Short answer: we don't know much at all about the Concordance of Rivals -- all that's confirmed is that it's a powerful artifact on par with the Book of the Damned or Chronicle of the Righteous, written by the same author.
(Moreland's inclusion of the Concordance alongside other artifacts in that tumblr post -- which predates the release of Hell Unleashed -- may actually have been a minor slip of the tongue, as the book had never even been mentioned by name in official material prior to that Campaign Setting book.)
It's within the bounds of possibility that the Concordance and the Lost Gospels are one and the same, but unlikely given the nature of the Lost Gospels -- they weren't actually delivered by Tabris at all, but rather by Aldus Canter, founder of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. (The Lost Gospels are more or less analogous to the irl Book of Mormon; Aldus claims to have received knowledge of its rites and mysticisms through direct communion with Tabris, but these gospels were only ever relayed through Aldus himself, and the true author is unconfirmed.)
In my opinion, it's more likely that the Concordance of Rivals is Tabris' account of the neutral outsiders, and of the tenuous multiversal balance between law and chaos. If the Book of the Damned is
Hell Unleashed spoiler:
a constantly self-updating and quasi-alive record of all evil,
and the Chronicle of the Righteous presumably occupies the same role for good, then it stands to reason that there would exist a similar account of that which lies between. It might chronicle the nature of protean lords, the axiomite godmind (and perhaps the origins of the axiomites themselves, not to mention secrets regarding the creation of the primal inevitables), the Eldest, psychopomp denizens of the Boneyard, or even the aeons. Or all of the above. Chances are, we the players simply haven't heard about this book until now because on the occasions that we learn about the deeds of outsiders, Pathfinder has thus far focused primarily on establishing the roles of celestials and fiends in its setting.
One thing is for sure -- we could really use more information about this tome! Anyone know a good way to bring the developers' attention to this issue?
Pathfinder Unchained includes "replacements for all [rogue talents] in the Core Rulebook, along with selected revised rogue talents from other sources." However, outside of PFS, the status of rogue talents beyond those in the CRB is uncertain; some talents like Charmer or Fast Picks have been obviated by unchained talents, while others deserve revision or clarification to bring them into balance with the new unchained talents.
I've adapted the entire current list of rogue talents for the unchained rogue, which I thought might be handy for other GMs looking to expand the list of potential rogue talents available in their home games. You can find the document here:
Pathfinder Unchained includes "replacements for all [rogue talents] in the Core Rulebook, along with selected revised rogue talents from other sources."
As far as PFS is concerned, you can't take Befuddling Strike at all as an unchained rogue, or anything else not listed in Unchained itself: "The unchained rogue qualifies for all existing rogue archetypes, but she is limited to any rogue talents listed in Chapter 1 (including the sidebar on page 24)."
For home games, however, the status of rogue talents outside of the CRB is open to interpretation. Befuddling Strike was effectively rolled into the unchained rogue's debilitating injury class feature, so I would personally rule that it's no longer available for use by unchained rogues. The same would apply to talents such as Charmer (which are now part of the Certainty unchained rogue talent) or Fast Picks (Unchained's Quick Disable combined the old Quick Disable and Fast Picks into a single talent). For other talents, it may be less clear whether they're really suitable for use by an unchained rogue.
I'm currently working on adapting the PFSRD's entire list of rogue talents for the unchained rogue (as a GM resource for home games), which will include:
Replacements for non-CRB rogue talents that bring them in line with Unchained's revised talents.
A full list of rogue talents that can be used without modification.
A list of rogue talents recommended for discontinuation (i.e. that should no longer be available for use by unchained rogues).
A revised "unchained ninja" that functions as a fully compatible archetype for the unchained rogue, as well as a list of revised ninja tricks.
I'll make the document publicly available and post a link when the conversion is complete!
Is Wrath of the Righteous the Mythic AP or something? Because otherwise, I have no idea how you would get the 50 Charisma necessary for a +20 modifier. I'm not even sure if Mythic adds enough extra bonuses for it.
Yes, it is. 18 base Cha, +2 racial, +5 inherent, +5 lvls, +6 enhance for the normal 36 'cap'. Then +10 from mythic tiers for a 46, +2 from devotion pts in book 1, then +2 anarchic boost from Arushelae in book 3, so by lvl 20 which is halfway through book 6, you've got 50 Cha. This isn't counting other sources like becoming a half-celestial or a lich for more.
So, if I understand correctly: once you hit 20th level / 10th mythic tier, if you put every possible bonus into Charisma (including successfully gaining the ability bonuses in both books 1 and 3), you can select a 20 on a die roll as an immediate action without limit?
That makes for a very powerful ability, yes -- but keep in mind that immediate actions eat up a swift action, and mythic characters particularly benefit from their swift actions. And ultimately, this build essentially makes the surge and force of will abilities redundant by replacing them with flash of insight, which is cool but does mean you're overlapping on a lot of power you would already normally be getting as a mythic character.
More to the point, however: once you've reached 20/10, you're practically a demigod already. Were I GMing such a game, if a player actually devoted all of those resources to pulling this off at the very end of the adventure, I think I would just applaud their dedication and foresight, congratulate them on their character breaking probability wide open and becoming a full-blown tychokinetic, and carry right on with all the other wonderfully over-the-top things that happen in the final chapters of that AP.
Basically, there are lots! Most of the neutral demigod classes have been mentioned here at some point (primal inevitables, protean lords, psychopomp ushers, the Eldest, the axiomite godmind, some of the Great Old Ones, kami lords) -- at least, most of the ones that we know of.
It's not clear whether the primal inevitables actually grant spells to worshipers, or if (more likely) they're simply very powerful constructs on the order of kaiju-fighting behemoths.
Aeons may also be a special case: Luthorne's probably right in saying that aeons, as extensions of the fabric of being itself, generally lack stable selves. But if that's the case, then monad -- which exists everywhere, must have a deeper impact on the universe than we have thus far seen. And it's recently been revealed that aeons have a connection to the Antipode, a crucial point along the River of Souls...
There are also neutral demigods in the dwarven pantheon, such as Kols, and factionless individuals such as the fire demigoddess Feronia. And there might be entire other classes of demigods out there -- ascended from alien races like Vercites or Eoxians or formians -- that we simply haven't heard of yet.
(I'm on a long-term crusade of sorts to encourage more development on these beings and concepts, as they are absolutely some of the most interesting and inspiring ideas in the entire Pathfinder mythos. I'll just leave this link here, in case anyone in this thread wants to chime in to show their support for more published material on the subject.)
A mage who summons specific entities is one of the relatively few character archetypes that proves difficult to implement using Pathfinder rules (because of the way summon monster spells conjure generic projections that aren't actually creatures). Your homebrew ideas look really interesting! I think you might find it to be a significant weakening of summoning overall, though. Essentially, this paradigm restricts the summon monster list to a much narrower range of choices, which lowers its overall versatility; in addition the possibility that maltreated spirits might rebel makes it a riskier ability, as you no longer want to summon creatures up into obviously suicidal situations. Also, intelligent spirits with personalities are basically NPCs, which introduces the risk that a player's interactions with their summoned spirits could "hog the spotlight" during games. Things to consider if you're attempting to make contractual summoning work.
A couple other thoughts. First of all, I've never used these third-party supplements myself, but Radiance has a series of books that revolve around making pacts with particular spirits -- could be just what you're looking for! Pact Magic Unbound, Vol. 1 In fact, this might be your best bet if you're looking for a character whose primary theme is contractual summoning.
Within existing Pathfinder rules, however, you might also find a couple of things useful.
While summoning magic doesn't bring real creatures to the Material Plane, calling spells do exactly this. Planar binding or planar ally calls a creature of a certain type to the plane -- and it can be a specific individual if you know that individual's name! This is the primary means of requesting aid from outsiders via contracts and building relationships; every time you call a creature, you must convince it to cooperate.
Along the same lines, true names are pretty important in Pathfinder -- they're like sigils carved on the essence of outsiders. This is particularly tricky if you're dealing with devils, but you can bend most outsiders to your will if you can locate the secret of their true names. A special case is the True Name wizard discovery, which grants you access and control over a specific outsider.
Speaking of devils, if you're into making deals of the Faustian variety, there's a template for that: the Devilbound Creature template, for those who bargain their souls in exchange for infernal power. A very specific kind of pact, but perhaps you could make a Celestial-Bound template modeled on this one.
Finally, there's always the option of reflavoring existing abilities without a great deal of mechanical alteration. Perhaps an oracle character's divine spells are actually the work of pact-bound spirits who flicker briefly into the Material Plane when beseeched by their mortal caller. Eidolons, with their ambiguous origins, would be perfect for this kind of dynamic (though a summoner only has one eidolon, which might not work for your purposes). An unsworn shaman binds themselves to different spirits on different days; you could develop personalities for the spirits with which they commune, even if they're not summoning those spirits into the world.
I know firsthand the appeal of playing a character who builds relationships with their summoned entities (in a wacky homebrew RPG, I once played an elementalist whose first summon was an efreet with a major inferiority complex. Good times). It definitely adds more complexity to a character than is typical for Pathfinder, but it could be rewarding to give one of these ideas a shot. Or hey, try out your homebrew rules for an adventure and report back to us with how they work!
Which would really be quite interesting to see, given the natural tendencies of imps. Perhaps, instead of an egotistic tempter and schemer, such an imp would serve as a sort of "conscience" familiar -- selfless yet impulsive, urging its master toward reckless acts of heroism.
So, a friend proposed an interesting wrinkle to this problem. Why hasn't someone (a government, an extremely wealthy individual, etc.) contracted out a caster (or cast the magic themselves, assuming said wealthy person is an arcane caster) to create permanent teleportation circles to link various parts of the world in exceedingly rapid trade? Surely they'd make their money back long term.
Lady Darchana of House Madinani, archdean at the Arcanamirium in Absalom, is working on pretty much exactly this (Guide to Absalom p.59). If she succeeds in doing so, it will cause a major upheaval in the political and economic climate of the largest city in the known world, render ships largely obsolete for trade -- and undoubtedly gain her powerful enemies.
Yeah, I mostly recommend the Cad for games that reach higher level, at which point you can incapacitate a foe for multiple rounds. For a lower-level game, taking the flurry FAQ into account, a maneuver master / sneak attack build seems solid. Hmm...have you looked into combining this with the Snakebite Striker brawler archetype?
I've encountered this question before on several occasions; as you have noticed, long-range magical communication is, for the most part prohibitively rare and expensive (for good reason, from a worldbuilding perspective -- few technologies have a more transformative impact on the world than accessible long-distance communication!). A few additional points:
- Whispering wind delivers its message whether or not anyone's around to hear it. If you set up a predetermined time at which someone's waiting to receive messages, you can avoid this problem, but that presents obvious security risks. (The range limit of 1-20 miles may also be too short for your purposes.)
- Sending stipulates that the caster must be familiar with the recipient. If the PCs communicate with their liege through intermediaries, they'll need a trusted contact.
- The mirror sight spell (as it's listed in the SRD) is known on Golarion as Irriseni mirror sight -- while this might be the most accessible means of reliable, low-cost communication available, it's up to GM discretion whether the spell is commonly known far beyond the frozen wastes of Irrisen.
- For shorter-range scouting missions, missive stones work great. Again, range limit of 3 miles may be too short for your purposes.
Finally, I'll offer a slightly more obscure solution: whispering lilies. Turns out that Pathfinder Venture-Captain Varian Jeggare developed a clever botanical solution to this very problem -- paired flowers that, when planted, transmit spoken messages from one bulb to the other. (You can read about them in this excerpt from The Lost Pathfinder: "Chapter One: The Solarium"). You could write up stats for whispering lilies and entrust your players with one of these remarkable bulbs, keeping the other half inconspicuously near the monarch or their spymaster.
Keep in mind that the Maneuver Master monk uses monk level in place of BAB to calculate CMB during a flurry of maneuvers, so I don't think a one-level dip into the class will prove very effective.
Have you seen the Cad fighter archetype? Combined with the feat Dirty Trick Master, it certainly looks like you could really lock down multiple opponents with dirty tricks at higher levels. I hypothesize that a straight Cad is probably the best build available if you want to specialize in dirty tricks.
If you're looking to combine dirty tricks with sneak attack, on the other hand, the feat Surprise Maneuver from ACG will suit your purposes well. Best of luck!
The axiomite god-mind, unfortunately, lacks any substantial description...along with most of the neutral outsiders (we still need a better word to refer to neutral outsiders collectively). I agree -- it deserves more love!
If you want to let Paizo know that we'd like to see more information about the axiomite god-mind or similar entities, may I humbly suggest voicing your support in this thread?
Lords of Chaos and Chronicle of the Righteous gave us fantastic writeups of demon lords and empyreal lords (I, personally, think Chronicle is one of the best Campaign Setting books Paizo has yet released.) The Bestiary 4 and the Wrath of the Righteous AP gave us even more information (and stat blocks!) for demon lords, empyreal lords, and even Great Old Ones. But the list of demigods extends far beyond the ranks of celestials and fiends.
This is a thread to show support for a book that introduces these divine beings -- some of which other books have alluded to, or even mentioned by name -- in more detail. Every outsider race has its deific paragons, each with their own domains, realms, followers, and agendas. As the most powerful mortal movers and shakers in the multiverse, every one of these entities can be a divine patron, mysterious benefactor, or campaign-ending mythic foe.
Demigods that could be featured in such a book include:
primal inevitables
protean lords
the axiomite god-mind
psychopomp ushers
infernal dukes (yes, Lorthact, I see you there)
kyton demagogues
rakshasa immortals
elemental lords
the Eldest
AND MUCH, MUCH MORE! (No, seriously, there's much more. It's rumored that the ancient Eoxians might have achieved independent apotheosis; the inscrutable race of aeons may be able to manifest powerful, as-yet-unnamed agents of monad; the veiled masters answer to mysterious entities even greater than themselves that lurk under the waves. The possibilities are endless.)
If you'd be interested in a Campaign Setting book dedicated to the demigods of Pathfinder, voice your enthusiasm in this thread!
I'm surprised that this thread has reached its third page with scarcely a mention of the most important answer to this question. We have a canon example of exactly this kind of society: the Shory Empire and their flying cities! If you want a glimpse of what a world with ubiquitous arcane magic looks like, check out the article "Rise and Fall of the Shory Empire," in AP #83: "The Slave Trenches of Hakotep" -- it's no surprise that the height of Shory society was basically a golden age of invention and prosperity. Grand towers of glass and skymetal with invisible skybridges, electro-thaumatic heating, marid-fueled cisterns of endless elemental water, fey-infused hanging gardens...just the sort of things you might imagine from a magical society that makes the modern world "look like a bunch of ants scratching in the dirt."
You're certainly right to bracket the question of divine magic: the gods are inscrutable, and we don't know what sorts of limitations they might impose upon the use and abuse of their blessings, nor will we ever know. Importantly, the Shory did the same thing themselves, abandoning shamanism and divine magic for the practice of wizardry -- which makes them a perfect case study in exactly the question you have asked. Is there a good in-game reason why arcane magic isn't everywhere?
Outlining a few points in an attempt to answer that question:
First, the game rules are a necessarily incomplete depiction of what magic can do. How did the Shory accomplish all of their amazing feats, anyway? According to "Rise and Fall of the Shory Empire," the centerpiece of their sky-cities is an invention called the well of abundance -- which, notably, does NOT get stats in the book. We know it's an arcane power source that can, at the very least, do the following: recharge magic items, awaken and power constructs (hailstone golems, to be exact), and imbue every citizen with at-will spell-like abilities of at least 1st level. The well of abundance is almost definitely a major artifact, which should give you an idea of what it might take to attain arcane ubiquity.
Not to mention the Shory's greatest achievement of all: the power of Aeromantic Infandibulum itself, the great rituals that marked out areas of the earth and lifted them wholesale into the air. Basically, rites and rituals -- like artifacts -- can accomplish things far outside of the game rules, pretty much limited only by an author's worldbuilding imagination, and scarcely an Adventure Path goes by without at least one such ritual taking place. (Wrath of the Righteous had at least three.) Most of the major magical developments in the world appear to occur not as a result of "ordinary" 1st- through 9th-level spells, but from such "outside-the-rules" uses of magic (see Nex and Geb).
But the inverse of the first point is also true: there are probably good reasons why an at-will fabricate engine doesn't seem to exist, even though the item crafting rules suggest it should only be 90,000 gp. These rules are guidelines that (like the adventuring economy itself) simply tend to break down mechanically, especially at high levels. But perhaps there are also good in-game reasons why they don't exist. One thing that comes to mind is that such an item in the hands of humans (rather than a demigod in its realm) destabilizes the balance of order and chaos, creation and destruction. Which brings me to my next point...
There are, as previous posters have rightly pointed out, any number of ways for even a technologically advanced society to fail on Golarion. First and foremost, the multiverse is full of powerful outsiders far beyond humanoid imagining; insatiable demons, implacable inevitables, ravenous qlippoths, inscrutable aeons, any of which in sufficient numbers could eradicate a mortal city. (See the fall of Kho, and the Tarrasque. Or, if you prefer, the Worldwound completely wiping Sarkoris off the map.) Generally, it's only the delicate balance of power between worlds and planes, between the armies of good and evil, that allows mortal life to thrive at all.
The possibility for self-destruction is everpresent. See Ulduvai, one of the very sky-cities that actually accomplished arcane ubiquity -- which fell when its masters summoned a g**d*mn shoggoth into the middle of the city. And this is far from abnormal; the individual wizard who wants to entice a djinn or demon to do his bidding has a nontrivial risk of that entity breaking free and wreaking havoc. While such pitfalls are often overlooked in typical gameplay, arcane magic in the world of Pathfinder is actually fraught with risk. There are numerous examples of enchantments unraveling or becoming unstable over time, catastrophic mishaps that result in everything from cursed items to DEMON RIFTS OPENING ON THE MOON (seriously, go look that one up if you don't know about it yet).
And, as Diego Rossi points out above, we don't really know the limitations of arcane magic itself. Is it possible for a magical society to deplete its local "source" of magic? How do magic-dead or unreliable sites like the Mana Wastes come to be? Arcane magic may not be dependent on the caprice of the gods, but it has its own laws and underlying forces that are far from fully understood.
Finally, social forces have incalculably complex effects on technological development of any kind. (More than one Shory city fell as a result of civil war or conflict with other nations, despite their arcane supremacy.) Instigating a magical industrial revolution requires social stability and infrastructure of a kind hardly seen on Golarion. It would take widespread education initiatives, advances in medicine both mundane and magical, a shift away from subsistence farming to economies of scale...the list goes on. "Rise and Fall of the Shory Empire" emphasizes not only the Shory's mastery of air, which kept them out of danger from many of their Rovagug-worshiping enemies, but their social mores: a sustained focus on arcane research, diplomacy, and trade. The success of their society depended on this confluence of customs and social structures -- and when those values frayed and faltered, so did the empire.
As I said, people have pointed out most of these things already, and I don't necessarily have incontrovertible numerical evidence for why a society of ubiquitous arcane magic wouldn't be viable. But my point in putting all this together is that the answers you're looking for are, I believe, less likely to be found in the number-crunching of average Int scores and population statistics -- though those numbers can say quite a bit about the mechanical constraints of magic in the world -- than they are visible in the fantastical dynamics of what is, ultimately, a pretty terrifying multiverse in which to live.
Mythic rules, because they do so many things that go beyond ordinary applications of the rules, are always subject to a certain amount of GM discretion. If I were running the game and a champion spent one of their very valuable path abilities and a mythic feat to extend their throwing range, I'd say "heck yeah, you can throw that spear 200 feet." I could see a valid argument for the two abilities only adding a x6 range bonus in combination, but when it comes to mythic campaigns, I usually consider it best to err on the side of the more favorable interpretation. And either way, the range of thrown melee weapons should definitely be doubled by Mythic Distance Thrower.
(Side note: the real-life world record for the longest javelin throw is upwards of 300 feet. Considering Pathfinder's javelin has a range of 30 feet to the spear's 20, a 200-foot spear toss matches up pretty well with peak human performance -- and mythic heroes are far beyond ordinary human capabilities.)
Addendum: depending on lighting and environmental conditions, your champion might start having to make Perception checks to actually see their foes at longer distances.
I converted the enderman into a 0HD player race a while back (I'm currently playing an ender ninja in my group's Wrath of the Righteous campaign!). Hope you find these stats useful!
Enderman (15RP)
Spoiler:
Aberration [3 RP]: Endermen have darkvision 60ft. Endermen breathe, eat, and sleep.
Standard Ability Scores (+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con) [0 RP]: Endermen are fleet and shrewd, but their bodies are frail.
Standard Languages [0 RP]: Endermen start with Common and Aklo. Ender characters with high Intelligence can choose from the following additional languages: Aboleth, Abyssal, Auran, Celestial, Draconic, Elven, and Infernal.
Spell Resistance, Greater [3 RP]: Endermen have spell resistance equal to 11 + their character level.
Nimble Attacks [2 RP]: Endermen gain Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
Spell-Like Ability, At-Will [4 RP]: Endermen can cast lesser dimension door (see below) as a spell-like ability at will.
Static Bonus Feat [2 RP]: Endermen gain Dimensional Agility as a bonus feat.
Matter Transfer [3 RP]: As a standard action 3 times/day, an enderman can reach into a solid object and extract a small quantity of nonmagical, unattended matter from its surroundings. Up to a 6-inch cube of matter can be removed this way for every 4HD or fraction thereof; the matter removed can be of any shape, but fine details require a Craft check. The surrounding material is unaffected, as if the removed matter had never been attached.
Water Weakness [-2 RP]: Water is caustic to endermen. Endermen have a -4 penalty on saves versus spells that create water or have the water subtype. An enderman takes 1d6 damage each round that it is fully submerged in water.
New Spell: Dimension Door, Lesser
Spoiler:
School conjuration (teleportation); Level bard 2, magus 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, witch 2, summoner 2
Range short (25 ft + 5 ft/2 levels)
Target self + 50 lbs of objects only
This spell functions as dimension door, but with the above changes.
Description
Spoiler:
In the dark corners of the wilderness, the enigmatic endermen wander. These alien creatures, with gangly limbs and black bodies, are born in the gravity wells of dead stars and live their lives on dunes of hyper-dense matter.
Occasionally, endermen stray onto the Material Plane, where they find the softer building blocks of normal-gravity planets as pliant as wax and just as pleasurable to mold. Relying on their space-bending abilities to hunt for food and avoid danger, they often remain fascinated with this malleable world; many choose to stay and play on the Material Plane forever, endlessly shuffling bits of earth to and fro. An ender habitat is marked by unnatural gouges in the environment -- sometimes these occur as intricate designs scooped out of stone, but just as often (for reasons unknown) as perfectly cubic holes in trees or boulders.
Most endermen mistrust other creatures and want only to be left to their play. Some are drawn to build mysterious cairns and obelisks from the materials they scavenge, however, and still others are rumored to construct even more complicated structures.
Enderfolk aren’t built for sex; though most eat, drink, and breathe, they’re biologically closer to living gravitational anomalies than they are to humans. They don't reproduce by conventional means, instead appearing entirely by chance near areas of intense gravitational flux -- most commonly near persistent interplanar gates, large asteroids that enter into stable orbits around collapsed stars, and spheres of annihilation. Those few scholars who study ender biology speculate that the exact physiological composition of an ender body is determined in part by the circumstances of its genesis (those born in the void of space may have no need to breathe, for example, instead deriving sustenance from stellar radiation); that whenever a creature is sucked into a sphere of annihilation, a new enderman spontaneously arises elsewhere on the plane; and that other, far less anthropomorphic species of ender creature may also exist.
There may indeed have been conflict among aboleth factions, if not among the veiled masters. Whatever the plans of the shadowy "masters' masters" -- including Earthfall -- it's reasonable to assume that not all aboleths may have known of, or agreed with, those plans. So the existence of "rogue aboleths" that opposed Earthfall isn't surprising, even if there are no "rogue veiled masters"; I think we can safely assume that the veiled masters know more about the "master plan" than their subordinates. We have little information about the "aboleths of godlike power," or the relation between the alghollthu and Great Old Ones; one might suspect that the aboleth lords are Great Old Ones or even Outer Gods themselves, but the fact that Great Old Ones were bound in pre-Azlanti cities complicates matters. This thread hasn't even touched on the idea that there are conflicts and wars among the Outer Gods just as there are among the contemporary gods -- which might explain the bound Great Old Ones and suggest that neothelids, alghollthu, Vault Builders, and even the Dominion of the Black newcomers all worship Outer Gods (perhaps the war between them is religious in nature?) -- but attempting to explore those implications opens up a whole new tentacular can of worms.
Generic Villain wrote:
...the aboleths really seriously underestimated the payload they called down during Earthfall. Still, even if that's the case, it seems pretty weird that they miscalculated as much as they did. Like you said, if it wasn't for the sacrifice of Acavna (the Azlanti moon goddess), Earthfall would have been even worse. It could well have wiped out the aboleths entirely. For a race of immortal geniuses, you'd think they wouldn't have screwed up quite so massively.
That does seem pretty weird, doesn't it? Consider, though, the possibility that Eox (already known to manipulate celestial objects...see Agmazar the Star Titan) may have had a hand in altering the asteroid's trajectory. It's far from impossible that the plans for Earthfall were known to them. After all, we already know that malebranche dwell on every planet in the solar system. Farafello is the most likely candidate to inhabit Eox; was he in contact with Alichino, Jester Prince of the Cage, whispering in the bone sages' ears in a bid to weaken Golarion? Supporting this theory is the fact that Draghignazzo and Scarmiglione -- presumably the malebranche of the now-destroyed Damiar and Iovo -- are said to sleep among a "completed conquest," insinuating that massive destruction on such a scale as Earthfall might well be part of an infernal plot. And the Eoxians -- possibly the ones responsible for the cataclysm that destroyed the Twins in the first place -- seem like just the sociopathic technomages to call when you want an astral weapon to go horribly awry. (And this doesn't even take into account the possibility that the Eoxians may, as Distant Worlds suggests, have developed godlike beings of their own that exerted influence on events.)
As for the Vault Builders, well, this thread is already riddled with spoilers. But the true nature of the Vault Builders raises further questions. Are xiomorns completely unrelated to elohim, or might they have been ancient enemies -- or allies? The interests of xiomorns and elohim seem to align astonishingly well. What's more, the xiomorns can create Vaults in which to perform all manner of geological experiments, but they can't create life...which the elohim can. In other words, the Vault Builders may not be elohim, but that doesn't rule out the possibility that (as Generic Villain proposes) the elohim, whether or not they ever worked with the xiomorns, created most humanoid life on Golarion.
Elder things and elohim also have a more-than-passing resemblance, even if it turns out to be superficial. We simply don't know much yet about the role of elder things on Golarion, other than their connection to shoggoths. But one does wonder if the elder things were the very first creations of the elohim, crafted in their creators' own image, who went on to build the Nameless Spire independently of the Vault Builders -- and inherited their progenitors' taste for creating new forms of life.
I stand behind my theory regarding the mi-go. Come Valley of the Brain Collectors, we'll see if I am proven right.
P.S.: The reasoning behind the use of diamond dust as expensive spell components deserves its own thread.
Ssalarn, I commend your ingenuity, and a lot of these ideas are both well-designed and flavorful! But unfortunately, it seems to me that this project's goals are at least partly self-defeating, and I wonder if you could offer your thoughts on this.
The primary goal of this supplement appears to be expanding the fighter's narrative power and options out of combat, and simultaneously addressing the weakness of the bravery class feature, by giving the class a range of feat options that extend bravery to other applications, functionally making the fighter more adroit both in and out of combat. The other major goal of the supplement is to do this without invalidating existing core materials -- i.e. without making abilities that are "strictly better" than existing abilities.
The core of your solution is frankly brilliant: in order to buff the fighter without also boosting other classes, create a bunch of feats that amplify an underwhelming, fighter-exclusive ability by tying it to other abilities. This mostly keeps the new feats from creeping into other classes while solving the first goal of shoring up bravery's deficiencies.
My concern, though, is that one of two things will result from this proposed supplement. (Note: I'm here assuming that one of the major premises of your project -- the claim that fighters lack narrative power relative to other classes -- is true. I agree with the claim, but I think it's important to make that underlying assumption explicit.)
1) In order to access these new abilities, the fighter must spend their primary class resource -- combat feats -- on bravery feats, making feat choice a tradeoff between additional combat effectiveness (or more traditional skill feats) and making bravery useful. This, in itself, isn't a bad thing! BUT if this tradeoff doesn't seem to be worthwhile, or if it's on an even footing with the fighter's existing options, the fighter isn't any less "behind the curve" overall in comparison with other classes.
2) The other possible outcome is that if Bravery feats do sufficiently expand the fighter's narrative power to bring them closer to par with other classes, they functionally become "must-pick" feats for any player who wants their fighter to be useful out of combat. Implicitly, this invalidates existing material -- because even without making a "strictly better" version of other feats, if bravery feats are significantly more attractive/viable than the others available to fighters, existing feats become relatively poor options. Moreover, this devalues fighter archetypes that replace bravery, because they get locked out of access to these options without a comparable replacement.
Ultimately, it seems like the only way to make the fighter better in comparison to other classes involves changing the fighter class in some way -- which means (yes, even in this case) either buffing the old class features/options, or introducing new ones which render the old obsolete. I don't think it's possible, by definition, to have it both ways.
You've given this setup a lot of thought! The criteria you've established seem like they might plausibly produce a "successful" society -- but the social experiment you propose is quite different from the one established in Hermea. Interestingly, instead of guiding the experiment explicitly, your Analyst intends to engineer their (must it be a he?) nation from the shadows, so its citizens are unwitting participants.
It's quite an intriguing premise for a location, and could turn into a fascinating adventure: one in which adventurers, questing in what they think is an ordinary nation, discover a series of unexplained goings-on. Maybe a mysterious disappearance here, a sudden magically-induced change of heart there -- events that might seem disconnected at first, but as they gradually pull back the curtain, it becomes clear that these meddlings are all part of a plan, oiling the gears of a vast machine. (Have you seen The Adjustment Bureau?)
Two major concerns:
First, the purpose of the experiment must be more clearly defined. You've made it clear that morality is irrelevant to the project, but what do you mean by "improving" the people? Is the eventual goal of the experiment to create a nation strong enough to conquer all others? A society that maximizes the welfare and happiness of its citizens? A society that eventually produces an evolutionarily superior humanoid? The desired outcome will help determine how its progress is guided, so I think you should further clarify these goals.
Second, and more importantly: this Analyst must be very powerful and influential indeed, to implement and manage a plan on such a grand scale. Especially when it comes to manipulating the hearts and minds of an entire nation -- an exceedingly difficult task under any circumstances. Even if you assume that the Analyst's agents are completely loyal, how do they undermine a problematic regime without being detected, or prevent invaders from ruining the experiment completely?
I'm attempting to answer similar questions while planning out my own homebrew nation, using a veiled master as a mastermind: their cunning and suite of powerful psychic abilities make them particularly well-suited for subtle, patient manipulations.
For a project of this scale, however, you might consider an even greater power: an elohim. Immensely powerful, alien world-builders who create entire demiplanes and seed them with life as grand experiments. Perhaps one particularly philosophically-inclined elohim, seeking to understand what determines the success or failure of a society or species, actually created the entire experiment-nation (and possibly its surroundings as well) from scratch.
Just offering some thoughts and possibilities -- hope you find them helpful!
Collectively, the forums have generated hundreds of pages of discussion about the fighter: whether it is comparatively over/underpowered, can contribute to the party outside of combat, lacks narrative power relative to spellcasting classes, is overly wealth/magic-dependent, suffers from an overabundance of critical weaknesses, et cetera.
So far there appears to be no consensus whatsoever about what should be done (suggestions range from "nothing" to "only a total remake of the class, or even the basic rules of the game, will suffice"). But the biggest disagreement exists between those players who say the fighter is basically fine, and those who say the fighter is not effective or enjoyable in its current state and must be changed.
My question for the forums: Has anyone engaged in extensive playtesting using a "fixed" fighter? Although characters may vary significantly in their builds (and effectiveness) from table to table, and from game to game, perhaps we could gain some ground in these discussions by gathering empirical playtest data, in much the same way that the Advanced Class Guide classes received mass playtests before their impending final release. Other games release frequent "patches" or revisions to adjust game balance and maximize the enjoyability of play; even a cooperative, narrative-driven game such as Pathfinder could perhaps benefit from iterative changes (even unofficial ones), tested among numerous players over time, that experiment with elements of the game rules in order to facilitate a fun experience.
It seems to me, however, that the most reasonable and least intrusive way to approach a fighter "fix" is to make the fewest possible number of changes, in order to avoid disrupting the functionality of existing archetypes, feats, items, and other rules. With this in mind, I propose a minimalist list of changes to the fighter based on some of the most commonly suggested and least intrusive ideas that I have seen on the forums.
Class Skills: Add Perception and Sense Motive to the fighter's list of class skills.
Skill Ranks Per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Saves: Good Fortitude and Will saves.
So, has anyone tried playing a fighter with these or similar changes to the class? How does it compare to the existing fighter class? Do the changes break the game, or do they make the fighter feel more useful and fun to play? Post your thoughts and experiences here!
I think the estimates of between 50-100 gp for a dignified funeral -- as cheap as 5 gp for a pauper's grave, and as extravagant as 500 gp for a nobleman's entombment -- are pretty much correct. It's a pittance if they reclaim and sell their fallen friend's masterwork/magical gear, relatively speaking, but a proper burial is generally a social imperative for those who can afford it.
Does Sandpoint have a temple to Pharasma? If the friends of the deceased talk to the Pharasmin clergy (or better yet, if one of their number is a cleric of Pharasma), they might perform the undertaker's duties at cost or at no charge.
However you decide to handle the situation, I think it's awesome that you're encouraging your players to do this! A small thing, perhaps, but it's the little things that make roleplaying memorable. :D
Elvrynn the Scintillatrix
Empress Zyphriana, the Prismatic
Kathystine, the Lustre-Winged
Queen Chalcedonna
Azalith of the Thousand Facets
Vexillania, the Shardmistress
Any or all of these could be prefaced with "Her Exquisite Majesty" or "Her Brilliance".
The Cad archetype is, in my opinion, the way to go. In exchange for the normal suite of fighter abilities, you get a lot of neat underhanded tactics that work well with improvised weapons -- particularly dirty trick maneuvers.
With the Greater Dirty Trick and Dirty Trick Master (Bastards of Golarion) feats, you can thoroughly incapacitate a foe for several rounds. After that, you can kick them to the curb with whatever's handy.
It is likely to have been accepted in Cheliax no later than 4638 AR; the Order of the Rack would likely have found it impossible to mass-produce a new version of the national history every three months without it. In fact, according to The Bastards of Erebus, Taranik House had a woodblock printing press prior to its burning in 4577 AR. However, the technology could have arrived significantly earlier, perhaps playing a part in swaying Andoran and Devil's Perch to the cause of newly-independent Cheliax during the Even-Tongued Conquest of the 4080s.
For that matter, with a little help from Titivilus -- infernal duke of rhetoric and propaganda, based on the real-world patron fiend of scribes and printers -- the printing press could have arrived at just about any time in Golarion's history. Spreading the Laws of Man throughout Rahadoum betweein 2555-2560 (was a deimavigga whispering in the ears of Azir's philosophers?), propagating Irori's teachings through Tian Xia, perhaps even featuring in the war between Nex and Geb. True, the later dates seem more likely, but the influence of outsiders cannot be underestimated.
If there's other canon information that confirms or disconfirms any of these speculations, however, that would be invaluable as I begin writing homebrew histories to fill these gaps in the timeline.
A historical question: is there any information yet in canon about the invention of the printing press -- when and where it was invented, who invented it, or how the technology spread across Golarion?
I'm aware that page 257 of the Inner Sea World Guide has a few paragraphs that confirm its existence in a few nations, and Towns of the Inner Sea mentions a rather...unique printing press in the Chelish town of Pezzack, but does anything exist elsewhere that mention its origins?
Just throwing this out there: I think it's undesirable for Pathfinder players and GMs to try to match the fictional countries of Golarion to Earth cultures and locations. While many of Golarion's aesthetic or mythological features draw inspiration from real-world cultures, "shortcutting" the process of description by saying "X place on Golarion is Y time/place on Earth" not only does disservice to the nuanced history of the fictional places, it often robs the fantasy setting of its sense of fantastical wonder, and -- perhaps most importantly -- it invites reliance on harmful cultural and ethnic stereotypes by forcibly collapsing cultural complexity into a caricature.
If you're looking for a nation whose naming conventions have a vaguely Gaelic-sounding phonology, the River Kingdoms, Nirmathas, or even Brevoy might accommodate your character. If you want a home for a blarney-talking luck-o'-the-Irish leprechaun-hunter, you won't find that pot o' gold anywhere on Golarion.
I have an alternative theory about Circiatto. From the description of Qidel, Aerie of the Sun, in Distant Worlds:
"In the center of the Fullbright, a narrow spire rises from the desert...From their roost atop the spire, strange bird-creatures of shining steel sail out over the landscape in predatory packs, ruled by human-shaped overlords who fly on obviously artificial wings of a similar metal.
...
Recently, data gathered from a spacecraft flying over the spire has raised new questions, as the settlement at the spire’s peak seems to be some sort of ancient temple, and divination scans have revealed that the spire itself may be hollow, a long tube that drops below ground level into some unknown depths."
Circiatto, "the gluttonous, who devourers all that he encounters, vomiting them forth as unliving slaves" -- perhaps he's actually devouring Vercites and spitting out "unliving slaves" of steel from deep beneath Qidel?
According to Pathfinder lore, Golarion and Earth inhabit the same multiverse: the coexistence of gods on Earth and Golarion is just a consequence of deities existing across that multiverse.
As far as the question of creatures that show up in both places, travel between the two planets is possible -- it just requires very powerful magic (or at least the ability to travel for unthinkable distances across the void of space), which is why connections between the two are so rare. (One such connection occurs in Pathfinder #71: Rasputin Must Die! -- information about Baba Yaga comes from this AP.)
It's possible that Earth and Golarion both exist on the Material Plane, albeit in different solar systems, in which case travel between them might be possible with interplanetary teleport -- assuming you knew where you wanted to go, at least. Which is a 9th-level spell in itself, so it's not easy under the best of circumstances. But I don't think it's been conclusively confirmed that this is the case; it's possible that they're not only in different solar systems, but different planes as well...in which case you'd need magic even beyond the spells currently available, magic that's so far only present in artifacts like Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut, or known by Baba Yaga herself.
Shalixakthoryn: Another vote for Shal--er, I mean, Vhalnhazaghente, Chovotayn-Yhaum, Ihazaaz!
Hezechor: Contract devils are, in my opinion, the classic infernal breed. Middle of the road CR-wise, the Faustian bargain is their schtick, and they're handsome devils (hah!) to boot. I vote to give contract devils their due, and Hezechor (from The Redemption Engine) is the only named representative of which I am aware.
Crocell, the Soothing Sin: If infernal dukes are of demigod strength, not full deity status (assuming Lorthact is any guide), I'd love to see a stat block for Crocell. His convoluted, fragmented mind and nightmarish obsession with hidden patterns of the universe ("ripples," perhaps, as a lord of hidden waters?) makes the mad duke hiding in his manor stand out from others in Princes of Darkness -- especially because we expect this sort of madness from Old Cults or agents of chaos rather than champions of law -- and would likely give him some unique and insidious powers as well.
Geg Noam Gyeg: ...What happened to him?
Fristax: An obvious choice, sure, but still interesting. A lowly imp has advantages that no other devil can boast: namely, the ability to serve as a familiar, and the widespread perception of insignificance that provides. But what abilities does a favored imp of Asmodeus get?
Eunecto-Vas, the Pale Visir: Now there's a story worth telling! (Can you tell I'm predisposed towards devils as master manipulators?) A bdellavritra with a major behind-the-scenes role in Thuvia -- what did it do during that time, and what was the fatal mistake that led to its downfall at the hands of Jadvist the Rat-Catcher?
Any Deimavigga: So far, we haven't seen a single named deimavigga! Apostate devils are one of the most interesting species of devil -- what sort of role do they play in Golarion's history?
With the tweaks, this seems like a really neat item! I'd buy one (and might, in fact, include one as treasure the next time players in one of my home games captures an enemy spy).
I'm particularly fond of that new clause you added, that gives it the secondary effect of letting your interplanar spy receive correspondence from home. Unless it falls into the wrong hands... (Is the sending still delivered directly into your head, or does it write itself onto the paper? The latter would be thematically cool, if it can alert the bearer with a mental ping or something.)
I'll grant you that Convincing Lie does "create new rules" -- but this is because the rules about telling lies you believe are true are a little vague to begin with (as you point out, this is usually up to GM discretion). Basically, Convincing Lie establishes a new precedent for a particular situation: it suggests (though it still doesn't establish conclusively) that if you convince someone of a falsehood, and they in turn try to convince someone else, they should normally make a Bluff check (perhaps because merely taking your word about something is often different than someone, say, seeing it for themselves).
Example: Sin Silvertongue lies to Joe Guardsman, "I'm the king's new official food taster; you should let me in to inspect his food." Joe's fellow guardsman asks "Say, who was that man? I've never seen him before." Joe replies, "Why, that was the king's new official food taster!"
Does Joe have to make a Bluff check? Pre-Convincing Lie, it was entirely up to GM discretion: you could rule that since Sin successfully convinced Joe of the lie, Joe unshakably believes it's true, and he doesn't have to make any check. Or you could rule that because the Bluff skill says you're convincing someone of a lie, Joe has to make a Bluff check (using his own Bluff modifier) to spread the lie to his fellow.
The rules don't comment on whether belief matters when telling a lie, so they don't conclusively indicate what check, if any, should be made in this situation. In this case, I would probably say Joe does have to make a Bluff check, because all he's got to go on is Sin's word. (A GM might further rule that telling a lie that you believe is true grants you a modifier on the Bluff check, because your earnestness makes it more convincing.)
Convincing Lie suggests that the interpretation "make a Bluff check when repeating lies" is the default. So you're right that this creates "new" rules for that case where the rules were unclear, which could reasonably be construed as a "nerf" to the Bluff skill -- at least, assuming you were previously treating those cases as though people were all immune to Sense Motive when repeating lies.
I don't think this is off topic, incidentally: it's relevant to our understanding of Rumormonger, because I argue that Rumormonger does NOT do the same thing. The difference is that, at least from my perspective, Rumormonger doesn't change the "default" at all: the default for spreading rumors in a city without this talent should often be an involved process -- a "skill challenge," if you will. The advanced rogue talent grants you the new and awesome ability to do that almost effortlessly, but does not change the situation at all for people who don't have it.
The solution isn't to "make it as hard as possible" for the sake of artificially inflating the value of the Rumormonger talent. I'm saying that the act of spreading rumors is inherently complex, and should be treated as such.
You're right, there aren't built-in rules for spreading rumors, which is why I described the way I would interpret and handle the situation (as an in-depth series of encounters with lots of roleplaying opportunity, because I think doing this should be interesting and exciting). But I'm not arguing that players should feel like they have to take Rumormonger -- exactly the opposite! They should feel like their skills and preparations make them fully capable of carrying out this complex mission, and in my opinion, the GM should let them do it. You shouldn't have to have Rumormonger at all, but the talent is powerful because it makes the process a breeze.*
Practically speaking, if you're a player in such a campaign, I suggest talking to the GM about it between sessions. Explain why you believe you should be able to do it -- I hope my points above help make a compelling argument in favor of that -- and propose that the GM either modify the check that the Rumormonger talent allows (if they want a simple solution) or play out the attempt in another way (such as the "social encounters" method I describe). If the GM's not amenable to these solutions, talk to them about the alternative approach of spreading the rumor "the hard way" -- making requests of individual NPCs with Diplomacy to spread the word and convince others to do so. (If your rumor is false, the rogue talent Convincing Lie might help with this approach.) If the GM outright refuses to consider any of these options, consider finding a GM with a more nuanced and understanding approach to playing this game of cooperative storytelling.
*Addendum: I think there's a lot of room for overlap and complexity in here too, depending on what you're trying to do. For instance, if you want to get people talking about how the local barkeep has an unsightly mole in an embarrassing location, well, that should be easy for anyone -- might only require a single check to get that ball rolling. If you're trying to start a violent citywide revolution, on the other hand, that should be difficult and involved even if you do have Rumormonger; a canny rogue might be able to convince people that the duke secretly murdered his brother to usurp the throne, but that doesn't mean they're able to mind-control people into putting themselves in danger.
Basically, the rules can't cover everything, and the GM should interpret or innovate when these gaps occur.
"The rules in this book are here to help you breathe life into your characters and the world they explore...Although the Game Master is the final arbiter of the rules, the Pathfinder RPG is a shared experience, and all of the players should contribute their thoughts when the rules are in doubt."
- The Most Important Rule
Signal boosting the people who have interpreted Rumormonger the same way I do -- as a much, much more powerful effect than it first appears.
Your party's all tricked out with social magic and items, and you want to spread rumors in a city? Great! You should absolutely, 100% be able to do so. Personally, I would run that as a complex series of social encounters -- finding local centers of gossip, gaining the trust of key individuals, knowing the right things to say (or the right spells to use), following up on your efforts over time, and covering your tracks with disguises, threats, and lies so that those rumors can't be traced back to you. All of which involve quite a few rolls of the dice. Think of the expression "lighting a fire under someone." Even with dry tinder, it doesn't just need a spark; it requires carefully placed kindling and fanning of the flames.
What exactly does it take for a rumor to spread? (Disclaimer: as a grad student in communication, this is a topic of particular interest to me.) The dissemination of information within and across social groups is an immensely complex process, not easily reducible to either a matter of well-reasoned argument or charismatic mass appeal. Think about the reasons why politicians launch massive advertising campaigns, or nations dump tons of resources into propaganda: changing people's opinions, or getting them to accept things as fact, is difficult. Even with magic hats and charm spells, it should be involved, time-consuming, and risky.
So why should a rogue spend an advanced talent on Rumormonger, then? Because they can make all this happen with a single check. With a discreet word in the right ear, they can effortlessly influence the hearts and minds of an entire, vast city -- now THAT'S a rogue talent!
That said, if your GM doesn't allow your socially savvy party to try to spread rumors, simply because Rumormonger exists? That's a real shame, and in my view, missing the point of the rules.
Ah, the Doctor's psychic paper! Indispensable for socialite rogues and urban infiltrators.
A thought, however: if your intent is to replicate the Doctor's item, which grants nonspecific access with no conscious effort on his part, wouldn't it be simpler to enchant a piece of paper with illusory script and implant the suggestion to "Recognize the bearer of this paper as an important authority"? That might be closer to what you're going for here -- the item you've created is more like the set of false passports and ID that Jason Bourne or James Bond might have in his kit.
Also, a bit of mechanical nitpicking: does the "+10 competence bonus" mean that you make a Linguistics check at your Linguistics skill modifier +10 every time you project a new document? Is that check made as a move action, or do you still have to spend a minute or so filling out the illusory form you've projected? If it's just a move action, the item is exceedingly useful, as it allows you to forge just about anything almost instantly -- and should probably have illusory script as a crafting requirement, with a corresponding increase in price.
Interesting alternative approach to these ideas, although I don't agree with his use of "gender" when "sex" is the more appropriate term. Mechanically, basing sex-altering magic items on polymorph instead of creating new spells for the purpose -- magic that more closely resembles the scope and power of alter self -- makes those effects prohibitively expensive. But as Schneider aptly acknowledges later in that same thread, their basis and cost mostly depends on how accessible you want such magic to be in your game.
I wrote up some new spells/items for my own campaign that address this issue. You might find them useful.
Gender Bending School transmutation; Level wizard/sorcerer 1, alchemist 1, witch 1
Casting Time 1 round
Components V, S, M (a piece of silk ribbon)
Target you
Duration 2 hours/level
This spell alters your body structure to give you the biological features of a different sex. You may choose to become male, female, or both/neither.
Gender bending negates the penalty to Disguise to disguise yourself as a different gender. While you are under the effects of gender bending, you are temporarily sterile.
Clerics of Arshea add this spell to their spell lists as a 1st-level spell.
---
Change Sex School transmutation; Level wizard/sorcerer 3, alchemist 3, witch 3
Casting Time 10 minutes
Components V, S, M (oils and incense worth 100gp)
Target one willing creature
Duration instantaneous
This spell functions as gender bend, but its effects are permanent and cannot be reversed except by wish, miracle, or another casting of change sex. The change in biological structure allows the target to reproduce normally for a member of the chosen sex, and is a member of that sex for all purposes.
Worshipers of the empyreal lord Arshea ritually cast this spell or have it cast upon them after spending time living as different genders, having chosen one that they believe suits them best. This ritual takes the form of a celebration of freedom to choose one's own identity, and for the individual transformed, may also represent freedom from the bonds of an uncomfortable body. The celebration resembles a naming ceremony and, in fact, may be accompanied by a change of name for the individual in question. It is not unheard of, however, for a worshiper of Arshea to undergo such a ritual more than once in their lifetime.
---
Ring of Fluid Gender Aura faint transmutation; CL3rd
Slot ring; Price 1000gp; Weight ---
This ring is composed of several loops of gold silk thread tied together, with tiny multicolored beads strung along the loops at intervals.
Wearing this ring allows you to cast gender bending, as the spell, at will. These rings are frequently worn by worshipers or pilgrims of Arshea, or by sacred prostitutes of Calistria.
Construction Requirements Forge Ring, gender bending; Cost 500gp
---
In addition, I rewrote the description of the aforementioned cursed girdle to incorporate the new spells.
Inaccurately called the girdle of opposite gender by many, this cursed item forces the wearer into an uncomfortable physical body.
When this magical belt is put on, the wearer must immediately make a DC 20 Fortitude save or be transformed, as by change sex, into a body with whose sex they do not identify. The character's abilities, mind, and spirit remain unaffected; only the character's sex changes. The change is permanent unless undone with curse-removing magic or change sex. Once its magic takes effect, the belt can be removed without effort. A creature can only be affected by a particular girdle once, though other girdles of this type can cause another transformation.
Followers of the empyreal lord Arshea seek out and destroy these items wherever they can find them.
---
These items wouldn't be out of place on Golarion, as there are existing organizations that would make regular use of them, so hopefully you will find them easy to insert into your adventure!
If possible, pirates prefer not to risk damaging the ships they raid. They want to plunder the ship before it sinks, or better yet, keep the ship instead of sinking it. Boarding, disabling the rudder, killing the helmsman -- these are great ways to carry out a raid. Targeted spells like magic missile or charm person work well for that, and fog cloud as a smokescreen for boarders is a great idea.
But slinging fireballs around or using wall spells to rip hulls apart is likely to cripple or destroy your prize: like cannons in historical ship-to-ship encounters, these are often saved as last resorts.
Hmm. Didn't realize Bergelmir existed! Her presence is noted, but I don't think her portfolio fits this pantheon of lore particularly well.
Perhaps there's room for a new CG goddess of knowledge! I like Lurker's second suggestion:
Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:
"Beware of he who seeks to deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
Such a deity could represent "knowledge that liberates," "speaking truth to power," and other similarly emancipatory functions of knowledge. But she might not agree with the idea that "information wants to be free," instead believing that information is a tool with which to make people free. Perhaps her worshipers might spread literacy: teaching slaves to read and write, copying books and distributing them for free, establishing and maintaining libraries, et cetera.
Calistria, Eritrice, and Yog-Sothoth are all part of this pantheon already; the others (Bharnarol, Qi Zhong, Yuelral) are candidates as well.
A question for those more familiar with the gods of Golarion than I: Are there any chaotic good deities or demigods with the Knowledge domain?
A religious order of archivists in my setting, rather than worshiping a single god, pays homage to a pantheon of knowledge deities, each representing a different aspect of knowledge -- the "Nine Gods of Lore." I had hoped to have one representative from each alignment, but curiously enough, I can't find any chaotic good deities with that domain.
Have I missed one? And if none in fact exist, does anyone have ideas for what such a deity might be like?
Pharasma is said to be the ultimate arbiter of souls -- as one of the oldest deities, she determines the eventual destination of souls on the Outer Planes. As far as we've been led to believe, she judges each and every soul that passes through the Boneyard.
If this is the case, however, what role do other deities of death (Charon, Osiris, etc.) play in the process of the afterlife? Are these sundry "supplementary gods of death" part of Pharasma's court, weighing in on an arbitration process over which the Lady of Graves presides? Do some souls never reach the Boneyard to be judged -- sent off to secret tribunals by longstanding agreement, snatched away by the Horseman of Death, or just lost in a cosmic shuffle? Or are all death deities simply fragments of a multifaceted uber-deity, of which Pharasma is the oldest and greatest?
Death is a mysterious thing in Pathfinder, I know. But this question has some serious implications for the powers, status, and worship of all those other gods of death, whose roles are called into question by the alleged primacy of Pharasma.
A relatively minor quibble: the Ten Magic Warriors and the Decemvirate aren't related. The Decemvirate helms, which we have seen depicted, are entirely different from the Ten's "golden masks shaped to resemble fantastic creatures of the jungle interior." Sorry to disrupt anyone's link between the Pathfinder Society and Old-Mage Jatembe, but the resemblance between the Ten and the Decemvirate appears to be purely superficial.
Also, for those of you asking how a veiled master might get access to mind blank, couldn't they just get a dominated spellcaster to do it for them? I'm sure Lord Gyr keeps a wizard advisor close by...
The alleged dearth of non-evil male love interests aside (which seems like a valid concern for people who want additional roleplaying opportunities, as well as pointing out the asymmetry between sexy lady NPCs and sexy gentleman NPCs -- and should indeed have its own thread), I'd like to address the original complaint:
I honestly could not care less about the representation of straight couples in Pathfinder.
First of all, as demonstrated above, APs don't actually seem that short on loving straight couples. More importantly, if I want to see heterosexual romance, I have most of the rest of the world's fiction to turn to.
After reading through The Dragon's Demand, and the monsters contained therein, I have a new hypothesis about the enigmatic entities that comprise the Dominion of the Black...
Dragon's Demand spoilers:
They're mi-go.
The neh-thalggu in the module is identified as "one of the Dominion's scouts," but that leaves open the question of who the real movers and shakers of the Dominion are. Mi-go, as scientifically minded colonists, would make ideal technicians and bioengineers for the Dominion, and natural allies of the brain collectors. Mi-go and neh-thalggu both work with brains; no one's quite sure what the neh-thalggu do with the gray matter they harvest, but we do know that mi-go might well be able to make good use of them. The neh-thalggus' "living ships that swiftly decay when they land upon a new world" could certainly be mi-go technology.
What's more, the brand-new yangethe is said to be bred by the Dominion, which both fits the modus operandi of mi-go (their mastery of strange biotech) and suits their strategic purposes (not only do yangethe make a great interplanetary teleporting vanguard for invasion, their psychic arsenal has no effect on their fungoid creators).
Finally, the other new Dark Tapestry creature we see in Dragon's Demand (the grioths) are sworn enemies of the Dominion of the Black, as well as worshippers of Nyarlathotep. While we don't know much about the relationship, if any, between Nyarlathotep and Shub-Niggurath (the chosen deity of most mi-go), it's not surprising that the grioths would resist the mi-go's attempts to colonize their frozen homeworld.
Your thoughts? Plausible theory, or farfetched conspiracy?
While the description of the elohim states that they create "permanent demiplanes," and their behavior suggests that they seed a new world and abandon it for eons, they don't have permanency in their SLA list. Create demiplane usually only lasts for days. Is it just assumed that elohim-created demiplanes are permanent until dispelled?
