The Imperator's page

Aaron Shanks wrote:

theelcorspectre wrote:

Aaron Shanks wrote:

Let’s try an experiment. What questions about this product do you have that would either make you preorder it or subscribe?

What is the spell-casting attribute for the Precog?

Dexterity AND Intelligence.

Well, I should say, Dex for paradoxes, Int for spells.

"Your Dexterity is your key ability score, and it determines the number of time-altering paradoxes you can use each day, as well as the saving throw DC of many precog abilities. Your Intelligence determines your spellcasting ability, the saving throw DC of your spells, and the number of bonus spells you can cast per day."

that's neat but it sucks that you have to focus on one being good or the other being good. My group was enjoying the idea of a Dex caster.

Were paradoxes per day changed? My group found it felt a little low to only have like three of them of them for a good chunk of your levels.

I hope the book can at least come out by the end of January, my group is waiting to start a new campaign and I really want to play the finished Precog.

Give them the paradox feature. Anchor abilities at appropriate levels (see soldier fighting style class graft), give them temporal anomalies at simlar levels that operative class grafts get tricks, and spellcasting if appropriate.

thisis for a PC, wanting to give them an archetype, not grafting onto a monster.

Is there any guide to suggestion on how to do an archetype with them, or am I SOL until the book comes out in November?

(bumping an old thread to jump in on talk about the Precog)

So it says there are past figures in it, anything on ancient Ninshabur, the Shory, etc.?

The Imperator wrote:

How do the Manasaputras fit into this?

I'm assuming they're basically already hanging around?

They're kind of doing their own thing in the positive energy plane. We haven't explored much about their role, and if/when we bring them back in 2nd edition, we'll look into that more.

Thank you for the response!

How do the Manasaputras fit into this?

I'm assuming they're basically already hanging around?

Given Chaotic and Lawful aspects are both parts of reality, why do the servants of the Monad, the Aeons, favor Law and avoid Chaos now, when they didn't in 1e?

The Imperator wrote:

Pardon my question if this is answered in the Return of the Runelords AP, but I sadly don't have the money to buy it to look through it.

How are differing time lines treated by the story and world building that you all do behind the scenes vis-a-vis alternate gods for each timeline or not?

** spoiler omitted **
I realize in a home game I can do what I want with time line stuff, I mostly just curious how you all conceptualize it when building the world behind the scenes.

The gods interact with time differently than the rest of us. Their interaction with it is however you want it to work in your game, including impossible things. For example, a cleric who goes back in time to a point before their deity was born (say, to ancient Thasislon while you worship Cayden Cailean) finds that they can still pray to the deity and gain magic and cast commune and all that.

How you handle alternate timelines in your game is up to you—but take care, since it's easy to put years of work into a timeline and then have to throw all that work away simply because the timeline changed.

For Return of the Runelords, all of the alternate timeline stuff happens offscreen, and the assumption is that the PCs fix it. It only really impacts part 6 of Return of the Runelords, and that adventure is pretty much all focused on the PCs and what they do to fix it... not at presenting a brand new campaign setting to adventure in.

Thanks! I had been planning to do some offscreen timeline stuff, which got me curious about how you all thought about it when designing stuff.

Pardon my question if this is answered in the Return of the Runelords AP, but I sadly don't have the money to buy it to look through it.

How are differing time lines treated by the story and world building that you all do behind the scenes vis-a-vis alternate gods for each timeline or not?

Hi James,

Is Abraxas connected to the Aeons at all in Golarion?

IRL, Abraxas and Aeons are connected with Gnostic lore.

That said.

Given he called his realm Pleroma, which is also the name of the strongest type of Aeon, and that he is supposed to be one of the oldest non-Qlippoth demon Lords, is he a fallen Pleroma Aeon? Or a fallen Aeon of some kind? Knowing the final incantation and his focus on knowledge seems like something a fallen Aeon would have, given their connection to the Akashic record.

Or is the connection only there because of IRL stuff, and we aren't supposed to think too hard about it?

Ah, the un-fun reason. I guess I can always make them connected in a home game.

Is Abraxas connected to the Aeons at all in Golarion?

IRL, Abraxas and Aeons are connected with Gnostic lore. That said.

Given he called his realm Pleroma, which is also the name of the strongest type of Aeon, and that he is supposed to be one of the oldest non-Qlippoth demon Lords, is it possible he was a fallen Pleroma Aeon? Or a fallen Aeon of some kind? Knowing the final incantation and his focus on knowledge seems like something a fallen Aeon would have, given their connection to the Akashic record.

Or is the connection only there because of IRL stuff, and we aren't supposed to think too hard about it?

*Step 1

Ask yourself what you want your character to do. (important note: 'everything' is not an option.)

*Step 2
Build for that.

Sadly technomancer, though it has several interesting options, can't 'jack of all trades'.

If you want to be a more spell casty supporty character; I'd advise getting at least a 20 in Int, forget firing a weapon for damage, put spell thrower on a lvl 4 weapon, and buy A LOT of spell gems.

If you want to be a more spell damagey character; I'd advise maxing Int, , forget firing a weapon for damage, put spell thrower on a lvl 4 weapon, and buy A LOT of spell gems.

If you want to use technomancer as an interesting shell for Fabricate Weapon; focus Dex, have a minimum Int for spell casting and go ham creating weapons.

All of that said, most classes in Starfinder build as 'good at one thing and passable at some others'. As well as, Starfinder classes are rarely intended purely for combat.

I should have started with a higher dex then, I've been less than enthused with the spell list so far, but that's changing as I've managed to stop comparing it to Pathfinder.

My GM has been fine with me, and other players, tweaking stuff as we go and learn more about the system, so I'll probably tweak some more and run it by the GM.

You should also have a sit down with your party and see if there’s something you all can do that would stop the technomancer from apparently being out in front ready to receive melee opponents at the start of every fight.

It just has been happening quite often. A lot of fights we've been getting in have been (currently in whatever book of the first Starfinder AP that has you at 5th level) in areas where it's possible for the enemies to move around to flank the group, giving my character not much maneuverability. That's probably just down to us as a group making some dumb decisions as we work to remember what low level play is like, though.

I have a player who runs a pure caster gray technomancer. He has CON and INT only, supercharges weapons, throws a blast or two, then runs into combat after the solarian to use a dragon gland. So that's an option if you didn't build for weapons in the first place.

Oh, that's an interesting idea. I have been using spell chips of Supercharge Weapon on allies during fights, which has been working out well so far.

Thanks for the information!

So currently playing a technomancer, level 5, and wondering if I should be feeling this useless.

I have +6 to hit, as I took versatile specialization before versatile focus, and I have the Fabricate Weapon hack. However, I always feel like I don't have time to use the hack, because I never go early enough in combat to not have something jump into my face and start attacking. At that point, my not stunning EAC and KAC don't keep the character up for long. I also feel like I never hit things, which given my low number of spells makes me feel like the character can't do anything in combat.

What role should I be trying for, given a supporting shoot-y character doesn't seem to be on the table, and there aren't enough spells to be like a Pathfinder style wizard?

How many levels of spells can constant spell turning, like on a Titan, do every round? Is it an unlimited number, or is it 1d6+4 per round?

The Imperator wrote:

Do we know if things like Mi-Go will get Starfinder-ized officially, with the chance of a player race in this book?

Mi-Go are in the book, but i am 100% sure that there won't be player stats.

These NE Dark Tapestry scientists are meant to be opponents, not pcs. ;-)

Ah, darn, I'm a fan of letting players have access to weird alien races, especially ones without any subtype that forces them to be evil. I've never been a fan of locking PCs out from a lot of races, more so in sci-fi stuff than in fantasy stuff.

Do we know if things like Mi-Go will get Starfinder-ized officially, with the chance of a player race in this book?

What's the new Technomancer ability Summon Cache do? Is it to do with summoning or with storing spells?

I'm really sad these don't get into higher level stuff. I want to play some higher level Starfinder, to see what it's like, but Starfinder APs don't seem to want to support that.

Weaponizing stars (and wormholes) just leads to an escalating arms race that no starfaring culture can win. I've seen it for myself.

Perfect plot for running PCs as agents of Abadar to keep people from violating inter-dimensional treaties that Abadar is in charge of enforcing.

Well, if you can raise the temperature above where nitrogen burns in oxygen, there isn't going to be a whole lot surviving even if you don't have a planet-diameter solarbeam.

That's true too. It doesn't take much concentrated sun to completely ruin a planet's day.

The Imperator wrote:

They obliquely referenced the fact the sun can be used as a railgun in Distant Worlds,

I would like to learn more about this.

My bad, People of the Stars:

Powerful spellcasters are often interested in visiting the sun

in order to tap into its vast energy, either to burn their foes or
to power designs of nearly unimaginable scope. Rumors persist
in astronomical circles of ways to weaponize the sun’s energy
such that whole nations—or even worlds—could be consumed
in a massive conflagration, and some whisper that at least
one powerful spellcaster may be close to understanding how
to accomplish such an act.

OK, railgun is inaccurate, but use the sun as a beam weapon or a power source for a beam weapon.

This is actually, technically possible within the rules as they currently are. You need a demiplane, a gate into the core of a star, and then just open up a gate to your demiplane whenever you need a weapon.

Because things are not stated to lose momentum as they move through a Gate, the star's core pressures and the pressure of the room will push the super heated plasma through the new gate very quickly, like water through a hose. That much heat, even given the size of the gate as 20ft in diameter, is going to do serious damage to whatever it's pointed at. It will eat through the crust of the planet it is aimed at really quickly. If you do it from higher up in the atmosphere you could also heat large areas of the planet really quickly.

Then you add in the NPC magic of GM-can-create-new-items-or-rituals and give them a ritual, artifact, or both, and you can raise the diameter of that quite a bit allowing NPCs to utilize it as an end of campaign threat. If only Gate and Create Demiplane were spells in Starfinder, and you could have a really cool big bad with this power set up. I'd never really allow a player to do it, except in something like an evil campaign where the players know everything would be coming at them if they did it.

I just found it funny that, I would assume, someone saw that technically RAW thing and thought it was funny enough to reference it in a splat book. Maybe they just had the idea separately, I guess, but it always seemed to me like a knowing wink.

Table Top RPG writers rarely consider the loopholes, even when they're known, it's one of those seemingly universal axioms about them.

Paizo is actually generally good about acknowledging loopholes. They obliquely referenced the fact the sun can be used as a railgun in Distant Worlds, for instance, and one post campaign thing for Strange Aeons even has a wizard who is abusing Genies and wishes from them.

But yeah, thanks for your POV!

Do all the Necronomicon Spell Like abilities require the players to have the book?

Some are worded like:

Once mastered, this
section allows the user to cast greater teleport once per day,

but another is worded:

Once this section is successfully studied,
the reader can use the section once per day to cast any
of the following spells as spell-like abilities:

The first doesn't say the book is needed to cast the spell like ability, the second does. So would I be right in reading that as the book gives different rules for the spell like abilities it gifts? Like the first should work even without consulting the book, but the second would require consulting the book?

Alternatively, imagine this:

You're an evil wizard, and while you've never been the healthiest, as you grow older, your body grows even frailer. Then, one day you come across a young, strong knight (possibly even augmented by powerful magics or simply good fortune- i.e. has a template or two). You capture this fine young specimen, and after the appropriate ritual, this knight is trapped in your dying body, and you now have excellent physical might to compete with your phenomenal mind.

In other words, it's a way to get your stats really, really high. And possibly a passive bonus from a template. Oh, and you now have a completely different appearance- perfect for infiltration, escaping pursuit, or something similar.

Side note: Where's the Necromonicon given stats? I can't find it anywhere.

It's in the Strange Aeons AP, the fifth part.

Because you're a person, not stats on a page, and most people, even evil ones, don't want to experience death and/or undeath.

While that's true, Major Mind Swap is still pretty evil as a power. I guess I just tend to view villains that are willing to steal bodies and kill people through old age as probably seeking to exploit all the loopholes they can, especially given what will happen to their soul regardless of whether they become undead or not.

You're a bbeg near the end of your life. You use greater mind swap on a young person. Not all spells are meant for players.

I guess that makes sense, but it seems strange to do that rather than other sources of immortality that give you better stats. Lich/Psychic Lich, for starters. Or find a wizard that can cast clone and get him to make you some scrolls. There are a lot of those on the planet, and probably more than arent statted officially that work in the statted libraries and universities around the planet that you could probably pay to help. Especially since there's a large chance unless you're just a simple race like a human or something that you lose some racial abilities with major mind swap.

See also: The Superior Spider-Man

Wouldn't work. Peter's sticking to stuff ability is not on at all times, so Ock couldn't use it RAW with Major Mind Swap. AFAIK Peter's ability requires more than just a climb bonus to replicate in Pathfinder :P

Major Mind Swap, like Possession, does not let you use activated Ex, Su, or Sp abilities of the form you swap into. However, Major Mind Swap only lets you swap into something of your race.

Why would this spell ever be used then? It doesn't have any real benefit, beyond maybe tweaking some physical stats slightly. And if you have any racial abilities, you lose them, despite going to your same race.

I had contemplated maybe seeing if Instant Enemy could combo with the spell, but it just treats something as a creature type, not a race, so even that doesn't give any benefit to Mind Swap.

The spell is pretty atrocious for a 9th level spell, other than the fact it is permanent. But a 18 level Psychic (or 17th level wizard with the Necronomicon) has many, many other ways of infiltrating someplace than a spell that will at best do little and at worst completely screw you out of a lot of racial stuff.

Is there some benefit to this spell I'm not seeing?

Fey speak Aklo as well, the majority of Fey do as far as I can tell. Some Fey speak First Speech, whatever that is, but most do not.

Is there a way to ask a dev specifically about this, since this is apparently a confusing thing, or do I have to hope one sees my question?

The Imperator wrote:

So does the Patron theme replace your first level hex and give you a downside, or does it give you an additional first level hex and a downside?

Your first hex and some patron spells are locked and you get a drawback.

Huh, not really a fan of strictly worse options for play, and a drawback with no upside is that.

So does the Patron theme replace your first level hex and give you a downside, or does it give you an additional first level hex and a downside?

The Imperator wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

The Great Old Ones and Outer Gods don't care. The souls of their worshipers either get destroyed or recycled or get sent on to an outer plane. That's up to Pharasma in the end.

You'd think Malevolent beings like Nyarlathotep would see the benefit of building armies to do their evil, malevolent work.

What about Bokrug, who seems to legitimately care about the Beings of Ib, in his own alien manner?

Nyarlathotep understands human nature is self-destructive enough that it just needs nudges here and there at the right time to set us all on the path to self annihilation. He doesn't need armies. We are already doing the job for him on our own more or less.

Bokrug does care about the beings of Ib, but note that they died and became undead, not petitioners. Their souls never entered the River of Souls at all in the first place. In a way, he did an end-run around the whole cosmic order in that way, I guess.

Thanks for the response!

Weirdly enough, I don't think Bokrug has an actual divine realm for souls to go to. Great Old Ones don't have that ability.

Pharasma probably COULD send his worshippers to his territory in the Dreamlands, but she's a stickler for the rules, and no true realm usually means no souls.

Strange Aeons spoiler

The Great Old Ones and Outer Gods don't care. The souls of their worshipers either get destroyed or recycled or get sent on to an outer plane. That's up to Pharasma in the end.

You'd think Malevolent beings like Nyarlathotep would see the benefit of building armies to do their evil, malevolent work.

What about Bokrug, who seems to legitimately care about the Beings of Ib, in his own alien manner?

I ran it, and had fun with books 1 to 3, and 6. I used Beyond the Vault of Souls instead of book 4 (PCs had too many RP issues with going undercover, so I had them find the information out a different way by tweaking that module), and book 5 I just didn't enjoy.

I would definitely buy a hardcover redux, though, and would love for stats of Abraxus for a continuing the campaign encounter.

I'm getting ready to play in a game of WotR, but I wondered if this archetype of Druid is a good choice?

We may be gestalting if we can't get a fourth character, and if so are there any good companion classes to the Halcyon Druid? We currently have no full arcane caster in the party, the other two people playing a Cavalier and a Paladin.

I was also thinking Urban Druid for a caster focused Druid, how does that compare?

So Gate says:

The second effect of the gate spell is to call an extraplanar creature to your aid (a calling effect). By naming a particular being or kind of being as you cast the spell, you cause the gate to open in the immediate vicinity of the desired creature and pull the subject through, willing or unwilling.

The extraplanar subtype says:

This subtype is applied to any creature when it is on a plane other than its native plane.

So, since a creature is not "extraplanar" when on its home plane, does this mean Gate cannot grab creatures from their home planes?

Like, if you use it call a Balor, does the Balor have to be coming from a plane other than the Abyss?

Having worked with Wes to design the kyton demigod, I can assuure you that it was Clive Barker who inspired our thinking and not Dr. Who, since neither of us know anything about Dr. Who.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if whoever came up with that design for Dr. Who was also inspired by Clive Barker, assuming the Dr. Who reference came about in the 80s or after. He's a pretty inspiring fella after all.

And Tabris was a unique creature, not a specific type of angel before his fall.

Is there any plan to ever stat him up? A unique angel that's not an Empyreal Lord sounds pretty cool, fitting a niche design space.

Thanks for the response!

Tabris needs a hug, look how emaciated he looks.

What kind of angel was he before he went on his journey? He doesn't really look like what I imagined, even ignoring the emaciation.

Like what Steelfiredragon, if you count the Pathfinder comics to be canon, then the Worldscape exists.

The Worldscape being some sort of plane that Nex created that exists between 3 different material planes and their multiple timelines. It plucks heroes from time to time.

Did not know that existed. I'm going to keep that in mind and maybe use it in a campaign at some point.

Alternate time lines exist, in canon, as there are spells that pull alternate versions of you from other time lines. In addition, this is not the first multiverse, there was at least one before it where the Manasaputras came from (implied multiple).

And the old Guide to the Great Beyond (or whatever it was called) mentioned the Great Old Ones entering our multiverse from somewhere else and traveling through the Maelstrom.

So there're definitely alternate time lines and previous versions of everything, but I believe canon leaves it open as to whether there are completely separate (causally) Prime Material Planes.

There are other Material Planes, or at least large demi-planes, since the Elohim are stated to be able to create permanent demi-planes and populate them.

Is there a place in the Outer Planes that cultists of the Great Old Ones go upon death? I don't recall it being mentioned that they have a court in the Boneyard, so do they just get sent to the plane of their alignment?

Thanks for the suggestion!

Long story short, my wizard has hit 17th level, and instead of taking just another feat, I asked my GM if I could take True Name again, but instead of a new creature buff the current creature I have currently with True Name (taken at 15th level).

He said if I could find a template and come up with an in character reason for both entreating the outsider to undergo some process and for why the outsider would go along with it.

I currently have an Uinuja Azata, I am CN, and am a wizard focused on gaining knowledge/taking down Cheliax. This is a post-Campaign Skull and Shackles game.

So my question is what templates would be within the power level, I would think bumping up 2, or 1 if it's flavorful, CR for the Azata.

HD advancement is probably on the table too, but limited to the same limitations from my GM. My character's end goal is to create either a highly powered outsider/Empyreal lord to balance out the fact that our party helped a demon achieve nascent demon lord status to repay a debt we owed the demon. I don't intend to have an Empyreal Lord bound, that's just the in character end goal of this process.

How do Azatas improve to become stronger and eventually Empyreal lords?

Devils, Archons, Angels, and Kytons can change to a stronger form over time, either with enough souls or thanks to a stronger devil helping them. Daemons too, although to a lesser extent since some daemons start fairly strong once emerging from their petitioner state.

Even demons can gobble souls or power or whatever to change into stronger types of demons, and eventually nascent demon lords.

But how do Azatas do it?

Thanks!

I'm in a game right now, it's high level, and the GM has allowed us to pay for/meaningfully exchange something for templates.

Several of us have templates that give spell resistance, as CR+11. We have been using level+11, since that's easier to calculate.

Then the issue arises of level increases. Like, for example, monsters that have racial SR (like specific types of demons, for example) don't have their spell resistance increase if they gain class levels. So my character, with the Fey template, shouldn't gain more SR as he levels, correct, because it's from racially being a Fey that it happens in the first place? Or should the SR increase, since PCs are based on levels rather than racial hit dice? Would it be the same for an undead template that grants SR, or different?

How soon can they cast 3 level 1 spells? At level 2? (Guessing, no book in front of me) That plus spell cache and the whole party gets Weapon Surge.

If they have a good Int score, they can cast 3 at level 1.

I was reading through the Technomancer and they seemed pretty light on class features. Are their spells good enough to balance out the fact they get fewer class abilities than the Mystic?

I want to build one, but I don't want to be the weak link in the party.