cure or invigorate creatures who died within the last round
Life: Revitalize (Fast Healing 3) Cure can grant the target Fast Healing instead of healing normally
Life: Self-Renewal You can cure or restore yourself as a swift action
Lingering Transformation (4 rounds) Shapeshifts on yourself last longer
Lycanthropic You can only target yourself with your shapeshift ability
Magical Signs Your use of magic is obvious to all observers
Melee Blaster Melee attacks with destructive blast do not provoke AoO
Mental Focus (DC 24) You can lose mental focus, making it more difficult to use magic
Nature: Affect Fire (Up to 2 size categories) Make a normal fire larger or smaller
Nature: Bury Cause an area of sand to shift, swallowing creatures in an area
Nature: Create Fire (Max size: Tiny) Create a fire that burns without fuel
Nature: Dust Storm Kick up a cloud of sand or dirt, granting concealment to creatures in an area
Nature: Entangle (DC 19) Cause plants to grow rapidly, entangling creatures in an area
Nature: Expanded Geomancing (Earth) (2) Gain a new geomancing package
Nature: Geomancing (Fire) You may command terrain and natural effects to act on your behalf
Nature: Growth Cause plants to grow food instantly
Nature: Manipulate Lava As Vortex or Freeze, but requires lava
Nature: Pummel Cause a tree to attack enemies
Nature: Tremor (Trip +13) Send a tremor through the ground, tripping creatures in an area
Personal Warp You may only teleport yourself
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Protected Soul You cannot target other creatures with your aegis, only yourself.
Protection: Armored Magic (+4 armor or +2 shield) You can put an aegis on a target that grants them an armor or shield bonus to AC
Protection: Barrier You can create a ward that absorbs damage
Protection: Deflection +2 You can put an aegis on a creature to grant it a deflection bonus to AC
Quick Transformation Apply and maintain shapeshift on yourself as a move action
Quicken Spell Cast a spell as a swift action. +4 Levels.
Rules Changes By all metrics, Pathfinder is the most satisfying pen-and-paper game I’ve ever played. The class balance feels good, the math isn’t overwhelming, and the community support is outstanding. However, it suffers from one syndrome that haunts the crea
Shapeshifter Gain Alteration as a bonus sphere, and use your class level as caster level with Destruction
Steal Language (Su) Touch a target to learn one of its languages for 24 hours
Unnatural Transformation Creatures under the effect of your shapeshift bear irrepressible signs (coloration, visual aura, glowing sigil or similar) of their true identity. Your shapeshift never grants a bonus to Disguise checks due to the obviously unnatural na
Warp: Extradimensional Storage You gain a permanent extradimensional space that may hold non-living material
Warp: Teleport You can teleport yourself as a standard action
Weather: Control Weather (Severity 4) You can change the temperature, precipitation, and wind in an area
Wild Empathy +13 (Ex) Improve the attitude of an animal, as if using Diplomacy.
Aelyosos - and the Iblydan region as a whole - is no stranger to heroes. Actively ruled by two hero-gods and built upon millennia of stories featuring great heroes striking against the monstrous creatures of the land, there's a certain acknowledgment among the population that some people are destined for a bit... more. That may be why it didn't take them too long to start digging out history books and consulting familiar lore when they first discovered the presence of Nerita on an island further in the archipelago.
If you ask the cyclops, there are certain signs that point to someone who has the potential to become a hero. They tend to be stronger, or faster, or wiser, or perhaps just more charismatic than you'd really expect from a normal person. Or maybe they just turn into a thirty-foot-tall giant made of fire and smash a minotaur flat into the ground with a few quick pounds right in front of your survey crew before waving a hand and healing all the injuries your small landing team sustained during the bovine creature's attack. Nerita is many things, but subtle is not among them.
Nobody knows who her ancestors are, and divinations on the topic have universally failed. Some people believe a power of some kind (a forgotten hero-god trapped underground, or perhaps one of the full deities watching from above) is shielding that information. Others think she may not have ancestors - in which case of course divinations would fail. You're asking the wrong questions. Nerita doesn't know any more about herself than the people of Aelyosos do.
What they do know is that she fits the mold of someone the cyclops will probably do a reading for. In the few years since Nerita was discovered, she has consistently surprised people with the variety of things she can do. Socially, the most notable of these are her talents with the performing arts - she's a good dancer and a great singer, and more than once she's performed at festivals and celebrations in Aelyosos.
Her abilities are something else entirely. Nerita is not a particularly elegant fighter, despite the attempts of several people within the city who've tried to tame her wild instincts and - not to put too fine of a point on it - 'civilize' her. While she behaves most of the time, those who set her off never know if she's going to set them on fire or set herself on fire before she goes on a rampage. Neither seems to trouble her much.
Of course, fire is far from the only thing she can do. Nerita has been observed taking a wide variety of elemental, animal, avian, and aquatic forms - and, in one of her more memorable events in the city, turning into some kind of celestial dragon. Not all of the forms are large or frightening, however - sometimes she shrinks into something small and furry to snuggle with someone she likes. She's even been seen talking to animals like she was some sort of druid - and she's gotten more than a few of them to do her bidding.
While transformations are easily her most noticeable acts in combat, they're far from all she can do. Nerita often channels magical power into her strikes, and these incandescent bursts have been known to daze people and weaken their willpower for a little while. When truly angry, she's been known to outright disintegrate enemies or even objects.
Her talents with healing get more notice. Nerita's been seen healing herself out of unconsciousness, restoring groups of people, and gifting powerful ongoing healing to those in need. On several occasions, she's even brought back someone who just died - though even she can't bring back people who have been dead for too long.
While those three categories get the most notice, they're not her only talents. Nerita has occasionally manipulated nature (ranging from causing plants to sprout enough food to feed a large group to outright manipulation of the weather), conjured magical to protect herself in combat, and even made objects disappear into thin air.
The general consensus is that while Nerita may not actually be divine - probably - she's pretty darn close. With the need for new heroes, more than a few of Aelyosos' elite have expressed interest in sponsoring someone they expect to be a hero. Unfortunately for them, there are two problems.
First, Nerita is quite independent-minded. While she usually listens to her friends, she doesn't seem to care what anyone else thinks about her and she's occasionally gone on rampages more reminiscent of a natural disaster than an angry young woman. (These, incidentally, are the main reason people haven't quite agreed to let her get a reading from the Cyclopes yet.) Fortunately for everyone around her, Nerita's basic personality is friendly and welcoming, and she never attacks people who don't deserve it. Those who try to control and manipulate her tend to regret it at the end of the day, though, and that includes the social figures who'd otherwise love to have a hero at their beck and call.
Second, Nerita enjoys the wilderness more than cities. Repeated attempts to 'civilize' her with the obviously-superior culture of Iblydos have never succeeded for more than a time. One moment she'll be sitting at a table, eating with a knife and fork, and the next she'll be shapeshifting into a bear and biting into a boar she stole from the cooking fire. This is rarely harmful, per se, but hosts who still invite her to parties have learned to tolerate a certain amount of liveliness. As near as they can tell, she's simply determined to be herself. Interestingly, this has actually raised some of the public's opinion of her. Many people believe that a hero should hold fast to their beliefs, and the decadence of the surviving nobility certainly hasn't helped the rest of Aelyosos. The times she's exterminated attacking monsters haven't hurt the public's perception of her, either.
In the end, the people of the city expect great things from Nerita. They aren't entirely sure if that greatness will be good or bad, but either way, she's not the kind of person who's going to hole up in a corner of the town and live a quiet life... one way or another, things are going to happen and she's probably going to be involved.
Based on this, his initiative should be +5 rather than +1. Other than that, looking good!Physical Avatar (Ex) The godling adds half his level to all ability checks and skill checks based on Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.
Thanks, Menophotine. I didn't catch that.
Still finishing up (in part waiting to hear back from the GM), but at this point it seems pretty clear my character's primary role will be protection and defense. I may not deal the most damage round-to-round, but if someone is foolish enough to try and get past me or attack an ally, I can lay down the hurt big time.
Presenting Arixos, unarmed warrior, masterful singer, and lover of wine!
Human brawler /skald (bacchanal) 8 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide 23, 49, Ultimate Wilderness 84)
CN Medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +11
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Defense
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AC 27, touch 16, flat-footed 22 (+9 armor, +1 deflection, +3 Dex, +2 dodge, +2 shield)
hp 104 (8d10+24)
Fort +9, Ref +10, Will +8; +4 vs. bardic performance, language-dependent, and sonic
Defensive Abilities improved uncanny dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee unarmed strike +17/+12 (1d10+7) or
. . unarmed strike flurry of blows +15/+15/+10/+10 (1d10+7)
Ranged longbow +11/+6 (1d8/×3)
Special Attacks brawler's flurry, brawler's strike (magic), close weapon mastery, knockout 1/day (DC 20), maneuver training (grapple +2, dirty trick +1), martial flexibility 7/day, rage powers (good for what ails you[APG], internal fortitude), raging song 21 rounds/day (move action; inspired rage, song of strength, song of urging), spell kenning 1/day
Skald Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +14)
. . 1/day—goodberry (fermented)
Skald (Bacchanal) Spells Known (CL 8th; concentration +14)
. . 3rd (3/day)—mad monkeys[UM], smug narcissism[UM] (DC 17), thundering drums[APG] (DC 17)
. . 2nd (5/day)—glitterdust (DC 16), heroism, mad hallucination[UM] (DC 16), mirror image
. . 1st (5/day)—grease, moment of greatness[UC], saving finale[APG] (DC 15), touch of blindness (DC 15), touch of gracelessness[APG] (DC 15)
. . 0 (at will)—detect magic, ghost sound (DC 14), mage hand, message, prestidigitation, read magic
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Statistics
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Str 22, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 18
Base Atk +8; CMB +14 (+15 dirty trick, +24 grapple); CMD 30 (31 vs. dirty trick, 34 vs. grapple)
Feats Armor Focus, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Deadly Aim, Dodge, Grabbing Drag[ACG], Grabbing Master[ACG], Grabbing Style[ACG], Greater Grapple, Greater Weapon Focus, Power Attack, Pummeling Style[ACG], Shield Focus, Skald's Vigor[ACG], Unarmed Combatant, Weapon Focus
Traits focused mind, talented
Skills Bluff +15, Diplomacy +12, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (nature) +9, Knowledge (planes) +9, Perception +11, Perform (sing) +16
Languages Common
SQ bardic knowledge +4, brawler's cunning, druken dancer (cure light wounds, remove fear), fermented fruit, finesse weapon attack attribute, lore master 1/day, martial training, rules changes
Other Gear +2 mithral breastplate, mwk buckler, longbow, +1 amulet of mighty fists, belt of giant strength +2, cape of free will +1/+2[MA], headband of alluring charisma +2, inescapable gloves[MA], ring of protection +1, 70 gp
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Special Abilities
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Bardic Knowledge +4 (Ex) Add +4 to all knowledge skill checks.
Brawler's Cunning (Ex) Count as Int 13 for the purpose of combat feat pre-requisites.
Brawler's Flurry +6/+6/+1/+1 (Ex) Can make full attack & gain two-wep fighting, but only with unarmed strike, close, or monk wep.
Brawler's Strike (magic) (Ex) Unarmed strikes overcome DR as various things.
Close Weapon Mastery (Ex) Weapons of the close group deal dam as unarmed strike at -4 levels.
Combat Casting +4 to Concentration checks to cast while on the defensive.
Combat Expertise +/-3 Bonus to AC in exchange for an equal penalty to attack.
Deadly Aim -3/+6 Trade a penalty to ranged attacks for a bonus to ranged damage.
Druken Dancer (Su) Extend raging song by consuming alcohol or fermented goodberries. Spend 2 rounds of song to gain spell effect.
Drunken Dancer: Cure Light Wounds (Su) After drinking alcohol or eating fermented berry, spend 2 rounds of raging song to gain benefits of cure light wounds.
Drunken Dancer: Remove Fear (Su) After drinking alcohol or eating fermented berry, spend 2 rounds of raging song to gain benefits of remove fear.
Fermented Fruit (Sp) Once a day, cast goodberry as a spell-like ability that produces fermented berries.
Finesse Weapon Attack Attribute The “light weapons” category has been renamed to “finesse weapons.” Characters can choose to use either their dexterity bonus or their strength bonus to hit with these weapons, no feat required. “Finesse” is also now a weapon attribute li
Good for What Ails You (Ex) While raging, drink alchohol to re-save vs. various conditions.
Grabbing Drag In grabbing style, may use move grapple to move at full speed.
Grabbing Master When using grabbing style, when grabbing 2 opp can move or dmg both opp.
Grabbing Style No -4 to 1-handed grapple checks, do not lose Dex to AC while pinning.
Greater Grapple Maintaining a grapple is a move action, allowing you to make 2 checks a round.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Lv >= 12) (Ex) Retain DEX bonus to AC when flat-footed. You cannot be flanked unless the attacker is Level 12+.
Internal Fortitude (Ex) While raging, you are immune to the sickened and nauseated conditions.
Knockout (1/day, DC 20) (Ex) Declare before attack, if hit then foe is unconscious 1d6 rds (Fort neg), resave each rd.
Lore Master (1/day) (Ex) Can take 10 on any trained knowledge checks. Activate to take 20 as a standard action.
Maneuver Training
Martial Flexibility (swift action, 7/day) (Ex) As a Swift action, gain a combat feat for 1 min. More gained for greater actions.
Martial Training (Ex) Brawler levels count as fighter/monk levels for feat/item pre-reqs and effects.
Power Attack -3/+6 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Pummeling Style Total damage from all unarmed attacks before appplying DR.
Raging Song (move action, 21 rounds/day) (Su) Song can inspire allies in a variety of ways.
Skald's Vigor (Fast healing 4) While maintain raging song, gain Fast Healing 4.
Spell Kenning (1/day) (Su) Spend a skald spell to duplicate a bard, cleric, or sorcerer/wizard spell.
Unarmed Combatant Always considered armed, no attack of opportunity on grapple attempts.
Weapon Focus (Natural Weapons) Choose one weapon group. You become better at using that type of weapon.
Born in a large and prosperous vineyard outside of the small Iblydan town of Kelomathes near the city-state of Therystus, Arixos had a warm and easy childhood, with fond memories of chasing his siblings through rows of vines and long afternoons of crushing grapes with his powerful legs. His parents and tutors often remarked he was built like a cask of strong wine, broad, sturdy, and packing quite a punch. As he grew, his father tried to mentor him in the ways of the vineyard, though Arixos took far more interest in the product than the operation of the place.
It was at one of the annual wine festivals in Kelomathes that Arixos found his two truest passions, drunken wrestling and loudly belting songs as he wrestled. Songs of the Hero-Gods inspired him, filling him with a joyous fervor that gave him strength and fortitude far beyond most men. He triumphed in the competition, and at the winner’s podium he was presented with amphorae of wine from the three finest vineyards in the land, which did not last long. It was the drunken revelry after his victory where he began to see evidence of his supernatural powers, his songs pushing others to wild passions and drunken brawls, all aided by copious amounts of wine. This was not limited to a single night, and as long as the wine flowed, his songs continued, and the festivities never stopped. He lived like that for a while, competing at festivals and making quite the name for himself, his songs and brawling capabilities far surpassing those of anyone in his small corner of Iblydos. But Arixos wasn’t content to live out his days as a layabout, or at least not one whose name was only known by the country folk. No, he desired to be like the heroes he sang of, for his name to drive warriors and revellers alike to passions they had never known possible.
In a night of particularly wild revelry, he convinced himself he could best any fighter in the land and the next morning he got together the belongings that he had, said a slightly tearful goodbye to his family over copious amounts of wine, and set out to Aelyosos, the seat of the Hero-Gods. He travelled for a few days, and stopped at a little cafe just on the other side of the border between Therystus and Aelyosos for a bit of wine to clear the dust from his throat. He was mid-drink when he heard the ferocious bellowing of a minotaur and turning toward the sound he saw it, a large, scarred minotaur wielding a wickedly sharp axe, advancing on a mother and her child. He stood, drained his drink and charged at the beast while beginning to sing. He greeted the minotaur with a mighty punch to the creature’s knee and a verse about the Hero-God Zdokirae’s defeat of the minotaur king Kulabar-Thurn. Rolling aside as the minotaur swung a mighty blow with its axe, Arixos followed up by sweeping the beast’s legs out from under it, and leaping onto it before delivering several blows to its bovine maw, all the while continuing his song. The minotaur had enough and it fled, deciding to pick an easier target to raid. It was that deed that cemented Arixos as a small-time hero, with the proprietor naming him the official protector of the inn, along with free drinks for life. He continued onward to Aelyosos, toward whatever fortune would have in store for him.
Arixos is a broad-shouldered man of average height with curly brown hair and the golden tanned skin of many inhabitants of Iblydos. He generally wears a mithril breastplate he won from a rival wrestler over a white tunic, cropped at the lower thighs to allow for greater mobility and to show off his powerfully muscled calves. At his brow, he wears a wreath of leaves made from beaten bronze, accentuating his light brown eyes. Aside from that, he wears a pair of doeskin wrestling gloves, a well-crafted buckler, and a magical amulet gifted to him by his father upon his departure, as both a memory of his family and to enhance his brawling skills.
Gregarious and unabashedly confident, Arixos is one of the best and he knows it. He is generally friendly, always ready to meet someone new, often to spread his name or to find another person to party with. However, when crossed with a foe, his songs drive him into an ecstatic frenzy. Between the drinks, songs, and brawling, it feels like the wine festivals that he so loves, filling him and his allies with a primal passion. At the end of the day, Arixos wants to have a good time, and sees no reason why others shouldn’t as well.
I know it's uncomfortable to say, but I hope we haven't run into a case of somebody more excited about the idea of a campaign than actually running one. I am very interested in this setting and hope some of us get a chance at it.
For my Fetchling, I'm wanting to take advantage of his Shadow Blending racial trait:
Shadow Blending (Su): Attacks against a fetchling in dim light have a 50% miss chance instead of the normal 20% miss chance. This ability does not grant total concealment; it just increases the miss chance.
Does anyone know a way for a non-caster to get a Darkness type effect more than, like, 1/day? I was going to buy a Wand of Darkness, but I can't get my UMD up enough to be sure of activating it. I was hoping there was some sort of reverse Ioun Torch that decreased light instead of increasing it or something. I guess I could get someone to cast permanencied Darkness on some item I carry, but if that gets dispelled it's money down the tubes. I do see a couple of items that do similar things, like the Cloak of the Duskwalker, but I don't know that I can afford to spend 1/3rd of my starting gold on the idea, especially when lots of enemies will have Darkvision and render it moot anyway.
As a suggestion... Craft a Rod in Spheres of Power, giving it the Dark base sphere and the Dampen Light talent. This will let you consistently turn bright light and normal light into dim light. Rods are usable at-will and internally contain the power to cast something - so they are a bit on the expensive side, but you don't need to worry about UMD or anything else.
Haha, Arixos has a fun concept!
He sounds a LOT like Dionysus, the god of wine.
Really fitting.
Me like.
@Gosor Proudhoof: Love your history*. And I can see a major frontline between us too. Quercus' branches reach between 10 and 15ft and with grab, he can end any would-be charge-past attempt to reach the backline similar to a successful trip from your fauchard.
*But I do love playing Tauren in WoW, so I *may* be not too objective with that guy :-)
@Rednal: I don't know half of how your character works, but the concept looks nice, so ... yippi? ^^
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After spending a day trying to figure out why my post seemingly vanished out of thin air, a friend of mine from these boards let me know that I should begin previewing posts before actually submitting them. Apparently, mine just vanished when I posted it. I was going to reply yesterday, but had to attend training for a potential job. Terribly sorry for the wait!
Just giving everyone some advance warning: I will be absent from the boards on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of October.
Do let me know if I missed anyone's questions or concerns. I will admit to rushing this reply out due to missing these last three days (the day that I attempted to post and it didn't go through, the day after as I tried to figure out why, and yesterday, when I had job training).
@Those asking about Hero-God descendants: You may write your character as the descendant of a Hero-God if that is the sort of character you plan on building. Very few have first generation children now, Psomeira being the sole exception with one or two children, so you are likely from a long line.
@Those asking for GM experience and credentials:I have ran several campaigns like this. I am the type of GM who runs these types of campaigns almost exclusively to introduce some well-needed variety into the usual Tolkien-esque adventuring that saturates gaming tables these days.
I would offer to share my private campaigns on Discord with you to help assuage your fears about my competency but after a... let's call it a situation, with a former player of mine harassing me on Discord after booting him for misconduct, we both got a ban. I can try getting in touch with some of my other players and see if they can provide a link and permissions. How does that sound? I can't make any guarantees, as I only knew most of them through Discord alone.
@Monkeygod: Descendants of the Hero-Gods can come in pretty much any part-human race. They must be part human, however, as all the Hero-Gods in known history have been human. If you want to make your character part Azlanti, just refluff the baseline Human race.
@Rednal: I will bear all that in mind if you are selected. I am sure I could find something suitably epic to tie in to that lingering plot hook.
@Daedalus: That is an understandable attitude to have, given some of the stories I have heard about PBP other mediums other than Discord, which is where most of my games were located.
Azlanti are more or less extinct on Golarion. The ancient Azlanti are represented in the rules as humans with a +2 to all ability scores. I would argue that you could select the regular Human race and just fluff it as being Azlanti.
I would allow a Cassisian familiar to assume an owl form as opposed to a dove form.
@Ellioti: Variant Multiclass levels in Fighter does not count as having levels in Fighter.
Almost any supplement from the Legendary Classes line is fair game.
@Oyzar: The Prophecy Domain is the one listed on d20pfsrd and created by Kobold Press, yes.
That looks about right for a Memsmerist VMC. I would allow that.
@CampinCarl9127: Any of the options you listed for your dragon's impediment make sense and, honestly, I would be fine with any of them.
You can't swap levels between sides of a gestalt. There are numerous reasons for this, ranging from the relatively benign issue of keeping track of what was taken where, to the more problematic, with ways to game prestige classes like Mystic Theurge even more than is normal for gestalt. I have tried allowing people to swap sides in gestalting and it never quite panned out how they or I hoped it would, which is something considering how many houserules I have experimented with and got right the first or second campaign. Considering how much bookkeeping it takes for a high-level gestalt game anyway, I would like to avoid any unnecessary complications.
@River of Sticks: I plan for the campaign to be an epic for the ages. To that end, I have planned for it to end at level twenty with a full ten mythic ranks. I am aware of how long that will take to finish in play-by-post, to the effect of three or four years if what I know about it is true, but I am in the game for the long haul.
@Ktinos Amyntas: I was expecting something quite interesting based on your earlier description and it certainly seems you are living up to those expectations. Now just to figure out where I would want to take this if you make the cut.
@Gosor Proudhoof: Most minotaurs in Iblydos are evil and reside within the sealed Maze-City of Karnossa, cursed by their more noble brethren to forever wander the maze until they metaphorically escape their wicked ways. Karnossa was once the capital of the minotaur people until that mass-exodus around five hundred years ago when the cult of Baphomet waxed in power and blood began to run in the streets. There are tribes of minotaurs who still cling to the old ways of honor and learning, but they are scattered into small settlements or else integrated with the populace of the City-States.
The Order of the Sea is fine since you wouldn't get Leadership with VMC.
@Menophotine: Some alignment rules for familiars apply. I will relax that stipulation for most of the non-Outsider familiars.
@TurtSnacko: So basically straight-up Gilgamesh from the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh?
Simeon@: Liachora was the closest city-state to Aelyosos both geographically and spiritually. The two cities were as much siblings as the Hero-Goddesses who protected them.
The next closest city-state to Aelyosos is Pol-Ptirmeios, a bucolic nation known for the rare metals, unique cuisine, and famous vintages it produces.
The only nation Aelyosos is hostile with is Pol-Sylrica, whose island borders that of Aelyosos and Pol-Ptirmeios. Pol-Sylrica is the Not-Sparta of the region known for their dualistic worship of Asmodeus and Gorum, as well as the brutal efficiency of their society, where the penalty for almost any crime is death and everyone is expected to serve the nation's war efforts in some capacity.
Arixos definitely gives off a Dionysus-Bacchus feel with his general theme. Well, minus the wine-fueled massacres.
@Yas392: The Malefex might be allowed for you to take if we can do something about the nature of the capstone. That is the one big flaw I have seen in all of the normally pristine Dreamscarred Press works. It works good on paper, but in-game it turns enemies ECL+8 and higher into defenseless kittens. Capstones are usually powerful, but they don't have as broad of a usage or else are not permanent. There may be capstones out there that grant Wishes, but even those can be twisted by a clever GM to make them not broken. Instantly negating almost every defense that keeps an enemy from getting nuked and it being permanent is problematic, to say the least.
@TheWaskally: That transparency is much appreciated. It certainly makes my job easier when trying to figure out what came from where.
What passes for Common in Iblydos is known as Iblydan based on what I have read. I would imagine that Iblydos is cultured enough, as an important rest stop in the middle of a treacherous ocean with a major trade line, that Taldan Common is also known by most of the populace.
Good job on capturing the exact feel of Psomemira in Aenias' backstory, by the way. She is described as a proud warrior who doesn't like to stand on ceremony and I feel you captured that quite well.
@Quercus Thousandborn: I am surprised and astounded by how you incorporated Ghoran, of all things, into Iblydos and made it seem so natural. I was thinking your ghoran was just going to be a traveler from Nex or the lands around it, but you proved me pleasantly wrong. Kudos to you for that!
Good to see you back!
Ah yes, the infamous post devouring board monster. That is an evil we are all familiar with, and given the lengths of your posts the monster would be drawn to you like a moth to a flame. When I started out on the boards I faced similar issues, and these days I never submit anything without copying it to my clipboard first.
Understood on the crippling issue. I will write to my heart's content than.
As for splitting the prestige class, also understood. Gestalt is very hard to keep up with most time anyways, so anything to streamline it is appreciated.
Thank you! I was very pleased with how the mechanics came together--I was anticipating needing to ask some questions about making tweaks to make the mechanics fit the idea, but it's actually almost perfect out of the box, so to speak. The one thing that we might need to talk about if he's picked is fiddling with the spirit influence mechanics to reflect the idea of spirits actively contesting to control Ktinos--mostly the taboos. But we can talk about that if Ktinos is selected.
It's unfortunate you ran across the forum issues so early. Stay for the people, not the technology, unforutnately. Though if everything worked smoothly I do actually like several features of the forums.
@Post-Loss: I preach to my players to use some kind of online notebook (OneNote, google scribe, everest, ...) to compose their posts, then copy&paste it here and press submit.
This saves you not only from the cookie-monster haunting this site, but also from cache-dumps (if you switch focus on mobile to another app for too long while editing - e.g. reading up some rules) or even phone/pc crashes or disconnect-while-submitting.
Plus you can easily check your last posts / thread if you organize the notebook by character/thread and don't delete them after submitting, which can be useful to look up stuff you did earlier.
Thanks for the praise :-)
I didn't want to be a murderhobo-tree and it just felt right to incorporate a character that is ageless for all intents and purposes into local myths - at least for a legendary-grade trade like this one.
I should leave a disclaimer that I will have a couple of questions for you, if you select Quercus. Pretty much any single one of them is boiling down to the poor wording of synthesist and in particular the old type problematic of a merged summoner and spells&effects.
I already tried my best to prevent some of the esoteric problems of the synthesist, e.g. wildly varying hp of the summoner by raising his base CON to the same modifier as the eidolon - thus preventing the weird hp-drop/raise issue of a suddenly-changing CON score, but there still are a couple left.
@GM & Trust: I can speak for myself here: that last post of yours did build quite some trust on my end.
- You were gone for a few days without notice ... but came back for good.
- You put up an afk warning for the future - this is insanely important for pbp
- You have done discord campaigns in the past (so no newcomer who is about to helplessly overtask himself with this campaign) [I don't need a'real' proof of that claim - I am a rather trusting person]
- You mentioned that you EXPECT to run this campaign for years to come.
-> That one is big
@GM Hey, glad you're back! Thanks for the clarification on familiars. I've since given it some thought, and I've settled on a Silvanshee familiar for her. It's just one step away, NG-TN, and I plan on taking the Emmisary archetype on it, as a familiar introduced to her by Kelksiomedes as a good influence on her. I'm sorely tempted to name it something that she can shorten to "Narc" but that might not fit in well with the epic feel that this campaign is going for :D
Still, I should have that statted up and ready to go later today some time, along with some backstory for the familiar and how they tie into Menophotine's backstory and growth. I'm also updating her statblock to make things more clear and I'd like to do a bit of a rewrite to her backstory to clean up a few things that aren't sitting quite right with me.
In light of the Silvanshee being an emissary though, do the Hero-Gods give sub-domains? I'm specifically interested in whether or not Kelksiomedes would grant the Restoration subdomain, (it seems logical from my take on him, but ymmv) but other subdomains for other Hero-Gods would probably be useful to others too.
If I remember right, the two things most likely to result in a lost post are taking too long to write it (like, 20 or 30 minutes), or visiting too many other pages while doing so. XD Paizo's kind of weird that way.
@Quercus: Move Action to take whatever form I feel is appropriate for the situation. Depending on where exactly Nerita is, could be followed by a Destructive Blast, a melee attack, moving into position, or something else. Once in position, lay the smackdown with natural attacks, healing self or others as needed. XD I have a program that calculates all the numbers and stuff, so playing Nerita is actually much easier than the complexity of transformation might suggest.
@Post-Loss: I preach to my players to use some kind of online notebook (OneNote, google scribe, everest, ...) to compose their posts, then copy&paste it here and press submit.
This saves you not only from the cookie-monster haunting this site, but also from cache-dumps (if you switch focus on mobile to another app for too long while editing - e.g. reading up some rules) or even phone/pc crashes or disconnect-while-submitting.
Plus you can easily check your last posts / thread if you organize the notebook by character/thread and don't delete them after submitting, which can be useful to look up stuff you did earlier.
Ugh, I ran into this yesterday just working in my alias profile to add rules text into my statblock, which lost me a ton of time. Definitely went to editing in a Google doc after that. Good advice.
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@breath of the gods - All names I used are just place holders for the moment, the crunch is done, indont plane on changing anythingnabout that. But yeah, while I don't plan on his name being Gilgamesh unless I truly can't think of something else.
But, my intent here was to do my best to emulate the kind of 'hero' Gilgamesh actually was. Obviously I won't be swimmingnto the bottom of the ocean to grab the sun orchard elixir or anything, but his brand of hero-ing was understandable very different to the modern archetype for hero's and that's what I'm trying to go for. The moral of his story is The Inevitability of Death. Death is an inevitable and inescapable fact of human life, which is the greatest lesson Gilgamesh learns in his journey. Also that the act of being remembered for all eternity for his actions will mean more then having all the wealth in the world. At the point i want to start out with him, he's already had the realization that his wealth means nothing, and i want to take him on his journey through the Nuetral alignment, and eventually end at Lawful good like the end of his epic. Since were starting at level 8, i Decided to skip his uplifting from the NE alignment and put innhis backstory.
TLDR: the names are place holder's for myself untill i can think of something as freaking cool as Gilgamesh(that's to original of a name), I'm more trying to emulate his kind of heroic journey.
Will the campaign take place near the city or at least on the island? Otherwise I might need to adjust a little.
Thanks GM, I'm glad you understand. I have a long list of former PBPs that dried up after a GM got bored/realized how much work it is to run a campaign.
Anyway, I think you may have missed a couple of my questions, so repeating them:
The Magus VMC grants a number of Magus Arcana, but not spell combat (and spellstrike comes later). Would the Broad Study Arcana (you may use spell combat and spellstrike with spells from a different class) enable me to use spell combat with my wizard spells? I figure probably not, but it never hurts to check.
Secondly, would Sparrow's Flight be an allowed Legendary Talent? If the Fly rank requirement for it to become unlimited flight was increased to 10 ranks, it should be mostly in line with your preferred power levels.
Pol-Ptirmeios sounds like the perfect place for Arixos to come from. I must say that there was more than a little Dionysus inspiration for Arixos .
After twisting my head sideways to try to fit mesmerist into my build... I discover that the 5th level stance from Eternal Guardian lets you ignore fear and mind-affecting immunity... I would have to wait a level and of course using it would make me unable to use another stance at the same time, but it seems like a much easier option to overcome enemies being able to overcome my cool tricks.
At 6th level a Harbinger gets Advanced Study(granting 2 new maneuvers known) or Discipline Focus. At that point you have access to 3rd level maneuvers. I don't really want more of those, but I'm very tempted to get more 4th level maneuvers. Would I be allowed to "dealy" that choice until 7th level so I could chose 4th level maneuvers? Alternatively, could I retrain the feat at 7th which I guess would only cost 350 GP... So I guess I'll just do that if I don't pick Discipline Focus.
Hello!
I'm quite interested in this. I was reading the whole thread and was frankly a bit afraid that the GM was lost to the Black on White, but finally decided to greet you all. I love a good Greek drama!
Given the amount of heroes capable of one-shotting ciclopes or minotaurs, I was thinking on building a buffer/debuffer (not necessarily in 50% parts), and fell upon the Double Channeler archetype of the Soul Weaver. Starting there as a basis, I'll try to give you bonuses and give the bad guys maluses for your self enjoyment. The other part of the Gestalt will be used to build a nice chassis that can resist some punishment (Paladin, maybe? I accept suggestions!).
One question:
If (and that's a big if) I was to also pick the Shamanist archetype for Soul Weaver (in addition to the Double Channeler), I would receive new uses for the Bound Nexus feature (which is lost when choosing Double Channeler), instead of substituting or modifying it. Would I then be able to take both archetypes, even if the new features offered from one of them won't be usable? Mostly, I would take it because it changes all my calculations from Cha to Wis.
Thank you!
Aye, good to see the DM hasn't been lost to the Underworld.
As a suggestion... Craft a Rod in Spheres of Power, giving it the Dark base sphere and the Dampen Light talent. This will let you consistently turn bright light and normal light into dim light. Rods are usable at-will and internally contain the power to cast something - so they are a bit on the expensive side, but you don't need to worry about UMD or anything else.
Thanks for the advice, Sphere of Power is a system I'm completely unfamiliar with and wouldn't have thought to look at. I did also stumble across a feat in Blood of Shadows that does what I want, to a limited degree, but I won't be eligible until next level: Crepuscular Cowl.
It might matter that the Crepuscular Cowl does not actually create dim light around you, and anything you have that triggers from dim light wouldn't kick in. And that 1/day thing for now is pretty limiting for a build, too. XD
Spheres of Power has a magic item system that's as flexible as the rest of it. Rods are a little pricey, but with unlimited use and no UMD, they're veeeeeery handy if there's something specific you want to do and don't have the talents to invest in it. ^^
Okay! I've added Nono's familiar in, added a physical description, and significantly revamped her backstory to fix some things that werent jiving very well. I'm a lot happier with this version. Might end up bumping her alignment to NG to reflect it as well. Everything's in this profile, and I'm spoilering here for reference as well.
Nono's most obvious physical attributes are the two large greenish-black horns that jut from her wild mane of curls behind her slightly-pointed ears and curl forward to frame her forehead. Adorning her back are a long prehensile tail the color of clotted blood and two stunted, leathery bat wings of the same color but barely large enough to hold an actual bat aloft. Slit pupils bisect the hellish inferno of her pupils,and her eyes usually convey that she knows far, far more than you want her to. If not for these tell-tale signs of fiendish provenance, Menophotine would look like a rather plain Iblydan girl in her early twenties. She gives away little in her expressions that she doesn't want to. She dresses in a simple but well-appointed dyed linen chiton, the thin wrapped fabric secured with two belts at her waist and a stylized shield-shaped clasp at each shoulder. One belt carries several alchemical vials in easy reach and a small haversavk full of useful sorcery. Simple sandals adorn her feet but leave no tracks even on tghe softest sand. She carries an ancient fauchard with an impossibly rare blade hammered from Horacalcum. The time-bending coppery metal blade is shaped like a thin crescent moon and adorns an olive haft worn smooth from centuries of use. Following her, sometimes from blocks away and sometimes directly underfoot is a black and grey striped cat, her silvanshee agathion familiar Kelenarkios.
Nono hasn't been back to her family's home since it was raided. She never saw any proof presented for the claims of Mephistophelean dealings, and in more recent years she has questioned the actual motives for Thonis's strike against her family. Though it's entirely possible that the agents spoke the truth, there may have been political motives behind the strike. Or perhaps Thonis foresaw the destiny of this particular child?
Eventually, Aelyosos became the home of the vagabond Tiefling. She faced far less prejudice in the city than she had experienced elsewhere and she blended into the cosmopolitan population well. Furthermore, the shining jewel of Iblydos was plump with riches ripe for the taking. As her skills developed, Nono progressed from well-intentioned stealing food to survive, to stealing lovely objects for the thrill of it as she maintained a wealthy but hidden lifestyle of finery and luxury. She convinced herself that if no one was ever injured, and nobody saw her thievery, then nothing truly bad was resulting from her greed. While run-ins with the authorities were an inevitable consequence of her pickpocketing and larceny, her blend of magic and good old fashioned skullduggery let her constantly evade and confound her pursuers. Eventually, however, her reach exceeded her grasp. Her mark, a physical specimen of a man in simple but expensive finery strolling past the docks, seemingly oblivious to the bustle around him. While she knew him well by reputation, the young tiefling failed to recognize him and had much to learn about attention to detail. Nono, completely oblivious to the deference being shown to him by all those around him, had one of his gilded armbands most of the way off before his other hand closed around her wrist. Fearful, she tried to bolt, missing the kindly smile and greeting that he proferred. She loosened her grasp on the prize, but when he similarly released her, she surprised the man by slipping the armband off of him anyway and running. She ran straight into a group of guards who had suddenly appeared to protect this person of some importance. She accounted well for herself, evading some of the guards with an impressive display of defensive acrobatics and wielding an improvised broom with alacrity to stymie the rest, and eventually she judged that she had lost her pursuers. She was halfway through the doorway to her apartment when one of the Pharossi grabbed her.
This time, detention was different. These captors were smarter, better, and had measures in place to stop all of the escape attempts she tried. Her biggest surprise was learning from her gaoler that she had taken the armband from a god among mortals, Kelksiomedes himself. That made her immensely proud while she sat terrified of the punishment that must follow such blasphemy. She stewed in the cell for a week, her only company a striped cat that would silently watch her through the bars for hours at a time. Eventually, her cell door opened and she faced her victim again. He carried the pilfered headband. She met him with her head held high, but he greeted her sternly. He spoke of her living quarters and the contraband it was filled with. He listed the punishments for theft and burglary in cities near and far. But in the end, he surprised her. He told her that while her ways were wicked, her heart was not. And he told her that she was not yet forgiven for her crimes, but in time she could be. Then he lifted her up and cast off her bindings. He led her from the jail and bid the Pharossi to let her go, that they had been mistaken and that the armband had been his gift to her. Again surprised, she questioned his trust and the Hero-God responded that she would need it in the days to come. Kelksiomedes walked the girl back to her home, and the cat followed. As they stood surrounded by her ill-gotten gains, he charged her with a trial that would take her years to complete and test her to her limits and beyond: to return all that she had stolen to those she had stolen from. As she balked, he beckoned for the cat to join her. The cat, Kelenarkios, would aid her in the quest and guide her towards a righteous heart. As the cat turned to greet her, Kelksiomedes left.
Menophotine next met Kelksiomedes 9 years later, having sought an audience with the rulers of the city. Clad in a simple rough chiton with nothing else but a small sack and her feline agathion companion, she cut a stark contrast against the finery of the court and her former self. She told the gods of her quest; returning the greater portion of her wealth had been easy, valuable objects returned to wealthy people. Many of the items had been replaced before she even returned. More mundane articles had been more difficult, but still hadn't posed a great challenge. Her task was 90% complete within the first year. Money and food had been the most difficult. Remembering, let alone tracking down, everyone had been beyond her abilities, so she improved herself. Kelenarkios provided divine guidance when able, but Menophotine found herself searching through the past through intense magical research and even alchemical dabbling. She delved into her own mind and learned a mindfulness and attention to detail that she had previously lacked. She learned to canvass the citizens around her to find the people she needed. Some had moved on beyond Iblydos, and she found them as well. She learned that some of her victims had passed on, and in those cases she repaid their next of kin. There were a scant few who left none to claim her penance, and that money went to the alms house to provide for those who truly have nothing. Early on, she had sold Kelksiomedes’ armband to pay for what she no longer had, her research, her travels. He had been right that she would need it. And now, before the gods, she had only one more debt to pay. 5 platinum pieces, 7 gold, 46 silver and 12 copper was the balance she had to repay to the Hero-God for his armband. She offered up her service until her debt for the armband was paid in full. Kelksiomedes closed her hands around the coins and forgave her, for himself and on behalf of those who could not, reminding her that the gold had been a gift. As Menophotine started to beg the gods’ leave, the two divine beings shared a few quiet words. For the first time during the audience, Psomeira spoke. Impressed by the young tiefling’s drive and thoroughness, she offered a few terse words of praise and a request. The dedication Menophotine had demonstrated on her trial, the Divine General hypothesized, could master any art or conquer any challenge if suitably guided and trained. Producing an ancient polearm with an olive haft and a beaten coppery blade the shape of a sliver of the moon, she said that Aelyosos would have a need for heroes in the days to come. Menophotine caught her reflection in the blade, an image out of time of herself approaching to take the weapon. She nodded to the two gods and knelt before them.
Female Tiefling Gestalt [Kensai Magus 8//Canny Scoundrel URogue 6/Empiricist Investigator 2] 8
N Medium Outsider (native)
Init +13; Senses Perception +17; darkvision 60', Trap Spotter
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Defense
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AC 34, touch 24, (+4 mage armor, +4 shield, +1 deflection, +7 Dex, +2 natural, +0 dodge, +6 Canny Defense) (+2 vs traps, +2 vs AoOs from movement)
hp 88 (8d8+24)
Fort +9 Ref +16 Will +7 (+2 vs. traps)
Resistances Cold 5, Electricity 5, Fire 5
Special Defenses Evasion, Uncanny Dodge
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft
Space 5 ft Reach 5 ft (10 ft Fauchard)
Melee Hekation Crescent [+1 Horacalcum Fauchard, arcane pool +1 keen] +17/+12 (1d10+13, 15-20/×2)
or Hekation Crescent Spell Combat +15(/+15)/+10
Ranged
Special Attacks
Sneak Attack +3d6, Debilitating Injury, Bleed 3, Slow Reactions, Flensing Strike;
Spell Strike; Spell Combat, Improved Spell Combat; Marked Target;
Inimical Gaze (60 ft, DC 19 Will save or be Scouted)
Special Abilities Arcane Pool (10), Enhance Weapon +2, Perfect Strike, Prescient Attack; Inspiration (7); Martial Flexibility 1/day; Rogues Edge: Intimidate; Scout, Find Gap
Spells (Magus CL 8, concentration +14)
Prepared Spells
3rd Displacement, Vampiric Touch
2nd Bladed Dash, Defending Bone, Frigid Touch, Glitterdust, Invisibility
1st Rime Frostbite, Shield, Shocking Grasp, True Strike, Vanish
Cantrips Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Prestidigitation
Alchemy (CL 2)
Prepared Extracts
1st Comprehend Languages, Disguise Self, Expeditious Retreat, Heightened Awareness
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Statistics
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Str 9 Dex 24 Con 14 Int 22 Wis 10 Cha 7
Base Atk +6/+1; CMB +5 ( Dirty Trick, Steal +18); CMD 29
Feats Armor of the Pit, Barroom Brawler, Combat Reflexes, Enforcer, Extra Rogue Talent (Bleeding Sneak Attack), Flensing Strike, Rime Spell, Shadow of Fear, Weapon Focus: Polearms, Weapon Specialization: Polearms
Skills (140 skill points: int 40, int headband 8, 16 background, 12 investigator, 64 rogue)
Acrobatics +18, Appraise +10, Artistry: Musical Composition +13, Bluff +17, Craft Alchemy +15, Diplomacy +4 (or Gather Information +12), Disable Device +21, Disguise +4, Escape Artist +18, Intimidate +17, Knowledge Arcana +17+1d6, Knowledge Dungeoneering +11+1d6, Knowledge Engineering +10+1d6, Knowledge Geography +10+1d6, Knowledge History +10+1d6, Knowledge Local +17+1d6, Knowledge Nobility +10+1d6, Knowledge Planes +13+1d6, Knowledge Religion +10+1d6, Linguistics +17+1d6, Perception +17 (+2 vs surprise, traps), Sense Motive +17, Sleight of Hand +18, Spellcraft +17+1d6, Stealth +23, Swim +4, Use Magic Device +17
Traits Bruising Intellect, Cunning Liar, Magical Lineage
Drawback Entomophobe
Languages Iblydan, Taldane, Abyssal, Infernal, Draconic, Vudrani, Goblin, Celestial, Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Terran, Aklo, Cyclops, Sphinx, Giant, Kelish
Magus Class Features
Canny Defense (Ex): At 1st level, when a kensai is wielding his chosen weapon, he gains the canny defense ability. This is identical to the duelist prestige class ability of the same name (Core Rulebook 382), save that his chosen weapon may be of any type.
Weapon Focus (Ex): At 1st level, a kensai gains Weapon Focus with his chosen weapon as a bonus feat.
Spells: A magus casts arcane spells drawn from the magus spell list. A magus must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time.
To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the magus must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a magus's spell is 10 + the spell level + the magus's Intelligence modifier.
A magus can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score (see the Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells Table).
A magus may know any number of spells. He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying his spellbook. While studying, the magus decides which spells to prepare.
Spellbooks: A magus must study his spellbook each day to prepare his spells. He cannot prepare any spell not recorded in his spellbook except for read magic, which all magi can prepare from memory. A magus begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level magus spells plus three 1st-level magus spells of his choice. The magus also selects a number of additional 1st-level magus spells equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to his spellbook. At each new magus level, he gains two new magus spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new magus level) for his spellbook. At any time, a magus can also add spells found in other spellbooks to his own (see Arcane Spells).
A magus can learn spells from a wizard's spellbook, just as a wizard can from a magus's spellbook. The spells learned must be on the magus spell list, as normal. An alchemist (see the Alchemist description) can learn formulae from a magus's spellbook, if the spells are also on the alchemist spell list. A magus cannot learn spells from an alchemist.
Diminished Spellcasting: A kensai may cast one fewer spell of each level than normal. If this reduces the number to 0, he may cast spells of that level only if his Intelligence allows bonus spells of that level.
Arcane Pool (Su): At 1st level, the magus gains a reservoir of mystical arcane energy that he can draw upon to fuel his powers and enhance his weapon. This arcane pool has a number of points equal to 1/2 his magus level (minimum 1) + his Intelligence modifier. The pool refreshes once per day when the magus prepares his spells.
At 1st level, a magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a swift action to grant any weapon he is holding a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute. For every four levels beyond 1st, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +5 at 17th level. These bonuses can be added to the weapon, stacking with existing weapon enhancement to a maximum of +5. Multiple uses of this ability do not stack with themselves.
At 5th level, these bonuses can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: dancing, flaming, flaming burst, frost, icy burst, keen, shock, shocking burst, speed, or vorpal. Adding these properties consumes an amount of bonus equal to the property's base price modifier (see the Magic Weapon Special Ability Descriptions). These properties are added to any the weapon already has, but duplicates do not stack. If the weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other properties can be added. These bonuses and properties are decided when the arcane pool point is spent and cannot be changed until the next time the magus uses this ability. These bonuses do not function if the weapon is wielded by anyone other than the magus.
A magus can only enhance one weapon in this way at one time. If he uses this ability again, the first use immediately ends.
Cantrips: A magus can prepare a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted in the table above under “Spells per Day.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again.
Spell Combat (Ex): At 1st level, a magus learns to cast spells and wield his weapons at the same time. This functions much like two-weapon fighting, but the off-hand weapon is a spell that is being cast. To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand. As a full-round action, he can make all of his attacks with his melee weapon at a –2 penalty and can also cast any spell from the magus spell list with a casting time of 1 standard action (any attack roll made as part of this spell also takes this penalty). If he casts this spell defensively, he can decide to take an additional penalty on his attack rolls, up to his Intelligence bonus, and add the same amount as a circumstance bonus on his concentration check. If the check fails, the spell is wasted, but the attacks still take the penalty. A magus can choose to cast the spell first or make the weapon attacks first, but if he has more than one attack, he cannot cast the spell between weapon attacks.
Spellstrike (Su): At 2nd level, whenever a magus casts a spell with a range of “touch” from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. If the magus makes this attack in concert with spell combat, this melee attack takes all the penalties accrued by spell combat melee attacks. This attack uses the weapon's critical range (20, 19–20, or 18–20 and modified by the keen weapon property or similar effects), but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier.
Magus Arcana: As he gains levels, a magus learns arcane secrets tailored to his specific way of blending martial puissance and magical skill. Starting at 3rd level, a magus gains one magus arcana. He gains an additional magus arcana for every three levels of magus attained after 3rd level. Unless specifically noted in a magus arcana's description, a magus cannot select a particular magus arcana more than once. Magus arcana that affect spells can only be used to modify spells from the magus spell list unless otherwise noted.
Magus Arcana Selected:
Level 3 - Familiar (Ex) The magus gains a familiar, using his magus level as his effective wizard level. This familiar follows the rules for familiars presented in the arcane bond wizard class feature. (Improved Familiar as a free feat, her familiar is a Silvanshee Agathion named Kelenarkios)
Level 6 - Prescient Attack (Su) The magus can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as an immediate action after hitting a target with a weapon attack, allowing him to anticipate his opponent’s defenses. The target is denied its Dexterity bonus against the magus’s attacks until the end of the magus’s next turn. The magus must be at least 6th level before selecting this arcana.
Perfect Strike (Ex): At 4th level, when a kensai hits with his chosen weapon, he can spend 1 point from his arcane pool in order to maximize his weapon damage. Don’t roll for damage—the weapon deals maximum damage. This affects only the weapon’s base damage dice, not additional damage from sneak attack, magical weapon properties, spellstrike, or critical hits.
If the kensai confirms a critical hit, he can instead spend 2 points from his arcane pool to increase his weapon’s critical multiplier by 1. This ability replaces spell recall.
Bonus Feats: At 5th level, and every six levels thereafter, a magus gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement. These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as combat, item creation, or metamagic feats. He must meet the prerequisites for these feats as normal.
Fighter Training (Ex): Starting at 7th level, a kensai counts his magus level –3 as his fighter level for the purpose of qualifying for feats (if he has levels in fighter, these levels stack), but forfeits the benefit of such feats with weapons other than his favored weapon. This ability replaces knowledge pool.
Iaijutsu (Ex): At 7th level, a kensai applies his Intelligence modifier as well as his Dexterity modifier on initiative rolls (minimum 0). A kensai may make attacks of opportunity when flat-footed, and may draw his favored weapon as a free action as part of taking an attack of opportunity. This ability replaces the medium armor ability.
Improved Spell Combat (Ex): At 8th level, the magus's ability to cast spells and make melee attacks improves. When using the spell combat ability, the magus receives a +2 circumstance bonus on concentration checks, in addition to any bonus granted by taking an additional penalty on the attack roll.
Rogue Class Features
This modifies weapon and armor proficiencies.
Sneak Attack: (3d6) If a rogue can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from her attack, she can strike a vital spot for extra damage.
The rogue’s attack deals extra damage anytime her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the rogue flanks her target. This extra damage is 1d6 at 1st level, and increases by 1d6 every 2 rogue levels thereafter. Ranged attacks can count as sneak attacks only if the target is within 30 feet. This additional damage is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit.
With a weapon that deals nonlethal damage (such as a sap, unarmed strike, or whip), a rogue can make a sneak attack that deals nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. She cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage in a sneak attack—not even with the usual –4 penalty.
The rogue must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. A rogue cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with total concealment.
Combat Training (Ex): A canny scoundrel is considered an Adept practitioner, gaining spheres and talents as appropriate, and uses the higher of their Charisma or Intelligence as their practitioner modifier.
This replaces the rogue talents gained at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level.
Keen Blades, Keen Eyes, and Keen Wits: At 1st level the canny scoundrel gains the Scoundrel and Scout spheres as bonus spheres, as well as Finesse Fighting from the Equipment sphere, even if she would not normally qualify for it. If she already possesses one or more of these spheres, she may instead choose any talent she qualifies for from the corresponding sphere.
This replaces trapfinding.
Finesse Training (Ex): At 1st level, a rogue gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat. In addition, starting at 3rd level, she can select any one type of weapon that can be used with Weapon Finesse (Fauchard via Spear Dancer sphere talent). Once this choice is made, it cannot be changed. Whenever she makes a successful melee attack with the selected weapon, she adds her Dexterity modifier instead of her Strength modifier to the damage roll. If any effect would prevent the rogue from adding her Strength modifier to the damage roll, she does not add her Dexterity modifier. The rogue can select a second weapon at 11th level and a third at 19th level.
Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level, a rogue can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she succeeds at a Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the rogue is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless rogue does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Rogue Talents: As a rogue gains experience, she learns a number of talents that aid her and confound her foes. Starting at 2nd level, a rogue gains one rogue talent. She gains an additional rogue talent for every 2 levels of rogue attained after 2nd level. A rogue cannot select an individual talent more than once.
Rogue Talents Selected:
2nd: Bleeding Attack (Ex) A rogue with this ability can cause living opponents to bleed by hitting them with a sneak attack. This attack causes the target to take 1 additional point of damage each round for each die of the rogue’s sneak attack (e.g., 4d6 equals 4 points of bleed). Bleeding creatures take that amount of damage every round at the start of each of their turns. The bleeding can be stopped by a successful DC 15 Heal check or the application of any effect that heals hit point damage. Bleed damage from this ability does not stack with itself. Bleed damage bypasses any damage reduction the creature might possess.
6th: Slow Reactions* (Ex) Opponents damaged by the rogue’s sneak attack can’t make attacks of opportunity for 1 round.
Extra Rogue Talent Feat: Trap Spotter (Ex) Whenever a rogue with this talent comes within 10 feet of a trap, she can attempt an immediate Perception check to notice the trap. This check should be made in secret by the GM.
Danger Sense (Ex): (+2) At 3rd level, a rogue gains a +1 bonus on Reflex saves to avoid traps and a +1 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by traps. In addition, she gains a +1 bonus on Perception checks to avoid being surprised by a foe. These bonuses increase by 1 every 3 rogue levels thereafter (to a maximum of +6 at 18th level). This ability counts as trap sense for the purpose of any feat or class prerequisite, and can be replaced by any archetype class feature that replaces trap sense. The bonuses gained from this ability stack with those gained from trap sense (from another class).
Debilitating Injury (Ex): At 4th level, whenever a rogue deals sneak attack damage to a foe, she can also debilitate the target of her attack, causing it to take a penalty for 1 round (this is in addition to any penalty caused by a rogue talent or other special ability). The rogue can choose to apply any one of the following penalties when the damage is dealt.
Bewildered: The target becomes bewildered, taking a –2 penalty to AC. The target takes an additional –2 penalty to AC against all attacks made by the rogue. At 10th level and 16th level, the penalty to AC against attacks made by the rogue increases by –2 (to a total maximum of –8).
Disoriented: The target takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls. In addition, the target takes an additional –2 penalty on all attack rolls it makes against the rogue. At 10th level and 16th level, the penalty on attack rolls made against the rogue increases by –2 (to a total maximum of –8).
Hampered: All of the target’s speeds are reduced by half (to a minimum of 5 feet). In addition, the target cannot take a 5-foot step.
These penalties do not stack with themselves, but additional attacks that deal sneak attack damage extend the duration by 1 round. A creature cannot suffer from more than one penalty from this ability at a time. If a new penalty is applied, the old penalty immediately ends. Any form of healing applied to a target suffering from one of these penalties also removes the penalty.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 4th level, a rogue can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught flat-footed, nor does she lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A rogue with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against her.
If a rogue already has uncanny dodge from a different class, she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.
Rogue’s Edge (Ex): At 5th level, a rogue has mastered a single skill beyond that skill’s normal boundaries, gaining results that others can only dream about. She gains the skill unlock powers (see page 82) for that skill as appropriate for her number of ranks in that skill. At 10th, 15th, and 20th levels, she chooses an additional skill and gains skill unlock powers for that skill as well.
Intimidate - 5 Ranks: If you exceed the DC to demoralize a target by at least 10, it is frightened for 1 round and shaken thereafter.* A Will save (DC 18 = 10 + your number of ranks in Intimidate) negates the frightened condition, but the target is still shaken, even if it has the stalwart ability.
Spheres of Might
Martial Tradition: Ninjutsu
Equipment Sphere:
Finesse Fighting (Feat tax rules)
Spear Dancer (Ninjutsu Bonus) - You may treat any spear or polearm you wield as though it had the finesse weapon special feature, and may wield it as a one-handed weapon. Spears and polearms include weapons like the amentum, boar spear, doru, elven branched spear, glaive, guisarme, harpoon, lance, longspear, naginata, pilum, planson, shortspear, sibat, spear, tiger fork, and trident or other weapons based on GM approval.
Monk Weapon Proficiencies (Ninjutsu) - You gain proficiency with all weapons with the monk special feature.
Polearm Mastery (lvl 2) - When wielding a reach weapon, you may attack targets within your natural reach, but suffer a -2 penalty when doing so. At +10 base attack bonus, you also threaten all squares within your natural reach when wielding a reach weapon, but still suffer a -2 penalty to attacks of opportunity made in this fashion.
Scoundrel Sphere (Rogue):
Swift Hands (base) - You may use your Dexterity in place of your Strength when attempting a dirty trick or steal maneuver and may use your ranks in the Sleight of Hand skill in place of your base attack bonus when determining your combat maneuver bonus to perform a dirty trick or steal maneuver. In addition, you may apply any enhancement bonuses to your unarmed strikes to your dirty trick and steal combat maneuvers.
Mark Target (base) - You may make a melee touch attack against a creature as a swift action; if this attack is successful, the creature is battered and takes a -1 penalty on Perception checks for 1 round. For every 4 ranks in Sleight of Hand you possess, this penalty is increased by 1.
Misdirected Attack +2 (Ninjutsu Bonus) - Whenever you provoke an attack of opportunity due to leaving a creature’s threatened square, you gain a dodge bonus to your AC equal to 1/4 your ranks in Sleight of Hand (minimum 1). If an attack of opportunity provoked in this way misses you, you can expend an attack of opportunity to choose to redirect the attack to a creature within the attacker’s reach (other than the attacker themselves), adding a bonus to the attack roll equal to the dodge bonus granted by this talent.
Improved Grifting +3 (lvl 3) - You gain a +1 competence bonus to your dirty trick and steal combat maneuver checks, as well as to your CMD vs. those maneuvers. This bonus increases by +1 for every 4 ranks in Sleight of Hand you possess. This bonus does not stack with the bonus to these maneuvers provided by the Improved or Greater Dirty Trick or Improved or Greater Steal feats. Associated Feats: Improved Steal, Improved Dirty Trick.
Scout Sphere (Rogue):
Scout (base) - As a swift action, you may identify a creature’s weaknesses (DC 10 + creature’s CR) as described under the Knowledge skill, but may substitute a Perception check for the appropriate Knowledge check at a -5 penalty. This only reveals the target’s weaknesses, or lack thereof, (such as damage reduction types and vulnerabilities), and does not reveal any additional information about the target. Once you have succeeded at a scout attempt or Knowledge check against a target, any talents or effects that require you to scout a target may be used against the target for the next 24 hours; after this period you must successfully use the scout ability against the target again to continue benefiting from related effects.
Lurker (Ninjutsu Bonus) - Creatures using unusual forms of sensory perception such as blindsight, greensight, or tremorsense cannot automatically foil your use of Stealth; such creatures must make a Perception check as normal to detect you when you make use of the Stealth skill.
Lurker foils divination spells and Divination sphere sense abilities in the manner described above, but has no effect on spell, sphere, spell-like, or supernatural abilities specifically used to uncover information about you rather than enhancing the user’s perception, such as when scrying or using the Divination sphere‘s divine abilities.
Find Gap -3 4 rds (lvl 4) - Whenever you successfully use the scout ability against a creature, you treat their AC as 1 lower than it actually is for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your ranks in Perception (minimum 1). For every 4 ranks you possess, treat their AC as an additional 1 point lower.
Inimical Gaze (lvl 6) - Prerequisites: Scout sphere, Perception 5 ranks. The scout ability granted by the Scout sphere is now a gaze attack that can affect any creature within 60 ft. You may activate this gaze as a free action and it stays active until the end of your next turn. Any creature subject to the gaze that fails a Will save is automatically scouted by you.
Investigator Class Features
Alchemy (Su): Investigators are highly trained in the creation of mundane alchemical substances and magical potion-like extracts.
When using Craft (alchemy) to create an alchemical item, an investigator gains a competence bonus equal to his class level on the skill check. In addition, an investigator can use Craft (alchemy) to identify potions as if using detect magic. He must hold the potion for 1 round to attempt such a check.
Like an alchemist, an investigator prepares his spells by mixing ingredients and a tiny fraction of his own magical power into a number of extracts, and then effectively casts the spell by drinking the extract. These extracts have powerful effects, but they are also bound to their creator. Extracts behave like spells in potion form, and as such their effects can be dispelled by dispel magic and similar effects, using the investigator’s level as the caster level.
An investigator can create only a certain number of extracts of each level per day. His base daily allotment of extracts per day is given on Table 1–8: Investigator. In addition, he receives bonus extracts per day if he has a high Intelligence score, in the same way a wizard receives bonus spells per day.
When an investigator mixes an extract, he infuses the chemicals and reagents in the extract with magic siphoned from his own magical aura. An extract immediately become inert if it leaves the investigator’s possession, reactivating as soon as it returns to his keeping—an investigator cannot normally pass out his extracts for allies to use. An extract, once created, remains potent for 1 day before losing its magic, so an investigator must reprepare his extracts every day. Mixing an extract takes 1 minute of work.
Creating extracts consumes raw material, but the cost of those materials is insignificant—comparable to the valueless material components of most spells. If a spell normally has a costly material component, that component is expended during the consumption of that particular extract. Extracts cannot be made from spells that have focus requirements; extracts that duplicate divine spells never have a divine focus requirement.
An investigator uses the alchemist formula list (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide 32) to determine the extracts he can know. An investigator can prepare an extract of any formula he knows. To learn or use an extract, an investigator must have at least an Intelligence score equal to 10 + the extract’s level. The saving throw DC for an investigator’s extract is equal to 10 + the extract’s level + the investigator’s Intelligence modifier.
An investigator may know any number of formulae. He stores his formulae in a special tome called a formula book. He must refer to this book whenever he prepares an extract. At 1st level, an investigator starts with two 1st level formulae of his choice, plus a number of additional formulae equal to his Intelligence modifier. At each new investigator level, he gains one new formula for any level that he can create. An investigator can also add formulae to his book just like a wizard adds spells to his spellbook, using the same costs, pages, and time requirements. A formula book costs as much as a spellbook. An investigator can study a wizard’s spellbook to learn any formula that is equivalent to a spell the spellbook contains. A wizard, however, cannot learn spells from a formula book. An investigator can also learn formulae from another investigator’s or an alchemist’s formula book (and vice versa). An investigator does not need to decipher arcane writing before copying that formulae.
Inspiration (Ex): An investigator is beyond knowledgeable and skilled—he also possesses keen powers of observation and deduction that far surpass the abilities of others. An investigator typically uses these powers to aid in their investigations, but can also use these flashes of inspiration in other situations.
An investigator has the ability to augment skill checks and ability checks through his brilliant inspiration. The investigator has an inspiration pool equal to 1/2 his investigator level + his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). An investigator’s inspiration pool refreshes each day, typically after he gets a restful night’s sleep. As a free action, he can expend one use of inspiration from his pool to add 1d6 to the result of that check, including any on which he takes 10 or 20. This choice is made after the check is rolled and before the results are revealed. An investigator can only use inspiration once per check or roll. The investigator can use inspiration on any Knowledge, Linguistics, or Spellcraft skill checks without expending a use of inspiration, provided he’s trained in the skill.
Inspiration can also be used on attack rolls and saving throws, at the cost of expending two uses of inspiration each time from the investigator’s pool. In the case of saving throws, using inspiration is an immediate action rather than a free action.
Trapfinding: An investigator adds 1/2 his level to Perception skill checks made to locate traps and to Disable Device checks (minimum 1). An investigator can use Disable Device to disarm magical traps.
Ceaseless Observation (Ex): An empiricist’s ability to notice the minutiae of almost everything that happens around him allows him to make shrewd and insightful calculations about people and even inanimate objects. At 2nd level, an empiricist uses his Intelligence modifier instead of the skill’s typical ability for all Disable Device, Perception, Sense Motive, and Use Magic Device checks. He can also use his Intelligence modifier instead of Charisma on any Diplomacy checks made to gather information. This ability replaces poison lore and poison resistance.
Favored Class Bonus Magus, +8 hit points
Combat Gear Hekation Crescent (+1 Horacalcum Fauchard), Spell Component Pouch
Other Equipment Headband of Vast Intelligence +2 (Sense Motive, Giant), Cloak of Resistance +1, Belt of Incredible Dexterity +2, Ring of Protection +1, Subtle Slippers, Pearl of Power I (2), Handy Haversack, Spring-Loaded Scroll Case (Scroll of Fly), Scroll Belt (Jester's Jaunt), Ostentatious Blue Linen Chiton
In Haversack: Wand of Mage Armor (50 charges), Wand of Infernal Healing (50 charges), Scroll of Heart of the Metal: Adamantine, Scroll of Versatile Weapon, Focus Chew (5), Silence Dust (2), Alchemical Solvent, Vomit Capsule, Gravelly Tonic (2), Alchemy Crafting Kit, Alchemist's Lab, Disguise Kit, Spell Component Pouch (spare), Masterwork Thieve's Tools, Formula Book (prepared extracts plus Ant Haul, Anticipate Peril, False Face, Negate Aroma, Vocal Alteration), Spellbook (prepared spells plus all remaining cantrips, Expeditious Retreat, Chill Touch, Infernal Healing, Jump, Long Arm, Magic Missile, Monkey Fish, Silent Image, Thunderstomp, Pilfering Hand, Fly, Dispel Magic)
Wealth 718.7 gp
Kelenarkios
Male Silvanshee Agathion Emissary Familiar [Emissary of Kelksiomedes] 8
NG Tiny Outsider (agathion, extraplanar, good)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +10
Defense
AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 17 (+2 Dex, +5 natural, +2 size)
hp 44
Fort +8, Ref +11, Will +8; +4 vs. poison
DR 5/evil or silver; Immune electricity, petrification; Resist cold 10, sonic 10; SR 13
Offense
Speed 30 ft., fly 90 ft. (good)
Melee bite +10 (1d3–4), 2 claws +10 (1d2–4)
Special Attacks heroic strength, pounce
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 2nd; concentration +3)
Constant—know direction, speak with animals
At will—dancing lights, prestidigitation, stabilize, guidance
1/day—dimension door (self plus 5 lbs. of objects only)
1/week—commune (6 questions, CL 12th)
Statistics
Str 3, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 13
Base Atk +6/+1; CMB +2; CMD 14 (18 vs. trip)
Feats Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +17, Bluff +12, Climb +7, Craft (alchemy) +7, Diplomacy +7, Disguise +7, Escape Artist +9, Fly +6, Knowledge (arcana) +11, Knowledge (local) +11, Knowledge (planes) +7, Knowledge (religion) +4, Linguistics +8, Perception +16, Sense Motive +12, Sleight of Hand +9, Spellcraft +11, Stealth +25, Use Magic Device +9; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +4 Perception, +4 Stealth
Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; speak with animals, truespeech
SQ cat’s luck, flight, lay on hands (1d6, 1/day, always as a 2nd-level paladin), spectral mist, share will, restorative touch
Special Abilities
Cat’s Luck (Su) A silvanshee adds its Charisma modifier as a luck bonus on all its saving throws. Once per day as a standard action, it can also grant this bonus to one ally within 30 feet for 10 minutes.
Heroic Strength (Su) Once per day, a silvanshee can grant itself a +8 enhancement bonus to Strength for 1 minute.
Spectral Mist (Su) A silvanshee can assume an eerie, mist-like form roughly the size and shape of a cat. This ability has the same effect as a gaseous form spell, except the silvanshee retains its own DR and supernatural abilities and can move at its normal speed. It can remain in mist form up to 5 minutes per day. This duration does not have to be consecutive, but it must be used in 1-minute increments.
Share Will (Su) Whenever an emissary or its master fails a saving throw against a mind-affecting effect that affects only one of them, the other can attempt the saving throw as well. If this second saving throw is a success, treat the original result as a success, and the emissary and its master can’t use this ability again for 24 hours. On a failure, both the emissary and its master suffer the effects of the failed saving throw, even if one of them wouldn’t ordinarily be a valid target.
Restorative Touch (Su) You can touch a creature, letting the healing power of your deity flow through you to relieve the creature of a minor condition. Your touch can remove the dazed, fatigued, shaken, sickened, or staggered condition. You choose which condition is removed. You can use this ability once per day.
The fact that Crepuscular Cowl requires the Shadow Blending racial trait (or Shadow Call Shadowdancer class feature) implies to me that they're meant to work together. YMMV.
I am planning on going Gifted Blade, I wonder if there's some way (either within the rules or by GM's special dispensation) that I could get Control Light on my power list. That'd be mighty handy.
OK, I've modified the backstory slightly so that the invaders who wiped out Gosor's village are no long from Karnossa, but I think everything else should be workable. Also thanks to all for the suggestions for harpoons and what not! I've now got a couple that I can use to potentially throw into something to drag back to me.
Questions:
- Will crafting be allowed once the game has started (and can we keep some char gen gold back for crafting)?
- Can the improved familiars take archetypes like Mauler or Valet?
- Is the Overclocked Magic variant from Unchained in play (Make a spellcraft check to increase CL; failure "fizzles" the spell)
- Are things like the Jingasa of the Fortunte soldier, Ring of Inner Fortitude, Spirits Gift feat, etc using the original text or the errated / nerfed versions for PFS?
This is Ouachitonian, presenting Aleksander Albus, Fetchling Aegis/Soulknife (reskinned as deriving his powers from the Plane of Shadow, rather than Psychic abilities). While his casting is quite limited, he has a lot of skills, including being *very* stealthy, hand with traps, and even handy with an alchemy set. He isn't formally a Godling class-wise, but in the fluff he claims distant descent from Count Ranalc, the Eldest of Shadows.
I ended up solving my light issue by reworking my feats, taking Wild Talent and Unlocked Talent to get access to Control Light.
@Menophite: Yeah, I really like the new version! Reminds me of the journeys of Odysseus but more mundane and more of a find-your-alignment journey similar to many north european tales.
Like it very much.
At your crunch ... wow, your AC is rivalling my own plus some Resistances and DR. And what about that skill section.
You're really an all-trick-pony, aren't you?
Magic - I got this!
Fighting - I got this!
Defence - I got plenty!
Skills - Sure thing!
Alchemy - Here you go!
Wow :-)
Sorry, but another question: What happens when (or if) both parts of the Gestalt have Sphere casting? Do you have to keep separate track (separate spell pool, talents, etc)? That would be a bit messy. Would you just use your bigger spell pool and merge talents? Never thought about that! On the other hand, can you just use Sphere casting in one part of the Gestalt and Vancian casting on the other?
I'm kind of worried I didn't optimize Ktinos enough. XD Or rather, didn't numerically optimize him enough--he's more optimized in "being monster-like".
Sorry, but another question: What happens when (or if) both parts of the Gestalt have Sphere casting? Do you have to keep separate track (separate spell pool, talents, etc)? That would be a bit messy. Would you just use your bigger spell pool and merge talents? Never thought about that! On the other hand, can you just use Sphere casting in one part of the Gestalt and Vancian casting on the other?
I am not the GM, so none of this is an official ruling. o wo/ For some perspective, though...
Normally, you get the full set of talents and add the two spell point pools together. This is basically the equivalent of having, say, a Sorc/Wiz gestalt. You get the full number of spells from both classes. Unlike Vancian, however, Spheres has you combine your talents when you get them. You don't have fifth-level Incanter talents and second-level Hedgewitch talents if you multiclass - you have seventh-level talents and some class abilities. Some people do separate their talents, though, usually for thematic reasons (like having multiple traditions and wanting to do a plot with that).
If you have both Spheres and Vancian, then you have Spheres and Vancian, each on their own sides and calculated separately. Heck, there's even a prestige class for that (the Bokor) you can take starting at 11th level. XD
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On a different note, I don't recommend trying to maximize numbers in a game like this. o wo Different class combinations can lead to wildly different results, and that can make it hard for characters to feel like they're in the same game. *Has some experience with this*
@Menophite: Yeah, I really like the new version! Reminds me of the journeys of Odysseus but more mundane and more of a find-your-alignment journey similar to many north european tales.
Like it very much.
At your crunch ... wow, your AC is rivalling my own plus some Resistances and DR. And what about that skill section.
You're really an all-trick-pony, aren't you?
Magic - I got this!
Fighting - I got this!
Defence - I got plenty!
Skills - Sure thing!
Alchemy - Here you go!
Wow :-)
Hah, thanks for taking the time to read through the background, glad you enjoyed it. For a limited number of tricks per day, sure - Kensai spellcasting only goes so far though, and the alchemy is mostly there for a few situational emergencies. I was aiming for versatility to be able to contribute in most situations. And with all the buffs up she'll be tough to hit, sure, but she has about half the hp that Quercus does! So overall, limited staying power.
Quercus is going to be a hell of a tank! I'm seeing a lot of the same kind of versatility there too.
For things like this, I'm absolutely going for flavor over function most times when the two conflict. I know I could make an absolutely absurd OP character who kills everything in one hit, but I already know I can do that and would rather have interesting tactical decisions to make instead. It's how I ended up with a simple weapon as my primary offense, after all.
GM- would you allow for a custom Martial Tradition? Using the guidelines outlined in Spheres of Might, I came up with this, based off of ancient Greek soldiers and tweaked to reflect a greco-fantasy setting:
Spear Defender
Battlefields are treacherous place, causing chaos and
anarchy to reign supreme. Only a spear defender is able to control the flow of battle, intercepting attacks and defending allies both near and far.
Bonus Talents: Equipment: Polearm Mastery, Shield Expert
Guardian Sphere (Patrol Package): Swift Guardian
I've been trying to build a caster focused godling\harbringer, but that's quite complicated. I realise there's another character I've been wanting to play for a very long time that might work for this game... Would you allow either of the following?
A) Ninja is basically a rogue archtype... So can it take rogue archtypes? Specifically I'm looking at scout and hidden blade (from pow), they are both compatible. For hidden blade it sets your initiation modifier to int, but cha makes a lot more sense for a ninja. Can I key it is int?
B) dual progression prestige classes are sometimes frowned upon in gestalt. Can I go arcane trickster?
Ah, the flavour. Yes, where would we be without flavour? I usually try to find some mechanic options with which I'm comfortable, then select the ones which make more sense fluff wise.
In this case, I think I'm sticking with Soul Weaver + Paladin. This guy will be using the forces of Hades and the Elysium (or any other planes where dead souls go) to channel boons upon his allies or ruin upon his enemies. The Paladin part will show his devotion to these divine forces, as well as ensure he stays on the "good guys" half of things (though I'm taking an archetype which allows "any good"). This would be perfect if flavoured for Pharasma, though in this particular setting I'm divided between Diaphorae (because she cares that everything keeps its statu quo) and Zdokirae (because he is the only Neutral one).
He has low skills and low AC, and I intent on leaving it like that so the character has a clear weak point. Weak points are cool.
Hmm... considering the flavour and power level of this game, I honestly think a Kineticist would be absolutely perfect for this game! After all, how more amazing and awe-inspiring can you get, than someone who can manipulate and mould the very elements themselves to their will?
As for what class I play them with... well... honestly, I'm kinda thinking of picking up the Soulknife on the other side. Because honestly? The idea of dual-wielding two different blades. One made out of the elements themselves, and the other made out of the sheer force of my mind, is f&#!ing awesome!
... Not sure if I want to go for a Living Legend Soulknife, for that awesome thematicness and quite a few strong abilities... or just stick with the standard soulknife for the flexibility it offers... pity that there aren't any more Soulknife archetypes outside DSP... shame there's no way to get a mind blade and full manoeuvre progression either. As getting full Thrashing Dragon would really help the build... no Sphere's stuff for a Soulknife or Kineticist either, though I vastly prefer Path of War...