Need with occultism related designs for my bronze dragon (battlezoo) thaumaturge


Homebrew and House Rules


Look up the PF1 Occultist implements for a good list, I'd say.


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Occult in Pathfinder is about connections, symbolism, and stories. Historically significant objects are a good fit. The ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in Wizard of Oz, or the gun of a famous assassination would be examples from our world. For Golarion, the quill of a famous playwright, something allegedly used by Aroden to perform a significant deed, etc. It's the story of an object that makes it significant in an occult fashion (by Pathfinder reckoning), not the object itself. It's certainly less recognizable as occult, but occult is the most abstract and obscured of the magical traditions.

Which is just to say, maybe make up some stories for whatever you think looks good!


Captain Relyk wrote:
QuidEst wrote:

Occult in Pathfinder is about connections, symbolism, and stories. Historically significant objects are a good fit. The ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in Wizard of Oz, or the gun of a famous assassination would be examples from our world. For Golarion, the quill of a famous playwright, something allegedly used by Aroden to perform a significant deed, etc. It's the story of an object that makes it significant in an occult fashion (by Pathfinder reckoning), not the object itself. It's certainly less recognizable as occult, but occult is the most abstract and obscured of the magical traditions.

Which is just to say, maybe make up some stories for whatever you think looks good!

I think I’m starting to understand

Would real world examples of “occult” objects be Venus of Willendorf, Phaistos Disc, King Tut’s Funerary mask, the original document of the US Constitution, or even things like Elvis’ guitar or the gun used to assassinate JFK?

Would Excalibur be considered an “occult” object?

Keep in mind that this is personal interpretation. Hopefully it's helpful!

The first two are mostly significant because they survived so long. We don't know much about the context surrounding them- who made them, or what exactly they mean. We aren't exactly feeling the ripples through history from them, and we're missing most of their story. King Tut's mask, by contrast, is something we have much more context for, from someone we know specific information about, and who has been given a significant position in the modern public consciousness. The original US Constitution, Elvis' guitar, or the gun that shot JFK are all things that represent significant changes that affect the world today.

Some more examples would be the floppy disk holding the source code of the first (notorious) internet virus, the gun that shot Archduke Ferdinand kicking off WWI, and the statue dedicated to all the laboratory mice that died in the pursuit of life-saving medicine.

As for Excalibur, that's a little fuzzy because it is also just... straight-up sometimes a magic sword in legends. But "only the true ruler of this isle can pull it from the stone" is very much in the occult wheelhouse.

My favorite example is, "In the arcane tradition, a book is powerful because it contains knowledge. In the occult tradition, a book is powerful because it symbolizes knowledge". For the purposes of arcane, it doesn't matter which copy of an late 1800s physics textbook you used, they'd all be pretty out of date but probably still have some useful insights on Newtonian physics in a pinch. If you had Einstein's physics textbook, though, occult magic would probably treat that as a big deal.

Thaumaturge on the whole has a very occult feel because it's a class that does care about the stories behind things. You get to make up explanations for what you're using to create weaknesses and why they work.

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Excalibur and the sword in the stone are two different swords.


Cori Marie wrote:
Excalibur and the sword in the stone are two different swords.

Wait, dang, yeah. I got it mixed up whether Excalibur was the lake-sword or the stone-sword. The sword in the stone has some occult vibes to it, while I'd probably use a different tradition for the sword given by the Lady in the Lake, Excalibur.


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Celtic or Viking are probably good places to look.

You could have curved horns and have a dream catcher weaved between them.

Bracelets with dangling, jigging on them. [Ideal for the crystal healing feat]

I forgot what it's called but there is a belt or necklace that has threads coming off of it that hold spiritual meanings.

Bands of metal on the out most "fingers" of the wings.

For jewelry, focus on pearl, bone/ivory, and crystals.


Cori Marie wrote:
Excalibur and the sword in the stone are two different swords.

Both the Sword in the Lake and the Sword in the Stone have been called Excalibur but are always different swords anyways. Legends like these do not have one canon story, and more over there are Welsh versions of the story where there is no Excalibur, instead the sword has a Welsh name as you might guess

I believe Arthurian legend was stolen from the Welsh but I'm not 100% on that

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