Madcap Storm King's page

When will it be live on Paizo?

It should be live in a couple of days, once Paizo checks the compatability and makes sure the PDF does not combust on contact with Adobe.

I did want to say for the Pikos' drilling beak ability, it allows them to grab feral combat training at 1st level in order to do things like use flurry of blows with their beak (or increase its damage with the monk's class feature). The pikos' name is derived from the latin picus, which is for woodpecker.

As far as the Davi's elven blood goes, the intent of the effect was allowing you to count as though you were an elf despite being a native outsider when it would be advantageous. A change in the ordering of the words obscured the meaning somewhat, but it is supposed to be a "whenever" deal.

Some of the races we had derived from monsters have abilities inspired by their monstrous parent. We kept them balanced for player characters, to give you something cool to use, not so good that the other players want to bludgeon you with the Core Rulebook.

I love Karkus thus far; any tips though for putting a map of the place together?

I did intend for the setting to be a bit mutable as far as geography and country borders go. The neighboring countries are noted in a few entries. The Nakathi Empire won back the territory of Irkamk from the Alkark Empire, for example, so it would make sense for those territories to share borders. Nakathi shares borders with Trathskan, which is a southern region, so naturally it would be somewhere in the south. Although I admit I failed to mention it, Karkus is supposed to be somewhat Pangea-like, one huge continent with a number of islands off to the sides, such as Alkar island. Alkar Island and the Alkark Empire would share borders, the former being an island that nearly hit the latter upon entry into Karkus.

The kreyu as a people are fairly disorganized, being mainly large tribes and clans, but have almost total control over the northern territories. Since they're allied with the Alkark Empire, they might live nearby or simply be in an area the alkark wanted to be sure was defended. There's also a fair bit of jungle and other wild lands that I wanted to leave up to the mind of the reader, and naturally that gives the opportunity to make up some of your own tribes or secluded civilizations. The ghiskanak are almost entirely this sort of group, and the races all have good reasons for striking out on their own. There are alkark who don't buy into the government, corsath with different ideas on what lands to travel, and kreyu who want to see what other cultures are like, possibly without trampling them in the process.

Thanks so much for enjoying the setting! I'd love to see your map when you're done! Let me know if there's anything else I can do to be of assistance!

First of all I wanted to thank InfernosReaper for taking the time to give a review. These issues are some notable problems that arose because we were a bit too lax in what we let the playtesters build off of. Regardless on behalf of Little Red I will say a lot of playtesting time went into the class nonetheless, just could have used more editing alongside it. We are innocent on one account though: Saving throw DCs for the original document are double the incantation's level, so their saving throw DCs were in line with the other classes. Here's a list of what's been changed while you wait for the updated version:

Mystic Blast (Su:)
An invoker’s effective caster level for her mystic blast is equal to her invoker level.

Pacts: “Unless
otherwise specified, special actions accorded by boons are
a standard action. The save DC for a boon is equal to 10 +
½ invoker’s level + Charisma modifier. Unless otherwise
stated, boons are treated as supernatural abilities.”

Demon Pact
“A demon pact invoker may make an attack
with her mystic blast as a full-round action to deal extra damage equal to her level to creatures struck by the blast.”

Hungry flames: “she may take 1d6 points of damage as part of a mystic blast attack and add half as much damage as she took (rounded up) to her
damage rolls with mystic blast that round.”
Fiendish claws: “At 10th level, the claws count as cold iron and evil for the purposes of overcoming DR and deal an additional 1d6 points of fire damage.”

Dark Infusion: “If the invoker possesses the mystic blade blast trait, she may apply her mystic blast damage to all melee attacks made in a round that she uses this ability, and may make a full-round attack action while doing so.”

Devilish Pact:
Faustian familiar: “This
familiar can deliver the invoker’s incantations as though
they were spells, and can be the subject of the invoker’s
incantations as though it was the invoker.”
Hellfire: “The hellfire may deal half fire and half unholy damage at the invoker’s option. Damage caused by this blast may not be healed magically by a creature with less HD than the invoker.”

Power from Blood: “Whenever the invoker deals damage to a living, good-aligned creature with a slashing or piercing weapon, her mystic blasts deal 1 point of bonus fire damage +1 for every two levels of invoker she possesses.”

Slaver’s Lash: “A slaver’s lash resembles a sinister-looking whip and may function as such. The invoker is proficient in this whip.”
“Changing a mystic blast to and from lash form is a move action or as part of an attack made with the lash of the slaver made as a standard action. It can also be changed as part of any mystic blast.”

Fey pact:
Fey spit: “If the attack hits, the target treats all creatures of the fey type, all sorcerers with the fey bloodline, and all invokers with the fey pact as though they had total concealment against the target until the end of the invoker’s next turn.”

Star Pact:
New Boon:
“-Aberrant Descendent:
The invoker’s lineage stems from some sort of terrible creature formed by the old gods. This grants her supernatural resilience against effects that target humanoids. Treat the invoker as an aberration for effects relating to creature type. Once per day, after being critically hit or after failing a saving throw, reduce the damage taken by twice the invoker’s level. The invoker’s eldritch ancestry is a lurid but fascinating topic. Creatures gain a +4 bonus on attempts to gather information about her.”

Mastery: Standardized saving throw

New Class Features:

“Old Ways:
At 6th level, and each time she gains a new level of incantations, the invoker may pick a new invocation of any level other than the highest level she can cast. At 12th and 16th level, the invoker may instead learn multiple incantations with a level totaling 2 at 12th and 3 at 16th.

Uncanny Pact (Su):
At 10th level, when the invoker casts an incantation its effective spell level doubles for the purpose of calculating save DCs and spell level-dependent effects.”

New feats:
“Open relations
“My you’re looking terrifying today. Will that be seven
sacrifices as per usual, or would you prefer something new
this evening?”
Prerequisites: Pact class feature
Benefit: Select one additional pact that you do not
have access to. You gain access to that pact.
Special: A character only gains access to the boon
and taboos from that new pact. She does not gain any other
class features such as the new pact’s pact mastery or mystic
blast energy types, but may choose either in place of her
own. Once such a decision is made it is permanent unless
this feat is taken an additional time. It may be changed at
that time.

Renewed Endowment
After a few minutes’ concentration, you alter your power
with a slight change to the way your perceive your “arrangement.”
Prerequisite: Incantations class feature, at least one
feat that applies a metamagic feat to an incantation
Benefit: At the start of each day, you may choose to
meditate for 5 minutes. You may change which incantation
a single feat that grants the benefits of a metamagic feat applies to, provided it applies to another incantation.
Special: This feat may be selected multiple times.
Each time you take this feat, you may change one additional feat at the start of each day. After doing so you may not
change the feats again for 24 hours. “
Incantations:
Removed frozen shadows from incantations list

Fear feeder: removed HD limit

New incantation: “Flailing Tentacles
School conjuration (creation)
Spell Level 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components S, V
EFFECT
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft. / level)
Area 30-ft. radius burst
Effect This incantation functions exactly as the black
tentacles spell except as noted here. The caster may will
the tentacles to move ensnared creatures 5 feet at the start
of his turn, provided at least one of the creature’s spaces
remains in the area of the incantation. Once per round as a
swift action, the caster may cause the tentacles to constrict
an ensnared target, dealing 1d6 points of bludgeoning
damage per 2 caster levels (max 10d6) plus his Charisma
modifier.
Duration 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no”

We hope to have more invoker news for you soon. Stay safe and stay red.

-Caleb Aylsworth

They are calling them these names because, as you get multiple versions of the same basic creature (troll) you want to be able to tell them apart. "Bladerager" has more flavour than, say, troll type 3. It's really that simple. They already own the IP through copyright of the books - so trademarking the names (and by the way, a trademark has "TM" written after it, which none of these monster names do) really makes no difference. You maybe need to explain what advantage WotC would gain from trademarking names like these, assuming they would even be granted. And maybe consider whether the cost of registering and policing thousands of individual trademarks would be an adequate trade-off. Especially when you consider that the basic term "troll" isn't IP anyway. I'm not a lawyer and even I can see this doesn't really hold water. You undermine your credibility with this stuff, which in any case has absolutely no bearing on whether you (or anyone else) enjoyed playing 4e.

Actually, there's something in the fantasy biz called a "noun-verber", used to refer to an uncreative mash of words that sounds cool. Usually it's a person's name, like Kurin Darkslayer, or Mydys Angelpuncher. It sounds really silly and rarely has any baring on anything. SOME MMOs (And MUDs) use this naming convention. I can't think of anything else that does aside from terribad fantasy novels.

The names are all noun-verber names. They sound silly. Those that aren't a mash of a noun and a verb are usually something like an adjective or two on the front that don't seem to relate to anything.

At least, that was my experience. Maybe they hired a writer since I read through the MM.

These spheres rock. Old school spheres were flavorful and balanced, and this really makes a priest of God X stand out from a priest of God Y.

YawarFiesta wrote:

Caineach wrote:

There is a reason Kobolds are extinct in my GMs world...

Could you explain me what's the reason?

The main city was blown up, sending half the mountain they lived in into the sky with mundane explosives. The rest were hunted and killed with a giant bounty on their heads. This was because the captured and imprsoned the greatest assassin in the world.

1000 years later, the only great worm left, the white dragon Wintersfoire, sad at the loss of kobolds, has devised magic to mutate white dragon eggs to hatch hundreds of Snowbolds. I am playing a ranger with them as my new favorite enemy and hope to elimate them from the earth as well.

What? Who would hate them for capturing an assassin? This doesn't make any sen-

Oh. The PCs did this. I get it now.

Joseph Raiten wrote:

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

A Man In Black wrote:

Players tend to be human ...

I'll need you to cite sources on this assertion as I rarely play at a table with humans.

I agree none of the current group I am running are playing humans

but they are actually humans

As for playing with humans, I'm not sure why anyone would want to. Terribly boring lot. I myself play with a greater demon of Gluttony, a greater demon of Sloth, a Pit Fiend, a Janni, a Chaos Elemental and an Awesome Elemental. Someone should have been there to record the epic clash last week when the Janni tried to interrupt my BBEG and get a surprise round. Lightning flew and shook the heavens, possible dimensions were destroyed, and my summer castle was turned into a tornado that swept through Elfland, killing thousands.

But as usual I was right, talking is TOTALLY a free action.

On a related note, I need a new handbook (It didn't save against the pit fiend's fireball).

We need them to do one thing really well: Be scary.

I once had a mindflayer turn to a character and threaten his wife, who was at home sleeping, once it was clear the 'flayer had no way out.

"Your wife, Chasra, I believe she is asleep right now at your home, far away. Imagine the chaos should my minions in your village hear of my death. Surely they would deal with it by sacrificing ones close to you in exchange... How sad."

Unfortunately, the PC made his sense motive and told the barbarian to kill him anyway.

So basically I would ask for a replacement who can lie to save themselves from a low wis Rogue.