Mind Over Ghostly Matter

Friday, February 17, 2017

Illustration by Litos Lopez Rodriguez

Amanda Hamon Kunz and Jason Keeley are back to tell you more about the brand-new Player Companion, Psychic Anthology, a compendium of esoteric ideas and unusual choices for the occult classes.

Jason

When writing, editing, or developing a project, I often like to ask myself, "Is this disgusting enough?" Luckily for me, I didn't have to pose that query very often for Psychic Anthology. In a product that features a book written on the inside of a human skull and a tome bound in the hide of an extraplanar monstrosity, my favorite is the Encyclopedia Etherica, which is made entirely out of ectoplasm. A chronicle of spiritualists and their phantoms, the original version of this encyclopedia exists only on the Ethereal Plane. The only way for a copy to appear on the Material Plane is for a spiritualist's phantom to grasp it and then be harbored in the spiritualist's consciousness. The spiritualist then must vomit up the book, page by page. I don't think Amazon will be using this method of delivery any time soon.

But if you can stomach reading about the Encyclopedia Etherica, you can find all kinds of exciting options for spiritualists! The first is the addition of a new phantom emotional focus—kindness. A kindness phantom excels at aiding others and can even provide a small amount of healing. This section also includes archetypes that grant spiritualists phantom animal companions or allow them channel positive energy to harm the undead. Or, if you want to ditch the whole phantom thing and instead wield a sentient ectoplasmic sword, then the phantom blade archetype is for you. Not only does the phantom weapon get more powerful as you gain levels, it can also be reshaped into different weapon types and, eventually, eat souls. Not convinced? Just ask Estra, who seems pretty satisfied with her giant gooey battleaxe.

Illustration by Veli Nystrom

Illustration by Veli Nystrom

Amanda

Aside from its very theme, the most exciting part of Psychic Anthology was, for me, the opportunity to present psychic versions of concepts that have long been Pathfinder staples. One of my favorite ways that we accomplished this was by creating psychic versions of tried-and-true magic items.

The in-world framework the book uses to introduce these items is the Infinity Scroll, an enigmatic work that only holds a tiny fragment of the Akashic Record—or perhaps a few manifestations of the Dark Tapestry's impossible truths. The scroll was lost long ago, but the fragments that scholars recorded led to the creation of the truly noteworthy items detailed in Psychic Anthology.

For one, the book presents the ring of mysticism, which works much like a psychic ring of wizardry in that it doubles the wearer's psychic spells per day for one specific spell level. We also present the robe of the overmind. I won't spoil exactly what it does, but think a more psychically appropriate version of robe of the archmagi.

There are so many other goodies in Psychic Anthology, but you'll have to pick up the book to find out more!

Occult of Indy

Friday, July 24, 2015

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Illustrations by Caio Maciel Monteiro and Wayne Reynolds.

Many of us are heading out to Indy next week for Gen Con 2015. In the Paizo booth there will be a huge display made from Pathfinder RPG books, and the latest of them's going to be Occult Adventures. Here's a last preview at the fantastic art before it officially releases on July 29! See you in Indy!

Illustrations by Igor Grechanyi, Caio Maciel Monteiro, and Mariusz Gandzel

Illustrations by Federico Musetti and Subroto Bhaumik

Sarah Robinson
Managing Art Director

Occult Adventures Class Preview: The Spiritualist

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Illustration by Alexandru Sabo

When souls pass from the Material Plane to the Great Beyond, most speed through the Astral Plane on their way to final judgment and placement with in the fantastical outer planes. Other souls take a detour. Highly charged emotions shake them out of the stream of souls, and toward the esoteric gravity of the Negative Material Plane. Tragically, many of these souls are transformed into horrifying and dangerous undead creatures who haunt the multiverse unleash their malice and hate upon living creatures they encounter. A select few are able to pull themselves out of this horrid free fall. These phantoms push their way back through the Ethereal Plane until they find a psychically attuned individual to serves as anchor and sanctuary for their spirit.

These psychic anchors are called spiritualists, but they are much more than a psychic haven for the phantom. The relationship between a spiritualist and its phantom is mutually beneficial. While the phantom is confined within her mind, it grants the spiritualist focus with skills tied to the phantom's powerful emotions, as well as powerful protections against mind-affecting effects. Furthermore, the spiritualist can manifest her harbored spirit partially or fully in either incorporeal or ectoplasmic form, gaining access to a powerful combat ally and scout. Coupling this relationship with spellcasting focusing on life, death, spirit, and ectoplasm manipulation, clearly a spiritualist commands forces beyond the pale.

During the Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures playtest, it became clear that our list of phantom emotional aspects was incomplete. Especially missing was a powerful emotion that tied the phantom to the spiritualist in a closer, more intimate way. While we avoided making emotional focuses that were very positive in nature (after all, it's typically very strong negative emotions that makes a soul drift toward the Negative Material Plane), we added a dedication emotional as a companion to the zeal aspect helping fill the niche for those desiring to play a spiritualist that didn't entirely dwell within the super-negative spectrum of emotions. We also added despair to that list, as that emotion was a good fit for the more negative side of the spectrum. Aside some bits of minor fine-tuning, and a restructuring of the bonded manifestation ability, we took a close look at the phantom's ability to scout in incorporeal form via the etheric tether class feature. While an incorporeal phantom can still scout while outside of line of effect from its spiritualist master, the amount of time it can do so is much shorter than the playtest version of the class.

In the end, the spiritualist is a class that allows you to channel forces from beyond the grave, and some of the more spooky aspects of psychic magic. Next week, we will delve into different Occult Adventures class, so stay tuned.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer

Meet the Iconics: Estra

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Today, as part of our ongoing Meet the Iconics series, we introduce the next of the six new iconic characters featured in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Occult Adventures. This week we meet Estra, the iconic spirtualist!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Estra never wanted to commune with spirits: she only wished for others to believe she did, and profit from that belief.

Born the daughter of a poor miner in the nation of Isger, Estra dreamed of the theaters of far-off cities, and more than once nearly ran away with a traveling acting troupe that stopped in her small town. Fortunately, her family moved to the capital city of Isger, Elidir, during her teenage years, and she swiftly became enthralled with her new, cosmopolitan home. Her dreams of joining the theater were even somewhat fulfilled when she fell in with a small gang of faux-spiritualists who needed a convincing actress to play the role of their spirit-channeling medium. The group engaged in fraudulent séances targeting grieving mourners, who paid dearly for confirmation of the smooth passing of their loved ones into the hereafter.

Within darkened chambers and ramshackle theaters, Estra and her confederates spent nearly ten years bilking grief-stricken with the promise of communion with their dead relatives. Estra proved a talented actress, falling into convincing trances to channel the dead and dispense the carefully gathered information her associates had gleaned on their targets. Sessions typically culminated with the full-form “manifestation” of a bereaved subject's lost relative: actually a confederate dressed in luminous robes and clumsy disguises approximating the dead person's appearance.

The arrival of a handsome knight named Honaire changed all that. Stationed in Elidir, Honaire had left behind an ailing mother, and in his absence she had passed. Honaire sought some comfort in his loss, and turned toward the séances of Estra's troupe for assurance that his mother rested in peace. Relieved of his grief by the assurances of the spirit-seer, the young knight became smitten with Estra's quick wit and streetwise charm. Estra, for her part, found the knight's combination of physical strength and gentle courtesy enchanting, even as his strict code of honor made her regret her own life of lies. When at last she confessed the truth—that she'd never contacted Honaire's mother at all—she expected him to fly into a rage. Instead, he thanked her for her courage, and promptly proposed marriage. Accepting his proposal, Estra left behind the life of a charlatan, and the two spent several happy decades together, with Estra enjoying the social status that came from being the wife of an up-and-coming military commander.

Yet this life, too, came to an abrupt end when rumors of a rising alliance of goblin tribes reached the capital. Seeing her husband's frustration at the government's slow response, Estra urged him to volunteer to investigate, with no way of knowing that the goblin assemblies were in fact the precursor to the deadly Goblinblood Wars. There in the dark expanse of the Chitterwood, Honaire and his unit were unexpectedly ambushed by a horde of maniacal goblins and their green dragon ally. Though he fought bravely and saved the lives of many comrades in their retreat, Honaire was bathed in the dragon's toxic breath, his armor and body rent by the beast's deadly claws.

Wracked by guilt and loss, set adrift in a devastated nation that suddenly had more to worry about than the plight of military widows, Estra turned back to her old means of supporting herself, training several new associates in the tricks of the faux-spiritualist trade. Yet during the group's first performance, while her confederates secretly lifted spirit trumpets with thin threads and caused tambourines to shake as if by unseen forces, Estra's fake trance became something more. A wispy, greenish vapor coalesced from her mouth, eyes, and nostrils. To the wonderment of those assembled, a spectral figure emerged through the curtain of ectoplasmic mists. The ghostly apparition was not the luminous confederate Estra expected to emerge from the spirit cabinet, but rather the very real specter of her fallen husband. Both comforted and shamed, the burgeoning spiritualist pledged once again to never allow deceit to rule her life.

Though her body is increasingly stooped by age, Estra has learned to strengthen her spiritual bond with Honaire so that his ectoplasmic form might walk the world again. She tries to emulate her lost lover's selfless drive to aid the helpless wherever they might be afflicted—though her impatience and sharp tongue sometimes get the better of her. Wandering far from Isger, she uses her strange powers to provide comfort and consolation—for real this time—to those who've lost loved ones to the ceaseless violence of the world. Yet all the while, she remains plagued by doubt, wondering if her phantom husband's presence is the result of the depth of their love, some god's attempt to shepherd her toward righteousness, or a manifestation of her own guilty conscience.

Brandon Hodge (Contributing Author) & the Paizo Staff

P.S.: The psychic preview and Meet the Iconics installment we promised last Thursday has been pushed out just a bit, but never fear, you will learn more about Rivani soon!