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Anyone know if Zaiobe's 'mute' oracle curse (JR1, pp 43) has made an appearance as a character option anywhere in Paizo's released material? I poked around the d20pfsrd site but couldn't find mention of it, nor did a search for Zaiobe turn up much on the boards here.
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It has not been released. Whether or not it ever is released is iffy at best.
There's a new curse for oracles here... sort of. Will we get the full write-up of the mute curse? Because as it appears in this adventure, I can only see what it does at low levels (and all oracle curses so far have scaled).Whether or not we pick up the mute curse for a future book and then scale it up, I can't say. I suspect we won't, unless we're doing something that's mostly for GMs, not for players. A mute curse might be easy to balance among other curses, but it's one that really kind of cripples game play. I've played in a game before where a character was mute, and that character ended up being pretty forgettable due to the fact that he never took part in roleplaying and we never got to know him.
It shouldn't be that hard to extrapolate a reasonable progression, so I might whip a houseruled version soon. But I'd also be interested in an official write-up someday.
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Problem is, that mute characters make bad PC concepts ... RPGs are a social game, after all, and its hard to socialize when your character lacks, well, a voice.
Which would be why the curse grants telepathic abilities.
I think the mute curse is awesome and would make a great addition to the Oracle. Also it doesn't have to be for just player characters and it is not like you have to pick it. Besides I like the idea of telepathy as well.
Problem is, that mute characters make bad PC concepts ... RPGs are a social game, after all, and its hard to socialize when your character lacks, well, a voice.Which would be why the curse grants telepathic abilities.
It does or it should?
If it does, that's unfortunate. I'm tired of "curses" that are actually benefits. If that's your suggestion, I heartily disagree, for the same reason.
Edit: Okay, it grants extremely limited telepathic powers. I guess that's okay as far as it goes, but I second James' comment that it makes for poor gameplay at a table - it's one of those "character drawbacks" that people take and never actually play out.
There is such a thing as sign language. I don't know for sure if it exsists in cannon Golarion, but it exsists in my version. I've been in games where people weren't mute, but so heavily relied on signing that for entire sessions they might as well have been.
As for telepathy, I think a very limited version would work as a higher level ability. Short ranged, limited in number of "conections" (as in you can only talk to one person at a time), that kind of thing, would be workable.
Problem is, that mute characters make bad PC concepts ... RPGs are a social game, after all, and its hard to socialize when your character lacks, well, a voice.Which would be why the curse grants telepathic abilities.It does or it should?
If it does, that's unfortunate. I'm tired of "curses" that are actually benefits. If that's your suggestion, I heartily disagree, for the same reason.
Edit: Okay, it grants extremely limited telepathic powers. I guess that's okay as far as it goes, but I second James' comment that it makes for poor gameplay at a table - it's one of those "character drawbacks" that people take and never actually play out.
One of the first ability it grants, based on the Harpy Oracle who has it, is the ability to communicate telepathically with someone after touching them. As far as it goes, it's absolutely typical for the abilities granted by an Oracular curse to cancel out most of the negative effects as you level up.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Higher levels of the curse grant the ability to summon instrument at will (must be a horn), use disguise self (only to create a yellow curly wig.) and any item in the robe slot automatically gains the properties of a Handy Haversack.
In addition, if you take Leadership your cohort speaks with a bad pseudo-Italian accent...
Higher levels of the curse grant the ability to summon instrument at will (must be a horn), use disguise self (only to create a yellow curly wig.) and any item in the robe slot automatically gains the properties of a Handy Haversack.
In addition, if you take Leadership your cohort speaks with a bad pseudo-Italian accent...
Wow... I haven't seen or heard anyone make reference to the Marx Brothers in ages, much less Harpo or Chico Marx. Usually, I hear comments about Groucho when I hear them at all.
Harpo had red hair not blonde.
Higher levels of the curse grant the ability to summon instrument at will (must be a horn), use disguise self (only to create a yellow curly wig.) and any item in the robe slot automatically gains the properties of a Handy Haversack.
In addition, if you take Leadership your cohort speaks with a bad pseudo-Italian accent...
Either that or a side effect of losing all skin pigmentation in the face and gaining Force Cube range personal.
/ducks volley of rotten veggies.
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Problem is, that mute characters make bad PC concepts ... RPGs are a social game, after all, and its hard to socialize when your character lacks, well, a voice.
The obvious solution is to describe your character's communications. "Harpo indicates that he thinks we should go down this corridor."
On a more serious note... how bout something like this:
Mute: You cannot speak or vocalize in any way. You gain Silent Spell as a bonus feat but any spell you cast with a verbal component gains a Somatic component and you suffer from spell failure chance from armour. In addition you may communicate telepathically in any language you know with a range of 15'. At 5th level the range of your telepathy increases to 30 feet and you no longer suffer spell failure while wearing light armour. At 10th level the range of your telepathy increases to 60 feet and you gain a +3 bonus to the DC of your Language Dependent Enchantment spells. At 15th level you no longer suffer spell failure from Medium armour and can communicate telepathically as if under the effect of Tongues. Note this does not grant you the ability to understand heard from outside the range of your telepathy.
This doesn't impede the player's ability to participate in RP with the party, but does somewhat hinder their ability to be a face (a significant drawback for a Cha primary). I was trying to keep the power level somewhere between Clouded Vision and Tongues... I'm not sure about the ranges on the telepathy though, I was considering touch to start then 15' at 5, 30' at 10 and 60' at 15. The idea of having to do spells like command as a melee touch seems kind of cool, but it's probably too harsh when combined with the spell failure from armour, and the communication range seems a little restrictive. I was also debating having the range increase to 90-120' at 15.
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I think that telepathy should only be granted at 15th level with a 30' or 60' range. Only one target can be spoken to at a time (or maybe one target per Cha modifier). Perhaps at lower levels the mute is granted an empathy ability similar to that of intelligent magic items, though. That could help expand RP ability, but even so I'd still suggest that only skilled roleplayers should try playing a mute.
Looking over the entry in JR, I do think that it balances surprisingly well. I'm suspicious of allowing telepathic bond so early, but for a 5th or 10th level bonus I don't think it would hurt much.
Froze_man's proposal is a bit too heavy handed with the telepathy. The spell failure idea is intriguing however, though I can't say I'm fully comfortable with the idea at the moment. When I tried 'brewing my own mute progression, I actually looked to Deaf first for inspiration. Really, the only things that fit from it are the Silent Spell bit and +3 to (all) Perception checks. If you can't do much but sit there and observe then it's only natural you'd get good at doing that. So, how's this sound?
You cannot speak in any intelligible language. Comprehend languages, tongues and other similar abilities have no effect on making you're attempts at verbal communication understood. You cast all of your spells as if they were modified by the Silent Spell feat. This does not increase their level or casting time.
At 5th level, you receive a +3 competence bonus on Perception checks. You also gain the ability to communicate empathically with anyone that you are touching. This empathic communication can only convey emotions and urges, or very simple ideas. It does not allow verbal communication.
At 10th level, your empathy ability can be used to communicate with anyone in a (30/60 foot) radius. You may also communicate telepathically with any one individual that you are touching as long as you both share a language. A telepathic bond (as the spell) may be formed with one specific creature per day by taking a full-round action to establish the connection which lasts for 24 hours, or until a new bond is formed. You must touch the target in order to establish the connection.
At 15th level, you may communicate telepathically with any single creature in a (30/60 foot) radius. Once per day, you may use sending as a spell-like ability.
The problem with that (giving Telepathy late) is that it really does exactly what the quote from JJ in the second post says it does. It cripples gameplay and basicly excludes that player from all social interactions.
With the "touch telepathy" at least they have a way to communicate somewhat. I agree the ranged telepathy and telepathic link should come later.
I don't think it's grossly over or underpowered really, compared to other curses, but overall I think this is not a good curse for players. Deaf is a pretty bad one in my opinion already, for the same reason. But at least you can still talk as a deaf person.
Allowing it for special NPCs is one thing. For PCs another.
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I think it really depends on the individual. I once ran a game with a mute character in it, and it was actually quite interesting. The character had a sign language that I allowed other characters to learn, or make a Wis check to understand.
Sure, early on the character had difficulty communicating but since it was a temporary thing, it allowed for an interesting and different kind of roleplay that one doesn't get to experience often and everyone at the table enjoyed it.
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Problem is, that mute characters make bad PC concepts ... RPGs are a social game, after all, and its hard to socialize when your character lacks, well, a voice.
I've played a mute character before, it's a lot of fun. Like my character, I had a notepad I passed around to talk to players (actions and such I didn't bother not talking, but if my charater was saying it, I wrote it down on my notepad, which was just like hers)
Then she WAS also psychic for times when she was with people that wouldn't freak out (was a White Wolf game, she was a psychic themed mage, even had the "Circumspect Avatar" merit so mages couldn't tell she was a mage, and she didn't beleive she was... and... was she? She has no avatar, how can any mage really be 100% sure she is when she has no avatar?)
If it does, that's unfortunate. I'm tired of "curses" that are actually benefits. If that's your suggestion, I heartily disagree, for the same reason.
Edit: Okay, it grants extremely limited telepathic powers. I guess that's okay as far as it goes, but I second James' comment that it makes for poor gameplay at a table - it's one of those "character drawbacks" that people take and never actually play out.
Honestly an Oracles Curse is meant to be a class feature (not truly a curse), so to force this feature into a completely non-beneficial part of the class build would destroy the class. It's supposed to be a slight affliction that grants certain benefits as you level up.
True curses still exist in the game, but not as part of a class build.
Awesome version of the Mute Oracle Curse L. A. DuBois! I hope they come out with an official one (as well as a Faerie Oracle Mystery). ^_^
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Don't know about what potential power level shenanigans could happen here, but here is my attempt at the Mute curse in a way that could work for a player, in a format that roughly follows the standard curse progression.
Mute
Effect
You cannot speak, use verbal spell components, command words, or any other effect or ability that is directly related to vocal utterance.You cast all of your spells as if they were modified by the Silent Spell feat. You can communicate using telepathy with any creature you are in physical contact and as a full-round action may link your mind in a telepathic bond to one creature. You have telepathy 50' with the creature that you have formed a telepathic bond with. You can only have one telepathic bond active at a time and may change the target of a telepathic bond once per day.
At 5th level, the range of your telepathic bond increases to 100' and you may have two active telepathic bonds.
At 10th level, when you cast a language dependent spell and deliver the effect through telepathy, add +2 to the spell's DC. You may have three active telepathic bonds.
At 15th level, a 10' aura of silence, as though the spell, extends around you. You can suppress or activate this aura as a standard action. You may have four active telepathic bonds.
On second thought....That's a little messy and maybe not Conservative enough. More Conservative Option:
You cannot speak, use verbal spell components, command words, or any other effect or ability that is directly related to vocal utterance.You cast all of your spells as if they were modified by the Silent Spell feat. You can communicate using telepathy with any creature you are in physical contact and as a full-round action may link your mind in a telepathic bond to one creature. You have telepathy 50' with the creature that you have formed a telepathic bond with. You can only have one telepathic bond active at a time and may change the target of a telepathic bond once per day.
At 5th level, the range of your telepathic bond increases to 100'.
At 10th level, you may maintain a number of telepathic bonds equal to your CHA modifer (min 1).
At 15th level, a 10' aura of silence, as though the spell, extends around you. You can suppress or activate this aura as a standard action.