Anwel Lossio's page

Do these ancestries have endonymic equivalents to "Aiudeen," "Ayindilar," "Mualijae," and "Vourinoi;" and "Aiuvarin," respectively? If so, what are they?

"Shoreborn" exists for aquatic Aiuvarin, but has "obsoleted-by-2E" vibes.

On the twelfth night of Aroden's month, at the height of summer in the four thousand seven hundred and fifteenth year since the god raised the Starstone from the bed of the Inner Sea, it snowed ash in Kintargo. The city burned as away east, the country rose in rebellion. But out of the fires emerged not liberty, but a new order, enforced with the mailed fist of Hell and the darkest of magicks, and headed by a diabolic inquisitor, of the imperial house, with writ to take the city in hand and mold it to his will.

The fires consumed Kintargo's patriots and its radicals, the levelers and lovers of freedom that the people called "Silver Ravens" in private nooks and dark alleys - no one knows where the name came from. But they have not consumed its spirit, and you have received word that on the second day of Rovagug's month, the people will gather in Aria Park before mayor Barzillai Thrune and make their will known.

If you wish to attend, you should:

• select a stat array equivalent to 15-point buy;
  
• pick a class from among the Core classes, the Base classes excepting Summoner, the Hybrid classes, and Unchained Summoner (starting HP is maximized, starting wealth is average);
  
• pick a race;
  
• pick a campaign trait from the Hell's Rebels Player's Guide, but it will not have any mechanical effect;
  
• pick a reason to protest from the Hell's Rebels Player's Guide;
• set forth how you learned about the Aria Park demonstration (i.e., through word of mouth, from a handbill, from a poster, etc.); and
  
• summarize your political sympathies and how you came by them, and what organizations you are a part of or orbit - the factions represented at Aria Park will include at least, in no particular order, liberals, radicals, anarchists, and Ravounel nationalists (these terms to have roughly the meanings they had in about 1850 in Europe - if you would like further explanation, please feel free to ask).

Recruitment will close by March 3, 2023, and I will announce the selected player characters by March 6, 2023.

Certain NPCs affiliated with the Silver Ravens are assumed by canon sources, whether the AP volumes themselves or other sources, to have leveled up during or after the events of Hell's Rebels. Certain NPCs are also excluded from doing so. Still others are the most likely candidates to make sure the Silver Ravens can do things they are mechanically described as doing (primarily crafting magic items), if these are not fulfilled by PCs (or as a backup even if they are). This OP will be a compilation of these NPCs, and following posts will propose builds for them as an aid for GMs.

Silver Raven NPCs Who Canonically Level

• Octavio Sabinus fighter 5/Hellknight 3 (Turn of the Torrent) => fighter 5/Hellknight 6 (The Kintargo Contract)
• Rexus Victocora aristocrat 2/sorcerer 1 (In Hell's Bright Shadow) => aristocrat 2/sorcerer 9 (Adventurer's Guide)
• Laria Longroad brawler 2/rogue 1 (In Hell's Bright Shadow) => brawler 4/rogue 2 (Adventurer's Guide)

Silver Raven NPCs Who Canonically Do Not Level

• Shensen bard (Dawnflower dervish) 8/fighter 4 (A Song of Silver => Adventurer's Guide)
• Jackdaw swashbuckler 11 (A Song of Silver => Adventurer's Guide)
• Mialari Docur rogue 3/sorcerer 4/arcane trickster 2 (Dance of the Damned) => level 10 2E NPC

Silver Raven NPCs Who Reasonably Should Level

• Hetamon Haace cleric of Milani 5 (Turn of the Torrent) => cleric of Milani 7 (to meet all the prerequisites to crafting the devil catchers found in the Adventurer's Guide and also craft silver raven figurines of wondrous power with the help of one of the bards who has animal messenger and Manticce Kaleeki, if she is assumed to have animate objects - this role could also be filled by Xerelilah of Cypress Point (cleric of Desna 8), and if she does neither she nor Hetamon have to level, but The Kintargo Contract and Tomorrow Must Burn don't give me the impression that she's all that involved with the Silver Ravens.) (can also figure out the Devil Sense feat from the Adventurer's Guide)

Silver Raven NPCs Who Reasonably Should Exist

• One sorcerer or wizard who can cast 6th-level spells (so at least sorcerer 12 or wizard 11), and who is neither Iylvana Desdoros (who per The Kintargo Contract does not level and remains the same 7th-level transmuter she was in In Hell's Bright Shadow) or Mialari Docur (who per Tomorrow Must Burn is more or less at the same power level she was as a rogue 3/sorcerer 4/arcane trickster 2). This NPC is necessary to meet the prerequisites to crafting the discretion charms found in the Adventurer's Guide, as well as to figuring out the wall of silver spell also found in the Adventurer's Guide. A 16th-level bard could also do both those things, but that might as well be a PC; SR NPCs tend to cap out at level 12, with Manticce being the exception. A 13th-level bard or inquisitor, or 11th-level cleric could cast wall of silver, but not programmed image. Kalisandrex Poppo from Out of Anarchy fits the bill. He's not statted, but his sail-the-whale ritual is similar to animate objects, a 6th-level spell, so putting him around 11th level isn't unreasonable. Failing that, Nandy Crissali (wizard 8 in In Hell's Bright Shadow) could be leveled up, if your SRs can shake her apolitical outlook.
• One raven master ranger of between level 1 (to gain the first archetype benefit) and level 6 (to gain the latest unique archetype benefit (that is, one that doesn't improve an existing benefit)). Pictured with the raven master ranger archetype, possibly one of the prisoners rescued from Menador Keep (I don't know their names off the top of my head, but there are halflings among them).
• One argent voice bard of between level 1 (to gain the first archetype benefit) and level 6 (to gain the latest unique archetype benefit). Pictured with the argent voice bard archetype, possibly Giveni Henge (starts at bard 3 in In Hell's Bright Shadow, and will need to retrain). Can figure out the Diva Style feat tree if he makes it to level 11. Retraining to argent voice should not be available until after the PCs reconstruct the Song of Silver.
• One bard to at least bard 11/argent dramaturge 1. Pictured with the argent dramaturge prestige class, possibly Kohl Draksitus (starts at bard 4 in In Hell's Bright Shadow). Other candidate for figuring out the Diva Style feat tree. Argent dramaturge should not be available until after the PCs reconstruct the Song of Silver.

So, this is a character introduced in Age of Ashes as having been an important person in the Bellflower Network and in the Silver Ravens during the events of 4715-16, yet does not appear in the narrative of Hell's Rebels. How, if at all, have people approached her use as an NPC in Hell's Rebels games? Has she been a team member or leader (a la Korva Fushi or Forvian Crowe (puns!))? Has she been an ally or cohort a la Laria or Zea? Is she a presence in the countryside a la the Desnan priestess or the aquatic elf leader? What stats, if any, have 1E gamemasters given her?

Something that has consistently bothered me about the Silver Ravens as presented in Hell's Rebels is that beyond a lowest common denominator of deposing Barzillai Thrune, they don't seem to have a positive program of social reform. This allows them to be all things to all men both in-universe and out - that is, to cultivate a broad coalition in-universe and to have whatever program the PCs impose upon it at any given table. But the roleplay of such an imposition might be helped if the players had some indication of the interests at play among their allies. This is not only a consideration at the opening of the campaign either; the organization might change as it gains adherents.

Presented here is a brief sketch of the main factions I anticipate developing within a mature rebellion (around Book 4), their programs, the outside organizations to which they orient themselves, and prominent allied NPCs associated with them.

The "Quills" (also known as the "blues"*)
Program: abolition of serfdom and slavery without compensation to former masters; land redistribution to former slaves and serfs; debt relief for former serfs and for small freeholders; revolutionization of Cheliax; municipal autonomy; government by municipal and national councils elected by universal suffrage; abolition of tax farming and tithes; freedom of religion except suppression of Asmodeus, Norgorber, and Zon-Kuthon worship; separation of school from church and state; inclusion in Chelish tariff zone (implies free trade with Cheliax and protectionism vis a vis the rest of the world); alliance with the White Thistles, the Bellflower Network, and the Glorious Reclamation.
Aligned NPC "Unique Allies": Laria Longroad (aligned with the Bellflower Network, opposes compensation to slaveowners), Rexus Victocora (sees little possibility of reclaiming his family's position), Zea (protectionism fosters industry, which means employment), Mialari Docur (she gets a free hand to run her school), Jilia Bainilus (owes her position to popular acclaim), Strea Vestori (sees Asmodeism as primary impediment to tiefling nationhood)
Social bases:** mill owners, workers, sailors, serfs, slaves, students, religious Iomedeans, halflings, tieflings, tengu

The "Talons" (also known as the "golds")
Program: abolition of serfdom and slavery with compensation to former masters; national independence; Ravounel to be constituted as a federation of the baronies and counties; local government by the estates of the baronies and counties; promotion of hitherto suppressed religions; subsidy of church and private education by the state, compulsory education; free trade (implies exclusion from the Chelish tariff zone and redirection of exports to Varisia); alliance with the Court of Coin, the Eagle Knights, the Hellknight Order of the Torrent, and the Gray Maidens.
Aligned NPC "Unique Allies": Octavio Sabinus (aligned with the Hellknight Order of the Torrent), Marquel Aulorian (heir to a county, in spite of everything), Cassius Sargaeta (follows where Marquel goes), Hetamon Haace (state patronage of his cult is too good a deal to pass up), Molly Mayapple (free trade benefits her warehouses and her hostels), Manticce Kaleekki (owes her position to Vyre being a free city, has no incentive to change that), Shensen (see Hetamon), Jackdaw (primarily a Ravounal nationalist), Solemestria (federation protects her people from encroachment better than a centralized realm with local autonomy)
Social bases: landlords and their retinues; merchants and shopkeeps; artisans; clergy of Abadar and Shelyn; religious Abadarans, Calistrians, Shelynites, Sarenites, and Milanites; elves; strix

As I've imagined them, I don't believe either faction gets to implement its full program in the face of 1) the events of the AP and 2) opposition from the other faction. I also think it might be interesting if they were to split into separate political parties going forward from the AP, but the Adventurer's Guide suggests otherwise and I suspect the PF2 setting guide will as well.

* Blue and gold are strongly associated with the revolutions following the end of the Age of Enthronement. See Magnimar, Andoran, Galt, Bachuan. Andoran and Magnimar both use blue, white, and gold for their national colors, and I suspect Ravounel would do the same: the revolutionary colors blue and gold, and white to commemorate the Silver Ravens.
** Excepts those of each group who are loyal to the government, which includes of the listed groups landlords, mill owners, merchants, workers, sailors, and tengu, and almost substantially all of government workers, soldiers, police, la boheme, religious Asmodeans, religious Kuthites, and religious Norgorberites.

So I'm trying to get some non-TTRPG-playing friends into Pathfinder, because I figure that's easier on and less scary to my particular psyche than making new friends. In the spirit of dipping a toe in, they've asked for a one-shot before trying anything long-form. While I understand the mindset and want to cater to it, I also want to account for the possibility that they grow attached not only to the game but also to their particular characters, and want to keep using them in something more long-form.

To that end, I'm interested in severing the first book off an AP and just running that, or even the opening adventure from that first book. My question is, which opening books and/or opening adventures are best suited to doing that? I know all AP volumes are theoretically designed to be run as standalone adventures, but common sense tells me that some achieve this goal better than others.

Also, I'd prefer to run an adventure I already own rather than buying a new one. So if it turns out that any of the following APs has an especially-separable first part, that's all to the good:

1. Rise of the Runelords (original or anniversary edition);
2. Curse of the Crimson Throne (original or anniversary edition);
3. Second Darkness;
4. Council of Thieves;
5. Kingmaker;
6. Jade Regent;
7. Skull and Shackles;
8. Shattered Star;
9. Reign of Winter;
10. Wrath of the Righteous;
11. Iron Gods;
12. Hell's Rebels;
13. Hell's Vengeance; or
14. Ironfang Invasion.

I'm currently looking towards Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Second Darkness, and Jade Regent as having especially standalone first parts, but am I mistaken about these, or missing something?

So I'm looking over the Hoaxer archetype for the Bard class found in Black Markets, and I spot something odd. The description of the Bad Deal bardic performance contains the language "[t]his performance replaces inspire courage, inspire competence, and inspire greatness." (Emphasis added). Straightforward enough. However, the description of the Curse Breaker ability reads "[a] hoaxer of 12th level or higher can use performance to create an effect equal to break enchantment. This otherwise functions as soothing performance. This performance replaces inspire greatness." (Emphasis added).

This should be impossible. The Advanced Player's Guide, which introduced archetypes, provides that "[e]ach alternate class feature presented in an archetype replaces a specific class feature from its parent class." It is further provided that when stacking archetypes, "none of the alternate class features can replace or alter the same class feature from the base class as another alternate class feature." We are dealing with a single archetype, but it seems to go against the design philosophy of archetypes for multiple abilities to replace a single ability.

So, which ability is meant to replace Inspire Greatness, and what does the other ability replace? Based on the level you get it (12th), and the fact that it operates like Soothing Performance, I believe Curse Breaker is meant to replace Soothing Performance, and that Bad Deal is meant to replace Inspire Greatness.

This is to follow up on this unresolved question from 2013:

Unclear whether that's 7 levels of beast rider or level 7 total for a character whose build includes at least one level of the beast rider class.

So to repeat, would a Druid 6/Cavalier (beast rider) 1 be able to enlarge - to use the example given in the Beast Rider archetype - their bear? Or would a character need 7 levels of Beast Rider to do that?

For a Hell's Rebels game, I'm making some Adventurers' Guide options for the Silver Ravens available to players, so that they can "originate" the concepts that will later have wide currency in their organization. The options I'm making available include the Diva Style feats, the Devil Sense feat, and the Argent Dramaturge prestige class.

The feats have generated quite a bit of interest, but the only player even looking at the Argent Dramaturge is playing a Wizard. And he's enthusiastic for the PrC, seeing it gel with his backstory and concept (basically a theoretician of rebellions as much as an agitator; he jumped on the Historian of the Rebellion trait), and not seeing that it loses him anything but a bonus feat and his automatic spells learned each level.

I'd like to support my player's choices, but from where I'm sitting, the PrC does not work well with the base class. It doesn't lose much, but the number of performance rounds it gives is low, the dramaturgical flourishes seem to assume bardic performance even if the class itself does not have it as a prerequisite,* and Anchoring Aria and Righteous Chord are better as wizard spells because the latter scale off the entire caster level rather than the PrC level.

Would there be a way to make the base class and the PrC mesh better, without having to rewrite anything? In a pinch, I'll suggest variant multiclassing as a Bard, but I'd rather explore my other options before that.

* Okay, the Masterpiece option doesn't.

The strix's only other two known settlements, Windspire and Kitkasiticka, are notably small, but the Shrieking Spire is home to the largest population in Avistan. Just how big is that population?

While detailing the reactions of Cheliax's neighbors to the civil war in that country, Alex Greenshields has this to say about Molthune:

The current ruler of Molthune, Imperial Governor Markwin Teldas, is an intelligent and ruthless man who sees the upheaval in Cheliax as a way of furthering his nation's agenda. When the Chelish military makes a request for military assistance, Teldas agrees, but demands in that in return, it must supply a battalion of its best soldiers along with several platoons of bound devils to serve in his armies against the rebellious north.

Egorian agrees, though reluctantly, but informs the government in Canorate that the Molthuni troops are needed immediately and must therefore not take the lengthy route around the Menador Mountains, but travel directly through the dangerous and high Pass of Dark Rain between the two nations in order to be of any use in fighting the rebellion. The Molthuni General Lords send their most disposable non-human troops through the pass, commanded by the young and ambitious Colonel Denira Mettering. The headstrong officer wishes to make a name for herself, and ignores the advice given to her by her senior non-commissioned officers, who counsel that a complete survey of the Pass of Dark Rain must be made before an ascent is attempted. When the troops rush through the pass, a full quarter of them perish in a freak avalanche. Now desperate to escape the treacherous mountains, Mettering sends the remaining forces on a path that passes too close to the haunted ghost town of Finder's Gulch. Unknown to anyone, the abandoned settlement has become the lair of a powerful undead cleric of Urgathoa named Illcayna Alonnor (Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Undead Unleashed 60), who is slowly building an army of wights to invade Isger. When the Molthuni army makes camp for the night, the wights attack and slaughter nearly every soldier, greatly increasing the size of Alonnor's forces, and moving forward her timetable by several years.

Emphasis mine. Do we perhaps have our villains' legitimate grievance?

The shifter's headband and tentacle cloak found in Ultimate Equipment both list the spell "polymorph self" among their construction prerequisites. This spell, however, does not seem to exist. So to what spell is the book referring? Alter self? Polymorph?

Pathfinder Unchained includes a number of optional systems that allow tables to eschew traditional forms of character enhancement through items. One of these is the Automatic Bonus Progression, where characters gain certain bonuses as they level up in exchange for losing access to half their wealth-by-level. One of the bonuses characters gain as they level up is the weapon enhancement bonus. "The character can attune herself to any one weapon in her possession, and can change that attunement once per day." Dennis Baker, et al., Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Pathfinder Unchained 157 (F. Wesley Schneider, et al., eds., 2015).

My question is, how does this apply to temporary natural weapons? A character with innate natural weapons, like a tengu, seems simple enough. They always have their natural weapons available to them, so they should be able to attune. Same goes for a character who gained natural weapons through a feat like Aspect of the Beast. But what about a character who temporarily has natural weapons, like a barbarian with the Beast Totem line of rage powers? Can they pre-emptively attune to their natural weapons while not in rage? Or can they only attune to their natural weapons once they enter rage?

Bardic masterpieces are special abilities Bards can take in place of a spell or feat, provided they meet at least one of several skill prerequisites. They are not feats, spells, or skills, and would not be recorded with such in a statblock. My question is, would they be listed on the Special Attack line or the SQ line? My instinct is to list them on the Special Attack line, but if you have a different take, or if there's a statblock out there listing them (I can't find one, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist!), I'd like to know.

You awaken to a painful throbbing in the back of your head, a woolly coating on your teeth that tastes of cheap wine, the pervasive smell of sweat and fish left to stew together, and a rhythmic creaking accompanied by a lurching rolling of your world. It feels like you're still drunk, and after the wild night you had, you wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. When you open your eyes, however, you find yourself in a dark room. You can barely see, but it feels spacious. Certainly the walls aren't within reach. Neither, when you check, are most of your possessions. You can, however, see and hear the shapes and sounds of others nearby, in a similar predicament.

As you sit up to get a better look around, the creaking all around you is punctuated by heavy footsteps down what sounds like a staircase. A harsh, yellow lantern is shoved in your faces, revealing seven dirty-looking men, none of them dressed quite the same but most of them armed with saps. The one holding the lantern, however, wears dreadlocks, a beard, and a long, heavy coat, and carries a mean-looking, well-used whip in his other hand. A pained expression that might have been meant for a smile bruises his face as he cracks his whip on the floor.

"Still abed with the sun over the yardarm?" he shouts. The pain in your head flares. "On your feet, ye filthy swabs! Get up on deck and report for duty before Cap'n Harrigan flays your flesh into sausage skins and has Fishguts fry ye up for breakfast!"

This is a discussion thread. Discuss things here.

Ask and you shall receive! If you were interested in Odentin's proposed Skull & Shackles game, this is the place to submit characters for consideration. There are, of course, some guidelines to what I'll consider. If you can, please make characters:

• Of any race detailed in a first-party book published before July 2012;
  
• Of any class and archetype detailed in a first-party book published before July 2012;
  
• Of first level, with all that entails in terms of hit points and favored class bonuses;
  
• With ability scores bought using 15 points;
  
• With average wealth for the character's class;
  
• With two traits, including one campaign trait from the Skull & Shackles Player's Guide;
  
• With a believable character history;
  
• With a compelling motivation to engage in the campaign and to see it through.

If you require a dispensation on points 1 or 2 in order to fully realize a concept, I promise to be open to your arguments, delivered either in this thread or via personal message. I plan to accept four characters on Friday, September 19, 2014. If you require an extension, I promise to be open to your arguments, though I would prefer such requests to be delivered via personal message only.

Here's to our prospective motley crew!

As of Inner Sea Combat, rangers who follow Erastil and select Erastil's combat style may take Snap Shot at level 6 and Improved Snap Shot at level 10. Snap Shot and Improved Snap Shot both only say they work with weapons with which the character has Weapon Focus. Normally, rangers can use feats without having the prerequisites, but in this case the text of the feats says that they only work on Focused weapons.

How does this work?

This Riftwarden, now living in Nerosyan, is mentioned twice in passing in Aravashnial's bio. But she has yet to appear in The Worldwound Incursion, Sword of Valor or Demon's Heresy. Google, in its infinite wisdom, tells me that the Internet contains no information about her. At the risk of asking for spoilers...will she appear at some point, or has she been dropped?

Is there any published domain or subdomain, Paizo or third party, that grants the binding spell? If not, can I get your advice as to what other spells would fit in a thematic domain or subdomain, and which gods might grant this homebrew domain?

I know they only appear for one encounter as written, so fleshing this out in the text was probably not high on the list of priorities, but I'd like to try and see if I can keep Nazhena a presence in a hypothetical Reign of Winter campaign I may someday run, and this detail is important to me if I'm going to try and deepen her character. What is Nazhena's relationship with her familiar like? It mentions in her bio that she "loved [Radosek] as much as she was capable of loving anyone"; did she feel the same way about Zapada, or did she consider her owl a means toward achieving greater power? In the one encounter in which she appears, Zapada is given no tactics. Is this because Nazhena values his life and wants to keep him safe, or because she doesn't value his contributions?

I would greatly appreciate Mister Groves' take on the matter.

Here's an odd corner case to consider. Suppose a wizard, witch, or arcane-blooded sorcerer finds herself currently without an arcane bond. She encounters another wizard, witch, or arcane-blooded sorcerer who has an arcane bond - let's say a familiar - and decides she wants to offer it a situation where it wouldn't be serving the master's totally evil ends. In the course of the encounter, she manages to capture the familiar alive, but the master gets away.

Is there a way to sever the link the familiar has with the master from without so it can then be made available for a new bonding? It not, what would be an appropriate method to homebrew? If this situation were to ever occur in a game I was running, I would be tempted to let the player try, because the image of a villain hounding the PCs in order to rescue his [ex-]familiar is just delicious to me; it allows me to call the player's righteousness into question a bit. But what should the player be trying to do? It shouldn't just be a matter of the "normal" familiar ritual, i.e., pay 200 gp and poof, the familiar's hers now. I feel like there should be some other kind of obstacle in the way. But what?

On page 59 of Snows of Summer, there is, among other things, an explanation of how Radosek came to be in the service of Nazhena. To wit:

...he was stolen from his family in Taldor at the age of 4 by a White Witch of Irrisen, and magically transported to the icy north as tribute for a service rendered to his late father - a foolish Taldan noble whose ambitions in Oppara ended in bloody disgrace despite the deal he cut with the White Witch.

How would the White Witch in question have done this? Scry on Radosek, teleport to the Taldan noble's domicile, and teleport back to the Pale Tower, Radosek in hand? Same as above, but using ice crystal teleport to transport the presumably unwilling Radosek to the Pale Tower? Is there a spell or hex I've missed that allows a witch to summon children to her? Or would she have used a unique ritual with no stats or write-up?

I've perused Distant Worlds and found no answer to this question, so thought I'd bring it to the boards. Which moon, among Arkanen, Hallas, Melos, Nchak, and Osoro, orbits closest to Liavara, which orbits furthest away, and how are the remaining three arranged?

A player of mine wants to use a rabbit or dire rabbit as an animal companion (probably rooted in a desire to emulate either Monty Python or Watership Down). However, neither animal appears on the list of animal companions. I can convert either a rabbit or dire rabbit statblock to an animal-companion-style statblock easily enough, but I'm stumped as to how to advance the animal at fourth level. Is there a system for how this is done, or is it ad-hoc? If the former, what is it? If the latter...any advice?

Hey gang. A heads-up: I'll be away from my computer tomorrow. I've promised to help with a first aid refresher, and it'll take most of the day. I'll try to have a post up tonight, though.

Welcome to the game. I've started you off separately because that made more sense to me, and to put your characters in their circumstances before they have to interact with each other.

System: The Anniversary Edition was written for the Pathfinder RPG, and that's what we'll be using.
Player Count: I am looking for a group of five players. I also plan on having two alternate players.
Style of Play: I try as a GM to immerse players in the given circumstances, and would appreciate players enthusiastic about such an experience. I will try to post at least once every two days, and would appreciate similar attempts from the players.
Allowed Content: I'll allow content from the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Magic, Ultimate Combat, and the Advanced Race Guide. I would prefer core races, however.
Backstory: I would most appreciate a backstory that ties your character to the given circumstances, either through a place, an organization, or another person.
Experience: Begin at first level with zero experience points and two traits (one and only one of which should be from the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition Player's Guide, reproduced below).
Wealth: Begin with average starting wealth for your chosen class.
Ability Scores: Please generate your characters' ability scores using 20 point buy.
Hitpoints: Begin with the maximum hit points for your chosen class. All further hit dice will grant average hit points.
Alignment: Don't be a dick.
Other Notes: I have GM'd one other game on the Paizo boards. My attempt at Curse of the Crimson Throne fizzled, and I know why. I had taken over the game from the previous GM, but had begun in his game as a player. I continued playing my character, but couldn't keep up with both playing him and GMing. I know better now.

So here's an odd question. Is there any arcane spell (and I really would prefer a spell, as opposed to, say, a psionic power or magic item) that can stick two creatures, not including the caster, together? That is, they'd occupy the same space, move together, interfere in each other's movements, etc. At the moment all I can think of are creative applications of Bestow Curse, Major Curse, Limited Wish, or Wish, but if there's a more specific spell that can do what I have in mind, I'd like to know about it.

Well, this is a pretty straightforward question, so in that spirit, I'll come right out and ask it. If you cast Magic Jar and possess another body, can you still cast other spells, your spells, out of your spell slots? The Magic Jar description notes that you don't have access to the possessed creature's spells, and I've read the threads in this forum suggesting rulings for which buffs transfer over, but I'm more concerned with spellcasting itself. Can you cast your own spells when possessing another?

Reading the description of the Ring of Force Shield, it does not say what type of bonus to AC it provides. Since it is wielded by the ring's wearer as if it were a heavy shield, and since it provides the same numerical bonus as a heavy shield, it would be logical to assume it provides a shield bonus to AC. This is not, however, specified in the item's description, and it could be reckoned that the bonus to AC is untyped on that basis.

Any clarification on this point would be appreciated.

Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to my first campaign journal. Not my first game, mind you, but journaling a PbP is rather pointless and my notes for the last FtF campaign I wanted to journal blossomed into a booklength form before I could get a handle on it. This is a maptool campaign, which turned out to faciliate just the right mix of accurate and to-the-point record-keeping that I could begin keeping a journal with some confidence in the product. We've played one session so far, this Thursday, and expect to have a session each Thursday until the Adventure Path is concluded.

As this is a RotRL campaign journal, it will contain spoilers for that Adventure Path. Then again, if my journal is the first thing on these Internets that spoils RotRL for you, please consider me immeasurably flattered.

Before we begin I'd just like to pay homage to Denek/Moonbeam, whose journals, in part, opened me up to the depth of the Adventure Paths and whose posting format I will be shamelessly ripping off.

And now without further ado, I present to you the protagonists of our little, or perhaps not-so-little, tale:

Amarantha Montenegro 23-year-old male varisian inquisitor, Chaotic Neutral
Amarantha's player joined on short notice, and I haven't got a backstory for him yet.
-

Nil Silverwind male half-elf magus, Chaotic Good
I haven't got a backstory for Nil either, and don't have as good an excuse. I'll add it when I get it.
-

Antonie Tobyn 49-year-old male chelaxian evoker, Chaotic Good
Ezakien left his younger brother behind in Magnimar when he left to minister to new-founded Sandpoint. News of his death brought Antonie from his star-mapping and researches into light at the Stone of the Seers to Sandpoint, and a land deal gone sour and a vindictive colleague made him stay.

Zegomda gro-Tulga 17-year-old male orc druid, Neutral Good
Zegomda's people preyed long upon the Shoanti, until a Shoanti druid struck back. The example of her strength, which all but destroyed his tribe, and the uncaring mountain which nevertheless sheltered him, inspired his calling to nature. He has amends to make, and may as well do so in Sandpoint.

Ulrioc 28-year-old male chelaxian paladin, Lawful Good
Ulrioc turned to Iomedae's faithful for salvation, first from a troubled home life and then from destitution when he could no longer call his house home. His time as an acolyte is at an end, and his first mission, a goodwill gift from Iomedae's flock to the new Cathedral, brought him to Sandpoint.

Is it mentioned anywhere, or has it been surmised anywhere, how old Ezakien and Nualia Tobyn were in 4702?

So let's say some wizard were to advance to level 7 using the Infernal Binder archetype for Conjurers. At that level he gains an Imp Improved Familiar. At level 8 he begins taking levels in the Diabolist prestige class. At level 1 of Diabolist he gains an Imp [acts-like-an-Animal] Companion. My question is: how do these class features interact? Is the Improved Familiar dismissed in favor of the Companion? Is the Companion unavailable thanks to previously having the Improved Familiar? Does the Improved Familiar gain the Companion bonuses as well as its own? Does the wizard summon a second Imp, who gets the Companion bonuses, in addition to his Improved Familiar?

Hiya fine folks of the Paizo messageboards. I'm creating my first character for PFS - you can probably guess which faction - and have all but settled on the wizard class. In Pathfinder RPG games I'd pick up a bonded object instead of a familiar, mostly because my GM likes killing familiars and animal companions, and then an item creation feat a little down the line to give it some extra utility (Bonded ring becomes Bonded Ring of Feather Falling is the first example I can think of). However, that option is not available in PFS.

My question is this: is there a way to upgrade a bonded object in a similar manner in PFS, without taking the item creation feats yourself? For example, could you request or buy the upgrade from an NPC, patron or otherwise, between sessions? Apologies if this is covered somewhere in the rules.

Hello all. It’s been quite a while, and I’m sorry about that. If you’re interested in the reasons behind this delay and the plans around material in the future, you can find a post about that here.

We do have an update today, though! It’s primarily changes to Avowed 1, with some adjustments made to Avowed 2 to make it line up with the altered rules. Here’re our changelogs for today:

The bulk of today’s changes are centered around the following three things.

Basic Aether Pulses: After looking at feedback and the results of testing, we’ve made the choice to remove the delineation between the “basic” aether pulse and shapes. Unshaped aether pulses are no longer a thing. To help cut down on some of the weirdness inherent in the shapeless pulses, as well as make the avowed’s rules more consistent and clean, we’ve introduced two “basic” shapes, called aether ray and aether blow. Every avowed gets one of these for free at 1st level on top of their normal shape, and they can now be invested in similarly to other shapes. These ones have a niche of being about mobility with single hits, much like the Aether Skirmisher feat previously allowed, and scaling damage instead of remaining at 1d6/odd level all the way through.

Aether Lance: Aether lance had problems. One of our earlier-designed options, it was initially made as a way to support the fantasy of a single charging line attack… but also added to support line attacks in general, which stretched it in two opposed directions. Its damage was built like an AoE shape, but at the time, we didn’t think about just how much more accurate it’d be than Reflex-targeting AoEs. In addition, from the start, it was much better at low-levels (before full attacks) than melee weapon shapes, to an extreme degree. And that’s before we even touch its free mobility aspects.

When we added aether beam, we took more looks at aether lance as the other primary-line shape, and in the end, decided to redesign it. With that in mind, we’ve split off its concepts; if someone is going to be a line-attack-focused avowed, aether beam (and potentially aether breath for a more varied and less specialized line-blaster) is there. For those who want to make AoE weapon attacks with a mobility perk, we’ve consolidated that effect into the other weapon shapes. Aether Lance is now a combination feat for aether beam and any weapon shape, allowing you to make line attacks with scaling distances, as well as the old “charge followed by line blast,” in a way that will hopefully be more balanced alongside the lower-level weapon shapes, without becoming useless as a tactical tool at later levels.

Elemental Pact: A very common criticism of Elemental-pact avowed is that they’re boring. One of our earliest-made pacts, we revisited it and revised it. It should, hopefully, now support more builds and combat styles, as well as having more thematic effects early on for different elements. Whether you’re an AoE specialist, a weapon-user, or something in-between, Elemental pact should be giving you something interesting to do as you scatter energy around the battlefield and reliably assault foes with your element, instead of just giving you an underwhelming “pierce” effect for energy damage.

With that all said, the changes can be found in the playtests’ respective docs. Here are the links, for convenience’s sake: Avowed 1 and Avowed 2

Well it certainly has been a long time, and we apologize for that. There's been a combination of A Lot Of Stuff in this update, and life stuff in general getting in the way. However, after far too long, we have an Avowed 1 update for you all!

As always, it can be found here.

There are a couple major changes in this update, which I've gone through in some detail here, though you should check the full changelog to see what else it has.

Anyway, thanks for reading, all, and I hope you enjoy the update!

This is a bit embarrassing, but I haven't been able to find an official answer (either Paizo or WotC) for how constant/continuous SLAs interact with spells that require concentration (do not require concentration, only work when concentrated on but don't need to actually be cast, can be cast as if under the renewing a dispelled constant SLA rule...). Is there one I've missed, and if not, what was assumed for the Avowed's changed detect magic sense when it was changed?

Spells that require concentration run into issues with continuous SLAs, I believe, but bear in mind that you can always simply suppress and restart the SLA (a swift action), and that the non-detect magic senses are supernatural, not spell-like.

Hello all. Today we at DSP have for you a brand-new public playtest for a concept that’s been a long time in the making: the rajah, an initiator that blends akashic power with martial might. This unique class melds akashic concepts and martial skill, taking to the battlefield as a glorious leader who can aid, empower, and strike through their allies!

Within this document you will find:

• The rajah base class, a half-BAB initiator with an akashic bent and a unique take on combat. This also includes a variety of racial favored class options for the rajah, located at the end of the document.
  
• Twenty-four new veils unique to the rajah (but accessible by others, don't worry!). These veils are of a brand-new veil type called Titles, and are shaped on allies to grant them a benefit, rather than the rajah themselves.
  
• An assortment of new feats to support the rajah class, the Title veils, and akashic initiators in general.
  
• And finally, brand-new magic items tied to the rajah.
  

This isn’t all that this playtest has to offer, though. The rajah as an initiator has access to a new discipline, Radiant Dawn, which represents a combination of akashic and martial techniques. This discipline is focused on healing, party support, and debuffing, with mystical and esoteric effects that can be enhanced with akashic essence (which the discipline grants just by having it). The document also includes new style feats for Radiant Dawn users, as well as a martial tradition, The Bank of the Sun! :smallbiggrin:

Radiant Dawn is not in the same document as the rajah (for the sake of keeping Google Docs from melting our computers…), and can be found here at this link.

As always, thanks for taking a look. We hope you enjoy the playtest, and look forward to your feedback!

Hello, all! We've just finished up and reviewed a new archetype for the highlord; we've got several in the works, and this one is the first that's deemed ready for public eyes, so without further ado, the Cherished.

The Cherished is a highlord with a custom, more expansive tenet that makes them much more focused on their allies than enemies. Instead of a conscription method, they've had their chassis and manifesting slightly revised. Better at supporting the party with psionic powers (particularly through the collective), and armed with the ability to empower a chosen champion to fight for them, the cherished is well-suited to playing as a backline support class. Enjoy!

Ah! That was my bad, it accidentally got left out when copying things over. Fixed now.

Hello! It has been quite a while since our last major update. After a lot of tinkering, playtesting, and reviewing, we’ve got some new material and tweaks to old material, both in Avowed 1 and Avowed 2.

So what’s changed, then? The biggest things to note are skills (the avowed is being buffed to become a 6 + Int mod class, and gets a boost to a useful skill based on pact), the nation pact (totally reworked, command effects turned into a shape), area-of-effect shapes (had their damage scaling changed), and weapon shapes (we’ve made the 4th rank less mandatory).

Here are the changelogs for the playtests; discussion on the changes can be found in the third spoiler.

As always, thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy.

Hello, all! It's been quite a while. Over the past nearly-a-month, a lot has gone on our end, including receiving a decent amount of feedback on the highlord. There's been a couple recurring topics when it comes to the class; we hope that the large update we're posting today will help address them (along with many other issues, especially readability and wall-of-textness).

"Why does this class exist? What makes it unique/not just a tactician/etc?"

Overall, we want the highlord to have its own niche; from the start, we intended it to have a particular... callousness about the use of its collective, in a way. More than just a tactician, the highlord is a class that uses its allies as raw materials to win the fight, much like a kineticist (psion, not occult firebender) uses energy and matter to blow things up, or a shaper uses objects and ectoplasm as materials to bring their imaginations to life. Even a good-aligned highlord will often use their collective as a cudgel to beat their enemies with instead of just a network for directing their allies, and with that in mind, we've made some adjustments to the fluff, crunch, and direction of the class.

The core thing we want to express with the highlord is that they use their collective as raw materials; this is possible for them because of a slightly closer bond created by their collective. Instead of just touching the minds of creatures in the network, a highlord shares his mind, either assisting in a deeper manner, or overwhelming others through this stronger connection. This is represented in a couple abilities, including Open Heart, Lifeblood Siphon (formerly Siphon Servants), and their decrees. We hope that the adjustments made to the class' fluff and crunch will help it stand taller on its own, as its niche of a tight bond isn't a thing anywhere else in psionics yet.

"The class is really boring; it doesn't do anything of its own, and the tenets are underwhelming."

On the mechanical side of things, we've made some major adjustments to the highlord's tenets. Previously, they were a bit underwhelming; overall, they were focused on numerical boosts to the highlord or his allies, and while they might have been good from a mechanics standpoint, they didn't really grab many people. After going back over the class and revising it, we have changed the abilities of the tenets slightly, and added seven brand-new psionic powers, one for each tenet.

Unlike most psionic powers, these are unique to a given tenet, and can only be manifested by a highlord of the proper tenet. In a way, one might be better off thinking of them as unique "class features" that tie more heavily into the psionics subsystem than most features, and they exemplify each tenet's goals and thematics in their own ways. Where beforehand, many felt that the highlord was forced to scrounge for meaning through feats (or not taking the class at all), this
is no longer true—the tenets bring powerful, unique abilities for every highlord, alongside the rest of their progression and advancement.

"The class doesn't feel like it does enough to justify picking it."

With all of that in mind, we've also adjusted many of the abilities, including the siphon (changed to work better with the 6-level manifesting of the class), tribute, various decrees, and the resonance effects of each tenet. We hope that the new highlord catches your fancy in ways the old version didn't. As always, thanks for reading! We're using the same playtest document as before, which can be found here or through the link in the first post. :smallbiggrin:

1) It was not future-proofed well. The old archetype gave all INT skills as class skills shortly before we started seeing a bunch of X to INT traits (like the ones in Ultimate Campaign). As written, LW would let you take traits like that and instantly give you more class skills.

I don't really have much to weigh in on regarding this, but I wanted to point out that this statement is wrong; that's not how the stat replacer traits work, nor how lore warden works.

Per the FAQ on these abilities, "this changes the check only at the time of rolling, so this does not change static class features or options made during character building such as your class’s class skills." It then goes on to call out the lore warden's wording as something that that sentence applies to. So, while I'll agree that the lore warden ability might lead to some confusion thanks to how it's worded, it doesn't actually work the way you've stated, as-written.

I'd hope that the rewrite is more about adjusting the wording to match the rules, rather than nerfing it based on this...

Hey all! With more of DSP's older playtests moving from "sitting for a while" to "finally released," Dreamscarred Press is moving on to some new material! Today I've got a playtest doc for a brand-new psionic class, the Highlord. This 6-level manifesting class uses their collective both for leading their allies and destroying their enemies, drawing foes into their mental network to force them to do their bidding... or merely crush their minds.

In the following document, you'll find the highlord base class, including many customization options and seven different subpaths. In addition, there's new feats both for the highlord and for other users of collectives, and a set of racial favored class options for the class!

To check it out, click on this link.

Thanks for taking a look! We hope you enjoy.

Forrestfire wrote:

Hey all! Been a while. There's been a lot of hectic times on our end, so we don't have a full update to the avowed playtests today, but we do have a brand-new product for you, which can be found here as a free download!

Ooooh! A shiny new product! Gimme! Waiiiitttt...What day is it... Nah... you wouldn't do us like that. :P

The Avowed: April Edition has three new less-than-serious pacts for the avowed.

Hey all! Been a while. There's been a lot of hectic times on our end, so we don't have a full update to the avowed playtests today, but we do have a brand-new product for you, which can be found here as a free download!

LordInsane wrote:

What - non-racial - options are there to get mind-affecting effects at level 1 as an Avowed? I noticed frightening pulse doesn't actually say it is mind-affecting, and it seems a bit annoying in play to have an avowed character whose attunement does nothing until level 6.

Uses of the Intimidate skill are definitely mind-affecting fear effects, and while I can't seem to find a definite answer James Jacobs seems to imply that all fear effects are mind-affecting (And common sense too, if nonmagical fear doesn't affect something magical fear probably won't unless specifically called out). So Frightening Pulse is probably mind-affecting just by virtue of being a fear effect.

That is correct; frightening pulse is mind-affecting by virtue of being a fear effect. I'll make sure to get an explicit note in it, so people don't have to dig into the FAQ.

So, today we have another update, this time some small tweaks to wording and balance in some places, and a total rework of how the skill-boosting clauses function.

Here are the changelogs for A1 and A2:

Avowed 1 can be found here.
Avowed 2 can be found here.

And here’s a spoiler with a discussion of the changes:

I know it's not Forrestfire, but you did work on this project, right? I don't understand how this works if I don't take levels in Barbarian. Tia.

Kumiho Huntress(Combat)
You are particularly good at extracting the most delicious parts of your prey.
Prerequisites: Kumiho kitsune, rage powers class feature, base attack bonus+5.
Benefit: You gain the bloody fist rage power, even if you do not meet its prerequisites or aren’t a barbarian. You can use it one additional time per rage

Bloody Fist (Ex)
Prerequisites: Barbarian level 12th.
Benefit: While raging, the barbarian may attempt to punch through an opponent' s flesh and rip out one of its vital organs. In order to do so, the barbarian must confirm a critical hit against an opponent with a natural attack or unarmed strike. The barbarian deals damage as normal for a critical hit and the opponent must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the barbarian' s class level + the barbarian' s Strength modifier) or take 1d4 points of Constitution damage as one of its vital organs is ripped free from its body. This power can only be used once per rage

It requires the Rage Powers class feature, and will work with any rage equivalent from your class. So, bloodragers and similar classes can use it. I'll get a clarification into the Bloodforge playteat.

Aaaaand here we have a rather large update, involving a lot of changes to the basic framework that avowed optimization runs on. So without further ado, let's get down to business:

The Avowed 1 pdf can be found at this link.

The Avowed 2 document can be found here.

Alrighty! As noted earlier, here's the update to the Avowed 1 pdf; there's a couple major adjustments being made, which I'll detail in this spoiler:

If you want to skip that and just know the changelog, that's here:

Hello all! It's been a very long time, and I'm sorry for the long delay. Between between travel, wonkiness with work hours, and illness, we haven't been able until now to get everything we wanted done, done. However, today we've got an update each for both Avowed 1 and Avowed 2. The changelogs are long, and there's a lot of ground to cover, so instead of grappling with this forum's formatting restrictions, I've posted it up in this post on Giant in the Playground's forums, so I would like to direct people there to read the changelogs for A1 and A2, as well as look for responses to their thoughts.

As always, I hope you enjoy the work we've uploaded, and look forward to your feedback.

Looking over A1 and A2 I noticed the only detecting magic options for Avowed seem to be limited to objects specifically (the Reveal Your Secrets clause) or automatic within 30 ft but limited to spells being cast on two very limited specific lists and requiring being a specific pact (Divine Pact) - is this a deliberate design choice?

Nope, not at all. We just missed it, repeatedly. It'll be in the next update. Thanks to spending a week of time away and unable to do work on the Avowed 1 document, there's a lot of stuff to put into it. Hoping to get it done and uploaded soon, though!

Is there any chance of getting the Aspirant a clause that allows Embodiment of Aether to also switch strength in place of charisma for determining rounds per day of aspiration form?

I need to adjust the wording on Embodiment of Aether. I just checked it and realized that it should do that by default, but it doesn't. In the next update to A1 (coming sometime this week; we've received a lot of feedback, done some more testing, and are tweaking a few things in addition to the work on A2), it'll do that properly.

Don't quite have the energy or time right now to address comments in full, but rest assured, they're being accounted for for the full beta of Avowed 2, and the next update of Avowed 1.

In addition, the votes are tallied for this month's project now that the week's over, and the end result is that FFS will be creating the start of our technological stuff project. Expect a small release (for FFS; we're shooting for about 16-20 pages in Google Docs/12 worth of PDF for this month, since we also want to focus on Avowed 2's beta) at the end of the month along those lines.

Thanks again for all of your feedback, and have a good one!

The new race (Penitent) is awesome! I am assuming that it's inspired by the 3.5 Hellbred race?

Cheers
Volf

Yep! Taveena and I always enjoyed the concept, so she wrote something inspired by it, though running on a different base fluff.

Augh, sorry for the triple post, but I've just pushed an update to Avowed 1's PDF:

Clauses and Shapes
- Aether Barrage has been fully reworked after taking a further look at it.
- Aether Grasp’s “(see text)” has been removed—it was meant to imply that the grapple maintaining was part of it, but so far it’s just caused confusion.
Feats
- Empower Spell-Like Ability now has a note saying that for multi-round aether pulses, you need to expend a use for each round (so you can’t, say, open with an Empowered swarm thn reap the benefits for an entire fight).
Other
- Clarified that going into mystic theurge doesn't double-dip clause progression

Penitents' Humanoid Origin ability says "If he chooses human..." but does not allow choosing human as written ("a penitents must choose a humanoid subtype from the following list: dwarf, elf, goblinoid, orc, tengu, kitsune, strix, vanara or reptilian").

Apologies for starting with that nitpick; I am quite enjoying Heart and Soul thus far!

Whoops! Fixed.

Heyo! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season (or, at least, a non-terrible one, particularly for those like me who worked all across Christmas), and a happy New Years.

Got a couple things for you today.

First, there’s an update to The Avowed: Promises of Power. This update includes a lot of small fixes and adjustments. The biggest one is that aether rounds has been restored to something closer to its original power (we overnerfed it), but with some tweaks to keep it sane. Lots of typo fixes, a couple balance tweaks.

• The Aspirant, an avowed archetype based on transforming into something greater. They give up all-day usage in exchange for increased power for a very limited time per day.
  
• The Betrothed, an avowed archetype based around having a particularly close relationship with one’s patron—not necessarily romantic, but that’s certainly an option. This archetype brings a companion to the table, as an ally in and outside of combat.
  
• Two new pacts: Divine (patron) and Undead (symbiotic).
  
• Subpacts! These are like mini-archetypes for individual pacts. In The Avowed: Heart and Soul, we’re including subpacts for the Celestial, Fiend, and Undead pacts, for various different subsets of the larger groups of beings.
  
• A new shape, aether well, which leaves damaging areas around the battlefield.
  
• Four new clauses for all avowed to take; one a skill buff and the other three modulations.
  
• A new race, the Penitent. These beings are souls returned from the lower planes to find redemption—or fall back into damnation. We’ve included the base race as well as several alternate racial traits, a set of alternate favored class bonuses, and a race trait for them.
  
• And speaking of traits, in addition to the race trait for the Penitents, there’s two generic traits for people to take, that tie into the Penitent’s fluff, but aren’t limited to only them.
  
• Finally, we have 13 new feats—eleven for the avowed bonus feat lists, and two new damnation feats.

Evelyn Jones wrote:

On top of that, it is frustrating how it sets a precedent that Golarion-centric games are things that everyone will be playing, because some GMs don't like refluffing and thus it unfairly locks-out a character (and indeed, their player) from being able to do cool or awesome things because they don't worship the right imaginary god, or didn't get picked-up by fairies when they were a kid.

It's a Golarion-centric book. Should Paizo not produce books that support their own setting?

While I'm not the person you responded to, I think that yes, Paizo should definitely be producing books that support their own setting. However, Pathfinder is a way bigger game than just Golarion, and it doesn't hurt anyone (or hurt the material in any way) to add a passage about options in other settings.

Mostly, I personally wish that these options were written with more emphasis on building interesting characters that fit into the setting one is playing in, rather than dictating a specific path of characterization in order to achieve a certain mechanical concept.

An example I brought up a couple posts ago was D&D's Oriental Adventures, which had some feats with very important setting and characterization implications, but also included this paragraph:

Characters are not limited to choosing ancestors from their own clan, since intermarriage between clans is common. It is quite possible for a Dragon samurai, for example, to claim a Crane ancestor through his mother’s side. The ancestor feats are listed on Table 4–3: Ancestor Feats, grouped by clan for convenience only. The names and backgrounds of ancestors apply for human characters in Rokugan; nonhuman characters and characters in other campaign settings can name their ancestors and detail their histories as they like, but the feat benefits do not change.

Their goal there was to make the book accessible to as many people as possible, broadening those who can use and enjoy it to its fullest. That's the ideal I like to strive for as a homebrewer and 3pp designer. I think that it's a lesson that everyone should take follow, myself.

Forrestfire wrote:

I think your posts lead readers to the wrong conclusion, then. Not to be rude, but my reading was that you seem to be arguing that any amount of refluffing at all is wrong and "playing the game wrong."

I'm saying that if you don't think of the game-world as REAL, then you're playing it wrong; that should not be a point of contention. Of course individual DMs can customize material for their own game-worlds.

I REALLY hate those terms "flavor" and "fluff," though; it's like you're saying "it's not important," when it IS. We don't play the game for the mechanics, we play it to live in another universe, and the mechanics are just a sort of UI.

I disagree there. Personally, I think that the game-world is just as "real" as the mechanics. However, I put the fun of the players at the table as even more real and important than that. If someone at my table (or playing with material I wrote) has a concept that fits into the game world, but differently than the original stuff? I see that as just as valid, and just as real, as the words on the page. There isn't an arbitrary distinction between "game designer" and "game player" here. We're all playing (or writing) the game to create compelling stories in another universe, and if someone has a story they want to tell (or play through), I think they should be encouraged, rather than halted.

It's not about fluff/flavor/characterization not being "important," but about giving every player at the table—GM or otherwise, writer or otherwise—the respect they deserve as people collaborating with the others to tell a fun story and play a fun game.

Did I mention I'm sick of this crap?

It's NOT "entirely subjective;" you have to accept the premises the game designer, be it a company like Paizo or a homebrewing DM, present to you, otherwise there is no game.

By this argument, can't one just create your one's own premise, stripping out parts of the game they don't like, replacing them with things more palatable things for themselves and their group, then go on keeping playing the game? After all, as you've said, someone who adjusts the game is presenting a new set of premises to accept.

Generally, "subjective" as shorthand for the concept you're describing—a situation where, depending on the person, the premise presented can vary.

No one plays the exact same game of Pathfinder. Every group—every player—is concurrently running their own systems, based on their outlooks and preferences. We just clump it all into the same group for ease of discussion.

N. Jolly wrote:

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:

So basically the intent of the OP is that nothing special should ever be invented for a religion or a diety because it's an unfair denial to everyone else?

Nah, it's that nothing should be flavor locked as well as that flavor should not be used as a balancing point for an ability because it's arbitrary at best.

Personally, I think a trait along the lines of Isa's, BNW's, or mine would be fine, keep the flavor wanted, and still work for those who don't want flavor balancing. I think threads like this show that there's room for workarounds like those suggested, and that there's design space that is open for people that really want to play the game in a different way. Overall, this thread's actually given me quite a few design ideas, so it's a net gain for me.

While combining multiple deity-specific things (much like multiple style feat chains or multiple totems for barbarians) is in itself a powerful potential boost, I think most typical people who would take the trait wouldn't be trying to do that anyway and would instead just be trying to take a single thing from an off-deity. Thus, I think such a trait should be balanced with those people in mind (and with a protection to curb abuse cases) by using something most similar to your idea:

Heretical Knowledge
Choose a religion other than your own. You have studied and perfected all of its secret arts. You gain a +2 bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks involving the chosen religion and Knowledge (religion) is a class skill for you. (This is almost exactly from your idea and is now roughly near the limit of what a trait should do without also allowing the combos that most people aren't even going to try to do, so let's finesse it to prevent that but still allow options for those who aren't doing that:) You can choose to count as a follower of the chosen religion instead of your own to determine what abilities you can gain. Once you make this choice, it is permanent.

That's a really neat idea, and similar to what my group does. Gotta say, it's nice to see that you've got a similar outlook.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the Golarion-specific deity locking (I wish that Pathfinder had a similar passage to D&D's Oriental Adventures, regarding fluff restrictions), but it always felt implied to me that the intent was that they're mutually exclusive, rather than it being completely hard-locked.

Okay, got a small update today, mostly some mistakes that got caught last night, and a few small changes. The Avowed can be found at this link, as usual.

I wanted to chime in and say that your work is down right impressive Forrestfire. This iteration of the warlock is probably one of the best I have ever seen. The abilities/write-up/fluff is exemplary. I only have one slight request .... please, please, please include a death pact in Avowed I.

Cheers
Volf

There won't be a Death pact in Avowed 1, but we're looking at adding an Undead pact, which will have likely similar thematics to the idea, in Avowed 2, and a larger-scale "with the concept of death" pact later down the line.

Got another update today, with some typo fixes people caught and a couple quick changes, along with a table of contents being added, cus I neglected that before. Sorry.

Thanks again for all of your support and feedback.

Ooh, fully bookmarked. I love your work even just for that, Forrest. I especially adore the heart's burning intensity that a Self-pact avowed with Balefire Infusion inflicts on people. The only thing I find hinky about that class feature is that the three free invokes are used up first even if you don't use the feat for free (such as by paying to convert the damage to irresistible).

• Steel's Betrayal is plain hilarious.
• Potential better wording in Spirited Swordsmanship is "When used in this way, your Charisma modifier to damage is multiplied by 1/2 for a shape wielded in an off-hand and multiplied by 1-1/2 for one wielded in two hands."
• Lingering Pulse is missing a few words in the core of its effect (filling the area created).
• Here's a catch: Dreamscarred Press is singular (being a company, a collection of people), so you'd refer to Dreamscarred Press's Ultimate Psionics, barring more pressing style reasons to do otherwise.
• GM guidance question: Does a deaf oracle/avowed (who "casts all of her spells as if they were modified by the Silent Spell feat") still use verbal components for her clauses?

The typo catches and wording suggestions I've added in; the thing with DSP's name I'm iffier on, I'll get back to that. For the GM guidance, I would say that they shouldn't need verbal components. I'm not sure where to put the sidebar about it, so I'll get that in the next update. Good thought though, thank you.

Hmm, the Nation Avowed could work fairly well in building Undyne from Undertale. The ability "Hearts Beat As One" is eerily named and appropriate, and her being the captain of her king's royal guard works well with the more military focus it appears to have.

Thanks for all the well-wishes, and I'm so very sorry for the delay. The past weeks have been a hell of a time; I had the flu, then bronchitis, but I'm mostly better now. During this time, when I could, my co-author and I kept writing. Avowed 2's work is chugging along, but what's important for today is that, finally, we can say we've got a full beta of The Avowed: Promises of Power.

The below spoiler has the truly massive changelog, incorporating feedback from here and other places, adjustments we've needed to make from playtesting, and many other things, but for the tl;dr on the changes... The document has gone from 48 pages to a massive 67 pages, including the following:

Forrestfire wrote:

Wanted to let people know that I'm stuck in bed after picking up an illness of some sort over Thanksgiving, which might delay Avowed 2 by a couple days. It'll happen shortly, and I'm sorry about that. November's been a hectic month.

Rough, mate. Hope you recover quickly.

Me too.

After seeing a doctor, it turns out that I've got the flu, so that's gonna knock me out of commission for a bit.

Overall, between Avowed 1 running nearly three times as large as I'd planned for "a month's work of writing" to be, and the various stresses and messes I've had to deal with in November, on top of this illness, it's looking like what will need to happen is to finish writing the Avowed 2 project over December, shooting for putting it up in the middle of the month.

Recently, we've been remathing some of the stuff in Avowed 1 and that's taken some time to figure out, and the Avowed 2 stuff needed to go through some significant rewrites for its archetypes, so we're basically having to start nearly from scratch to make the concepts actually work.

Work will continue apace, but there will not be a vote for the project for December. This is one of those months mentioned on the Patreon that things aren't moving as quickly as they could be.

I hope you all are enjoying the current work that's up, and I'd like to thank everyone who's taken a look and/or given feedback. We'd be dead in the water without you all. I'll probably be back with another update to Avowed 1 in a couple of days, depending on how sick I continue to be. It'll include some fixes based on feedback and fixed math in a couple cases, as well as a real list of FCBs (finally!) and some more Final clauses.

Forrestfire wrote:

For hypnotic strands' stagger, it's because the fundamental isn't meant to be used on allies. It's an effect that, ideally, would be used on enemies to make them attack each other, rather than being used as a buff. However, since "opponent/ally" is kinda a meaningless designation for this purpose (you can attack an ally to make them an opponent), I decided to bake in a softer restriction to it. It's still usable in a pinch to buff allies, and in some cases, will be an amazing option there (follow up their full attack with two more hits to hopefully end the fight and have the stagger not matter), but it's not meant to puppeteer your allies as its primary function.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I'd been looking at it more like a 4e Warlord going 'The barbarian hits you with his axe, I hit you with the barbarian' rather than as primarily an offensive thing.

Yeah, it was meant more as an enchanter feel than a warlord.

Also, wanted to say that I've just uploaded a hotfix to the avowed; a couple errors were caught, including some typos, the Fey pact missing Stealth as a class skill, and an issue with tinker archetype UMD.

Alright, sorry for the long wait, but here we have the nearly-complete PDF for Avowed 1, including more stuff and many adjustments.

It's not 100% finished; there's still some more Final clauses to write, as well as FCBs, but all of the pacts for Avowed 1 are in, along with the full 25 each for Least, Lesser, and Greater clauses, new feats, an archetype, two ACFs, and an expanded fluff section on making pacts. We've also gone through and made adjustments in response to feedback given here and in other places, and I am super thankful for that.

Moving forward, Avowed 2 is still on schedule and should be posted up by the end of the month, and some of the single-target shapes (particularly aether rounds) are being looked at more closely, math-wise.

Enjoy!

Sweet, I'll be sure to pick that up for my local group.

I was a huge fan of the spellburst Savant since the very first version and decided to do some homebrew of my own for it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15Hl4iSN5el-ohN9paOuf_1TszJK9_srUXZFxj-H Mpz8/edit?usp=sharing

A question about the latest version: What is the reasoning behind the decision to make the 'Give your allies an extra attack spell' stagger them? Seems like way too high a cost to lose all your extra attacks from a full attack for a single out of action attack.

Hey, that's a pretty neat homebrew. I really like the Empty Sleeves ability, that's just cool as hell.

For hypnotic strands' stagger, it's because the fundamental isn't meant to be used on allies. It's an effect that, ideally, would be used on enemies to make them attack each other, rather than being used as a buff. However, since "opponent/ally" is kinda a meaningless designation for this purpose (you can attack an ally to make them an opponent), I decided to bake in a softer restriction to it. It's still usable in a pinch to buff allies, and in some cases, will be an amazing option there (follow up their full attack with two more hits to hopefully end the fight and have the stagger not matter), but it's not meant to puppeteer your allies as its primary function.

Hey all, just wanted to check in to let you guys know that I'll be uploading a more full version of the Avowed 1 PDF tomorrow during the day (need to finish up just a few more things), and that I will ideally have the Avowed 2 stuff up by the end of the month. I didn't mean to take this long on finalizing the first Avowed PDF, but at this point, it's 45 pages and counting. Going waaaaay over my goal pagecount of 15-20 pages per release caused some delays...

In any case, I also wanted to say that I have uploaded the Spellburst Savant to Drivethrurpg, if anyone wants a lite version of the PDF.

Are you selling these as well? I'm not a patreon supporter, but would still like to pay you for the work.

I will be, once things are ready for publishing. The Spellburst Savant will be put up on DriveThruRPG.com as a "pay what you want" item (it was originally written and uploaded as homebrew, and I think it'd feel wrong to charge for it), and further projects, including the Avowed and anything else, will be sold once they're finished and playtested.

In other news, I've uploaded a new copy of the Spellburst Savant. Not much this time, just a new fundamental (charged by enchantments and illusions most of the time, and with a mind-affecting theme), and some small tweaks to wording.

I'm going to eventually write the fundamentals-focused archetype, but I do not think that it's going to be going into this first book of the Spellburst Savant. Instead, I'll likely have a project later down the line that adds some more archetypes and possibly feats. Thus, I'm likely going to be finalizing this project soon and not adding new material other than tweaks as needed before its 'release'.

Alrighty, status update! After reviewing the votes for this month's project (they ended last night), it looks like Avowed book 2 wins out. I'm hoping to have the last parts of the first book up by the end of this week (have a couple pacts to finalize, some more clauses to write, and the archetype, as well as some reworks to AoE shapes), and you should expect Avowed 2 sometime towards the end of November.

Are there any archetypes coming for the Avowed? Anything you have in mind already?

The first book will only have one archetype, the Tinker, which harkens back to the 3.5 warlock's item subtheme. The second book, when it happens, will have several archetypes (listed in the spoiler above).

Alrighty. It's October 31st, at 10:30ish pm, and my Patreon promises at least one thing per month. The last couple weeks have been a bit of a nightmare on my end, and I'm sorry for the long delay. However! Here's a Halloween treat!

I'm happy to announce that I've gotten the Avowed ready for public playtesting. This is not 100% completed (there's still several pacts to add and a decent chunk of clauses to fill out the Greater and Final grades, more feats to write, and one archetype that will be included in this book, and finally an expansion on the fluff section. Also a new cover in the works, but that's not content).

You can find it here.

In this PDF is the Avowed base class, playable from 1-20, and the Dragon, Fiend, Old One, Shadow, Otyugh, and Nation pacts. The other pacts for this book (Celestial, Court Fey, Elemental, and Self) haven't been finished yet, but will be up soon, as they're written.

I'll be putting up the vote for November's project in the morning. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy what I've got posted up now, and I look forward to any feedback you've got.

I forgot to ask, but why did you reduce the number of skill points from 6 to 4? Isn't the spellburst savant supposed to replace the rogue to some extent, which includes spending some skill points in the appropriate skills?

It was part of an overall slight reduction in utility. The substitutions of casting stat are relevant enough to that concept that I felt they could use slightly less skills, given they've still got utility spells (even if you'll want to use one spell per combat in most cases).

The Journeyman archetype (fundamentals-focused) will have more of an emphasis on skills, getting more points and some unique uses.

Okay, I missed that part and overreacted somewhat. The damage is comparable, assuming you still hit.

Yep. And the current fundamentals are actually a bit more accurate (starspray now hits touch attacks, and nova flare's save DC scales way better).

So what spells would you use for artillery purposes? Also, my reasoning is that I want a roguish spellcaster with at-will capabilities. Meaning that the avowed falls flat at this moment. Basically opening doors, disabling traps along with some easy to use stuff for damage purposes. The flexibility of damage types is great, too. That's why I am a fan of SoP. But as I can't use that I need some kind of replacement and the arcade version so far fits the bill.

That is fair about the avowed. In the interest of this discussion, I ran through the Sorc/Wiz spell list and picked out some spells that I, personally, might consider using as an artillery Savant. There's a list in the spreadsheet I used for the fundamental comparisons.

I can see what you mean regarding the avowed. I think I will write the "less spells, more at-will" archetype mentioned above. I'm not sure when, since right now my priority is getting the Avowed ready for eyes, but rest assured, it'll be here eventually.

I'll see about finalizing what I've got half-written right now (need to write some sections and finish out a couple almost-done pacts) and uploading it sometime tonight or tomorrow, then.

Do I see correctly that fundamentals are no longer at-will? Or rather, you can use them on cantrips but the damage output is even with metamagic thanks to nova spells no longer relevant at high levels? I admit, the biggest draw for me were the at-will fundamentals which scaled nicely with level. So now it feels like that the class is forced to use its spells more, but does not receive any more spells or goes on to higher levels.

That is a correct reading; fundamentals scale with the spells you charge them with now. The scaling on them has been adjusted as a result. It’s based both on the spell you charge your fundamentals with, and, importantly, on the actions you use.

For starspray, this means that in a fight where you open with your highest level, it’s a slight nerf until the highest levels (however, the fundamental is a touch attack now, which is a significant buff to it). For nova flare, it’s a straight buff of damage dice at all levels, albeit with a slightly lower (1 point) average damage per die. Nova flare also has additional synergy with Circlet of Brass, which will add its damage twice instead of once.

Here’s a link to a spreadsheet with comparisons of the fundamentals, if you want to take a look at the progressions.

Having the fundamentals work only after casting a spell and using the spell level for scaling means that you have a minute where instead casting something else you have another attack option. The save DC works fine, but as the damage is crappy compared to spells, which other casters can dish out, this means that one would go for either BFC or debuffing the enemies. It doesn't help that nova works for a fundamental only once.

In the first round (when you charge the fundamental), you will have about half the fundamental DPR you previously did, but you’ll also have it as a swift action (past the earliest levels, where you can get by by charging them between combats with cantrips and not lose anything). After that, the damage output is slightly less (thanks to metamagic only working on one use of the fundamental), but still consistently high if you optimize for a fundamental.

So I'm not sure where the artillery stuff is supposed to be. The new version has its uses, but the focus has shifted. The loss of at-will damage similar to the Warlock feels more like nerfing the class to the ground in this aspect. Or at least how I planned to play it.

The artillery stuff is still there; it’s in the spells more than anything else. I’m sorry that you aren’t a fan of this rework, but as it was, the original was way too strong. The Spellburst Savant is not a Warlock. It’s a spellcaster that had some at-will stuff that accidentally stole the show. The revised version is meant as a middleground; the fundamentals are still there and still around the same power level, but it does mean you’ll need to cast at least one spell per combat, instead of relying entirely on them.

If you want a true at-will blaster, I’d recommend looking into the Avowed when I get the rest of book 1 for that release uploaded. Right now I’m working to finish up the remaining pacts, though I might upload the class and add each pact as it gets done.

Of course, the arcade version still remains, but since you said "no more changes!", this means that flaws you patch in the new version aren't patched in the arcade version, where actually applicable. I'm particular annoyed by the fact that Armor of Force has not been provided the buff of this version. After all I did mention this in the discussion, which lead to the nerfing in the first place. Would it be possible to convince you to keep the arcade version somewhat parallel to the new version?

I’m not going to continue to update the Ex Turbo version with new material, though I will still fix any wording issues that crop up. The original is not a class that I want to support; I do not think it’s balanced, and while it’s fun, it’s not what the Spellburst Savant was meant to be and doesn’t play well with a great many classes. For one thing, it far outstrips classes like Wizard and Arcanist at the levels most people seem to play at (1 to 8), which is… A hell of an accident, really.

I hope that the nerfs and revisions that have been applied to the current version help bring it back into line with what a class should be expected to do.

What I may do, however, is write an archetype that lessens its focus on spellcasting to make the fundamentals its main tool and doesn't need spells to charge them, instead of a tool that carries a dual focus with spells.

I'm happy to say that I finally got the Revised Spellburst Savant written up and uploaded for you all. The biggest changes are to fundamentals, making their power more tied to which spells you use (but still keeping lower power versions as at-will abilities), and the ACFs that were tied to them.

And yes, this does mean there are nerfs to the class. It's been brought to a slightly lower power level and is a bit more reliant on its spells to work at full potential, but I hope that y'all still enjoy the class. I know that I am; the way it's been playing in my test scenarios is pretty fun, like if you crashed Invoker into Ryze.

Here's a link to the new PDF; it's in the Google Drive alongside the EX TURBO edition.

I had thought that I was going to be done updating this one, but I've uploaded another copy of the EX Turbo version of the Spellburst Savant, with some adjustments, clarifications, and fixes. Home sick today, so hoping to get some more writing done if I can.

Changelog
• Aura Sense had a note added that you don't get the ability to tell what sort of caster a person you detect is.
• Added a note that Absorb Spell doesn't give you super-high-level slots from being able to Nova Heighten Spell things.
• Spellburst Scholar's DRM fluff has been adjusted and elaborated on; a sidebar about how two different Scholars interact with each others' DRM has also been added.
• Spell Notebook pages are noted to not work with metamagic reducers.
• A note about identifying a Spell Notebook page as what it is has been added.
• Spellburst Scholar deconstruct intention adjusted to +1.
• Akashic Dabbler now has a clarification that it does count abilities that increase capacity of the veil.
• Blockade blocks are noted as being solid.

The trapfinding and Wisdom are meant to allow them to fill that role, but I do not intend to give them that ability. Fluffwise, they're better at magic traps than mechanical ones, and this is an intended interaction.

In any case, I have a new PDF for you all today, with a fairly large changelog. While I don't have the revised version of the Spellburst Savant, I have decided to finish making the adjustments I'd planned based on playtest feedback to the current version. I personally think it's a bit overly strong, but I know that people are using it and having fun with it, so I want to support that.

Moving forward, this version of the Spellburst Savant will not be updated. It's now a stand-alone, and I'll be working on the revised version in the future instead of this one. I'll be keeping it in the linked drive, however, so don't worry, it's not going anywhere. The revised version will be toned down a bit.

This version can be found here

Thanks again for all the help and feedback you all have given.

Changelog

Does Akashic Dabbler account for existance of Circlet of Brass?

Yes.

Does starspray benefit from damage-increasing boosts and stances? Can it be used to deliver strikes?

Yes and yes (it's an attack), no (like all abilities that have their own action).

Why do fundamentals get only 1/2 nova spell rank to DC? It basically forces the use of heighten to keep up with saves scaling.

Now that I think about it, Spellburst Savant could really use passive DC bonus, like 1 per 4 levels, to justify using spells that allow a save, and not shooting things with starspray and using actual spell slots for buffs and utility.

For exactly that reason. As noted above, the intent of the fundamentals was for them to not be your mainstay options. The Spellburst Savant was meant to be using spells for combat, and the fundamentals as backup. This turned out not to work as planned, so the class is being reworked to bring the fundamentals to a more central place.

Another update: After getting my internet back, I've been reading some playtest feedback, writing adjustments to the Spellburst Savant, and I need to push the next update to that back.

The reason for this is that the fundamentals are not quite doing what I wanted them to; they were written into the class as something like "actually working reserve feats" (the 3.5 ones). Backup options for when your spells aren't being used, rather than the main dish of the class.

Obviously, this didn't really end up being the case. I'm going to be reworking them—not to turn them into my original idea, but to tie them more closely to the workings of the Spellburst Savant and bring them to a more central position in the class.

I hope you all enjoy the changes when they get put up. I'll have them ready as soon as possible :)

I've got a bit of an odd question that came up in my group. At the time, we ruled it conservatively, but after doing some digging, I'm honestly wondering how it's meant to work.

If I use Empower (or Maximize) Spell on a spell that has a source of dice-based bonus damage (in particular for this case, sneak attack), do those additional dice get affected too?

I found this post that seems to imply that the bonus dice would, but it' from 2010 and I wasn't sure if it still held.

The FAQ on Empower Spell says that the feat works on numerical bonuses, but the state of bonuses like sneak attack's damage boost feels vague.

So, I guess my question is: is there a ruling (or rule somewhere that I missed) you know of for how bonus dice work with Empower and Maximize spell? If not, what are your thoughts on this?

Hey all, wanted to check in to apologize for not having the update to the Spellburst Savant I'd mentioned up. The hurricane knocked out my power and Internet this weekend and left me unable to do much.

Work continues apace on the Avowed, however, and I hope to have the preliminary release/playtest (class, clauses, a selection of pacts for Book 1, favored class bonuses, and feats) up sometime next week, with archetypes to follow as they're written.

An aether pulse's default is untyped.

Forrestfire wrote:

Temptation is, in fact, meant to give you the first list of spells at-will. Being a negative status remover is the intended result of it. I had considered more one-time abilities, but the problem with that is that in many cases, they just stop being useful class features outside of small fluff things.

I'd rather you always be able to "buy" someone's soul to give them benefits when you want to, rather than a one-time more powerful effect. Any party with a prepared divine caster of that level effectively has similar things, and that's just as part of their spells. It's not particularly game-breaking, and doesn't mess with attrition much (it doesn't heal HP). Just helps you negate long-lasting negative status effects that could cause an adventure to grind to a halt.

I dunno, I guess the flavor implications of this just bother me a bit. It seems weird that the first thing a Fiendish Avowed says when joining a group is "Right, everybody give me your immortal souls so I can heal you when you need it." I guess it's not too powerful (in niche situations it can be since Clerics won't have dozens of those spells prepared, but those are niche situations so it's not a big deal), it's just a huge hit to the flavor of something like selling your soul.

Maybe that's just me, though.

Well, what kind of tempter would you be if your response to someone coming back for more was "nope, all out of juice"? The idea is partially that it is simple, useful, and good for the person who sold their soul to be around you. That's how you get them.

Aaaaaalrighty then. I've got a new thing for anyone watching: a preview of the upcoming warlock port, the Avowed. This 18-page PDF includes the base class and the options needed to play it up until level 10, as well as a single pact: Fiends.

It can be found here.

Feel free to give feedback on this teaser; there'll be more to come about halfway through the month when I have the full book ready for eyes. Many more pacts, ranging from the classic fey and old ones to celestials, hags, inevitables, and weirder stuff like apallies and krakens, several archetypes, and a ton more clauses.

(For the people who've discussed the Spellburst Savant, I'm looking to get some time to respond to that feedback sometime early this week. Been a busy weekend, and I wanted the Avowed ready for its preview sooner rather than later)