Ok so the one problem that I would like to be addressed is one I believe a lot of people have asked about,
If you are playing a solo element Fire kineticist, how can you deal with Non-elemental creatures, Non-spell resistant enemies who have resistance or immunity to fire?
I mean for crying out load, The Healer's Handbook has spells AND and archetype for cleric that allows them to do a fire attack that deals half untypical damage that can bypass such things!
Even if you need to have primary element fire and expanded element fire TWICE to get such an infusion for your fire blasts, there would be many of us who would appreciate it.
Including Yoon by the way, just saying....
I mean for crying. Out loud we got so many options for cold, why not fire.....
You forgot that Flame Strike is in the basic rule book.
In my mind, it fits for Surtova to be the size it is. The reason the Surtova family was the first ones to bend a knee to Choral and always make sure they marry their daughters to the heir of the Brevoy throne- the have a small area and the ground is poor for raising crops. By contrast they do have one of the best northern port in Brevoy and bring in a bit by fishing, etc. They make up for this shortfall by cozying up to the previous powers that be, which is part of the reason there is objections to Surtova's reach for the throne from regent.
Medvyed has a big area, but if you take the grozni forest out, its dinky. Orlovsky controls most of the northern lands, but they are mediocre for raising crops or livestock so aren't worth as much. Really Lebeda and Rogarvia are the only real prizes due to the great farming lands, which is my mind is half the reason Choral claimed the southeastern half of the swordlords old territory (the other half was to keep a firm hand on them!).
I justify the weird house sizes by the fact that all the Issian lands (everything but Rogarvia and Lebeda) belonged to allies of Choral, which means he was probably reluctant to destrict and cause strife. While it never says, it makes me wonder if he is the one that split the Rostland area into two separate areas.
The question you should ask yourself is "What lives in the Gronzi Forest such that Choral the Conquerer was afraid to enter it?"
It's an interesting theory, but I'm doing something totally different with it.
The PC's are all Brevoy Nobles, most of whom are affiliated with different noble houses. They just completed a long and difficult journey into the lands of House Garess, where, after dealing with not one, but two Lamashtu cults, they discovered what happened to the missing dwarves and the lost Garess Heir.
The short version: The Lost Garess heir was a childhood crush of one of the player characters, and he had a crush on another member of the party. Unfortunately, when Golushkin collapsed, many of the dwarves turned to cannibalism and became ghouls and ghasts, along with the lost Garess Heir. Those that didn't become undead went mad from the reagents that several of their alchemists made that were released in the collapse, and became derro, thanks to the loving influence of the Mi-Go the alchemists were secretly keeping hidden from the rest of the dwarven community. When the heir, now a ghast sorcerer, began releasing the experiments and expanding his territory, the heroes had to find a way into Golushkin using a stolen Numerian drill. Well, the Numerians didn't take too kindly to that, and tried to murder them on the way out. :) Even more so because the Drill was destroyed getting in. The Numerians murdered most of the mining crew and set the rest on fire, even going so far as to murder the Paladin's new boyfriend in front of them just as the illusion dropped and the chainsaw-weilding barbarians closed in.
Ick.
Well, now they're around 7th level and are starting to have real political impact. They're heroes. They can't just be ignored. People are interested in them.
So who is Choral the Conquerer? Well, 200 years ago, he was a man. A man who craved the kind of power that only the gods could grant. A powerful Eldritch Knight, he made a deal with the powers beyond in the secret caverns below Skywatch. When the call came, he would have to answer them, and the dragons bound to him with magical worms would vanish. The price of power was in his blood. And when he was called back, all of his descendants felt the call, and hurried to join him in the dread domains below Skywatch. Anyone with more than a certain amount of Rogarvia blood felt the call, and journeyed there to serve him.
Regrettably, Choral was no longer human. Their return granted him the power he craved, in the seething pits of long forgotten things below Skywatch. The dark powers he served slowly transformed him, for he knew that he could not hide his transformation. He was a Worm that Walks, a Worm that Walks that could control others by feeding them a worm from his own body! Many members of House Rogarvia helplessly entered the pit, transformed into worms in the body of their originator.
Choral knows that in order to rule the nation in secret, he must have many worm minions. And while he can freely leave Skywatch, most of his powerful minions and allies are trapped. As he conspires to retake that which he believes belongs to him, the nation slowly fractures under a young and eager king, beset by Cults of Lamashtu lurking within the noble houses, Duma the Sly, and his scheming sister.
And the player characters are stuck in the middle of all this. Their only conceivable ally is a powerful Green Dragon who poses as a unique giant called "The Moss Giant" in the Gronzi Forest, and who is actually worried that if Choral returns, that he will wind up next on the control list. And the Green Dragon doesn't want anyone to know that he's a Green Dragon, so if the PC's figure it out, he will probably kill them. :) Did he train one of the PC's? Absolutely. Did he tell her never to come back unless it was a real emergency! You betcha!
That's the thing I'm trying to get at. Openly is probably rare, and Witches don't have the skill set to find the ones that are in hiding. That skill set belongs to rogues, investigators, etc. If Witches had those skills, and or an organization to belong to that approximates a wizard's guild, a lot of this burden would be lifted, but the flavor text really doesn't seem to support that.
Can Patron spells be researched if you attain levels in a PRC that is not Witch?
Technically, it's spell research and shouldn't be a problem, as you already have the patron. However, I can see a lot of arguments for no as well.
I would say no. Patron spells are an addition to your class list that is granted by your Patron. Patron only grants spells when you advance in the witch class level.
I am extremely reluctant to allow any class to research outside it's class list. Not totally, but it's a hard sell.
Except that any witch with a similar patron could share the spell with your familiar.
Understand that my feelings are "This class was written by people who, while understanding what they were going for, really don't understand the social dynamic of their own flavor text."
It's nice to see a differing opinion, that's for sure. I'm frustrated by this class because the text for it seems to be it's own worst enemy, and this doesn't seem to be prevalent for any other class in the game.
Again, part of the problem is "finding other witches", when most societies aren't particularly comfortable with witches, or not well disposed to them.
Oddly, there is a second issue. Flavor text of Witch vs. other classes. See Fighter/Cleric/Wizard/Rogue above. Where can witches actually be found? How do you find a bunch of reclusively weird characters who live in covens or are generally considered to be frightening by the peasantry?
I've reviewed this a lot, and unless your PC lives in Irrisen, your chances of finding a witch with a different patron are somewhat lower than the chance that your DM will suddenly give you a +5 item out of the blue. I have no idea how this class is actually supposed to function without the GM socially tweaking the game to suit the player, which shouldn't really happen.
I am the DM. I'm trying to prevent disgruntled players as a unit. :) I would argue that you can't research non-witch spells from patrons that are not your own without finding a witch who does have that patron.
However, there's still a problem here, which is what I like to think of as the Pathfinder Fighter/Cleric/Wizard/Rogue default. There isn't a witch under every rock, and therefore, spell selection kind of sucks. The easiest way I found around this was to take Leadership for your witch, where your cohort is a wizard, and you take all the spells off his list that cross over.
This can, however, get pretty abusive fairly quickly.
If your character already has a familiar, but isn't a pure caster (Such as Eldritch Knight) do they have to take Familiar Bond to get to Improved Familiar Bond? Or do they bypass the initial feat requirement by virtue of already possessing the familiar?
It's been a pleasure serving you with announcements over the past month. We did it! This product is a reality.
I'd like to thank Dave Mattingly and Jason Walters for putting up with me, and all of our wonderful backers for making this project.
I'd like to thank Sean Fannon for bridging the gap between the writing he used to do and the writing he does now and will do for us.
I'd like to thank Bill Keyes, our layout man and the inspiration for Mr. Wumbles. For Teh Bunneh will kill you in your sleep.
And I'd especially like to thank our art team for giving us enough beautiful pictures to whet your appetites.
So before August First...
We will show you the BUNNY! :)
The next time you look for my name in print, you will be journeying to the center of the Earth. Because many of you demanded it!
Next Product, True Believers....
What lies at the Center of the Earth? Is it truly a roiling ball of molten magma? Or are these lies spun by those who know nothing of the center of the world?
A powerful magical force resides in the rocky depths, one that watches over the hidden land of lizard people below...
His name is The Oligarch! And he determines the rules of magic for the world!
It's not Power Level 9000, but we'll take it! 982 dollars to cardboard heroes with less than an hour to go! Can you get us there, my fine Imaginary Friendlings? (Warning, Friendlings is not a real word, and is not endorsed by the Imaginary Friends team)
The minutes tick by! Show us your commitment to...umm...cardboard!
We made a small error! We only have 1232 dollars until we get to Cardboard Heroes! After Cardboard heroes, if we make that, we'll have a new stretch goal for you!
Get some battlemap tools! Get a really tiny cardboard picture of Mr. Wumbles!
We are FUNDED with a little less than 15 hours to go! At this time, we would like to announce our first stretch goal!
Cardboard Heroes!
We will make little cardboard images of villains and agent types (Yes, there are agent types) on a sheet of thick cardstock and add them to the adventure for you to use.
There haven't been cardboard heroes for an adventure in a long time. I think the last product that had them was Alien Enemies! (That's a long time ago.)
Ladies and Gentlemen! Allow me to introduce your 95 percent villain! Meet Negafire! Negafire's powers come from his heart, mystically transplanted from an evil witch into his body! He fires blasts of the very Ebon Flame for which the Cult of the Ebon Flame is named! (For those who will be getting a copy of King of the Mountain or already own one, this is a slightly bigger deal!) If Negafire ever truly masters the mystical artifact lodged within his body, he may become one of the mightiest villains of all!
We're only 3 percent away from funded! Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far!
Wow! Talk about an early morning wake up call! You guys have been great, and we owe you a whole slew of updates that will knock your socks off! First, let me introduce our master villian, who has several unique abilities, including body switching, psonic device building, and other unique and devastating mental abilities! I give you Lord Dominus!
Dominus's might doesn't just come from his mind! Dominus is so powerful that it generally takes an entire team of superheroes just to face him. A true world-conquering, jackboot mentalist, he is very rare indeed.
Thank you for your support so far! You guys are amazing and deserve big kudos!
With only 24 hours to go, Imaginary Friends has 748 dollars remaining to get to funded! Show us that you want this project to achieve reality, or at the very least, an imaginary quasi-reality!
You guys have been great so far! We hope you'll find enough additional people to get us over the goal!
Every hour that passes brings us closer to success!
We're at Eighty Percent with a little more than a day to go! First, let me get to our requisite villain update!
I give you Totem, the Chimeric Man!!!!!
Totem is a little cooler than some other shapeshifters in that he can assume pieces of multiple animals at once, so he can become a Frog/Bear/Scorpion or a Fish/Bird/Elephant.
This is weird, but also awesome!
We stand at a great threshold. Only 868 dollars remain until Imaginary Friends is a reality. That sounds weird, too. But also awesome!
Tell everyone you know. You'll get a new surprise at 95 percent, too. A special villain insert outside the usual ten percent tiles. Let's just say that he's a classic with a twist.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are 953 dollars away from funded!
That's just 47 dollars from a new villain, 497 dollars from the master villain, and 953 to Doris's Secret!
You may have to wait a little bit once we get to 80 because I might be at work, but I promise you all of your updates for the day as soon as I get home!
With just under two days to go, I know we can make it and bring you one of the biggest superhero adventures ever!
Oh, yeah. And a special Thank You to all the people so far who have come out and purchased the everything package. We'll remind you once again that Everything includes King of the Mountain as well. That just slipped through our typing. It was always our intention to put it in.
Well, you guys should have known this one was coming up at some point. Here he is...
Joseph Woletsky, Training Analyst: (A psychoanalyst is a psychiatrist with additional training. A training analyst is a psychoanalyst who trains other psychoanalysts) Joseph is a middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair, a greying beard and mustache, and extensive experience in behavioral analysis and treatment. He originally became a psychiatrist to avoid paying higher professional insurance rates, but has grown to enjoy his job and helping people cope with their psychological problems. Joseph is married, has two children and sends his children to Hebrew School. One of their bar-mitzvahs is coming up, and this is the main thing on his mind. Joseph can be a useful contact for player characters to have in analyzing the behavior of criminals, and can easily provide psychological profiles of many different sorts of people
Yeah, you would figure with all the weird stuff that's going on in this one, that a psychiatrist might be on the list somewhere. Some heroes may need a good one after the adventure is over...
It's amazing, Imaginary Friends fans! We're almost to 80 percent!!!
We have a whole bunch of cool stuff to tell you!
In an odd twist of fate, it's Canadians First! Shipping to Canada will only be 15 Dollars. I have spoken with our editor, Daring Dave Mattingly, and he has agreed!
In a weirder twist of fate, Elvis Second. King of the Mountain was somehow left off the complete package list. Well, complete to us means complete, so you backers who went for the whole thing will get that included in your rewards. That's all for now. Bring us your friends, your imaginary friends, and show us what you got!
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are three quarters of the way there with a little over two and a half days to go.
You have been promised a villain made of photons, and here he is! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Shimmering!
A glorious fusion of man and light, the Shimmering is the unfortunate result of a holographic brainwashing program gone wrong. Not that the man survived the transformation intact...
What's left is more like an insane psychiatrist with violent episodes...
All right! We've got less than 72 hours to make Imaginary Friends a reality! Tell everyone you know that it's time to get some new Imaginary Friends.
Don't tell them that one of them is Mr. Wumbles. That might be a little disturbing!
Anyway, we hope you'll help us by telling everyone you know, everyone you might think you know, and hype this project for everyone who might even think about purchasing it!
Because this is probably the longest single superhero adventure ever published.
Because it is different from every other superhero adventure ever published.
Because we care about keeping things interesting and shaking things up for players.
Because we're old school enough to want to provide a good read while challenging minds.
Because we care about roleplaying.
Because we care about fun.
1599 to go. Give us the opportunity to give you some stretch goals.
Ladies and Gentlemen! I give you the artwork for Adonis!
We're 60 percent funded with three days to go! This is it! Our big push!
70 Percent gets you the mysterious being of living light known as the Shimmering!
Eighty Percent Gets you Totem, the Chimeric Man! (A note to our fans from Haymaker! You guys got to see him already, so I'll have some special Champions Rules stuff for you guys when we hit 80 percent!)
Ninety Percent gets you the master villain of Imaginary Friends.
His name is Lord Dominus.
Funded gets you all the cool stuff we've promised you, and backers get to discover the secret of Doris!
Meet the piano player. Hopefully, you'll enjoy figuring out why we have a piano player.
Venkataram Sudayaram, Piano Player: Venkataram always had musical talent, and his parents encouraged it. He received many awards in school, and eventually got a scholarship to Princeton for music, where he also excelled. In an American University, he discovered jazz piano, and used it as a force to create his own work while drifting away from classical. He has recorded three jazz albums at the age of twenty-five, and typically wears tuxedos or obnoxiously colored double-breasted suits while performing. He prefers “Venky” to his full name, though not on his album covers.
Plot Option: Venkataram’s grandfather is the notorious supervillain from India, The Great Pandit. The Great Pandit is famous for his use of a sitar as a weapon and his deathtrap design skills. He has no powers of his own, yet somehow has survived to the present day. Venkataram doesn’t know this, and idolizes his extremely healthy relative. Perhaps the Great Pandit is secretly grooming Venkataram to be his successor.
Ladies and gentlemen! We are at sixty percent with three days to go! I give you your well-earned beefcake villain, the muscular, egotistical, and violently destructive Adonis!
Background: Marcus Randall grew up in Southern California, not far from one of San Diego’s many beaches. He spent hours working out near the beach, living clean and not paying enough attention in school. His parents were okay with C grades as long as he stayed healthy. When he dropped out of school, he was thirteen years old. He spent all of his time on the beach, and never went back.
By the time he had reached the age of fifteen, his body had solidified, but he was still a boy. His only choices were steroids or having sand kicked in his face by older, more mature bodybuilders. He was already stealing most of the girlfriends of some of the older bodybuilders, and they called him a ‘pretty boy’, a ‘boytoy’, and a freak.
Marcus had sand kicked in his face a lot. His dream was to be a professional bodybuilder, but most of those avenues were still closed to him. When he finally placed third in a competition, everyone said he was too young, especially the fourth place finisher, Antonio Lopez.
Marcus finally felt he had everything. He was on his way to fame and fortune on the bodybuilding circuit. Unfortunately, there was one thing Marcus didn’t have. Antonio Lopez had a crowbar.
Marcus didn’t even see it coming. Antonio Lopez had left the competition early and waited near his house. The first swing of the crowbar shattered Marcus’s jaw, the second broke his ribcage, and the third left a deep scar along the line of his forehead.
He was only three hundred feet from his door . The last thing he saw was Antonio’s grinning face as the crowbar cracked his ribcage. The last thing he heard was his mother screaming.
When he woke up in the hospital, there were bandages on his face and his mind was clouded with drugs. His mind vaguely processed something about his parents being unable to pay the bills—something about his face being ruined. He screamed desperately in rage, but it came out as a pathetic whimper over the sedatives and drugs.
“It’s all right, Marcus.” His father’s voice. “We’ll love you no matter what you look like.”
Marcus cried until long after his parents were gone.
The incident attracted the attention of the local SPIDER Webmaster. A young, healthy man abused by his peers and shattered in his prime was perfect recruitment material for the SHAPE project.
“We can rebuild your face,” the recruiter said. “It seems you have a latent mutant ability that we are capable of bringing out. Hundreds have died in this project. It seems unlikely that you will. We would like you to join us. You don’t have many other choices.”
Marcus nodded in his bed. The next day, he was checked out of the hospital. By the time missing persons reports were filed, he was in the heart of the SHAPE Project. They placed him in a canister and injected him full of so many chemicals that he thought he was going to have a seizure. Then the electricity took him, seething through his body.
Even through the sedatives, Marcus felt pain. He could feel his broken bones reknitting, his muscles straining under the effect of his neurokinesis. Then he looked into the mirror and saw the bronzed, tanned god that he had become.
“Oh, my,” Jorgi Van Der Voot observed. “We seem to have made a virtual Adonis.”
Adonis became a supervillain in the service of SPIDER. His debut came when he arrived on a beach where Antonio Lopez was lifting weights, and crushed his spine with a single hand, leaving the man who had once crippled him paralyzed from the neck down.
Marcus was capable of absorbing tremendous punishment. He didn’t miss his parents. He didn’t need them. He didn’t need anyone except SPIDER. They protected him when others had failed. He had become a supervillain. And he loved every minute of it. He was handsome, brutal, and virtually impervious to attack. Women adored him, he was one of the most handsome men in the world. Sometimes, he would even get letters from crazed supervillain worshippers of the opposite sex begging him to kidnap them! Life was good!
When the call for the creation of SPIDER Alpha Team came down the line, Marcus’s webmaster immediately thought of him and put him in for the position. Marcus had become too powerful to keep around, and placing him in a unit of his super-powered equals was just another way to rein him in.
Marcus eagerly joined SPIDER Alpha Team. It was nice to have a father surrogate in Abyss, even though a part of him didn’t really trust Abyss at all. He knows he’s nothing but muscle.
But that’s not such a bad thing…is it?
Personality: Adonis is a bullying, selfish, narcissistic man. He cares only about how handsome he is and how many women he can make swoon over his perfectly cut body. His craving for attention is nearly limitless, and nothing pleases him more than media attention during a battle. He will deliberately take actions of the most spectacular sort designed to showcase his vast lifting capacity and draw attention away from less resilient members of the team. Above all else, Adonis is shallow. He has fairly low class needs, and much prefers spending time with Negafire than with Abyss, who is far too intellectual, or Totem, who is notoriously straight-laced. He enjoys demonstrating his powers and proving just how amazing those abilities are. Against weaker opponents, he will torment them for a while, but Abyss has already found ways to turn this to his advantage. Adonis might have been capable of being a better person once, but all that has since been crushed out of him. He enjoys fighting dirty, and likes superbattles far more when he is fighting dirty.
Quote: “And now, the most handsome man in the world is going to stand victorious over your corpse!”
“Hey, baby! Once I get my arms around you, you’re never going to want me to let go!”
“Get out of my way! You’re just an obstacle! And I smash obstacles!”
Powers/Tactics: Adonis is a powerful combatant who relies on aggression and showy moves to terrify opponents. He enjoys grabbing and crushing heroes, holding them helpless while his neurokinetic powers weaken those who try to free them from his mighty grip. Adonis is one of the strongest men in the world, and enjoys using his strength while absorbing punishment from those around him. The name “Adonis” in superhero circles is synonymous with the words “destruction of property.” Adonis gleefully smashes buildings and destroys public transportation to terrify people and threaten the lives of the innocents. He will hold opponents helpless for others on his team to group attack, and readily hurls nonflying heroes skyward to be the victim of multiple energy bolts. Whereas many of the other members of SPIDER Alpha Team are ruthless and efficient, Adonis is a glory hound, and frequently seeks additional missions from Webmasters on his own. These missions usually have excessive amounts of backup. Losing a superbeing as valuble as Adonis to prison is not to the advantage of the SPIDER Supreme. Adonis also enjoys taking a hero apart psychologically. If a male hero has a family, Adonis will seduce their wife or significant other. If a female heroine has a husband or a boyfriend, Adonis will try to seduce the heroine. Usually, in cases like this, Adonis operates with a SPIDER camera team.
Campaign Use: Adonis is a villain with many different campaign uses. As a member of SPIDER Alpha Team, Adonis is their physically strongest member as well as the one who can take the most punishment. Most superhero teams won’t have anyone as strong as Adonis, or as resilient and tough. As a single supervillain with agent backup, Adonis is fairly dangerous, especially if the agent commander should be smart enough to use him to his fullest potential under the tactical circumstances. Adonis could develop a crush on a particularly attractive female character, and seek to lure her away, either by charming her heart, or by kidnapping her outright. If another hero is a bodybuilder or spends a lot of time on the beach, Adonis could develop a rivalry with that character that isn’t really so friendly. Unfriendly rivalries take on a whole new meaning when your rival hurls boats at you.
Appearance: Adonis looks like a tanned, bronze skinned, muscular beach god. His hair is soft, silky, and hangs down around his shoulders, and his muscles look sculpted onto his six foot, six inch frame. He wears jeans, tee-shirts and occasionally, high-fashion clothes when he is out on seduction missions, which he gets a fair number of. Adonis’s supervillain costume is a tight little bathing suit. He relies on his ridiculous good looks to get powerful female heroines to not attack him. It generally doesn’t work, but Adonis feels the results are worth it. Adonis usually wears sandals or black wrestling boots. He is one of the most handsome men in the entire world, and he isn’t afraid to rub this in.
Congratulations to all Backers! We are halfway home with five days to go! You have earned the semi-divine presence of Lady Warp (at least in her own mind, she's kind of vain), at least as long as she doesn't teleport away!
Lady Warp also has cool powers like "Rocks fall. Everybody dies."
Don't let this gorgeous champion of villainy teleport away! Get us to funded by the end of the day!
We've got five days to go! Just five days to go! it's going to be a tough journey but I still think we can make it! Get us over 50 percent! Get your cheesecake villainess! We will push on to 100 percent!
We can do it! We know we can!
A lowly push from almost any backer will bring us halfway home!
Happy New Year from the Entire Imaginary Friends Team!
We'd like to take the time to reach out to all our backers and potential backers and wish them well for the new year.
For those of you who are still on the fence, make the new year's resolution to back Imaginary Friends in the coming year! Get us over 50 percent to that Cheesecake Villainess!
All it takes is one more!
We hope that you'll get us all the way to 4500, and bring us to the noble goal of getting Imaginary Friends for everyone!
We also have a special new year update for folks coming up real soon!
It's not cheesecake. But it is a woman. We promise. Sort of.
We're into the final push, everyone. There's only nine days left in our kickstarter to go. Help us get to 50 percent before the weekend is out! Today's NPC is your favorite coroner and mine, at least as far as Imaginary Friends is concerned! Meet Marcus Arbuckle!
Marcus Arbuckle, Coroner: Marcus is a short, fat, balding man who survives on fast food. He has thick coke-bottle glasses and scraggly beard stubble that looms on his triple chin. He typically wears lab coats and jeans, and favors old pairs of sneakers over other forms of footwear. Oversize sweaters rest under the lab coat like shaggy carpets. Marcus is in his late forties, and has a wife named Ethel who calls him fourteen times a day. He possesses a SC: Forensics skill of 13- and a Forensic Medicine skill of 12-. He is a dry, bland man who goes home and reads the newspaper at the end of the day after everyone has talked about everything. His voice is as bland as his habits.
Plot Option: Marcus develops a fascination with dead bodies that is decidedly unhealthy, and could get worse over time.
Your efforts have unlocked a new major character in Imaginary Friends.
Meet Tarantula! SPIDER Webmaster! Usually, Tarantula is encountered on a video screen or with dozens of minions nearby. He's an agent level mastermind, kind of like the guys who are saying "Yes, Cobra Commander" while plotting against him.
Tarantula has no hair under his costume. Not all super-soldier formulas are big winners.
Well, we said a few days until the map. We have good news for you...
We lied!
This is the map of the Winehouse Estate. We won't tell you what it's for, but it's a pretty nice map, even by itself. We hope you like it. We hope you tell your friends about it. We hope you tell your imaginary friends about it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight's NPC is a tough cop in a superheroic world!
I give you...
Tom Alvarez, Police Sargeant: Tom has seen a lot of unusual things in his time on the beat, including more than a few supervillain attacks. He has a wife named Maria and two children named Vito and Florence. He is a tough, no-nonsense guy who wants to get to the minimum retirement age, settle into a comfortable life, and enjoy his pension in a low-tax state. Alvarez will allow the heroes to lead in any area which does not involve police procedure, but in the event of a procedural violation, he will be the first to come down on them.
Plot Option: Alvarez is a long-term deep cover SPIDER agent whose goal is to mislead the heroes.
Thank you to all of our backers so far. Please tell other people about us. Imaginary Friends has only eleven days left. We're almost at the final countdown. Let's get cracking!
Greetings to all Imaginary Friends backers. We would like to wish you a merry christmas at this time.
Mr. Wumbles will not deliver you anything, nor will he break into your house.
We would like to release today's NPC! Sorry it's a couple hours late, but more great superhero roleplaying and playtesting was going on, and I didn't quite make it home before midnight.
Michael
Today's NPC is:
Kate Felton, KCTV: Kate Felton is a lovely young blonde reporter, chosen for her attractiveness, blue eyes and classic Midwestern good looks, as most reporters secretly are. Kate’s actual resume was ignored, despite her degree from an Ivy League university and her relationship to her father, a Midwestern broadcasting business executive. This makes Kate all too eager to prove herself, and more than a little willing to take risks to place herself in dangerous situations. Kate makes a good reporter DNPC for any hero, and her father makes a good social enemy for any hero, especially if a hero becomes attracted to Kate. No man, not even a superhero, is good enough for Bill Felton’s daughter, and Bill will tell them so if he meets them. Even repeated rescues will only make Kate more determined, and confident that a hero will save her at every turn. This will also make her dad angrier. If a hero didn’t bother to name his reporter DNPC, Kate is now that DNPC. Kate will ask sharp, smart, probing questions designed to get the truth out of a hero.
Thank you for everyone who has backed the Imaginary Friends project so far. We hope you'll be with us for the whole ride. Today's NPC is...
Poison Candace, Bouncer: Candace Levitsky is a naturalized American citizen from Israel in her late thirties. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of jobs in Israel for female Krav Maga instructors. Candace decided to move to America and explore her passion for music, but turned out not to be a very good musician. What she was good at was military strategy and self-defense. While she could have made a living in private security, she decided that she would rather have a lower salary and free jazz concerts. Candace is five foot one and weighs one hundred and four pounds soaking wet, leading to the unlikely nickname of “Poison.” Not a lot of people realize that Candace is a bouncer, but if they do, they are unlikely to walk away from it. Candace finds a lot of the people who visit the club not nearly as smart as they think they are, but never says so.
Plot Option: Candace takes jobs on the side for unscrupulous people of a deniable assets nature.
Virtually every NPC comes with a plot option here or there.We try to make our products reusable.
More special stuff coming your way Christmas Eve!
And what new character will be unlocked at the 40 percent backer mark?
Race
| HP 15/15 | AC 14 T 10 FF 14 | CMB +1, CMD 11 | F: +0, R: +3, W: +5 | Init: +2 | Perc: +7, SM: +2
BARD SPECIAL ABILITIES
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BARDIC PERFORMANCE[/b] 0/18
Countersong:
At 1st level, a bard learns to counter
magic effects that depend on sound (but not spells that
have verbal components). Each round of the countersong
he makes a Perform (keyboard, percussion, wind, string,
or sing) skill check. Any creature within 30 feet of the bard
(including the bard himself ) that is affected by a sonic or
language-dependent magical attack may use the bard’s
Perform check result in place of its saving throw if, after
the saving throw is rolled, the Perform check result proves
to be higher. If a creature within range of the countersong
is already under the effect of a noninstantaneous sonic
or language-dependent magical attack, it gains another
saving throw against the effect each round it hears the
countersong, but it must use the bard’s Perform skill
check result for the save. Countersong does not work
on effects that don’t allow saves. Countersong relies on
audible components.
Distraction:
At 1st level, a bard can use his
performance to counter magic effects that depend on
sight. Each round of the distraction, he makes a Perform
(act, comedy, dance, or oratory) skill check. Any creature
within 30 feet of the bard (including the bard himself ) that
is affected by an illusion (pattern) or illusion (figment)
magical attack may use the bard’s Perform check result in
place of its saving throw if, after the saving throw is rolled,
the Perform skill check proves to be higher. If a creature
within range of the distraction is already under the
effect of a noninstantaneous illusion (pattern) or illusion
(figment) magical attack, it gains another saving throw
against the effect each round it sees the distraction, but it
must use the bard’s Perform skill check result for the save.
Distraction does not work on effects that don’t allow saves.
Distraction relies on visual components.
Fascinate:
At 1st level, a bard can use his performance
to cause one or more creatures to become fascinated with
him. Each creature to be fascinated must be within 90
feet, able to see and hear the bard, and capable of paying
attention to him. The bard must also be able to see the
creatures affected. The distraction of a nearby combat
or other dangers prevents this ability from working. For
every three levels the bard has attained beyond 1st, he can
target one additional creature with this ability.
Each creature within range receives a Will save (DC 10
+ 1/2 the bard’s level + the bard’s Cha modifier) to negate
the effect. If a creature’s saving throw succeeds, the bard
cannot attempt to fascinate that creature again for 24
hours. If its saving throw fails, the creature sits quietly
and observes the performance for as long as the bard
continues to maintain it. While fascinated, a target takes
a –4 penalty on all skill checks made as reactions, such
as Perception checks. Any potential threat to the target
allows the target to make a new saving throw against the
effect. Any obvious threat, such as someone drawing a
weapon, casting a spell, or aiming a weapon at the target,
automatically breaks the effect.
Fascinate is an enchantment (compulsion), mindaffecting
ability. Fascinate relies on audible and visual
components in order to function.
Satire-1:
A court bard can use performance to undermine the confidence of
enemies who hear it, causing them to take a –1 penalty on attack
and damage rolls (minimum 1) and a –1 penalty on saves against
fear and charm effects as long as the bard continues performing.
This penalty increases by –1 at 5th level and every six levels
thereafter. Satire is a language-dependent, mind-affecting ability
that uses audible components.
Heraldic Expertise:
A court bard gains a bonus equal to half his bard level on Diplomacy,
Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), and Knowledge (nobility)
checks (minimum +1). Once per day, the court bard can also reroll
a check against one of these skills, though he must take the result
of the second roll even if it is worse. He can reroll one additional
time per day at 5th level and every five levels thereafter.
This ability replaces bardic knowledge.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SPELLS:
0: Detect Magic=Detects spells and magic items within 60 ft.
0: Light = Object shines like a torch.
0: Open/Close = Opens or closes small or light things.
0: Read Magic = Read scrolls and spellbooks.
0: Unwitting Ally
1: Cure Light Wounds = Cures 1d8 damage + 1/level (max +5).
1: Grease
1:Sleep
Wand of Cure Light Wounds:3/50
GEAR:
Armor: +1 Parade Armor (+4)
(in Backpack):Bard's Kit
*Backpack
*Bedroll
*Belt Pouch
*Musical Instrument (Flute = Wind)
*Flint and Steel
*Ink and Inkpen
*Iron Pot
*Journal
*Mess Kit
*Mirror
*Rope
*Soap
*Torch (10)
*Trail Ration (5 days)
*Waterskin
Feats/Traits:
Extra Performance = Can use Bardic Performance 6 more times/Day
Fast Learner = +1hp AND +1Skill /Level
Maestro of the Society = Can use Bardic Performance 3 more times/Day
Reactionary = +2 Initiative Check
