Level 3: Harrow Deck
You receive a special Harrow Deck, which is treated as a Gaming Set, and are Proficient in its use, but can also be used as one or more Daggers. The individual cards are never lost or damaged by being Thrown, and reappear in your deck when you next complete a Long Rest, if lost, stolen or destroyed. If you expend a Bardic Inspiration die when you Attack with your Harrow Cards in this fashion, you do Bonus damage equal to your Inspiration die, and can choose for this attack to do Force or Psychic damage.
Your Harrow Deck can also be used as a Spellcasting Focus.
At 6th level, the cards from your deck are treated as magical weapons, for the purposes of Resistance to damage from non-magical weapons, you gain the Mastery Property of Nick when using your Harrow cards as daggers, and you are treated as holding a shield and receive a +1 bonus to Armor Class when holding your special Harrow cards in one or both hands.
Level 3: Blessing of the Harrow
When you complete a Long Rest, you can perform a Harrow reading for yourself and a number of allies equal to your Charisma modifier. Roll 6d6, with 1’s representing Strength, 2’s Dexterity, 3’s Constitution, 4’s Intelligence, 5’s Wisdom and 6’s Charisma. Those affected can choose to have Advantage with a number of d20 Tests with the Attribute that appears the most in your roll, equal to your Proficiency Bonus, until the end of your next Long Rest. In case of a tie, you choose which of those Attributes receives the buff.
Level 6: Harrow Casting
You can draw a single card as part of the action of casting a spell. Roll 1d6, and if the number on the card is 2, representing Dexterity, and your spell requires an Attack roll, you can grant yourself Advantage on that Attack roll. If your spell gives the target a saving throw, and you rolled the number associated with that Attribute, you can give the opponent Disadvantage on that saving throw. You can always draw a card as part of casting a spell, but can only choose to give yourself Advantage, or a target Disadvantage in this manner if you choose to expend a Bardic Inspiration die.
You can also use your Harrow deck to cast Augury or Cloud of Daggers, and always have both spells prepared. You can cast Cloud of Daggers, which manifests as a cloud of razor-edged Harrow cards, twice without expending a spell slot, but cannot do so again before completing a Long Rest.
Level 14: Dancer with Destiny
Using your Harrow Deck, you can cast Blade Barrier, Contact Other Plane, Divination or Speak with Dead, and always have these spells Prepared. When you cast Speak with Dead in this manner, the spell takes 10 minutes to cast, and your Blade Barrier manifests as a swirling barrier of razor edged Harrow cards.
[As usual, trying to capture the theme of the Prestige Class, and setting, and the cool visuals from the Harrow Handbook!, while keeping to the preferred mechanics of D&D 5e subclasses. Some Prestige Classes, are narrow enough that they *might* even work as Feats... Some attempts at that follow.]
Thassilonian Sin-Mage General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+, Specialist Wizard (Abjurer, Conjurer, Enchanter, Evoker, Illusionist, Necromancer or Transmuter))
Starting at the level you take this feat, one of the two Wizard spells you gain each level must be from your School of Specialization. In addition, the spell you gain each level from the ‘Savant’ class feature for your School of Specialization must still be a spell of a level you can cast, and from your School of Specialization, but it can come from *any* class list.
[On the one hand, this Feat leaves the Thassilonian Specialist with no additional spells over any other Wizard of the same level, but does widely open up their versatility, particularly for Specialists in schools whose spells have a lot of options on other lists, like Enchanters and Conjurers. It is, perhaps, not so great for Evokers, since many of the sexy Evocation spells are already on the Wizard list...]
Risen Guard General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+, Must have been raised, reincarnated or resurrected from the dead, Revivify is not sufficient for this purpose.)
Your soul has been anchored to your body after being called back from the Boneyard by a gem embedded into your forehead called a Ka stone. This stone cannot be destroyed or removed, and gives you the ability to avoid a repeat of your original death. Whenever you take damage that would reduce you to 0 Hit Points, you can instead choose to remain at 1 Hit Point. Taking this action gives you 1 level of Exhaustion, and you cannot take it again until you no longer have any levels of Exhaustion.
Razmiran Priest (General Feat, Prerequisite: Level 4+, Spellcasting or Pact Magic Feature)
You add False Life to your spells known and always have it prepared. Additionally, you can cast False Life (either by spell or invocation) on an ally by Touch.
If a target is suffering from Hit Point damage, and you affect them with a spell or invocation that grants them Temporary Hit Points, the target must make a Medicine or Religion check at your spell DC or believe that you have cured them of Hit Point damage they have received by using a spell such as Cure Wounds or Word of Healing.
Finally, at 14th level, you add Power Word Fortify to your spells known and always have it prepared.
Masked Caster (available toboth Halycon Speakers and Hellknight Signifers)
(General Feat, Prerequisite: Level 4+, Spellcasting or Pact Magic Feature)
You have a mask that conceals your features, but does not impede your vision, hearing or speech. If it is lost or destroyed, you can replace or repair it over your next Long Rest. It functions as an Arcane Focus, Druidic Focus or Holy Symbol, as appropriate to your spellcasting class.
While wearing this mask, you have Advantage on any saving throw to resist a Divination spell cast by any creature that does not know your true name and identity. In addition, while wearing this mask, as a Reaction you can give yourself Advantage on any saving throw against an Enchantment spell cast by a creature that does not know your true name and identity. If you succeed on this saving throw, the caster of the Enchantment spell is Frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Once you use this Reaction, you must complete a Long or Short rest before you can do so again.
So the Forgotten Realms setting had like, a bajillion new spells, and it felt like 20% of them followed a pattern. Weapon (sword, staff, whip, mace) of (force, fire, lightning). Floating balls what spin around the caster and absorb attacks (maybe spells, maybe a specific energy like lightning or force) and can be sent off to deliver that energy (or cast those absorbed spells). Ways to cast multiple spells in a round (variations on Contingency, by such luminaries as Elminster and the Witch-Queen of Aglarond).
Inspired by that sort of spell design philosophy, but with Golarion flavor, I present;
Sihedron Strike
You conjure a spinning sihedron rune that floats above and behind your head, the seven 'blades' of the sihedron individually as long as short swords and made of force. When you cast it, you can cause one or all of the blades to strike any target within medium range, doing force damage as a short sword. Those not commanded to strike will remain orbiting you and provide you with a +1 bonus to Armor Class and Reflex saves (for each remaining blade), as they move to intercept attacks directed at you. Blades that are sent to attack hit automatically and continue attacking their selected target as long as they remain within range, returning to station behind you if the target dies, or leaves range, or if you use a movement action to call them back (you can recall one or more of them as part of the same movement action).
At any time during the spell's duration, you can assign one or more blades to attack a single or separate targets as a standard action, but those blades will not be available for defensive purposes while attacking.
This is a snippet of an idea, which I haven't really worked out the mechanics for, but I kind of like the idea of using one settings 'design philosophy' to create something with flavor from a very different setting.
And a spell that sends sihedron blades spinning off to slash and stab folk? That's just good fun!
Friends have been playing D&D 5e, but have been using Golarion, as WotC seems weirdly embarrassed by their own lushly realized settings like Greyhawk, Athas, Krynn or Eberron, and is shy about really diving back into them.
So, some random ideas for Golarion-specific subclases;
Winter Witch (Warlock) 3,3, 6, 10, 14
Spells
3rd Find Familiar, Hex, Hold Person, Ice Knife, Ray of Frost
5th Bestow Curse, Sleet Storm
7th Charm Monster, Ice Storm
9th Cone of Cold, Geas
3rd Winter Witchery. Spells using the Warlocks spell slots that normally inflict Cold damage take effect as if cast with a spell slot one level higher. Additionally, spells or invocations that inflict acid, fire, lightning, necrotic, radiant or thunder damage, can instead inflict cold damage, but these spells do not qualify for the automatic heightening effect.
3rd Hexcraft / Beast of Ill Omen. If you have a Familiar and it is summoned, you can choose when you cast Bane, Hex or Bestow Curse that the Familiar maintains the Concentration on that spell, in your stead. Your Familiar can only maintain Concentration on a single spell, and must remain within 30 ft. of you to do so.
Additionally, have the Potent Cantrip feature of an Evoker, but it only applies to Ray of Frost.
6th Winter Walker / The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway. You have Resistance to Cold damage. You do not treat snow or ice as Difficult terrain, and if winter conditions, including magical ones, such as from the Sleet Storm spell, would make an area Heavily Obscured, you treat it as Lightly Obscured. If such conditions would make an area Lightly Obscured, you are unpenalized.
Additionally, Ray of Frost’s damage dice become d8s.
10th Uttercold. The only targets that have Resistance against Cold damage from your spells or invocations are those that would normally be Immune to Cold damage.
Additionally, Ray of Frost’s damage dice become d10’s.
14th Advanced Witchery / Grand Mal Damme. You add Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere and Wall of Ice to your spells known, and like other spells you cast with Warlock slots that inflict Cold damage, they are automatically heightened to use slots one higher than your current slot level.
Additionally, Ray of Frost’s damage dice become d12s.
3rd Eyes of Night. You gain Darkvision with a range of 60 ft. If you already have Darkvision, its range increases by 60 ft. You can also see in magical darkness of your own creation. Additionally, you are Proficient in Stealth.
6th Shadowcraft. You can spend one minute weaving together threads of shadow into simple tangible objects. Any item that can be made by Fast Crafting (p 201) can be crafted, and will remain in existence until you dismiss it, or the completion of your next Long Rest. You can have a number of such shadowcraft objects equal to your Charisma modifier.
Additionally, if you have a Tool proficiency in an Artisan Tool, at the end of a Long Rest, you can craft one item from those craftable items on p 220-221. You do not need to actually have Artisan Tools or materials for this crafting, but do need the Proficiency. In the case of a Spell Scroll, it must be one of a spell that you know. This item also remains in existence until you dismiss it or the completion of your next Long Rest. You can only have one of these special shadowcraft creations in existence at any time, and expendable items, such as Spell Scrolls, Potions of Healing or alchemical Acid, are consumed when used, as normal for such items.
14th Shadows Dance. You add Summon Beast, Summon Undead, Summon Aberration, Summon Dragon and Summon Fiend to your spells known, but these spells are Illusion spells, the creatures summoned have half normal hit points, and are Vulnerable to Radiant damage. You can cast these spells with spell slots, or by expending Sorcery Points equal to the level of the spell.
Additionally, If you are entirely within Dim Light or Darkness, you can use a Bonus Action to teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see that is also in Dim Light or Darkness. You can do this a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus and then require a Long Rest to recover. If you have no uses remaining when you finish a Short Rest, you recover a single use.
18th Shadow of Yourself. As a Bonus Action or Reaction, you can transform into shadow, becoming Immune to Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage, Resistant to Acid, Cold and Necrotic damage, and Vulnerable to Radiant damage. In this form, you move at twice your normal ground speed, and are Partially Incorporeal and can move through occupied spaces as if they were Difficult Terrain. If you end your turn in such a space, you are shunted to the last unoccupied space you were in. You cannot make any physical attacks or manipulate any solid object in this form. This effect lasts 1 minute, unless Dismissed early, and once you return to your corporeal form, you cannot return to shadow until you have completed a Short or Long Rest.
Cyphermage (Wizard)
Wizard 3, 3, 6, 10, 14
3rd Swift Scrivener. You start with Calligrapher’s Supplies and are Proficient with them. Additionally, you can Fast Craft a level 0 or 1 Spell Scroll after completing a Long Rest, so long as you have Calligrapher’s Supplies. As with normal Fast Crafted materials, these Scrolls become nonmagical after you complete your next Long Rest.
3rd Scroll Specialist. When you Activate a Scroll of a spell in your Spellbook, you can use your own attack roll or Save DC, instead of the flat +5 / DC 13, if you wish.
When you Craft (but not Fast Craft!) a Scroll, you no longer need to have that spell prepared, but it must be in your Spellbook.
6th Bibliophile You can now Fast Craft a Scroll of a 2nd level spell, or two Scrolls of Cantrips or 1st level spells. Additionally, you can now Fast Craft a 1st level Scroll after a Short Rest, but these Scrolls become nonmagical after your next Short Rest.
You no longer need to have a spell prepared to Fast Craft a Scroll of it, but the spell must be in your Spellbook.
10th Archivist You can now Fast Craft Scrolls of up to 3 levels of spells after a Long Rest, or 2 levels of spells after a Short Rest (which become nonmagical after your next Short Rest).
When you Craft (but not Fast Craft!) a Scroll, it can be any spell on your spell list, even if you do not have that spell in your Spellbook.
14th Master Inscriptionist You can now Fast Craft Scrolls of up to 6 levels of spells after a Long Rest, or 3 levels of spells after a Short Rest (which become nonmagical after your next Short Rest).
When you Fast Craft a spell after a Long Rest, it can be any spell on your spell list, even if you do not have that spell in your Spellbook.
[As much as possible, I do not want to reinvent the wheel, so I tried to use rules and concepts that already existed in 5e, like Fast Crafting or Potent Cantrips.]
IIRC, in Byrne's Man of Steel, Lara expressed some unease at humans for being 'savages' and wondered aloud to Jor-El if their son would 'teach them proper Kryptonian values,' and Jor-El seemed less concerned about such things. (In her defense, she was seeing humans for the first time, in the context of 'these people are going to be raising my baby,' and Jor-El had been studying and acclimating himself to Earth and humanity for weeks, if not months. Plus Byrne can be wildly misogynistic at times, so there's also that.)
I could see this message as a shout-out to this story beat.
It would hardly be the first Superman treatment to present Krypton as far from idyllic. The last run of movies had a caste system where the 'leader caste' seemed stone-cold terrible at leadership, the 'military caste' seemed completely bugnuts crazy, and the 'science caste' seemed to be, if Jor-El's scene in the beginning was any indication, way better at fighty stuff than half the military caste!
I'm personally more interested in Lex having faked the message, but I'm willing to see what Gunn has in mind if it's genuine, since we've always had unpleasant Kryptonian factions, like General Zod's people, and we've always had a version of Krypton that is, one way or another, more or less responsible for their own genocide (whether they caused it, in some versions, or simply ignored warnings and let it happen, in others).
At various times, even mindless undead have been described as requiring a fragment of a soul torn from the original. This seems unlikely to be always true, given spontaneous undead, but ymmv
I could see the creation of undead as anathema to *all* gods, from Iomedae to Asmodeus, if animating a corpse as a zombie could tear souls (or fragments of souls) out of Asmodeus's hells or Iomedae's heavens.
Once Pharasma has sent someone's soul on to it's final destination, I'm not sure I love the idea of a spell being able to drag them back, particularly for a process of animation that is, IMO, not particularly advantageous over what transmutation already does through animate objects.
Necromancy, more and more, is kind of junk, and should just be removed from the game, rather than all sorts of arbitrary 'some god says you are destroying the universe by using it!' not-really-rules.
Save the space in the book for stuff we are supposed to use (and not going to be judged for using, or even finding interesting)!
If you reject the idea undeath hurts the cycle of souls in some way, then you are unlikely to agree with Pharasma's view. If you agree that undeath damages souls and degrades the cycle, hastening the death of the universe and potentially damaging future births of universes...then it becomes obvious why undeath is inherently a problem, even if its not a problem for any specific (non-deity) to worry about (because you wont exist when it becomes a problem).
I am somewhat intrigued by how this cycle of souls requires a timely process of birth->life->death to function. An animated zombie, who doesn't even have a soul, last a mere decade, before collapsing into rot and ruin, or being 'killed', and yet an elf, who keeps her soul out of the cycle for centuries, or someone who drinks the Sun Orchid Elixir, to do likewise, is not 'gumming up the works' in the same way.
If the cycle of souls being delayed or degraded is 'the answer', it's applied inconsistently, at best. As a non-good, non-lawful entity, it would make sense for Pharasma to be almost as opposed to races that live for centuries (like elves), or individuals (like high level Thassilonian wizards named Sorshen) who just flip her off and refuse to age and die and surrender their soul back to the cycle.
I wonder also what sort of creatures have souls, in game. She clearly isn't a goddess of vegetarians, so killing animals and 'desecrating' their corpses by making leather and meat out of them, seems perfectly fine with much of her church. (Although eating nothing but cold turnip stew sounds appropriately 'ugh' for the 'life must be misery' Pharasmin Penitence...) Are people's culturally inclined to those sorts of behaviors (eating 'people,' making stuff out of bone), like lizardfolk or gnolls, automatically anathema to her church? Are animals that desecrate the dead by their very nature, like worms, vultures, hyenas, etc. seen as part of the natural order, or filthy creatures? (I could see different orders of Pharasmins having wildly different views on this point, and Pharasma herself perhaps not caring in the slightest, if animals don't have souls and are just 'doing their job!')
It does seem she draws a hard line at undead, even if some undead (skeletons and zombies) don't *appear* to have bupkiss to do with the river of souls, while others (liches and mummies) don't do more than an elf or Sun Orchid elixir purchaser in keeping their own soul past their sell-by date. (Shadows, wraiths, spectres, any sort of undead that pretty much *is* a (usually discorporate) soul, and can, with a touch, pull some other living person out of the cycle, I could see being her enemy #1, by this logic.)
Coincidentally, the exact sort of undead that I, when playing a necromancer, loathe as well. :)
A 'Vitalist' that manipulates life-force to damage others (by draining their life force), heals allies (by infusing them with their own life force), buffs allies (more vitality!), debuffs foes (fatigue, etc.) and enhances themselves (burn that excess vitality for Rage like benefits) could be interesting.
Somewhat more adjacent abilities could allow them to manipulate people's or animals feelings (depress or energize them), or cause plants to grow or wither, or food to decay or freshen. A bit of 'psychic vampire' on the side, perhaps, able to bring down a room, or get a crowd pumped.
That's one reason why I wanted to discuss this, frankly: it feels like there's a disconnect between Pathfinder and Starfinder's opinions on undeath, Starfinder treating undead as morally neutral while Pathfinder implies they're not.
While yes, the devs have stated one game's canon doesn't impact the other, I feel like this is something that could cause problems for writers of both games in the future, as they have different ideas on the fundamental metaphysics of the game world and the intended moral and ethical dynamics of their respective narratives.
** spoiler omitted **
It is possible that something can change, metaphysically or cosmologically, and that there *weren't* any 'morally neutral' forms of undeath, until, in the Starfinder era, yes, there was *now* one.
Either that specific form of undeath was special, perhaps even specifically designed in such a way as to avoid the cosmologically bad thing (much how liches or mummies pump so much magical energy into their creation process that they can exist for millenia that it slows most forms of entropic decay and get away from the sorts of hunger / degeneration faced by ghouls or vampires) *or* the entire universe has changed in such a way that the process itself is no longer hurtful to the river of souls.
So it doesn't *have* to mean that Gray Lady was wrong. Just that this is A) a specific exception that just came into existence recently or B) she was right *then*, but things are different *now.*
Admittedly, my preference, as always, is to find a reason why both things can be true. I prefer offering solutions to just pointing out problems!
And I prefer not to be part of the problem, when I can be *the entire problem!* :)
Eagly remains the best thing I never knew I wanted.
Wow, that was the least sexy orgy, ever. (And, clearly, deliberately so?)
Economos walking next to his boss makes him look like a fricking bear in a people suit. He's gigantic! (And / or the actor playing Flagg Sr. was shot in such a way to make him look tiny!)
175. Ring of Animal Fiendship This cold iron band resembles a creature with the head of a cat, lower body of a snake, and folded wings of a bat, coiled around one's finger. Once worn, it cannot be removed, and any familiar, animal companion or summoned animal gains the fiendish template, an evil alignment and does not respond to your commands (although it does not *automatically* attack you exclusively)...
176. Cloak of Arachnids This fine spider-silk cloak has a web motif and appears to be decorated with hundreds of barely visible spiders crafted of metal and stone. Once donned, if you try to remove it, or if it suffers any damage (from being specifically targeted, or the wearer being affected by AoE damage), it immediately transforms into a spider swarm and attacks the wearer.
177. Defunding weapon This magical weapon was intended to steal coin from the target struck, and transfer it to the user. But, no. It steals coin from the user, equal to 1 gp / hit point of damage inflicted, and that money goes straight to Mammon's vault, because he's like that.
If you run out of gold, damage inflicted is reduced appropriately, and if you have not a single gold worth of coinage, you can whale away all day and inflict zero damage. (A small saving grace, the weapon only consumes coinage, and will not devour jewelry or gemstones or valuable equipment to cover the expense of doing damage.)
Like carnivale, this autumn festival includes a costume masquerade, where everyone dresses like characters from the Harrow deck. All Harrow's Eve runs from sundown to midnight, and involves dancing, feasting, drinking, plays and skits and comedy acts involving Harrow characters, and, naturally, a bit of Harrow reading on the side.
Two years ago, some strange coincidence led to an overabundance of people dressed as the Rabbit Prince. There were parties with upwards of a dozen Rabbit Princes in attendance! An overreaction to this embarrassment of riches led to the following year having nearly no Rabbit Princes, as everyone strove to find different characters to come as.
Who knows what this year will bring! Too many Rabbit Princes? Not enough Rabbit Princes? The *actual* Rabbit Prince?
This was the impression I got, yes, along with the fact that undead constantly need to feed on life to keep from deteriorating, and that does similar damage to the souls of their victims, especially with undead whose feeding habits produce more of their kind, such as shadows, wraiths and ghouls.
I have long disliked the notion from earlier editions of D&D, that creatures animated by negative energy are somehow 'free.' IMO, negative energy should be a hungry void, devouring constantly to survive. Instead, we've had a system where one could be a living creature, subject to aging, death and decay, constantly needing to kill and devour other living creatures to survive (even if some choose to only kill and devour plants), while a mindless skeleton can keep trucking for all eternity, and never *needs* to kill anything to sustain itself.
A more on-theme form of undead, IMO, would *lose* hit points every day, when a living creature instead gains them, as negative energy cannot 'grow more of itself' the way a person or animal can. Those undead capable of draining energy, shadows, wraiths, wights, would have to do so *just to continue existing*, while a few, such as ghouls and vampires, can do so by devouring flesh and blood. Only the vary rarest of undead, like liches, might get around this constant 'hunger' and daily loss of hit points, by some ridiculously hard-to-achieve input and assimilation of magical energy, in place of stolen vitality.
Negative energy would not be infinite free energy, it would be endless hunger, forced to kill and devour even more so than living creatures (who can, if they choose, sustain themselves on products like honey or milk or fruit or vegetables that do not require killing any creature to consume, although *some* undead, like vampires, could similarly feed 'sustainably' by not killing those whose blood they drink. What would make the vast majority of them evil with a capital E is that *they choose not to do so*).
Obviously this would impact stories. One could not, under this paradigm, expect to open a crypt that's been sealed + buried for centuries, or even days!, and expect to find functional undead, as they would have 'starved to death' within a week or so! A workaround would be that undead only 'burn life' when they are active, and can go dormant and lie around motionless and all-but-insensate, perhaps even for millenia, without suffering this deterioration. (But gosh, they will be desperate for new life energy when they do awaken, since if they don't feed, they are just taking time off their clock / draining their battery!)
Quote:
From what we've seen, we can extrapolate that undeath is, at the end of the day, an unsustainable state: the undead need to feed on life will result in one of two ends: either they will overhunt in their territory and end up deteriorating into nonsentience and frailty, or their predations draw the attention of adventuring parties that will destroy them.
Agreed, it should be this way.
Quote:
This deterioration can only be STALLED, not overcome, and it's why intelligent undead tend to form underground societies in urban locations, to facilitate their feeding needs with people that "no one will miss" and ensure their own personal comfort. This is also the role the Church of Urgathoa fulfills: acting as a middleman to the undead in procuring food and helping people who want to be undead become that. The logical endpoint of these systems is Geb, where the undead have reached critical mass and subjugated the living, making them into a slave and livestock class. But despite Geb's rosy language, it's a situation that happened largely without him, as the Blood Lords organized under him to keep their own gravy trains going while he moped over Nex. And the general impression one gets of Geb (the nation) is that it's very invested in maintaining its status quo (the whole point of the Blood Lords AP, as has been discussed) and regards both the possibility that Nex (the wizard) is returning and the increased enthusiasm this has stirred in Geb (the wizard) and in Nex (the nation) with kind of an "ohhhhhh s%%%..." vibe, because they understand the house of cards their nation is, and any disruption to the supply of Quick coming in to supply the hungers of the undead, and the supply of cheap food going out that makes their neighbors tolerate them could make the whole thing come crashing down.
The contrast between Geb and Tar-Baphon is striking. As a ghost and a lich, neither of them *personally* has any need for the living, at all, but Geb has surrounded himself with an aristocracy of undead like ghouls and vampires *who cannot survive without mortals to feed off of.*
Tar-Baphon also has some vampire followers, who are, one assumes, short sighted idiots or complete nutjobs who drank the kool-aid, because if the Whispering Way gets it's 'way' and all life is ended and only the undead remain, vampires are pretty much toast. (Reminding me of those dumb-but-pretty/cool vampires from the first Blade movie, who wanted to summon their 'Blood God' and turn everyone on the planet into vampires, leaving them... nothing to eat, and doomed to madness and death (as we saw happens with vampires who starve) within a matter of months...)
It would be the weirdest war front on all of Golarion, if Geb had to bring forces to bear against Tar-Baphon, because Geb (and his Blood Lord aristocracy) *doesn't want all life to end*, leaving the forces of good to say, 'Uh, who are we supposed to be rooting for again?'
"You realize they are just fighting on our behalf because they want to eat us later, right? They are ranchers, protecting their cattle, and we are the cattle..."
[caveat] This is not meant, *at all,* to be some sort of argument about whether or not a god has an appropriate alignment, whether or not alignment belongs in the game or not, blah, blah, blah, but, the internet, so, I'm probably saying nothing useful here. :) [/caveat]
I am intrigued by how the 'one step rule' for Clerics of various gods creates for some fairly distinctive sub-sects of their churches.
Norgorber seems the the most clear cut, and even then, it's not spelled out or even intuitive if his four facets lean towards one of the four alignment choices his clerics can follow. Father Skinsaw seems to lean towards CE, certainly (but has plenty of room for LE obsessive serial killer sorts, and NE folk who are less OCD about following procedure, but also less wanton and whacky about their killing than the crazy murderclown cult). The Reaper of Reputation seems a good fit for Neutral Evil. All about using language (slander and libel) to ruin the reputations of people, but even there, is a teensy bit of wiggle room for a Neutal (non-evil) destroyer of reputations, someone who has lost family or friends or loved ones to a beloved or popular figure that they know to be a villain, and who has dedicated their life to unmasking those villains who hide under a guise of being benevolent or beloved public figures. Assorted bits of modern fiction deal with heroes being forced to unmask the perfidy of a popular person who is secretly a terrible person and is themselves manipulating public opinion. (This would, obviously, be an outlier among the Reapers of Reputation's followers. I expect most of them are terrible people themselves. The politics of personal destruction rarely leave someone's hands unstained...) Either Blackfingers or the Gray Master could be the safest havens for the non-evil clergy (and worshippers) of Norgorber. Figures like Robin Hood, or movies like Ocean's Eleven, even glamorize 'gentleman thieves,' at times. And poison, particularly in our modern world, is *far* more commonly used to eliminate disease and famine-causing pests, or even eliminate tumors, than by power-mad Medici's trying to control Italian city-states (and not all alchemically minded Blackfingers folk are even guaranteed to be all that into poison, specifically, of their many class abilities, since it is, IMO, not as fun as chucking fiery explosions or 'hulking out' with a mutagen).
So many alignment based splinters kind of make sense to me.
A CN sect of Caydenites could be more about the drunken state itself, and perhaps a little less concerned with stuff that happens *while* they are drunk. A NG sect of Caydenites sometimes roll their eyes at the focus on 'getting drunk' and could be more focused on orphanages and abolitionism (and, yes, responsible use of intoxicants). The mainstream church perhaps regards the irresponsible CN'frat boys' as a good recruiting ground for those who can learn responsibility, while still being able to cut loose.
NG Pharasmins, which I'd love to see more of, could be all about midwifery, family planning advice, medicine (particularly of the very young, and very old), end of life care, and, yeah, funerals. NE Pharasmins could be actively fighting those who defy her will by extending their lives unnaturally, or trying to 'get around' death in various ways, not just undeath, such as abusing the reincarnation spell. The only branch I actually don't immediately see a niche for are the CN Pharasmins. (I'm sure someone has put more thought into this than I, and has an idea here!)
The only *god* of the big twenty who doesn't really 'speak' to me, in any of his alignment options, would be Rovagug. I could see why someone would follow the tenets (or at least *some* of the tenets) of just about everyone else. I could see how a LN priest of Zon-Kuthon could be all about cutting away weakness and strengthening the body and the mind, or a NE Nethyn could be an arcane supremacist, convinced that non-spellcasters should *never* command or rule over 'their betters,' anyone can cast spells, and have a complicated heirarchy of *which* spellcasters are 'superior' which might start with wizards (or sorcerers!), and end with clerics of any god other than Nethys, or those mediochre dabblers called Adepts that everyone pretends don't even exist. But clerics of Rovagug are a mystery to me. I do not get them at all. :)
There might be a CN faction of Lamashtans, with their own clerics, focused on providing nurturing communities for those that modern society calls 'neurodivergent' or 'differently-abled,' and teaches them to regard their differences (in appearance, 'acceptable' behavior, or both) as gifts and opportunities, not defects to be shunned, or hidden away, or surgically or magically 'corrected.' Being that the core faith is Chaotic EVIL, I could also see the more orthodox clerics stoking resentment in these folk, leading to frightening or even dangerous behaviors that 100% inflame the exact sort of prejudice that their flock already face, and perpetuating the cycle that keeps this faction flush with new potential recruits, as they encourage the afflicted to lash out at societies that shun them, 'proving' that society was 'right' to do so in the first place! (Telling those with socially unacceptable behaviors that their violent or disturbing traits are somehow 'gifts from the goddess' that shouldn't be restrained or managed could also lead to disruptions that 'prove' that they should be driven away, or killed! Which would serve the purposes of the greater CE church of Lamashtu.)
What might seem, to us in the modern day, an organization / support group for the 'differently abled' or neurodivergent, could have members who are all about that stated purpose, and an entirely sinister underbelly that is stoking resentment and fear both among their flock, and among the rest of society *against* their flock, given them nowhere else to go, but the safety of 'their own kind' against a world out to get them. Perfect cult or gang recruitment tactic. Give them nowhere else to go. Make them burn all their bridges, or perform acts that will result in a dire fate if leave, not from the cult itself, but from everyone else.
- It's environmentally bad, just on a cosmic scale rather than a local one. This is why Pharasma herself is against it. The other reasons are much more useful arguments for her church to make, because people don't even care too much about stuff that affects the planet they live on, let alone 'reality as a whole long after all life on the planet is long dead anyway'. I'm going to lump in "it's just wrong (Pharasma says so)" into here.
I feel like there's an actual reason other than 'Grey Lady dun like it', like all souls are kinda recycled, even if some ka or khaibit-like bit of them goes on to become a Petitioner or whatever, some other vital bit of them swirls down the big drain at the bottom of creation (the 'Negative' plane) and spat back out all shiny and new at the big spigot at the top of creation (the 'Positive' plane), and that there's a finite amount of 'soul' out there. Every bit of it siphoned off to form a shadow, spectre, wraith, or still inhabiting a fleshy undead like a vampire, ghoul or lich, is subtracting from the soul-river, and making either A) less people to be born, or B) just as many people to be born, but with *less soul*, making them hollow empty people...
I could see it as a faux cosmological version of the old sci-fi / fantasy trope about societies run by immortals (via body-swapping tech, or just vampires or whatever) being stagnant and having zero upward mobility because the 'old boy's club' in charge *never actually dies* and ends up clinging to power and the title of Prince being an eternal sentence, since the King will never pass on his crown.
Those who cling to existence aren't just metaphorically stealing from future generations (by hanging on to power, property, wealth, opportunities, rather than allow the next generations to ever have any), but if some element of souls are indeed recycled (and we do know that not *every* element of a person goes on to any new Petitioner existence, as at least some lose memories of life and, more or less, become entirely new faceless strangers anyway, often also changing entirely in appearance or form, to giant maggots, or fluffy bunnies, or whatever), then any sort of intelligent undead is 'stealing' from future generations quite literally, by reducing the quantity (or quality?) of newly arriving souls pouring down from the Positive plane.
I have no idea if anything like that has been written to be canon (or if I'm even stretching it terribly with the black hole drain / white hole faucet metaphor for the Negative and Positive planes), but it certainly feels compelling to me.
Funny, you'd think there would be stuff written in any of the numerous books about Pharasma holding contempt over all forms of created life...
Does the fact that it's considered life rather than unlife have anything to do with it?
I feel like there's an attempt at snark here, but a salient point, that I already made, was that bodies are being desecrated to make these flesh golems, which is itself a violation of her tenets, and yeah, it has been mentioned in books before that she doesn't like corpses to be desecrated.
(She probably cares a whole heck of a lot less about any living plants harvested to make the base forms of leshies, I'll admit. She may prioritize animal lives and deaths over plant lives and deaths.)
So, if that was intended as snark, and I'm not reading into it (and if so, I apologize for misreading your tone), it kind of misses the point entirely.
In theory, when alignment was part of the game, Phrasma should have been an opposing force to the party just as much percent of her appearances as Abadar, right? That is, if you took a random 30 appearances of each or their followers across the pre-remaster period, you would find them opposed to the party vs. aligned with the party at the same ratio? I doubt it. The only time I remember her opposing the party is at the beginning of Tyrant's Grasp.
There was an AP set in Ustalav where the party ended meeting an awakened flesh golem, and there was some assumption that they might not end up immediately attempting to destroy it or even talk to it, which was just, IMO, so far outside of anything the recommended 'cleric of Pharasma' for the AP would tolerate that it made me laugh. Here's some creature made of stitched together desecrated corpses (anathema!) that was never even born, but created by some nut (also seems like a huge no-no to the *goddess of birth* even if it gets zero mention, compared to her 'goddess of hating undead' label).
I really expected the church of Pharasma (particularly those Penitents) to straight up be adversaries at *several* points in that AP.
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In 1e, she allowed NE clerics, but I'm absolutely confused about what they would do.
Pharasma is the most dogmatically lawful of the not-Lawful gods out there. :)
I can't even imagine what a *Chaotic* Neutral cleric of Pharasma would be like, but a NE one seems like they'd be a perfect assassin for the goddess. The NG Pharasmin might go after undead for defying her (even if many, if not most, of them, do not do so of their own volition), while the NE Pharasmin goes after the *living* who defy her will.
Creating 'unborn' life like leshies or ghoran? That's a stabbin.'
Attempting to live forever by bidding for the Sun Orchid Elixir? Stab.
Teach or just work at a place like the Academae that has an entire section dedicated to pumping out arcane necromancers? Stabby-foo!
Being resurrected, or, worse, using reincarnation to get around aging? Stab-stab-stab for you.
The less stabby might agitate for laws and traditions to forbid this sort of nonsense, and the less immediately powerful-enough-to-kill-Sun-Orchid-bidders might resort to undermining the Sun Orchid trade (by hunting and killing Sun Orchid hunters and guides in the deserts of Thuvia, or even by just stirring up resentment and envy in the lower classes against those who can afford to 'defy the gods with their blasphemy).
Plenty of stuff for the NE church of Pharasma to get up to.
She's not real big on attempts to nail down the workings of fate, for instance, so one priest might get a bug up his butt about Harrowers, and end up persecuting local fortune-tellers, whipping up public sentiment against them, 'prove' them to be charlatans, etc. (and, accidentally or not, generate some anti-Varisian sentiments, which could be doubly ironic if half of the local church are, in fact, Varisian...).
Anywho, any of these living folks who break her laws get stabbed and sent to Pharasma for premature judgement. The NE cleric even makes it clear that *they* are not judging the sinner, it's what Pharasma will do when the sinner arrives. They are just... expediting the meeting...
Maybe they are even *helping* the sinner, by stopping them from doing any more necromancy or fortune-telling or whatever it is that would increase the burden of sin for which they are about to be judged!
Shory items inspired by the Aeromantic Infandibulum (and not be too overly powerful!).
Shory Greatcloak (inspired by the Great Rudder)
This ornate high-collared 5 lb. blue and white silk cloak has many sail-like folds and streamers of cloth that billow majestically in the slightest breeze, snapping like canvas ship's sails, despite it's light silk composition. It occupies both the shoulder and cloak slots, and benefits the wearer in the following ways;
* the wearer gains Skill Focus (Fly) as a bonus feat,
* they are considered acclimated to high altitudes and have a +4 competence bonus to resist high altitude effects and altitude sickness,
* they are treated as 1 size class larger, or smaller, as they desire in the moment, versus wind effects,
* they treat wind speed as two steps lower for the effects on their ranged attacks,
* if Blown Away by strong winds, they can make a DC 15 Fly check to retain their footing and land on their feet, or a DC 25 Fly check to also alter their angle of travel to anywhere within a 90 degree arc of the direction of the wind that is blowing them back,
* they automatically reduce the distance of a fall by 10 ft. when calculating falling damage, even if unconscious, gain a +5 check to any Acrobatics check to willingly reduce falling damage by an additional 10 ft., and can make a Reflex save to land on their feet, even if they do take falling damage (DC 10 + damage taken).
Despite billowing widely when in use, the cloak folds itself obediently when not in motion, and takes up no more space than a normal mantled greatcloak.
Bag of Winds
This small silk bag is sealed with a cord, and bulges dramatically as if it contains some moving creature. When opened as a standard action, it releases a gust of wind in the direction the mouth of the bag is facing. This gust of wind is at CL 5, and can last for up to 5 rounds before it is spent and will not gust again until it has been sealed up and allowed to recover for at least 8 hours. It can be used for no more than five rounds in a 24 hour period, but these rounds do not need to be consecutive, and it can be tied off again as a free action by the wearer.
Infandibulum Key
This adjustable mithril band can be worn as a torc, headband or even a bracer (taking up the entire bracers slot), resizing itself and locking into place. It is linked to a floating disk, at CL 5, which can be summoned or dismissed at will, for up to 5 hours per day (which do not need to be used all at once, although each time it is summoned, it expends at least an hour of use, even if called forth for a lesser duration).
Additionally, you gain the Disk Rider ability of someone who has the Magic Trick feat specialized towards the floating disk spell, and can ride the disk created by the Infandibulum Key at a 30 ft. fly speed.
Rod of Rightful Rule
A lesser version of the staff of rightful rule, this 3 lb. mithril-rune coated hollow steel rod can be used as a sturdy +1 shock light mace, despite it's light construction, and allows the user unlimited use of feather fall (self only).
Additionally, if the user is an arcane spellcaster, and knows either Auran or Infernal, it allows them to prepare (or know) an additional cantrip each day, which must be chosen from light, mage hand or prestidigitation. The cantrip chosen can be changed each day when spells are refreshed, even if the wearer is a spontaneous spellcater.
The sound of air moving through the hollow central shaft, and whistling in and out of the many carved holes decorating it when it is swung about, also make it oddly musical, for a weapon or symbol of rule...
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Mithril and crystal wands that produce a single scorching ray that have been modified to inflict electrical, cold or even sonic damage are also not uncommon items of Shory manufacture, although most have few charges remaining, and are worth more as curios or items of research, than for their effective value.
A pair of gauntlets that can cast light (at touch range, only one effect maintained at a time) at will, or produce flame (CL 3) once per day, similarly modified to produce a ball of glowing electricity, instead of flame, also seems to have been popular.
Items related to flight, naturally, remain the most commonly seen, and rumors, often quite far-fetched, attribute the designs of boots, carpets, cloaks, armor, shields, helms or even broomsticks or mortars and pestles (clearly Irriseni inventions!) that grant flight capabilities to their bearers, abound. On the other hand, it is known that many such items (boots, cloaks and carpets, mostly) were in use by the Shory people, not all of whom had the spellcasting abilities to fly under their own power.
Barnacles form on the bottom side of the cyphergate outside of Riddleport. Known to be nothing more than normal barnacles, altered by the magical leakage from the structure they adhere to, these 'spark barnacles' are stunted in size, rarely larger than a plump blueberry, and glow with a soft blue radiance if disturbed, for a few moments, a gentle warning to their danger. If damaged, and they have but a single hit point, if their hard shell is penetrated, they burst open and release a miniscule burst of electrical energy that does a single hit point of damage to their killer, and causes it to be staggered and sickened by disorientation. The damaged creature must also make a Fortitude save, DC 12, or be stunned for 1 round (and, if it is holding it's breath, immediately ceases to do so and begins drowning!). Each round, it can make another DC 12 Fortitude save to end the staggered + sickened conditions, but until it does so, it is easy prey for any surrounding threats, which in the waters surrounding Riddleport, are plentiful and include reefclaws, swamp barracuda, jigsaw sharks and even bunyips. (While no one not immediately touching the spark barnacle when it dies is damaged or debilitated, but the tingly shock can be felt many yards away through the salty waters of the bay, and some creatures, like reefclaws in particular, can sense such an electrical discharge much farther.)
But this wasn't supposed to be about spark barnacles. They are sought after for spell research by cyphermage apprentices, but are inedible, even mildly corrosive and resulting in unpleasant gastric distress, and, obviously, quite dangerous to harvest.
It was meant to be about cypherbeaks, a cold water relative of the parrotfish that feeds on spark barnacles (and other crustaceans, more commonly). With their powerful beak, able to sever a finger as easily as that of a snapping turtle, these lazy fish spend most of their time eating sea grass and tiny crustaceans off of the sea floor, but also eat at least one spark barnacle each day, trusting to their single point of electrical resistance to protect them from the consequences of this dangerous diet. They not only resist the damage, but absorb, internalize and store it, and for 24 hours after eating a spark barnacle, the cypherbeak can release as an immediate action an identical electrical burst as the death-burst of a spark barnacle, punishing any creature that bites it, or that it slaps with it's elongated eel-like tail (as a swift action) when turning to disengage from a predator. It can store only a single such burst, but can immediately return to the cyphergate to eat another spark barnacle and 'recharge.' Cypherbeaks, unlike spark barnacles, are edible, if somewhat tart, and said to be 'tingly on the tongue' and a popular dish for the adventurous diner.
They are not terribly common, and hard to catch without suffering a shock (which would normally not be a threat, but, again, these are dangerous waters in which to be stunned and flash out a 'dinner!' signal to surrounding predators), making a cypherbeak fillet a pricy dinner (and, not surprisingly, far more likely to be mundane fish with some bitter seasoning and unfamiliar coloring, for unsuspecting visiting gourmands). Genuine cypherbeak flesh is darker orange than salmon, and, best to say, piquant. Fake cypherbeak fillets, sold to unsuspecting tourists, is usually salmon marinated in cranberry pulp, to make it both darker and more tart to the taste.
Cypherbeak roe, extremely dangerous to harvest as the fish defend their nests in pairs, as they are quite tasty treats for reefclaws, are salty and tingly and sell for ridiculous amounts to the few that know of them, but few outside of Riddleport are even aware of this delicacy, and they do not transport well.
What the game is missing, is a Lore explanation for the discrepancy between adventurers without flight and "normal" members of the ancestry.
Something like "For unknown reasons, some get their flight only late into adulthood or never at all. As they have issues fitting into a society build around flying movement, many of them become adventurers".
And that could be kind of neat, leaning into mindsets of those who prioritize flight above all other things, and those who either cannot, or do not want to, devote years of their lives to strengthening their wings and take flight like their pre-sapient ancestors, and would rather focus on learning a craft, studying magic or leading their people.
There could be positive interpretations and groups that get along and value each others different contributions, and groups that do not understand or approve of each others choices, and see 'not able to fly' as some sort of disability or sign of failure (such as comparing flightless avians to some sort of 'degenerate' race like the flightless dire corbies of earlier editions, or conversely seeing avians who spend all their time on 'flying like birds' as trying to turn the clock back to the days before they had language and culture and society, when they were just animals).
There could even be more mechanical reasons for the different abilities, with one winged race not being naturally able to fly with any amount of training and exercise, but a series of magical transformations, or alchemical 'evolutions' (represented in-game by buying the appropriate feats!) could artificially give them this ability. And some might not want to embrace, or have access to, these transformations, leaving entire populations and communities of these winged folk, flightless, some by choice, some by circumstance.
168. Eye-on Stone. This cat's eye agate sphere looks like an actual cat's eye, thanks to it's diagonal inclusion like a cat's eye. When it is equipped, the bearer is staggered by the new perspective, as they can see through it like a living eye. Unfortunately, this is very disorienting, as it zips around the head like a typical ioun stone, fairly quickly, and is actively resistant to being seized and 'stowed away' (attempting to sneak free and resume orbiting), being as hard to grab for the wearer as if they were an unwelcome thief. As long as it is active, the wearer suffers the Sickened condition, from the disorientation, although they can make a Will save each round as a swift action to attempt to focus, and reduce the penalty to the Dazzled condition for that round.
If the stone can be seized, and stowed in a tightly sealed pouch or box, as long as the interior remains dark and the stone can't move around too much, the bearer suffers no penalties as the eye 'can't see' in the dark.
A remove curse will end the cursed sensory link normally, but if the stone is destroyed before the link is broken, the former bearer must make a Fortitude save or experience searing pain as if one of their eyes was just crushed, leaving them stunned for one round, and blind in one eye permanently (permanent Dazzled condition until cured with Cure Blindness, Regenerate or similar magic).
Thinking on how various fey would cross-pollinate into the elemental planes, with earth fey (pech, korreds?), water fey (nymphs, nixies) and wood/plant fey (dryads), it occurred to me that there weren't enough fire fey!
648. Grumbles 'Grumbles' is a slang term for a type of fey that do not appear to have, or want, any more accurate name for their people. Despite the nickname, grumbles are more capricious and whimsical by nature, more 'fey' and fickle and flighty, then grouchy or curmudgeonly (at least, for long, as their moods burn hot and are fast forgotten).
Diminutive to Tiny domestic hearth-fey that live in ovens, campfires or hearths (they don’t like forges or watchfires), grumbles enjoy the smells of cooking food, and fragrant woods or oils to burn, and mineral salts that cause their fires to burn in bright unexpected colors like green, blue and violet. Gifts of any of these things can earn their fickle favor, and they are easily distracted by such things, even when otherwise displeased, making them perhaps a bit predictable, and safer than one would expect for tiny pyromaniacs living in one's kitchen.
Grumbles sometimes cause fires, if unhappy, and do not like their fires to go out, which may cause them to sneak out (leaving sooty tiny footprints) to visit other hearths, where they canoodle with (or squabble with, or try to evict!) neighboring hearth fey. Naturally chaotic, if not generally good or evil, being both petulant and nurturing, as the whim takes them, grumbles are widely known to have no real attention span (known to everyone but themselves, it seems).
Relatively short lived, by fey standards, grumbles usually fade away (to reappear elsewhere, as 'death' does not mean the same thing to a fey) if their fire goes cold. When not dancing in the fires, they appear as twisted burned stick figures smaller and scrawnier than most gremlins, and utterly black and charred, leaving warm sooty prints wherever they go, and on anything they touch, when outside of their hearth.
They appreciate sung or spoken art, or people dancing around their fires, and some might be moved to dance or even sing along (in terrible speechy voices, they never seem to have any talent for these things). One thing they do not like near their fires are cats, sometimes tossing tiny sparks at them to discourage them from sleeping next to their hearth. (They do not seem to have a similar problem with dogs, oddly.) If caught outside of their protective fire, a cat might repay the favor by killing one, as a simple housecat is quite able to overpower the diminutive fey, and seem to share their disregard.
The only time grumbles are truly a menace is when a town is on fire, as they somewhat short-sightedly dance and celebrate the fires springing up everywhere, helping to spread them with their minute gift for generating sparks and fanning tinders, not really able to recognize that this will result in the families and bakers whose hearths they have lived in for years being cold forever in a few days...
Grumbles generally do not like the stink of forges, and are not tolerated 'infesting' dwarven forges, a mutual lack of appreciation for each other making them a rare sight in a dwarven forge (if somewhat less rare in a dwarven bakery).
A grumble living in a dwarven brewery is a disaster waiting to happen, as they have no head for alcohol, and dwarves remove them as expediently as feasible!
Lepidstadt's contributions to the reclamation of Sarkoris.
One researcher has been working on a Stasian coil-empowered repeating heavy crossbow, that launches it's cold iron bolts with great force through a magnetic charge. This prototype is cumbersome, slow, awkward, requires specialized training, and does not seem more terribly more effective than a non-Stasian-coil empowered repeating heavy crossbow in the hands of a specialized user, perhaps. (+2 to hit, +4 to damage, so yes, somewhat better, but hardly worth all the time spent between firings winding up the Stasian coil to re-energize it.)
But, Lepidstadt, and she insists that surely the solution must be 'more Stasian coils!'
To point, another student is trying to find a way to 'untaint' demon-tainted life through the use of Stasian current. He has been forbidden to work with animals (or people!, not even volunteers!), and has so far only proven able to shock a few sad demon-tainted plants to death. He maintains that this is a partial success, as the resultant ashes show no sign of demon taint!
More usefully, a field researcher has begun modifying a technique that allows someone with the appropriate training (alchemists, rogues, investigators, rangers) to use a relevant Knowledge (planes, in the case of demons) or Heal check to temporarily show an ally how to strike a foe with bonuses similar to Favored Enemy, or with the effects of Sneak Attack. A technique usable by multiple roles, and not limited to spellcasters, shows some promise, although it is in it's initial stages. They insist that knowledge is the best weapon, and they seek to give those who have that knowledge, the ability to empower their allies appropriately.
The field of research is indeed something of a challenge for the faction from Lepidstadt, as their traditional areas of focus; fencing, the occult, homonculi, surgery and now, Stasian coils, are of limited use in either fighting demons, or removing demonic corruption from blighted flora and fauna.
Undoubtedly, there is a woefully misguided student out there convinced that the right kind of homonculus could make all the difference, if they can only stitch together the right combination of demon-tainted animal parts, and animate them with a charge from a Stasian coil.
646. Sapra Vines In pre-demon-taint Sarkoris, the sapra vine was a minor nuisance, and sometimes selectively pruned, at other times encouraged to grow on otherwise unproductive (non-fruiting) trees. The slender parasitic vine drew nutrients from the ground, through it's roots, the tree it clung to, and even the small animals that would sometimes fall afoul of it's thin needle like thorns, more like the spines of a cactus, that would grow directly under each leaf. Under that spine, a single tart red berry would grow, and the locals enjoyed the flavor of them as a treat, or to ferment into a potent drink, although pickers would have to exercise care to avoid many painful pricks while harvesting enough of the small berries to be worthwhile. As the vine tended to weaken the trees it grew upon, such that fruiting trees in particular produced notably less of their own, far more significant, fruit (or nuts), than the vine itself, Sarkorians hacked away any vines that began to grow upon trees whose fruit was more useful to them, and only allowed, or even encouraged, the vine to grow on trees that were otherwise 'useless' to them as a food source.
Sapra vines also had the somewhat grim tendency to sprout tiny rootlets quickly around any small birds or animals that died at their base, often the victim of flying or springing into one or more of their spines, which sometimes gave them a sinister reputation, but this was merely opportunistic feeding on this brief rush of nutrients.
At least, before Sarkoris became the Worldwound.
The sapra vine was one of the few plants that adapted well to the demon-taint, and tainted sapra vines are more resistant to attempts to hack or burn them away, or use any sort of natural 'weed killer,' having weaker resistances common to demonkind, and having grown tougher stalks, like knotty wood. Their spines carry a weak toxin that causes itching and inflammation, little more than a painful irritant to a full grown person, but quite debilitating to a tiny bird or mammal (which is then quickly entangled in rootlets and stripped of resources). They cannot truly move, but can shake their leaves around, increasing the chance that their spines draw blood (and envenom those they strike), and their berries have become quite inedible to any creature not immune to that same toxin. (Demons find them quite tasty. A human might find their tongue itches and burns, swell up and they then die of asphyxiation. So, not good.) Tainted sapra vine burns fitfully, at best, and seems more resistant to most forces (acid, cold and fire resistance 2, electrical resistance 5), requiring cold iron sickles to slice through it's weak damage resistance (2), making it's removal a chore for those lacking more magical solutions.
Sarkorian reclaimers are kept busy trying to find ways to 'untaint' sapra vines, but, until they do, are left trying to tediously hack away the thick dangerous vines, and search for untainted specimens to reintroduce, at a later date. The search continues.
So, just finally picked up Rival Academies and had some thoughts, as is my wont.
What if the gathered folks had come with some signature spells to help fight off the remaining demons infesting Sarkoris?
Venorium Blorm - a spell that scrambles the surrounding space, so that if anyone attempts to teleport within the casters immediate area, they can use a Reaction to force them to make a Will save to 'stay on target.' If they critically succeed, they go exactly where they want. If they merely succeed, they take some psychic damage *or* perhaps they are staggered, as if they'd dimension doored back in PF1. If they fail the save, they go nowhere, and take damage or are staggered. And if they critically fail, they appear anywhere else within range that the caster wishes, take damage *and* are staggered! Ha ha! No leaving until I say so! The spell would start out relatively low level, affect only a 10 ft. radius and only do 2 dice of damage, but using higher level slots you can increase it up to a 30 ft radius and 6 dice of damage.
Zenda Modic - a spell that transforms a length of bone (such as a femur) into a javelin that flies at a creature of the same type as the bone came from. (So, if hunting demons, use demon bones.) It attacks as a ranged spell attack but does damage like a javelin with the bane property (1e) or a striking rune (2e) that only affects that creature type. At higher level, it does more damage (major or greater striking rune?). Low level spell, but you can upcast it for bigger damage rune.
Aerusa Fleethoof - speak words of obscure prophecy that cause the area to be lit with starlight and cancels out darkness penalties or suspends magical darkness. [Wow, oracle magic that somehow involves the NPCs focus on astronomy, prophecy and oracle stuff, and also could be useful in demon-fighting? Don't make it easy on me!] :)
Alamyra Jadwiga - spell that summons a spirit to inhabit a figure of sticks or carved wood and animates it. At the lowest level, it functions like unseen servant (but, obviously, visible). With higher level slots, it's just a different skin for animate object. [A Jadwiga who *isn't* all about ice magic? I like!]
Chiral - [eusocial insects and societal transmogrification? what is this, mad libs?] a spell that links you and a number of allies so that as long as they all take the same action you just took before casting this spell as a reaction (so the action doesn't actually have to be 'cast a spell,' you could perform an attack and *then* trigger the spell), they get a +1 bonus to that action. (+2 if they are, in 1e terms, lawful subtype, like devils, archons, axiomites, inevitables, etc. or have the 'strong aura of law' feature like paladins or clerics of lawful gods.)
As written, it's kind of junk. Ooh, I shot a crossbow, and now all my allies get +1 on their next attack. Or, ooh, I made my stealth check, and now all my allies get a +1 on any Stealth check before my next turn. Very not sexy. Needs work.
A higher level version would only trigger on a successful roll for an attack or skill check, and cause allies who also attacked before your next turn, or rolled the same skill, to have their success bumped up one notch. (only fail on a crit fail, succeed on a fail, crit succeed on a success?) And that might be too much!
Ehmik Naaruj - state your action, and then for each round after the first you follow that action, you get a +2 bonus to relevant rolls, for up to a minute. If you stop doing the stated action before the goal is complete (you don't have to keep attacking a foe who you felled in round 4 for six more rounds!), you are stunned and take mental damage for 'betraying your oath.'
Gaztyn Ur'Darga = you implant a gem worth X shiny quatloo in your flesh and it counts as an aeon stone of that value for the day. Higher level slots allow you to bond more 'spensive gems into more valuable aeon stones for the day. The gem is reusable! (Nobody wants a spell that burns 1000 gp. a day to be able to not eat or drink for 24 hours... Unless they are dying of thirst in a desert, while sitting on a chest of gems, I guess?) [No, this has nothing to do with demon fighting. I don't care. The NPC had zippo to do with demon-fighting, and I didn't want to fight the narrative.]
Nochtli Tlatoa - a spray of phosphorescent pollen coats everyone in the area. Only targets of the named type (say, *demons!*) have any reaction as the pollen causes them to glow for the next minute as if affected by faerie fire. Others in the area do not trigger the effect.
The pollen can also be set as a trap in an area, and puffs up from the ground if creatures of the appropriate sort step onto the affected ground, and begin glowing appropriately. Can be used as a demon-detecting spell, but also handy for targeting them, so useful for demon-fighting as well. (or undead, or whatever creature type you set the pollen to react to)
And that's as far as my brain got. Odd that the 'lesser schools' in the back of the book got my creative juices flowing more than the Magaambya or Lepidstadt, but such is my brain.
I am, as always, intrigued by who *didn't* show up. No Cyphermages. No Hemotheurges. No Shadowcasters. No Signifers. No Gatewarders. No Blue Warders. No Reborn House (company of Nethyn wizards crusading against corrupt magic, from Faiths of Balance). No Arclords.
Ah, so much fun stuff in this setting! It's an embarrassment of riches!
A more interesting (IMO) version for Chiral would be to adapt one of my 1e demon-hunting spells, one that 'broadcasts' distracting sound (like chanting in Celestial!) on the 'telepathic frequency' that races that have natural telepathy (like demons!) share. Anyone in the area of the caster with telepathy would be sickened or shaken or otherwise minorly penalized by the distracting angelic singing coming in over demon radio, while it wouldn't even be audible to anyone else and just sound like the wizard (or cleric, bard, whatever) is singing a song quietly to themself in Celestial!
And since telepathy also is a feature of devils and daemons, it's not exclusively a demon-fighting spell. (Although it would only affect naturally telepathic critters, not users of detect thoughts or even 'detect thoughts at will' like rakshasa or dopplegangsters.)
Ticklers are much like their Mite cousins, but are primarily kindly and playful (and somewhat pretentious and claim some sort of deep wisdom that they, mostly, don't have...). They are scaled and finned, and wear sheer clothing, if any at all, sometimes settling for aesthetically draped aquatic plant life or shells in place of cloth goods (which rarely last underwater in any event), Ticklers can breathe both water and air without difficulty, and their base language is Sylvan. They have the same solitary Hit Die, a Natural Armor bonus of 1, Str 8, Dex 11, Con 11, Int 8, Wis 11 and Cha 12 and can cast Speak with Animals (fish only) 3/day at CL one, as well as any one cantrip from the Druid list. Instead of Vermin Empathy, they have Wild Empathy, but only with fish. Each day they can choose a different cantrip, if they wish. They lack any sort of Hatred trait, but do dislike evil aquatic fey, such as Rusalka or Nuckalavee, as well as certain other rapacious aquatic folk, like Scrags or Merrow. As they are most commonly seen in freshwater, they have little contact with Sea Hags or Sahuagin, whom they would likely also dislike...
Flits (sometimes called Swifts are also quite similar to Mites (and Ticklers), but instead of fish or vermin empathy, their special bond is with birds. Not nearly as kindly as their aquatic cousins, the colorfully feathered Flits can fly, just, being able to glide like a chicken, or descend any distance without suffering falling damage. They like to wear clattering scarves of fallen leaves in bright autumnal colors, but prefer not to cover up their often dazzling plumage, in whatever colors are most common to the more colorful birds of their region. They are as Dextrous as Mites (more so than Ticklers), if not quite as Intelligent as either of their cousins, and lack the Natural Armor of their scaled relatives. They can cast Speak with Animals (birds only) 3/day at CL 1, use Wild Empathy (birds only) as a Druid, and use a single Druid cantrip (chosen each day) at will at CL 1. They can be playful, or cruel, by turns, and seem to be more fickle than either of their cousins, neither inclined to good or evil by nature, but straddling the line between, singing and prancing like songbirds one moment, and coldly eyeing a small animal that may serve as prey like a raptor the next. Flits have an odd sort of love-hate relationship with the birds that are so much a part of their lives, as they idealize them and often bond quite closely with them, and yet also deeply envy their greater mastery of flight, and sometimes grow sullen and resentful at the sight of great murmurations of sparrows swooping together in aerial displays.
The one thing that Mites, Flits and Ticklers have in common is universally denying that they have *any* sort of relation to one another. To try and convince them of this, or remark on their similarities in build, or ties to animal kind, or fey origins, is a sure way to offend any of these three peoples. While they do not (usually!) make war upon each other, generally trying to pretend the other races do not exist, there have been several vicious attempts by one group or another to drive members of another group away. (The Mites and Flits are the most likely to be territorial in this manner, and the fact the Ticklers so often live underwater and out of sight of the others may have more to do with their avoiding these squabbles than any sort of benevolence on their part.)
Plants have always been good at putting corpses to good use.
And the spirit part is there too.
Evokes memories of classic D&D stuff like yellow musk creepers and their yellow musk zombies as well, or myconid kings using spores to animate animal and humanoid corpses to defend their communities.
While I'm always up for some better and more thematic domains, I'm a little iffy on the selection here. That's a hard disagree on Healing from me with the "provide comfort to someone suffering" anathema.
Admittedly, I don't have 2E, so I had no idea about this anathema thing. I suppose I can look it up on Archives of Nethys, but I was thinking from a 1E standpoint, hence not criticizing the stone cold terrible Domain choices of Law and Evil, which were mandated (and, IMO, garbage-fire trash) in 1st edition. :)
Even with that anathema, I did specify that Kuthite surgery was 'without painkillers and not always elective....', so a focus on healing/medicine/surgery wouldn't go against that dictat.
Anywho, I wanted to consider some Domains that A) felt on theme, more so than Death and Destruction, IMO, B) pick some Domains that felt less common, and C) pick some domains that felt less commonly represented in evil gods. There aren't a lot of evil gods with Artifice or Healing (or Glory, Sun, Nobility, Protection, etc.), just as there aren't a lot of good gods with Trickery, Death, Destruction, Darkness, Madness, etc. (One of the reasons I like Tsukiyomi so much! He breaks unspoken rules willy-nilly!)
I'm less fussed about Zon-Kuthon's ties to Law and Evil than some of his domain choices. Darkness, yeah, all over that one.
But I could see arguments for;
Strength (cut away weakness! Pain is weakness leaving the body!),
Healing (an evil healing god? One all about surgery and body modification (without painkillers, and not always elective...), oh yeah),
Artifice (former god of arts/crafts, credited with crafting the Star Towers that helped bind Rovagug, followers include people who cover themselves in fine metal ornaments and piercings),
Void (space ghost!)
All four of those Domains, IMO, fit better than Death or Destruction, both of which are well represented among other gods (Urgathoa, Pharasma and Norgorber for Death, Rovagug, Nethys and Gorum for Destruction), while Artifice (just Torag) and Void (nobody in the big 20) are pretty thin on the ground.
It would be interesting if Dou-Bral's domains were more like that. More about physical health and beauty and self-enhancement/body-sculpting (Healing, Strength) and less artsy and more crafty than his sister (Artifice)?
I like the more old school magic feel of schools being actual schools and traditions and not semi-sciencey break downs of magic.
I love a lot of what was done with the old schools of magic, but gosh, I will not miss some of their wonkier bits.
Some schools seemed pretty solidly on-theme. Most evocation spells threw energy around, for instance.
But affecting emotions? Love, hate, rage, confusion, all Enchantment, unless it's fear, that's Necromancy?
Using fire, electricity, sound or cold to kill someone? Evocation! Using negative energy to kill someone? Necromancy!
Some schools just seemed cobbled together from bits chopped out of the school they felt like they more logically belonged to. I'm picking on Necromancy, but Illusion also has a lot of that.
Create light? Evocation. Create sound? Evocation. Create light that *looks* like something? Sounds like a mix of evocation to create the light and transmutation to shape the light, although there's no reason it couldn't *just* be evocation, but instead, it's Illusion? Create a mind-affecting effect using colored light? Welp, no longer Enchantment, you had to use colors, so it's Illusion! Conjuring up forces from the Elemental or 'Outer' planes? Conjuration! Conjuring up forces from the Plane of Shadow? Conjure-lusion?
Abjuration is another one. Obvious evocation spells like Fire Shield and Fire Trap get shoved there. Other spells that feel pretty abjure-y like Mage Armor, do not?
(Thematically, Abjuration and Necromancy seem like peas in a pod. I could see a 'void' or 'negation' school that included spells to drain or disperse energy, either from living creatures through the use of negative energy (negating life), from magical forces by using dispel magic or anti-magic shell (negating magic), or even from the environment, creating areas of cold (negating heat), darkness (negating light), or causing matter to fall apart as if subject to an acid effect (by dispersing the energies that bind them together on the molecular level). It's be the 'subtraction' school, it takes away and gives nothing back. No animating bones or creating disease or summoning bugs, nor any abjurative effect that creates fire or light or a substance.)
I definitely love some of the old classic D&D uses of the schools, like the Abjurant Champion, or various Evokers or Illusionists I've played over the years, but I will not miss the many (IMO) weird loopholes and kludges.
159. Leroy's Reckless Breastplate This fine breastplate of mithril emblazoned with a golden sideview of a stylized lean running man with wings sprouting from his ankles is a +2 agile mithril breastplate that negates the penalty to your armor class if you take the charge action. This is handy, as whenever an enemy is in sight, but combat has inexplicably not begun immediately, there is a 50% chance every round that you will scream and charge into the fray (taking the charge action, if terrain and circumstances permit).
This may inconvenience allies who are still planning, or buffing, or readying their gear. It, fortunately, does not happen in the case of potential foes that you have not actually chosen to attack, only those you have decided to fight, but have, for whatever reason, not charged yet of your own volition.
160. (Rubber) Banded Armor This +1 silent banded mail is wrapped in countless thin bands of rubber, which cancels out noise penalties and gives the armor the silent property, but makes it moderately more cumbersome, so that the armor is not treated as Masterwork, and has the full Armor Check Penalty of non-magical banded armor.
Unfortunately, this rubber outer layer, which cannot be removed, also causes you to recoil violently from any forceful impact. For every 5 hit points of Bludgeoning damage you take, you fly back 1 space, and if you fly back more spaces than half your movement rate (2 spaces for the average armored individual), you must make a DC 15 Reflex save or fall prone. The DC of this save increases by 2 for every additional space you are knocked back.
A small upside to this property is that you take no damage from the first 10 ft. of any fall (but must make a DC 15 Reflex save or fall prone), and additional damage for distances over this are halved (and the DC to avoid falling prone increases by 2 per 5 additional feet, as with a knockback effect).
161. Goblin Pickle Spear This pole has a pickle on the end of it. Oddly enough, the warty bumps on this pickle are sharp, and can cut a fool, as if it was the pointy end of a spear. The spear itself, and it's bearer, soon enough, reek of pickle juice, which tends to ooze out of the pickle 'spearhead' regularly and drip down the shaft, getting on everything. The spear has no magical enhancement to hit or damage, and the pickle part is not edible, nor even chewable, not even by a goblin's sturdy teeth, being as hard as stone. Attempts to track or identify the bearer of this weapon have a +5 bonus to their DC, due to it's trademark stench, and the trail of pickle juice left behind.
Goblins, of course, care nothing for this downside, or the pickle spears lack of benefits over any other spear. It's a pickle! That stabs like a spear! Or it's a spear! That looks like a pickle! How are you not amazed by this? Have you no soul?
Golarion as a setting already resembles the 'zoo' folks are complaining about, though. It's never really been a low-fantasy "humans and one dwarf" kinda world, especially now that Orcs and Leshies are Common.
I think what Castiliano means is that Starfinder 1E just threw tons of races at you with each Bestiary, each with very little personality outside of its assigned gimmick. I personally would prefer more depth for each ancestry in SF2E.
Yeah, I don't like rubber forehead aliens.*
For those unfamiliar, it's a trope and doesn't necessarily mean aliens only. It's a complaint of having a lot "exotic" races that look different from humans, but the difference is superficial (think some makeup on your forehead) and the culture doesn't have much depth.
I'd rather have 5 races with a lot of depth, than 40 shallow ones.
An old complaint about race design for both fantasy and sci-fi was the notion that so many different cultures were all about *one trait* dialed up to 11. This is the race that's all about logic. This one's all about honor and conflict. This one's all about commerce, greed and capitalism.
Not just a human with pointy ears or bumpy ridges on their forehead, but an entire culture based around a single trait. Which can be dull, when multiple people's are designed with this sort of broad brush.
The same is also weird for environments. This entire world is a desert. This one's all ice. This one's a big swamp. Gosh, somehow, on Earth, we have *all three of those things!* :)
Similarly, many races in sci-fi and fantasy have a single culture, a single god (or pantheon of gods), a single language, a single government, etc. Kinda limiting. I like how the elves and dwarves of Golarion have several distinct groups, very different in governance, religion, etc. A Pahmet and M'Beke dwarf might come across as very alien to one from the Five Kings Mountains. Same with elves fresh off the boat from Castrovel, living in Kyonin, discovering how the Alijae or Snowcaster elven societies have greatly branched off since their long separation.
That's cool to me!
And with the radical differences between the Matanje orcs and those of Belkzen, or the Kholo of the Expanse, or the Lamashtu-worshippers of Katapesh, there's some neat differentiation there among traditionally monocultural 'generic bad guys' folk.
Will they have horses in Arcadia? Considering raccoons and skunks exist in the Inner Sea.
That is an interesting question, since there's a ton of American continent vegetables (and some critters) in Avistan, so it's equally likely that there might be some transplanted plants and animals in the other direction.
I suspect the Azlanti are just one explanation for how things got moved around, but also the existence of an elemental plane of Wood, or a First World, as well as other means of transport, like elven Aidura, could explain why a lot of plants have managed to proliferate on greatly separated continents.
Quote:
I’d love to have a god based on or even just straight up have Tezcatlipoca in Golarion.
Despite Tezcatlipoca‘a profilo seeming like it would be evil he was one of the most popular gods in Nahua and a Patreon of enslaved persons
Man, the Smoking Mirror is one of my favorite gods, after Set. I have a type. :)
I actually feel like Szuriel is a really bad fit. She's got some very superficially similar vibes to Gorum, but her tenets are purely destructive. War is a means by which to darken the universe.
Gorum's on the other hand is all about the thrill of battle itself. Gorum wants people to fight the good fight forevermore, while Szuriel wants to end everything through War. There's even some competing anathema (Gorum forbids killing those who surrender, Szuriel forbids showing mercy).
So in some respects, despite the surface level commonalities, in many respects Szuriel represents a fundamental perversion of what Gorum represents. His most devoted should be leading the charge against her, not signing up.
Yeah, Gorum seems to be about 'war to feel alive!' and Szuriel is all about 'war to make people dead!'
Totally diff vibes, IMO.
(Weirdly, Urgathoa had War in PF1, and her whole schtick seemed to be 'leave me alone to eat and party and be a complete hedonist,' and even read like she found Pharasma hating her to be not really terribly interesting enough to 'hate her back.' Just too darn selfish and self-centered to take seriously or give serious thought to gods who thought they were her nemeses! Seems to be a theme for the necro clique. Geb was kind of same way, at times. "The Knights of Ozem? Never heard of them. But they attacked me, I guess I will punish them *spectacularly,* and then, never give them another thought...")
I could definitely see Lamashtu taking that ball and running with it. She's already got gnolls, minotaurs and hobgoblins (as well as goblins and bugbears) among her more fighty followers, and probably a fair number of ogres as well.
And then there's Moloch. He's totally ripe for being a guiding principle behind legions of soldiers in places like Molthune, Isger, Cheliax and even Oprak or Druma! Sort of a 'god of the army man' like Anhur was in Egypt, or Mithras in Rome, super-popular with the military, with priests marching with the troops, practically unknown to the urban civilian who doesn't have military experience or close kin in the army.
More a god of professional soldiers than screaming bloodthirsty barbarians, tho.
With the (relatively) recent changes to Irrisen, with the rise of Anastasia to rule, I wonder how much the old class of Jadwiga winter witches have found it prudent to move outwards, to set up shop in distant lands like Brevoy or Taldor or even somewhat closer to home like Belkzen, Nidal, Ustalav or Oprak, serving as mysterious and 'exotic' arcane advisors and the like, rather than hang out in areas where they are reviled by local Ulfen populations, and might find themselves no longer quite as comfortable.
It could be an interesting bit of setting detail for the occasional winter witch to be seen hobnobbing in Cheliax, or attending (or presenting!) a lecture at the Arcanamirium, now that Irrisen itself has turned a (ha ha) cold shoulder to them.
And it would logically result in some of their more specialized ice-related magic proliferating throughout the arcane community, as they would no longer be quite so incestuously tied to Irrisen's borders.
I've always found the Jadwiga fascinating.
How much (if anything) does a group of Jadwiga brought to Irrisen remember about the place they came from? Did they have to go through some sort of Battle Royale/Hunger Games like competition to qualify to be some of the hundred or so she brings over to rule Irrisen for a century?
Are some of them related by blood, and, if so, do they even remember that, or do they instead have a 'tradition' of not having kids with other members of 'their generation' (so no Kseniya having kids with other Kseniya, even they are visibly not even remotely genetically related), treating their own generation as 'one family unit' even if that is not the actual case? (And, if so, does that result in the occasional bit of unintended inbreeding, as an 'Elvanna' turns out to be a bit too closely related to a 'Harcatha,' with some of these visibly marked and 'shameful' children most likely to grow up to become bitter and spite-fueled Hags over time?).
How old are they when they arrive? At least old enough to rule, so late teens / early twenties? And then they rule for 100 years, at which point most of them should be venerable and / or dead, if fully human. Are they fully human? Are they in fact bred from a hidden realm controlled by Baba Yaga from some millenia-ago captive populations of Ulfen humans and Snowcaster elves, with the current population being entirely half-elves (explaining some of their longevity) and not even remembering their ancient (fully elven or fully human) ancestors?
Or do they have some other special means of extending their vitality, such as a racial trait that increases the age at which they go up an age category by one year for every caster level they gain, giving them incentive to learn witchery (or sorcery, or clerical / druidic magic!).
Or some combination of the above. Half-(snowcaster) elves, who also can get up to +20 years of extra lifespan by reaching caster level 20 (which, generally, only the queen will), could at least justify a queen not being terribly feeble at the end of her 100 year reign. (I've always loved the idea of a stable population of half-elves, or half-orcs, somewhere, that have no 'unfortunate implications' or mixed parentage, just two folk with a some elf-y or orc-y bits getting together and making a like-blooded baby.)
With the lean away from gender-limited groups (particularly all-evil female groups, like the Darklight Sisterhood, or the old 'evil queen' trope where women in power are seen as unnatural and wicked), it could be interesting to have only 70% ish of witches be ladies, and have even a few of the *rulers* have been Witch-KINGS.
I feel like Irrisen was really kind of closed off and 'inaccessible' for play, under the PF1 paradigm, and with Anastasia in charge, and perhaps winter witchcraft (and the Jadwiga as an ethnicity) spreading out a bit more, that 'those toys' are now more available for player use and setting flavor for a game *not* set in Irrisen, which, IMO, is a good thing.
Reminiscent of the 1st ed Monster Manual's Giant Gar and Giant Pike;
643. Giant Sturgeon While a population exists in Glacier Lake, in Irrisen, these enormous fish are thought to have been introduced to the lake, with the parent population having arisen in the Lake of Mists and Veils, in Brevoy. Growing up to 10 meters in length, these fish are generally placid bottom feeders, and during their breeding season can be 'milked' for thousands of eggs (or simply cut open and the eggs harvested, in a far less sustainable method of extraction), which are a delicacy as far south as Taldor, and are common in the decadent banquets of the winter witches in Thronehold.
In certain areas, salmon and trout, of more regular sizes, are similarly milked for their eggs, in areas like Varisia or the Mwangi Expanse, or simply cut open and the eggs serving as a secondary source of revenue, for fishermen who were catching salmon or trout anyway as a food source, regarding the presence of an egg-laden female among their catch as a nice bonus, similar to finding a low-grade pearl while gathering oysters for dinner.
Rumors that dwarven 'cave caviar' consists of giant centipede eggs, some as large as melons, have neither been confirmed nor denied.
Note that giant sturgeon tend to appear in the same bodies of water that also hold giant gar and giant pikes, two much more dangerous fish, able to, in extreme cases, swallow a grown man whole!
Sometimes you get the fish. Sometimes the fish gets you.
It seems James Gunn is now being accused of being racist against the people of India. Just over a week before the premier of the first movie in his "Gunnverse".
I watched the interview were he supposedly uttered the offensive phrase. I didn't really see it as racist. Just him making an example. I mean, personally, I do see him as just another, typically Hollywood scumbag. Doesn't make him racist. In this case, I just think it's folk making a mountain out of a molehill.
Still, not the kind of publicity you want with just over a week until the big premier.
It seems like the Snyder fans really, really hate him, and are constantly amping anything he says (or said *years ago*, in the last case where he got fired from Marvel for saying some offensive thing online a decade previous) to make him seem like a villain for committing the heinous unforgiveable effrontery of being more successful at putting butts in seats than their guy.
I can't stand his interpretations of Drax and Mantis, in particular, in the GotG movies, and he's had some ugly takes on stuff, but the movies themselves were popular, and setting aside one or two choices I didn't care for, I enjoyed them immensely, and that's where the rubber meets the road, in that industry.
I've never been a huge Superman fan, but that's actually usually a plus for me with comic book movies, as I am *far* more forgiving of changes to characters I am not 100% in love with anyway (and more able to recognize that A) some changes are necessary moving between mediums, B) some original didn't age well and needs to die in a fire, and C) there have been *dozens* of writers with wildly different interpretations of these characters over a half century or more of publication, so it's impossible for any adaptation to be 'accurate' to all, or even most, of those, often contradictory, versions!).
OTOH, the fact that these toxic fans are constantly pulling this stuff makes it easier for Gunn to get away with *actually* offensive stuff, since he's got these 'Gunn Control' prats providing cover for him, with their teapot tempests, conditioning the rest of us to just ignore the latest 'Gunn said what?' scandal.
I wonder how many genuinely bad people just run around posting crazy rumors about their latest 'offense' to get people numbed to any revelation of their *actual* offenses?
Uskwood Thornapple The Uskwood forest has the advantage of fertile soil, enriched by the constant presence of volcanic ash drifting down from smoking vents in the Menador mountains to the south and Mindspin mountains to the east and north. The disadvantage of this constant source of volcanic ash, is that it keeps the area of western Nidal under a constant pall, almost an eternal twilight, even when the sun is high in the sky, exacerbated by the closed in nature of the Nidalese basin, so that ash circles the area of the Uskwood, but does not ever truly disperse out to sea, being blown back to settle on this shrouded nation.
The Uskwood Thornapple is one of several local trees that have adjusted over untold centuries to use a form of chemosynthesis, like life in the deep sea, far from the light of the sun, to draw additional energy from the chemical-laden ash, as well as leaves so dark green as to appear nearly black in color, and white bark, like a birch tree, to reflect back any light 'wasted' by hitting the bark to give it a second chance to be intercepted by the dark and hungry light-starved leaves.
Small but sharp thorns protect these dark leaves from hungry herbivores, while the 'apples' are small and bitter, perfectly round like oversized cherries, and used in some jams or preserves, but rarely eaten fresh off the tree, as they taste even more bitter than crabapples. (The fermentation of them is paradoxically sweeter, and quite popular as an export, being considered 'too sweet' for Nidali palettes.)
The wood of the thornapple is more sturdy than many hardwoods, if sometimes difficult to work, and some of the wood sold as 'darkwood' indeed comes from Nidalese thornapple trees, which used to be the primary source of 'darkwood' before new sources were found in other locations, such as imported from Sargava (and harvested in the Mwangi expanse). It was quite a blow to the Nidalese 'darkwood monopoly' when Sargavan darkwood entered the market...
Nidalese darkwood is almost always treated with a coating that gives it a distinctive coloration, with black dye being preferred for wood used in Nidal itself, and a dark reddish stain being popular in allied Cheliax. Other customers seem to prefer a more natural brown shade, rich like mahogany, but treatments exist to create a dark green or deep purple hue. These colors are rarely ordered, and never made without a -pre-existing order, although a large order of purple-stained wood was recently sold to a factor from Absalom, who was discovered (by the Umbral Court agent assigned to find out of this was going to be a potential regular customer) to have promptly shipped it to an unknown customer in Jalmeray, causing the agent to 'lose the trail.'
The high cost of the wood, less now that alternate sources exist, and Nidal can no longer set the price or control the market, stemmed originally from the challenges harvesting the wood, as the druids of the Uskwood consider the tree holy to the god of darkness, thriving as it does in the low-light environment of the Uskwood, and even proving impossible to grow in soil that is less volcanically and chemically enriched, or in stronger light levels, where the nigh-black leaves actually wilt under the intensity of direct sunlight! The druids require that for every Uskwood tree felled, the cutters must plant *two* new trees! And so the Uskwood remains, if anything, *larger* than it did, when harvesting of the trees for 'darkwood' began!
One final unusual benefit of the trees unusual form of chemosynthesis, is that the normally slightly acidic ashen soil is depleted of these chemicals in these stands of trees, which makes the soil less nutritious to the trees themselves (fortunately constantly being replaced by fresh ash-fall), but *more* hospitable to other plants. And so the druids of the Uskwood allow farmers to come by every ten years and take away cartsful of 'spent' soil from around these trees, replacing them with cartsful of fresh ash swept from the streets and roadways of the nation, so that the thornapples always have fresh ash-soil, and the farmers have soil for their own crops that lacks the acidity of the sometimes harsh ash itself. So while the trees produce little edible, themselves, they deplete the ash over time and render it far more welcoming to the sorts of crops that do not thrive in the unprocessed ash itself.
I've never been terribly clear on whether or not the 'land of shadow' is literally in shadow, or metaphorically. There are references that support both views (one city has buildings so close together that the streets below are almost always in shadow, on the one hand, there's special water that helps plants grow despite the absence of light). So I made stuff up, to fit a country surrounded by mountains like the smog-trap LA basin, and with volcanic-sounding places like Brimstone Springs and Ash Hollow in those mountains, and left room for both interpretations to be true, with more light near the coast, where the sea-winds diffuse some of the ash-fall, and less light near the capital and Uskwood to the west, closer to the volcanic mountains themselves.
If you think too hard on magic you can find all of it not making sense.
Like how does charisma actually play into casting power?
IMO, Charisma would be great for a character who has to bargain or negotiate (or propitiate a deity or something) to maintain or advance their power, like a witch who has a patron they have to bargain (or a familiar that represents a connection to that patron that they have to convince to both grant them their daily bread, but also that they are ready for the next grander course). This was not the case in PF1, the witch and their patron were generally more of an abstraction and just sort of a name attached to a selection of bonus spells added to their list, not an actual entity that they had to make a pact with or follow some sort of taboos or anathema or doctrines to bargain with.
Charisma feels less like 'willpower' to me, than ability to interact with others and sense of self-worth.
Willpower would, IMO, map to Wisdom, with it's bonus to Will saves. And also fit with the use in PF1, where dwarves had a wisdom bonus, but a charisma penalty, and yet were stubborn as heck!
As for Sorcerer's training, 'use it or ya lose it.' Just as exercising muscles can grow bigger muscles, just as exercising your mind can grow your memory and critical thinking skills, perhaps exercising the magic in your blood can make you better at drawing on that magic, able to access deeper wells of that magic.
It's obviously not a real world thing, but it can follow real world precedents. Use it or lose it. Keep using it, find new ways to use it, keep getting incrementally better at using it.
And all Danes and Swedes are insulted at 'Scandinavian' being equated with 'Norwegian'. And all Norwegians are insulted for the same reason. And Finns are insulted at being considered part of Scandinavia in the first place.
[tangent] Always compliment Australians on how their English is really good, and ask them about Arnold Schwarzenegger, as if you've mistaken them for Austrians. [/tangent]
Well I appreciate the offer, and expect to see you both at the Zinda Blake Fan Club. ;) (In seriousness, should I start a "share your favorite b and c listers here!" thread?)
Only if you want to hear a lot of rambling about Multiple Man.
Oh goodness, Madrox is one of my favorite mutants, and definitely one of my favorite 'lower tier' mutants, along with folks like Frenzy, Diamond Lil, Dust, Hellion, Wind-Dancer, Wiz Kid, Sunspot, etc. (Nightcrawler and Cyclops being two of my favorite 'popular' mutants.)
Thomas Seitz wrote:
My lesser Avengers are Wonder Man, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Vision.
Though Thor still ranks high.
Love old school Scarlet Witch, her circa Marvel Handbook power of 'bad luck bolts, only *I choose* the bad luck that's going to happen to you!' was *amazing!* "Hawkeye? Bowstring snapped. And now you've had a muscle cramp and can't use your arm anyway. Iron Man? Armor shorted out, oops. Thor? Lost your balance while swinging your hammer and clocked yourself in the back of the head. Hercules? Huh. Wardrobe malfunction? No, you'd like that. Have a stroke. You're a god, you'll be fine, just useless for a few hours."
Quicksilver had a great ascerbic personality, which made him fun to see causing trouble and being a putz to everyone.
It interests me how Marvel and DC focus on different archetypes. DC owns that speedster niche with a whole Flash family. Marvel totally rules the psychics roost, with more telepaths (mostly mutants) and telekinetics than I can list.
I kind of like that, instead of each company having a bunch of clones of each others successful IPs. (Which leads back to topicality, not liking the Sentry much in the comics, 'cause his 'super-power' is pretty much, 'Marvel's Superman.' Meh.)
And then there's characters whose powers don't seem to have anything to do with each other, but *feel* similar, thematically. Firestorm at DC and Nova at Marvel felt very similar to me, despite being vastly different in all sorts of ways.
641. Caldera Cod At least a half-dozen charted caldera lakes exist in the mountains of Avistan (and undoubtedly on other continents as well), primarily in the Kodar and Mindspin mountains, but possibly in other ranges as well (such as the Aspodell and Menador mountains), tucked away in areas travelled only by giant-kin, yeti and denizens of Leng.
These lakes are often a dark blue in shade, such that even on a sunny day, the water appears to be in shadow, due to a high mineral content, and would seem ill-suited to life, because of this limitation on the amount of sunlight penetrating the depths, and yet some aquatic plantlife has learned to flourish on the rich chemical content of these water, replacing their more natural photosynthesis, with a form of chemosynthesis, like some sea life clustered around 'black smoker' vents in the deep ocean. Where plant life can find a way to thrive, crustaceans and molluscs to feed upon them can also live, and larger fish to prey on them in turn.
And so it is with the misnamed 'caldera cod' (who are in no way related to cod). This fish are fantastically ugly, with a primitive prehistoric pugnacity, with a smooth carapaced head that is effectively armored, spiney fins and a thick coating of protective mucus like a hagfish, they are unlovely by any measure, although at least pleasantly colored, either dark blue entirely, or countershaded with a dark blue upper body and a light seafoam green underside (these two color variations only appear in separate caldera lakes). The waters they swim in are rich with minerals, including dissolved metals, and the flesh of the fish is mildly toxic, leaving most consumers wracked with cramps (sickened for hours, until a Fort save is made to shake the condition, nauseated instead on a natural 1 on a Fort save!), but the toxic nature of the minerals is 'mild' enough that some species, with particularly robust tolerances for such things, chiefly dwarves, giants and yeti, appear to be mostly immune. Indeed, dwarves consider caldera cod something of a spicy adventurous meal, although most are not malicious enough not to 'accidentally' serve it to a human guest.
Several caldera lakes are far warmer, heated by the geothermal activity far beneath them, than the chilly mountainous regions in which they are found, sometimes so warm that the steam visibly in areas normally above the snowline, and serve as a sort of oasis of warmth in these cold climates. One such lake is indeed so hot as to be scalding to most life, and exists within fire giant territory, where it is used as a sort of spa by this fire-resistant people, but most are merely 'pleasantly warm' or even not at all (in those cases where the caldera has been quiet and cool for centuries). At least three such lakes are known to have an extra hazard, in that the fresh ejections of chemicals at their base sometimes raise the acidity of the water to dangerous levels, with the local life are at least someone resistant to (caldera cod have Acid Resistance 5, unless their protective mucus coat is cleaned away), and at the edges, this acidity could rise to 1 hp of acid damage / minute of exposure, and 1d3 pts of acid damage / minute at the center of the eruption (which can be recognized as bubbles of sulfurous gas that reek of rotten eggs float up to the surface, and the dark blue water in that area turns a lighter green for a time). At first, the effects or an acid bloom will only sting slightly, and cause redness, like from a sunburn, or blistering, as from a rash, but it can rise to damaging levels in minutes!
During this time, the caldera cod flock to the edges of the lake, where the acidity is lowest, and are in a frenzy, attacking anything in the water with them with the ferocity of a swarm of piranha, while the chemical-loving plantlife in the center of the lake blooms with new vigor, and produces a feast for the fish to consume when the acidity levels drop, which can take hours, or even days, in the case of a major 'eruption.'
A single caldera cod will eat almost anything it can either fit into it's mouth (and has been known to crush snails and spit out the broken bits of shell, or bite off a finger or toe...), but is not significantly more dangerous than a snapping turtle or really angry parrotfish, while a swarm, well, get out of the water when it starts to turn green and smells like rotten eggs!
Exactly how this fairly specific ecosystem developed in lakes separated in some cases by hundreds or even thousands of miles, with no water connection between them, was always a mystery, until a similar species was found in caldera lakes within the Vault of Onyx. Mountains within the Tempered Peaks and Dustbed regions have both been discovered to have caldera lakes, and caldera cod, and the hobgoblin explorers now taming those lands have also found them to be edible, if, occasionally, 'challenging.' And so a theoretical answer to the mystery of the caldera ecosystem would be seeding by the enigmatic Vault Builders, who must have had some inscrutable reason for seeding these otherwise inhospitable regions with a source of protein not dependent on the light of the sun, and yet resistant to the chemical-laden waters of caldera lakes.
While the meat is (barely) edible, and the scales, which often contain a higher than expected mineral content and can be alchemically treated to make colorful leather armor, the ecosystem contains little else of value. The plant-life, for instance, far from being a good source of acid-resistant fibers, dries out and becomes useless and fragile when it dies, and even alive has the consistency of slimy fronds. The small crustaceans and molluscs, if anything, are even *more* toxic (and bitterly unpleasant to the taste, to boot), than the caldera cod that prey upon them. The molluscs do, at least, have a higher-than-expected concentration of metallic minerals in their fanciful shells, and these can make interesting curios, as they grow into phantasmagorical multi-colored Fibonacci spirals, if nothing else (if they can be salvaged before some caldera cod cracks them open to get at the juicy treat within...).
Always a fun day when a post on the Paizo boards makes me look up the mountain ranges of Avistan, the mountain ranges of the Vault of the Onyx Citadel, and the spelling for 'Fibonacci sequence.'
There was a no-win scenario there for Marvel. I never imagined that Taskmaster had a fandom, like, at all, other than as the inspiration for, IIRC, the much MUCH more successful Deathstroke, introduced 10 months later over at DC, but the fact that he apparently *does* means that his fans are going to be upset that he was gender-swapped, and, IMO, made much more relevant to the MCU continuity as 'Dreykov's Daughter' than he's ever been in the comics, where he's, AFAIK, related to nobody, and nobody's archnemesis, and his actual *job description* is 'the guy who trains mooks.' (His big role in Civil War, for instance, was getting hospitalized with third degree burns all over his body from a blast by Dr. Doom for *interrupting him.* Before that meeting he'd been boasting to a friend how he was not just as the 'big table,' he was gonna sit with the owners, and then, bam, not quite ready for the prime time...)
As for those of us who wanted to really see the MCU Taskmaster's evolution from a single line about Dreykov's Daughter in Avengers, to the horribly abused child-turned-cyberzombie-assassin-by-daddy in Black Widow, to, hopefully, something more human?, well, we too are disappointed that she got so casually killed off.
As mentioned, it feels like she had an arc there. Certainly more to flesh out than with Bucky, IMO, who is awesome, but has already gotten quite a bit of play, and a pair of movies where he's pretty darn central to the plot (Winter Soldier and Civil War).
I do kind of like the emptiness of Ghost and Yelena's exchange afterwards. "Who was that I killed?" "Antonia. She had a hard life. And now she's dead." Kind of a gut punch how much that said about Yelena, who has spent a percentage of her life trying to rescue women from the sorts of fates as disposable soldiers that Dreykov had made of them, to just sort of shrug, because she can't allow losing another one to kill any more of her soul than she's already lost.
OTOH, with such a badass team of really effective killers, it was a bit of a surprise to see Ghost be the one to make a kill, taking advantage of being one of the only ones with a surprisingly effective superpower (other than, as Yelena points out, 'just able to punch and shoot things.'
Andostre wrote:
However, if you want to gripe about or praise any obscure character, I'll listen! And I'll respond if I know who you're talking about! *fist bump*
+1 to this. As someone whose favorite Avengers are people like Stingray, Black Knight, Living Lightning, Moondragon and Monica Rambeau, I've a deep neurotic love for the lesser-seen Avengers!
Heck, I'd love a Justice League lineup that used the 'bottom half' of the Satellite League. No 'big seven.' Just Green Arrow, Black Canary, Elongated Man (and Sue), the Atom, Red Tornado, Hawkwoman, Zatanna. Maybe a few of my favorites from later, like Vixen, Booster Gold or Black Lightning. A team where Green Arrow, not Bruce, is the team money-man. Where Ralph and Sue are the team detective, and Ray Palmer the team sciencer, and Dinah the street-savvy melee specialist, and *Red Tornado* the team powerhouse!
Fey are everywhere! Shunning the worlds of life and warmth to bring light, color and whimsy to the silent spaces between the stars, these Tiny fey appear similar to common sprites, but made of colorful light, and aglow with a dazzling radiance, appearing as stars, to a distant viewer, until they swoop and whirl with impossible agility to surround a spacebound figure. Each tiny fey carries it's own tiny bubble of warm atmosphere that replenishes itself regardless of the surrounding environment (and results in the fey being unwilling, or unable?, to spend more than an hour in a natural or artificial atmosphere), and someone adrift in the void, air running out, might welcome the sight of many tiny colorful 'stars' spinning towards them, so long as they have something to amuse the tiny fey, and keep them interested long enough to replenish their air supply, or even give them a push towards a safe haven.
Space pixies are unpredictable, in that respect, and some love music, others sweet foods or alcoholic drinks, but the one thing they all share in common is a fascination with aeon stones, and some spacers carry a few dull gray stones enhanced with continual flame, to 'trade' to space pixies in exchange for a second chance at life, if adrift in the void. Space pixies appear to be able to sense aeon stones they are not already familiar with a great distances, so that this is not an entirely vain hope. Only the leaders of space pixie packs have functional aeon stones, while the majority of them have to settle for burned out stones, enhanced, if possible with continual flame (in colors that hopefully synergize well with their own, as space pixies most often occur in yellow, red, orange, white, blue and blue-white, much like the stars they resemble at a distance).
Most Imperial Azlanti regard them as pests and thieves of any unattended or unsecured aeon stone, but a few are clever enough to supply them with burned out stones and use them as bloodhounds to locate much more valuable stones...
What I have always wanted most in a FF project was a Modern Family style sitcom where all of their big action pieces happen at the end or beginning of each episode. What makes them special isn't their powers, it is the fact that they are a family in a way that no other super team is.
One thing I liked about the first FF movie (with Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Chikilis, etc.) was how all four of them worked together for that combat stunt that defeated Doom at the end. After years of reading comics in which the Fantastic Four are described as functioning like a well-oiled machine, as a team, as a family, it was nice to see on screen.
And then the sequel had everyone's powers loaded up on Johnny so he could solo the Surfer with all their powers combined? Le sigh. Missed the point, completely, for me.
I always felt like Sue was the practical and kind of *useful* one around the business end of things, while Reed could spend three days in the lab and totally not pay the bills, or feed the kids, or bother to file a patent on something, and then end up like Tesla, wondering why his life has fallen apart if he's so darn smart...
So her being his (and the teams) 'manager' who kind of keeps everything on track and running smoothly fits my view of how their dynamic always seemed, since Reed was (inconsistently, I'll admit**) often shown as a bit of an 'absent-minded professor' stereotype.
**Given the long publishing history, there have been like *forty* characterizations for Reed and Sue over the years, and some have him totally the absent minded professor, and Sue the hypercompetent 'team Mom' who keeps it all together, and others have Reed being just amazing at *everything* (he's a scientist, he's Mr. Action, he's a celebrity, he was a soldier in WW2 and yet mysteriously not eighty years old, he's got a Nobel Peace Prize, he's not afraid to slap his wife when she's speaking out of turn!) and Sue a silly flighty girl who likes clothes and gets captured because the bad-guy owns a dog that sniffed her out while she was invisible. :/ Obviously, I'm leaning towards the first version of Sue (and there's even a recent-isg development in the comics of her having been an agent of SHIELD for years, behind the scenes, which, I'm not sure I'm completely adjusted to, quite yet...).
With all the characterizations, it's almost impossible to tag them for 'not getting canon right' since canon is all over the friggin' place. :)
Heck, there were *three* different retcons of why Reed supported the Registration Act! (It was the Brute, pretending to be Reed, Dr. Doom even kidnapped Sue *to protect her from the villain pretending to be her husband!* He was a Skrull imposter! (The famous Bendis retcon for every sketchy thing heroes had done for the last decade or so, except Hank Pym, because screw that guy in particular!) He was mindjobbed by the Mad Thinker who convinced him of some BS psychohistory thing using his superhuman intelligence! There, three different reasons why fans are not supposed to blame Reed for sending supervillain 'capekillers' to 'arrest' his wife and best friend and brother in law over a law *that hadn't actually passed yet!*)
It could be both, and it doesn't help I came to this one straight off Tanith Lee, whose prose is anything but clumsy.
There are a few writers who I feel like are halfway between writing prose and poetry, and Tanith Lee is one of them. (Edgar Allen Poe's non-poetry fiction, for instance, can still feel pretty poetic. For a slightly more modern take, some books by Roger Zelazny, like Lord of Light and Creatures of Light & Darkness, can feel that way to me.)
Back in the day, the presence of Dark, Spirit and Guardian Naga, but not Water Naga, prompted me to make my own. (This was before Bestiary 3, when Paizo went ahead and statted them up, but hey, I still like the idea of there being Sylvan Naga!) I took the somewhat odd approach of having *all* naga be the same, mechanically (barring attributes being prioritized differently, depending on class choice), with the whole dark/guardian/spirit/water thing being just different factions of a single species.
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Spoiler:
(Water) Naga
CN Medium aberration
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +14
DEFENSE
AC 22 (+4 deflection, +3 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 58 (8d8+24)
Fort +4, Ref +6, Will +5
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Melee +5 (1d6+3 plus poison)
Ranged spit +6 touch (poison)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Spells Known (CL 5th)
2nd (4/day) – detect thoughts, invisibility
1st (7/day) – charm person, expeditious retreat, magic missile, shield
0 (at will) – daze, detect magic, mage hand, open/close, read magic, touch of fatigue
STATISTICS
Str 15, Dex 17, Con 17, Int 15, Wis 13, Cha 17
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 18 (can’t be tripped)
(4) Feats Alertness, Combat Casting, Eschew Materials B, Lightning Reflexes, Stealthy
(4+Int – 48) Skills Escape Artist 4 (+12), Knowledge (arcana) 8 (+13), Knowledge (nature) 8 (+11), Perception 8 (+14), Sense Motive 4 (+7), Spellcraft 8 (+13), Stealth 8 (+16), Swim 0 (+20)
Languages Common, Goblin, Sylvan
ECOLOGY
Environment temperate or warm rivers or marshes, temperate or warm aquatic
Organization solitary or nest (2-4)
Treasure standard
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Hold Breath (Ex) A water naga can hold its breath underwater for a number of rounds equal to 4 times its Constitution score before it risks drowning.
Undersized Weapons (Ex) The tentacles framing their face are smaller and weaker than their naga's size would suggest, and can only wield weapons scaled for a size Small creature, and with an effective Strength of 5. They can however manipulate potions, wands, writing implements or spell components just fine.
Poison (Ex) Bite – injury; save Fort DC 17; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Con; cure 1 save
Spells A water naga casts spells as a 5th level sorcerer. Some water naga cast as other spellcasting classes and use the appropriate spell lists, casting attributes (altering which mental attribute is primary appropriately) and preparation methods, but do not gain any other class abilities.
The size of a constrictor, but with the head of a man with serpentine features, two foot and half long tentacles hanging down like scalplocks and a beard-like frill of a half-dozen or more tiny slender tendrils directly under their mouth that can be used for fine manipulation, but to no real offensive affect, naga can occur in a bewildering array of colors and patterns, or none at all, some resembling no species of snake known, sometimes blending into their surroundings, at other times brightly contrasting with it. They prefer warmer climates, and are most common in arid or tropical equatorial regions, but can be found scattered throughout the Darklands, and in smaller populations in regions as far north as Mendev and Lastwall.
There are many conflicting tales about the origins of nagakind. Some say they were created in their current form by their patron goddess Nalinvati. Others say that the Sekimiri ‘serpentfolk’ crafted them as a servant race of ‘lesser spellcasters,’ without arms so that they would always remain dependent on their masters. An Ulfen tale says that ancient serpents sleep near the bones of the dead, absorbing the whispers of forbidden and occult knowledge from the lingering spirits, and that over time, this dark knowledge festers within then and causes them to manifest faces, so that they can speak the words of power they have heard from the slumbering dead (an odd tale, since naga are almost unknown in Uffen lands…). Nagakind dismiss such tales, seeming to have no interest in the origins of their species, concerned only with advancing their own personal arcane and occult lore, gaining in both knowledge and personal power. Their pursuit is a selfish one, and while they come together fleetingly to perpetuate their race, they do not cooperate in their individual development, and seem to cooperate more readily with other races, with drow, fey, hags and humans being their preferred partners in arcane pursuits, although they may also lead small cults or tribes of humans, kobolds or (degenerate) serpentfolk, occasionally manipulating a tribe of goblins in service to some scheme or another.
Many ‘Guardian’ naga used to be clerics of Aroden, and have split into two main factions, half following the Inheritor, Iomedae, and the other half, Pharasma, the Lady of Graves, with each group regarding the other as faithless traitors (although they never take such disagreements so far as to actually commit acts of violence against each other, simply pointedly ignoring each other when forced to work together). Most cast spells as clerics, but a few as wizards, and used to follow Arazni, but now exclusively follow Pharasma, or no one at all. They are the most likely naga to be found with a group of human knights or clergy of their faith, and to field spells of healing and abjuration. Those who cast as clerics have 15 Wisdom and 13 Intelligence, instead.
‘Dark’ naga live in the darklands, and ally with drow, or more commonly lead tribes of derro, kobolds, morlocks or (degenerate) serpentfolk. They tend towards oracle, sorcerer, witch or wizard spellcasting, often with a focus on spells of enchantment, evocation, illusion and necromancy, and may take additional levels in these classes, gaining the appropriate class abilities (and increased spellcasting). Preferred starting languages change to Undercommon, Necril, Sekimina, etc. Dark naga are obsessed with power in all its forms, and are the most likely to progress far into their arcane studies, or seek alternative sources of power, with one prominent individual being among the leadership of the sinister Technic League, and another being a blind oracular high priestess of Dahak, operating above-ground in the Shackles.
Sylvan naga are secretive advisors to the elves of the Mwangi Expanse, preferring to keep out of sight deep in elven communities and respectfully deferred to, which has lent them a sinister reputation among Sovryian elves who think that their ‘forlorn’ kin have developed an unseemly dependence on their whisperings and manipulations. In truth, the sylvan naga have suffered greatly due to assumed ties to the ancient and reviled serpentfolk and sought refuge among their elven allies, and are more in-tune with the natural world, than with the ‘sinister’ machinations to which they are associated. A Sylvan naga can choose druid spells as sorcerer spells (casting them as arcane spells), and almost always have class levels in druid, choosing the Nature Bond option of a cleric Domain instead if an Animal or Plant companion (choosing from Animal, Community, Plant, Protection, Scalykind, Water or Weather) . Preferred starting languages include elven, Mwangi and sylvan. Sylvan naga with class levels in Druid have a 15 Wisdom and 13 Intelligence. There is always an open position at the Magaambya for a sylvan naga ‘halcyon-speaker’, said to be a position created by Old Mage Jatembe himself, but there has not been anyone in that position in living memory, and it remains something of a curiosity.
I LOVED the way Thor was portrayed in earlier MCU movies but I absolutely HATE the more recent goofy comedy version of Thor.
I get that Hemsworth is a funny guy and that’s awesome, but that doesn’t mean Thor should be a wacky joker.
I prefer my Thor to be more Shakespearian with some gravitas, not a quippy joke machine …
Same. I don't care for the MCU Thor for the exact reason that I *love* comic book Thor. Comic-Thor is portentous and larger than life and a little bit scary, even to his allies. He's not the funny drunk in the fat suit. He doesn't get tasered or backed into by a car by his girlfriend (in one of his better movies, where he wasn't entirely a joke, even!).
As a bit of a comic snob, I'm often surprised by how much I love MCU characters whose comic-book version I cannot stand (like Bob/the Sentry), and how much characters I really love from the comics, leave me cold in the MCU (Clint/Hawkeye, who, IMO, is deadly dull compared to the wisecracking pain-in-Caps-ass he is in the comics).
And that's something I do love about the MCU in general, is that some characters that in the comics never really seemed to click for me (like Natasha or Yelena) have really blossomed in the MCU, under different writing / interpretations (and with actors bringing them to life).
The differences are often very cool for characters that I didn't already love, but are jarring and unwelcome in cases like Thor, whom I liked as he already was, and do not like the MCU interpretation of. So, yes, total hypocrisy. I own that. :)
