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This order seems to be running a bit late, and reads that it's waiting on a backordered item (or items). I was wondering, which item(s) is(are) causing the delay? If it's just one of the variant cover comics, I'd be willing to pick one of the other variant covers of the same dollar value, just to get the order moving. (I picked them kinda randomly anyway, based on which had my favorite characters on them, or had the coolest scene or artistic style, but I'm not married to them or anything!)
Elves of Golarion 2.0. Elves have long been a favorite of mine, and what Golarion has done with them (elves are from another planet!) is pretty darn unique and fun. But Elves of Golarion was one of the first of those little companions, and, gosh, it shows. Yes, I would LOVE for 1st edition to have gone on long enough to see that line dig way past the core races and Kobolds and Orcs to Tengu of Golarion and Gnolls of Golarion and Lizardfolk of Golarion, but I accept that this is not to be, and look forward instead to a much better Elves of Golarion, with more juicy detail on Snowcaster Elves and Mordant Spire Elves and Ekuje Elves and Aquatic Elves and maybe even some teasy hints about the Elves of Castrovel.
In the vein of the Make your own Archfiend thread, let's homebrew up some new Empyreal Lords! Agathion, Angel, Archon and Azata are the usual suspects, as per Chronicles of the Righteous, but there's no reason to limit ourselves to those four, when we could have some Empyreal Lord/demigod-level Garuda or Peri, as well. One to get it started; Epiphaedriel Angel of Purification, Self-Perfection and Transformation
Tall and broad shouldered, with flesh of solid shining gold, but with a childlike face and the otherwise lean and androgynous build common to angels, Epiphaedriel wears a long tunic made of soft overlapping plates of copper colored metal that leave their arms bare, and has an assortment of tool and implements of indecipherable use hanging at their broad leather belt. In one hand, they bear a slender hammer, seeming more suitable for jewelcraft than smithwork, and in the other hand a beaker containing a multi-colored fluid, rumored to act as any potion or elixir the angel desires. When stirred to anger, this form dissolves into a whirlwind of fire that remains capable of casting spells or striking with their hammer, in addition to sweeping through foes like the fiery elemental maelstrom they have become. Epiphaedriel is a popular patron among dwarves, who represent the angel with a crafted beard-like ornament over their lower face of copper, silver and gold. [I wanted a non-evil patron for alchemists, initially, and worked from there, trying to keep the result farther away from Torag or Irori, despite including elements of both. The optional Domains were ones I considered and discounted, as I went through options, and which could be substituted for the final four I chose, if someone wants to modify it to better fit what they are looking for.]
If one wanted to update a Cleric for Starfinder, or use one of the Starfinder gods for a pre-gap Golarion-verse set game, in which there would still be clerics, what sort of Domains would you see for the new gods? The old gods, some of whom *may* have changed some domains, although I'm just gonna list their old ones for now; Abadar - Earth, Law, Nobility, Protection, Travel
And the newbies (I'm counting Nyarly in his Empty Traveler aspect as newish, and Triune as Brigh Plus); Damoritosh - Evil, Law, War, maybe Glory and Strength?
I'm seeing a fair bit of Knowledge and Travel here, but that totally fits the setting, which is All About discovery and exploration. If it was 'Our Worlds at War' (which it ain't) I'd expect a lot more War and Glory, for example, and I'm not seeing a need to artificially 'balance' the Domains between these particular gods, or find a 'slot' for the Air Domain or the Scalykind Domain). Eloritu and Ibra are the two I'm not immediately seeing a fifth domain for, but I'm sure that someone cleverer than myself will have a good idea for that!
In the vein of 1000 Aasimar Traits and 1000 Tiefling Appearance Quirks, a place to list strange / Fortean / surreal encounters or events to spring on your unsuspecting players; 1. You pass what must have once been a pasture, but the only signs remaining are fenceposts lying abandoned in a row, paralleling your route. Atop each fencepost is a crow, and as you get closer, they cover their faces with their wings, as if to avoid gazing upon you approaching. As you pass each crow, it turns to the other side and buries its face behind its other wing, as if to avert its eyes from your passing as well. 2. Dark clouds have threatened all day, but no rain has fallen. Finally a thin drizzle begins, and a faintly bitter smell accompanies the light rain, which tastes salty, like tears. A half-hour later, the first tiny impacts begin, as of hail striking your garments, but instead of hailstones, the soft projectiles appear to be human eyeballs, smaller even than appleseeds, with dangling optic nerves flailing behind them like the tails of tadpoles. For several minutes they fall, gathering in squirming clumps on the ground before the ‘hail’ stops and the clouds part. Under the light of the sun, they eventually stop thrashing and die, and within hours, the area reeks of decomposing flesh as the tiny eyeballs begin to decay, while insects and birds swarm to take advantage of this bounty. 3. A stray dog follows you from town, shying away from contact, but eagerly devouring any scraps you toss its way. That night, as you make camp, it curls up as close as allowed, and sleeps, preferably within the warming radius of any campfire that has been built. In the morning, you note that the dog does not awaken, and upon approaching, find that nothing remains but the skin of a dog, slit open at the belly, and a trail of something slug-like and legless moving off into the distance. Whatever thing followed you from town, wearing the skin of a dog as a disguise, has taken its leave. 4. Travelling through the marshlands, you notice that while your companions are beset by mosquitos and leeches, you are, for the most part, unmolested. A single mosquito lands on your arm, and as you move to swat it, it falls dead into the water. You notice at this point that the water around you has an oily sheen that trails behind you, and that neither your companions nor their gear are leaving a similar wake. Looking behind you, a few leeches and a single small fish float belly up in the wake of your passage. 5. The area around you was once cleared for pasturage, and an abandoned barn sits decrepit, far off the road, near the treeline. Off in the forest, birds fly squawking into the air, and the trees themselves begin to whip around in an unnatural fashion. Whatever disturbance occurs, it seems to be coming in your direction, and you see it reach the treeline, with the visible trees jerking in all directions, with the ground beneath them rising and subsiding suddenly, as if the earth itself was a giant wave, coming straight at you. The barn explodes as its support timbers pitch in opposite directions, tearing the old structure to rubble in an instant, and still the earth-wave flows inexorably towards the road, moving faster than a galloping horse. It reaches the road and crashes, like water upon a rocky shore, spraying you with clods of loose earth, and then it over, the earth once again lying flat and still, showing little sign of its unnatural animation. Fallen leaves and branches, overturned earth, distressed birds and the ruins of the barn remain as the only evidence of this 'tidal wave of earth.' 6. A great termite mound lies in the center of the forest, three meters in height, and as wide around the bottom, with several smaller meter high mounds around it, with small walkways connecting them. For thirty yards around the mound, the undergrowth has been cleared away, and differently colored hexagonal patches of plants several yards across lie in a strange pattern, with trains of beetles carrying harvested plant matter to the central mound. A closer look reveals smaller insects riding atop the beetles, or walking beside them, and at your approach, a thin barely audible reedy keening erupts and shortly a flying swarm of tiny red, orange and yellow beetles pour forth from the mound and hover before you, making a threatening clattering sound. In their miniscule forelimbs, they bear shields made from the same material as their carapaces, in the same bright colors, and inch long polearms with mandible-like ‘blades,’ and it is by clashing their ‘weapons’ against their ‘shields’ that they make the warning clamor. 7. Hundreds of butterflies with pale green and lavender wings sun themselves on a tree near where you set up camp. The patterns on the wings are individually unique, and resemble fanciful glyphs or sigils in some ornate alien script. They beat their wings slowly, to remain cool, creating the impression of a single pulsing organism, which breaks apart at your approach as the butterflies fly away. The tree itself has been stripped of all leaves and buds, and lies naked, with scars upon its bark weeping sap like blood, when its ravagers depart, a sad and lonely sight. In the middle of the night, a loud crack accompanies the largest branch of the tree pulling free and crashing to the ground, and by morning the tree looks to have been dead for decades, and the grass and other small plants within several yards of the dead tree has also withered and turned yellow-brown, while the wood of the tree, and the fallen branch, reveal the wandering rune-like trails of thousands of tiny burrowing vermin, never crossing each other, and winding around each limb and branch, which, to the untrained eye, resemble long cursive runic inscriptions. 8. You awaken ravenously hungry, and feeling as if you have become entangled in your blankets, and begin to thrash about as you realize that you are indeed wrapped up in something. It is a matter of panicky moments to tear yourself free of the silken cocoon, no stronger than a spiders web, that envelops you, and other than yourself and your equipment being suspiciously clean and shiny, you appear to have suffered no ill effects from whatever force spun you into a flimsy silken prison for the night. The cast off webbing seems to wither away in the light of the sun, and soon the only evidence remaining of this strange ordeal is your unnatural hunger and thirst, which persists for several days, and a heavy sensation in your belly, which increasingly grows firm to the touch, and warmer than normal. Three nights later, you have a terrible dream of an alien-looking monstrous spider with intelligent eyes tearing itself free from your abdomen, and launching itself off into an endless expanse of mist and webbing, and you awaken to find that your stomach no longer feels as burdened as it had, and that your unnatural hunger and thirst have subsided. [You've just been used to incubate a baby phase spider! Mazel tov!]
Random mystery cult; Most common in Taldor, Qadira, Osirion and Thuvia, the fertility cult of the Maiden, Mother and Crone are usually found underground, either in a small natural cave, in the catacombs beneath a city, or a converted storm-shelter or root-cellar, and are frequented by mothers-to-be, or, more rarely, by those making sacrifice on their behalf. There was a time that the faith was persecuted, and there are still those who look askance at its practices, but the situation of their shrines underground is more a symbolic representation of a woman’s womb. Within the cramped confines of the sacred space, sometimes barely large enough to keep the three altars from touching, the petitioner is greeted by the shrine’s attendant, rarely an actual cleric or druid of one of the goddesses represented, or an oracle of life, but more commonly an adept. At each altar, an offering must be made, first to the maiden, Shelyn, then to the mother, Lamashtu, and finally to the crone, Pharasma. Shelyn’s favor calls for an offering crafted by the petitioner herself, and can range from a fine meal to a knitted or woven garment, generally agreed upon in advance by the shrine attendant and the petitioner. It is well known that the adept requests items that they can personally use, that benefit the shrine, or, at the least, can be sold or traded for items of use to them. In a brief song sung in a mixture of the Celestial and Sylvan tongues (which the adept will assist in the pronunciation of, if the singer is not familiar with the languages), Shelyn is called upon to bless the child with both physical beauty and a joyful heart. At the shrine of Lamashtu, the petitioner must give a scrap of cloth torn from a serviceable garment or bedsheet (it need not be the best one can afford, or a prized possession, but using a garment that was about to be ripped up for rags anyway is considered an insult to the goddess) stained with one’s own blood. Holding this bloody rag in hand, the petitioner kneels or sits before the altar and drinks from a bowl of mushroom wine provided by the shrine attendant (at a small cost). She will see visions and feel strange sensations over the next hour, and must scream out whatever enters her mind, often nonsense syllables or hateful speech, as her mind travels to dark places. It is believed that this process purges her of dark spirits and angry thoughts, so that they do not fester within her, and so seep into and warp the formation of her unborn child. Through this propitiation, Lamashtu is asked to spare her touch, and allow the child to be born sound of limb and mind. Finally, shivering and sweaty from her experience at the altar of Lamashtu, the petitioner is bought to the altar of Pharasma, where she offers a brief, almost perfunctory, prayer to the goddess of life, death, birth and rebirth, and purchases a dove (for 2 sp., the price never changes) from the attendant, to make the Gift of Life or Death. This dove (or, in some cases, pigeon), is carried from beneath the earth by the petitioner to the nearest area of wild growth, or even a garden, and she releases the dove to the sky. Pharasma is said to send an omen if the child is not fated to be born alive, in the appearance of a hawk or falcon, taking the dove from the sky before it leaves the petitioners sight. If it flies away true, it is thought that the birth will be without incident, but if the dove refuses to fly, or cannot do so, the petitioner must then take it to a graveyard or burial ground, and give it one more chance to take flight. If the bird takes flight in the graveyard, the child to come may come with difficulty, and perhaps have some special favor in the eyes of the Lady of Graves. If the bird still refuses to take flight, the petitioner must kill the bird, either by her own hand or with a blade, and bury it in the graveyard, in a hole dug with her own hands, or else her child is doomed. After the ill-fated bird is buried, a stone must be placed at the head of this small grave, and a prayer to Pharasma to guide its spirit said, to complete the Gift of Life or Death. Through this rite, Pharasma is appealed to give the unborn child life, and to preserve the health of the mother. It has become unfashionable in certain circles to undergo the rite to Lamashtu, and to skip that procedure and simply make homage to Shelyn and Pharasma, but Lamashtu takes a dim view of this spurning. Those who shun the Mother of Madness spread rumor that to honor her in even this fashion draws her attention to a child, and makes it more likely to be born with some defect or malformity. Whenever a child is born deformed, these gossip-mongers hold it up as ‘proof’ of their theory, and continue to urge their peers to not risk harm to their child by propitiating Lamashtu in this fashion. The truth is that those who deliberately spurn the rite of Lamashtu are more likely to bear malformed children, but those who self-righteously believe otherwise are prone to overlook such matters (or even to eliminate troublesome ‘evidence’ that contradicts their beliefs…). Lamashtu is not merely the Mother of Monsters, but also of Madness, and is less prone to afflicting a child with an obvious deformity, but instead to simply twist its spirit to have qualities more akin to a goblin or a gnoll, so that an otherwise healthy-seeming child whose mother offended her would grow up to have a love of setting fires and difficulty learning his letters, or a cruel and lazy streak, prone to bullying others and to thuggish and violent behavior. (The tendency of the upper classes to be the most prone to shy away from the respectful propitiation of Lamashtu could be said to explain much about the latest generation of upper-class Taldan youth.) Pharasma is less likely to punish a child for the disrespect of its mother, but instead wait patiently for the offending parent to stand before her for judgement. Pharasma is no creature of law, nor one bound by moral concerns of mercy or forgiveness, and may wait many decades to send someone who displeased her in life to the back of the line, or to wander the Boneyard, ever waiting a judgement that may never come… Shelyn is of softer stuff, and few would dream of offending her in this manner, but is more likely to afflict a parent with an unsightly skin condition or malodorous rash, one that not only mars the appearance of the offender, but also magically spreads to any artistic representation of that person, in the form of creeping verdigris on a copper bust, or a fungal growth on a fine portrait. Such afflictions will recur, no matter how many times cleaned away or magically cured, until the offender has made right with Shelyn. In one notable case, a Taldan duke was so afflicted after he ordered an ancient shrine to Shelyn removed from his property, only to suffer not only a visible blight upon his face (that caused half of his beard to fall away), but to find that the blight appeared on the hundreds of coins he had stamped with his visage as part of a celebration, and now spread all about his territory. He made amends, rebuilding the decrepit shrine from new stone, surrounded by gardens and more lovely than even in its heyday, and now spends his days attempting to recover and polish every one of these errant coins, to eliminate all embarrassing reminders of his misfortune.
There's not a whole lot of 6 HD or less critters for use with lesser planar ally, and, after a bit, calling your goddess of lust and vengeance for an ally and getting a fire mephit get old. . Option one, an awakened entropic half-dragon (black) giant wasp. My template-fu is weak... GILDED NIGHT CR 7
DEFENSE
OFFENSE
STATISTICS
SPECIAL ABILITIES
ECOLOGY
Gilded Night is a servant of the goddess Calistria, whose appearance leaves no question as to its lineage, as an awakened entropic giant wasp with the blood of a black dragon in its veins. Its carapace is glistening ebony offset by metallic golden bands that curl upon themselves in fantastical fractal patterns, and its wings are thin sheets of iridescent onyx, resplendent with a play of many shimmering colors. The six legs of its wasp’s body end in tripartite talons, and it’s mandibles scissor open to reveal a reservoir of draconic acid, waiting to be unleashed. . [Design notes; yeah, I know, you can't awaken a vermin. But *Calistria* can, 'cause she's all like, a god, and scoffs at your feeble rules.]
So, we've got the Shadow, the Greater Shadow, the Spectre and the Wraith as examples in the Bestiary. Shadow - Dex 14, Cha 15, BAB +2, CMB +4, CMD 17 CMB should be BAB +2, Dex +2, total +4.
In either case, CMD 17 doesn't work. Greater Shadow - Dex 20, Cha 15, BAB +6, CMB +11, CMD 24 CMB should be BAB +6, Dex +5 for a +11.
In either case, CMD 24 doesn't work. Spectre - Dex 16, Cha 15, BAB +6, CMB +6, CMD 21 (eratta-ed to no longer have Weapon Finesse) CMB should be BAB +6 plus Dex mod +6 for a CMB +12 (instead of +6, as listed).
In either case, CMD 21 is wrong. Wraith - Dex 16, Cha 21, BAB +3, CMB +6, CMD 16 CMB should be BAB +3 and Dex +3 for a CMB +6.
I've tried plugging in Charisma mod in place of the Dex mod, just in case it was relevant, but that doesn't work either. There's nothing consistent here, each of these incorporeal creatures is wrong by a different proportion, or in a different direction, making it difficult for me to triangulate a design intent here. So, TL;DR. How does one calculate CMB and CMD for an Incorporeal creature? It would *seem* that, since Dex is serving in place of Str for the CMB calculation, that it should count twice for the CMD calculation (10 + BAB + 2xDex mod), but this doesn't appear to be the case.
Over in my brainstorm thread, I've been exploring some creatures of law and chaos, since, IMO, they get a lot less attention than those specific to good and evil (and, indeed, even the LG/CG/CE/LE ones rarely, or half-heartedly, have abilities related to smiting chaos or law, being almost single-mindedly focused on opposing good or evil). But really, this is turning into something that warrants it's own thread, and I'm interested in seeing what others might think would be suitable additions to the law/chaos version of the good vs. evil trope. Some random thoughts on the Maelstrom, intended to supplement (and not replace or refute) what Todd Stewart has already written about it in The Great Beyond. . The Maelstrom Elemental wells are weak points within the maelstrom into which forces and matter from the elemental planes pour through. Alternately, elemental wells are staging grounds from which the maelstrom is siphoning in and devouring the elemental planes that spun off from it, reclaiming what was stolen. Depends on who you ask, really. Earth wells appear as moon-sized bodies of stone, earth and metal ore, with tumbled mountains and vast riven plains of earth and stone, constantly heaving and shuddering as new material is brought across deep within its core from the elemental plane of earth, pushing all of the current matter higher and further away from the center of the well itself. These upheavals periodically become explosive, and vast quantities of elemental-born earth, stone and ore are thrown free of the mass, to hurtle through the maelstrom, some the size of boulders, others the size of continents. Of these masses, some break down and are absorbed by the maelstrom, while others remain intact, sometimes for centuries, and are settled by a combination of native creatures and visiting life-forms, in some cases, when conditions are right, even being colonized by vast forests of extraplanar flora and alien ecosystems of alien fauna. There does not seem to be any hard and fast rule as to which of these territories will be temporary, and which will endure, but, to the residents of the Maelstrom, this is as it should be, and nothing is predictable. Indeed, some of these rocky outposts have gravity, similar to that of a world many times their size, or less, perhaps more appropriate to their actual size, or none at all, and even the nature of the gravity is unpredictable, with some spherical bodies having traditional gravity that draws all to the center mass, and other ‘floating continents’ having gravity that pulls one down to either the ‘top’ surface or the ‘bottom’ surface, and none at all on the edges. Water wells appear as globes of water, sometimes covered with ice, other times awash in a zone of steam or mist, but always roiling with powerful currents, as new water pours in at the center of the well from the elemental plane of water. As with the masses of earth and stone that accrue at earth wells, at certain points, the mass reaches some unclear critical state, and vast quantities of water (or shelves of ice) expel into the surrounding Maelstrom, forming ‘sky rivers’ that meander through the chaotic plane, apparently held together by little more than surface tension and their own strange pseudo-gravity. Some water wells have constant ‘streams’ of water flying high into the sky, and twisting off into the chaos, and do not suffer the same constant turmoil and periodic eruptions of excess water, and these water wells are often settled by aquatic creatures, sometimes transplants from other realms, but as commonly forms of proteanic life. Air wells manifest as powerful storms of wind, often shot through with discharges of lightning, and, like the other wells, are prone to launching forth high-pressure blasts of air, like a ‘river of wind’ wandering off into the maelstrom. Unlike the ‘sky rivers’ that erupt from water wells, these gusts of wind rarely remain cohesive for more than a few miles distance, and dissipate into the background chaos of the maelstrom. Intense static discharges of lightning also tend to shoot up from the heart of the well, but these are even shorter-lived, and usually travel no further than the turbulent funnel-cloud-filled ‘skies’ of the air well, except when they travel ‘up’ one of the streams of wind that occasionally shoot forth. Fire wells could be mistaken for suns, although smaller and more active. Like other elemental wells, they seem to have a certain maximum size, and ‘excess’ fire pouring in from the elemental plane of fire erupts in massive solar displays that launch forth, sometimes in massive dancing sheets of flame, other times as semi-permanent spheres of fire that meander around the maelstrom. It is known that the fire wells are often heavily colonized by creatures from the elemental plane of fire, that that these ‘solar flares’ are sometimes ‘tamed’ by some unknown process, and used as exploratory vehicles (or weapons…) by unusually intelligent groups of salamanders, who ride around the maelstrom in these huge burning ‘carriages’ of fire, steering them through unknown means. Regardless of ‘where’ a given elemental plane may be, in respect to the maelstrom, in a grand cosmological sense, the wells locations have little or no organization or relevance to that positioning. An air well might be ‘right next to’ an earth well, even if those two elemental planes are generally thought to be ‘on opposite sides’ of some cosmological configurations. Thanks to the existence of the elemental wells, one might find a vast continental shelf of stone, fed water from a constant sky river from a nearby water well that it orbits, impacting with its central mass, teeming with alien flora and fauna, and with a stable atmosphere somehow accrued from an air well in times past, and held in place by the pseudo-gravity of the entire mass. The native proteans are of divided thought on these quasi-stable worldlets, drifting within their chaos, alternately seeing them as part and parcel of the wonder of the maelstrom itself, and ultimately impermanent, or as offenses to the ‘pure chaos’ of the maelstrom and unwelcome intrusions of extraplanar elemental matter, attempting to ape the static patterns of life on other planes. Protean choruses are rarely of one mind on anything, and for every protean that regards the elemental wells themselves as wellsprings of creation, draining away the elemental planes and returning them to the primal chaos where they belong, there are those who find the elemental energies and matter around the wells to be intrusive and unwelcome, a pollutant within the ‘pure’ chaos of the maelstrom. ‘Elemental’ wells that lead to the positive and negative energy planes also exist, but they are rarer. The only widely-known positive energy well (also called a ‘life well’) is the World Tree, consisting of a vast spherical darkwood tree the size of a great city, with its own flora and fauna, said to have been formed when a darkwood shield fell into a positive energy well and became infused with wild growth and life, sprouting in all directions, and being possibly the largest individual living organism in the maelstrom, unless one subscribes to the protean theory that the maelstrom itself is alive... Several negative energy wells (called void wells) exist, and are places of perpetual cold and darkness, that the proteans attempt to ‘stop up’ by maneuvering vast stones into position to block them from drawing away from the maelstrom, as if staunching a bleeding wound. As a result, some floating stony ‘islands’ may be less hospitable than suspected, harboring portals to the negative energy plane at their heart…
“You have to believe we are magic,
. In the City at the Center of the World, the greatest gathering of magical scholarship known north of Quantium resides in the Arcanamirium, a combination of trade guild and academy for practitioners of the arts arcane that takes up several city blocks. The mandate of the Arcanamirium is to make the magical commonplace (and, to be sure, some oppose that mandate...), to demonstrates the benefits that can be provided by arcane magic to all and sundry, and to turn a coin doing so. Some experiments have shown limited success; The demand for fresh water in Absalom is always greater than what can be brought in from the inner isle, drawn from the ground, magically created, or alchemically purified from seawater. New sources are always welcome. A dark-eyed halfling sorceress named Belaza, Varisian in temperamant and dress, and known to specialize in magics related to mists, storms and electricity, has initiated a project in blocks between the Arcanamirium and the docks, creating what are called 'fog-catches.' Fog-catches Stone basins are fashioned, and kept clean by a permanent prestidigitation effect. Eight lacquered wooden panels (in some cases decorated with imagery or runic symbols representative of the eight schools of magic, but not always, as it was noted that citizens shunned those decorated with necromantic imagery) lie flat over the pool, protecting it from the light of the sun, and a 10 ft. pole of polished copper, surmounted by a blued glass sphere that crackles with faint electrical energy (which sheds light equivalent to a continual flame spell), stands in the middle of this arrangement. Every evening, as fog rolls landward, fog is attracted the poles, by some eldritch magnetism, and condenses to slide down the pole into the basin beneath. During a thick fog, the pole will have a constant stream of water pouring down its length into the pool, and each reservoir has indentations at each of its eight ‘sides,’ that lead to a gutter that empties into the city sewers, so that the pools do not overfill and flood the surrounding area. So long as no deliberate contaminant is introduced, the water is fresh, cool and pure, but the prestidigitation effect cannot handle larger contaminants, such as the body of a rat or pigeon. Detractors of the Arcanamirium claim that the water has been magically tainted somehow, to make the drinkers more susceptible to the mages enchantments, and apprentices are assigned to visit each of the surrounding catches on a daily basis, to make sure that nothing has been done to tamper with them. (The glass orbs have no magical property beyond that of continual flame, albeit of an exotic appearance, and serve mostly as a ‘lightning rod’ for thieves, as the magic that collects the fog is in the unremarkable copper poles, which, so far, have not drawn the attention of local thieves.)
So, Golarion could totally use some Oracle Mysteries for the various can't-have-clerics groups in the setting, like the Kalistocracy and the Godclaw and the Diabolists. I aim to address that.
Note that the setting makes no comment one way or the other if the Kalistocracy, for example, suffers from lack of divine support, so the introduction of Oracles of the Mystery of Gold, who would likely be *quite* well received in the Kalistocracy, may or may not mess with certain assumptions. Mystery of Gold
I get bored and make insane lists for no reason at all!
Air – N, NG (G1, N2)
So, that leaves the following domains 'weighted' slightly (or, in some cases, heavily) towards; Chaos - Chaos, Charm, Destruction, Liberation, Luck, Madness, Strength, Travel, Trickery, Void, War, Weather Evil - Darkness, Death, Destruction, Evil, Knowledge, Madness, Magic, Strength, Trickery, War, Weather Good - Air, Animal, Artifice, Charm, Community, Creation, Earth, Glory, Good, Healing, Law, Liberation, Luck, Plant, Protection, Sun, Travel Law - Animal, Artifice, Community, Creation, Darkness, Death, Earth, Fire, Good, Healing, Law, Magic, Nobility, Plant, Protection, Rune, Sun Some of these are no-brainers. Obviously, Law is going to be heavily weighted towards lawful dieties. Less obvious is that Good is more common among the major lawful dieties, and Law is more common among the major good dieties. Kinda fits the widely held notion that lawful good is the 'goodest' good. But there's fun potential to consider niches for a chaotic or evil god associated with Animal (similar to the Realms' Malar), or an evil or chaotic Sun god (a cruel and capricious version of Amaunatar), or a god of Nobility that is a diety of the decadent excesses of the noble class, being more chaotic and evil than that other interpretation of 'noble.' Such entitled twits would be all noblesse oblige and lead others to their own ends, like the Iconic cavalier, Alain, not much caring if their 'leadership' results in them getting a bunch of enthusiastic peasants killed. A lawful god of Madness, or a chaotic god of Community, seems a bit off, but a chaotic god of Fire or a lawful god of obedience or diplomacy (with the Charm domain)? That's not hard to picture. An aboleth-friendly diety (or the Unspeakable One) might be evil and / or chaotic, and grant access to the Rune domain. A good god of Death? (A benevolent protector of the dead, frex.) An evil god of pain, suffering and torture who grants access to the Healing domain? A lawful diety of Luck or a good diety of Knowledge could change things up, from the current association of Luck with chaos and Knowledge (slightly) with evil. No good happy-go-lucky Trickery gods here, either, like Garl Glittergold. Pranks and pratfalls are less likely to be the subject of amusement, being associated with cruel and malevolent powers. The slight tendency towards Magic to be dominated by gods of evil aspect could result in a society that isn't exactly in love with the idea of magic, and make the agenda of the Arcanamirium of Absalom that much harder, as magic is more likely to be associated with selfish or destructive uses than with helping the people or benefitting society. Weather is weighted slightly towards chaotic and evil, thanks to Rovagug, which might result in sailors and farmers having a somewhat uncharitable view of nature and weather as capricious and cruel, a destructive force. If a wizard shows up and forces the storms to abate, they'd be less likely to side with the druid who shows up later and says that this was a bad thing, since weather is more likely to be perceived as an unruly and unkind thing. If a local good goddess of rain and growing things was associated with the weather, locals might be far more charitable towards the phenomena. Artifice being associated with law and good might result in a society that tends to regard tools as inherently blameless. A town that attempts to forbid the carrying of crossbows on the city streets might find that the local citizenry is less inclined to put up with that sort of ordinance. These sorts of associations might be irrelevant in some lands. In Qadira, for instance, Urgathoa and Asmodeus are distant foreign dieties, of little local relevance, and so their association with Magic would be less in their face than it would be to a citizen of Andoran or Ustalav, who regularly have to deal with the clergy and followers of evil dieties associated with Magic, with no local good (or even neutral) patron of magic to offset that negative impression.
So, random spells along the theme of 'create a new spell, that uses the name of a pre-existing spell, with one letter changed in the name.' Burning Bands
Spoiler:
School conjuration (creation) [fire]; Level sorcerer/wizard 1 Casting Time 1 standard action Components V, S, M (three red silk ribbons attached to three copper coins) Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft. / 2 levels) Effect ray Duration 1 round / level Saving Throw none; see text; Spell Resistance no Playing up her half-Tian heritage to pretend to know all sorts of exotic ‘eastern mysteries’, conjuration apprentice Mia Ti Martine showed off not only her spellcraft, but also her visual flair and skill at crafts, using three ring shaped Tian copper coins and red silk ribbons embroided with gold-threated Tian symbols, far more extravagant than the spell strictly required to conjure her dancing ‘fire dragons.’ With a grand gesture, you hurl the material components at the target, and they transform in mid-flight into bands of fiery conjured matter that wrap around the selected target, which cannot be more than one size class larger than the caster to be affected. You need to make a ranged touch attack, and if successful, the target is ensnared by the animated fiery ribbons, with effects identical to that of a tanglefoot bag. The DC for the Strength check to break free of these ribbons is calculated as if it were a saving throw. 10 + spell level (1, unless heightened) + Intelligence (for a wizard or witch) or charisma (for a sorcerer) modifier. The DC bonus from Spell Focus (conjuration), or similar effects, also applies to this special Strength check. Like a tanglefoot bag, the burning bands can also be cut away by 15 points worth of damage from a slashing weapon. At the end of every round which a target remains entangled, they suffer 1d4 fire damage from the flames dancing along the burning bands.
Bleep
Spoiler:
School transmutation [sonic]; Level sorcerer/wizard 1 Casting Time 1 immediate action Components V, S, M (a tiny whistle or noisemaker) Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft. / 2 levels) Target one living creature Duration instantaneous Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes Knowing from his network of cronies and snitches that several other students had spells of fire and lightning in the design stages, the better to impress the judges with flashy displays, transmutation student Amirrin Kalto chose to create the fastest and least-visible effect he could, one that was effective at what it did, and yet was as streamlined and abrupt as he could fashion. This spell interrupts the speech of another, causing a word or short phrase to be transformed into a shrill sound that makes the exact word ‘censored’ undecipherable to listeners who fail a DC 25 perception check. If the spell is cast to mangle the phrasing of a spell with verbal components, and the spellcaster does not resist the spell, he must make a concentration check to successfully cast the spell, with a difficulty equal to the DC to resist the bleep spell. Burning Lands
Spoiler:
School evocation [fire]; Level sorcerer/wizard 1 Casting Time 1 standard action Components V, S, M (a small chunk of magma) Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft. / 2 levels) Effect flames in a 20-ft.-radius spread Duration 1 round / level Saving Throw none; see text; Spell Resistance yes One of a pair of sisters, Shindri Cassoni chose to craft a spell that would not just produce a damaging (and spectacular) visible energy effect, but also manipulate the movement of foes within the target area, by punishing them for moving from their place while the spell remained in effect. The target area is swept in faint ruddy flames that crawl along the ground and produce a sensation of warmth, but do not inflict any damage to targets that remain stationary. Any target that moves out of a square that is awash in these flames finds that they wrap around his body in ever-increasing layers of many-colored fire, growing slightly brighter and warmer, the more he moves, until he is lashed by 1d4 points of fire damage for each square vacated. These instances of damage occur when movement ends, as a single attack (unless he takes multiple instances of movement within a single round, in the affected area, through the use of a 5 ft. step, being bull rushed or repositioned, or the Step Up feat, in which case each instance of movement produces it's own damaging retaliatory effect), and if the target succeeds in their initial spell resistance, no damage is suffered, and the creature can move freely through the affected area with no further rolls required and no risk of damage. Shocking Grass
Spoiler:
School evocation [electricity]; Level sorcerer/wizard 1 Casting Time 1 standard action Components V, S, M (a handful of iron flakes and quartz shards) Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft. / 2 levels) Effect electrical discharge in a 10-ft.-radius spread Duration 1 round Saving Throw none; see text; Spell Resistance yes Karoli Cassoni attempted to duplicate her sister’s entry, using electrical forces instead of fire, but chose to influence the movement of those in the target area of her spell by encouraging them to flee the area, rather than remain standing in place. The ground in the target area builds up a crackling charge of electrical energy, and wavering tendrils of electricity spark upwards, somewhat resembling a dancing field of blue-white grass. On the caster’s action in the round after the spell is cast, the charge explosively releases, and anyone remaining in the affected area suffers electrical damage based on their position. Anyone standing within an affected square suffers 1d6 points of electrical damage as the charge erupts towards the sky, and for each additional adjacent square that is also affected, suffers an additional point of electrical damage. For a larger creature, who may occupy more than one square, the creature suffers 1d6 points of damage for each affected square occupied, and 1 pt. of additional damage for each affected square adjacent to those squares, but does not suffer the additional ‘adjacent’ damage for any squares from which they have already suffered the larger damage effect. A successful spell resistance roll negates all damage. The electrical discharge travels from the ground upwards, and a target within 30 ft. of the ground may also suffer the discharge, although such a target will only suffer the damage for any square(s) that the target is directly over, and not any additional damage from adjacent squares. Animate Pope
Spoiler:
School transmutation; Level cleric 2, sorcerer/wizard 2 Casting Time 1 standard action Components V, S, M (a piece of sugar candy) Range touch Target one living creature Duration 10 minutes / level Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes Pontiff Theodred was known for his animated and lively instructional style, embellishing his homilies and parables with expansive gestures and the occasional impromptu bit of dance. The decades have not been kind to him, and he requires assistance to rise each morning, and an assistant to help him stand at the pulpit to give the morning service these days. Growing up in the church, listening to his sermons, the Apprentice Joqulis developed this spell to allow her old pastor (and his flock) to enjoy brief moments of his former glory. The affected creature suffers none of the physical penalties of their current age category. A venerable target becomes as physically powerful, graceful and healthy as they were during the prime of their life, and, while not the original intent of the spell, a toddler is similarly temporarily enhanced to have the improbable strength, coordination and endurance of an adult of its species. Mental attributes are not affected for good or ill by this spell, and strength, dexterity or constitution damage, drain or penalties from other sources, such as a ray of enfeeblement, spider venom or the blood drain of a stirge, are not negated by this spell, only the strength, dexterity and constitution scores depleted by the effects of physical age.
Colon Spray
Spoiler:
School conjuration (creation); Level sorcerer/wizard 1 Casting Time 1 standard action Components V, S, M (a tiny cabbage-like vegetable or 'brussel sprout') Range 15 ft. Area cone-shaped burst Duration instantaneous; see text Saving Throw Fort partial; see text; Spell Resistance no Coming from an outlying community, conjuration student Borik ‘Stinky’ Morboni fell victim to the age-old tradition of ‘forgetting’ to warn the out-of-towners not to drink the water from the ground cisterns, causing him to spend his first week in the academy suffering from humiliating intestinal distress. Years later, he still goes by the nickname of ‘Stinky,’ having long since taken the name as a perverse badge of pride, but finds that nobody picks on him anymore. Not more than once, anyway. A reeking cone of brown fluid splatters from your hand to soak all in the affected area, causing them to have to save or become nauseated from the overwhelming stench. Those that fail their saving throw can make a new saving throw each round to overcome the nausea. The foul-smelling material clings to the afflicted targets for ten minutes, unless washed off, after which point it evaporates and leaves no trace of its presence. Once the target has made a single saving throw against the nausea effect, it does not recur, although for all long as the substance remains present, a soaked target is sickened. The conjured substance only coats living targets within the affected cone, and evaporates immediately if it falls away from a subject who has been affected, leaving behind no sign (or scent) of its former existence. As a result, those targets drenched with this foul effluvium do not produce an odor that travels beyond the space they occupy, as the malodorous conjuration dissipates within moments of leaving the target’s person. Except by the targets of the spell, or those that get too close to them, the conjured stench cannot be detected, although the visible signs of befoulment are obvious.
Day of Enfeeblement
Spoiler:
School necromancy; Level sorcerer/wizard 2 The perpetually distracted, but undeniably brilliant, half-elf (half-something else…) necromantic prodigy Shrian created this spell in a frenzy of late-night last-minute dweomercraft. This spell functions exactly as ray of enfeeblement, except that the effect lasts until the individual can rest for eight hours. Any effect that ends a fatigued condition (such as lesser restoration, or the appropriate paladin Mercy) will also end this effect. Goat Sounds
Spoiler: School illusion (glamer); Level sorcerer/wizard 1 Casting Time 1 standard action Components V, S Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft. / 2 levels) Target one creature Duration 1 round / level Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes Shonty Shon, as this squeaky-voiced gnome of uncertain gender likes to be called, may or may not have understood that s/he was flouting the rules of the competition by designing a ‘sound-alike’ spell instead of a ‘one-letter-off’ spell, but did it anyway, and while not every instructor agreed with this decision, the headmaster of illusory studies found it amusing and passed him/her/it anyway. This spell afflicts a target so that the only vocalization they can produce is the bleating of a goat. This makes communication and spellcasting all-but impossible for the duration of the effect, but the afflicted subject can use a standard action to force a new saving throw against the effect at any time during the spells duration, as often as desired, until the spell expires or the effect is resisted. Caveat Emptor: A young spellslinger who used the spell in an arcane duel was rudely (and fatally) surprised to learn that some druidic spellcasters know a technique that allows them to incant their magics even in the form of various animals, such as birds, wolves and bears. While ‘goat’ is not a common choice for their transformations, it appears that anyone who knows their secret of ‘Natural Spell’ remains capable of using verbal spell components even while affected by this spell…
I made a largeish purchase for the Black Friday sale (order placed on Nov 27), and the first two of three boxes arrived fairly soon thereafter. The third box has not yet arrived and I was wondering if there was some way of tracking that. Not yet arrived;
This stuff isn't intended as part of any sort of Christmas gift or anything (well, to myself, maybe), so there's no huge hurry or anything, but I was curious as to whether it had been shipped or was being held up because something was out of stock or something. Thanks!
Just seeing if these would be available soon-ish, 'cause there are a lot of great headshots in both Seeker of Secrets and the NPC Guide! I'd love it if the Razmiran mask from the Golarion Campaign Setting got avatar-ized as well, although that's just me being selfish, since I'm playing a priest of Razmir in a PBP!
So, an Eidolon with 10 hit points takes 18 hit points worth of damage. It's 10 hit point Summoner can't use Life Link yet, because it explicitly doesn't work unless the Eidolon takes enough damage to 'send it back to it's home plane,' which is negative hit points equal to it's Constitution score (in this case, -13). He's got three choices here; 1) He can ignore it. If the unconscious Eidolon fails to stabilize, at -13 he can use Life Link to give it up to 10 of his own hit points, but it will *still* be unconscious (at -3), and he'll have dropped himself to zero hit points, so this choice is just plain stupid, as he could just shoot himself with a crossbow and achieve the same tactical situation. His best possible option here is for it to fail to Stabilize and die, so that he can resummon it at half-health the next day. 2) He can un-Summon it. It then goes back to wherever, and, if it stabilizes, he'll summon it back the next day, and it will be at somewhere between -8 and wherever it made it's 10% Stabilization check. Or maybe it will have died, on it's home plane, a situation for which there are no rules. Who knows. If it was a demon lord or god, it could die *permanantly* if he's dumb enough to actually use this un-Summon class feature (which, in this case, might as well be named the 'Permanantly Lose Your Class Defining Ability' class feature, akin to the rarely used Wizard class feature of 'Set My Spellbook on Fire and Laugh'), but it's not a demon lord or god, so perhaps bleeding to death on it's home plane is no more dangerous than dying on this plane. Maybe it can't bleed to death on it's own plane, because it's formless there. I have no idea, and I wonder if, at some point, something changed, and a class ability that made sense got utterly borked up. 3) He can walk over to it and coup de grace it, which will be the most effective use of his class abilities, allowing it to return the next day at half hit points. So, the question. Did any of the playtesters run into this situation, where using either Life Link or the ability to un-Summon the Eidolon was flat out the worst possible choice one could make? Is there a situation where un-Summoning your Eidolon is a better choice than letting it die? You're not gonna see it until tomorrow anyway, and your choice is to see it again with half hit points (cause you let it die) or seeing it again with whatever vastly less than half hit points it had when you 'saved it' from certain death. What am I missing? How is this power not profoundly nonsensical? Why is the Summoner being *punished* for attempting to save his boo, instead of letting it die a glorious death, and come back much stronger than if he'd 'saved' it? Someone's Eidolon had to go into negatives, at some point during playtesting, so what was the big solution? 'Cause this just doesn't make any sense at all. Relevant rules; 'Eidolons are treated as summoned creatures, except that they are not sent back to their home plane until reduced to a number of negative hit points equal to or greater than their Constitution score.' 'A summoner can summon his eidolon once per day in a ritual that takes 1 minute to perform. When summoned in this way, the eidolon hit points are unchanged from the last time it was summoned. The only exception to this is if the eidolon was slain, in which case it returns with half its normal hit points.' 'Whenever the eidolon takes enough damage to send it back to its home plane, the summoner can, as a free action, sacrifice any number of hit points. Each hit point sacrificed in this way prevents 1 point of damage done to the eidolon. This can prevent the eidolon from being sent back to its home plane.'
The imposing figure before you spins like a dervish, blood-soaked armor silent on his person as his greatsword sweeps towards your head. His voice taunts, “Your swordsmanship lacks grace and style, but your verse, now that is truly vile.” RIME KNIGHT (4th level Fighter) CR ???
Rime Knights live to prove themselves on the merciless field of single combat, garnering status with their peers, as well as both physical and psychic sustenance from the acting of shedding the blood of those they defeat. They travel in small groups, usually accompanied by an eclectic mix of servant creatures, which usually include some humanoids to serve as grooms for their steeds, and as personal servants, with elves and hobgoblins being preferred, but goblins being the necessary substitute for those who have not yet proven themselves. Such groups always include several and several tracking beasts as well, usually wolves, but, with the more powerful bands, winter wolves or even yeth hounds serve that role. Clad in fantastically ornate armor of brownish-red ice, spattered in layers upon layers of blood drawn from foes felled in single combat, and decorated with dozens of delicate-looking spikes and barbs, the Rime Knight bears a similarly grim looking weapon, usually a large cutting weapon, such as a glaive or greatsword, but with a few Knights choosing a less common signature weapon, such as a spiked chain or scorpion whip. Beneath the imposing armor, a Rime Knight has slim, almost elfin features, sharp and angular, and often concealing surprising strength. The only time a Rime Knights face comes alive is in the heat of battle, and the normally dour and unfriendly fey becomes a taunting dervish, mocking his opponent, or even complimenting one whose combat technique has impressed him. While some assume that the Knights received their common name from the rime of blood-ice that decorates their cold white skin, cakes their hair, and comprises their favored armaments, those who have faced them remark that they speak only in rhyme, considering wordplay as much an art form, as much a ‘dance,’ as they regard combat. When not sparring, or preparing for their next hunt, Rime Knights gather around ritual fires, and practice taunting each other, critiquing not the other’s fighting skills, but his verse. As the loser must place his hand within the flames for a long moment, a Rime Knight is strongly motivated to polish his insults, just as he hones his blade. A Rime Knight will always attempt to engage a single foe in combat, with the higher status Rime Knight selecting the most capable looking warrior type to engage, and others backing off and allowing the combat to follow its course, interfering only to counter the interference of others. Initial rounds of combat will generally resemble a dance, with the Rime Knight often fighting defensively, and taking advantage of his battle acumen to make himself difficult to strike, while he attempts to soften up his opponent with crippling or bleeding strikes, before switching to a more aggressive posture. Only in the case of a ‘disappointing’ foe that appears well beneath his abilities will a Rime Knight begin combat with a brutally aggressive display, and this is seen as a show of contempt, that the Rime Knight wishes this meaningless butchery over as soon as possible, so that he can move on to more challenging foes. Rime Knights have been known to woefully underestimate foes in this manner, and a cunning foe may be able to trick a Rime Knight into holding back and fighting defensively, trying to figure out the source of this perplexing foes seemingly inappropriate confidence, while reinforcements arrive.
HELL’S BRAND
Also known as a Slaver’s Rod, this slender steel rod functions as a +1 light mace. Whenever it strikes a target, up to three times per day as a free action, the holder can cause the pentacle-shaped head of the rod to flare red-hot and inflict +1d3 fire damage on a hit, branding its target with a pentacle shaped scar. This brand remains until removed by remove curse or break enchantment, and while it remains, the holder of Hell’s Brand can use a move action to cause any or all brands upon subjects within 120 ft. to flare up and cause terrible agony, inflicting 1d3 nonlethal flame damage and forcing a Fortitude save (DC 13) to avoid being nauseated by pain for one round. If the save is made, the victim still takes the damage, and is sickened for one round. The scar made by Hell’s Brand marks the victim’s soul as well, and a victim is treated as shaken whenever attempting to oppose the holder of the weapon. While the rod can only create three new brands a day, there is no limit to how many can be created and maintained over time, although no creature will suffer the effects of more than a single brand.
Some feats to make the Channel Energy ability a tad more flexible and / or fun.
Spell Channel
Vampiric Channel
Charged Channel
Example: Riordan, a 5th level Cleric with a 15 Wisdom can sacrifice up to a 2nd level spell (limited by his +2 Wisdom modifier) to empower a Channel Energy use. He uses a Move Action to sacrifice a prepared aid spell, and then a Standard Action to Channel Energy, allowing him to heal his allies (or harm undead) within a 30 ft. radius for 5d6 damage (3d6 base, +2d6 for the channeled spell).
My first thoughts; 1) Most of the Hexes have ranges of touch, 30 ft. or 60 ft. The following hexes have no range listed; Hex - charm, ward
2) At some point, stats for foxes, goats and pigs will be needed, but that's obviously not a priority for playtesting, as there are plenty of other options. 3) For the Summoner, the 1 pt. spell-like ability Evolution seems likely to become an issue if used to get around expensive spell component costs. The limitations on how it can be used have potential to nip some of that, but the ability of a summoner to blow multiple evolution points on these abilities, to create an eidolon strictly for casting spells-with-costs has potential to be game-disrupting. If anything, perhaps the Eidolon should be restricted to the Summoner spell-list? 4) At the risk of another 'I don't like the name Oracle' discussion that will go nowhere, is evolution perhaps a little too science-y for the added features? Mutation is similarly un-fantasy-feeling, IMO, which leaves us with deformities or augmentation or warps or alterations or transformations or refinements or mortifications or some made up word like 'transencions' or something... 5) Much like the Extra Rage, Extra Music, Extra Channel, Extra Smite, etc. Feats, I can see an Extra Summons feat being a must-have for the Summoner, allowing him/her to summon an Eidolon an extra time per day, in case of death, or sudden need for an Eidolon with different traits (or a different size / shape, to fit into an adventure area). 6) Witches who lose their Familiars are boned hard. Yikes.
If any Bloodline deserves a little mixing things up for Bloodline abilities, it would be the Aberrant bloodline. Not every Aberrant Sorcerer would necessarily have anything to do with acid, and abilities related to warping flesh, distorting space or producing damaging sonic effects would be just as likely to exist. A purely mental effect also would fit the theme, but with the lack of Mind Flayers in the setting, perhaps not as well as it would have in 3.X. Aberrant Bloodline Alternatives (replaces Acidic Ray for a 1st level Aberrant Sorcerer) Slashing Tendrils (Ex): At 1st level, you can cause your fingers to become slashing tendrils as a free action. These tendrils are treated as natural weapons allowing you to make two attacks as a full attack action. These attacks inflict 1d4 points of slashing damage each (1d3 for a Small user) plus your Str modifier. At 5th level, these tendrils are considered magic weapons for the purposes of overcoming DR. At 7th level, the damage increases by one step to 1d6 points of damage (1d4 if you are Small). At 11th level, these tendrils fold upon themselves spatially to either function as if they possessed the ghost touch property, or to bypass physical armor, requiring only a touch attack to inflict damage (choose one at the moment of attack). This is a supernatural ability. You can use these tendrils for a number of rounds per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. Cry from Beyond (Sp): As a standard action you can unleash a resonating pulse of sound from deep within your belly that inflicts 1d6 nonlethal sonic damage to a single target within 30 ft. Any foe damaged by this effect will also be sickened for 1 round. Outsiders, Constructs, Undead and Elementals are not affected by the sickened condition, but still take the damage. Oozes, Aberrants, Plants, etc. are affected normally. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. Warping Touch (Sp): At 1st level, you can cause another creature to become nauseated for a single round with a melee touch attack as their body warps and shudders around them. This effect does not affect Constructs, Undead, Oozes or Elementals. You can use warping touch a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. Mind Scream (Sp): As a standard action, you can generate a stunning blast of mental energies that hits a single target within 30 ft. automatically, inflicting 2d6 nonlethal damage +1 hit point per 2 class levels. This is treated as a mind-affecting effect, and cannot harm most constructs, oozes, plants, undead or vermin. You can use this ability a number of times equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier. Warping Touch and Slashing Tendrils were intended to synergize better with Aberrant Reach than the Acidic Ray option, while evoking the abilities of a Chaos Beast or Hound of Tindalos.
Checking the templates in the back of the Bestiary in preparation for using them in a game, I noticed that the Celestial and Fiendish creature templates no longer raise the animals (or vermins) intelligence to 3, afford it the ability to understand instructions in Celestial (or Infernal, etc.) and no longer change it's alignment to Good or Evil. As a result, a Summoned Celestial (or Fiendish) creature can no longer be directed to do anything other than attack the casters foes (which it does automatically), and Celestial and Fiendish-templated creatures cannot Smite each other, since they are all Neutral (or otherwise retain their base alignment). Is this a deliberate change in Pathfinder, or an oversight? It does make a pretty darn huge difference in the use of Conjuration (Summoning) spells. As Celestial (or Fiendish) animals no longer become Magical Beasts, it does mean that a Speak with Animals spell could be used to communicate with a conjured animal, [/i]assuming that spell were available to Conjurers[/i], and, even in that case, removes as well the ability of the Conjuror to give instructions to a Fiendish Giant Wasp, which he could do in 3.X, and, according to the text of Summon Monster, he's still supposed to be able to do, somehow.
[I would have just updated the original thread, but I can't seem to find it...] Devil Taught Monks of Cheliax
The students of these styles must select the feats with their 1st, 2nd and 6th level Monk bonus feats (or later bonus feats at 10th, 14th, etc. if their training falls behind), and must take them in order. No more than one such style can be learned by a single character. The devils do not tolerate 'cross-training.' Since I wrote this, the Kyton have ceased to be devils, and I'm not sure if the Hellcats still count as devils, but both seem like very appropriate styles to find in the lawful evil monastaries of Cheliax. Hamatsula Style
Spiked Harness (Cost 60 gp, Armor Bonus +1, Maximum Dex Bonus +6, Armor Check Penalty -1, Arcane Spell Failure 10%, Light Armor, Weight 12 lbs. Time to don/remove as breastplate.) Improved Hamatsula Training
Advanced Hamatsula Training
Kyton Style
Scorpion Whip (Legacy of Fire Players Guide, as Whip but 5 gp, 3 lbs and inflicts 1d4 lethal Slashing damage. Uses same proficiency as Whip.) Improved Kyton Training
Advanced Kyton Training
Chains worn as armor (Cost 45 gp, Armor Bonus +1, Maximum Dex Bonus +6, Armor Check Penalty -1, Arcane Spell Failure 10%, Light Armor, Weight 10 lbs. Time to don/remove as studded leather.) Gelugon Style
Improved Gelugon Training
Advanced Gelugon Training
Bezikara Style
Clawed Gauntlets (Martial Weapon, Cost 10 gp each, Dmg (S) 1d3, Dmg (M) 1d4, Critical 19-20 / x2, Range -, Weight 2 lbs each, Type Slashing) Improved Bezikira Training
Advanced Bezikira Training
A new poison for the Church of Love's Sting. Lover's Scorn is a special Calistrian toxin crafted from wasp venom that causes the victims nerves to surge with sensation, resulting in the slightest pain or discomfort being magnified and multiplied into agonizing torment. Lover's Scorn
**If the subject fails his Fortitude save by 10 or more, he is instead nauseated by pain for that round. Creatures immune to pain effects are not affected by this poison. If a Cleric of Calistria used the poison spell, she can choose instead to deliver an enhanced version of Lover's Scorn that has the above effects, and causes the subject to take additional nonlethal damage equal to any lethal damage suffered during the duration of the poison's course. As always, my stuff can be found here.
Random Wizard (Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid, whatever) feats, meant to somewhat replace (in utility, if not mechanics) the Sudden X feats that are not OGL. Metamagician
Example: A Sorcerer with Cha 17 gets 3 ‘free’ levels of metamagic per day, that she can use either singly or all at once, to offset the level adjustment for any spell(s) she casts with metamagic. Once she has used all three of these bonus levels, she must wait until she next refreshes her daily allotment of spell slots before she can use them again. Example 2: A Mystic Theurge (Cleric / Wizard) with Wisdom 16 and Intelligence 15 gains 3 'free' levels of metamagic offset for use with Cleric spells, and 2 'free' levels of metamagic offset for use with Wizard spells. If she later gains a level of Druid or Adept, she shares the same 3 levels used for Clerical casting. Boundless Reserves
In her original incarnation, she only created four undead from a single corpse. She would begin by kidnapping some poor sod, and sacrificing him to Belsameth by driving a dagger into his heart. She would collect the blood in a special copper vessel, and immediately begin working to instill necromantic 'life' into her first undead creation, the Blood Weird. The blood would be animated, a process that had to occur before it clotted, and become an ooze of cold, dead blood, that would flow along the ground to engulf living prey, attempting to suffocate it's prey (but having instructions from Ari to stop when a target ceases struggling, as she wished to sacrifice them herself. This wasn't always successful, and some targets indeed drowned...). Blood Weird
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural)
Speed 30 ft., swim 40 ft., climb 20 ft.
Str 6, Dex 14, Con --, Int --, Wis 10, Cha 10
Environment any
Appears as ~10 pints worth of reddish-black liquid, moving like a serpentine rivulet of cold blood. Drowning Grapple does no damage and only restricts movement as per the Entangled (unanchored) condition), and can never achieve a pinned condition, but causes the target to need to begin making Con checks (DC 10, +1 / round) to avoid Suffocation. A victim cannot attempt to hold their breath normally versus this attack, as the cold blood attempts to force its way down the victims’ throat. Instead of gaining 2x Con score rounds of leeway before having to begin making Con checks, a victim only gains rounds equal to their Con modifier (minimum 1) before having to begin making checks, and this number is reduced normally if the victim makes a standard or full round action. A character grappled by a blood-weird suffers half of any damage that is directed at the blood-weird, and the blood-weird’s damage reduction does not protect the victim from these attacks.
New Sorcerer Bloodline Aranea
Taking it further; make these Feats available as Alternate Class Features for characters willing to give up other class features. Domain Focus (Su): A Cleric who has chosen the Air, Earth, Fire, Water or Weather Domain may choose at 1st level to specialize, losing access to her second Domain option to increase her skill with the chosen Domain. She gains the benefits of the Spell Burn feat at 1st level, and the Deep Reserves feat at 4th level, for the chosen Domain.
Magic in the Blood (Su): A Sorcerer with the Aberrant, Celestial or Elemental Bloodline can choose to focus upon her bloodline’s offensive energies, gaining the benefit of the Spell Burn feat at 1st level, and the Deep Reserves feat at 4th level. She loses her bonus Eschew Materials feat at 1st level (although she can purchase it normally) and one spell slot per level of spells becomes dedicated for use with Spell Burn exclusively.
Adept Arcana (Su): A Wizard with the Conjuration, Evocation or Transmutation specializations can choose to develop that specialization’s offensive ability, gaining the Spell Burn feat at 1st level and the Deep Reserves feat at 4th level, but losing access to the Arcane Bond class feature.
These are probably too good, but I'm loopy on cold medicine. Yeah, that's my excuse. I'm not a mad power-gaming fool or anything... I removed the setting-specific spells, and swapped a few around (some of the Gateways spells seemed less appropriate, IMO). ************************************** Domination Domain
Dream Domain
Fey Domain
Gateways Domain
Judgment Domain
[Note: Judgement should be spelled with an 'e.' I don't give a crap what the dictionary or spellchecker says. Judgment just looks wrong!] Rainbow Domain
Entrancement - Use Charm
That leaves Constructs (almost entirely based on non-SRD spells, it can wait), Missionary (time to go bless Tiki), Secrets and Vengeance, which I might get around to later. Or not.
I'm the ***damned Batman!
I'm the Juggernaut, b****!
After all that thought put into Halflings, I decided to slack and take the easy route with Dwarves. ******************************************** Dwarves of Golarion My completely canon-breaking choice here is to simply replace the entire Ulfen culture with Dwarves. They still call themselves Ulfen, they still choose their kings by killing Linnorm, or suffer under the cold rule of Baba Yaga’s daughters in Irrisen, or fight and live alongside Kellish humans as Mammoth Lords, but they are yellow-bearded, blue-eyed, dragon-prowed longship-sailing Dwarven Ulfen, not Humans. Dwarves would be the majority race in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and in Irrisen, be split with Kellish humans in the Realm of the Mammoth Lords and make up a significant minority (as high as 20%) in Numeria, Lastwall and Mendev, with respectable populations in Brevoy and Ustalav as well. Formerly the dominant peoples of the Hold of Belkzen, the survivors of that nation have since resettled in Numeria, Lastwall, Mendev and the Mammoth Lords lands. Farther south, dwarves working in human cities are not uncommon, but actual dwarven communities become scarcer and farther apart, until one reaches Garund, where they again become commonplace in Osirion and Katapesh. Entire families of dwarves uprooted themselves from the north to build monuments in distant ages for the God-Kings of Osirion, and were welcomed as citizens. Their descendents still live in that land, preferentially, although they work in neighboring lands of Thuvia, Qadira, Katapesh and Nex, with Katapesh the only nearby nation that has seen dwarvish settlement enough to make up a significant percentage of the population. Dwarves, regardless of their country of residence, tend to reserve their true loyalty to the rulers they call the Five Kings, centered in the city of Highhelm, in the Five Kings Mountains between Druma, Galt and Taldor. Given their relations with these neighbors, it is hardly a surprise that dwarven populations are less than one would expect in these nations, and the majority of the dwarven race has dispersed to take up residence in the deserts of the southern continent, or so far north as to approach the Crown of the World.
Supplemental to Version 1; New Feat
Example: Piet, a white Scaleborn, chose Charisma as his Scaleborn ability increase. At 4th level, he increases his Strength score by 1, and at that point becomes eligible to gain the Draconic Gift associated with Strength (claws and a bite attack) by taking this feat. If he had already taken this feat, at 2nd level, for instance, he would immediately gain these enhancements. If he took the feat at 5th level, he would then immediately gain the claw and bite attacks. If he waits until 9th level to take the Draconic Evolution feat, and increased his Intelligence at 8th level, he would be able to choose which Draconic Gift he wanted, that for Strength or Intelligence. *************************************************** I designed 'Version I' to be not merely a 'Pathfinder Spellscale,' or even an Arcana Unearthed Mojh-reflavored-for-Golarion, but a setting-connected concept tied into the Runelord of Gluttony and the Black Dragon slaves of Thassilon. As such, the 'Blood-Quickening Meditations' had to go, and yet the concept of a 'race' that was created from other races (and yet stripped away their racial qualities, as did both the Spellscale and Mojh), and yet also had some versatility to it (being able to gain different Draconic Gifts, depending on the route you choose, or, eventually, all of them, if you want to burn five Feats). Who knows, maybe there is a very good reason to set five Feats on fire gaining all six Draconic Gifts, because of some amazing reward that waits at the end of all that Draconic Evolution... Or maybe you'll just be even more freakish than before, and five Feats poorer for the effort. Some sort of Dragon Disciple-ish PrC to complete this 'evolution' would be ideal.
Man-Runes would normally take 1 minute to carve (1 full round action if you can Swift-carve that rune) and can be drawn on a temporary surface (the ground, sand, snow, etc.) or even a sheet of paper. Man-Runes
Conjuration – By tracing this soothing rune, your body is flooded with otherworldly energies that cleanse your wounds, healing you as if you had cast cure light wounds upon yourself. You can also cast this rune to gain a single immediate roll to mitigate the effects of disease or poison, but can benefit from this extra chance only a single time per infection or poisoning. Divination – These perplexing rune twists and warps as your scribe it, but opens up your senses as if you benefitted from detect magic, detect poison and read magic, lasting for as long as you concentrate on maintaining the effect, up to a maximum of 10 minutes / caster level. Enchantment – This rune is frustrating to carve into the air, so much so that you are affected by a rage spell for 1 minute / caster level when the carving is complete. You cannot prematurely end this effect. Evocation – This rune opens your mind and body to the forces of the world, and you gain the ability to counterspell any spell that has the Cold, Electricity, Fire or Sonic energy type for the next minute per caster level, as if you had exactly the spell you needed prepared. You cannot counterspell any spell of a higher level than you could cast, were you a Wizard of equal level. You still need to ready an action normally, and make a Spellcraft check to identify a spell before being able to counter it. Illusion – Once this elusive rune is completed, your form blurs and changes, granting you the benefits of a disguise self spell for the next 10 minutes / caster level. Necromancy – This sinister rune sinks into your flesh, and makes your hands cold to the touch, so that you are treated as having cast a chill touch spell for the next minute / caster level. You can make up to one touch / caster level, as normal, and also can cast touch of fatigue at will during the effects duration (even if you have used up your allotment of chill touch charges already). Transmutation – This shuddering rune bends under your touch, and your flesh ripples with it, leaving you with the effects of a bull’s strength spell for the next minute / caster level.
Something of a rough draft. I have to rewrite it to use the same verbiage in each specific 'Devil-School,' since they all have certain commonalities (abandoning training in kama, nunchaku, sai and siangham to learn a different devil-specific weapon, for instance). Devil Taught Monks of Cheliax
Hamatsula Style
Advanced Hamatsula Training
Kyton Style
Advanced Kyton Training
Gelugon Style
Advanced Gelugon Training
Bezikara Style
Advanced Hellcat Training
Generally speaking, these Feats should have their abilities divided up into three Feats (Gained at 1st, 2nd and 6th levels), but I haven't figured out exactly how I want to break them up yet, and my enthusiasm has waned enough that I figure if I don't post them now, I'll probably shove that document to the corner of one of my desktops and forget about it for a couple of months (with a couple dozen other half-baked ideas...). Any thoughts, beyond the obvious, 'too much! are you crazy?'? :)
Corpse Rot is the name of a specific type of faintly luminescent fungus that grows on organic material, breaking it down into compost. Unlike the vast majority of fungus, slimes, vermin, etc. the corpse rot fungus thrives on the cold flesh and bones of creatures that have been animated by negative energy and become undead. Corpse Rot, due to its affinity for negative energy-charged flesh, withers and dies in the presence of positive energy, and, unlike most infections, is highly susceptible to sunlight, allowing even a simple villager to rid himself of the fungal growths by exposing skin and contaminated clothing to direct sunlight for eight hours or more. Ghouls, Wights, Vampires and Liches find that this fungus seems drawn to their negatively-charged bodies, no matter how clean they attempt to keep their surroundings (although sealed crypts are obviously safe), as the spores drift in on breezes and are tracked in on the clothing of visitors, to take root in their dead flesh. With the obvious exception of vampires, most corporeal undead can purge the infection with exposure to sunlight. The infection is very obvious, causing reddish discolorations blossoming across infected skin, as well as cracking and discomfort that renders affected flesh tender and sensitive to further damage, and even weakens and corrodes bone, in the case of skeletal undead, as the fungus leaches vital minerals from the dead tissue. Vampires, Ghouls and Liches with this affliction tend to be pariahs among their own kind, while infected, and generally remove themselves from the presence of their peers until they have purged it. Vampires, in particular, are unforgiving of this affliction showing on their peers, as they lack the recourse of exposing themselves to sunlight to purge the condition. Skeletons and Zombies afflicted with Corpse Rot crumble and decay into nothingness within a matter of days, unless tended to by another (or given instructions to deal with the situation, such as to spend a day standing exposed to sunlight). Corpse Rot
Corpse Rot
Satiation
With a touch, you can eliminate all sensations of hunger or thirst, including the fatigued condition resultant from nonlethal damage suffered as a result of hunger or thirst. While the spell is in effect, nonlethal damage suffered from hunger or thirst can be cured normally. If the recipient has still not consumed any food or drink when the spell expires, a new Con check must be made immediately to avoid a new instance of nonlethal damage and the resumption of a fatigued condition (although the Con checks are made at DC 10, even if you had progressed to a much more advanced stage of starvation / dehydration before the spell was cast). Items crafted with this spell are extremely popular in Geb, among the Ghoulish and Vampiric nobility, as freedom from their incessant and distracting cravings for flesh and blood allow them to devote more of their attentions to scholarly matters, courtly affairs and the business of rulership. Vampires in particular are somewhat prickly regarding their dependence on such items, and usually attempt to have them fashioned in such a way as to be easily concealed, particularly when in the presence of fellow undead nobles who suffer no such hungers, such as liches. Ghouls have no such qualms, and wear their hunger-negating tokens openly.
Horan Danick was a nobleman of Galt, although there was truly nothing noble about him. Dismissive of his wife, abusive towards his mistresses and sadistic to his servants, Danick thought nothing of setting slaves loose in the field to ‘run for their freedom,’ only to set his prize hounds upon them. He cultivated a circle of sycophants and courtiers, some regarded as 'too course' for polite Chelaxian society, who regarded him as a dark messiah of some blasphemous cult devoted to attempting to ‘out-sin the Runelords.’ Calling himself the ‘heir to Sin-Shalast’ and 'most Unclean,' he wallowed in every sin, with the dozen overworked servants in his kitchens called upon to provide six course meals with new and interesting dishes every night, for him and his decadent entourage. Sadistic ‘rituals’ involving the abuse or degradation of slaves were invented, seemingly at whim, to justify his urges of the moment, and any servant who failed was held in place while he ordered them beaten, by other servants, as he considered a blow from his own hand to be reserved for truly special occasions. Dragged from his manor house, rumor has it his pale skin smoldered in the sunlight, and he wailed like a blubbering child. (Exaggeration, mostly, but the mob does love its embellishment.) He was held for a month while the final blades were completed, fed only the meat of his beloved hounds, which had been butchered for their many acts of manslaughter. (Indeed, even his hounds received a trial, although they were not adequately represented.) If ever there was a man more deserving of his death at the hands of the final blades, it was Horan Danick. Unfortunately for all, his soul did not rest quietly within the device, and he has learned to touch the minds of those who rest their hands against the wooden frame of his final resting place, and to cloud the sight of those who stare into the reflections within the gleaming blade. Twelve men stood in judgement of him, reciting lists of his offenses against the state, and he has enjoyed riding the cruel steel down into the necks of seven of those men. His greatest joy was momentarily possessing the judge-advocate who lay writhing in his grasp, causing the man to jerk forward as the blade descended, so that it sheared into his shoulders, instead of his neck. It had to be yanked free with great effort, and the dying man repositioned so that it could be ‘done right.’ Two of his accusers have since died of other causes, much to his frustration, and he redoubles his efforts from within the steel to arouse suspicion against the three aging survivors, eager to taste their fear, as he shows them in the last seconds of their lives who it is that has arranged their fates... …
Only slightly naughty... Calistrian Copulomancy Detractors tend to assume that the sacred prostitutes found in Calistrian temples are merely another source of revenue (or means of acquiring gossip), but, while these also are true, there is a very real spiritual connection created during their sessions, if the proper rituals and obeisances are performed. A priest of Calistria capable of casting augury, divination or commune is capable of casting the spell as part of an hour long ritual involving profound physical intimacy with a second party, who becomes the recipient of whatever information is gleaned from the divinatory magic. (Adepts in service to Calistria add augury and divination to their spell list, but can only cast them in this manner.) It is rumored that the priest is also aware of the information gleaned, but bound by the sacred nature of the connection to not share that information. The official stance is that only the ‘client’ receives the information, however. The act itself typically takes about a half hour, with the information being received during a thirty minute period of slumber on the part of the client, which tends to support the interpretation that the priest does not receive the revelation, as the priest does not fall asleep once the physical component of the ritual is complete (and does not even have to remain present, being able to leave and engage in other activities without disrupting whatever revelations become known to the client over the next half hour, during which the client remains in a deep sleep, as if under the influence of a sleep spell). Despite the name, and salacious assumptions, the act of intimacy does not need to involve actual intercourse. The client must be brought to the point of release by the priest, by whatever level of contact the priest feels comfortable, at which point the client falls asleep and receives whatever divinatory revelations are available, based on the abilities of the priest in question. In the exceedingly rare event of a child being conceived as the result of copulomantic divination, the child is said to have been touched by Calistria herself (not entirely blessed, not exactly cursed), and to be a harbinger of strange portents and uncertain times. Such a child may well find herself a child of destiny, with the Sorcerous potential to match that Destiny. Random Calistrian Faith Trait
Ice Sprites Typical powers; Entangle (snow only), grease (ice), snowblind (pyrotechnics / obscuring mist), minor image, dancing lights, ghost sound, Cold subtype Wheeling through the air like snowflakes, these tiny fey have the Cold subtype and both their visibility and their movement are unimpeded by snow and ice effects. Their crystalline wings, which resemble the two halves of an unusually large snowflake or frost pattern, slice at those they pass in the air, opening bleeding wounds, and they typically slice at foes before fluttering out of range, to wait for their prey to succumb to their wounds. They huddle around the cooling bodies, draining warmth from them, and they have an unhealthy (for them) fascination with fire, which is deadly to them, fluttering around and daring each other to touch the flames (and laughing at the deaths of any of their own who succumb to temptation and are burned). When the flames die out, and the heat from the bodies is exhausted, they lose interest and flutter away, looking for some other source of light or heat that draws their deadly attentions. Ice sprites take advantage of Move by attacks that cause Bleed damage, whirling and dancing out of melee range as they deliver their attacks with tinkling cruel laughter.
In the Time Before, in a Place Apart, the Creator made all things, but was never satisfied with his creations. He divided the world apart, and reserved the greater share of it for his final creations, those that he would consider perfect, while every creation that did not utterly displease his eyes was thrown down to the World Below, to huddle on the barest crust of the world, and squabble over their tiny portion of Creation, unaware of their insignificance in the greater scheme of things. Some of his creations so displeased him that he could not bear to even place them upon the world, and so he crafted next a beast he called the Devourer, whose endless unreasoning hunger he sated by casting forth those creations that he found too imperfect to allow to live. The Devourer greatly enjoyed its duties, and stayed at his side, in the workshop of creation. Time moved as time does, and the creator grew surer of his vision of perfection, and the Devourer grew frustrated in its hunger, as fewer and fewer of the Creator’s handiworks were sent its way. Finally, the Creator finished his masterwork, the race he called perfect. Strong of limb, able to push through the waters like a shark, sleek of form and with skin as hard as steel armor and claws like daggers, these perfect creations had four powerful arms with which to rend their prey, and with which to work their crafts. Satisfied, he rested a time, pleased with his success. The Devourer knew not how long it had been since the Creator had sent a meal its way, but it rose to the Creators place of work, and gazed with many hungry eyes upon these new creations. Its mind was a simple thing, and it could not fathom why the Creator had left them like this, and not sent them down to the world, as was the way with successful creations. And yet the Creator had not given them to the Devourer, as was the way with failed creations. Perhaps these creations were *almost* worthy, having only a small imperfection? And the Devourer was so hungry... The Devourer decided in its simple way that these creations must be imperfect in some minor way, and noted that they possessed two more arms than previous creations. Thinking this must be the flaw, the Devourer took up these creations and bit away the offending limbs, leaving them maimed, but, in its eyes, perfected. Surely the Creator would be pleased? Only a single specimen survived its attentions, concealed under the bodies of her kin, her four arms, and her perfection intact. When the Creator woke, he was outraged. Perfection had been destroyed by this thoughtless act, and he hurled the Devourer howling down to the World Below, there to impact like a fallen star upon the dry wastelands over which the soft-skinned surface-dwellers squabbled meaninglessly. Those weak imperfect creatures named the Devourer ‘Rough Beast’ and other names, and some even took to worshipping this pathetic creature as a god itself, in their foolishness. The Creator accepted the imperfection in his greatest creations, coming to realize that he had spent too long striving to give away a flawlessness that his creations must earn for themselves. He sent us down to the World Below, to claim the greatest share of the world, as is our birthright, and in every generation, a lucky few are blessed with the perfected blood, and are born with four arms, as a reminder to us all that we have not been forsaken, and can once again attain perfection.
I wrote these up during Beta as well, but the way Pathfinder does Domains has changed a bit since then, so here they are adjusted to fit the old / new way of things. Scalykind Domain Dieties: Dahak, Ydersius
[NOTE: I would add this Domain to the list of options that a Druid can learn via Natural Bond, hence the mention of how it would interact with summon nature's ally.] Void Domain Dieties: Groetus, Old Cults
The sources of this new threat are; 'Bloody Jak'
In Hound form
When Raging, in Hound form;
Special: the 'Savage' armor property allows the armor to shapeshift with a wearer that has the Wild Shape class feature or the Alternate Shape racial ability. If the form taken is one that could reasonably wear Barding (such as a horse, hound or bear), the armor assumes the appropriate form. If the form taken could not reasonably wear Barding (most snake, vermin or avian forms) the armor melds into the alternate form, and confers no benefit. 'Bloody Jan'
Bloody Jan (in Hawk form)
Notes: While Rotweres share the damage reduction of most lycanthropes, they remain resistant to silver, and instead suffer full damage from weapons with striking surfaces of wood or stone (such as quarterstaves, clubs and sling stones). Also unlike most lycanthropes, they do not have any special empathy with animals of their type, but are indeed repulsive to all animals, being regarded as unnatural for the purposes of trying to goad a trained animal to attack them. Any animal, wild or domestic, automatically recognizes the corrupted nature of these weres, and reacts one category worse than normal. Even Bloody Jan, a Ranger, finds her wild empathy to only allow her to 'break even' in most animal encounters, due to the unnatural aura that surrounds her. Rothound-weres gain Alertness and Track as bonus feats, and, in Hound form, have a +4 racial bonus to Jump checks and a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent. Rothawk-weres gain Attack Finesse and Track as bonus feats, and, in Hawk form, have a +8 racial bonus to Spot checks and a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks when tracking by scent.
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