Supposedly they are particular to Pathfinder Society games, but I don't see any reason not to include them in a regular campaign. How early could they possibly drop. The emanating magic aura is only level 5 and the cost is only 500 so a level 5 creature might actually have one?
For what they can do (for ioun stones) they seem pretty cheap.
Maybe tied to a Faction? Or a gift from a deity (Selune or some other deity with travel domain)?
While they are kind of a symbol for the Pathfinder Society, and lots of society members have them, their really isn't anything that prevents someone else from having one.
Some of course would have fallen into other hands after a society member is killed, but their also isn't any reason that I know of that a non-society crafter couldn't make and sell them, if their was a market.
Personally, I think they are way to simple to be a direct gift from a Deity, although a cleric crafter could certainly make one PCs as a reward.
Dead Pathfinders are a dime a dozen. Half the magic odds and ends shops in a given city probably have at least one unless the Society takes pains to recover them. Even then, enough folks have likely seen or encountered one that any number of "knockoff" but equally functional wayfinders ought to be floating around.
My druid just finished one a couple of weeks ago as a first exercise in wondrous item crafting--it helps out the party's obligatory human when we end up in the dark while freeing up an orison slot for something else. Plus, since he's considering doing contract work for the Society, it'll be funny to say "no thanks, I already have one". : D
They're as common as 500gp.
I see, to me it was a bit confusing that there are apparently two same named organizations.
For the advanced wayfinders there are crafting rules, requiring craft wondrous items, half the gold cost and (usually) some spells. Can you craft regular wayfinders?
So anyway, for a 500 wayfinder and a 500 cracked Dusty Rose Prism ioun stone you get +1 to initiative and +2 to CMB and CMD. I'm sure the maneuver master monk player in my game will be very happy about that.
And I understand it is slotless too. Is there any limit to how many of these you can have? I mean many of these ioun stones have stackable bonuses...
Let's look at the crimson sphere. +2 stackable intelligence (fairly expensive 24k) but once you got your Headband of Intelligence +6 I guess it's easier to push this rather than dealing with the exponential growth in cost from a +8 or +10 Headband...though now I'm getting away from wayfinders and into ioun stones.
Yes, regular wayfinders are craftable. There aren't any stats for crafting regular wayfinders with multiple slots, though.
Edit: Regarding limits, you're limited to one wayfinder's worth of augmented (resonant) effects from ioun stones, but I'm not certain whether the regular effects continue if you try to use more than one wayfinder at a time. I've erred on the side of caution and assumed that one wayfinder at a time is the limit.
I guess I would rule that it's exponential, with a base of 250. So holding two would be 1000, 3 would be 2250, 4 would be 4000 etc...which is probably too cheap. Cubic then.
2 would be 2000, 3 6750 and 4 for 16000. Caster level could still be regular quadratic, so for 3 you'd need CL 9 and for 4 16.
There are also crafting requirements for ioun stones. The caster level I would presume to be only relevant to regular ioun stones, while cracked and flawed ones maybe need less than 12.
Anyway, thank you for the information.
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I'm unsure how much of what I'm about to say is PFS-specific, but it might be a good guideline for a homegame anyways.
In PFS, only regular Ioun Stones have resonant effects when slotted into a Wayfinder. Not cracked or flawed.
Also, barring a Wayfinder with more than one slot (and they're expensive!), only one resonance can be in effect on a character.
I believe those rules are spelled out in Seekers of Secrets, but I don't have my copy with me to check.
They're as common as 500gp.
Let me assure you, wayfinders are far less common than 500gp. The wayfinder itself gives you the light spell, the nonmmagical compass (+2 to survival checks to avoid becoming lost only) and the indentation for the Ioun Stone. That's it.
A crafter may normaly decide to create a wayfinder for 3 reasons:
1-. Personal Use: Will a dwarven crafter, that spends all his time in a city want to craft a wayfinder? No reason, he has darkvision so the light spell is almost useless for him, and he doesn't have a need for survival checks (unless he gets drunk and ends in a bad part of the city he doesn't recognize).
2-. On-demand petition: Sure, If you got the money and the artisan has time to spare, you might get one in a couple days.
3-. There's a market for them: Would the weapon users in your party immediately purchase a Wayfinder once they get 500gp over saving 2K for their first +1 weapon, or 1K for their armor, or their capes of resistance, or their...? No, right? Then a wayfinder is less common than all those items. An intelligent crafter will prefer to craft a +1 cape of resistance over a wayfinder 100% of the time, because for every wayfinder he sells he may sell 50 or 100 of those capes.
So, a wayfinder is a niche product. On a large city that holds a PFS base, then sure, the PFS will probably have a couple on sale since wayfinders are mainly meant explorers and adventurers. But on a normal town chances to find one are zero, unless the town is near to the wilderness and the ranger captain happens to have one.
Some wayfinders have multiple slots for ioun stones; these usually—but not always—function independently (an enhanced power from the first slot has nothing to do with the enhanced power of the second slot, whether or not another stone is present).
I took this part to mean there are non specific wayfinders with multiple slots, as opposed to the specific wayfinders like a wayfinder of passage.
When the first ioun stone slot is used, the dimension door ability no longer functions. When the second slot is used, feather fall and resist energy are unavailable. When the third slot is used, daylight and knock no longer function.
What does used mean in this context? Are there charges required for the use of these abilities? Do the ioun stones in it turn to dull grey ioun stones when you use an ability? When I first read this I had assumed it meant that it had been "used" to augment the ioun stones.
When one ioun stone is slotted into the device, its darkness ability no longer functions. When a second stone is placed in it, the darkvision ability no longer functions.
Here again, fitting in ioun stones makes it lose (some of) its power. What would be the benefit of this item if you can have them swirl around your head? I guess they could be stolen or sundered, but that also goes for the wayfinder, right?
Rare enough that a wayfinder is considered to basically be the badge of a member of the Pathfinders on Golarion. That's not to say non-Pathfinders don't have them, but the typically assumption is that if you have one you're a member of the Society. I don't know of any notable NPCs on Golarion who are not Pathfinders (or ex-Pathfinders, the descendants of Pathfinders, etc.) who have one.
Rare enough that a wayfinder is considered to basically be the badge of a member of the Pathfinders on Golarion. That's not to say non-Pathfinders don't have them, but the typically assumption is that if you have one you're a member of the Society. I don't know of any notable NPCs on Golarion who are not Pathfinders (or ex-Pathfinders, the descendants of Pathfinders, etc.) who have one.
Be aware, the OP stated it's for their inclusion on regular (non PFS) campaigns.
On PFS campaign sure, they may be considered the "Society Member Card", but on regular campaigns they're no different than a normal magic item.
In the end, Wayfinder disponibility will depend if the OP's campaign has PFS Guilds or not. If his campaign has PFS guilds, then wayfinders will be more common since most members of the society will have them and guild houses may even sell some to non-members; but if the OP's campaign doesn't have PFS guilds (because he's not playing in Golarion for example), then they'll be way more rare since they're a niche magical item with limited usefulness unless a particular need arises.
That's what I thought, so the main reason to slot it in is to not having it fly around your head then? Because if only one of the ioun stones is granted the augment, I don't see much benefit in foregoing the wayfinders regular powers.
They're as common as 500gp.Let me assure you, wayfinders are far less common than 500gp. The wayfinder itself gives you the light spell, the nonmmagical compass (+2 to survival checks to avoid becoming lost only) and the indentation for the Ioun Stone. That's it.
A crafter may normaly decide to create a wayfinder for 3 reasons:
1-. Personal Use: Will a dwarven crafter, that spends all his time in a city want to craft a wayfinder? No reason, he has darkvision so the light spell is almost useless for him, and he doesn't have a need for survival checks (unless he gets drunk and ends in a bad part of the city he doesn't recognize).
2-. On-demand petition: Sure, If you got the money and the artisan has time to spare, you might get one in a couple days.
3-. There's a market for them: Would the weapon users in your party immediately purchase a Wayfinder once they get 500gp over saving 2K for their first +1 weapon, or 1K for their armor, or their capes of resistance, or their...? No, right? Then a wayfinder is less common than all those items. An intelligent crafter will prefer to craft a +1 cape of resistance over a wayfinder 100% of the time, because for every wayfinder he sells he may sell 50 or 100 of those capes.
So, a wayfinder is a niche product. On a large city that holds a PFS base, then sure, the PFS will probably have a couple on sale since wayfinders are mainly meant explorers and adventurers. But on a normal town chances to find one are zero, unless the town is near to the wilderness and the ranger captain happens to have one.
No, let me explain it to you. PCs that have 500gp can purchase a wayfinder. There is always room for GM variation such as determining that Town A is too small to have a wayfinder in stock, while another GM may say the same Town A has a wayfinder in stock because a wayward pathfinder came through years ago and left it.
Don't lecture me. I was giving the OP the benefit of the doubt with regards to table variance without going on needlessly.
No, let me explain it to you. PCs that have 500gp can purchase a wayfinder. There is always room for GM variation such as determining that Town A is too small to have a wayfinder in stock, while another GM may say the same Town A has a wayfinder in stock because a wayward pathfinder came through years ago and left it.
Don't lecture me. I was giving the OP the benefit of the doubt with regards to table variance without going on needlessly.
I didn't mean to lecture you, a player with around 500gp may purchase a wayfinder, but the OP asked about how "common" they are. In game terms, I'd say he meant what chances do you have to roll one when rolling on Wondrouws Items tables, or to find one on a shop.
Some GM's may have an "All Magic you can Pay for" emporium with all magical items available from the CRB and any sourcebooks they use on their campaigns as long as the players have enough cash, but others (most I'd say) will have a specific array of magical items for sale, normally based on how "common" they are (namely, the more wanted an item is, the more chances it can be purchased without the need of asking for an artisan to craft it).
A wayfinder will be more common on campaigns that contain Pathfinder Society guilds and rarer on campaigns without the society, since it's usefulness (alone) is pretty niche compared to other ~500gp cost items.
In fact, I'd even say that "used/tested", non-ioun bonus wayfinders migh have higher chances to be found in shops since these are the ones people doesn't want to keep. And they have the same price than the ones that rolled their ioun-bonus chance.
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That's what I thought, so the main reason to slot it in is to not having it fly around your head then? Because if only one of the ioun stones is granted the augment, I don't see much benefit in foregoing the wayfinders regular powers.
The benefit of slotting an Ioun Stone inside a Wayfinder is the resonance power of the Ioun Stone.
A regular Wayfinder grants you Light. Resonance powers have all sorts of effects, from +1 caster level to +1 saves to +1 CMB/CMD (the +2 CMB/CMD you referenced earlier was recently errata'd down to just +1).
Those are generally going to be worth more than just having a Light cantrip.
The best rules we have is that in any settlement with a base limit of 500 gp (Village and larger) there is a 75% percent chance that a Wayfinder can be found for sale with little effort.
Which makes them exactly as common as any other 500 gp magic item.
The benefit of slotting an Ioun Stone inside a Wayfinder is the resonance power of the Ioun Stone.
A regular Wayfinder grants you Light. Resonance powers have all sorts of effects, from +1 caster level to +1 saves to +1 CMB/CMD (the +2 CMB/CMD you referenced earlier was recently errata'd down to just +1).
Those are generally going to be worth more than just having a Light cantrip.
Yes but according to you only one ioun stone can gain such a benefit, so why would you ever fill up the Wayfinder of Passages for example with more ioun stones than just the one? Or even at all. Just get a regular Wayfinder and wear that or whatever it is you do with a Wayfinder (it is slotless after all)and just take out your expensive Wayfinder of Passages for the daily and at will spells.
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I can think of several reasons: cost, encumbrance, availability, one was sundered, one was stolen. But the biggest is the ability to have multiple resonances active.
But if you want to eschew the general theme of Wayfinders as symbols of the Pathfinder Society, you can really change anything you want about them.
Have a cheapy that can slot X number of stones, and instead of having a second Wayfinder that does cool things just get a less expensive use activated item that does the same thing.
In a homegame, the world is your oyster.
I remember getting a Wayfinder because I needed to boost charisma by 2 points to qualify for the Improved Eldritch Heritage feat (which I intended to use to gain the Malignant Intelligence ability of the 3rd party Aboleth bloodline). I already had a headband that boosted intelligence by 4, and I didn't want to get a Headband of Mental Prowess +4 because it would make getting the +6 bonus to intelligence a lot more expensive. It was just too risky to stake 2-6 points of intelligence on a stone orbiting my head.
So instead I bought an Ioun Stone to boost my charisma by 2 along with a Wayfinder to put it in so that I could safely hide that Ioun Stone in my pocket.
Yes but according to you only one ioun stone can gain such a benefit, so why would you ever fill up the Wayfinder of Passages for example with more ioun stones than just the one? Or even at all. Just get a regular Wayfinder and wear that or whatever it is you do with a Wayfinder (it is slotless after all)and just take out your expensive Wayfinder of Passages for the daily and at will spells.The benefit of slotting an Ioun Stone inside a Wayfinder is the resonance power of the Ioun Stone.
A regular Wayfinder grants you Light. Resonance powers have all sorts of effects, from +1 caster level to +1 saves to +1 CMB/CMD (the +2 CMB/CMD you referenced earlier was recently errata'd down to just +1).
Those are generally going to be worth more than just having a Light cantrip.
IIRC, wayfinders with multiple slots can have all of their slots function at the same time:
The auras of multiple augmenting wayfinders tend to interfere with each other; a person with one who tries to hold or carry a second usually finds that both sputter out in just a few seconds, but activate again once the second one is set aside. Some advanced, expensive wayfinders may hold more than one ioun stone at the same time and still function (though another wayfinder can interfere if brought too close).
(That's a third party site, but IIRC my copy of Seeker of Secrets at home says the same thing.)
I'm sorry, but I seriously have to take exception to the idea that loading up the slots on your Wayfinder is a waste. OK, if you are out on the road or in the dungeon, yes mostly you are getting more from the empty Wayfinder. Having the odd little rocks orbiting you is no big deal either. If you are in town, most of the Wayfinder's powers are less useful, and your orbiting Ioun stones attract attention, and are subject to theft. That you get resonance bonuses is just a perk.
@Nefreet
In a previous post you stated that (at least in PFS) only one resonance would be active, so unless you can switch that on the fly (ie it's a free or swift action), having several ioun stones in a wayfarer denying its other abilities would fall short of using that wayfinder of passages for its regular SLA and just put the one resonating ioun stone in a regular (500gp) wayfinder. Removing or inserting an ioun stone is a standard action.
@blahpers
Now that clears things up.
Thanks.
I have a side question...
Can you Craft something other than a Wayfinder that can hold and resonate an Ioun Stone?
I have a side question...
Can you Craft something other than a Wayfinder that can hold and resonate an Ioun Stone?
That's firmly in the realm of "GM, may I?". : )
That's firmly in the realm of "GM, may I?". : )
Would you if you where the GM?
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That's firmly in the realm of "GM, may I?". : )Would you if you where the GM?
Sure! It's the ioun stones that are expensive, after all. And there's still the "only one resonance-providing device works at a time" clause. Wanna put a slot for an ioun stone in the pommel of your sword? Sure, knock the light power and the cost of the compass off the wayfinder price and either use it as its own item or tack it onto another. Since we're in nickel-and-dime range for item crafting, I'd probably just make up a small set price for a slot and call it a day; worrying about whether the price is right for such minor items seems like a waste of wrinkles.
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I see, to me it was a bit confusing that there are apparently two same named organizations.
Yeah...In theory, the PFS organized play is representing characters that belong to the Pathfinder Society Faction and are undertaking missions on behalf of that organization. That said, given that the Faction is a neutral organization (that will take anyone) and the Organized play for PFS doesn't allow evil aligned PCs, there's certainly some disconnect between the faction version and the organized play version of the Pathfinder Society.
I have a side question...
Can you Craft something other than a Wayfinder that can hold and resonate an Ioun Stone?
Certainly. For example, the Ioun Spite Bracers.
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seems like every ghoul is wearing one.
@Nefreet
Yeah I misread that.
Just read that only 75% of ioun stones resonate with wayfinders and 25% of flawed and cracked, which give usually lower resonance bonuses.
http://www.archivesofnethys.com/MagicWondrous.aspx?FinalSlot=Ioun
So it's fair to assume that if an enemy would be carrying a working combination and they'd drop it as loot, it's still working.