Explore new and uncharted depths of roleplaying with the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide! Empower your existing characters with expanded rules for all 11 Pathfinder Roleplaying Game core classes and seven core races, or build a new one from the ground up with one of six brand-new, 20-level base classes. Whether you're designing your own monstrous helpers as an enigmatic summoner, brewing up trouble with a grimy urban alchemist, or simply teaching an old rogue a new trick, this book has everything you need to make your heroes more heroic.
The Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
The 336-page Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player's Guide includes:
Six new base classes: the monster-hunting inquisitor, the explosive alchemist, the noble cavalier, the prophecy-haunted oracle, the monster-crafting summoner, and the hex-weaving witch
More than a hundred innovative new feats and combat abilities for characters of all classes, including Steal, Point-Blank Master, and Bouncing Spell
Variant class abilities, rules subsystems, and thematic archetypes for all 11 core classes, such as the antipaladin, the hungry ghost monk, and the urban ranger
Hundreds of new spells and magic items, from phantasmal revenge to the Storm King's Cloud Castle
A wealth of fantastic equipment, such as fireblast rods and fortune-tellers' cards
New prestige classes like the Master Chymist and the Battle Herald
If you own a Core Rulebook and a Bestiary, what Pathfinder book should you buy next? A campaign setting book or an adventure module would be good answers, but if you're looking for more character options, the best answer would be the Advanced Player's Guide. This was Paizo's first big player-oriented hardcover to be released after the Core Rulebook, and it's safe to say they knocked it out of the park. This book has stood the test of time and still contains fantastic options for the game even though it was released several years ago. If you're playing PFS on a budget, for example, and you have to be choosy with what books or PDFs you buy, start with the Advanced Player's Guide. You'll find enough options in there to keep you busy for years.
What follows is a chapter-by-chapter review. Do keep in mind that this book pre-dates the publication of classes like the magus, vigilante, kineticist, etc., so you won't find options directly designed for them. In addition, because it's part of the RPG line, it does not contain Golarion-specific flavour (though everything in here is compatible with the setting). As a whole, I would classify the art as in the lower-middle spectrum of what Paizo can do, with a lot of reused mediocre stuff from earlier books. The layout as a whole, however, is quite nice.
Chapter 1 (Races): After an Introduction that's really just an expanded table of contents, Chapter 1 expands the options available for Core races (those found in the Core Rulebook). For each race, a sentence or two describes how each of the Core classes and the so-called Base classes (those found later in this book) are represented within the culture. I found this section was fairly generic and tried too hard to make it sound like each class was common in each race, so there wasn't anything that seemed special. Next up are alternative racial traits for the Core races. These are important in that they allow a player to swap out one of the special features of a race (like an elf's automatic familiarity with elven weapons, or a gnome's resistance to illusion) for a different special feature. In other words, it's a good way to customize your PC just a little more and ensure that not all dwarfs are skilled at stonework, for example. Last, this chapter presents new favoured class options for each of the Core races: instead of the normal rule that a new level in a favoured class provides 1 hit point or 1 skill point, these new options allow a particular race to get something different. For example, a gnome with the favoured class of bard could get an extra round of bardic performance each day, or a half-orc with the favoured class of fighter could get an additional +2 to stabilization rolls when dying. Note that each race only has new favoured class options for handful of classes (not all of them). Unlike the alternate racial traits, I wasn't particularly impressed with the flavour or thought given to the new favoured class options: many of them didn't seem to have any particular tie to the race. Half-orcs, for example, can increase their bomb damage if their favoured class is alchemist, while human paladins can start to get energy resistance--there's nothing in the write-up of these races that make these bonuses seem natural or logical. From an optimization perspective, these new favoured class options are quite useful--I just wish they were better from a storytelling perspective.
Chapter 2 (Classes): One of the most important things that the Advanced Player's Guide brings to Pathfinder is the introduction of six new "Base" classes: the Alchemist, Cavalier, Inquisitor, Oracle, Summoner, and Witch. I don't have a lot of space to review each one, so I'll try to be concise.
The Alchemist fills a real niche in the game, is quite versatile, and would be really fun to play. They get special abilities to rapidly make alchemical items (of course), but also can manufacture bombs, cast magic spells (in the form of drinkable "elixirs"), and temporarily "hulk out" by drinking a "mutagen." As a GM, my only concern is the fact that the bombs resolve against Touch AC, so in games I've run the alchemist PC hardly ever misses and does substantial amounts of damage as an area effect. I also think that perhaps the mutagen feature should have been reserved for a specific "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" archetype, as I don't thik it fits well as part of the basic assumption of alchemists.
The Cavalier could probably have been better represented as a Fighter archetype. Cavaliers are mounted knights who swear an oath to follow the precepts of a particular order. Different orders provide different bonuses, Cavalier's mounts are hardier than normal, and the class provides PCs and their allies with some limited use of teamwork feats (discussed below). As written, the class is fairly bland, and I don't think it fills a hole in what could be covered well by other classes. You also see Cavaliers relatively rarely in gameplay because, frankly, they're just inferior to other builds (and I should know, because I've played one for a couple of years now!).
The Inquisitor is one of those classes I'm a bit torn about. The idea is that they're specialists in rooting out corruption and heresy within their faith, which is thematically really cool: but I don't see how that fits naturally with the activities of the vast majority of adventuring parties in the game. The class is conceptually unique and has a lot of cool and useful abilities, some of which seem to fit from a flavour perspective (like Bane) but others that just seem kind of random (like Monster Lore and Cunning Initiative).
The Oracle is another interesting class that I'm unsure about conceptually. Mechanically, they're spontaneous divine spellcasters who don't worship deities per se but instead strive to unravel a particular "mystery." As they advance in level, they get "revelations" which are special powers. Some of the revelations are really cool, and the mysteries are very flavourful. I like the class better after reading it carefully, though I'm still not sure about the name of the class (since divination isn't the focus) nor about the vague relationship they have to deities. They are a divine spellcasting class that is much simpler to play than clerics (though less effective), and thus potentially a good choice for new players.
The Summoner as presented in this book is infamous as the most overpowered class in all of Pathfinder, to the point where most GMs and PFS disallow it. "Unchained" Summoners (as they're usually called in contradistinction to a different type from another book) are, of course, really good at summoning lots of monsters, which is annoying for everyone at the table because it dramatically slows down gameplay. But more problematically, each Summoner gets an "eidolon" which is a bit like a completely customizable and incredibly powerful monstrous animal companion. If you have an Unchained Summoner, you may as well be playing a solo campaign because you probably don't need anyone else in the party to win most encounters. I'm not sure how the Unchained Summoner ever made it through playtesting, but it stands as an example that even great companies like Paizo can make major mistakes.
The Witch is a full (up to 9th level spells) spellcasting class that receives special powers called hexes. Some of the hexes are really flavourful and cool, and the concept of the class as a whole is one I really like. There are two things about the class I'm not a fan of: first, familiars are a major part of the class and as both a player and a GM I find familiars really annoying to deal with (because they rarely contribute positively to a play experience); second, each witch receives bonus spells depending on what "patron" they choose, but the patrons are just abstract concepts (like "Agility" or "Water") and have no substance or flavour to them, and no real potential for story development. I think it was a bland and almost forgettable way of implementing a really cool idea (mysterious forces granting a character power in exchange for . . .?). I should also note that one of the witch's hexes, Slumber, has proven overpowered and problematic at a lot of tables.
So as a whole, I think the Alchemist is a real success, while Witches, Oracles, and Inquisitors are solid additions to the game. The Cavalier is mostly forgotten, while the Summoner is a good example of what not to do in terms of game design.
The Classes chapter then continues by offering each of the Core classes something special, often in the form of "archetypes." If you don't already know, archetypes are packages of abilities that swap out some of the features of a class in exchange for other features, and they've become an important part of most builds for experienced players. Here's a summary of what each Core class gets.
1) Barbarians receive a lot of cool new options for rage powers (though, oddly, a lot of them relate to consuming alcohol) and several archetypes that don't change a lot of class features but that are quite good;
2) Bards get some fantastic and (sometimes quite dramatic) archetypes, at least as written--but admittedly, I don't hear about them being played very often;
3) Clerics receive the introduction of "subdomains", which are, as the name indicates, "branch" domains. A cleric with the Sun domain, for example, could now choose the replacement special power and domain spells of the Light subdomain. It's a way to allow the further customization of clerics since they don't have a lot of class features to trade out for archetypes;
4) Druids get archetypes that are all terrain-based and quite formulaic, along with a handful of "animal shaman" archetypes that have the same essential ability to gain an aspect of a particular animal's powers.
5) Fighters get a lot of archetypes, most of which are poor in terms of flavour ("Archer" or "Two-Handed Fighter") but some that are quite nutritious, as it were, to aiding particular combat styles;
6) Monks get a lot of archetypes, most of which are pretty bland but some, like the Zen Archer, the Monk of the Four Winds' Slow Time ability, and the Monk of the Healing Hand's capstone power are pretty cool;
7) Paladins get archetypes that are okay, but there's some clunky features for the Divine Defender and Sacred Servant. There's also the introduction of the Antipaladin (formally an "Alternate" Class) which I know a lot of people demanded but I'm just not a fan of the concept because I think it devalues the essential goodness of the Paladin idea;
8) Rangers get new archetypes and some new combat styles. I really like the Guide archetype, as the Terrain Bond feature seems much truer to the niche that rangers should fill as wilderness experts. The Infiltrator and Skirmisher archetypes also get some cool stuff;
9) Rogues receive 30 new rogue talents and 12 new advanced rogue talents to choose from, though most are of the "1/day, roll two d20s and take the better" on a specific skill check type. I like the Fast Getaway talent (allowing a rogue to sneak attack and then withdraw), and imagine it would keep a lot of rogues alive. The class also receives several archetypes, but most are pretty thin and forgettable (though the Cutpurse could be used to devastating effect depending on GM discretion);
10) Sorcerers receive 10 new bloodlines, and although I'm not an expert on the class, they look useful and meaningful;
11) Wizards get new elemental schools to specialize in, and some of the special powers look like a lot of fun (like the Air school's Cyclone power or the Water school's Wave power). There's also the introduction of "Focused Arcane Schools" which you can think of as "super specialization" in a particular aspect of a School in order to gain replacement powers.
Whew! A lot of stuff in that chapter. Moving on.
Chapter 3 (Feats) contains a *lot* of new feats. The summary table which gives a one-line description of each one fills four pages. Many of the new feats are standalone things, but others can be grouped by type: several give an additional use of class features ("Extra Rage Power", "Extra Rogue Talent", etc.), make it easier to use the new combat maneuvers introduced at the end of the book, create new metamagic options for spellcasting (with "Dazing Spell" responsible for a lot frustration to GMs), etc. A new type of feat, Teamwork Feats, are introduced for the first time in this chapter. The idea with Teamwork Feats is that if two PCs (or allied NPCs) have the same feat, they both get bonuses in particular situations: for example, if two PCs have the "Allied Spellcaster" teamwork feat, they each get a +2 bonus on caster level checks to overcome spell resistance. I do like the concept, but the proven problem is that it's often hard to get other players at the table to have their PCs take the same one that you're taking, and the bonuses provided by the feats aren't so amazing that groups are inclined to carefully coordinate.
Chapter 4 (Equipment) contains about 25 new weapons (including some of those fun, weird polearms D&D veterans will recognize), a handful of new types of armor, a lot of new pieces of adventuring gear, and several new alchemical items. There's not a lot here that's earth-shattering, though some items, such as Weapon Blanch, have become de rigeur for every smart adventurer. It would have been nice if more of the equipment was illustrated, and that better choices were made on what was essential to illustrate: I know what an hourglass looks like, for example, and don't need a picture, but seeing what a "light detector" looks like would have been interesting.
Chapter 5 (Spells) has 57 pages of options for spellcasters of every stripe. Reading through, I noticed a surprising number of cool Paladin spells, a lot of Bard "finale" spells (that are cast and instantly end bardic performance), and a lot of ninth level spells. Some of the spells I really liked include Blaze of Glory, Fire Snake, and Hero's Defiance, and the picture of Cacophonous Call on p. 209 is hilarious. Every spellcaster is bound to find something useful, but there are some problematic ones introduced in this chapter, like the Create Pit line, that GMs need to be aware of.
Chapter 6 (Prestige Classes) introduces eight new options that PCs could, but probably won't, strive for. Pathfinder long had a reputation for not making much of the prestige class concept, and that's only recently begun to change. Really fast verdicts: 1) Battle Herald: Love the concept, but everything is tied off an "Inspiring Command" bonus which just progresses too slowly, making the entire prestige class weak; 2) Holy Vindicator: no design room for the concept, and the abilities don't help; 3) Horizon Walker: the bonuses in some terrains are fantastic and in others completely "meh"; 4) Master Chymist: Classic Jekyll & Hyde alchemist; 5) Master Spy: I liked this more than I thought I would, and could see it used for a lot of NPCs or maybe a PC (in just the right campaign). Gets clever and useful foils to most means of detection, but abilities come on line much later than they should for most adventures; 6) Rage prophet: Not impressive. 7) Stalwart Defender: Good, cool abilities that fit the theme, and a good capstone power.
Chapter 7 (Magic Items) has something of everything: magic weapons, armor, wondrous items, minor and major artifacts, etc. The new metamagic rods are really powerful considering the price, the new staves are pretty boring, and there's a lot of stuff geared specifically for the new classes, which makes sense. If you've dumped Strength and are relying on Muleback Cords, you've got this book to thank. My only regret is that the chapter introduces so many fun cursed magic items, and I hardly ever get an opportunity to use any in a game.
Chapter 8 (New Rules) is an important chapter containing three new concepts: additional combat maneuvers, hero points, and traits. [I'm almost done, but have run out of space here. The end of the review can be found at: http://jhaeman.blogspot.com.au/2017/07/advanced-players-guide-rpg.html]
The Advanced Player's Guide (APG) is to this day one the best books for Pathfinder. It introduces a number of (now iconic) classes unique to the system.
The overall balance of the book is amazing. Alchemist and Inquisitor are probably the two most well-balanced classes in the game, and the latter is what I consider to be the best designed one in all of Pathfinder.
We get a few alternate rules that are pretty cool, such as word casting and character traits. We even get new combat maneuvers added to the fold!
The possibilities of character creation allowed by this book greatly increases the variety and fun of Pathfinder. If you can only buy a single expansion book, buy this one.
The book is not perfect, of course. The Summoner class (and even more so, its archetypes) would really benefit from clearer wording. It's sad to see cool ideas such as word casting being completely abandoned after this...
Still, those are minor problems in comparison to all the good stuff that is included in the APG, and the book still deserves its 5-star rating.
Perhaps getting way ahead of myself here, and apologize if this has been brought up elsewhere (new to the forum), but can we expect an update to the iPhone app including the APG data?
Perhaps getting way ahead of myself here, and apologize if this has been brought up elsewhere (new to the forum), but can we expect an update to the iPhone app including the APG data?
We haven't published an iPhone app. Third parties can use our Open Game Content under the OGL, though, but you'd have to contact the publisher of your app directly to find out about their plans.
I pre ordered the Players Guide. Dumb question. Will you start shipping when you get them in or are you going to wait to right before the street date? I have not pre order something from you guys before.
I pre ordered the Players Guide. Dumb question. Will you start shipping when you get them in or are you going to wait to right before the street date? I have not pre order something from you guys before.
They generally ship subscription and pre-orders after they get done shipping to the distribution channel warehouses. The books ship before street date, and normally, are received well before that time as well.
This time, the last I heard, they were planning on processing the pre-orders/subs the last week of July/first week of Aug to have them in the mail before GenCon. First day of GenCon is the official street date for this round of releases.
But as for the APG, glad to hear we finally get an Anti-Paladin class. On another note, does Pathfinder have the equivalent of a Death Knight? I didn’t see anything in the Bestiary.
The Deathknight equivalent in Pathfinder is called Graveknight and is described in the 2nd adventure of the Council of Thieves AP. Funnily enough, it was written by the same author in 3.5 and Pathfinder - Darrin Drader.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Hobbun wrote:
All of you are young. 38 here.
:(
But as for the APG, glad to hear we finally get an Anti-Paladin class. On another note, does Pathfinder have the equivalent of a Death Knight? I didn’t see anything in the Bestiary.
The Graveknight. It's in Pathfinder AP #26.
Edit: Ninja'd Here is an alternate source.. Graveknight
And any idea why the name was changed? Not that Graveknight sounds bad, but Deathknight sounds so much better. Is Deathknight one of the copyrighted creatures (like the Beholder)?
And any idea why the name was changed? Not that Graveknight sounds bad, but Deathknight sounds so much better. Is Deathknight one of the copyrighted creatures (like the Beholder)?
The name Deathknight as associated with the monster in question, is WotC IP. It appears in MM2 (I think) and hence is not open content.
I guess I am not sure how to determine if a creature is a WoTC IP or not. I mean it is certainly not determined by what creatures are in the Monster Manuals as Paizo uses a large amount of them.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Hobbun wrote:
I guess I am not sure how to determine if a creature is a WoTC IP or not. I mean it is certainly not determined by what creatures are in the Monster Manuals as Paizo uses a large amount of them.
Everything that is in the SRD is open content. Anything else the mechanics is WotC IP, and the names are unless they took them from other sources (generally mythological sources, so Tiamat is a name that can be used, but the five headed dragon version is IP)
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Hobbun wrote:
I guess I am not sure how to determine if a creature is a WoTC IP or not. I mean it is certainly not determined by what creatures are in the Monster Manuals as Paizo uses a large amount of them.
A good rule is anything that was printed past MM1 is not open content. There are some exceptions however. Monsters that were printed in the Tome of Horrors books are open (such as Orcus). It can get confusing sometimes..
I guess I am not sure how to determine if a creature is a WoTC IP or not. I mean it is certainly not determined by what creatures are in the Monster Manuals as Paizo uses a large amount of them.
Everything that is in the SRD is open content. Anything else the mechanics is WotC IP, and the names are unless they took them from other sources (generally mythological sources, so Tiamat is a name that can be used, but the five headed dragon version is IP)
I guess is what I am asking is how do I look at Monster Manual 1-5, or any other sourcebook for that matter, and know which creatures in those books are SRD or not?
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Hobbun wrote:
Enlight_Bystand wrote:
Hobbun wrote:
I guess I am not sure how to determine if a creature is a WoTC IP or not. I mean it is certainly not determined by what creatures are in the Monster Manuals as Paizo uses a large amount of them.
Everything that is in the SRD is open content. Anything else the mechanics is WotC IP, and the names are unless they took them from other sources (generally mythological sources, so Tiamat is a name that can be used, but the five headed dragon version is IP)
I guess is what I am asking is how do I look at Monster Manual 1-5, or any other sourcebook for that matter, and know which creatures in those books are SRD or not?
MM1 - the majority
MM2 - about 2
MM3-5 - nothing
The SRD is online, both on Wizard's site and d20srd.org (I think).
Can I make this even more complicated ? Dark Creepers and Stalkers appear in MM2, which is closed content, but are open content.
That's because of Necromancer Games Tome of Horrors, which includes many classic D&D monsters and was published under OGL before Wizards printed MM2,3,4,5 - thanks to ToH, several iconic monsters (among them Flumphs, Eye of the Deep, Daemons and Orcus himself) are open content.
The legalities of D&D monstets are a fascinating yet frustrating topic :)
And yes, it is a crying shame that WotC was selfish enough to make almost all monsters they printed closed content. After inventing the OGL they were quick to remove the people behind the idea and try to reverse their policy as much as possible. Luckily, Paizo is publishing 99%* open monsters !
James and Erik did several times state that they are not interested in "carbon copy" replacements of closed content monsters. They respect WotC's property, and prefer to develop their own awesome monsters instead of "piggybacking" on somebody's cool stuff.
James wrote that WotC was generous enough to give away big chunks of their valuable IP as to earn respect as to what they decided to keep to themselves.
There are several PF monsters the fill a similiar niche to the closed content ones (Denizens of Leng -> Mind Flayers, Proteans -> Slaadi), but I doubt we will see a "semi-beholder" from Paizo.
James wrote that WotC was generous enough to give away big chunks of their valuable IP as to earn respect as to what they decided to keep to themselves.
I think this is important to keep in mind. Rather than lamenting the unavailability of certain aspects of the game, we should be pretty grateful that the OGL exists at all. I was stunned when D&D was opened. That was a pretty big gamble for WotC.
Hobbun, you can still use beholders, mind flayers, gemstone dragons, etc. in your game. They still work just fine with the Pathfinder ruleset. Just don't expect Paizo to publish material that includes them.
James wrote that WotC was generous enough to give away big chunks of their valuable IP as to earn respect as to what they decided to keep to themselves.
I think this is important to keep in mind. Rather than lamenting the unavailability of certain aspects of the game, we should be pretty grateful that the OGL exists at all. I was stunned when D&D was opened. That was a pretty big gamble for WotC.
Hobbun, you can still use beholders, mind flayers, gemstone dragons, etc. in your game. They still work just fine with the Pathfinder ruleset. Just don't expect Paizo to publish material that includes them.
I do agree, it was nice of WoTC to start the OGL in the first place. But a bit of poor taste to suddenly start making content unavaliable after what I can guess they felt was their ‘mistake’ of the OGL.
And it is funny how you say you can use D&D 3.5 monsters for PFRPG, but then I see posts on here that say 3.5 and PFRPG are a different beast and not to compare the two.
But if need be, we will make the conversion for the Beholder, but it would really be nice to see the ‘official’ Pathfinder version down the line.
Recent chatter about WotC IP conversions, such as Mind Flayers, Beholders, etc. reminded me of this critter, which was thrown together as an idea of how you could put a 'beholder' into the Golarion setting both organically and without ripping off someone elses ideas.
Instead of making a straight Beholder clone, take whatever aspects of the Eye Tyrants interest you and incorporate them into a Golarion specific, but radically different creature like so;
Called forth by the cults of Groteus on moonless nights, Oblivion’s Eye is regarded as the herald of annihilation, and precious and unique items are brought before the Eye to be sacrificed to oblivion. Living sacrifices are also made annually, and each must be a singular individual, the best or brightest or most beautiful person of their sort in the land, with master craftsmen famous for unique skills, and talented vocalists renowned for their ethereal voices sought out to be kidnapped and sacrificed to Oblivion’s Eye on these nights. After accepting whatever sacrifices are to be made to Groetus, Oblivion's Eye wanders, destroying all that its baleful gaze falls upon, until the dawn comes or it is destroyed a more powerful force.
Oblivion’s Eye hovers unblinking before you, a throbbing unwholesome meter and a half diameter grey-white eyeball, with a violet iris mixed with orange patterns reminiscent of an aura of flames radiating out from the jet black pupil.
AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 15 (+5 natural)
hp 76 (8d8+32 +8)
Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +9
DR 10/magic; partial incorporeality; Immune mind-affecting effects, polymorph, suffocation; Resist Cold 10, Electricity 10
_______________________________________________
OFFENSE________________________________________
Speed fly 20 ft. (perfect)
Melee none
Special Attacks gaze of dissolution, cry from beyond, lashing tendril
________________________________________________
STATISTICS______________________________________
Str 11, Dex 10, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 15
Base Atk +6; CMB +6, CMD 10
Feats Improved Initiative (B), Hover, Skill Focus (perception), Toughness
Skills Acrobatics 0 (+0), Climb (+0), Escape Artist 0 (+0), Fly 8 (+11), Intimidate 0 (+2), Knowledge (one of; arcana, dungeoneering, history, nature, the planes or religion) 8 (+11), Perception 8 (+14), Spellcraft 8 (+11), Stealth 0 (+0), Survival 0 (+3), Swim 0 (+0)
Languages Abyssal
Special Qualities instinctive counterspell, aura of corruption
Gear none
______________________________________________ ECOLOGY_______________________________________
Environment any
Organization solitary
Treasure none
Special Abilities
Gaze of Dissolution (Su): As a standard action, the creature can cause it’s dark pupil to bulge inwards and rupture, unleashing a cold wind that carries tiny black motes of swarming darkness that swarm around like insects, striking a single target within 60 ft. as a disintegrate spell at CL 8. The swarming black motes dance around the subject and then are sucked back into the iris of Oblivion’s Eye. Once it has unleashed this attack, it must wait 1d4 rounds before it can repeat this action.
Cry from Beyond (Su): As a standard action it can pulse unnaturally, its entire surface strumming and vibrating sickeningly, producing a throbbing sound that functions as a shout spell, also at CL 8.
Instinctive Counterspell (Su): As a free action, once per round, it can cast greater dispel magic at CL 8, and it can use this ability to counterspell an incoming hostile effect, even if it has not delayed to take the counterspell action. As it can only perform this action once in a round, multiple spells can overwhelm this instinctive defense. If it counters a spell of less than 3rd level, Oblivion’s Eye can choose to turn the spell back upon its caster, as if Oblivion’s Eye had cast the spell in question, for determining range and effect.
Aura of Corruption (Su): The unnatural aura that surrounds Oblivion’s Eye causes all natural animals to immediately flee, if it approaches within 30 ft. of them, and any creature that remains within its presence at the end of a round takes damage. Those ending their turn within 30 ft. suffer 1d6 damage, those within 20 ft. suffer 1d3 damage and those within 21 to 30 ft. suffer a single point of damage. Even if a living creature leaves the area, the damage recurs thereafter as bleed damage unless treated, as the toxic exposure to Oblivion’s Eye continues to rot the afflicted creature from within. Unliving creatures, and unattended objects, suffer the initial damage, and additional damage for each additional round spent in the presence of the Eye, but do not suffer any form of bleed damage. This damage bypasses any form of energy resistance, damage reduction or object hardness, and Oblivion’s Eye can slowly bore through stone using just this aura, without resorting to its shout or disintegrate spell-like abilities.
Lashing Tendril (Ex): Behind Oblivion’s Eye, a lashing grey tendril whips around furiously, as if propelling the eye with its frenzied flagellations. Anyone standing in the square directly behind the Eye is struck this tendril, which inflicts 2d6 slashing damage that ignores hardness and damage reduction of all sorts. Oblivion’s Eye never uses this tendril as a deliberate attack, but it automatically strikes any who enter the square directly behind the creatures facing.
Partial Incorporeality (Su): Oblivion’s Eye is not made of earthly material, and is treated as being ‘partially incorporeal,’ so that any physical attack has a 20% chance of failing to harm it, including weapon attacks (whether from magical weapons or mundane ones), acid, boulders, the natural weapons of monsters or other physically damaging effects, such as falling hail or the rubble from an avalanche. Affects that fail to penetrate this unearthly defense do not seem to pass through the creature, so much as shudder around it, avoiding contact with its form, or even, in some cases, splashing harmlessly off of it as if the solid striking force was liquid, reforming after failing to injure the creature to its solid state. Energy effects, whether force, fire, electricity or cold, bypass this partial incorporeality and affect the creature normally.
While wingless, Oblivion’s Eye causes a disruption when flying, distorting and shuddering the air in its wake, and is capable of stirring up a cloud of debris via the Hover feat, as if possessed of wings.
Obviously, I picked 'floating man-sized eyeball that does horrible magical things to you' as my base point here. The creature is a singular aspect of an 'Old God' called up for ritual sacrifices, not a race of aberrations, but has the same basic form and function in an encounter, down to being hard to beat with magic, and having deadly 'gaze' related abilities.
If I instead wanted a race that aped the basic personality and nature of the beholders, I could instead have made a humanoid race with innate sorcerous abilities that stored spells in glyphs painted upon their skin. Same powers as a Beholder, more or less, but a radically different form. I could even have differing 'tribes' of these humanoids hate each other with a great passion, perhaps looking identical to outside viewers (unlike the warring racist Beholder factions), and only being remarkable in that they use different glyph-languages, and consider their own personal language to be the true 'words of creation,' and all different magical glyph-tattooed membered of their species to be defilers and corrupters of the pure language primeval or whatever. In this case, they would have similar powers, personalities and societies to Beholders, but look nothing like them, being just tattoed humanoids, to the naked eye.
This sort of thing, IMO, is more interesting than just making a straight conversion of a floating aberration that shoots 10 specific spells at you from its ten eyestalks.
As intriguing as the OGL conversation has been, it would probably be best if it traveled to its own thread since this is the product discussion for the Advanced Player's Guide.
As intriguing as the OGL conversation has been, it would probably be best if it traveled to its own thread since this is the product discussion for the Advanced Player's Guide.
Wait, this isn't a monster thread ? *looks up the topic* damn, it isn't *kicks dust*
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
CapeCodRPGer wrote:
*crosses fingers* I'm hoping we will hear soon that the APG is in the warehouse. I'm really looking forward to this.
+1
I think it'll be around Monday, but every day waiting is agony. It's my second most anticipated product of the next months, behind Star Wars: The Old Republic. And that game is 8 months away. ^^
I got a peep at the dummy copy on Sunday (quite a feat, given we had to extract it from the clutches of a Mr C. Evans, who was clutching his precious, and committing the whole tome to his photographic memory).
I can't recall all the Ranger combat styles, since I was half asleep, but I can confirm the 3.5 Scout Skirmish ability is back, as a form of Sneak Attack, available on a charge, thus allowing solo Skirmisher Rogues to operate without the need for flanking.
Chief Technical Officer
