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Pathfinder Second Edition is upon us, and so Interjection Games has gone back to its roots with Ultimate Tinkering, a 2e-compatible revamp for the first base class I ever made. While the first edition incarnation of the tinker base class is the one and only product line that can boast three consecutive wins on reviewer Endzeitgeist's "top 10 of a year" list, (first for the tinker itself, then for Super Mega Ultra Mecha Fighting for You, Me, And All of Our Friends, then for the Grafter) there have always been little things close to the heart of the design that I'd go back and change to make things flow better and make the class more accessible.

Tinkering is the concept of the minion master taken to the technological. Rather than commanding planar monstrosities, a legion of the undead, or the denizens of the deep forest, you act as a commanding officer at the epicenter of your very own steel squadron. A high-level tinker can expect to control up to three such minions at a time, with the ability to replace losses fairly readily in the heat of combat.

As a tinker, you have an invention book, whose inventions go into blueprints that you prepare like big, open-ended spells. When you deploy an automaton, you pick a blueprint, and a fully-built automaton with that blueprint's inventions applied to it springs into action, ready for you to command it.

Currently, Ultimate Tinkering has the following specs:

• 75 pages of inventions
• 5 archetypes
• 3 "tinkering factions", groups of interest that have claim over the Uncommon and Rare inventions that a tinker can learn
• 8 pages of feats
• Class frontend
• Example automaton builds at levels 5, 10, and 15

The following parts still need to be done:

• The feats are still using Pathfinder Playtest rules and need to be updated to Pathfinder Second Edition, then another four pages of feats need to be written so there are enough of them.
• Another four or five example automaton builds need created.
• Invention summaries for the 75 pages of inventions need written. This should take about five hours.
• Two or three pages of inventions to act as payoffs or alternate paths for a few of the various invention themes I have developed need created; this is largely why I am cooking up my own example builds for the back of the book.
• The frontend needs refactored with a rules change to class DCs. Specifically, I want your automatons to use your invention proficiency, but their own combat proficiencies to reconcile how damaging inventions have a lower theoretical output than going in blazing with swords. This also gives various debilitating, "controlly" inventions a strong place in the tinker as a whole.

I've recently had some queries on how to build an ethermancer. In response, I've reposted an old optimization guide made by a member of Endzeitgeist's playtesting table back in 2014. Enjoy!

idea for either a string of gourmend culinary talents or a archetype: "the Be-yeast" animal companion made out of one of the foodstuffs you can make a familar out of, would probebly forgo 1 of the 2 slots you can pick a culinary skillset for and maybe half the culinary talents?

i can picture the absurdity

normal man:"Krieger is that a giant mantis made out of meat?"
Krieger:"yes"
normal man:"why is it all dark-colored"
Krieger:"its because its made out of leech meat!"

Yeah, that's a pretty awesome idea. It's a damn shame you weren't around when I was asking up and down for ideas, but, then again, the gourmend wasn't supposed to have archetypes because of its super modular design. I can still see a feat chain that terminates with upgrading the familiar to an animal companion, though it'd be hard to get right because an animal companion isn't strictly better.

It won't help you. As Shadow is sidled up against the other elements, you'll need to make a decision and slip into another element to get bonus damage. Also, as Drifting is a stance in an archetype defined by its desire not to get bogged down in elemental focus, it's incompatible.

wow! yeah that's fair! On the topic of the items, you eant to fill 10 pages of magic items for composition magic alone?

Yes, and I did that for ethermagic and truenaming already. Ethermagic got a new style of staff and a dozen+ pre-made variants, plus some other stuff, and truename magic got, among other things, a pair of gloves with a dozen or so variants that you can combine into one superitem. Scratch that, the gloves were also ethermagic.

...But I did make a truenaming magic item book! If I can get the third done, I was going to do a quick paperback.

while i dont think i have the ability to properly review this thing, it is looking VERY snazzy, makes the misfire of the medium look very silly (also the flavor is top-notch!)

This, yes, please! A paragraph of stream of consciousness opinions about a book makes the publisher $100 or more just by being there. PLEASE REVIEW IT <3

Taking inspiration on the gnomes favored class bonus for gourmends, What sounds better as a favored class bonus for ratfolk?:

Each 3 levels the gourmend learns 1 cheese varietal and can make it for normal culinary point cost + 1 (available only for gourmend without the cheesemaking specialty)
Extra whey cheese units: 1/4 levels
1/3 of a culinary point, but only to make cheese

Any thoughts?

It'd be safer to give them a neutered whey cheese that pops daily, but the theme is nice!

While the amount of content is staggering, I would have liked it to interact more with existing rules. Can you sunder earthenware jars? can you steal the plants? You can't use them but neither would the herbalist, right? can you counter effects? how does herbalism magic interact with druidic, if at all? I mean, can spells modify rolls? help with the preservation? what about that cleric spell that made anything edible again, would it worl with recipes? You can't make scrolls or wands, is there a way to recreate a one-use item? I recommend a new item creation feat that infuses seeds in such a way that they grow immediatly, do their thing, and wither.

Aye, I'm totally guilty of that. The less I interact with the rules, the more futureproof my insanity is. Generally speaking, though, as weight can be an issue, your jars and your potted plants have no mass simply because they'd get to be absolutely ridiculous in any game that keeps tracks. If, for a survival game, it matters, it's an easy thing to rule 0 in. Most people simply don't need it.

If a plant or plant product becomes useless by spoilage, the blessing of nature leaves it. Ergo, any attempt to cheat the system by reversing spoilage by magical means will produce a perfectly-edible thing that no longer has supernatural qualities.

As for item creation, I can come up with something, though I'm a year late on Strange Magic Items because I can't think of 10 pages of composition content, so maybe I should hold my tongue and retract the belief that I can figure it out.

Finally, let's talk about spell interaction. Herbalism plants are supernatural, which makes a damage-based herbalist the single best caster in the party when it comes to dropping things with spell resistance; however, this does mean that all sorts of feats, spells, and equipment that modify spells is locked to the herbalist. Those spells that modify delivery rolls or have less restrictions, like the retroactive bonuses a bard can deliver, will work with herbalism plants, but a price must be paid to be able to ignore an entire layer of defenses.

The IG Patreon is at $344 and growing steadily toward $350!- but what's that in the distance? ...It's the silhouette of a giant crustacean from the paleolithic era!

For a limited time, new backers will add to the size of a Patreon-exclusive booklet of Loch Ness Monster-themed content. We'll start with an animist major aspect, but the sky's the limit!*

*The Loch Ness Monster cannot fly.

Thanks, lads! Sorry it took so long. I'm a forgetful goof. Also, Paizo technically never got back to me about free copies through this site :P

So no discount if we have previously purchased The Herbalist Base Class? It would lessen the impact on my wallet if you would be kind enough to give some sort of discount as price point for the new tome is a bit high (at least high enough for me that it discourages me purchasing the book).

Cheers
Volf

That's correct, Volf. Even (especially!) the old content has been massaged really, really heavily, to the point that many abilities were totally rewritten to reflect better language. You'll find this in acidbite lichen, all of the poisons, and all of the brewables. In addition to the classic content, I've also added another four spell lists worth of content, and two more classes besides. To date, this is my magnum opus of modularity, and the price does reflect that.

I object pretty strongly to the dissing of chaos magic. It's based on an irrational fear of randomness and a fallacious social theory rather than a fair-minded reading of the rules (certainly if the 2nd Edition Wild Mage is your benchmark), to say nothing of how they're turned into a dogmatic judgment of others just because you don't understand the appeal.

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
- Oscar Wilde

Any concept developed poorly deserves dissing, and most chaos mages are, honestly, really, really bad.

I hope to be the exception. Please, open up :)

As for an irrational fear of randomness, no, not at all. Randomness has its place, and I embrace it when it won't pull down a design. Where it does pull down a design, however, is in storytelling games and competitive games. You shouldn't have the ability to accidentally kill a character somebody else has put dozens of hours into, and you shouldn't be able to win a tournament by a coin flip. As these are the sorts of games that I find myself gravitated to design, it is true that I take RNG and tote it around like it's some great evil.

...But the thing is, in the microcosm of my work, it really kinda is.

Oh my, I know my next purchase. Too bad I purchased the original herbalist already.

Even so, you'll find huge gobs of that content have been polished and perfected. Normally, I offer a loyalty discount on new versions, but this (and probably the tinker when I finally decide to tackle that monster) are going to be the two exceptions given they were my first and have the most issues.

Okay, thanks for the feedback, folks.

Have fun playing entomologist/geologist/mycologists/whatever without me, sounds like this book has some options that are a real blast. Pun intentional. :)

Hello, hello! I'll make you a deal. Free copy for a review once you've digested the content. Let me know!

The Pathfinder RPG edition of Ultimate Herbalism, part 1 of 3 of the Strange Magic 2 project, is now available here at Paizo.com!

At its heart, herbalism is a collection game. Pick random herbs from your current biome, preserve the ones you like for tomorrow, and plant the ones you REALLY like to have them wherever you go.

Couple this core concept with bug collection, rock collection, cooking, giant venus fly trap companions, apothecary skills, and more to create the precise flavor and level of RNG you want in your druidic chaos mage. And yes, that means this book has six spellbooks.

Thanks to the first buyer here on Paizo! :)

Sure, why not, Smiley? It's an appropriate use of flavor.

So I got it, and the review is spot on. What's annoying me was the expectation of the previous Bloodlines and such were going to be included in this. The big book should include the rest of the established Bloodlines since it was expanding them to create parent and child variations for crying out loud.

They weren't, so I'm left with buyer's remorse and dissapointment.

Are you asking for a reprint of all of the Paizo bloodlines?

And we're up and running! :)

Turns out their tools aren't working, and I'm the deal of the day with no discount. Contacting them.

Yes, I did have a Deal of the Day only a few days ago, and, yes, when I signed up, there were 23 other people in line, but this is what happens when a random system handles an automated sales program.

Starting in about 6 hours (10 AM CST) and continuing for the next 24 hours, Strange Magic 1 is the DriveThruRPG.com/RPGnow.com Deal of the Day at 40% off for .PDF and $10 off for all print variants. Bear in mind this is your last chance to pick up a discounted copy of the top crunch book of 2015 if you want it to rip a stocking wide open with it.

The first book of Strange Magic 2 is still deep in production, which means I'm firing off sales left and right to make ends meet!

Starting at 11 AM EST and continuing for 24 hours, Ultimate Runesmithing is the RPGnow/DriveThruRPG Deal of the Day at 40% off its MSRP of $7.99.

Didn't this whole path all get started because they refused to subscribe to being a Wizards of the Coast asset with a nickel-and-dime mindset?

Aye. Lots of sales to prop me up while Ultimate Herbalism is in production. I'm running out of big stuff to offer up :P

For the next 19 hours, The Big Book of Bloodlines is the Deal of the Day (40% off PDF/$6 off print) at RPGnow/DriveThruRPG.

Over 100 sorcerer and bloodrager bloodlines, and the bloodline-mixing bloodlord base class, await you within!

...Cool idea, honestly. Both the microsettings and explicitly making the MMO rules we dodge to avoid grognard wrath its own plugin. Good defusing play.

Aye, as a result, response has been limited, but I'm still very happy, as each of those people is a prospective new customer for further awesome stuff.

Honestly, if it had gone 100% bonkers, I'd have been terrified that I just depleted my business' long-term viability.

The Master of Forms Hero Lab Files are now available on Paizo!

I've got one of my own, but it's ending soon. Turns out there's not too much pull for one of these things when you offer up the cream of the crop. You need that huge pile of random stuff to induce people to buy if they already have most of your best stuff, and given that my business model has moved on to larger products, that pile is something I don't have and can't replace quickly. It's a strange dynamic, to be sure.

And two band-aids fitted over a larger issue. Hopefully, it gets sorted out, and, hopefully, they give you free swag for all the time spent on reporting this one!

Well, alright, then. I'll just upload new versions of those books. Let me know if the issue keeps spreading; it really can't be *me* given how long the book worked just fine for everyone else, but I can do spot removal of the issue, I suppose.

Ayup, this is exciting! We'll see how this all goes down.

Hey there, everyone! Interjection Games has scored more top 10 nominations from reviewer Endzeitgeist than anyone else for the past two years, and when I scored three in a row from my Patreon, I figured I finally had enough to do something with them. Through Thursday, the Interjection Games Endzeitgeist Extravaganza offers up the entire collection of EZG top-10-nominated products for only $19.99. This includes Strange Magic, the runesmith, the assassin, the tinker, the onmyoji, and more!

...It's a bastardization of what I wanted to present, but, hey, if it makes your table happy, that's all that matters. Sorry I missed the conversation!

Because she's got the power of a full caster and is tied with the herald of the void for most powerful IG release.

Could you get Paizo to confirm the issue, please? That could affect all sorts of documents if something went wrong in their repository.

If you actually want to earn a decent chunk of change, the tinker, runesmith, and antipodism are three of the best choices you could make, though bear in mind that the tinker has a lot of warts given its status as my very first class, and the need to polish the blasted thing as you're coding it all up may drive both of us insane.

Antipodism sold really well the last time it was the deal of the day. Pulled a couple hundred bucks from the promotion. Haven't done the herbalist yet, but it feels tacky given it's in the Strange Magic 2 pile.

OneBookShelf has this Deal of the Day thing that costs promotional points to queue up for. A publisher gets 10 points monthly, plus +1 point for every $10 in sales (before paying for printing books and their cut). Currently, the Deal of the Day signup cost has dropped to the highest value that my model tolerates (185).

Is there anything specific you'd like to see at 40% off? I'd prefer to keep it with the $10 products to make it worth my while, so anything Runesmith on up will do.

Eh, this thing's only 1100 words and a table. It'll fit just fine. I might cook up a new rune to fill in the gap, but this little guy already feels like a complete concept.

Good news, everyone! I've completed the text for an archetype that gives up projection runes for animated object familiars. I made sure it's compatible with campaigner, just because birthday boy Preston would flip his gourd playing an arcane trickster stuffamancer with an enchanted castle following behind him.

Quick question, though. Shall I reprint all the animated object construction point abilities for reference?

No prob, chief!

35 sold for the sale. Thanks, guys!

Maybe. Does truenaming have the polycosmic theurge prestige class in the back?

Better yet, I'll go check!

Right, I'm back. No new content is available for the first two, save for the NPC Codex in the back of the book. You'd be getting Strange Magic for Ethermagic + 25-30 pages of NPCs.

Alright, so this timing is totally asinine, but I swear that the system that sets up the schedule is random. Starting at 11 AM EST and lasting for 24 hours, Strange Magic 1 will be the DriveThruRPG/RPGnow Deal of the Day. If you haven't picked up a copy, now's your chance to do so at $10 off retail for any version: PDF, softcover, or hardcover.

Here's the comparison to the Kickstarter prices that closed yesterday.

.PDF
Deal of the Day - $15
Kickstarter - $20

Softcover
Deal of the Day - $32 + shipping
Kickstarter - ~$29 + shipping

Hardcover
Deal of the Day - $45 + shipping
Kickstarter - ~$34 + shipping

Well, it's right there on the second paragraph of the campaign. I'm perfectly happy to discuss new subsystem creation after the gavel hits, and it'll count toward that third cartomancy deck stretch goal.

We just wanted to let you know that PSenet increased their pledge to Strange Magic 2 - New Magic Systems for Pathfinder + D&D 5e from $265.00 USD to $1,000.00 USD! You must be doing something right. ;)

...AND THAT IS THE SOUND OF THIS BOOK GETTING MUCH, MUCH LONGER.

*Glances at Slumbering Tsar*

Given the quality of your stuff, it would actually be fun to see that. XD

Okay, consider this, Rednal.

Herbalism - 40+ pages
Jungle expansion - 6-7 pages
Cartomancy - 20? pages + print and play cards
Onmyodo - 20? pages
Omyodo archetypes xpac - 3? pages

New stuff!

Herbalism new biome (underwater) - 7 pages
Herbalism subbiomes (10) - 20 pages of tables, then 10 pages of herbs
New herbalism class (venus fly trap martial) - 8 pages (talent system)
Gourmet class - 6 pages
Gourmet class recipe overhaul - 10 pages
Archetypes - 10 pages, more if I go off on a tangent like the etherfuser

Kupo's purchased class. Is it herbalism???

So, Ultimate Herbalism is 120 pages.

New cartomancy deck - 15 pages
New cartomancy class - 6 pages
Archetypes - 8 pages

Ultimate Cartomancy is 50 pages + two print-and-play decks.

Onmyodo cartomancy/puppeteer class - 15 pages. Thing's gonna be HUGE.
New talismans/petitions - Let's say 10 pages. Double will be good.
More archetypes - 12 pages
Onmyodo martial class - 5-6 pages.
Endzeitgeist's class - 15 pages. Again, HUGE.
PC Shikigamis - 10 pages or so

Ultimate Onmyodo is about 95 pages.

Strange Magic is 120 + 50 + 95 pages, plus 10 pages of prestige classes, and a 30-page NPC Codex. So it's 305 pages, estimated. Multiply that by two and put four decks of cards next to it. Total output: 610 pages, 4 decks of cards. Since I could fit 6 cards to a page, let's say 645 pages equivalent total.

-sigh- Better get to work.

Thanks, chief!

Bear in mind that we're AT LEAST $300 further along than it says. There's some after-the-gavel deals to handle, and a good push here in the last couple of hours could conceivably give us a shot at the "origami paper PCs" shikigami stretch goal.

Thanks for the compliment, chief! There's always a possibility of me going back and making some sort of Strange Magic Omnibus if there's an edition change or something. Having a 1000-page nerdbook with my name on it is on the life goals list!