Rakshasa's Fortune (Su): Whenever the magus casts a spell of the polymorph subschool on himself, he can draw a card from a complete harrow deck he owns as a free action. If the card’s alignment and the magus’s alignment are a true match, the spell’s duration is doubled and the magus can select two additional monster abilities granted by the polymorph spell (such as scent or grab for beast shape II), even if the form assumed by the magus doesn’t normally grant that ability. On a partial match, the magus can select an additional ability granted by the polymorph spell, even if the form assumed by the magus doesn’t normally grant that ability. On an opposite match, the duration of the spell is halved and the magus must forgo one of the abilities granted by his form. The magus must be at least 9th level before selecting this arcana.
Is there an opposite match for a Neutral alignment? Does a character of that alignment simply not have to worry about drawing an opposite match?
I'm guessing there's nothing RAW that extends "casts a spell of the polymorph subschool on himself" to include the True Arcane Bloodrage ability an Eldritch Scion gets as part of the Arcane Bloodline:
True Arcane Bloodrage (Sp): At 16th level, when entering a bloodrage you can choose one of the following spells and apply its effects to yourself: beast shape IV (choose a creature your size or larger only), form of the dragon I, or transformation. This is in addition to arcane bloodrage and greater arcane bloodrage, and otherwise works as those abilities.
So the first ability you mentioned/the book it came from was basically meant for Crimson Throne, as its the AP that introduced the Harrowing, and also is the only AP I'm aware of that had any Rakshasa. In a Harrowing, opposite matches only come from a difference of Good vs Evil alignment, so you can only have an opposite match if you draw an Any Good or Any Evil alignment and the drawer's alignment is the opposite on the Good/Evil axis.
As a second point, you are not casting the spell by the True Arcane Bloodrage ability, you are just applying the effects via a non-spell Spell-Like Ability. So Rakshasa's fortune wouldn't apply.
We're doing a homebrew game, so there's a lot of freedom at play (relative to games that restrict themselves to PFS-approved material). That said, the Rakshasa is from the first Bestiary, and the Harrow Handbook makes it clear the rules it contains are not meant to be restricted to a certain AP:
Certain game concepts transcend the particulars of a character's race or class. The following elements detailed in this book work equally well for any character you want to play in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, regardless of the character's background, focus, or type.
To the second point, I figured as much. I wasn't aware of anything that would help the bloodrage bit... but you never know for sure unless you ask!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I might have worded that too strongly, I meant more you should look to the Harrow rules which come from that AP to understand what they mean by "Opposite match", not so much you couldn't play the ability outside the AP.
I will also add that Arcane (Bloodrager) bloodline is by far the strongest bloodline, so I would be hesitant to give it any leeway other than what is strictly Raw. As is, being able to race cycle mirror images (from greater bloodrage) and swap out at will up to 3 more of your other spell selections from the bloodline to open with a Beast Shape Pounce into next round transformation or Dragon form for even more natural attacks is borderline busted. Just my 2cp as someone who has played with a player who used this bloodline.
No disagreement whatsoever, and no offense taken!
There was just no qualifier in the Harrow rules (that I could see) regarding opposite alignment matches (that I could see), and I was a bit surprised that in this case Neutral got a reward... whereas what we usually see is that they're locked out of something. In this case, I wouldn't have been shocked if Neutral characters couldn't get either the opposite match drawbacks or the perfect match benefits. I'll happily take just the benefits!
So this is from the original printing, though the text is copied mostly word for word in the remaster, but here's the context on Opposite Matches:
Interpreting a Harrowing
There are placements within a Harrow spread where certain cards have increased or altered significance, as summarized below.True Matches: Any card that is of the same alignment as the placement it is laid in is of extreme importance.
Opposite Matches: Cases where a card’s alignment is exactly opposite of the placement it is laid in—such as a chaotic good card appearing in the lawful evil (lower right) position—are always misaligned and infer a momentous happening.
Partial Matches: When one part of a card’s alignment matches its placement (like a neutral good card in a lawful good position), the card has increased importance. Partial matches can sometimes be misaligned.
Role Cards: If a player’s role card comes up, this card has a special significance to the player in relation to the card’s meaning and where it appears in the spread.
Misaligned Cards: When a good card appears in the bottom row, or an evil card appears in the top row, it is misaligned. Use the Misaligned interpretation of the card’s meaning. Cards that are neither good nor evil are never misaligned.
Technically the above is meant to be in the context of making a spread of 3x3=9 cards to match the alignment grid, with the cards place being it's alignment to compare against the face of the card itself for a match or mismatch. However since the player is just drawing the card, we are comparing the face of the card to the character's alignment. Neutral cards on the Good/Evil axis don't have "misaligned" interpretations because there is no misaligned from neutral because those cards aren't normally inherently good or bad to have a misaligned version. Similarly Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic doesn't represent anything that can be mismatched in the spread, whereas instead they represent the past, present, and future only when placed in the spread, but as part of the face of a card only to further classify the intensity of the mismatch (note in this case, NG and NE are opposite matches, alongside LG/CE and CG/LE respectively).
So it seems I actually misquoted, Opposite matches do care about the Law/Chaos axis, but only once you've gotten a Good/Evil card that is opposite your alignment because specifically. I was explaining just for Misaligned matches which was incorrect.
Appreciated all the same, AD!
It seems to me that the opposite of a true neutral would be any of the 4 corner alignments (LG, CG, LE, and CE). A partial match would be any alignment with a neutral component. True neutral is supposed to be about balance those 4 alignments lack balance.
What I find problematic with your proposal, if I understand the Harrow system correctly, is that every alignment except for Neutral has a perfect match, an opposite match, and four partial matches... but you're arguing for Neutral to have one perfect match, four opposite matches and four partial matches.
What I would expect is something along the lines of the "Champion of" series of feats, which have a feat dedicated to each of the alignments: Anarchy (CN), Balance (N), Destruction (CE), Freedom (CG), Grace (NG), Malevolence (NE), Righteousness (LG), Tranquility (LN), and Tyranny (LE). Champions of Balance get the damage bonus this feat provides against lawful, chaotic, good, and evil opponents. The rest only get the damage bonus against two of the categories--e.g., Champions of Righteousness get a bonus against chaotic and evil creatures and a bigger bonus against chaotic evil creatures--and also get affirmations.
So in this case, Neutral magi using the Rakshasa's Fortune arcana don't get an opposite match, but they don't get a perfect match, either. They can draw five partial matches (including N itself) or no match at all; they have no chance of getting either a really good result or a really bad one.
I have no doubt it will help quite a few people, but it's not thematically appropriate for my character. :)