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Hey, everyone! You’re likely already aware of Drop Dead Studio’s Spheres of Power alternate magic system for Pathfinder, and the fact that there’s going to be a book that expands upon the options presented for each of the system’s twenty spheres. I was fortunate enough to write for the upcoming book on the Mind Sphere, tentatively titled The Mentalist’s Handbook. As with the other handbooks, we’re of the opinion that many minds make light work and many eyes spot more errors than just a few, so in the interest of building better books feel free to help yourself to an early sneak peak at the material presented herein! For a type of magic that has traditionally vacillated wildly between overpowered and underpowered, we’re excited to hear if any options effortlessly smash apart encounters that your GM spent dozens of hours preparing, or if any options are so amazingly inefficient as to be effectively unplayable. And hey, if our spelling, grammar, or punctuation isn’t up to par, we can use that feedback as well. Worst case scenario: you might not find anything to comment on, but you can still have fun with it around your game table!

The Mentalist's Handbook Playtest!

Feel free to drop any comments here, on the document itself, or in both places. Mistakes, weird rules interactions, typos, questions about situational applications of rules, and any other relevant questions or issues are welcomed. We might not be able to respond to it all, but every comment will be read and appreciated. Thanks!

Sound like you are looking for Story Feats.

I don't know that any feat is going to make Aristocrat a viable contributing member of the party (you might look at Vigilante if you want some of that flavor) but the Dynasty Founder story feat gives you leadership based followers (at low levels if taken, but no cohort) and if you later take leadership it ups your leadership score for your followers.

Ahh... yes, I hadn't heard of these. I like the sound of them! Thanks.

I can't speak to writing with Chronic Fatigue or Depression, though I *can* say that, for me personally, removing distraction like the Internet and TV helps more than I care to admit. Which is hard because my computer is the easiest place for me to write.

Have you ever listened to the Writing Excuses podcast? They don't focus on game writing (though they do have a handful of episodes related to that topic), but their general writing advice, which includes writing while being mindful of one's own health, has been very helpful to me over time.

So... I'm looking for some good features that'll help spice up the RP. Something on par with 3.5's Dragonmarks or d20 Adventure!'s background feats, things that offer minor little in-game mechanical perks but come with great big story targets painted on the player's back. Any suggestions?

The ideal scenario would end with one that lets the Aristocrat class be a solid choice, at least for two or three levels. Something that lets me be a solid contributor to the party... but probably not for anything involving combat.

The Leadership feat might be a possible choice if I can make it to level 7 (effectively being a character who's little more than the head of an organization that's friendly to the party, though if I'm starting at level 6 that's less likely.) Similarly, feats or features that can help with finances, having allies or mentors in unexpected places, access to peculiar items or resources, strongholds or bases of operation or homes, or the like.

I've not ruled out the Pathfinder Chronicler prestige class, though I also feel like I can do a smidge better than that. Any suggestions?

I think the second and third rules are okay, but only if you're trying to go for a grittier, lower magic campaign world sort of like Middle Earth (where we see Gandalf use magic only rarely, and generally some big narrative cost gets paid.) Players who want something like Game of Thrones might be fans of that (though for a real GoT style magic system I'd go even further than you've gone there.)

For the Paladin houserule... I think it's technically okay, but it feels wrong lore-wise to me. Paladins are sort of like prestige classes in my mind, in that they have unusual mechanics that fill a particular lore spot. If your game world has paladins filling a unique spot like that, I'd go against that rule. If paladins are just yet another class that most anyone can take, though, rule thirteen's okay.

Rule 7 is interesting... So, anyone who qualifies for the Dodge feat automatically gains Dodge? I think it's a little overpowered, but I like the basic idea behind it. What if you changed Rule 7 so that you can choose to get just one? A sort of free combat feat? It'd do more to explain the combat-capable wizards of most fantasy literature, while likely not leading to unusual things (like every single Barbarian with high dexterity gaining Weapon Finesse.)

Well, thematically I would change the crafting check to a religion KNOW or perform (ritual) check. And I would have this as a research project, to represent them delving into the secrets of their chosen order to learn a divine secret kept from most.

Clerics do not KNOW all of their spells, they simply pray for power and they get what they get, they can pray for specific designs of power, but it is technically out of their control. It is through study, faith and practice that they come to understand what gifts their gods are willing to grant them, and what they are allowed to ask for (and be granted).

I see leveling for divines as their god releasing new gifts (and unlocking secrets) to the character as they move closer to divinity.

I would have a caveat that the "Divine Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Delta Potions" are once a day spell likes, then follow potion crafting rules (that require using a spell slot for the day of crafting).

It is a tricky homebrew idea that fits really well with arcane, but divines are just that extra bit of different to make it tricky.

Yeah, it's tricky. I don't know that a Divine Alpha potion would work as a spell like (since that's basically a standard first level potion), but it's not a bad idea for Delta. Thanks!

tl;dr version - I'm trying to come up with a good way to change this house rule to keep the basic flavor of it while also making it more useful to divine classes.

Regular version - I need some advice on a house rule I've got. It's for a set of magic rules that I call Alchemical Secrets, basically ways that players can get a little more mileage out of their Brew Potion feat and Alchemy skills. They're pieces of knowledge that take up the same "space" as known spells without actually being spells themselves. Here's an example of a simple one:

Delta Potion
CL 7th
Price: 4000 gp
Description:
This Alchemical Secret allows for the creation of Delta Potions, which is to say potions or oils that reproduce the effects of 4th level spells (as opposed to Alpha, Beta and Gamma potions, which represent 1st, 2nd and 3rd level spells, respectively. 0th level spells are typically called Minor Potions by those who use this naming scheme.) The formula for determining the market price of Delta Potions is the same as the market price for regular potions: Spell Level x Caster Level x 50. Apart from the spell level, this potion behaves in all ways like a traditional potion created through the Brew Potion feat.
Construction
Requirements: Brew Potion, Craft (Alchemy) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 5 ranks, Crafter must succeed at a DC 24 Craft (Alchemy) check to learn this secret, using the standard rules for item crafting.
Cost 1333 gp, 3 sp, 3 cp; replaces 4th level spell known
Failure Chance 10%

Basically, the "Delta Potion" secret lets a user know how to create potions of fourth level spells. You have to "craft" this knowledge using a craft check that represents the experiments and calculations of the alchemist at work. In keeping with the lore of more traditional stories of alchemy, I have a "Failure Chance" where the alchemist has a chance of being wrong even if absolutely everything goes right (the Delta Potion, being one of the most basic and well known "secrets", has a relatively low failure chance.) Once known, a person can prepare this secret in a spell slot for every day of crafting.

Now, this was designed as a kind of "secret of wizardry", since the image of a wizard pouring over ancient books while brewing a potion is the standard one. It's also possible for a sorcerer or bard to learn one of these, but it's incredibly costly (though I've generally got Knowstones or Pages of Spell Knowledge to give to them if they really want one.) Witches or Alchemists are even easier: I just let them learn a secret as a Hex or a Discovery.

The real problem comes from Divine classes who have access to their entire spell list like the Cleric or Druid (or from any class that has access to its entire spell list, such as if I import the Artificer from 3.5) A Cleric or Druid brewing some of these secrets might be less common than a Wizard working away in an alchemical laboratory, but it's still something that could come up. Case in point: if I let a member of the Alchemist class learn it as a formula instead of as a Discovery, there's no real cost to them outside of the crafting cost (which is arguably appropriate for that class, but a little weird for most others.) Any thoughts on how to make this a little more accessible for my All-Spells-Known players?

If I've not been very clear on how these Alchemical Secrets work, I've got a few example posts from my blog that you could see here, here or here. That second one is a little rough as I didn't include a failure chance (since it's mainly meant for NPCs to use Blood Cauldrons and the War Ink alchemical secret) but hopefully it'll help.

I wasn't sure if this should go here or in Advice, but this place seemed more appropriate. Here goes...

I'm trying to make a variant raven for my campaign world, one with connections to shadows (it's a native to a plane that's a weird kind of Plane of Shadow/Fairyland hybrid.) I'm basically trying to bump a CR 1/6 raven up to around CR 1/3 (or some variation that would make five or six of them be roughly worth the XP of a CR 2 encounter.)

The most notable feature is that these "Dusk Ravens" carry a fast-acting curse/disease that I'm calling Diredusk until I can come up with a better name. If a player is scratched by a Raven, they need to make a DC 13 Fortitude save to avoid contracting the disease. The disease contracts within 1d3 hours and once it sets in it requires a save every hour or else 1d8 points of Charisma damage happen as the figure's natural colorations grow grayer and muted. At 0 hit points, they're in a coma-like sleepwalk. The disease is cured when a player makes two consecutive saves, or drinks a dose of holy water (assuming a reasonable knowledge check is rolled for the players to know that.) Ultimately, the disease is the magical curse equivalent of a 24 hour flu, since the players can cure themselves even after they hit to zero since they still roll saves every hour (though no further damage can happen.) If cured at 0, the player would just fall into a regular sleep until they regain at least one point of Charisma.

The Dusk Ravens also have an affinity for shadows. They have a supernatural ability that mimics the 20% miss chance of the Blur spell whenever they're in any light other than bright light as the shadows help to drape them in darkness. Unlike Blur, this ability fails in the presence of almost any effort to pierce the shadows. So, a lantern or torch or candle held in the off-hand, the low-light vision of an elf as long as it's reasonably close, darkvision, wearing a pendant someone cast Light upon, a Sunlight spell going off nearby, etc.

One thing that I'm not quite sure about is if the disease is transferable by regular rules due to the Raven's very low damage. 1d3-4 points of damage is something that I've usually just assumed meant "Minimum 1 damage" but I don't know any actual rule that says damage is always reduced to 1. I've heard that if damage is at 0 hit points (like through damage reduction) no special attacks based on the main attack is confered. So basically I'm not sure if they'd actually deal damage, or if I'd just hand wave it is as painful scratches that confer the disease.

The illness itself is admittedly very fast acting, but I'm hoping the speed of it will also translate to quick healing (lotsa travel time for the adventurers through this forest). For story purposes I'm hoping the players get some experience with this particular illness before moving on to the rest of their Halloween adventure.

The Blur effect is largely flavor text, only really a problem for creatures who dono't have either low-light vision or darkvision. Still, if the party rolls nothing but humans who carry things in both hands, it might cause some issues.

Anyway, thoughts? Criticisms? If I should make it tougher/weaker for my "six of them for CR 2" I'd love to hear suggestions. And, of course, I'd settle for "CR 2 for this one controlled scenario but maybe not elsewhere."

Anyway, thanks in advance.

I borrowed a page from the Zork universe in a game I was running once by including Shark Wrestling. It was mainly there as a background element, but the players decided to join in. I couldn't get them away for a while.

I once traded a jar of pepper (for a few copper) to an innkeeper in exchange for an item worth several hundred gold. I told him it was a "rare spice that I had first tasted in a far distant land that tastes glorious."

Then I used prestidigitation on the pepper so that it did, in fact, have a wonderful taste. I told him that it had no preservatives, so he'd need to enjoy it quickly, within the hour, or the taste would fade.

Is there a limit to the strength of the aura you create in Magic Aura? The description says "You alter an item’s aura so that it registers to detect spells (and spells with similar capabilities) as though it were nonmagical, or a magic item of a kind you specify, or the subject of a spell you specify." It doesn't quite seem in the spirit of the spell that a level 1 wizard wouldn't be able to put a 2nd or 3rd level spell onto something, but it also doesn't quite feel right that a level 1 wizard would be able to make something look like a 20th level Wish spell. I've been considering house ruling it to "Your level or your Spellcraft modifier, which ever's higher," but that feels a bit inelegant of a solution.