Folca is infamous for being one of the most offensively repugnant fiends in Pathfinder lore, so much so as to actively be buried by its creators and ignored by its player base. I won't be going over why they are (it's pretty bad) and the point of this post is not to bring attention to that. Instead, I feel it is a shame that passed all the unacceptable bits is the hints of a truly compelling supernatural evil that is different from the others. I thus chose to do my own take on the daemon harbinger and expand on them with freshly-baked homebrew lore that I guarantee will make for a good villainous concept to throw at players.
Strangers are just friends you don’t know you have. Now, how about a treat?
Folca The Gaunt Stranger, The Unmet Friend, Mx. Sweets, the Confectioner of Souls, the Snatcher in the Alley
Daemonic Harbinger of sweets, naivety, and abductions
Among the wretched of Abaddon, few are as perplexingly contradictory as Folca. The Gaunt Stranger is a mute, androgynous humanoid with pasty pale skin that stretches with unseen appendages pushing just under its surface, dressed in common dark clothing and carrying a bulging sack filled with unknown, sickly sweet smelling contents.
Folca’s mortal origin is unknown, but it is certain that they are primarily yoked under Trelmarixian, though they came about under his predecessor, Lyutheria. Unlike other daemons, Folca does not aim for death as the final goal. Instead, they seek a form of twisted mercy. Like all daemons, Folca hates themselves and the world, but rather than handle it through bringing oblivion to reality, they instead take a psychological approach. Folca, and those who follow them, indulge deeply in the addictive succor of sugar. They purposefully seek ignorance, to narrow their experiences, and leave only a single, passionate obsession for candy. They ignore suffering and misery and indeed cause it through their apathy and pursuit of the addictive flavor and rush they get from their confections, both mundane and supernatural.
Folca’s role in daemonic society is that of a charitable philanthropist. Their realm, the Succulent Street, is a deep canyon that resembles a meandering alleyway, with a main thoroughfare that is fed by countless alleyways that lead to speakeasies, unholy confectionaries, abattoir basements, factories, and even fields of pungent rotting sugar crop and fruit trees. It borders Urgathoa’s realm and is a common bridge between it and Abaddon. Undead frequent it as much as daemons do, for it is here that a rare delight can be found, for Folca does not simply devours souls, but spins them into magical candies that are capable of bringing joy even to the most depraved fiends. Folca’s supernatural candies are so wickedly delightful they have been known to make daemons smile and weep with joy as though they had finally found something worth existing for. This, however, is a trap, for soon the rush is over and done and the victim of the experience grows just as disillusioned if not even more so with reality, growing increasingly willing to perform evil acts just to afford another taste. Even undead are not immune and indeed Folca counts a large number of undead in their clientele, among which includes the Pallid Princess herself, though she of course is immune to Folca’s total control and indulges freely without repercussion. She is quite fond of them, and often invites them to Bloodrot to feature their latest creations. Folca procures the ingredients for their craft through either donations (which are immediately repaid with finished candies of their making) and abduction (most often of those who would rehabilitate or hurt the willfully ignorant.)
For their part, Folca is placid and quiet, but not uncommunicative. They have a bizarre form of telepathy that manifests as flashing smells and tastes whose meaning can be intuited completely even for those who lack the means to taste or smell. Folca’s very presence can be addictive, caused by the heady psychic fumes emanating from them and their sack, which is always filled to the brim with liquefied soulstuff transmuted to raw spun sugar. Folca’s presence is such that many will simply follow in their wake, and Folca will unwittingly abduct entire towns they pass by, merrily minding their own business as they cause them to vanish, become lost, and eventually starve. Folca will on occasion offer soul candy to the innocent, favoring them as a kindred spirit, and seeking to block their acknowledgment of the outside world. For their part, those who are inexperienced perceive Folca as a friendly-faced stranger that exudes goodness and trustworthiness, whilst more worldly individuals will look on as a freakish monster interacts with the simple-minded innocent as though they were longtime friends, never to know the true ingredients behind the tasty treats they have just accepted. The more horrifying and numerous the truths hidden from those who unknowingly partake of delights there are, the more content Folca will be.
Folca despises those who willfully seek the truth despite how painful it is. They feel an envious resentment of Elysium and its delights, for Folca knows deep down that no amount of sweets can compare to the true happiness of a fulfilling life, a true friendship, or healthy love. They thus prize ingredients from that sacred realm and pay handsomely for those who would give it along with captive azatas and denizens whose spirits they may torment by induction to their own delights. Equally so, Folca loathes Nirvana for its asceticism and comfort, believing them foolish for denying the joy of sugar addiction for other, more wholesome pleasures.
Folca is not a powerful harbinger. Indeed, they are among the weakest in terms of combat ability. Fittingly, they favor enchantment, illusion, and transmutation magic personally and for their followers to trick, coerce, and transform their enemies. Folca’s greatest strength, however, is their popularity, for like a twisted parody of protective elder siblings, the daemons of Abaddon protect the Gaunt Stranger from outside depredation. Their reasons are numerous, be it their desire for them to continue creating their sweets, an understanding of the true and unique flavor of entropy they bring to reality, or simply a desire to earn their favor, Folca is a popular evil.
In times when they find a soul with a unique flavor or have a rare episode of murderous rage (most often induced by an occasional bout of awareness brought about by a foolhardy individual’s arguments), Folca will abduct an individual to harvest their soul, stuffing it into their sack for later use. When truly enraged, Folca will peel away their clothing, revealing an indescribable and maddening sight. The rare few who survive such an event and retain enough sanity to recount it have hypothesized a new origin for Folca: that they are, in fact, a qlippoth lord in hiding, masquerading as a daemon and actively subduing their perception of reality, a reality in which demons still hold dominion over the Abyss and there is no hope of qlippoths ever having their quiet, solitary, sinless universe again. For their part, Folca always responds to any such questions with heartier-than-usual offerings of candy, which if denied will certainly result in the harbinger turning hostile.
Folca actively loathes Norgorber, as the god is fond of using candy as a vector for poisoning. Folca does not seek a quick and painful end for their victims, but a slow, decaying, sedated, diabetic failure. However, Folca is not as powerful as Norgorber and is most often duped by the Reaper of Reputation into gifting poisoned candy to a would-be target. For their part, Folca becomes upset when it happens, then decides it was beyond their ability to stop and in merry obliviousness continues along their way, the sooner the incident is forgotten the better.
Folca’s relationship with the archdaemons is bizarre, as while there is certainly no affection, there is nevertheless a prolific interaction with various. Trelmarixian of course knows how Folca operates and leaves them to their own devices, content that the harbinger reliably has no ambition of overthrowing them and predominantly furthers the power of famine through their methods. Charon recognizes the lifespan reduction caused by Folca’s activities and encourages them by loaning them a few thanadaemons to serve as trade caravans for their product (and making a tidy profit off the proceeds, of course, with Folca demanding nothing in return). Apollyon tolerates Folca, seeing sugar addiction as a mediocre disease but one that serves a purpose all the same. The only archdaemon Folca is at odds with is Szuriel, as her violent mass-murder and warmongering create the very conditions Folca wishes their followers and victims alike to be pleasantly ignorant of. Indeed, few creatures evoke more displeasure in Folca than the Horseman of War, and Folca actively bans her followers from his realm for being ‘party poopers’.
The most insidious yet least evil of Folca’s cults take the form of baking circles that merely think Mx. Sweets to be some sort of patron spirit of their craft. These are Folca’s favorites, and they are jealously protected from the influence of others, with Folca’s blessings to them given as honestly as they would their other, more wicked followers. Darker cults are facilitators, forging alliances with and aiding other evil cults by purposefully keeping people blissfully ignorant of their activities and the miseries of the world, often by peddling inconspicuously addictive substances to do so. Some are hedonistic circles of the most apathetic and petty sort who care for absolutely nothing but their own gratification even as others suffer around them. Still others are truly depraved cannibal chefs seeking to create the ultimate candy out of the remains of their victims. Some undead seek Folca’s blessing to taste the pure joy of innocence never to be truly regained, often ones who resent or regret their condition, thus being spurned by Urgathoa.
Though Folca is not a great mover or shaker by way of ambitious designs or grand master planning, they are a dastardly and insidious spreader of evil, and the line between how much the daemon harbinger is or isn’t aware of the awful consequences of their existence and deeds is brought into constant question, but there is no mistaking that wherever Folca’s touch is felt, oblivion’s decay runs through the bodies, minds, and souls of all those who partake of their blessing, in the dead-end alleys where colorful and friendly strangers peddle their sinister sweets.
That's the basic gist of it, but to elaborate, there are too many redundant gods. I understand the reason for this - you can pick and choose from a kitchen sink of tools to fit the narrative of the story you wish to tell - but for the DM who prefers a more structured cosmic narrative, it can be a massive headache. In essence, the lesser deities that are poorly fleshed out such as the Osirion pantheon, that have very little influence out of their immediate region such as the Tien pantheon, or that completely share a portfolio and alignment with other gods creates a great deal of confusion as to how the world operates on a meta-narrative level.
But I am not here to complain, merely to lay the groundwork for my proposed solution and perhaps discuss it further with others. The answer I came up with is...
Folklore zeitgeists.
Divine magic need not come from a god as has been proven by the Green Faith and other such atheistic philosophies that nevertheless allow tapping into some primal force of reality not through study or innate arcana but merely through a connection with a higher aspect of reality through faith. So it occurred to me that many of these lesser gods are not, in fact, actually real. They are stories, traditions, and folklore that have been given pseudo-presence in the Dimension of Dreams, the Astral Plane, a pocket dimension, or even the Prime Material. They don't have stats. You cannot fight them or destroy them and they cannot interact with the world in any capacity whatsoever save through worshipers, and the only way to rid the world of them is to completely eradicate them from memory along with any record of their existence. Unkillable, capable of granting divine power based on the narrative they were given, yet ultimately impotent to affect reality.
This would also mean that each pantheon could have their own origin story of the universe as how they did it, or would have done it. While this doesn't fool scholars who know the 'true' way things went down, the fact that these beings can do everything a god can short of having a domain with servants and the like would muddy the waters of what is truth, certainly enough to root a devoted following. What's more, the real gods wouldn't have to worry about the occasional shrine here and there. These folklore figures might pluck the occasional worshiper here and there but they can also be very useful gateways to granting the actual gods a convert where there would not have been one before.
And we could go even further. Perhaps the worshipers of regional gods only have divine powers within that region. Once they leave, they are no better than a commoner of their level until they return. This would dissuade the regional gods from being overly expansionist. What's the point? Their narrative is set in stone and they can't provide the magical power to make the conquest viable anyway, and if they overstretch they could invoke the ire of another, larger faith that could be incensed to wipe their memory out of existence. Thus they remain 'lesser' deities, only ever garnering a dedicated following, never proving true competition and underneath it all being content to simply exist thanks to the power of faith.
This, at least, is how I'd be willing to make it work.
Skip past this if you don't want to hear the fluff reasons for this question:
I am making a slayer bounty hunter, and the game is starting at level 4. He's got a Dex build, and I've given him Agile Maneuvers to supplement his Dirty Trick attempts. At level 4, I have given him the Underhanded Tricks rogue talent from Blood of Shadows so when he blinds with his dirty trick, the enemy can't undo it the first round after it is done. In these early levels, the tactic for live capture is this:
1) If initiative is won, charge and dirty trick in place of a sneak attack to blind. Otherwise, straight up dirty trick.
2) With a free hand, draw a dan bong for the +2 bonus to grapple checks. Follow up with a grapple check, which thanks to the blinded condition has a great chance of succeeding and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
3) Pin and then tie up. Proceed to apply manacles, iron mask, etc. for apprehension.
I realize that a more effective tactic would be to knock the person out with repeated sneak attacks/dirty trick blinding, but for story reasons my character prefers his captives to be conscious so he doesn't have to physically carry them if he can afford to. Plus, I want to justify that level 5 archetype class feature substitution Submission Hold when it eventually pops up, and grappling is circumstantially useful against spellcasters anyway. I want to be able to have optimized, capable options.
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Ok, so the question. First, this:
Quote:
When you attempt to perform a combat maneuver, make an attack roll and add your CMB in place of your normal attack bonus. Add any bonuses you currently have on attack rolls due to spells, feats, and other effects. These bonuses must be applicable to the weapon or attack used to perform the maneuver. The DC of this maneuver is your target’s Combat Maneuver Defense. Combat maneuvers are attack rolls, so you must roll for concealment and take any other penalties that would normally apply to an attack roll.
With this in mind, would my weapon attack bonus from Studied Target apply to grapple checks using a dan bong, a weapon that specifically has the grapple quality? Because if so, my bonus to grapple checks would be CMB + 2 from the weapon + studied target bonus, which is really damn good.
When I successfully maintain a grapple with Telekinesis, if I want to use the 'attack' action what would my damage be? I'm leaning toward 1d6 + Int/Cha, but there really is nothing to help indicate it. One could argue you can't, but I'd argue you can contort someone's body in very painful ways until you twist them into an unfortunate mess.
I'm guessing for the 'move' grapple action, you can move them 10 feet (half the speed you can move an object under the 'Sustained Force' version of the spell.)
I have been running a horror campaign. The Big "Bad" is a supremely powerful occultist who, due to being cursed with eternal misfortune and reincarnative immortality, cannot find respite. Because Pharasma is the one who cursed him, if he were to simply rid himself of it he is certain to not receive a peaceful afterlife, so he has resolved to use all the cummulative resources and knowledge of his several thousands of years worth of restarts to find a way to erase himself from existence. Not the world, just himself.
To achieve this goal, he wants to access the Akashic Record and ritualistically rewrite himself out of history. How he will reach this place I have already worked out (it is suitably contrived and difficult). However, I am not sure how to portray the record. Is there any book sources that can speak more on the subject? What about the Dimension of Dreams? Any word of advice would be welcomed.
I've been attempting to build a character as a grappler for a long time, but every time I do, it's a horribly contrived and difficult road that never pays off soon enough to be fun or useful. There's the maneuver master monk, but it's a very specific archetype.
Got me to thinking, why aren't all combat maneuvers attack substitutions? They all depend on a CMB roll, which is modified by attack bonuses. On the logic side of things, why wouldn't a person trained in grappling and the like be capable of snatching a person's arm when they leave themselves open during a retreat, or a master thief steal a bauble for the same reason? Linking 'standard action' to what is another attack roll puts a squeeze on the variety of things a martial class can do.
What're the community's thoughts on all CMB checks being attack alternatives instead of standard actions? I feel it would help diversify melee combat significantly.
My players are approaching the end of a chapter in my custom campaign. The next leg of the journey is going to take place in a large, irradiated swamp. The players will likely go from level 10 to 13 over the span of this leg of the journey. Undead are a good, big choice, but I want to emphasize more on mutations and other fleshy horrors, so aberrations and mutants of all sorts are more what I'm looking for. I was wondering if the community could suggest some good monsters for this purpose? There's a LOT of them to comb through and I am feeling overwhelmed.
PS: Lovecraftian stuff gets an extra bonus. This is a cosmic horror story.
Seeing as arrowheads are made of metal (well, usually) and bullets are made of lead (both of which are subjected to magnetic forces), does the spell magnetic field make the target effectively immune to ranged attacks from these most common forms of ammunition?
Power fantasy is probably a core aspect of a lot of games. You play a singular badass taking down armies of people. Sometimes, you're just a born-and-bred master of destruction. Sometimes, though, the power comes from a singular object.
Of course we know about artifacts in tabletops of all kinds, and while they are always powerful (even minor artifacts), we sometimes wonder "how much more powerful can we make them?" They could be the focus of an entire campaign, after all.
So just for fun, I want to see everyone's idea for super-powerful artifacts. Add as much detail as you want, as many complications as you desire, a backstory and a means of destruction... world's your oyster.
I'll start it off. Gonna go on the record to say that I'm already using this artifact for my players and, although it is weakened, they are bit-by-bit discovering and unlocking more of its power. It's a focus of the campaign, after all, though they don't know it yet.
Quote:
Cosmos, Greatsword of the Master
This imposing +5 greatsword was created by Master Amadeus Kharam using the raw quintessence of creation. Yet, in base form, it is useless, as it has no blade whatsoever. Whenever the sword is anointed with one of 7 special quintessences (coined the Cosmospectra due to their unique hue and planar origin), it gains a blade of the appropriate color and bonus abilities based on that color. This effect remains until a new color anoints it or the current blade is destroyed (hardness 20, 60 hp). Anointing the blade requires a standard action and consumes a dose of the corresponding color. Master Kharam can anoint the blade as a swift action and does not require a material component to do so. The colors and their corresponding bonus abilities are:
Drimic: ghost touch exhausting phase locking
Inviolant: axiomatic unholy frost
Lavigo: deceptive unseen greater distracting
Memocyan: transformative called spell storing
Neregin: greater vampiric umbral
Phant: disjoining anarchic wounding
Solagone: holy flaming lifesurge
In addition, once per day per color, the user may activate a special ability or attack when a color is active by expending a point of mythic power and consuming a dose of the corresponding color (which may have additional effects). User must wait 1d4 rounds before they can use any other color ability. Kharam is able to use these abilities any number of days without consuming a color, though he must still expend mythic power. All saves are equal to 10 + mythic tier + user's charisma score.
Abandon Reality [Drimic]: Cast deep slumber and nightmare simultaneously (nightmare is treated as having a casting time of instant). Expend one additional mythic power to cast mythic versions of deep slumber.
Consuming drimic
Undeniable Truth [Inviolant]: Caster gains true sight for 3 rounds.
Be Forgotten [Lavigo]: Become invisible as per greater invisibility for a number of rounds equal to your mythic tier.
Remembrance of Might [Memocyan]: Recall Cosmos at any time from any distance, even across planes. Doing so causes a 10 foot burst of psychic energy that dazes enemies for 1 round and deals 5d6 points of damage (Fortitude halves and negates dazed condition). Creatures immune to mind-affecting abilities are immune to this effect.
Inevitable Oblivion [Neregin]: Slash the sword downward, causing any creature in a 120ft line to be affected by enervation (Fort halves). Spend 2 additional points of mythic power to make this energy drain instead.
Unmake [Phant]: The next creature or object struck by the weapon is also affected by a disintegrate spell equal to the user's character level as caster level.
All-Consuming Hope [Solagone] : Sweep the sword forward, causing any character in a 60ft cone to take 1d6 fire damage per the user's character level (Reflex halves). Half of this damage is sacred damage that bypasses fire resistance and does not affect good creatures. Expending an additional point of mythic power makes this 1d8 per character level instead.
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Destruction: To truly destroy Cosmos and its hilt, Amadeus Kharam must be killed with it. Doing so causes Kharam's soul to be released of its deity-borne curse of endless, conscientious, damned reincarnation and to pass on to the afterlife.
Quote:
THE COSMOSPECTRA
NOTE: All +1 to DC/CL are granted to scrolls written with the ink. Only one dose is needed regardless of the spell's level.
Memocyan: Silver blue. The color of memory. +1 DC/CL to divination spells. Anything written in it that is seen is impossible to remove via memory altering spells, though lavigo consumption or wish/miracle can. Consuming it casts ancestral memory on the drinker, but with only a 50% chance of success. Tastes like something you ate but whose taste you forgot. Taste lasts for 24 hours.
Price: 1,500gp per dose
Solagone: Bright, burning, amber-gold. Tied closely to planes of fire, good, and positive energy. +1 DC and CL to fire, healing, and good spells. 1d6 fire damage if used as a splash weapon, half of which is non-resistible divine. 3d6 vs evil creatures, 2d6 vs neutral. Does not, oddly enough, cause things to catch on fire. Tastes like burning gold and joy.
Price: 2,500gp per dose
Phant: Seemingly translucent, but with streaks of pale ashen gray misting through it now and then. Tied to the Maelstrom and the Boneyard. +1 DC/CL to spells with the chaos or death descriptor. Phant-colored weapons inflict devastating wounds that will not heal naturally, and require a DC15 heal check to treat, and a DC15 CL check to heal with magic. Drinking one dose grants death ward for 10 minutes. Consuming more than one dose instead causes the subject to suffer every blow as if it had phant applied to it for 10 minutes for every dose consumed. Tastes like nothing.
Cost: 2,500gp per dose
Lavigo: An electric violet. Tied strongly to the Astral Plane, specifically the Akashic Record. +1 DC and CL to illusion and mind-affecting effects. Dangerous if smelled or touched. Smelling causes the target's memory to lapse 1 round (DC12 Will negates). Direct contact causes the target to lose 1 random memory as if by modify memory (DC15 negates). Consumption causes the target to gain the amnesia greater madness. No one knows what it tastes like, because they immediately forget.
Cost: 2,500gp per dose
Neregin: The deepest, darkest black, it doesn't even reflect light. Tied strongly to the Shadow and Negative Energy Planes. +1 DC/CL to shadow and negative energy spells. Applied to an undead, grants them the effect of an unhallow spell for 1 hour. Applied to the living, causes 2d6 negative energy damage. If drank, inflicts 1 temporary negative energy level and 2d6 damage for every dose consumed (DC15 Fort negates). Tastes like your own rotting tongue.
Cost: 2,500gp per dose
Inviolant: The deepest red, both bright and dark at the same time. Tied closely to Hell. +1 DC and CL to law and evil spells. Completely indelible, and ignores invisibility. Can only be removed with phant, destroying the object it is on, or with the 'erase' spell (DC 20 caster level check, as if against spell resistance). Tastes like burnt blood.
Cost: 2,500gp per dose
Drimic: Strange, translucent green color. Tied closely to the Ethereal Plane and the Dimension of Dreams. +1 DC and CL to sleep based magic. Applied to up to 1x1 sq ft of surface of an object, causes that object to become incorporeal for 2 rounds before becoming material again, shunting anything shoved inside to the nearest square. If consumed, 1 dose causes a creature to enter a deep sleep (DC15 Will to resist), though they can still be awakened. 10 doses at once causes a permanent coma that can only be removed with break enchantment, greater restoration, psychic surgery, wish, or miracle. This coma also causes the drinker's soul to enter the Dimension of Dreams. Tastes like the sum of everything you have experienced since your last sleep cycle.
If anyone has ever heard of the Indie game Sunless Sea, they know about a vast, underground ocean full of riches, sea monsters, and eldritch locations that defy the laws of reality as we know it. So, imagine my giddiness upon reading up o, the similarly named Sightless Sea in Pathfinder. The wheels in my head have been turninf about the potential for a pirate or merchant trader style campaign, where the goal is quite simple: wealth, power, and adventure. No world destroying plots (maybe), no apocalyptic cult (or an excessive number of them), and aome easygoing sailing (with the occassional sea monster attack). And plenty of black humor... With an accompaniment of expendable red shirt mooks to go along with it for shiggles.
Seem interesting? If so, what mechanics would be recommended for it?
The question is simple: Which version of the Pathfinder/DND troll do you like best?
Version 1:"Plant Man"
Most humanoid looking one, with thin, lanky features, wicked claws, sunken eyes, droopy nose, pointy ears, and plant-like skin.
Version 2: "Scaled Brute"
Much bulkier, with defined musculature and plated, reptilian skin, beady eyes, jagged tusks with four fingered hands bearing ragged, flat, long nails and stumpy, a snarled, stubby nose, and an extended lower jaw with a slithering, long tongue.
Version 3: "Man-Beast"
Has an almost wolfish snout, shaggy fur, leaner build, rotund belly, bowed legs, and flatter heads.
So, which is best? I personally like #2 as being distinct from the plant man troll, still keeping that savage streak though it doesn't seem as freaky. Version 3 strikes me as silly, like a bumbling cartoon rather than a ferocious monster. The features are exaggerated beyond the point of being agreeable, and its beady eyes look more dumb than they do malicious.
In a previous thread I had plans to spice up a chapter of my campaign that took place in my custom Kingmaker city of Agrowan. The original plan was that the PCs would need to redeem themselves for their crime (they fought themselves out of an insane asylum run by the big bad and have been branded maniacal murderers) by allying with a powerful group, possibly a criminal organization. My kingdom is the Nation of Second Chances, and it follows this ideal through a special procedure called the Right of Restitution. This goes as follows:
1. The accused must commit acts that serve the kingdom in equal or greater capacity than their sins, depending on how grave the offense.
2. The accused must not only possess evidence but the act must be known well enough to the public.
3. The accused will be hunted by the law until their capture.
4. On capture or turning themselves in, the accused must declare to exercise the Right of Restitution. They are held in custody and their evidence must be fully submitted to the court record.
5. There is a Trial of Restitution held. An incriminator appointed by the city attempts to trump the restituent's arguments.
6. Restituents may be sponsored by one of the city's factions. This grants them bonuses to finding evidence for their crimes and a safe haven to operate from, as the Right of Restitution prevents retaliation against a sponsor until the trial is over or if the sponsor helps the restituent to escape the country.
7. If the restituent succeeds, they earn celebrity status not only for their heroics but also for embodying the ideal of redemption in Agrowan, though depending on their crimes they may still have enemies among those they wronged unless they made true amends somehow, such as resurrecting a family member they murdered. Their sponsor likewise enjoys increased popularity, influence, and riches proportional to the scope of the restitution. Should they fail, however, the restituent's punishment tends to be doubly harsh and their sponsors are shamed or may even share the restituent's fate in the case of its leadership.
Restituents begin with a guilt pool. Usually, the pool is dependent on the gravity of their crime. It is usually:
Soul Trading: 50 per soul traded.
Murder: 20 per victim, more if murders were particularly gruesome.
Rape: same as murder.
Theft/Vandalism: 1 per 50gp.
Racketeering, smuggling, and other illicit business practices: 10 per year of operation.
These can be considered guidelines for other crimes subject to DM interpretation.
Things that reduce the guilt pool:
Saving or resurrecting a wrongly dead individual: -15
Donating to the city, wronged parties, or beneficial organization: -1 per 1,000gp.
Stopping a dangerous criminal or monster: -1 per total CR, potentially more of the creature was infamous or particularly brutal and elusive. In the case of bounties, -1 per every 1,000go in the bounty, rounded up.
Activities relevant to the crime, such as resurrecting the victim murdered by the restituent, grants a 50% addition to the amount of guilt reduced.
The Trial is treated with the social combat rules in a location affected by Zone of Truth. Evidence can be brought up to increase an argument from +5 to +10 so long as the evidence aligns with the argument and rhetoric used. A smart and/or ruthless incriminator can turn evidence into an argument in his favor, allowing him to gain the bonus instead. The same goes for the restituent.
This practice is Agrowan exclusive, but seeing as it's a DMs world out there, the system could be used as a less legal and more unofficial. Means of reducing the guilt pool would also depend on the nation.
Final note: falsified evidence will Usually result in an immediate defeat for either party, though in the case of the incriminator this does not mean victory for the restituent, but rather replacement and likely disbarment. However, crooked officials can always be bribed or blackmailed, and such actions can bring victory to the restituent, but often such obviously rigged results leave a bad taste in the mouth of the public, resulting in unfriendly reactions and no benefits beyond acquital from charges.
So I'm making this thread because in the other thread I made regarding skills, Cyran stated that he invented a new knowledge called knowledge [martial]. It intrigued others as well as myself, so I'm putting this thread up for two reasons: 1) to get Cyrad to tell us more about his original concept and maybe provide a chart of examples and 2) to open a discussion for individuals to add their own dash of spice to this idea.
Soon, my players will be doing a part of our campaign primarily in an urban setting. I've been busy thinking about the city's layout, and it just occurred to me that each district is very, very different.
Now of course, I know of the Ultimate Campaign rules, with city stats and all that. I might use those. However, THIS is going to be taking place with a high criminal element, which means two things: intrigue and turf. Oh, and violence, but that's par for the course with adventurers anyway.
So, on the city map, I was thinking we could have highlighted areas that represent the turfs of various criminal groups. Within these areas is an increase in hazards and chances of encountering these dangerous criminals. Depending on the gang's way of doing things, this could be potentially beneficial or disastrous, but almost always would they have a vested interest in the outcome. They might become increasingly hostile the closer a character with no ties to the gang (or worse, with ties to a different gang) is to their HQ or hideout. It's possible the use of the reputation system would be good in this, too.
Was wondering if you fine folk could help me create a model to help simulate this. Don't worry about giving suggestions for the gangs, I already have something in mind, though I definitely don't mind examples!
I've been thinking about the knowledge skills for some time. Here's some homebrews I'd like some feedback on:
OVERALL GOAL #1: TRIMMING KNOWLEDGE [ARCANA]
It's got too much going for it, honestly, and needs some wind knocked out of its sails. Let's start with the following:
OVERALL GOAL #2: DIVERSIFYING MONSTER ID ROLLS
Each monster has only one knowledge roll associated with it. This is kinda folly, considering that some monsters, such as devils, would be extensively researched not only by 'planar' scholars but also by religious authorities such as paladin. Rather silly for a class that focuses on killing these things lacks the basic knowledge about them, no?
OVERALL GOAL #3: MAKE SENSE
New Knowledge Skill: Knowledge [Occult]
Occult adventures introduced what is basically a 'new' branch of magic: occult magic. It has a lot of differences, down to how it's cast. It's likely that it uses an entirely different method and language from that which traditional arcane scholars like wizards would use, meaning you can't rely on your 'Beginners Guide to Prestidigitation' book for help in deciphering what that upside-down pentagram with an eyeball in the middle of it means. A whole new knowledge would be needed, one that focuses on recognizing much subtler signs.
Furthermore, I kinda found it weird over time how aberrations and knowledge [dungeoneering] grew further and further apart. It used to be the go-to because most aberrations came from, well, underground. Now, it covers extraterrestrial lifeforms and creatures that are just... not quite a fit for the dimension they're in. So, knowledge [occult] would make more sense as a home. This takes a little power away from [dungeoneering], but we'll give it back some love later.
Knowledge [occult] could also be used to identify creatures with the incorporeal type, since these too are a major staple of 'just beyond the veil of reality'. Things relating to obscure cults worshiping unimaginable deities, obscure rituals, and other non-traditional venues of magic would find home here. Knowledge [occult] won't intrude on arcana's ability to identify magic items, though. It's mostly about the obscure, the weird, and the just plain wrong, and magic items - save, maybe, those with particular ties to the aforementioned things - would be too common to fall into it.
Diversifying monster ID rolls and realigning current skills
Knowledge [religion]: Identifies devils, demons, daemons, angels, archons, agathions, azatas, psychopomps, and any other creature that is associated directly to a god (I.E. they are not worshippers, but directly involved with these beings). This, admittedly, puts a huge boost to religion, but I feel in world like Golarion where the gods are such a massive driving force, putting it up there with arcana as a 'mega knowledge' skill is pretty deserving. Besides, it still can't identify all outsiders, so planes still gets some love.
Knowledge [geography]: Needs love, I feel, specifically in that geography is defined as
the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries.
All of the above pretty much cover the entirety of human(oid) society. This sounds a lot like knowledge [local], so much so that I feel the two could be merged. In fact, let's do that: local and geography are now one and the same. This'll help balance out that nasty knowledge tree bloat from adding [occult] to the list. And geography over local because... well, local sounds more like you know about what Mrs. Pratchet was doing with your neighbor's husband last night. Gossip has its place, mind you, but honestly, in a game it's a lot more important and interesting for players to discover such snippets of intrigue than to just suddenly go 'oh, yeah, I heard about that'. More fitting for investigation using the diplomacy skill, really. Anything else? Can go into knowledge [history], if it's not concurrent.
Knowledge [history]: Honestly, a terribly unloved skill in a game where ancient ruins are some of the most prime locations for adventure, and the whole point of the Pathfinder Society. I think this knowledge can be used to identify the following:
1) Monsters or NPCs who are famous for past deeds, be they alive or not. Could coincide with knowledge [geography] if they're still lively and active. They usually have class levels, and tales of their exploits are much more informative than just going off what their species is. They're not garden variety beings after all!
2) Monsters associated solely and primarily by now-dead cultures. This is probably most subject to DM discretion, but a good example would be the sinspawn, created by ancient Thassilon. Another would be Thassilonian Sentinels, but... well, that is made redundant by the next bullet point.
3) Magical and clockwork constructs (but not robots). These have been around so long and were such an integral part of so many cultures - be it protecting, building, or destroying - that it's hard to imagine them NOT being deeply studied by historians. Constructs can be ID'd but not crafted using history.
Lastly, we're going to tuck knowledge [nobility] into history. Nobility is what it is because of the deeds of their predecessors. We'll say that you can identify contemporary nobles and what they lord over with [geography] but you won't know what the significance of their houses, their crest, or anything else without knowledge [history]. Alternatively? Leave that to research and other 'scholarly' adventures, most likely involving cat suits. Makes the most sense to me.
Dungeoneering: Hoo, boy. This one's a doozy. This one we're going to both expand AND snip at the same time. We already trimmed aberrations out of it, but there's still a reason they were here. As such, we're going to say that dungeoneering is going to cover identifying any monster that dwells primarily underground, from moles to neothelids. It's also definitely the go-to when it comes to navigating caverns. I'd be willing to go the extra mile and say it substitutes [geography] as far as determining the culture, cities, and peoples of the Darklands. It's going to be even more of an absolute must for underground adventures, but outside of it, it's going to be sporadic at best. If it wasn't before, I'd also add it should be used for identifying minerals, precious metals, gems, etc.
I've run into a bit of a problem. I like to play music in my horror campaign to help set the tone. My campaigns, however, are online. While I can just link the music, it is disruptive to the flow of the action to tell my players "here, play this song while you this scene/boss fight happens."
What I'm basically asking is if there is a website somewhere where I can not only set up a playlist but have that playlist play live for anyone who has access to the link/channel? Some kind of DJ site. I've looked everywhere and couldn't find it.
It is madness to survive in the face of inevitable oblivion. It is madder still to refuse to do so. In this way, we are all as living beings doomed to an existence of insanity.
- Master Amadeus Kharam, c. 7441
Pre-Journal Side Note:
"Secrets in Candle Light" is a campaign whose story, maps, and characters I constructed, using the kingdom created from our 'Kingmaker' campaign, Agrowan, "The Nation of Second Chances", as the setting. Beginning in an asylum where the heroes/victims find themselves in the midst of a tumultuous chance for escape, the campaign will take them all over the kingdom, yet it will reveal cosmic truths and eldritch horror as they attempt to shake off the yoke of the asylum's monstrous director and his plan to attain terrible dominance and power.
So I've made a custom horror campaign taking place in (our) Kingmaker campaign 45 years after the kingdom's founding and about 10 years after (our) Iron Gods campaign concluded. I've been wanting to write a campaign journal from the viewpoint of the "villain". Most campaign journals are tied to a Paizo AP, but while this takes place in the aftermath of (our) Kingmaker campaign, I'm not really comfortable putting it there.
So, any suggestions? I'll take any directions to give my writing hand a place where it can get its itch scratched. I mean, it's not just for fun. This plot and its villain's motives are... convoluted.
Also, while I know I could just write and keep it in my private documents, I have put a CRAP load of hours into carefully crafting not only the story, but also the characters, loot, and even the (digital) map using nothing but good ol' fashioned artistry. Hubris demands I share it with others!
Sorry for ranting. I get out of hand at times.
TL;DR version: where can I post a journal for my custom campaign story taking place in Golarion?
I've read the entries on most of the corruptions from Horror Adventure and it seems like the DC just keeps climbing up until it inevitably becomes unbeatable by anything short of a nat 20.
I'm running a horror campaign and one of my characters is interested in having his character take in vampiric corruption (a 'fight monsters with monsters' approach). I like this narrative, but by the rules he'd inevitably just end up failing his will saves until, 2 failed saves later, he becomes an evil vampire under my control.
What advice can be given to help deliver the story we want to tell without being overwhelmed by an all-too-inevitable progression or making its negative side effects negligible? Even the beneficial corruption rule doesn't remove the progressive DCs that need to be overcome to prevent being fully overtaken.
Something has always bugged me about DND. Simply speaking, a martial class is very much outdone by its spellcasting brethren. While fighters are still wailing on one or two mobs and taking punches to the face, very nearly dying every turn, the wizard casually flies up, points a finger in the general direction of the nuisance, and blasts it with a ball of fire that roasts it and all its friends into Kentucky fried monster.
I've been wracking my brain on how to solve this, and an idea finally occurred to me. What's a martial depend on more than his BAB or his class features?
Feats. Feats make the fighter, just like spells make the wizard.
So an alteration is needed. I came up with a simple formula. It's by no means perfect, but it will empower your bow-and-sword pals accordingly.
At its most basic explanation, every class gets one feat per level instead of one every odd, with all characters getting a guaranteed feat at level 1.
Full martial classes with no spells, such as fighters (not counting bonus feats), rogues, and gunslingers, get 20 feats total (effectively, they have a feat progression of 1/level.)
Minor spellcasting classes, like paladins and rangers, get 16 feats total (.8/level)
Medium spellcasting classes, like bards and alchemists, get 14 feats total (.7/level)
Finally, full spellcasters keep the usual 10 feats total, or a .5/level progression.
Essentially, we subtract 1 feat per level of spell they can cast. The only exception to this rule is a full spellcaster, who would by this system have 11 feats, but... well, I'll explain the math later.
Hybridization, you say? Well, I can solve that conundrum for you.
Joe's a level 5 fighter. He has 5 feats. Joe's a pretty smart cookie, though, and decides some basic level 1 spells would greatly enhance his combat prowess and utility. Good on you, Joe! You get that Master's Degrees in Advanced Prestidigitation! Unfortunately for Joe, all that study time to turn him into a fighter 5/wizard 1 means he's flubbed his training in other areas. The result? This:
5 + .5 = 5.5. We round down in this system. For the purposes of keeping this clear, all classes begin at level 1 with a feat score of 1, then progress forward as shown by their spellcasting capability. If Joe takes a level in fighter, his feat score will jump to 6.5 as he exercises those previously-atrophied muscles and learns a new martial trick or two. If he decides to split into, say, a bard, on top of being pretty good at whistling, his feat score will raise to 6.2, and he STILL gets another feat because his feat score managed to pass to the next whole number. If he takes another level, though, his feat score will be at 6.9, just .1 shy of a full new feat. Take a level in ranger (for whatever reason, Joe's never been able to keep his attention on one career, so now he's got 4 different classes on him) and you get a feat score of 7.0, JUST enough to get that sweet, delicious 7th feat at level 8. Good mathemagics, Joe!... even if you did sort of shotgun your class specialization everywhere.
What does this mean for monsters, though? More feats means monsters would be easier to defeat, right? No, not necessarily. Monsters can also have class levels, and they get the same benefits as a player in this regard. I've strongly considered giving some monsters feats, but this isn't about making the game easier for the players, but giving martial classes more of a chance to shine in later levels with a wider range of choice. A wizard can use a large variety of means to dispose of an enemy, from polymorphing to incinerating to freezing to just dumping them on a pit. Now the fighter has a chance to do more than Greater Vital Strike Power Attack and hope that's good enough for everything he'll encounter. Now he decided to also invest on Improved Grapple. Or Teleport Tactician for that annoying wizard that always teleports out of the fight, giggling like a maniac because his concentration check bonus is too high for even Disruptive to work. Now you have Run to catch up with that flying jerk as he tries to escape you to the exit. Now you have options.
Something has always bugged me about DND. Simply speaking, a martial class is very much outdone by its spellcasting brethren. While fighters are still wailing on one or two mobs and taking punches to the face, very nearly dying every turn, the wizard casually flies up, points a finger in the general direction of the nuisance, and blasts it with a ball of fire that roasts it and all its friends into Kentucky fried monster.
I've been wracking my brain on how to solve this, and an idea finally occurred to me. What's a martial depend on more than his BAB or his class features?
Feats. Feats make the fighter, just like spells make the wizard.
So an alteration is needed. I came up with a simple formula. It's by no means perfect, but it will empower your bow-and-sword pals accordingly.
At its most basic explanation, every class gets one feat per level instead of one every odd, with all characters getting a guaranteed feat at level 1.
Full martial classes with no spells, such as fighters (not counting bonus feats), rogues, and gunslingers, get 20 feats total (effectively, they have a feat progression of 1/level.)
Minor spellcasting classes, like paladins and rangers, get 16 feats total (.8/level)
Medium spellcasting classes, like bards and alchemists, get 14 feats total (.7/level)
Finally, full spellcasters keep the usual 10 feats total, or a .5/level progression.
Essentially, we subtract 1 feat per level of spell they can cast. The only exception to this rule is a full spellcaster, who would by this system have 11 feats, but... well, I'll explain the math later.
Hybridization, you say? Well, I can solve that conundrum for you.
Joe's a level 5 fighter. He has 5 feats. Joe's a pretty smart cookie, though, and decides some basic level 1 spells would greatly enhance his combat prowess and utility. Good on you, Joe! You get that Master's Degrees in Advanced Prestidigitation! Unfortunately for Joe, all that study time to turn him into a fighter 5/wizard 1 means he's flubbed his training in other areas. The result? This:
5 + .5 = 5.5. We round down in this system. For the purposes of keeping this clear, all classes begin at level 1 with a feat score of 1, then progress forward as shown by their spellcasting capability. If Joe takes a level in fighter, his feat score will jump to 6.5 as he exercises those previously-atrophied muscles and learns a new martial trick or two. If he decides to split into, say, a bard, on top of being pretty good at whistling, his feat score will raise to 6.2, and he STILL gets another feat because his feat score managed to pass to the next whole number. If he takes another level, though, his feat score will be at 6.9, just .1 shy of a full new feat. Take a level in ranger (for whatever reason, Joe's never been able to keep his attention on one career, so now he's got 4 different classes on him) and you get a feat score of 7.0, JUST enough to get that sweet, delicious 7th feat at level 8. Good mathemagics, Joe!... even if you did sort of shotgun your class specialization everywhere.
What does this mean for monsters, though? More feats means monsters would be easier to defeat, right? No, not necessarily. Monsters can also have class levels, and they get the same benefits as a player in this regard. I've strongly considered giving some monsters feats, but this isn't about making the game easier for the players, but giving martial classes more of a chance to shine in later levels with a wider range of choice. A wizard can use a large variety of means to dispose of an enemy, from polymorphing to incinerating to freezing to just dumping them on a pit. Now the fighter has a chance to do more than Greater Vital Strike Power Attack and hope that's good enough for everything he'll encounter. Now he decided to also invest on Improved Grapple. Or Teleport Tactician for that annoying wizard that always teleports out of the fight, giggling like a maniac because his concentration check bonus is too high for even Disruptive to work. Now you have Run to catch up with that flying jerk as he tries to escape you to the exit. Now you have *options*.
I have, for the longest time, found myself at a loss of what to do with my life. Today, after months of planning, countless hours of research, work, and frustration, I have succeeded in launching my very first Let's Play video! I was hoping to share this with the DND community, as this hobby has been a major part of my life for the past few years.
I've been reading and looking over the Prophecies of Kalistrade and a bizarre idea brewed in my head: could the Prophecies of Kalistrade been created by none other than the polar opposite force, the Savored Sting Calistria herself?
How could this be a conclusion, you might wonder. After all, the kalistocrats and their doctrine are as lawful and ascetic as you can get while Calistria is hedonistic and spontaneous as all hell, but here are my arguments:
1) The Prophet Itself: Kalistrade is shrouded in mystery. Nothing is known save his gender and the fact that he was an eccentric mystic who recorded what he dreamed. Such a nebulous originator leaves so much for interpretation.
2) The Name: Pretty self-explanatory. Kalistrade and Calistria share a lot of letters here. I know, I know, by itself this is tinfoil hat territory but hear me out further.
"But Al," you cry out, "this still makes no freakin' sense. Assuming these are all true, what possible reason could Calistria have to form the Kalistrade?" Here are my theories.
1) Calistria desired it. Calistria is Kalistrade, or Kalistrade was one of her worshipers. The Prophecies adhere to no god in particular, instead focusing on money and ownership. Calistria may have created the prophecies from any number of reasons, but my favorite is this: it's a honey trap. The prophecies are antithetical to Calistria, and therefore she'd hate anyone who would follow them. That said, most who do would go to Abadar instead of the Prophecies, meaning their souls would belong to him. How do you deprive a god of worshippers? You create an alternative. There was no way Calistria would convince these uptight money-lovers to worship her, so instead she made them worship a false ideal with no god, promising immortality for accomplishing a goal when there would be nothing but oblivion and purgatory at the end of it. The alternative is that maybe she was bored and wanted to create an 'opponent', something for her worshipers to trick and tempt or, if they fail and the Kalistrade achieves its goal of total domination, Calistria will have manufactured the perfect target for a vengeful sting, revealing that the Kalistrade was nothing but a farce, that immortality would not be granted, and that they have no one but themselves to blame for falling for such a lie. The Kalistrade is Calistria's secret toy, one she will enjoy toying with until it's time to play with.
2) The Prophet misinterpreted. Kalistrade recorded what he saw as a dream - possibly one sent by Calistria - less as a vision of what life should be and more as some kind of astral temptation to overcome. He had visions of wantonly wasteful spending, so he penned that wealth should be hoarded. He saw hoards of men and women in orgies, and rather than feeling aroused he instead was disgusted, penning that sexual abstinence and minimal physical contact resulted in purity of body and spirit. He saw a poor-looking drunkard enjoying life and heading for an early grave, but instead of taking it as a sign of how short life is and how it should be relished, he took it as dire warning and a promise for immortality when enough wealth was accrued. The fact that the prophecy is noted for being independent of divine connection means it could be either the mad rantings of a disturbed mind taken to logical extremes or a wrongful translation of an actual deity's will.
So many possibilities, but remember: it's just a theory. A tabletop theory!
So I bought Inner Sea Races and read through it. While I appreciate the additional information it provides, I nevertheless feel it was a missed opportunity to really get into the meat of the more neglected peoples of Golarion. This isn't to say all of them are misrepresented. The various 'Blood of X' books covered aasimar, tiefling, skinwalkers/half-weres, elemental-blooded, and dhampirs, and Bastards of Golarion gave us a pretty nice look for half-elves and half-orcs, there's still very little we know about three particular groups, race wise, and they are three of the core races.
Gnomes, halflings, and dwarves.
Now I'm not here to bash on the book. It DOES expand on these and I appreciate it. Nevertheless, I want to know... do these have racial variation? I know the dwarves do, in the form of the Pahmet of Osirion and other desert nations, with their blond hair and dark bronze skin, but beyond them there's nothing. What about dwarves that rose up in, say, jungles? Deep forests? Surely not all of them sprung up from mountains. There's a lot of caves that lead to non-mountainous regions in Golarion, and the Quest for Sky didn't distinguish the end result as 'a mountain'. If orcs appeared in jungles (see: rainkin), then surely the dwarves that pushed them up did as well. The duergar do deserve a mention, but even with this evil cousin species, the dwarves only have three races to their supposedly rich cultural heritage.
Gnomes might have an excuse for being, well, 'racially flat'. Each individual is so wildly colorful and different it might even be hard to say they're all from a single species, but there ARE the svirfneblin of the Darklands, showing that variation can happen over periods of time like any other species. At the same time, though, this very reason gives them the BIGGEST excuse for being racially diverse. Instead of their environment, I could imagine a gnome's race being determined by something a lot more whimsical and arbitrary due to their fey origins, like the time of day, the lunar cycle, the seasons, or some other aspect of nature. This would tie in nicely with the gnomish need for variety and new experience, since it means that no gnomish community is composed entirely of 'red-hairs' or 'dark-skins'. All of them would be every color of the rainbow. A dark-skinned gnome could be born to two light-skinned parents because he just so happened to be born during the shadiest summer day. This would probably lead to a lot of scandalous rumors from non-gnomes who might think all gnomes are unscrupulous with their partners, seeing as none of their babies look completely like their parents!
Halflings would have much the same racial tones humans have. It's not really a tough vision to see their society, so intimately tied to that of their larger neighbors, mimic them in more than mannerisms. The days are hot and sunny, so a people's skin would grow darker to ward it off. So it would be with a halfling. Still, it feels that their biggest, most notable changes would be in two areas: their survival method and their luck. Most halflings seem to be 'city halflings', born into a master society rather than their own. They've adapted to be cheerful, charismatic, optimistic, and lucky. These are the traits highly valued in an urban world. What about a jungle, though? You're not going to charm your way out of a snake. You might need to be faster on your feet, have thicker skin, or your luck might factor into a more focused area, such as resisting poisons, diseases, and other natural hazards. What about domains rich in magic? What about rural realms? What about places where padded feet don't help, but powerful hands do? Pure Steam gives us the Tenderfoot Halfling, who require using shoes but have developed higher manual alacrity. It seems that for the halfling, racial diversity boils to the most basic and simple concept: 'what tools do I need to survive?'
I'd like to see more about them to expand. What do you think would make for suitable ethnic aspects in the races?
Soul trading has been denoted in Pathfinder to being an evil practice. Night hags kidnap wayward souls. Fiends barter for their acquisition. This rich astral economy seems to clearly favor the most wicked aspects of reality, and it's hard to ignore that this trade, like any other economy, would not strengthen them collectively.
But what about the celestials? We know so little of how they operate. All we know is that they uphold goodness in all forms, but that flat statement holds a lot to be desired. If evil mortals can bargain their soul to devils, could good mortals not bargain their souls to angels?
The greater good requires sacrifice. Those sacrifices may be applauded, even rewarded, but they must be done. Why should evil masters be the only ones to empower their servants?
Archons are lawful beings. They deal regularly in strict codes, deals, and pacts, all of which are no less enforced than those made in Hell (albeit enforced differently, possibly with a Mark of Justice or other effect). What if a mortal could, in an hour of desperation, pledge their soul to serve Heaven in exchange for the power to change their fate? If a neutral or even evil creature could shackle themselves to the celestial host instead of the infernal legions, not only would Heaven turn away a potentially wicked soul from joining the ranks of the Outter Planes, but so could they also gain a soldier for their cause. The souls pledged this way wouldn't even be 'rewarded' (especially if they're evil). As mentioned, benevolence requires sacrifice. In exchange for power to achieve an agreeable goal, they will shackle their existence and forever serve the angelic host. Their free will would be eradicated. Selfishness, personal desire, all of it washed away. The only pleasure permitted would be the satisfaction of knowing they're making a positive difference in the world.
It could, depending on the character, be a hell all on its own.
My point is, mortals seem to have SO many reasons to turn to Hell, Abaddon, and the Abyss, but it feels like the good-aligned planes offer -nothing- other than 'we're the good guys' to recruit people and souls to the cause of righteousness. The question I ask is this:
What, if any, is the relationship that the celestial beings have with the mortal world? What do they offer? What must be paid in turn? Do they act within the soul trade? Do they disrupt their enemies' own trade? Partake in their own, more benign version of it? After all, they might like each other, but there's no mistaking that even the celestials have their own interests and agendas over their fellow angels.
I've seen this discussed in the past, but I felt that with fresher material now in the market, it might be time to open up possibilities.
Two nations are known to have more advanced knowledge in science than the rest, specifically when it comes to engineering: Alkenstar and Numeria. Alkenstar develops its own tech traditionally while Numeria scavenges and studies ruined tech. Their very far distances, seclusion, and political climate (specifically in Numeria) mean that expediting advancements in technology would be next to impossible, and magical communication is also made tricky because Alkenstar is in the Mana Wastes.
But let's assume something happened in the next 100 years to change this. Maybe Numeria stops being ruled by the greedy Technic League, its technology becoming available on the open market for other nations to purchase and study or Alkenstar makes a breakthrough in mass production, allowing them to distribute the now-obsolete weaponry while maintaining their advantage with higher-grade stuff (and eventually replacing that, too). Would this lead to a more industrialized Golarion? What would be the challenges faced by it? Would it create new monsters that thrive in this environment? How would people accept it? How would religions accept it? Would magic evolve to adapt and compete with cheaper technology?
I've also read Pure Steam. Wouldn't be hard to see Golarion eventually reach those levels of tech in the future.
It bums me out a bit that aquatic spellcasters are limited to aquatic campaigns. I decided "hey, why not make a new spell that helps even the playing field for them and can be used as a neat battlefield game changer.
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Aquifer School conjuration [creation, water]; sorcerer/wizard 5, witch 5, summoner 4, unchained summoner 4, druid 6
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CASTING
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Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a glass marble with water trapped inside)
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EFFECT
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Range short (25 ft. + 5 f.t/2 levels)
Effect dazed 1 round
Area 30-ft.-radius spread
Duration 1 minute/level or until dismissed
Saving Throw Reflex negate; see text; Spell Resistance No
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DESCRIPTION
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Aquifer creates a spherical, floating mass of water in the air or a dome on the ground. In enclosed, watertight areas, the water will fully fill the boundaries of the room and any crevice that is not waterproof (the water pressure remains the same regardless of how much smaller the room is to the spell’s area of effect. This means the spell cannot be used to burst open doors or other locked objects, though it can flood into other rooms.)
Creatures caught within the area of an aquifer receive a reflex save to avoid being caught in the sudden burst. Creatures who fail their save are dazed for 1 round and caught within the water. Creatures that succeed their saving throw negate the daze and may move anywhere between their present location to the nearest outside edge of the sphere. If multiple creatures move to the edge, the creature with the highest saving throw chooses which square to occupy and the creature with the second highest may choose a square adjacent to that creature.
An aquifer may easily be exited after being cast simply by swimming to the edge. The water does not leak or drain, allowing a creature to remain suspended even if the aquifer is suspended in midair. The water from an aquifer spell is maintained by magic but is not magical itself and can be affected by spells like control water, even by enemies. Water from the sphere is pure and clean and can be placed in containers. Water harvested from the spell in this way lasts for 1 day if not consumed. An aquifer targeted by a successful dispel magic or similar effect vanishes.
Aquifer can be made permanent through the permanency spell
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Any advice on how to make this spell better? The reason for the permanency is that it would also be cool to allow some aquatic encounters in otherwise dry dungeons, as well as for trapmaking. I'll also take suggestions on better names for the spell, mechanical tweaks, etc.
Elemental Blast (Sp): At 9th level, you can unleash a blast of elemental power once per day. This 20-foot-radius burst does 1d6 points of damage of your energy type per sorcerer level. Those caught in the area of your blast receive a Reflex save for half damage. Creatures that fail their saves gain vulnerability to your energy type until the end of your next turn. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 your sorcerer level + your Charisma modifier. At 9th level, you can use this ability once per day. At 17th level, you can use this ability twice per day. At 20th level, you can use this ability three times per day. This power has a range of 60 feet.
Creatures that fail their reflex saves gain a vulnerability to your energy type, not those that are -damaged- by the ability. This means 2 things:
1) Elemental Blast applies the vulnerability first (done at the time of the save) followed by the damage, meaning it does more damage than previously believed.
2) More importantly, Elemental Blast could potentially hurt creatures with resistance or even immunity to cold damage. I'm not sure what the ruling is, but if someone who is immune is affected by an ability to become vulnerable, what does it mean? Are they still immune? Do they become vulnerable? Do the two cancel each other out and they simply take regular damage from that energy source?
It would make sense an ability that can only be used once a day (at first anyway) would have very powerful capabilities, a means for elemental sorcerers to provide a fighting chance against an enemy that normally could not be harmed by their bloodline.
My friend and I started just by thinking about a backstory for one of his characters. He wanted to play a preacher-style gunslinger with (specifically) a Bible. Well, of course that wasn't going to be possible for obvious reasons.
So I decided "Screw it, let's make it work." Turns out it justifying stuff isn't hard when you're the DM. Be warned, some of this contains spoilers from other campaigns and from the origins of the universe in general. Keep in mind also that this takes massive liberties with real life religion and in no way reflects actual interpretations of said religion.
The big explanation:
Here's what we did:
1) The Origin of Earth: We knew Earth 'exists' in the Pathfinder universe from the fifth Reign of Winter module, so we came up with Earth's origin. It was created by Ihys, brother of Asmodeus and co-creator to the universe, as a personal project away from the eyes of all gods. Even his closest friends only barely knew it existed, and even then not where it existed. He'd been increasingly concerned as to whether or not Asmodeus was right regarding free will and mortals, and at this point he was wondering if Asmodeus was right. He created man and woman and gave them a single, strict order. When they proceeded to commit the first sin, Ihys expelled them from paradise. He would then proceed to continue his attempts at heavy-handed, direct management of mortals, weighing obedience vs. free action.
2) The Betrayal: Ihys gets stabbed and killed by Asmodeus after finally deciding that free will and personal choice are more important than enslaved perfection. His physical form destroyed and his essence trapped in the Ihystear, the only remnant of Ihys is a long shadow of his power and conscience that survived in Terra. Unable to keep the gods unaware of his private world and having it as his only means of escape, Ihys decided to use his last remaining power to reincarnate in a mortal body, then commit a sacrifice of pure selflessness that would undo the strictures he had bound to humanity whilst hiding their existence from the multiverse. Magic and divine power would not touch Earth and the large swathe of reality surrounding it and genesis could happen on any world within Ihys' barrier through divine means. The influence of the gods still bleeds through, though, inspiring and influencing human culture. Ihys no longer had the power to grant spells or influence the world. He entered a deep sleep, the shadow of his subconscious mind only barely able to influence anything and only through incidental reaction. His restoration as a full god is likely to never happen, as it would be a task that would require an unbelievable amount of divine power not possible to be achieved by any but Asmodeus (with the remnant of the Ihystear and Ihys' dormant shadow in the Terra realm.
3) Where the character comes in: My friend's character was a preacher in the 1900s, possibly 1950s. Through means I've not yet determined, he was transported to Golarion. Lovecraftian influence? A whim of Ihys' shadow? For whatever reason, he appeared in a desert in Osirion with full body burns and no name, rescued by locals and taken to the Pharasmins in Wati to be interred under the belief he was dead (he wasn't). He remembers nothing of his past life, but has a Bible with him and maintains a strong conviction in its writing even when called a lunatic for worshiping 'fictional deities'.
I'll be the first to admit all of this is extremely contrived, but I felt like sharing it.
One more thing:
C'thulhu appeared on Earth. Ihys was not happy. Continents were split, a huge flood happened. C'thulhu went to sleep. Served doubly to punish the extremely cruel, arrogant, and monstrous Atlantean civilization that had sprung up while saving a few who at least were decent people.
I hadn't received my copy of this month's adventure path module, so I thought to look up my account. Payments haven't been going through, so I decided to check my payment method. It's not there. I tried to edit it. It won't let me. Please help.
