Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that got a little too close to mechanics and is now infested from the toes to the teeth with an abundance of flavor. Our last entry was an examination of my favorite monster, the bountiful broodmother that is the drakainia. With the potential to spawn entire societies in record time, it’s a wonder this entry in the Bestiary hasn’t earned its spot in some epic-length storyline. But even if you don’t want to use her as a near-deific  figure, she does make for an very memorable NPC. Even more memorable if the PCs are somehow tied to her aberrant lineage.

That’s right, this isn’t the second part of a duology, it’s the third part of a secret trilogy. It all comes back to those wholesome family values.

“What? He’s totally an elf! Or at least elf adjacent…”

Spawn of the Drakainia

Playing as a character that was spawned from this mythical mother figure is as easy as declaring as much upon character creation. But if you want to truly represent this fact in your character’s mechanics, then you have plenty of options. Staring with ancestry, the obvious consideration is my old favorite the fleshwarp. But if you want to try something that looks just familiar enough for the creepy stuff to really hit, then consider taking half elf or half orc as your heritage. This is also a wonderful excuse to slap the beastkin heritage on just about anything. Or heck, maybe being born from gene soup affected you way more than your siblings.

But what if you don’t want your ancestry to be the sign of your polymorphic parentage? Alternatively, what if you did pick a weird ancestry and you want to double down? Classes offer a fair share of options as well. Barbarians can choose the animal instinct to represent the complicated heritage they tap into. Oracles of the life mystery could have their mother to thank and also blame for their overabundance of vital energy. And of course, what better way to represent an unusual heritage than the sorcerer?

In fact, it’s such a good fit, we may as well have a proper bloodline just for the occasion.

New Bloodline: Drakainia
The blood of your fecund mother courses through your veins, and with far more potency than in your mutated siblings. You may seek to found your own dark fertility cult, rapidly creating spawn regardless of your ancestry or gender, or you may seek to cleanse the world of your more corrupted kin, up to and including your wicked matron.

Spell List occult
Bloodline Skills Medicine, Occultism
Granted Spells cantrip: stabilize, 1st: summon animal, 2nd: vomit swarm, 3rd: summon plant or fungus, 4th: rigid form, 5th: summon giant, 6th: field of life, 7th: regenerate, 8th: moment of renewal, 9th: overwhelming presence
Bloodline Spells initial: absorb summon, advanced: life pulse, greater: polymorphic parasite
Blood Magic volatile essence empowers all forms of life, massive and microscopic. Choose to have either you or a target of the spell gain temporary Hit Points equal to the spell’s level for 1 round, or to have a target of the spell take a -1 penalty to saves against diseases and poisons for 1 round.

Absorb Summon           Focus 1
[Uncommon] [Concentrate] [Manipulate] [Sorcerer] [Summon]
Bloodline drakainia
Cast (2 actions)
Range touch; Target one creature you conjured that has the summoned trait
Duration 10 minutes
Through magical dissipation or visceral consumption, you absorb one of your summoned creatures into yourself. The creature is reduced to a churning, protoplasmic goo that leaves a visible distortion somewhere on your body, most commonly around the abdomen. Time spent in this state does not count against the summon spell’s duration and it does require you take an action or actively concentrate to sustain it. As the summoned creature is part of your body, you may target it with spells that have a range of touch.
At any point during the spell’s duration, you may recast the summon spell that originally conjured the creature in order to draw out its essence. This reconstitutes the summon’s original form in an adjacent space. Doing so immediately ends this spell. If this spell’s duration runs out while the creature’s essence is still inside of you, the summon his harmlessly dispelled.
Heightened (4th) Increase the duration to 1 hour.

Life Pulse           Focus 3
[Uncommon] [Healing] [Manipulate] [Sorcerer] [Vitality]
Bloodline drakainia
Cast (2 actions)
Range 30 foot emanation
Saving Throw Fortitude
You release a pulse of vital energy, healing the living and damaging the undead. If the target is a living creature, you restore 3d4 Hit Points. If the target is undead, you deal that amount of vitality damage to it, and it gets a basic Fortitude save.
This vital energy also accelerates diseases as well as the body’s ability to process poisons. If a creature in the emanation is currently suffering from any diseases or poisons, each such affliction progress towards their next stage, allowing Fortitude saves as normal.
If any creature in the area is carrying spawn or some kind of parasite, its development progresses to the next phase, or by one season’s worth of time in the case of spawn that does not develop in phases.
Heightened (+1) Increase the healing by 1d4 Hit Points.

Polymorphic Parasite           Focus 5
[Uncommon] [Concentrate] [Manipulate] [Polymorph] [Sorcerer] [Summon]
Bloodline drakainia
Cast (2 actions)
Range 30 feet; Target one living corporeal creature
Saving Throw Fortitude
Duration sustained up to one minute
You disgorge a parasite that contains near infinite genetic potential and hurl it towards a foe. If the target fails a Fortitude save, the parasite burrows deep into their flesh and begins to gestate. While carrying the parasite, the target is sickened 1, or sicked 2 if they critically failed their save. They cannot reduce the value of this sicked below 1 by wretching.
At any point during the spell, you may decide to evolve the parasite by casting a summoning spell. Doing so counts as sustaining this spell, and instead of conjuring a new creature, it transforms the parasite into a copy of that summoned creature. This rapid transformation causes the parasite to burst free of their host and into the nearest open space, dealing 5d8 damage and 5 persistent bleed damage to their host on the way out.
Heightened (+1) Increase the damage by 1d8 Hit Points and the persistent bleed by 1.

Now then, with that vivid mental imagery lovingly transplanted into your brain, I think I’ll call it here. This should be more than enough to spawn (ha ha!) ideas for new characters, NPCs, and campaigns that want to delve into a volatile mix of intimacy and body horror. And please, dear God, remember to sort all of this out during session zero.

Come back next time and I’ll talk about something way less nightmare inducing. Probably.

Look, I know ‘getting weird with it’ is pretty much the default state of this blog, but we’re getting weird with getting weird. I’m not holding back for politeness’ sake. We’re going on a field trip to the shoggoth puppy mill and you’re gonna hear about every single step of the process. This isn’t a content warning; this is a content guarantee.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that breeds mechanics in the den of flavor. Today we’re going to examine my favorite monster in all of Pathfinder. If you’re not the sort to look at Xenomorph reproductive cycles with fond regards then this is your last chance to click away and get back to funny goblins and friendly memes.

Here’s one last wholesome vibe for the road.

The Drakainia

I’ve mentioned before in previous articles that I like it when a monster’s abilities can inform its lore and vice versa. One key ability can shift a monster’s position within a story’s narrative and even the very tone of that story. With that in mind, I’d like you to take a look at the Drakainia from the first edition of Pathfinder. Give it a read and get back to me. Take your time, take it all in. I’ll wait.

What we have is a massive, bloated broodmother who has the capability to produce any creature within the bestiary within the fleshy forge of her own body. The imagery of such ‘summoning’ abilities certainly sets the tone for some surface level body horror in the middle of a fight. And such an unsettling notion only grows more sinister when you realize your own character can be used as an external incubator for some explosive results.

The Implications

But let’s look beyond the surface-level squick on display. Let’s consider the entity herself. The bestiary entry is frustratingly short on any backstory or motivation for this monster. In fact, I’m not entirely sure if the Drakainia is a singular being or an entire species. For a creature with a CR in the mid 20’s, this leaves a vast amount of room for speculation.

If we derive story from the mechanics, we see that the Drakainia contains a great genetic potential. She (or they?) can produce nearly any form of life in this world or any other. Such an ability is frustrating enough for any GM who wants to run her as a boss encounter, but the open-ended nature also suggests she has access to all forms of life, natural or otherwise. How did she come by this raw essence? Is the Drakainia some ancient, primordial being that was there at the dawn of all life? Is it part of an entire species that assimilates genetic material to remake worlds as they desire? Are any of my long-term readers getting a sense of déjà vu when they think about it?

And let’s not ignore that challenge rating of 25 with the 10 levels of Mythic, either. The highest level that a playable mortal being can reach is level 20. Mythic is the main mechanic to ascend beyond those limitations, and 10 is the highest you can go. And this is the rarest of the rare, the cream of the crop. This is the level where PCs are capable dealing directly with deities and going toe to toe with demon lords, where ascension into godhood might be on the table. And here we have Octomom’s Revenge just casually relaxing on that peak with a few extra levels under her belt.

This baffles me. It utterly befuddles me. This is the kind of creature that you write an epic level adventure path about. The Drakainia has all the power to be a major player in the games of the divine, and being the master if some great monster kingdom is hardly outside of her grasp. She could spawn an entourage of epic monsters over a three-day weekend. Her aura of gestation means that she could create a whole army through multiple generations the following week. And as I assume a creature of boundless life energy probably lives for a really long time, she can probably create endgame- level spawn with a minor investment and some patience, depending on how mythic levels factor into her breeding capabilities.

Sometimes I wonder if Lamashtu is only still a goddess because the Drakainia couldn’t be bothered to rise up and take it from her. She’s almost better in every way, from her more worldly presence to her aberrant nature adding to that viscerally alien feel of an omni capable well of life. I’m telling you. Her whims can move nations.

The Implementations

So how does one make use of such a world-defining creature, with its limitless narrative potential? Normally, this is about the point where I would show off some deftly-crafted conversion that brings this monster into the mechanics of 2nd edition. But honestly? I don’t think I could do her justice. I don’t think 2nd edition could do her justice. This is the kind of monster you use as an aspect of the world, as a key pillar of the setting, not as some stat block to hit with a sword. There is far too much potential to just throw it away for the sake of a canned villain monologue and a half-dozen combat rounds.

No, I have something much better in mind.

Your daydream is rudely interrupted by a call from Mother. A deep, bellowing call echoing from the cave-home where She had made your family’s den. And Mother’s call is not one to be ignored. You still remember the hot summer day that you and your immediate family were just too tired to respond with anything resembling urgency. That was when Mother decided to come to you, and unfortunately for your grandfather, She arrived through the red ribbons of his exploding torso.

He may have been your elder by just a couple of weeks, but he was technically your grandfather. You still miss him.

You gesture with your elven hand, articulating the urgency with one of your arachnid limbs, directing your kin towards the den. Your orcish brother is the first to respond, his left head snapping awake even as his right head does all it can to remain asleep. Your sister, a diminutive creature of an insectoid heritage even she does’t understand, murmurs a complaint before flying off in that direction.

It isn’t the meetings with Mother that bother you. It’s that squirming pile of cultists that she always keeps around her. And more precisely, their smell. How did She put it? ‘I got bored making my own chaff, so I have them do it for me.’

And that’s it for now. If you’re still here, thanks for reading. I hope you can see just how much you can do with this insanely powerful creature. Come back next time and I’ll have player character options for those who want to play as the spawn of a Drakainia and gain benefits from the resulting mutations.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that remains steadfast with mechanics upon the precipice of death, and clings to the light of life with every last drop of flavor it has. This time, I’d like to revisit a concept discussed in one of my oldest entries of EE on the site. Specifically, how bypassing the mechanics of death allow for interesting storytelling. But this time, I’m not talking about a worldwide shift in the cycle of life, or even a free pass for the PCs. I’m talking about something more personal. Something artificial.

I’m talking about what it means to be chained between life and death.

His dreams always began peacefully. Open fields with the grass between his toes and the sun beaming upon his face. The face of a loved one and the feeling of a hand held within his, with warm skin pressing upon his calloused palm. But they would end the same way. Feeling cold, then feeling nothing. Chains wrapping around his body, dragging him back into his coffin. He would open his mouth to scream, but there would only be a silence. A silence so loud that it echoed through his head and bellowed forth from the ruined remains his gaping maw.

Each Awakening was the same. The peace of sleep was seized by the memory of his last battle as a living, breathing man. His frame shook with the sudden alertness as he was thrust back into the waking world. He could see through the tint of red glass that he was surrounded by robed figures, changing prayers in perfect unison. He could not smell the burning incense in the room, though its residual magic registered to him nevertheless.

The chanting dulled to a low hum, barely subvocalized, though the power within their prayers resonated throughout his body as clearly as the sound through any other man’s ears. One robed figure, bearing a sword and a holy symbol approached him. With a simple metal clang, the symbol was affixed to his chassis, and his limbs surged with an energy that banished the icy chill that had clung to them like lodestones.

The robed figure spoke. “Brother Fury, we once again need your voice.” The robed figure, a woman of orcish descent, looked to him with a mournful determination in her eyes. Even beneath those robes he could see the powerful body with rippling muscles beneath. Before, she was two heads above him. But she seemed so small, now.

“Then you shall have it.” The sound bellowed forth as if a cave itself had learned to speak, with the sting of steel against steel meeting the same way lips and teeth come together. “I raise my voice to the Goddess, and we shall bring swift retribution to our enemies. Glory to Her! Glory and victory!”

And so, the hymn began, with a booming voice and the percussion of heavy steel boots upon the ground.

Resurrection is a complicated ordeal in most games, with elaborate rituals and expensive reagents. I’ve discussed alternatives to this dynamic that makes bringing back the dead far more accessible to your low-level PCs, both with and without consequences. But one thing I didn’t go into was how these easy ways to bring people back can be pale imitations of life.

Having a fallen PC come back as some form of undead certainly is fun, and a concept that’s explored in detail by both the game’s mechanics and my own work. But what I’m suggesting is a bit less necromancy and a little more mechromancy.

Mechromancy

When a warrior falls in battle, it might be possible to save them without the aid of high level magic or the ‘fool’s gold of immortality’ that is undeath. There is a certain kind of practice in which the body of the recently deceased is placed within a constructed vessel. Should there be no substantive remains, there are also practices that can simply place the spirit within the created form.

Examples of this practice are often used in some of my favorite science fiction settings. The iconic dragoons from Starcraft were mechanized bodies piloted by protoss warriors that were critically injured in battle. Warhammer 40,00 is another setting I adore and it’s absolutely lousy with coffin mecha: Examples range from the iconic space marine dreadnought to the stompy ork deff dread, and one could argue that the entirety of the necron race qualify. The little story above is largely inspired by the dreadnought and its awesome voice lines from the Dawn of War series.

But what could you do to play as someone given a second chance to live in a body of steel? The flavor of mechanical internment can apply to a surprising amount of things already in the game, actually. In Starfinder, something as simple as a character with the android race can be reflavored as a cybernetic revival. Perhaps your body was left in such a terrible state that it they had to place your soul in a fully mechanical frame? In that case, you could go with an SRO instead. Classes work as well, with something like evolutionist or nanocyte helping to represent your unique form. With the plethora of power armor and mechs, there might be options that are affordable for a PC with a few levels under their belt. If you’re looking for something a bit more grandiose, I’ve even written rules to accommodate a character who’s essence has been transferred to a starship if you want to go big.

But we’re not limited to science fiction. Pathfinder may be fantasy, but that fantasy has lots of possibility. Our old friends the androids make an appearance, and an ancestry like automaton is pretty much a perfect fit. There’s also a lot of potential if you don’t mind an organic vessel, with conrasu feeling very much like a spirit riding around in an upgradable vehicle for a body. In terms of classes, you could use summoner to skip the need for a rare ancestry entirely by taking the Meld Into Eidolon feat with a construct eidolon. You might want to work with your GM to limit your character’s natural body, and you’ll definitely want to homebrew a buff for the feat to allow spellcasting and perhaps some form of tandem actions. But if you’d rather skip the middle man and just play as the construct, I’ve written rules for that as well.

The whole Combat Wheelchair debate seems pretty mundane in comparison.

With these rules you should have more than enough to explore what it means to live your best life from the inside of your mobility sarcophagus. And hey, it might just let you have some badass moments of your own.

Come back next time and I’ll show you how your PC can start a family, even in today’s economy.

It was a simple job, at least by the standards of our work. A cult of hedonist necromancers had taken root in the crypts of some noble family’s estate, turned the family into undead servants, and set up shop to do Gods-know-what the citizens of the nearby town.

What makes it easy? Well, our team of ‘independent investigators’ weren’t the first ones to check it out. The mayor was a good friend to that family, and sent a generous squad of the town guard to deal with the problem. And not just green-swords. They had veterans. Even had a cleric with them. I forget which god. One of the shiny ones. Not one that’s a fan of the undead, that much was certain.

The squad armed up, set out, and never came back. Next day, the mayor got a hold of my people and paid what I can only assume to be a fat sack of gold to get same-day adventuring. That’s where we come in. A swordsman, an apprentice thief, an alchemist, and me. I’m not the best in a fight, but I’ve got a nose for haunts and it’s saved us more than once.

The scene outside was an absolute mess. The alchemist looked at the field of entangled bodies with the grimace of a mildly offended art critic and said that the sides were evenly matched. Both sides fought like the next sunrise hinged on this victory. They all complained about the smell. Strangely enough, the air smelled faintly like fresh sweat and lavender.

We got deeper, and the fighting looked desperate. Improvised weapons. Long trails of blood from the ones who tried to fight through mortal wounds. Not a moving one among them, living or unliving, which was a mixed blessing. The smell became more potent, and I could have sworn I saw lilacs blooming between the cracks in the stone. No one else did.

That was the strange part. When I feel a haunt, it’s like the flat of a cold knife dragging across my back. Or bony hands closing around the back of my throat. Like a threat, or a warning. This was more like an invitation.

We got to the central chamber. I could feel my bare feet stepping on soft silk, even though my reenforced leather boots. There was the captain of the guard, or what was left of him, and a trio of demolished zombies that looked like they were all stitched together at one point. But at the profane alter, there were two priestesses. One with a skeletal left arm that was covered in dim runes, and one with an ornate bone scythe clutched in a death grip. Both were face down.

The alchemist said something about the two killing eachother, but I was far too distracted by what I saw. It was vaguely feminine, with a body wrapped tight in something between a straight jacket and a noblewoman’s dress. Except it was layered, like the petals to a flower bud, covering her entire body. Except for one part of the face, where one petal peeled back to show a single eye. Her left eye, but it was in the center of her head, and it was as big both my fists put together. And she had these long, blackened arms, like dark roots. They ended with ling fingers with bulbous tips, like they were made to feel every detail about everything they touched.

And it spoke to me. Well, it sang at me. No words, but just raw intent. Gratitude. I was the first person to hear its song. Something about how my brain was off kilter from most. She told me that dying was a new sensation, but she was done with it, and she wanted to feel something else now.

I remember picking up the scythe. When I did, she sang nostalgia and a bit of regret at me. I held the weapon tight, and she sang excitement. I knew, at that moment, that a pact had been made.

– Field report from Elward Valkin, Pathfinder and apprentice spiritualist

Unshackled from the conscious mind, desire begins to take surreal shapes.

Lust Phantom Eidolon
[Eidolon] [Ethereal] [Phantom]
Your eidolon is a lost soul, entwined with the mortal world by unfulfilled desires. Most phantom eidolons are humanoids with a spectral or ectoplasmic appearance, though some take far stranger forms. Your link with your eidolon prevents it from succumbing to corruption and undeath. Together, you enjoy the pleasures of life as a surrogate while your eidolon weaves the desires of others to protect you.
Tradition Occult
Home Plane Ethereal Plane

Size Medium or Small
Suggested Attacks fist (bludgeoning), tendril (bludgeoning), unarmed attacks shaped like a weapon
Indulgent Celebrant Str 12, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 16; +1 AC (+4 Dex cap)
Inured Hedonist Str 16, Dex 14, Con 18, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 12; +2 AC (+3 Dex cap)
Skills Diplomacy, Occultism
Senses darkvision
Languages one common language the eidolon spoke in mortal life
Speed 25 feet

Eidolon Abilities Initial alluring presence; Symbiosis mine alone; Transcendence ecstasy aura

Alluring Presence
Your eidolon can tap into the desires of foes in the heat of battle, redirecting in their violent impulses. It gains the Alluring Target reaction.

Alluring Presence [reaction]
[Eidolon] [Emotion] [Enchantment] [Mental] [Occult]
Trigger An enemy attempts to Strike ally or targets an ally with a spell that has the Attack trait, and both are within 15 feet of your eidolon.
The target’s desires are drawn towards the eidolon. The target takes a –1 status penalty to attack rolls, damage rolls, and skill checks against creatures other than your eidolon. This lasts for one round or until the target takes a hostile action towards the eidolon, whichever comes first.
The target may immediately redirect their triggering action towards the eidolon. If they are not within range, they may also move up to 10 feet towards the eidolon as part of that same action. This counts as forced movement and does not trigger reactions that are triggered by movement.

Mine Alone
Your eidolon knows what it wants and refuses to let go of what it has. Once per day, it may use the Request action against an ally to counteract the controlled condition for up to one minute. It may use this action against their own summoner, even if their controlled summoner would now allow it.

Ecstasy Aura
Your eidolon gains an aura that unshackles the inhibitions of those around it, bombarding their senses with overwhelming stimuli. It gains a 20-foot ecstasy aura, which has the aura, emotion, enchantment, mental, and occult traits. Any enemy that enters the aura must succeed at a Will save against your Spell DC. On a failure, they become dazzled and are affected by the eidolon’s Alluring Presence as long as they remain in the aura. On a critical failure, they become fascinated by the eidolon. The overwhelming sensations do not prevent pain, but change how creatures may react to it; This fascination is not ended by hostile actions, but does allow the victim to roll a new Will save. Any creature that rolls a success becomes immune to your eidolon’s Ecstasy Aura for 1 minute.

Another article, another excuse to make more summoner content! Plus, it’s been a little too long since I’ve dropped some good old-fashioned monster material. Feel free to make use of this to explore your own version of chasing desires. It doesn’t have to be the sort of thing that requires content warnings and signal flags, either. Consider all the forms of indulgence that can drive your phantom: exquisite sweets, exotic music, and even the excess of violent combat can all be suitable fixations.

Come back next time and I’ll see if I can’t wrangle up some vampire content this time.

Anyway, there’s a lot to show off so I’ll get to it. And if you want a simple google doc of the class as I update it, I’ll have it linked here.

EXSANGUINATOR

You are a vampire, an undead creature that stalks the night and feeds on the blood of the living. While most of your kin can trace their lineage back to ancient history, your undeath is the result of cotemporary experimentation. Made with a combination of surgeries, rituals, and alchemical infusions, you draw upon the power of your own blood to sap the life essence of others.

Key Attribute
Constitution
At 1st level, your class gives you an attribute boost to Constitution.

Hit Points
8 plus your Constitution modifier
You increase your maximum number of HP by this number at 1st level and every level thereafter.

During combat encounters…
Singling out wounded foes, you draw upon their injuries to turn simple bites and scratches into gushing wounds. Misery stacks upon misery as your afflictions weaken your opponents and let you go in for the kill.

During social encounters…
Your nightly need to hunt for prey has given you an instinct for navigating the lands of mortals, helping to get your foot in the door in civilized areas. You likely have a preferred method for interacting with the living, even if it’s through an agent.

While exploring…
You know how to find a spot that’s safe from the sun and you know where to get your next meal. This gives you an edge in finding quiet, out-of-the-way places when discretion is key.

In downtime…
Downtime is often dedicated to managing your eternal thirst, but your connections often lead to you gaining allies and sources of information that go beyond simple walking blood bags.

You might
* Seek to “adopt” a group of mortals, offering protection while using them as a food source.
* Combat other monsters to eliminate potential rivals while gathering riches and power.
* Use your conditional immortality to pursue and preserve knowledge thought to be lost to time.

Others probably
* Worry that you might hunt them as your next meal.
* Seek to involve you in the plans of long-lived and undying schemers.
* Keep protective charms and esoteric items on them from old wives’ tales, regardless of their actual effectiveness against you.

INITIAL PROFICIENCIES
At 1st level, you gain the listed proficiency ranks in the following statistics. You are untrained in anything not listed unless you gain a better proficiency rank in some other way.

PERCEPTION
Trained in Perception

SAVING THROWS
Expert in Fortitude
Expert in Reflex
Trained in Will

SKILLS
Trained in Society
Trained in a number of additional skills equal to 4 plus your Intelligence modifier

ATTACKS
Expert/Trained in simple weapons
Expert/Trained in unarmed attacks

DEFENSES
Expert/Trained in light armor
Expert/Trained in medium armor
Expert/Trained in unarmed defense

CLASS DC
Trained in exsanguinator class DC

CLASS FEATURES
You gain these abilities as a vampire. Abilities gained at higher levels list the levels next to their names.

Ancestry and Background
In addition to what you get from your class at 1st level, you have the benefits of your selected ancestry and background. These are described in Chapter 2 of the Player Core.

Attribute Boosts
In addition to what you get from your class at 1st level, you have four free boosts to different attribute modifiers.
At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, you get four free boosts to different attribute modifiers. If an attribute modifier is already +4 or higher, it takes two boosts to increase it; you get a partial boost, and must boost that attribute again at a later level to increase it by 1.

Initial Proficiencies
At 1st level you gain a number of proficiencies that represent your basic training. These are noted at the start of the class.

Vampirism
You are an undead vampire, created through a mixture of bloody alchemy and divine ritual. You gain the benefits of the Vampire Dedication feat, though you do not count as having that feat for the purpose of prerequisites.
You hold far more potential than any simple spawn, and have quickly adapted to the needs of your undead nature. You gain the Dark Shepard skill feat.

Hemorrhage
Your mastery of blood allows you to draw it out of a wounded enemy, aggravating wounds and syphoning their life’s essence. You gain the Scourge ability.

Scourge (two actions)
[Concentrate] [Divine] [Exsanguinator] [Manipulate]
You coax the blood out of a fresh wound. Choose one creature within 30 feet that has taken bleed, piercing, or slashing damage since your last turn. That creature must make a Fortitude save against your Class DC.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature takes 1d4 bleed damage.
Failure The creature takes 1d4 persistent bleed damage.
Critical Failure The creature takes 1d4 persistent bleed damage. They automatically fail their first flat check to recover from this damage unless they gain the benefits of an Assisted Recovery.

As your exsanguinator level increases, so does the number of damage dice for Scourge. Increase the number of dice by one at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels.

Vampiric Strain
The blood using to create exsanguinators is thought to come from near-extinct bloodlines or common blood that has been significantly altered. Choose one vampiric strain. This strain modifies your available attacks and determines what additional type of damage you can deal with the Scourge ability.

(As this class is still in early development, the current options are Mutation and Suneater.)

Mutation
Introducing a specific mix of impurities causes mutations that normal vampires couldn’t handle, creating mutants that drink blood through tube-like tongues that are tipped with fangs. You gain a ranged unarmed attack with a range increment of 30 feet. On a hit, it deals acid splash damage equal to the number of dice of your Scourge damage. You may use Scourge on a creature that has taken acid damage from this attack; if you do, the target takes persistent acid damage instead of bleed damage.
At 5th level, your blood becomes acidic in nature. Any creature that attempts to drink your blood is immediately subject to the acid damage version of your Scourge ability. In addition, you gain resistance to precision damage and critical strikes equal to your level; if this resistance is greater than the critical strike’s extra damage, it reduces the extra damage to 0 but doesn’t reduce the attack’s normal damage.

Suneater
Derived from vampires who worship the sun as some great and terrible power, your blood boils with the power of fiery destruction and your fangs glow red-hot. Your bite deals 1 additional point of fire damage. You may use Scourge on a creature that has taken fire damage since your last turn; if you do, the target takes fire damage instead of bleed damage.
At 5th level, your blood pact with the sun grants you the power of mutual destruction. When exposed to sunlight, you do not suffer the normal effects, and instead burst into flame. You take persistent fire from your Scourge ability as long as you remain exposed, and this damage cannot be reduced or prevented. While exposed to sunlight, you gain a +1 circumstance to the DC of any exsanguinator ability that deals fire damage.

General Feats           Level 3
At 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter, you gain a general feat.

Share the Pain           Level 3
As the lifeforce leaves your wounded opponent, you will the affliction to pass on. When a foe that is currently taking prestige damage from your Scourge ability is reduced to 0 Hit Points, you may use Scourge as a reaction on any creature that is within 30 feet of yourself and the triggering creature.

Will Expertise           Level 3
Your mental defenses grow stronger. Your proficiency rank for Will saves increases to expert.

Ancestry Feats           Level 5
In addition to the ancestry feat you started with, you gain an ancestry feat at 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter.

Established Vampire           Level 5
As a seasoned predator, your blood has thickened and your roots have run deep. You gain the advanced undead benefits. You also gain Hideout Dedication as a bonus feat, even if you have another dedication.

EXSANGUINATOR FEATS
At each level that you gain an exsanguinator feat, you can select one of the following feats. You must satisfy any prerequisites before taking the feat.

Just a Taste           Feat 1
[Exsanguinator]
Not one to waste a free drink, you draw the life essence of a bleeding foe into your thirsty maw. You gain the Just a Taste ability.

Just a Taste (free action)
[Manipulate]
Prerequisite: You are adjacent to a creature that is taking bleed damage from your Scourge ability.
You become invigorated from a quick drink on the battlefield. You gain temporary Hit Points equal to the bleed damage taken by the adjacent creature.

Flare Up           Feat 2
[Exsanguinator]
Your power resonates in the creatures you afflict, and you know how to amplify that resonance. You gain the Flare Up ability.

Flare Up (two actions)
[Concentrate] [Divine] [Manipulate]
You further aggravate the wounds of your foes to redouble their suffering. Each creature in a 30 foot emanation that is currently taking persistent damage from your Scourge ability must make a basic Fortitude save against that same damage. If a target is taking multiple types of persistent damage (such as acid and bleed) then the damage from each source is added together.

Blood Swarm           Feat 4
[Exsanguinator]
After feeding your blood to various blood sucking pests, they’ve come to serve as an extension of your dark power. You gain a familiar. Your familiar is medium sized and gains the swarm trait, giving it a weakness equal to your level against effects that deal damage over an area. It does not gain a damage action, but it also gains the ability to use Scourge to deal bleed damage any foe that shares a space with it. This even works against foes that have not taken piercing or slashing damage, as the swarm tears at its victim’s flesh to draw blood.
Swarm and Scourge count as two familiar abilities and must be selected each night. If your familiar dies, you can gather a new one from surrounding insects during your daily preparations.

And that’s about it for now. Just enough to throw together your own character and give it an early test. And by all means, feel free to drop comments with your opinions, I’d love to see what you like or what can be improved. Come back next time when I give this class some proper introductory lore and give you some vampire NPCs to use in your game.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that is written in the wee hours of the AM for that Authentic Vampire Flavor ™ and not at all because my bad habits have merged into a self-sustaining ecosystem. In this exploration of flavor and mechanics, we’re going to be getting more of the later to help you get a feel for the former. You can consider this a continuation of the work I’ve provided in the past with PC-focused vampire content. I’d even all this series a Chronicle if I wasn’t worried about getting sued.

Degrees of Sunlight

The cleansing rays of daylight are the most well known and effective weapon against the blood-hungry undead. However, the rules for their demise are simplified to the point of adding additional complexity to the table. After all, should a vampire stripped bare on a field at high noon suffer the same exact effects as a careless spawn who caught a finger-thick sunbeam from a hole in the wall? Using the Levels of Sunlight below will allow PC vampires a little more freedom in daylight operations while adding an element of unpredictability to scheming vampiric antagonists.

Full Exposure is exactly what it sounds like. A vampire is fully bathed in sunlight, or a large portion of their body is exposed with no clothing whatsoever to protect them from the harmful rays. Vampires enduring full exposure are slowed and eventually destroyed as normal.
Partial Exposure comes from a small portion of a vampire’s body being illuminated by direct sunlight or while suffering outside during heavy overcast. The vampire is immediately slowed 1 as per normal, but continual rounds of partial exposure only increase their slowed value by 1 every 3 rounds. They are still destroyed when they lose all of their actions this way.
Minor Exposure comes from suffering secondary exposure to sunlight. Having protection from direct sunlight while still suffering reflections off various surfaces, such as being outside on a sunny day under a parasol, for example. It can also include feeling the rays of sunlight through a thick window or filter. While still physically painful, the vampire does not become slowed 1 until one full minute of exposure. The slowed value increases by 1 after another minute of exposure, but does not increase further.
No Exposure means the vampire is completely safe. This means they are completely hidden from the rays of the sun, active during a time when the sun is down, or protected by magical means such as being fully engulfed in the darkness spell.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have options for low level bloodsuckers to handle daytime affairs. The following is a collection of items that are meant to help sunlight sensitive PCs survive on those hot summer days.

Joining a secret moon cult isn’t mandatory but it certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Protective Gear

Parasol, Shading
Price 5 sp
Bulk L
Hands 1
This hand-held source of portable shade allows you to mitigate the effects of the sun. While holding this parasol, you can treat environmental heat effects as if they were one step less severe (incredible heat becomes extreme, extreme heat becomes severe, and so on). This does not apply if direct sunlight is not a factor in the heat effect. Creatures that are especially vulnerable to sunlight also benefit, treating their sunlight exposure as one step less severe. You may also use the Raise a Shield action with the parasol, gaining no benefit to AC but treating your sunlight exposure as an additional degree less severe (treating full exposure as minor exposure, and so on). You may also use the Defend exploration activity to keep this benefit during exploration.
It has hardness 1 and 4 HP.

Clothing (sunproof)
Price 30 g
Bulk L
This layered clothing is made to protect the wearer from the harmful rays of the sun. Designs vary by region and maker, but it usually includes a mask, goggles with alchemically treated glass, and a wide-brimmed hat. It reduces the effect of sunlight exposure by two degrees. This effect stacks with the shading parasol.

Eclipsing           6+
[Darkness] [Magical]
Usage Etched onto medium or heavy armor; Bulk –
An Eclipsing rune can be activated to deflect light from the wearer, making them appear to be a shadowy black figure underneath. This effect is identical do the darkness spell except the area only covers the wearer’s body.

Eclipsing           Item 6
Cost 200
This rune can be activated one per day and lasts for one minute.

Eclipsing (Moderate)           Item 11
Cost 1,200
This rune can be activated one per day and lasts for one hour.

Eclipsing (Greater)           Item 18
Cost 20,000
This rune can be activated at will and lasts until deactivated.

Once you think about it, a sun goddess is basically a Lovecraftian elder god to vampires.

With the extra gear and the extra rules, you may have a newfound desire to play a vampire character. This is well and good, but you still have some questions to ask. Questions like “What would my character do while adventuring?”

You might…
* Seek to “adopt” a group of mortals, offering protection while using them as a food source.
* Combat other monsters to eliminate potential rivals while gathering riches and power.
* Use your conditional immortality to pursue and preserve knowledge thought to be lost to time.

And you might also ask yourself questions like “What would others think of me?”

Others probably…
* Worry that you might hunt them as your next meal.
* Seek to involve you in the sorts of long-term plans enjoyed by undying schemers.
* Keep protective charms and esoteric items on them from old wives’ tales, regardless of their actual effectiveness against you.

And those of you familiar with the format of these answers might see where I’m going with this. After all, the vampire archetype is all fine and dandy, but it leaves a lot to explore with more dedicated class mechanics. Well, I have some good news for you! A spark of inspiration has hit me and I’ve begun planning out a whole new Pathfinder 2e player character class based specifically being a vampire! No more begging your GM to start the game at level 2, or having to shoehorn in a vampire NPC specifically to turn you the moment you level up for the first time.

But how will the class play? I could have gone with something a bit more traditional with a vampire that hunts prey and calls their wolves and bats and all that, but then I realized I was basically writing a ranger with the vampire as an archetype given for free at 1st level. And you can already do that! So instead, this is going to be a sort-of martial with an emphasis on damage-over-time abilities. Here’s an early draft of one of its core abilities.

Scourge (two actions)
[Concentrate] [Divine] [Manipulate] [Vampire]
You coax the blood out of a fresh wound. Choose one creature that has taken piercing or slashing damage since your last turn. That creature must make a Fortitude save against your Class DC.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature takes 1d4 bleed damage.
Failure The creature takes 1d4 persistent bleed damage.
Critical Failure The creature takes 1d4 persistent bleed damage. They automatically fail their first flat check to recover from this damage unless they gain the benefits of an Assisted Recovery.

Come back next time and I’ll have a juicy little preview to show you how the class works. Heck, I might even have an Iconic ready if I can get those creative juices pumping through my Musebladder.

And in that one moment, you are the only thing in the world that matters to them.

– Daranil Aldaris, necromancer and heretic of the cult of Urgathoa.

Hello and welcome to Edritch Excursion, the blog that squares up with mechanics and battles for that sweet, juicy flavor. In this examination of fluff and crunch, we’re going to take a look at combat. But unlike last time, where I looked through the lens of character expression, we’ll be looking at the mindset of a combatant.

Combat is an interesting thing in tabletop RPGs. In most books, it takes up the majority of the rules. As a player, you’re encouraged to consider the tactical application of your class abilities, equipment choices, and the future coffin stuffers that made the dire mistake of pointing a weapon at you. It’s safe to say that your character is also in a combative mindset. In fact, rules of the cosmos actually reorient themselves as the fighting starts.

A Mind For War and a War of Minds

Consider the initiative rounds of a game. Combat is supposed to move in a dynamic, fluid fashion, but the motions are still locked in turns. Despite your mind’s eye telling you that two teams of combatants are charging heroically at one another at the same time, in truth the barbarian crit his initiative roll so he’s going to run past the front line and flatten the enemy’s spellcaster before their front line can react. The monsters will stand, glass-eyed and frozen, as the sorcerer takes his allotted six seconds to conjure a massive earth elemental from thin air. Before they even got to act, the enemy now finds themselves between a rock and an angry place.

But most gamified of all are the abilities that specifically work in combat, and only in combat. Abilities that come to mind include the swashbuckler’s panache and the evolutionist’s mutation points. These and similar abilities allow a character to achieve extraordinary feats in combat, including forms of mobility that are otherwise unavailable and borderline magical effects. In fact, the solarian’s whole kit seem to function less effectively (or not at all!) when you’re not in a struggle to the death.

This scene would be less exciting if they were merely debating worldwound expansionism over a cup of tea.

If you’re anything like me, you might indulge in a philosophy that I like to call mechanical literalism. The idea is if the rules that dictate reality are consistent and observable, then people must be aware of them. Disbelief can only be suspended for so long. And awareness of such abilities demands an explanation. Thankfully, the majority of them are open to a flavorful interpretation.

– The one thing Riavaan loved more than being a pirate was getting drunk and telling the stories about the fights she got into on the high seas. Of course, she was an expert fencer that could swing steel at a moment’s notice. But there was something inside of her, a potential for greatness that would only come out when she knew in hear heart of hearts when a fight was a real fight. A story in the making. If she wasn’t feeling it, she just couldn’t muster the strength.
– Ever since the accident at the lab, Doctor Kemadin’s body seemed to have a mind of its own. Or, more accurately, an instinct of its own. It would still obey him, still grow and sheath his bone-scythe claws upon command. It would also adapt to battle, growing chitinous plates of armor or extending his legs to aid in pursuing his prey. But no matter what happened, his always seemed to know when he was in real danger, and never fully awakened outside of fight-or-flight situations.

So for one reason or another, be it class fantasy or game balance, some classes can only access the entirety of their kit in combat. But what if you want to use those ‘limit break’ style abilities to solve puzzles in dungeons or just impress NPCs?

There’s No Kill Like Team Kill

Players (and through them, their characters) are known for trying to use the game’s mechanics to their benefit. It creates some of the more interesting stories. This mechanical literalism might find PCs openly pondering if they can gain combat benefits from having a practice fight. But what constitutes such a practice fight? Does a couple rounds of exchanging unarmed strikes work? Does it require a formal declaration and a third party to act as referee? The usual answer is to stress test the GM’s patience and hope for the best, but that isn’t good enough for me.

Let’s give it a formal mechanic, starting with Pathfinder.

Invoke the Warmind
[Concentrate] [Exploration] [Uncommon]
Through ritualistic declarations of hostility, and a bit of sparring, and the consumption of mild hallucinogenic substances, you trick your mind into thinking your own allies are a potential threat. Any passive benefit that only functions in combat, such as the swashbuckler’s increased speed from panache, remains active in this state of continual alertness. Use of these abilities during your continual stress may cause you to become fatigued, as determined by the GM. Because of the artificially induced paranoia, you do not count any creature as allies. This paranoia persists during any combat that starts while you are still invoking the warmind.

Don’t worry, they’re just pre-buffing.

And let’s give you an option for Starfinder while we’re at it. Something spicy.

Originally developed as a training supplement by a coven of assassins, the powdery substance known as “the crimson truth” finds popular use among those who benefit from a state of extreme high alert.

The Crimson Truth
Level 6; Price 900
Type drug (ingested or inhaled); Save Fortitude DC 18; Addiction DC 18 (physical)
Track Constitution and Wisdom; Effect +2 morale bonus to Perception and Sense Motive checks against surprise attacks for one hour and treat all abilities as though you were in combat (such as the solarian’s stellar mode) for 2d4 rounds. During this hour, you are incapable of recognizing any creature (other than a class feature like the mechanic’s drone) as an ally.

And now you have something to add a little extra kick to your adventuring. Want to feel that rush of combat but the GM isn’t giving you your fix? Just create the sense of anxiety and danger yourself with a few war chants and a mouthful of questionable edibles.

Come back next time and I’ll explain why BBEGs make for the best level 1 quest givers.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog where we go for a healthy helping of flavor and mechanics and always come back for seconds. In the spirit of that, I’m going to double down on the wistful lookbackery and revisit the Beastinator archetype from articles past. Not only does it mark the return from the upheaval of my life that put me on hiatus, but it’s a concept with lots of unexplored mechanical potential.

But what better way to realize that potential than expanding on the base rules of the swashbuckler? After all, the class has multiple styles that cater to a flashy display of skill, but not as many options that would suit a more feral playstyle. Let’s fix that.

New Style: Improvisation
Your style of fighting is equal parts careful training and acting on instinct, allowing you to make split-second decisions before your opponents can see it coming. You are strained in Survival and gain the Environmental Trickery skill feat. You gain panache during an encounter whenever you successfully gain concealment against a foe with Environmental Trickery.
Exemplary Finisher
The foe’s Speeds are reduced by 5 feet until the end of their next turn.

“But Nate,” I can hear you saying to your monitor. “I don’t see a hyperlink and there isn’t enough time in the day to browse the Archives for every skill feat you reference. Also, you are incredibly handsome and intelligent.” And you would be right on all counts, dear reader. Which is why I’m happy to announce that I’ve also created a new skill feat for the occasion!

Environmental Trickery           Feat 1
[General] [Skill]
Prerequisites trained in Survival
You hinder your opponent by pushing a branch into their face, kicking up a dustcloud, tipping over furniture, or by some other means of using your surroundings. Make a Survival check against the Reflex DC of one target within your reach. If you succeed, you gain concealment against the target. This lasts until after the next attack the target makes against you or the beginning of your next turn, whichever comes first. On a critical success, you gain concealment against the target until your next turn. This concealment cannot be used to make Stealth checks.

And that should be enough to add just a bit of grit to any swasher of the buckling, regardless of whatever funny archetype you slap onto them. “But Nate,” you pipe up again, “the archetype is still missing too many feats, and also your characters are really cool.” Wow, you really are batting a thousand today. But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered on that front too.

This picture was taken seconds before she transformed into a tentacle-wielding slug monster.

Toppling Finisher [1 action]           Feat 6
[Archetype] [Finisher]
Prerequisites beastinator
You strike your opponent with an overhead blow that threatens to knock them flat. Make an Athletics check to Trip the target.
Critical Success The target falls, lands prone, and takes bludgeoning damage equal to your Precise Strike.
Success The target falls, lands prone, and takes bludgeoning damage equal to the number of your Precise Strike dice.
Failure You fail to trip your target, but you may instead choose to fall and take them with you. If you do, you both land prone.
Critical Failure You lose your balance, fall, and land prone.

Hurling Finisher [1 action]           Feat 8
[Archetype] [Finisher]
Prerequisites beastinator
You tap into your feral strength throw your opponent around like a hapless rag doll. Roll Athletics against the target’s Fortitude DC. The target can’t be more than one size larger than you.
Critical Success You move the target up to 10 feet. If the creature would collide with a solid object, they both take bludgeoning damage equal to twice your Precise Strike.
Success As a Critical Success, but the target moves 5 feet and a collision deals damage equal to your Precise Strike.

Soaring Hunter [1 action]           Feat 10
[Archetype]
Prerequisites beastinator, Bestial Mobility, hybrid form based on an animal with a fly speed
Your wings expand as you soar through the air to deliver a decisive blow. You may Fly up to a distance equal to your Speed and attempt one single-action finisher at any point during your flight; the finisher can’t be one that includes other movement, such as Mobile Finisher. Immediately after the finisher, you fall to the ground if you’re in the air, even if you haven’t reached the maximum distance of your Speed. Your transformation lingers just long enough for you to Arrest a Fall on the way down.

Dire Crescendo           Feat 12
[Archetype]
Prerequisites beastinator, hybrid form based on an animal that is large or larger
Your hybrid form becomes more bestial, more powerful, and more dangerous as you deliver the killing blow. You may gain the effects of enlarge while performing a finisher.

Meteor Crash           Feat 14
[Archetype]
Prerequisites beastinator, Toppling Finisher
You can deliver a powerful blow that it sends your opponent towards the ground. When you use Toppling Finisher, instead of making an Athletics check, you can attempt a single Strike. If you do and your Strike hits, instead of rolling a check for your Trip attempt, you automatically apply the critical success effect of a Toppling Finisher. When the opponent hits the ground, it creates a crater of difficult terrain in every square they occupy.
If your opponent is currently airborne, they are sent hurling towards the ground and the DC to Arrest a Fall is equal to your Class DC. If the opponent is underwater, they descend a distance equal to your attack roll, rounded down to the nearest 5-foot increment. In either instance, if the target does not make contact with the ground, they do not take damage from your Precise Strike.

Towering Presence           Feat 18
[Archetype]
Prerequisites beastinator, Dire Crescendo, hybrid form based on an animal that is huge or larger
Your body grows to a size more befitting of your bestial half. You always gain the effects of enlarge while in hybrid form. You may gain the effects of a 4th rank enlarge while performing a finisher.

Once you think about it, a beak is kind of like a rapier.

And now I can declare this archetype properly fleshed out and ready to play. Feel free to bring it to your next home game and show the world you don’t need flash cards with quotes from The Princess Bride to make this class pop. And feel free to come back next time when I explain why the only fight worth fighting is the fight that isn’t even being fought over.

Well, I’m here to tell you that the sense of scale can go make out with a cactus. I’m tired of starting every new character killing rats for copper bits in Rusty Shank Alley. This time, I’m flipping things around and stating loud and proud that my character was one of the best in his field, brilliant beyond his years, and a near living legend before it all came crashing down around him. Not some meek apprentice, but a grand archwizard of the empire.

“YoU cAn’T jUsT sTaRt ThE gAmE aS a GrAnD aRcHwIzArD” that’s how they sound.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that reaches staggering heights and endures tragic downfalls to examine the intersections of flavor and mechanics. Today I’ll be exploring a drastic deviation from your typical origin of a player character. And when you really think about it, what could possibly be more different than a rising hero?

The Fallen Villain

Few concepts in fiction interest me as much as a defeated villain that turns towards the side of good, or at least relative neutrality, after suffering a thorough defeat. You see it in videogames like Super Mario RPG when the longtime big bad Bowser joins your party to fight a mutual enemy. You see it in anime like Dragonball Z when Prince Vegeta goes from iconic villain to iconic rival for the main character Goku. My first memory of this plot twist comes from reading Dragon of the Lost Sea, where the witch Civet begins as a primary antagonist but ends up joining the protagonists in the second book.

The point is that writing a character who fell from grace can be just as fun as writing one who’s starting at near zero. Imagine the sort of power they might have wielded at one point, perhaps as an aspiring main villain in their own right. Now think of what kinds of events might have led to them losing the majority of that power. From there, work with your GM to integrate your backstory into the lore of the game. Perhaps you were a general in the army that was once defeated by a group of intrepid heroes. Maybe you were an arcane researcher that relied to heavily on a magical doomsday weapon, having that very tool siphon away the majority of your power as it was destroyed. Or maybe you were the big bad’s former right-hand man, turned to a path of revenge by any means necessary when your own loved ones were used as sacrificial tools of conquest. Regardless of the reasoning, having such a strong connection to the main story can help you put together a very compelling character concept as well as an interesting contrast to the party’s motif.

If you’re joining a campaign after it started, you could even play as a former chapter’s central villain. Assuming they’re still alive. And if not, there are ways around that as well.

New Backgrounds

Deformed Vivisectionist           Background
[Rare]
Your mastery of the medical arts led you down a dark path, free from the restraints of law and morality. Though many great monstrosities were birthed in your laboratory, none were strong enough to stop the adventurers that came to stop you. By accident or desperation, you were injected with an unstable concoction of mutagens, transforming into a massive abomination. Though that body was slain, all that was left of you managed to crawl out of its carcass. With your body mutated, your mind addled, and your worldly possessions in ruins, you must decide if your talents will be used to heal or harm.
You choose two ability boosts. One must be Constitution or Intelligence, and one is a free ability boost.
You’re trained in Medicine and Surgery Lore. You also gain the Echoing Mutation action.
Echoing Mutation [one action] (concentrate) Frequency once per polymorph or morph effect; Effect Your body remembers what it has endured. You duplicate the effects of the last morph or polymorph effect that changed your body. This lasts for one round and cannot duplicate another use of Echoing Mutation. Each use of Echoing Mutation gains the morph or polymorph trait, as appropriate for the effect that it is duplicating.

Defeated General           Background
[Rare]
The marching of soldiers was a sound as familiar to you as the beating of your own heart. You were an expression of your patron’s will, and that will was ironclad. But all of that changed when a motley crew of colorful companions outwitted your commanders, sabotaged your forces, and ultimately bested you in direct combat. This utter and total defeat broke you as a person. You questioned everything: your flawed tactics, your sloppy fighting, your very identity, and most importantly, your former loyalties. It’s up to you to pick up the pieces and decide what’s worth fighting for.
You choose two ability boosts. One must be Intelligence or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.
You’re trained in Intimidation and Warfare Lore. You also gain the Victory At Any Cost action.
Victory At Any Cost [free action] (Auditory, Mental) Frequency once per minion per day; Effect You command your underlings to push themselves beyond their limits. If your next action is to command a minion, that minion may reduce the numerical effect of one condition (such as enfeebled or stupefied) by one, but they take nonlethal damage equal to your level.

“I think I’ve had enough ‘character development’ today.”

And these are just two ideas to consider for playing as a former antagonist. Many of the more esoteric backgrounds that are already in the game can be reflavored to fit your ideal fall from power. Perhaps you made a pact with a dark entity and ultimately failed, but retained a fragment of their gift? Or maybe you like the mad scientist idea from before, but want a mechanical motif to your medical horror. The sky’s the limit. That, and whatever the other players are willing to put up with.

Come back next time and watch me rip and tear until it’s done.

Looks like we’re set for another Starfinder article. Something about mech combat. Guessing by the author, there’s a fifty-fifty chance that it’s a nostalgic traipse through late 90’s video games or homebrew rules for a playable Lovecraft-kaiju. Either way, our client wants you to read through to the end of it and report back. Should be a piece of cake.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that proudly bears the callsign of flavor while sparing the extra tonnage to stack on the mechanics. As you may have noticed from my last end-of-article teaser, I’ve recently gotten into Armored Core 6. I’m only partway through it but I’ve had a great time with the gameplay and I’m starting to get into the juicy bits of the story. It’s only a matter of time before I start crushing bosses with one of the meme designs floating around.

The resurgence of an old favorite franchise from the PSX days got me thinking about the genre of mecha, be it gaming or otherwise. I’ve mostly been a casual fan, but even I can appreciate the alure of designing your own custom death machine and taking it for a stroll. Or engaging in some head-to-head battles with other mechs. Or the amazing soundtracks. Or the engaging stories, with often cover a myriad of interactions between factions along with the ways that giant mecha going to war can have a negative effect on the people. Really a lot of these stories can lean pretty heavy into politics, if that’s your thing.

It is okay to be this guy. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

Broadly speaking, I’ve always seen two flavors of mecha. One of them has a more futuristic and high-tech style, with anime robots dashing around between impossibly dense volleys of missiles and clashing in duels with energy swords. The other kind has a more near-future feel with mechs that are more like walking tanks. I’ll call these dancing mechs and marching mechs respectively. Both of these can be quite fun, and Armored Core certainly leans into the former, but the marching style has a sense of weight behind their plodding movements that really makes me feel like my character is piloting a walking death machine. I like my wanton destruction with a certain texture to it, you know what I mean?

But where does Starfinder stand in this binary? It has its own rules for mechs that the party can ride, whether it be a squad of individual units or in a Megazord of combined machines. With expressive, fantastical designs and a wide array of bombastic weaponry, it very much fits into the category of dancing mechs. And this is fine, of course. I’d even call great. But what if I told you that Starfinder had its own mecha-ready system before this one? What if I told you that this system was well suited to cater to the fantasy of big, clunky, stompy marching mechs?

I’m talking about starship combat. That lovely, underutilized system of hex-based combat with customizable ships. And to prove it, allow me to share a quick-and-dirty conversion that’ll let you retrofit those old rules.

From Stars to Soil: Mechs in Starship Combat

This is a rules conversion that is meant to allow battles between solo pilot mechs using the starship combat rules. Consider it an archetype for an entire ruleset. The following changes should apply.

General Changes
Any instance in the rules that refer to a starship should instead refer to a mech, for obvious reasons. With a greater emphasis on individual pilots and squad based gameplay, it is recommended to allow every class to take Piloting as a class skill.

Building a Starship – Frames
Base frames should be renamed to suit their roles for land-based mechs. Generally speaking, anything smaller than the Fighter frame is too small to be a mech, and anything larger than Heavy Freighter operates more like a mobile fortress than a mech. Also, each mech frame within this range has its minimum and maximum crew changed to 1. In addition, because mechs attach some weapons to flexible arms, all port and starboard weapons may be fired in the front arc with no penalty.

Building a Starship – Thrusters
Thrusters should be changed to Legs to represent the lower scale and two-dimensional engagements, but otherwise operate the same way in combat. Obviously, Legs do not allow you to leave a planet.

Building a Starship – Shields
Mechs do not come with shielding as a standard addition. This is to increase the lethality of starship combat mechanics while making shields a situational tool for defensively focused mechs. Shields can be taken multiple times, cost one half of their normal BP, and must be equipped in a weapon slot. During the gunnery phase, they can be used in place of firing a weapon (or in addition to firing a weapon, which counts as using the Fire at Will ability) to generate a shield along that firing arc. It absorbs damage as per normal. If a shield is not used during a gunnery phase, it instead recharges SP equal to 10% of your power core’s PCU.

Building a Starship – Systems
Some starship systems, such as Guest Quarters, are unsuitable for mech combat and should not be taken. Other systems, such as Arcane Laboratory, might require time to unpack and set up outside of combat before it can be used.

Starship Roles – Captain
The captain is the leader of the squad of mechs. The role is designated by the squad beforehand and cannot change during combat. The Orders ability choses a role for the purposes of what actions it allows, but it can target any member of the squad.

Starship Roles – Engineer
Without the ability to access a mech’s interior in the middle of battle, the engineer’s actions are severely limited. Each player serves as the engineer of their own mech and may take the Divert or Overpower actions. All other actions require 10 minutes out of combat to perform field repairs, but you may make these repairs on any mech in the squad.

Starship Roles – Gunner
Your mech is designed for a single pilot to operate efficiently. You may take Gunnery and Piloting actions during the same round without penalty or need for a minor crew action.

Starship Roles – Piloting
Instances of flying should be replaced with proper ground-based language for obvious reasons.

Starship Roles – Science Officer
The Balance action is no longer available due to the changes in how shields work. The Target System and Lock On actions provide their benefits to yourself as well as any member of your squad with sensors that are not wrecked.

And that concludes my quick rules for converting starship combat into mecha combat. At the very least, it should cover the core rulebook options, but simplicity was the point anyway. Anything to avoid addressing the elephant in the room. An elephant on my bucket list, most certainly, but still an elephant that I don’t have the time to tackle at the moment.

Come back next time and I’ll show you how the end of your story is actually the beginning.

No, like smell smell. We’re talking the kind of stink that’ll make your lungs go on strike.

Anyway, hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that explores the intersections of mechanics and flavor and also accidentally created rules for integrating the Cars universe into your Pathfinder game. You’re welcome. In this entry I’ll be offering extra feats to expand upon the Carrier collective archetype from last time, allowing you properly kit out your fantasy battle bus.

Ramming Attack           Feat 4
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Carrier Dedication
You’ve altered your carrier mount to ram against opponents and damage them, be it through spiked armor, boarding planks with serrated edges, or by using its own natural weapons. Your carrier mount gains a natural attack that deals 1d8 damage. Choose bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. This melee attack deals that type of damage. The carrier mount’s weapon may be enhanced with handwraps of mighty blows as usual.
Collective Each member of the collective that also takes this feat makes additions to the weapon, increasing its potency. They may increase the damage die by one step (up to a maximum of 1d12) or give the attack one of the following weapon traits: backswing, deadly d8, forceful, grapple, reach, shove, trip, or versatile (bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing). The same trait may not be chosen twice.

Aquatic Adaptation           Feat 4
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Carrier Dedication, your carrier mount is trained in Athletics
Through natural growth or specialized attachments, your mount can now operate in and around the water. It becomes buoyant, allowing it to travel across the surface of a body of water with a swim speed equal to its land speed.
Collective Each member of the collective may improve the capabilities of your mount’s swimming. If two members have this feat, the mount can swim beneath the surface of the water with a swim speed equal to half of its land speed. At three, the mount can breathe underwater and swim at a speed equal to its land speed. At four, the mount can also accommodate the collective, granting them each one hour’s worth of air while submerged. This air reserve can be restored at the same rate it depletes. Each feat beyond the first four increases the mount’s swim speed by 20 feet.

This is how I imagine the ‘versatile’ trait looks on beasts.

Portable Accommodations           Feat 6
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Carrier Dedication
You won’t settle for a simple saddle or a common canopy. Choose one feat from the Hideout dedication (as seen here and here). You gain that feat, treating a 10-foot by 10-foot square of your mount as hosting the necessary features. You count as having the hideout dedication for the purposes of this feat, but you must meet all other prerequisites. The GM may rule that some feats, such as Mobile Hideout, do not function in a meaningful way on a carrier mount.
Collective Each member of the collective may choose their own feat with its own function, but only one such room may be active at a time. It takes at least one hour to pack up the current hideout function and set up your own.

Siege Thrower           Feat 6
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Carrier Dedication, trained in Crafting
You integrate a ranged weapon into your carrier mount’s barding or body that allows the mount to make ranged attacks. This is a ranged natural attack that deals 1d8 piercing damage. It has a range increment of 60 feet. It also has the propulsive and reload 2 traits. The mount is incapable of reloading on its own, but any riders may dedicate any number of actions towards reloading for it. As the plentiful ammunition is produced naturally by the mount’s physiology (spines, protruding body parts, etc), it does not need to be purchased and it does not take up any bulk.
Collective Each member of the collective that also takes this feat makes additions to the weapon, increasing its potency. They may increase the damage die by one step (up to a maximum of 1d12) or give the attack one of the following weapon traits: deadly d8, injection, ranged trip, versatile (acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, or slashing), or volley 40 ft. The same trait may not be chosen twice. If you choose volley, increase the weapon’s range increment to 120 feet.

Advanced Carrier           Feat 8
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Carrier Dedication
Through rigorous training and hard work, you’ve improved your carrier mount’s capabilities. Your mount gains an Ability Boost to an ability score of your choice. In addition, choose one of the following upgrades.

• Your mount becomes Expert in Perception.
• Your mount becomes Expert in unarmed attacks.
• Your mount becomes Expert in a skill in which it is already Trained.
• Your mount’s speed increases by 10 feet.
• Your mount gains the ability to speak one language you know.

Collective Each member of the collective must select a different option. The only exceptions are becoming expert in a skill, so long as a new skill is chosen every time, and the ability to speak, so long as a new language is chosen every time.

If only they could tie their camels together to form one super camel.

Mystic Cannon           Feat 12
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Carrier Dedication, master in a skill related to your magical tradition (Arcana for Arcane, Religion for Divine, Occultism for Occult, Nature for Primal)
You’ve managed to create a magical device that can feed off of your own power to fire destructive blasts. When you take this feat, choose one magical tradition from which you can cast spells. While performing the Direct Carrier action, you may sacrifice an unused spell slot of the same tradition to charge the mystic cannon. The charge remains for one minute, and the mount may expend this charge as a two-action activity that has the concentrate trait as well as the trait matching the magical tradition. Expending the charge releases a 60-foot line of destructive magical energy, dealing 2d6 damage per level of the spell slot sacrificed and allowing a basic reflex save against your Spell DC. The type of damage is chosen by you when the mount expends the charge, and the options are based on your tradition.

• Arcane cold, electric, fire, force
• Divine negative, positive, sonic
• Occult mental, negative, force
• Primal acid, bludgeoning, cold, electric, fire, piercing, slashing

Collective Each member of the collective may choose a different tradition of magic, adding the ability to sacrifice spell slots from that tradition.
Special If the mystic cannon deals force damage, reduce the d6’s to d4’s.

And that brings the archetype to a grand total of eight feats. A very solid foundation and more than enough for a low or mid-level game, even if there’s still more to be done. Better armor proficiency, burrowing, maybe even flying in the late game? Of course. But the Pathfinder 2e Remaster is less than a day away and I’ve also got a few persistent fascinations to write about, so it’s best that we move on.

Come back next time and I’ll wake the dog up.

Oh, right. It’s November the 2nd. Sadly, a combination of real-life troubles and a creative block (I scrapped this article twice!) pulled me off the track. In that case, you can consider this one less of a Halloween celebration and more of a Halloween afterparty. Besides, have you seen my content? Every issue is the ‘Halloween issue.’ I’m like some kind hybrid of Santa Clause and David Cronenberg, stuffing the stockings of all the good tabletop roleplayers with my wriggling monstrosities.

But for this not-quite-holiday special, I’m going to give the gift that keeps on giving. I’m not just going to give you a monster, but I’m giving you a way to make your own super monster. And don’t worry, I brought enough spare parts for the whole party!

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that collaborates to build its flavor out of whatever spare mechanics I’ve got growing in the vats. This time around, we’ll be revisiting the concept of Collective Archetypes and allow your entire party to invest their efforts into building a combat monstrosity. Yes, for those of you who were excited at the giant golem concept that I hinted at, we’re on our way to the payoff.

All of these third-rate jockeys are just jealous of your sweet ride.

Carrier Dedication           Feat 2
[Archetype] [Collective] [Dedication]
Prerequisite Trained in a skill depending on your mount’s type (see below)
You have animated, grown, summoned, or otherwise constructed a creature that can serve as a unique carrier mount that grants access to you as well as any allies that wish to contribute to its creation. This mount may be as simple as a self-driving cart or as complex as a magically created monstrosity. Your mount is a Large creature. It begins with a 4 in Intelligence and a 10 in every other ability score. You gain three Ability Boosts that may be applied to the mount, but they must be applied to three different ability scores. It is trained in Perception, all saves, unarmed strikes, unarmored defense, and one skill of your choice. It has a speed of 30 feet, cannot speak, and lacks the appendages to perform any action that has the Manipulate trait. The carrier mount’s level is equal to your own and it has a number of Hit Points per level equal to 5 + its Constitution modifier.
Special When you first select this feat, choose a creature type. The creature type dives your mount special properties and also determines what skill is required to take this feat:

• Aberration (Occultism) Your carrier mount gains a +2 circumstance bonus to saves against emotion effects. If it rolls a success on a saving throw against an emotion effect, it instead gets a critical success.
• Beast (Nature) Your carrier mount gains low-light vision and increases its speed by 10 feet.
• Construct (Arcana or Crafting) Your carrier mount gains hardness equal to one third of your level. (minimum 1)
• Undead (Religion) Your carrier mount gains the basic undead benefits.

Collective Each additional member of the collective grants your carrier mount the following:

• 2 extra Hit Points per level.
• Three addition Ability Boosts. Each set of Ability Boosts must be spent on three different ability scores, and cannot raise an ability above 18.
• Training in one additional skill
• If the collective includes at least four members, their contributions allow an increased mass. You may increase the mount’s size to Huge upon taking this feat or when gaining a level. This does not adjust its ability scores or increase its reach.

Everyone Takes the Wheel
Some aspects of the mount rules may leave questions hanging in the air as to how the logistics of a shared mount may work. Barring significant changes in the release of the big update, carrier mounts can hold any number of riders so long as the riders do not overlap with themselves. In other words, imagine a room with the dimensions of the mount’s battlefield presence, (10 feet by 10 feet for Large, 15 feet by 15 feet for Huge,) and try to place the party in that room. If they can comfortably fit in the room, they can comfortably fit on the mount.

Managing your carrier mount involves complex actions such as channeling energy to direct an undead mass or projecting your will onto a complex golem with many moving parts. Each member of the collective that is currently riding on the carrier mount may use the Direct Carrier action.

Direct Carrier [one action]
[Concentrate]
Frequency Once per round
You spend time convincing, ordering, or otherwise directing your carrier mount to take action. You ‘donate’ your action to the mount. Up to three actions may be gifted to the mount in this way. After the final action is gifted by a member of the collective, the mount springs into action, taking its turn immediately after that character as though coming out of Delay. If the mount has a condition that reduces the number of actions per turn, such as slowed, the maximum number of gifted actions changes accordingly. If the mount does not have the prerequisite number of actions by the end of the round, takes its turn on initiative count 0 and may take one action for each one gifted to it.
Special If a member of the collective simply wishes to drive the carrier mount, they may instead use this action to cause the mount to immediately Stride or use one of its other movement types.

Skeletal procession sold separately.

Carrier Defenses           Feat 4
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Carrier Dedication
You’ve invested in protecting your shared mount by giving it special training, body modifications, or a generous application of armored plating. Choose one of the following.

• Your carrier mount gains armor. This armor grants it a +1 item bonus to Armor Class and has a +4 Dex cap. This armor can be modified by runes as normal.
• Your carrier mount becomes Expert in Fortitude saves.
• Your carrier mount becomes Expert in Reflex saves.
• Your carrier mount becomes Expert in Will saves.
• You thicken the armor that your mount already has, increasing its base item bonus by 1 (maximum +5) and decreasing the Dex cap by 1.

Collective Each member of the collective must select a different option. The only exception is thickening the armor, which requires another member to have already selected armor and may be taken multiple times.

Alright, you’ve got the beginnings of a sweet ride and you’re already imagining what it would look like to attach a gazebo to the back of a war trained ankylosaurus. ‘But where’s my lightning cannon?’ I can hear you asking as you realize the article is almost over. Don’t worry, friends. I still remember, but it turns out making an archetype is tricky when the dedication feat alone takes up a third of the word count. Come back next time and I’ll show you how to pimp your ride with boarding planks and a portable shark aquarium.

Anyway, you know the deal. Gimmie the fun genes or the abominations don’t stop.

We’ll keep in touch!

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that lives in the body of flavor, but drives in that sweet ride of mechanics. This time I’m going to boldly go where no Starfinder has dared to go and give you rules for playing a whole starship as your character’s race. This two-bodied option allows you to explore the Vast through whole new eyes. Or sensors, in this case. And whether your void-borne character is the result of advanced engineering or mystical tomfoolery, you can rest assured that you’ll turn some heads during character introductions!

Void Kith
Ability Modifiers: Varies
HP: 4
Size and Type: Void kith vary in size and type, but they always have the starship subtype.
Starship Body: Your true form is that of a space faring vessel. At 1st level, work with your GM to design a starship with a frame of Small or Tiny size to serve as your body. You have control of the ship, though you only count as one crew member for the purposes of starship combat. If you are reduced to 0 Hull Points, you are unconscious until you undergo repairs that bring you to at least 1 Hull Point. If your starship body is destroyed, you are immediately killed. Your starship body can be reconstructed, but your consciousness can only return with a successful casting of raise dead or another resurrection effect of equal or greater power.
Drone Body: You have a secondary body that you can project your consciousness into, allowing you to interact directly with normal-sized creatures. Choose one race that is available to you; you gain the ability score modifiers, size, and type of that race. Your drone body appears to be a natural (if heavily augmented) member of that race. Transferring your consciousness to your drone body or vice versa requires one minute and a direct physical connection to a personal station somewhere in the ship. Your drone body also has a distinct physical feature of its apparent race, such as extra arms from kasatha or limited telepathy from a lashunta. Work with your GM to choose a suitable feature, using the borai’s Old Talents ability as a guideline.
Dual Mortality: While inhabiting your drone body, the ship is deactivated. While inhabiting your starship body, your drone body enters a state of hibernation and does not require nourishment. If your drone body is slain but relatively intact, it is possible for another creature to transfer your consciousness back to the ship, but the trauma leaves a scar on your soul. You cannot generate a new body without healing the scar, and healing the scar requires a successful casting of raise dead or another resurrection effect of equal or greater power.
Born to Fly: Learning how to operate your two different bodies makes some lessons more difficult, but you gain new abilities in return. You must take the void kith archetype.

So Much More To Love
Your starship body can be modified and upgraded as per normal. You can also able to upgrade to a larger base frame, provided you have an example of that frame that you can disassemble/consume to fuel your change. GMs are encouraged to distribute resources accordingly, as well as considering whether you serve as the party’s primary vessel in starship combat. If you serve as a support fighter to the party’s primary transport, for example, you may have to craft your starship body at a lower tier than the party’s average level.

When she’s a 10 but she’s also a destroyer class UIE Hiveguard.

Void Kith Archetype
While the void kith may take to any theme or class that suits them, their disparate bodies mean that they must train in disparate talents in order to master them. While other races may take their bodies for granted, void kith develop everything from basic motor skills to advanced combat maneuvers two times over through two entirely different dynamics. But those that put in the work are paid back in interest, alternating control between two bodies as easily as a human operates two hands.
Alternate Class Features
A void kith gains alternate class features at 2nd, 4th, 8th, and 12th levels.
Natural Spacefarer (Ex) – 2nd Level
You are at home in your starship body, soaring through space as easily a bird flies through the skies. You gain a number of free ranks in Piloting equal to half of your ranks in Acrobatics and a number of free ranks in Computers equal to half of your ranks in Perception. These free ranks cannot take you over the normal limit. If your ship body is primarily biological in nature, you gain free ranks in Life Science instead of Computers.
Starship On Standby (Su) – 4th Level
You begin to learn how to control your two bodies simultaneously. While in your drone body, you may communicate with the ship at a range of 1 mile. As a standard action, you may direct the ship to fly to your location and to hover nearby, land nearby, or to return to where it was before you summoned it. While moving on its own, your ship body is incapable of advanced maneuvers but it will try to avoid obstacles and hazards.
The range in which you can communicate between your two bodies increases to 5 miles at 7th level, 20 miles at 10th level, and 100 miles at 13th level. At 16th level, you can communicate between your bodies as long as they’re on the same planet, and at 19th level, they can communicate as long as they’re on the same plane.
Resolute Starship (Ex) – 8th Level
Your resolve to stay in the fight fuels your spacefaring body as well as your smaller one. When reduced to 0 Hull Points, you can spend a number of Resolve Points equal to one-quarter your maximum (minimum 1 RP, maximum 3 RP) to immediately restore a number of Hull Points equal to your base frame HP increment.
Battlefield Bombardment (Ex) – 12th Level
Your control is so great, your focus so precise, that you are able to call upon yourself for fire support. Once per day while inhabiting your drone body, may spend a Resolve Point to fire your starship’s weapons onto the battlefield as a full round action. This functions similarly to explosive blast, but the damage dealt is equal to 1d6 plus 1d6 per character level and the saving throw DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 your level + your primary ability score modifier. This requires your ship to be within range and have a relatively clear line of sight, but the GM may rule that firing through terrain causes falling rubble that deals a similar amount of bludgeoning damage.

The Chicken Pilot or the Egg Ship?
There are several origins that can work for the void kith. In fact, the designation ‘void kith’ is more about a collection of entities in similar circumstances than it is for a unified race. Where did yours come from? Are they the result of a sentient being being uploaded into a vessel? If so, was it voluntary? Perhaps their drone body is a direct accessory of the ship instead of their body of birth? In that case, you may want to select a body type that matches the ship’s design, such as an android for a traditional ship or something more lively for a biological starship. Stranger still, perhaps their natural form is that of an entire race of sentient starships with their own culture and reproduction. In this case, the drone body is likely a social tool to associate with the ‘crewfolk’ societies.

“Don’t worry guys. I can take us there! Just hop in! Guys? Where are you going?”

And there you have it, a way to experience space like you’ve never experienced before. You may have come close before, but can your fancy-shmancy star shaman come mounted with a missile battery? I don’t think so. Anyway, come back next time and I’ll show you who’s boss around this here dungeon.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that sucks the venom of flavor right out of the fresh wound made by the sharpened fangs of mechanics. A mechanical snake, if you will. It’s like a regular snake, but it’s a robot, and it’s venom is delicious. If all this seems confusing, then you don’t get how flavor and mechanics go together so well, but I’ll be happy to explain it. Also, I just saved you from a painful and delicious death from a lethal dose flavor venom. You’re welcome.

Don’t forget to check back in the future when I’ve written a variant of medusa with worms for hair instead of snakes~

Medusa

The legacy of the medusae is one of tragedy and subterfuge. Each member of their feminine, serpent-haired species bears a terrible curse: their gaze petrifies any creature that looks upon them. With a stare that could turn a person to stone, each medusa had to struggle with a society that they were ultimately incompatible with. Of course, they were not entirely innocent, often leveraging their abilities to steal and kill as they pleased. This led to a species who’s presence was like a blight to the inhabitants of any city or territory they stalked.

Despite these difficulties, a growing minority of their kind have adapted with the help of modern technology. Using crafting techniques developed during or before the Gap, they managed to rid themselves of this lethal curse. With a combination of chemical infusions and ocular surgery, these medusae replace their eyes and are no longer in danger of turning other people to stone. The method of treatment is specific to medusa anatomy and very well practiced. It is so well practiced that even an untrained member of their species can perform the proper maintenance and replacement for their common ocular augmentations.

The members of the species that still bear the curse and consider themselves ‘true’ medusae do not look kindly upon their more socially acceptable kin. The reasons vary, ranging from jealousy to seeing them as a ‘neutered’ subspecies, but most are tied to speculation that these modifications were not made by any medusa scientists. The theory is that the modifications are the result of an affliction, such as a plague or genetic disorder, or artificial tampering from some other race that attempted to indoctrinate the medusa race into servitude. The indoctrination theory stands above the others thanks to the fact that the decursing process also removes a medusa’s ability to produce venom, which would benefit a hypothetical master far more than the recipient.

The modified medusae care much less about these theories, instead focusing on immersing themselves in the cultures of galactic society as much as possible. They have inherited an interest in online culture thanks to the practices of their curse-bearing foremothers, but hold few reservations about personal contact. The primary exception is showing their eyes. Partially due to the importance of eye-to-eye contact, and partially out of solidarity with their unmodified kin, these medusae have a stigma against showing their eyes to anyone but their closest friends, family, or lovers. Medusa fashion centers around headgear as a result of this, with sunglasses, veils, masks, and even screens with modified projections serving as expressive facial coverings.

Ability Modifiers: Cha +2, Dex +2, Str -2
HP: 4
Size and Type: Medusae are Medium monstrous humanoids with the medusa subtype.
Modular Eyes: Medusae begin play with a custom augmentation that grants them low-light vision. This augmentation may count as biotech, cybernetics, magitech, or a necrograft, and the medusa may change its type each time they rebuild it. At 5th level, this augmentation grants darkvision. If this augmentation is lost or destroyed, the medusa can rebuild and install it with one day’s worth of work.
Striking Presence: Medusae gain a +2 Racial bonus to Intimidate and Culture checks.
Natural Weapons: Medusae can attack with a special unarmed strike that deals lethal damage, doesn’t count as archaic, and threatens squares. Medusae gain a special version of the Weapon Specialization feat with this unarmed strike at 3rd level, allowing them to add 1–1/2 × their character level to their damage rolls for this unarmed strike (instead of just adding their character level, as usual).

Medusa Player Characters
Medusae that decide to explore the galaxy can come from a vast number of themes. With their strong presence and hunger for social activity, icon and sensate are perfect fits for a medusa of the new generation. One that seeks to work with their cursed kin may go with bounty hunter or outlaw. Of course, their emphasis on the rote memorization of crafting augmentations makes biotechnician and cyberborn very desirable. A medusae may take any class for their own personal reasons, but envoy, operative, and biohacker make fine exemplars of the three respective paths.

But don’t let that keep you from rolling up a soldier!

And there we have it, all the stats you need to make your own safe-for-the-table medusa and enough lore for GMs to justify not handing out an instant-kill gaze attack to a first level PC. Hopefully everyone can be happy with that. Come back next time and I’ll explain why ‘working part time’ on a starship means spending time as one of its parts.

And then Riot Games had to go ahead and give me a brand-new character to absolutely obsess over.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that breaks through the chains of mechanics to wrap itself in the warm embrace of the chains of flavor. But also the chains of mechanics, because you can’t have one without the other. It’s like Love and Marriage. Or your brain and that song that I just put in it. Today I’ll be taking inspiration from the Briar trailer (linked above) and creating a new oracle mystery!

Funny enough, Briar is from what’s basically that setting’s version of Cheliax.

Fetters
You were burdened with a symbolic representation of entrapment as the result of some transgression, however cryptic that broken rule may be. This may take the form of winding tattoos that appear to tighten around your body, or may take the physical form of a shackles or wrappings that resist both magical and mundane attempts to remove them. You may worship a god that favors chains, such as Asmodeus or Zon-Kuthon, or you pray to the pantheon of The Last Breath as you struggle for the freedom of yourself and others.

Mystery Benefit Your magic is interwoven in the chains that bind you, and such restraints can serve as your conduit. Nonmagical restraints have no effect on your spells that have the manipulate trait. While immobilized by a creature or magical effect, you are treated as grabbed for the purpose of casting spells.
Trained Skill Athletics
Granted Cantrip tanglefoot
Revelation Spells initial: tether shot; advanced: path of chains; greater: bloody isolation
Related Domains freedom, tyranny

Curse of Binding Burdens
Your symbol clings to your body like a lodestone, feeling supernaturally heavy despite its actual weight. Space seems to distort around you ever so slightly, making every room feel that much smaller.
Minor Curse The fetters that bind you make every step that much heavier. You become clumsy 1 and take a 5-foot penalty to all of your Speeds. This penalty does not stack with the encumbered condition.
Moderate Curse Your fetters seemingly come to life as they seek to further entrap you and any creature nearby. You are encumbered. An aura of binding surrounds you in a 10-foot emanation. All other creatures treat all spaces in this aura as difficult terrain. Creatures that are at least two size categories larger than you ignore this aura.
Major Curse (11th) You strain against your fetters in a tug of war that tears it wide open even as it nearly entombs your body. You become clumsy 2. Your aura of binding expands to 20 feet, affects creatures of any size, and affects you as well. You may attempt to grapple any creature within your aura. As this aura is part of your curse, you cannot ignore this difficult terrain, but other creatures may use abilities that allow them to ignore difficult terrain.

Focus Spells

Tether Shot           Focus 1
[Uncommon] [Conjuration] [Cursebound] [Oracle]
Mystery fetters
Cast (2 actions) somatic, verbal
Range 20 feet; Targets 1 creature
Saving Throw Fortitude; Duration sustained up to 1 minute
You conjure a line of chain, cloth, webbing, or some other representation of your fetter to reach out and latch on to a target creature. If the target fails a fortitude save, it becomes tethered to you. A tethered target cannot move further away from you without making an Athletics check against your Spell DC. On a success, it moves at half speed, dragging you with it. On a critical success, it snaps the tether, ending the spell. On a critical failure, it falls prone. A creature increases its success by one degree if it’s more than one size category larger than you.
The tether has AC 10, Hardness 4, and 10 Hit Points.
When you sustain the spell, you may pull yourself forward, Striding 10 feet directly towards the tethered creature.
Heightened (+1) The tether’s Hardness increases by 2, its Hit Points increases by 10, and the spell’s range by 5 feet.

Path of Chains           Focus 3
[Uncommon] [Conjuration] [Cursebound] [Oracle]
Mystery fetters
Cast (3 actions) material, somatic, verbal
Range 100 feet; Area 20-foot burst
Saving Throw Reflex; Duration 1 minute
You conjure countless duplicates of your fetter, forming a wide net that can serve as a pathway for your allies and an obstacle for your enemies. You create a 1-foot thick wall of fetters that is 30 feet wide and 30 feet tall. Creatures treat the wall’s climb DC as your spell DC, but you and your allies may treat the DC as 10.
You may instead create a horizontal plane of similar dimensions, potentially creating a bridge. The horizontal surface is made up of narrow surfaces, requiring an Acrobatics check against your spell DC to safely cross, but you and your allies may treat the DC as 10.
Any enemy that attempts to pass through the wall or is in the area of the wall when the spell is cast must make a Reflex save. On a failure, they suffer a -10 circumstance penalty to their Speeds for one round as they get tangled up on the fetters. On a critical failure, they are immobilized for one round.
Heightened (+2) Increase the wall’s width and height by 10 feet, and its range by 30 feet.

Bloody Isolation           Focus 6
[Uncommon] [Conjuration] [Cursebound] [Oracle]
Mystery fetters
Cast (2 actions) material, somatic
Range 30 feet; Target 1 creature
Saving Throw Reflex; Duration sustained up to 1 minute
You conjure the ultimate manifestation of your tether, attempting to completely surrounding one creature in a spiked cocoon. If the creature fails its saving throw, it becomes entrapped in an iron maiden or some similar device. It takes 3d6 piercing damage and 3d4 persistent bleed damage, or double on a critical failure. A creature can attempt to Escape, rolling against your spell DC, but it takes the 3d6 piercing damage for each attempt.
You may instead invert the prison, forming a protective spiked shell around one willing creature. Another creature may attempt to pry the shell open with an Athletics check against your spell DC, but it takes 3d6 piercing damage and 3d4 persistent bleed damage for each attempt.
Both versions of the shell block line of effect.
Heightened (+2) Increase the piercing damage by 1d6 and the persistent bleed damage by 1d4

And there you have it. All the tools you need to play a character who carries his prison on his shoulders in the same way a turtle carries his home on his back. If you wanted to play something closer to Briar herself? I’d say make her an undead eidolon, flavor the summoner as her escape buddy, and take these two feats to get a reasonable representation.

Join us next time and I’ll do that thing I said I’d do last time, which should have been this time.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that one of my favorite parts is clever use of monsters. Sure, the frequency and overall challenge of encounters can dictate the pace of the campaign, but there’s a lot of potential in the thematic ties. Monsters add theming that can go with or against the feel of your campaign. Their abilities can shift it towards horror and gritty survival, or bring aspects of conspiracies and intrigue to the forefront, or even cap off a long-standing battle against the manifestation of funny internet cat photos.

But it gets really interesting when you flip it around. Ask not what your monsters can do for your campaign, but what your campaign can do for your monsters.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that explores the intersections of flavor and mechanics in everything from man-made horrors beyond comprehension to happy little guys with boopable snoots. Today we’re going to reach through the canon-preserving Tupperware of the Gap to pull one of my favorite monsters from the fantasy setting of Pathfinder into the science fantasy setting of Starfinder.

The medusa is a classic monster with a simple premise. An evil, wretched thing whose gaze turns all before them into stone. Reclusive by necessity, they usually only interact with society when they’re taking something by force or through manipulation. A creature that commits to antisocial behavior while being physically unable to carry on a face-to-face conversation is a fairly simple concept to understand.

Now add the wonders of technology and all of the options that come with it. Gaze attacks are still a problem for in-person interactions, and it can even transfer through cameras, but those aren’t the only options available. Chat rooms, voice calls, and even video with embarrassingly tacky face filters are just some of the tools available to a modern medusa who seeks to involve herself with society. This enables any willing medusa to break out of their chicken-and-the-egg mindset where their petrifying presence makes it difficult to engage in society, which forces them to lean into villainous deeds, which in turn are enabled by their deadly gaze. In fact, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine their kind embracing the opportunity of a digital life in its variety of forms.

Am I implying the existence of medusa VTubers in Starfinder? No, I’m demanding it.

But let’s start with a basic conversion.

Medusa [Expert]           CR 7
XP 3,200
LE Medium monstrous humanoid
Init +2; Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +14
DEFENSE           HP 100
EAC 19, KAK 20
Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +12
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee snake bite +14 (1d8+6 P plus serpent venom)
Ranged tactical seeker rifle +16 (2d8+7 P)
Offensive Abilities petrifying gaze (30 ft., Fort DC 17), serpent venom (Fort DC 17),
STATISTICS
Str -1; Dex +4; Con +1; Int +2; Wis 0; Cha +5
Skills Acrobatics +14, Bluff +19, Computers +14, Disguise +19, Intimidate +19
Languages Common
Gear estex suit III, tactical seeker rifle with 50 rounds
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization solitary
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Petrifying Gaze (Su) The gaze of a medusa can turn a creature to stone. If a living creature fails its save against the medusa’s gaze, it takes 1d6 Dexterity damage and becomes staggered for 1 round as its body begins to petrify. If a creature is reduced to 0 Dexterity by this gaze, or fails its Fortitude save while at 0 Dexterity, the target turns to stone. This effect is similar to the flesh to stone spell, except it cannot be used to return a creature to flesh. Completely destroying the statue will also kill the petrified creature.
Serpent Venom (Ex) The serpents that form the medusa’s hair carry a potent venom.
Serpent Venom
Type poison (injury); Save Fortitude DC 17
Track Strength; Frequency 1/round for 5 rounds
Cure 1 save

With the power enemies to stone, some among the medusa species have found work as assassins and mercenaries. Those who carry old traditions might pursue the life of a criminal mastermind, working though agents and aliases to get what they want. Among a medusa’s most prized possessions are their most ostentatious valuables and the petrified remains of their previous owners.

Stoneheart

It’s sometimes said that a medusa has a heart of stone. While they’ve done much to dispel the metaphorical truth to that statement, it does not change the fact that their hearts are literally made of stone. Such a heart can be harvested and implanted into a new host as a magitech augmentation.
Stoneheart [SYSTEM: Heart]
Price 6,900           Level 7
These hardened hearts are still contractile and capable of circulating blood, magically enhancing the vital fluids to resist ailments of the body. The stoneheart grants you a +1 insight bonus to Fortitude saves against poisons and effects that would immobilize you. Once per day when you fail a Fortitude save against an effect that would petrify or paralyze you, the heart desperately pumps purified blood through your system, allowing you to reroll the saving throw. You must keep the new result.

“T-totally… worth….”

And now that we have our basics, let’s consider what a medusa might look like after embracing society in their own special way. If you’d like to make a medusa that’s more likely to be a friendly minor celebrity than a stone-cold dealer in contraband, consider shifting their alignment to Chaotic Good and adding the envoy class graft with these three improvisations. Medusa icons are likely to go through special surgeries or wear protective equipment to prevent accidentally harming their fans, so the petrifying gaze ability can be left behind. Diplomacy, Sense Motive, and Profession (video personality) make for fitting master skills, and Computers is also an important part of their lifestyle.

Alright, that should be enough to get you started on throwing some snake girls into your home campaign’s Livesteam Fail Compilation subplot. I still want to hash out something a bit more player-focused, so come back next time and I’ll do my part in the holy crusade to add more monstergirl content to tabletop gaming.

Gene Soup has our patented Do Anything Biotechnology, which means it can be anything you want! Use it to heal wounds, regrow limbs, or stick a load of it into a vat and grow yourself that shiny new shoulder-mounted bile launcher that the government won’t let you buy. What do they know, anyway? Heck, you can even eat the stuff if you want!

Gene Soup: It can get you lasers, lunch, and limbs. Call your doctor and demand the soup today!

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that crawled its way out of the primordial ooze to learn about the intersections of flavor and mechanics. Today I’ll be continuing my crusade to seize the means of evolution by homebrewing more squishy biotech things for Starfinder. After all, there’s no reason to stop until I can create a one hundred percent organic campaign setting, and there’s nothing more foundational to an adventuring party than credits. Digital, unliving, unfeeling credits. And that simply will not do.

Warning: Improper use or consumption of Gene Soup can result in nausea, blindness, death, undeath, redeath, growing additional limbs, becoming nothing but a mass of additional limbs, developing a god complex, developing a complex god, and initiating the Apocalypse of Flesh. Please consult a doctor if any of these symptoms occur.

UCC

A universal cell cluster, sometimes called UCC or “gene soup,” is an experimental method of generating living matter. One UCC is made up of a cluster of cells that have the potential to grow into muscles, brain tissue, nerve endings, plant matter, or any other known kind of living tissue. UCCs can be used to counteract blood loss, repair damaged organs, and even regrow lost limbs entirely, making them invaluable for use in the field of medicine. A weaponsmith with the proper facilities can also use UCCs and the proper genetic sequences to create biological weapons, both handheld and independent. Even in the hands of an untrained civilian or underequipped soldier, UCCs can be used to patch wounds or mixed with food to create edible matter. In its base form, UCCs resemble a sort of gelatinous soup with the texture of fine grain.
Much like their mechanical counterpart, UCCs can be used as a raw material to construct a variety of tools and weapons at a cost equal to the item’s cost in credits. However, they can only be used to create living weapons and armor, biotech augmentations, and other items made out of living material.
UCCs are durable, but still require a suitable environment. Exposing them to a harmful environment such as extreme heat or cold, radiation, or the vacuum of space does not destroy them, but it causes them to permanently change into a form of life that functions exclusively to survive under those exact conditions. This renders them useless both as a tradable currency and as a material for creation. As a result, some care must be taken in their transportation and storage.
UCCs can also be used for simple medical purposes, allowing direct application of raw cultures to act as dose of sprayflesh. This requires a number of UCCs equal to the cost in credits of spray flesh, even if an untrained user is using it as a medpatch.
In an emergency, UCCs can serve as food. Eating it raw is inefficient, costing 5 UCCs to count as one day’s worth of rations, but the adaptive culture can feed any creature that consumes living matter, including undead. When properly cultivated, 1 UCC can grow into a long-lived sluglike creature that’s rich in nutrients and counts as an R2E.

A Truly Living Economy

UCCs are comparable to credits in raw value, but their specific utility means they pose no threat to overtaking UPBs as a universal currency. Instead, they find use among fringe scientists and naturalist explorers. The potential for innovations in the medical fields attracted the interest of many corporations, but an incident involving an escaped vat-grown monstrosity gave most investors cold feet. Despite this poor early impression UCCs still find use among biotech enthusiasts that are careful enough to not test the limits or brave enough to face the consequences.

Rumors persist that underground “Red Markets” exist outside the influence of law and regulation, where UCCs are used to make low quality replacement organs on the cheap and especially unscrupulous bioengineers trade in vat-grown servants. In truth, the number of UCCs needed to grow a fully sentient being from scratch makes the process prohibitively expensive, meaning it’s more likely used as a means of making money while disposing of unwanted test subjects.

With the moderate difficulties of maintaining a store of UCCs, clever bioengineers have found a way to use the material’s properties in their favor. By carefully guiding the growth of these cell cultures into simple creatures, they were able to create living companions that were far more capable of protecting their payload while losing minimal resources from harvesting. These “gene troves” make for functional storage as well as low-maintenance pets for eccentric scientists.

Fleshling Genetrove Companions
Designed to serve as living archives for cell culture investments, these creatures tend to spend their short lives being stuffed with UCCs and exchanged or harvested for useful genetic material. They can vary wildly in appearance, but the most common breeds resemble larger versions of simplistic cell structures, appearing as squox-sized amoeba with flesh-toned bodies.

Fleshling Genetrove [Levels 1-20]
Tiny abberation
Senses darkvision 60 ft
Good Save Fort; Bad Saves Ref, Will
Speed 20ft
Melee Attack pseudopod (B)
Space 2 1/2 ft. Reach 0 ft.
Ability Modifiers Con, Wis

Special Abilities
Reconstitution (Ex) A fleshling genetrove is essentially a living collection of multipurpose biomass. Because of this, you must use UCCs to purchase or increase the level of a fleshling genetrove companion. With one hour of work at a suitable laboratory, you may break down the fleshling’s biomass, regaining 90% of its total value in UCCs and killing it in the process. It also increases by one size at level 4 and at each 4th level afterwards thanks to the bulk of its additional UCCs.
Versatile Adaptation (Ex) The instability of the fleshling genetrove’s biology allows it to change its body to adept to adverse conditions. If exposed to an underwater environment, it exchanges its land speed and ability to breathe air for a swim speed and the ability to breathe water. These changes reversed if it is ever removed from the water. If it takes energy damage, loses any other resistance gained from this ability and instead gains resistance to that energy type equal to 2 + its level. These changes happen automatically over the course of 3 rounds.

Well how about that? Now we have the beginnings of a true meat-based society. And plant-based, if that’s more your thing. Just as long as it is or has been alive, it’s all on the table and I’m not going to judge. Come back next time and I’ll tell you a surefire way to beat a medusa in a staring contest.

How are you doing? It’s been a while. I’m doing fine. And despite what you may think, that’s the problem. I still wake up every day in my normal, boring human body, not a single scale or feather to be seen. Two eyes, two legs, two hands and feet, painfully symmetrical and frustratingly mundane.

Perhaps my previous threats were not enough to motivate you, so I will make myself perfectly clear. I demand that you release your monopoly on metamorphosis and allow my ascension into an eldritch abomination. If I don’t wake up tomorrow within a cocoon of my own carapace, dissolved into a biological slurry and well on my way to emerging reborn as the embodiment of physical horror, I will physically transform Jerry from accounting into an overcoat.

On second thought, autumn is pretty close. I’m doing the coat thing anyway.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog understands the flavor of beauty being skin deep and masters the mechanics of the Beauty stat by growing extra layers of skin. Speaking of layers, I’d like to share some homebrew rules I’ve been working on for Starfinder. It should come as no shock that I’m a big fan of the options for biological equipment. Everything from weapons to body mods and even entire classes allow you to go organic, but there’s a starting lack of living armor in the game. It’s strange that we’ve had the tech to wear beasties like pajamas since 1990 but the Pact Worlds haven’t quite cracked the code.

Of course, with the second edition of Starfinder in development, this homebrew is going to show its age. Thankfully, I’m actually a master of 4D chess and made the gigabrain move of including advanced player options for living gear in previous articles that will likely be easy to squeeze into the new edition of the game. That’s right, I wrote this article in an old article for an edition of a game that I wasn’t even aware existed yet. My cabal of time traveling alternate past and future selves all say “You’re welcome” for that one.

They also say “hurry up and finish your part of our ‘vengeance against Oras’ plan we don’t wanna deal with another paradox” so let’s do this.

Special Armor Property: Living

Much like living weapons, living armor are living organisms designed for protection. Favored by bioengineers and naturalists, these suits are more complex than common biotech while still functioning similarly to manufactured armor.
Living armor uses all the same rules as living weapons to determine what abilities it can be affected by, its own ability scores, how it regains Hit Points, and what skills can be used to repair it.
The advanced systems of living armor allow it to accept augmentations normally suited for living creatures. Instead of its allotted number of armor upgrades, living armor can accept an equal number of augmentations so long as they are installed in different systems (such as arms, spine, etc). Any creature wearing living armor is treated as if they have these augments installed in their own body. In cases where the creature and the armor’s combined augmentations surpass the creature’s limit on augmentations per system, the creature’s own augmentations are rendered dormant until the armor is removed. Personal upgrades cannot be installed in living armor, as they lack the complexity for that level of growth.
Unlike manufactured armor, living armor does not provide environmental protection beyond the range of mundane clothes. The suits themselves can resist the effects, but sharing this protection will require the appropriate augmentations to be installed.

Armor Descriptions
Some examples of living armor are listed below. Each functions similarly to a type of manufactured armor, but still has the same benefits and restrictions as living armor.

Hivewear Armor (I-V)
Adapted from a variety of advanced insect species, hivewear armor is made up of a living exoskeleton that protects the wearer from harm. Early versions proved too rigid to enhance with augmentations, but more advanced models overcome the mutation resistance of their resilient ‘doner’ species.
Hivewear armor uses the statistics of freebooter armor.

Beastmorph (I-V)
Sturdy and reliable, beastmorph armor gets its name from the feral nature of its design. The namesake comes from the method of creation, which involves a vaguely humanoid ‘shell body’ that’s modified to grow mutations from one or two different species of animal. While the suits lack scything claws and gnashing teeth (at least, without augmentations), mercenaries swear by the effectiveness of their intimidating appearance.
Beastmorph armor uses the statistics of golemforged plating.

Metamorph Suit (I-IV)
Early prototypes for living armor came from the ‘cutting room floor’ of fringe geneturges, often producing works that were a bit clumsy and looked less like armor and more like amalgamate fusions of a variety of creatures. While slightly below par in terms of protection, they boast greater tolerance for installing a high number of augmentations thanks to their mildly mutagenic properties. Buyers are advised to purchase exclusively from ethically sourced laboratories.
Metamorph suits use the statistics of estex suits.

Starforged Elderhide (I-V)
The stranger the prey, the greater the armor. At least, that’s the thought behind the creators of elderhide armor. Made from the harvested genetic data of aberrations, this toughened armor features several tendrils that fold in and protectively grasp the user. While it can be stiff and uncomfortable, the protection provided by the multiple layers of cultivated flesh is undeniable. Some users report mild audiovisual hallucinations, these are commonly dismissed as the result of stress on the battlefield.
Starforged elderhide uses the statistics of vesk overplate.

Just imagine a face poking out of that mouth.

That about does it. Enough rules to make the armor feel different while acting as an effective template that you can slap onto just about any previously existing armor. I had some ideas for power armor, but those are far more ambitious and may deserve their own article. Come back next time and I’ll enlighten you with my idea for a sludge-based economy.

But where are those good-alignment values…
On which we used to rely?!

Lucky there’s a Family Guise!
Lucky there’s a build that
Absolutely killed that
Monster that’ll give us…

E-X-P!

Here’s! Our! Family Guise!

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that knows how the difference between mechanics and flavor is all relative, but goes into the pedantic details anyways. Today we’re going to consider an oft-neglected part of your PCs backstory and ask who’s genetic mixer they spawned from.

Do a poll in your local tabletop RPG scene and ask just how many people put more than two brain cells to the task of their PC’s family and I bet you’ll get the same handful of answers. Orphan, runaway, orphan, orphan, and seventeen flavors of daddy issues. All of these are fine, but there’s a lot to be said about keeping your family close to the heart and on the front page of the GM’s notes.

There’s a lot that a few blood relatives can add to a campaign that goes beyond younger siblings to rescue from the BBEG. And yes, parents can do a lot more than just turning into skeletons as part of a stock tragic backstory. When you work with the GM, you can write your character to have important ties to some key aspect of the campaign, increasing engagement and having a built-in reason to stick to the plot. Here are some examples.

Just don’t let those sibling rivalries get out of hand, okay?

Family Business – Think of all the typical establishments that your party frequents. The smithy, the inn, reagent shops, the local church, and maybe the local jail if they’re that kind of party. This is a great starting point to slot in that family structure. Maybe a trade runs in your blood and you adventure as a means of escape from tradition. Maybe you delve into dungeons because the business is failing for Campaign Plot Reasons and you want to do well by Mom and Pa. If you want to keep up the theme on a worldwide scale, make it a franchise, that way every Sanford & Scrolls you visit on your adventures will have a new-but-familiar NPC to meet.

Rival Party – This one is a classic. One party member has that rival sibling in a rival party, often with some yin to their own character build’s yang. One’s a paladin, one’s a barbarian. One’s a cleric, one’s a necromancer. They could be competing over a family fortune. Perhaps their parents are pitting them against each other in a ‘tradition’ that only one of them truly cares for. If you want to mix it up, you could play up their relationship as completely different when it’s between adventures.

The Party as Family – Most campaigns run much more smoothly if the players all tie their backstories together, and this is about as tied as it gets. This one is easier on the GM and way more fun for the whole party if they’re all in on it, but don’t let that discourage you from trying it out with a Duo Queue buddy in your local organized play games. Wholesome family adventures on Bring Your Kids to Dungeon Day, aspiring nobles working collectively to build their surname’s prestige, or a ‘family’ working to control the less scrupulous forms of trade are all great starting points.

The Eidolon as Family – Because I always did want to import one of my favorite eidolon subtypes from 1st edition. And who needs to roll up a gross, stinky, non-summoner class when you can just call upon your Pocket Champion instead?Ancestor Eidolon
[Eidolon]
Your eidolon forms a bond through strong spiritual ties to your ancestry, often acting as a guardian of their descendants or as protectors of family interests. Some of these eidolons are arrogant patriarchs and matriarchs who seek some variation of immortality through the bloodlines, while others are not directly related but have sworn their eternal servitude to a particular family. Regardless of their motivations, ancestor eidolons make for loyal and caring companions.
Tradition Occult. Can change depending on ties to ancestry (arcane for kobolds, primal for gnomes, etc) with GM approval.
Home Plane Ethereal Plane

Size Varies (see below)
Suggested Attacks fist (bludgeoning), unarmed attacks shaped like a weapon
Ancient Warrior Str 18, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 14; +2 AC (+3 Dex cap)
Dashing Forerunner Str 12, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 16; +1 AC (+4 Dex cap)
Elder Seer Str 10, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 12; +2 AC (+3 Dex cap)
Regal Primogenitor Str 8, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 18; +1 AC (+5 Dex cap)
Skills Occultism, Society (exchanging Occultism for the appropriate skill depending on Tradition)
Senses normal vision
Languages one language available to your ancestry
Speed 25 feet

Eidolon Abilities Initial progenitor; Symbiosis reclaimed legacy; Transcendence thicker than water

Progenitor
Your eidolon has ties to your lineage that affect its physical form. It gains the traits of your ancestry (such as Humanoid or Elf), the additional abilities granted to your ancestry (such as low-light vision or claws), and the size of your ancestry. If your ancestry has no special abilities, it instead gains a heritage associated with your ancestry. At 4th level, choose a Multiclass Archetype feat. Your eidolon gains that feat.

Reclaimed Legacy
Your eidolon recalls more of its power from days long past, allowing it to regain much of its power from life. Your eidolon gains an ancestry feat from your ancestry of 5th level or lower. When you gain a summoner feat, you may instead choose a feat from your eidolon’s multiclass archetype and gain it as an evolution feat, granting its benefits to your eidolon. Your eidolon must meet the prerequisites for this feat.

Thicker Than Water
Your eidolon’s power is fully realized, and some of that power is passed on to you. You and your eidolon each gains an ancestry feat from your ancestry of 13th level or lower, a skill feat, and a general feat. If the feat you choose directly affects your eidolon, such as Toughness, the effects do not stack. You and your eidolon must qualify for each of these feats.

And with that, I bid you adieu. Have fun at your next family reunion, remember to take plenty of pictures, and make sure to be extra patient with your uncle’s ‘creative interpretation’ of world affairs. Flies and honey and all that. Come back next time and I’ll show you armor that fits like a second skin. Spoiler warning, it’s not metaphorical.

Does anyone remember the spiritualist? It was often compared to the summoner, but it had a spookier vibe and a set of mechanics better suited to buffing and debuffing enemies and allies, respectively. In comparison, summoners were focused on raw power and high numbers with the occasional trick up their sleeve. Think of summoners as a season 3 fight and spiritualists as a bit closer to a season 4 fight. It’s a little sad that phantoms and all of their potential were folded into summoners in the transition to second edition, losing their utility focused play style for more straight-forward eidolon mechanics.

But you know what? There isn’t a class in this game that I wouldn’t lay down on the sacrificial slab to give us more eidolon choices.

After realizing “Guy With Sword And Nothing Else” wasn’t a real class concept, Paizo’s editors were quick to remove fighters from the game.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that isn’t afraid to delve into mechanics and happily savors the juicy flavor of despair. This time I’m going to fully embrace the change that Paizo gave us with the phantom living on in the form of an option for occult eidolons by doing my part to speed up the transition. In a totally unofficial capacity, of course. You know darn well what I’d actually make if they gave me the reins.

Disenus collapsed onto his backside in shock, releasing his grasp on both his sacrificial knife and the remains of the songbird served as the catalyst to his ritual. Violet flames erupted from the crude runic circle before him, rising in a spiraling pillar.

“That isn’t how it’s supposed to go…” he managed to stammer out, cutting himself off with a frightened yelp when the flames died down to reveal a lantern hovering over the circle. A lively violet flame flickered within the steel cage, casting an ominous glow.

The aspiring summoner scooted back until he hit a wall, using it to clumsily stand up while not taking his eyes off the fruits of his labor. A rapid fire of incantations in abyssal slipped from his lips as he saw a pale figure emerge from the circle, grasping on the lantern’s handle as leverage to haul itself into the material plane.

Disenus continued to run through his catalogue of verbal wards, though they seemed to have no effect on the thing that stood before him. The conjured creature was humanoid and pale, as though the color had been leeched from it, dressed in bandages and shackles underneath a tattered gray robe. The only colorful features were the mask of blackened scorched wood covering its face and the violet orbs of its eyes. It was smaller than he expected, up to his stomach in height, but that did little to slow his thumping heart or dry his sweaty brow.

It was then that he noticed a dagger made of steel and bone in its pale hand, dripping with fresh blood. “S-stay back!” he shouted as the figure approached him. “You will obey my…”

The figure looked him in the eye and took a step out of his circle. “Sloppy.” It said in an echoing, feminine voice.

She took his stunned silence and an invitation to continue. “You sought to conjure a demon. You cast out your fears, desires, and aspirations like some kind of prayer to the abyss in hopes something might answer.”

The spectral figure gestured to the spent ritual with her knife. “And it did. Something foul, petty, and manipulative took the bait and came for you with ill intent. I discouraged it. I would ask for gratitude, but I know this just leaves you where you left off.”

“I too sought the power of the abyss, and it ruined me. I stood on top of the world, and in my rage and hubris, I was struck down.” The flame of her lantern dimmed slightly, and she nodded to it. “The least I can do is deny the demons their next plaything. And I know you have need of a servant.”

“So you will… serve me?” Disenus said, gathering some courage.

“So I will serve.” Said the phantom.

Fear Phantom Eidolon
[Eidolon] [Ethereal] [Phantom]
Your eidolon is a lost soul, tied to the mortal realm by a great fear that drives it to inflict terror on others, be it for vengeance or to shepherd mortals away from something even worse. Most phantom eidolons are humanoid with a spectral or ectoplasmic appearance, though some take far stranger forms. Your bond with your eidolon allows you to guide its efforts and wield fear as a powerful weapon against your foes.
Tradition Occult
Home Plane Ethereal Plane

Size Medium or Small
Suggested Attacks fist (bludgeoning), tendril (bludgeoning), unarmed attacks shaped like a weapon
Dreadful Assailant Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 12; +2 AC (+3 Dex cap)
Unnerving Creeper Str 12, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 16; +1 AC (+4 Dex cap)
Skills Intimidation, Occultism
Senses darkvision
Languages one common language the eidolon spoke in mortal life
Speed 25 feet

Eidolon Abilities Initial frightful visage; Symbiosis reaping strike; Transcendence fear aura

Frightful Visage
Your eidolon’s appearance is unsettling on a level that transcends the need for threatening words. It gains the Intimidating Glare feat. As soon as it meets the prerequisites, it gains the Scare to Death feat.

Reaping Strike
Your eidolon can manifest the fears of their enemies with just a touch, assailing them with visions of terror. It gains a natural attack that deals 1d6 mental damage and has the emotion, fear, finesse, and mental traits. When using Reaping Strike, your eidolon may use its Charisma modifier instead of its Strength modifier for damage. This attack automatically fails against a target not suffering the frightened condition.

Fear Aura
Your eidolon gains a 20-foot fear aura, which has the aura, emotion, enchantment, fear, mental, and occult traits. Any enemy that enters the aura must succeed at a Will save against your Spell DC or become frightened 1, or frightened 2 on a critical failure, until it leaves the aura. Any creature that rolls a success becomes immune to your eidolon’s Fear Aura for 1 minute. The reach of your Reaping Strike extends to any area within the aura.

And that’s about it. I hope you enjoyed this frightful little friend. And if you end up using one in your home game, feel free to tell me all about your character in the comments. I love that sort of thing. Come back next time and I might just make good on that promise of stealing your favorite class.

Instead, let me discuss my favorite aspect of martial combat in tabletop games. We’re talking natural weapons. There’s nothing quite like that rip-and-tear style of visceral combat, and my favorite way to serve that up is through the medium of a violent transformation. Ancestries are nice, but a some of the options tend to give you a weaker natural attack that gets out scaled by even the simplest of weapons. Certain classes can cover the difference in damage, but they’re less about a fully body experience and more about growing funny fingers.

So what’s a blood-hungry Tabletop Gamist such as myself going to do? Make something up, of course.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that goes absolutely feral over mechanics and goes for the throat for that juicy lore. In this entry, I’ll be adding some much-needed ferocity to the game’s options. And what better way to do that than revisiting an old friend? Remember that time I did something weird with the swashbuckler? I think we can get a little weirder than that.

Pictured: another perfectly normal swashbuckler

Beastinator

Your talent for martial combat belies a feral instinct that surges forth in the heat of combat, causing an animalistic transformation. You might be the result of an alchemical experiment, have beastkin ancestors, or have a mutated and less infectious form of lycanthropy. Regardless of the source, your instincts help you weave between foes and attack their vitals in a flurry of violence. You see the benefits to putting on an air of civility, using traditional weapons to distract your opponent until you can go for their throat. You also see the benefit of eschewing weapons entirely, grabbing opponents with your bare hands before growing teeth and claws to rip them apart.

Most beastinators are natural fits for the braggart and gymnast styles, relying on fearsome displays and raw physical prowess to trigger their transformations. However, each style has some form of representation among their number. Battledancers and wit styles are often seen with beastinators who resemble social animals. Fencers can mimic the behavior of ambush predators. And despite the instinctual drive to mimic animals, a beastinator with a strong enough force of will can focus on any style they please.

Bestial Brawler (1st)
In the heat of battle, you invoke your inner beast to enter a sort of flow state that rides the line between rational thought and feral instincts. Your body follows suit, shifting into an animal-humanoid hybrid. You must choose Beastinator Dedication as your 2nd-level feat.

Prerequisites: You must be a swashbuckler and have the humanoid type.

Beastinator Adjustments: When you gain panache, you also transform into your hybrid form and gain a natural attack. Any action that could potentially give you panache gains the polymorph trait. Choose a type of animal that best represents the bestial side of your hybrid form. Then, choose a natural attack from the following list that best suits your animal’s physiology.

• A claw attack that deals 1d4 slashing damage and has the agile, finesse, and unarmed traits.
• A beak/jaws attack that deals 1d6 piercing damage and has the deadly d8, finesse, and unarmed traits.
• An antlers/horns attack that deals 1d6 piercing damage and has the finesse, shove, and unarmed traits.
• A tail attack that deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage and has the finesse, trip, and unarmed traits.
• A talon attack that deals 1d6 slashing damage and has the finesse, grapple, and unarmed traits.
• A tentacle/tongue attack that deals 1d4 bludgeoning damage and has the finesse, grapple, and unarmed traits.
• Your fists increase their damage die size by one step and they lose the agile trait. This increase in damage die stacks with one other source, such as the Martial Artist archetype.

Working to control your hybrid state has come at the cost of your weapons training. You only gain the extra damage from precise strike on attacks gained from your hybrid form, ancestry, or heritage. You may only perform finishers with these weapons.

Beastinator Dedication           Feat 2
[Archetype] [Class] [Dedication]
Archetype beastinator
Prerequisites beastinator specialization
A deep connection to your inner beast grants you enhanced senses. You gain one of the following senses available to your chosen animal: darkvision, low-light vision, or scent (imprecise) 30 feet. You must have low-light vision before you can gain darkvision with this feat. This enhanced sense only works in your hybrid form. If your chosen animal doesn’t typically have a specific type of sense, you instead gain a 1st-level swashbuckler feat of your choice.
Special you cannot select another dedication feat other than Beastinator Dedication until you’ve gained two other feats from the Beastinator archetype.

Additional Natural Weapon           Feat 4
[Archetype]
Archetype beastinator
You gain an additional natural weapon from the options made available to your hybrid form. If your chosen animal doesn’t typically have a specific weapon from the list above, you cannot take this feat.

Venomous Precision           Feat 4
[Archetype]
Archetype beastinator
Prerequisite your chosen animal has an ability with the poison trait.
You have the ability to inject foes with deadly poison. You may change the bonus damage of precise strike from precision damage to poison damage. This does not work for any finisher besides Confidant Finisher.

Bestial Mobility           Feat 6
[Archetype]
Archetype beastinator
Your hybrid form gains some of the mobility of your chosen animal. Choose one of the Speeds that the animal has access to.

• Burrow: You gain a burrow speed equal to 5 feet plus your bonus speed from panache.
• Climb: You gain a climb speed equal to 10 feet plus your bonus speed from panache.
• Fly: Once per round, you may Leap while already airborne. You can also Arrest a Fall.
• Swim: You gain the ability to breathe underwater. You also gain a swim speed equal to 5 feet plus your bonus speed from panache.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you do, choose a different Speed available to your chosen animal.

Venomous Finisher [1 action]           Feat 8
[Archetype] [Finisher]
Archetype beastinator
Prerequisite venomous precision
Make a slashing or piercing Strike with an unarmed attack that allows you to add your precise strike damage. If you hit, the target also takes persistent poison damage equal to your precise strike finisher damage.

Okay, that’s it for now. The archetype is a little lean but I think I’ve got the point across. I might come back in the future and add more feats. Especially more finishers. But until then, this should be plenty to sink your teeth into.

I want to thank everyone who’s been waiting patiently during my sudden hiatus. I’ll spare you the details, but a sudden death in the family and a rapid upheaval in my personal life meant that I had to shift priorities to get my act together. But things are turning stable and things should be back on schedule, assuming nothing else comes out of left field.

Speaking of schedules, come back next time and I’ll turn up the spooks and bring a vibe most foul.

“One day, I will cringe at works that I have yet to even create.”

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that knows the lore, shows bad guys the door, and chambers its rounds for full bore. Today we’ll be looking back at my old attempt to mix firearms with magic. It was an attempt I’d call pretty okay-ish, but it was missing that extra little umph I like to put into my work. And I’m going to fix that now, so let’s kick off my alternate-alternate mechanics involving arcane firearms.

Rune Cannons [Rare]

These magically infused firearms act as a means of channeling magical power into powerful shots. Unlike their more commonly available counterpart in runeguns, rune cannons lack their own innate spells and instead rely on specially prepared cartridges that hold individual spells. These cartridges are expendable resources that all have unique design quirks based on the targeting of their spells. Casting fireball with your rune cannon will usually launch the entire cartridge, which explodes on impact, while casting lightning bolt may end with you ejecting a scorched, inert shell from your rune cannon.

Casting a spell from a rune cannon requires you to first spend an action loading a cartridge, similar to loading a firearm. Casting the spell requires the same components, with somatic components replaced by operating the firearm while material components are part of the cartridge’s construction. Verbal components replicated by the mechanisms of the firearm, requiring the wielder to make an action with the auditory and manipulate trait. Spells that normally do not require a saving throw or an attack roll must still be ‘fired’ at their target, and such spells require a spell attack roll against the AC of an unwilling target to affect them. If the attack roll misses, the spell fails and the cartridge is consumed as normal.

No matter how elaborate a rune cannon may appear, they still have the function of a basic firearm. When a rune cannon is created, its creator chooses one type of common firearm to act as the foundation. A rune cannon can be wielded as that type of firearm as normal, or used to cast spells through cartridges. This uses the wielder’s spell DC and spell attack roll bonuses where appropriate. However, thanks to their overlapping fields, any wielder that is at least expert in the appropriate firearm counts as trained when casting spells with a rune cannon.

As with any other kind of firearm, rune cannons can be enhanced with runes. Fundamental runes can also affect the spells cast with rune cannons. A weapon potency rune grants its item bonus too all spell attack rolls made with the rune cannon, but it does not apply on any attack roll that does not target Armor Class. A striking rune amplifies your spells. When you cast a spell from your rune cannon that consumes a cartridge, if the spell deals damage and doesn’t have a duration, you gain a status bonus to that spell’s damage equal to half of the spell’s level. If you have a greater striking rune, it instead deals damage equal to the spell’s level. If you have a major striking rune, it deals damage equal to one and a half times the spell’s level.

Each rune cannon is a priceless tool of its own unique creation, tooled towards a specific magical tradition. A rune cannon made of wood and enchanted stone could be a created for primal magic and would only be able to cast cartridges made for spells on the primal list, for example, while an elaborate rifle made of steel and glass may be attuned to arcane spells.

Despite their unconventional nature, cartridges are functionally similar to scrolls in terms of their cost and difficulty to create. A cartridge is created with a specific spell at a specific level and is consumed when used. A rune cannon cannot cast a spell from a cartridge with a spell level that is more than half the level of the rune cannon (rounded up.)

New Arcane Thesis: Arcane Cannoneer

Through access to exceedingly rare tutelage, dissection of a rune cannon, or deals with shady entities, you have begun to unlock the secret of constructing a rune cannon of your own design. Choose one commonly available firearm worth 10 gp or less. You become proficient in that firearm and gain one for free. That firearm also counts as a rune cannon with a level equal to yours. Since your rune cannon is a prototype that feeds off of your own power, it cannot be used to cast spells by anyone other than you. If your rune cannon is damaged, it is returned to full HP during your daily preparations. If your rune cannon is ever destroyed, you can rebuild it for free with one week of downtime. At 11th level, your proficiency with your chosen firearm is increased to expert.

Instead of preparing spells like normal, you weave magic to infuse temporary cartridges from the spells in your spell book. You may infuse one cartridge for each appropriate spell slot. For example, a 1st level wizard with a specialization in evocation can prepare two 1st level cartridges of any school and one 1st level cartridge for a 1st level burning hands. You also prepare special cartridges for your cantrips that are not consumed on use and can be ejected and stored in your spell component pouch during the same action it takes to load in a different cartridge. These infused cartridges only function for your rune cannon. As soon as you make your next daily preparations, your infused cartridges from the previous day’s preparations are rendered inert and worthless. While infused cartridges are physical objects, they can’t be duplicated, preserved, or created in any way other than your daily preparations.

Scrolls would be ~way~ cooler if they ejected shell casings.

Origin of the Rune Cannons

Durasa of the Fell Forge is a fallen angel who seeks to restore his former glory through any means necessary. Throughout his banishment to the nine hells, he made several deals to gain knowledge in forbidden arts, learning to forge both blood and souls through the cost of his personal strength and fortune. It is through these abilities that he found a way to distill pure magical power into forms that can be used by any mortal. He offers this through two means: access to rune cannons, which he himself invented, or through a transfusion of blood that allows one to become a sorcerer of any bloodline.

If a mortal accepts either deal, they are doomed to hell upon death. Those who accepted the former deal will serve as eternal slaves in his forge, while the souls those who accepted the transfusion are used as they key component to create a rune cannon. Durasa has leveraged this unique service in an attempt to climb the infernal hierarchy. His efforts were foiled when his greatest apprentice broke into his forge to liberate a significant portion of his subjugated souls, humiliating him at a pivotal moment. Little is known about the apprentice, save for the rumor that they’ve been using Durasa’s own crafting techniques to give these liberated souls a second chance at life.

Durasa of the Fell Forge is a weakened erinys with a +16 Crafting modifier and the ability to craft any commonly available mundane or magical item as well as rune cannons of any level. He bears a curse as a stipulation of his various running contracts, and as a result, he treats the results of any Crafts roll as two degrees lower when creating something exclusively for his own benefit. He has the contract devil’s Draft Contract ability, but can only use it to offer magical power power (granting the Sorcerer Dedication feat while ignoring the prerequisites) or a rune cannon with a level equal to the recipient’s level.

And there you go, a way to load magic into a gun and pull the trigger that requires absolutely no traditional magic if you don’t want to deal with that. Alternatively, you can go all in on the ‘magical soldier’ vibe and live that Arcanopunk fantasy proper.

Would ever make your own arcane cannoneer wizard? Tell me about it in the comments! And come back next time for a special message from our sponsors at AbadarCorp.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that plunges the all-grasping hand of mechanics elbow-deep through the gooey slop of time itself to retrieve the most delicious nuggets of flavor. Today I’ll be presenting a sort of alternate-reality version of the Anadi with a different set of statistics. Think of it as a different timeline, or another dimension, or maybe as a replacement for the original version if your home game’s GM is so inclined. While it isn’t made with Paizo’s blessing, I can safely say that it’s made with love.

Anadi

Anadi in their true form resemble humanoid spiders with a variety of colorations. Some tones look simple or muted while other remain striking and vibrant, with most patterns inherited from an anadi’s parentage. Anadi typically have spindly limbs and range from five feet to six and a half feet tall. Females are typically larger than males, but the extremes in size are not exclusive to either.

All anadi possesses the ability to transform into a human guise. This form can resemble any human ethnicity, but it’s usually one that blends in with the region of an anadi’s hatching. Anadi reach physical maturity after 13 years, going through multiple phases of molting along the way. A typical anadi lives to be about 80 years old.

Anadi
[Rare]
Hit Points 8
Size Medium
Speed 25 feet
Ability Boosts Dexterity, Free
Languages Anadi, Mwangi. Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if positive). Choose from Draconic, Elven, Gnoll, Iruxi, Orcish, Sylvan, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Traits Anadi, Humanoid
Change Shape You gain the Change Shape ability
Change Shape [One Action]
[Anadi] [Arcane] [Concentrate] [Polymorph] [Transmutation]
You change into your human form or true form. Each form has a specific, persistent appearance. In your human form, you can’t use unarmed attacks granted by your ancestry. Using Change Shape counts as creating a disguise for the Impersonate use of Deception.
Fangs You were born with a natural means for hunting and self-defense. You gain a fangs unarmed attack that deals 1d6 piercing damage. Your fangs are in the brawling group and have the finesse and unarmed traits.

Additional Heritages

The following new heritages are available to anadi. In the case of Adaptive Anadi, the version presented here is intended to replace its predecessor.

Adaptive Anadi
You descend from a line of anadi who worked to perfect their transformation magic, allowing them to integrate into a wider variety of cultures. Choose a common humanoid ancestry of medium or small size. Your human form is replaced with a form that matches this choice. You also gain the Adopted Ancestry feat for your chosen humanoid ancestry.

Diving Anadi
Generations of living near lakes and rivers helped you develop waterproof webbing to make ‘air bags’ for living and hunting beneath within the depths. You gain a swim speed of 10 feet and the Breath Control feat.

Leaping Anadi
Your powerful legs and relatively lightweight body allow you to leap impressive distances at a moment’s notice. You become trained in Athletics (or another skill, if you’re already trained in Athletics) and you gain the Quick Jump feat.

Ancestry Feats

These ancestry feats are compatible with both versions of the anadi. Note that the Hybrid Shape feat has no effect for this article’s rewriting of the ancestry’s rules and should not be taken.

Adaptive Eyes                    Feat 1
Prerequisites Adaptive Anadi with a chosen ancestry that naturally has low-light vision or darkvision
You work towards refining your chape changing abilities to minimize the discrepancies between yourself and your fellows. While in the form of your chosen ancestry, you gain low-light vision.
Special If your chosen ancestry has darkvision, you may choose this feat a second time. If you do, you gain darkvision instead of low light vision.

Defender Form                     Feat 1
When using your Change Shape ability, you may instead assume a spider form. Your spider form counts as your true form for the purpose of ancestry feats. Your fangs attack increases to 1d8 damage and gains the forceful trait. You also aren’t flat-footed when climbing in your spider form. However, in your spider form you can’t use weapons, shields, or other held items of any sort, and you are limited in what actions you can take that have the manipulate trait. The only manipulate actions you can take are to Cast a Spell with somatic components, weave silk or webbing, or simple Interact actions such as opening an unlocked door. Your spider legs can’t perform actions that require fingers or significant manual dexterity, including any action that would require a check to accomplish. The GM might determine other manipulate actions are appropriate for your spider legs.

New Material: Webweave

This versatile material is most often created by anadi, awakened spiders, and druids with an affinity for arachnids. Any item primarily made through weaving can be made out of webweave, such as clothing or rope. Webweave naturally degrades without treating from special preservative herbs and oils and only lasts from one week to one month depending on wear and tear. This makes them impractical for an average adventurer, but highly desirable for anyone able to produce it on a regular basis.

As the materials are usually abundant and easy to produce on a smaller scale, webweave only costs one fifth of the item’s typical price. However, this price is charged each time the item is maintained by a webweave provider. The cost of permanently preserving webweave items makes them roughly as expensive as their conventional counterparts, though some works of vanity are made more valuable through the use of rarer herbs and magically infused oils.

If it didn’t come from the tailor’s actual physical body, can you really say they put effort into it?

And there we go. Players have more options, and I get to lay one of my deepest regrets to rest. (Look at the Web Weaver feat, and then look at the price of rope, and you’ll see what I mean.) Come back next time and I’ll explain how the founding fathers clearly intended for the second amendment to give me access to high level evocation magic.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that explores flavor through expression of the soul but forwards this information through the expression of an expertly served knuckle sandwich. And while I’m on the topic of intense physical pain, let’s discuss how to say everything you need to say by punching someone in the face.

There are countless ways for you to express your character at the table, but I’m going to wager that one of the first things that come to mind is the art of straightforward conversation. And this is fine, of course. Have your stoic fighter tell the tale of how slavers came to her village to burn down the houses and kidnap the workers and steal their dog’s credit card information and all that. It paints a clear enough picture to get a general idea going. Maybe spend a lot of time at the bar while going into intimate detail telling your backstory as you assault your liver with gnomish ale and hit on every adult under 4 and a half feet tall because that’s just how you do. But I’m going to tell you how you can portray a lot about your character within the confines of an initiative roll.

Louder Than Words

It was during a vod from one Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw that I heard an interesting opinion about fighting games. It’s been a while and I don’t remember it word for word, but he commented that fighting games characters tend to have very expressive designs that combine with their move sets to communicate who that person is to the player. This is because fighting games don’t have a big emphasis on story, and you can’t expect your average player to read through two dozen wiki pages’ worth of lore to decide who they want to pick for their first time in training mode. They’re just going to pick the one that looks cool or matches their vibe and go from there.

This may not seem like it matters for your average tabletop roleplaying game, especially since reading up on lore is a core part of the experience, but the lesson to learn is about delivering information elegantly. Let’s go back to our example fighter. She goes for decisive blows against crime lords and bandit leaders, but holds back and deals nonlethal damage to the minions because she knows they may have been pressed into service. When the party cleric is lit up by an alchemist’s fire, she reveals that the wizard dedication she took a few levels back was just so she could learn water type spells that can extinguish fires. Despite her paltry training in diplomacy, she always tries to talk down the dwarven leader of their rival adventuring party.

And she does not, under any circumstance, allow animal companions to carry the party’s credit cards.

All of these are actions that can take place in the game, often during combat, but still say a little bit about the character. Her desire to rescue people from bad situations. Her dedicated focus on fire safety. Her ideal relationship dynamic playing out like Shadow of the Collosus. These are actions that speak louder than words. And more importantly, they do so in a way that flows more naturally with the character than going down a bullet point list or recording a Top Ten Reasons for Vengeance (Number Four Will Surprise You!) video.

But it isn’t just about the actions. It can be about your character build and what that says about you. If you want to get into your own character’s head, look at the class you picked. It’s also the class they picked. Look at the feats, spells, and items you picked. Those are, retroactively, the things that your character picked. Ask yourself what this says about your character. Do they end fights as quickly as possible, or do they enjoy drawing it out? Are they open to new ideas, or are they more likely to embrace old traditions? Are they the kind of person who will set expectations and then subvert them entirely?

You’re free to build what you want. I am neither your boss, nor your father. But asking yourself “what does this say about my character?” with every major ability is a great way to figure our who they are and give everyone else a pretty solid idea as well.

But Wait Words Are Pretty Good Too

But before you go, we can’t forget words. Specifically, the words your character might say in the middle of a fight. Let’s play a little game. I’m going to link you a collection of quotes from one of my favorite characters without much context and you can listen to however much you’d like. Go ahead, give it a listen.

Now that you’re done, what can you tell me about the character? I don’t expect you to know all of his lore, and I don’t think you can sus out his abilities from just his quotes, but I bet you can get a general mood. A direction. Inspiration, even. While you don’t have to borrow a whole script line for line, hearing some quality voice acting can really help to flesh out your own character’s general feel. And just as importantly, it can inspire how you communicate these details to the party in ways they’ll never forget.

“Well, he did make a pretty good point.”

And before I go, let me leave you with some parting words. And by that, I mean words that you the player might say to describe your character right after they take down an opponent.

• After the monster falls, her head snaps to the next opponent. There’s a hunger in her eyes.
• Her hand trembles, barely able to hold her blade, and she whispers “I’m sorry” under her breath.
• Her gaze lingers on her fallen opponent’s valuable gear, but she thinks better of it. For now.

And there we have it, a way to speak entire paragraphs with just four knuckles and a bit of fighting soul. If you’re looking for more sources of inspiration, I suggest trying your hand at fighting games. It might be more fun than you think. Come back next time and I’ll find another ancestry to get irrationally angry at over the internet.

Additional Heritages

Soulwrought Garment
Instead of having a body of cold steel or carved wood, you are woven from fine cloth into an outfit suited for dazzling performances. Choose between Craft and Performance. You become trained in your chosen skill. If you chose Craft, you gain the Specialty Crafting feat. If you chose Performance, you gain the Virtuosic Performer feat. You also function as Explorer’s Clothing, and can etch armor runes onto yourself as normal.
When using Moment of Influence, you may make a check with your chosen skill’s specialty or perform your chosen skill’s specialty as a downtime activity. Reduce the number of actions it takes to make your wielder Stride by one.

Soulwrought Jewelry
Your consciousness is divided between four parts of a set that may include rings, a necklace, a tiara, or other such worn finery. All four pieces share your Hit Point total, but you only take damage once from any ability that affects multiple parts. You only perceive through one part of you at a time, but you may switch which part you perceive from as a single action with the concentrate trait. If any part that is not carrying your perception is relocated to another plane, it becomes inert until returned to your plane. If a part is destroyed, it becomes inert until brought back to life and your perception is shunted to the nearest living part if necessary. If any parts of you are inert for any reason, you gain the doomed condition with a value equal to the number of inert parts.
When using Moment of Influence, you may spend three actions to make each creature wearing at least one of your parts take a single Stride action.

Mind Over Matter, Metal Over Mind
While a soulwrought character may use the body of their wielder, the living equipment still calls upon its own knowledge and sense of self to take action. Actions taken by the soulwrought during Moment of Influence still relies their own proficiencies and ability scores.
In addition, the class of a soulwrought character is often reflected in their function and construction, allowing for activities that are unique to their particular design. As a result, the following class abilities are exceptions to soulwrought’s Inflexible ability.

• Alchemist: advanced alchemy, infused reagents, quick alchemy
• Inventor: explode, overdrive
• Summoner: manifest eidolon
• Thaumaturge: exploit vulnerability

“Merisiel! I turned myself into a crossbow! I’m Crossbow Craig!”

Ancestry Feats

Ancestral Design                     Feat 1
[soulwrought]
You were created by an artisan who wished to reflect the techniques and aesthetics of their ancestry, and much of that culture echoes within you. Choose one common humanoid ancestry that you have access to. You gain the Adopted Ancestry feat for that ancestry, and learn one language that is tied to that ancestry or a region they call home. You gain a relevant trait, such as dwarf, elf, or goblin.
Special You can select this feat only at 1st level, and you can’t retrain into or out of this feat.

Lightweight Design                     Feat 1
[soulwrought]
Prerequisites cannot be a soulwrought weapon based on a 2 handed weapon
You were crafted with lightweight materials or with excess fabrics that can catch the wind. You take no damage from falling, regardless of the distance you fall. This feat has no effect if you are being wielded or worn unless the wielder is also immune to falling damage.

Soulwrought Lore                     Feat 1
[soulwrought]
Many soulwrought tools seek to learn about the nature of their own construction, and you are no exception. You gain the trained proficiency rank in Arcana and Crafting. If you would automatically become trained in one of those skills (from your background or class, for example), you become trained in a skill of your own choice. You also become trained in Soulwrought Lore.

Spirit Body                     Feat 1
[arcane] [conjuration] [soulwrought]
You are able to project your spirit as a physical being that wields your body. You gain the Spirit Body ability.

Spirit Body [1 action]
[arcane] [conjuration] [soulwrought]
You summon or dismiss your spirit body. When summoned, your spirit body appears already wearing or wielding you as appropriate for your heritage. It is a small or medium creature, determined by your construction. It has a Speed of 25 feet, uses your AC and Saves, and any damage it suffers is instead subtracted from your Hit Points, though only you take damage from spells and abilities that effect you both. It is invisible, but gains no benefits from this unless you are also invisible. It cannot take actions unless commanded by your Moment of Influence ability. If it drops or otherwise releases you for any reason, it is automatically dismissed.
If you are being worn or wielded by another creature, this ability has no effect.

Weapon Integration                     Feat 1
[soulwrought]
Some sort of blade, spike, or bludgeoning implement is added as a key feature in your design. Choose a one-handed melee weapon that you have access to. You may be wielded in combat as that weapon. You may have weapon runes etched onto yourself as normal.
When using Moment of Influence, you may Strike with yourself as a weapon.

Storage Compartment                     Feat 5
[conjuration] [extradimensional] [soulwrought]
Your construction includes some means of storage such as internal pockets or a hollow shaft, or perhaps your body is itself a reinforced bag. Your storage is supplemented with magic and functions as a Bag of Holding, but storage is limited by the Bulk you can carry. If you are encumbered by this bulk, the actions required to retrieve one of your storied items increases by one due to overcrowding. If your wielder attempts to retrieve an item against your will, they must succeed at an Athletics check against your Fortitude DC. Attempting to store a magic item that would cause an interaction that results in your cataclysmic destruction, your body reflexively rejects the item and disgorges its contents in the process. This reflex also occurs if you are destroyed, which prevents them from being lost forever.
When using Moment of Influence, you may use your wielder’s open hand (or similar grasping appendage) to retrieve an item from your storage.

It’s hard to tell, but this is an entire adventuring party.

Bestow Knowledge                     Feat 9
[soulwrought]
You may endow your wielder with a fraction of your own power. During your daily preparations, you perform a ritual with your wielder. It gains the archetype dedication feat for your class as well as a feat from the same archetype of 4th level or lower until their next daily preparation. Because you are the conduit for this power, they must choose similar options, such as sorcerer bloodlines, druidic circles, barbarian totems, and so on. The GM is the final arbiter for what feats the wielder can obtain.
As you are partially responsible for the actions taken with your gifted power, you also suffer the consequences of any anathema performed by your wielder during this time.

Cryptometallurgy 101
Soulwrought creations are living things, despite their nature as objects. Their life energy is sustained by slowly siphoning off of their current wielder. This practice is not harmful to the wielder, though it does mean the host requires roughly twice as much food and water to sustain themselves. When left without a host, a soulwrought armament can enter an extended state of dormancy. In this magically induced hibernation, it remains inactive until disturbed by the curious and greedy alike.

And that’ll be it for now. I’ve got a few more rough ideas for this ancestry, but I’ve got to leave a little something for the imagination, right? I’m sure I’ll be happy to revisit this at some point in the future, maybe add some proper lore and a few more feats to round it out. Come back next time and watch me express my inner soul through interpretive Tai Bo.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog where I slave over a hot forge to bring you the freshest new mechanics that have been crafted with an artisan flavor underlay. This time, I’m going to kick off another multi-part set of articles because my insatiable urge to bring abominations in this world has inspired me to stuff sentient souls into unfeeling steel like some kind of abyssal panini press.

Time is money and money is words and words are at a premium so let’s get right to the mechanics. Allow me to present the Soulwrought ancestry.

Soulwrought
[Rare]
Hit Points 8
Size Sized for Medium and Small creatures
Speed 10 feet
Ability Boosts Constitution, Free
Languages Common. Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if positive). Choose from Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnomish, Infernal, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent to your region).
Traits Construct, Soulwrought
Constructed The materials of your body resist ailments that assail the flesh. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws against death effects, disease and poison as well as to saving throws against effects that would give you the drained, paralyzed or sickened conditions. Your unique construction means that you’re a living creature, and you can be healed by positive energy and harmed by negative energy as normal.
Inflexible While not entirely inanimate, the construction of your body limits mobility. You gain resistance against physical damage equal to one third your level, rounded up. You can’t use other weapons, shields, or held items of any sort, and you cannot take actions with the manipulate trait. None of these restrictions apply when using an ability granted by your ancestry, heritage, or an ancestry feat.
Moment of Influence Those who carry you with them tend to fall under your sway. You gain the Moment of Influence ability.

Moment of Influence
[One to Three Actions]
[Arcane] [Enchantment] [Incapacitate] [Soulwrought]
Prerequisites you are being worn, wielded, or otherwise held at the ready by an intelligent creature
You temporarily take the reigns of the creature that holds you. You may take any action that is purely verbal, speaking through the creature in its own voice. You may also will the creature’s body to move, spending two actions to make it take one Stride action or three actions to make it take two Stride actions.
If the creature is unwilling to cooperate, it is allowed a Will save against your Class DC or Spell DC (whichever is higher) to resist your influence for one full turn, or for one full hour on a critical success.

Life on the Item Rack
Instead of a regular body, your consciousness inhabits a piece of gear. Your general size, weight, and proportions are determined by what kind of equipment, which is typically specified by your heritage. If your heritage does not determine the specifics, then assume you weigh 1 bulk, require one hand to use, and are made out of commonly available materials. While many effects are determined by what type of equipment you are, you do not gain the equipment’s Hit Points or hardness.

“Yes, I specialize in grappling. How’d you guess?”

Soulwrought Heritages

Each soulwrought construct is made for a particular kind of task. Some are forged as weapons, while others are created to protect, and some are built to be advanced tools. A soulwrought’s heritage represents their general purpose. Versatile heritages represent soulwrought constructs with far more esoteric designs that often eschew traditional functionality.

Soulwrought Armor
Your body is made of layered chain, infused leather, or some other protective material. Choose a suit of level 0 armor that you are proficient in to determine the protection you provide. Choose whether you are designed to fit Small or Medium creatures. You become a construct of that size and your Speed increases to 20.
When using Moment of Influence, you may make unarmed Strikes using your fists or any other natural attack. You don’t take the usual -2 circumstance penalty when making lethal attacks with nonlethal unarmed attacks.

Soulwrought Focus
You were designed to channel magical energies, similar to a staff or wand. Choose one cantrip from the arcane spell list. You can cast this spell as an arcane innate spell at will. A cantrip is heightened to a spell level equal to half your level rounded up.
When using Moment of Influence, you may Cast a Spell through your wielder’s body. Any creature that successfully identifies the spell also detects you as the true caster.

Soulwrought Shield
Your body is a wall that safeguards others from danger. Choose a level 0 shield to determine the protection you provide. Your resistance to physical damage increases to one half your level, rounded up.
When using Moment of Influence, you may attempt a Shove maneuver or perform the Raise Shield action. For all intents and purposes related to shields, you may treat your wielder as yourself.

Soulwrought Tool
You were built to assist with a specific suite of tasks. Choose one skill. Your body functions as a multi-purpose tool that covers any typical function of that skill. You also become trained in that skill and gain the Assurance feat for that same skill.
When using Moment of Influence, you may make a check with your chosen skill, use a skill feat tied to that skill, or Aid your wielder with that skill.

Soulwrought Weapon
You are an implement of war, carried into battle by the brave and the desperate alike. Choose one commonly available weapon to determine your statistics when wielded. You become trained in that weapon if you weren’t already.
When using Moment of Influence, you may Strike with yourself as a weapon or use any feat or ability that involves making an attack roll with yourself as a weapon. If another ability would allow you to take an attack of opportunity, you may use Moment of Influence as a reaction to take the action instead.

Mister Sword’s Wild Ride
It’s no surprise that handling a sentient piece of magically-imbued equipment can seem like pretty bad idea for both parties involved if it doesn’t like you. A conflict of interests is to be treated like a grapple. In the case of soulwrought armor, treat the wielder as being grabbed by the armor. In most other cases, treat the soulwrought character as being grabbed by the wielder.

And there we have the start of something wonderful. Not quite enough to play a first level character (unless you get weird with it) but hopefully enough to catch your interest! Come back next time and I’ll write you up some ancestry feats so you can finally live out your fantasy as the world’s greatest kitchen set.

You know that I can be a bit of an alignment absolutist. When I saw that headline, I started cooking up a little story about a mad scientist and his captive devil. Something about a debate on whether outsiders are truly sentient, a bit of angel blood transfusion, throw in some body horror with a medical motif, and maybe a few other things worthy of their own spicy content tags. But I decided to pump the breaks this time. Mix it up with something a little less monstrous and a little more medicinal.

Now let us prepare to honorably practice medicine.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that keeps it faithful to the flavor while not too afraid to take a swing at the mechanics. Today I’ll be entertaining a last-minute deviation from my usual grim affairs by presenting an alternative means of battlefield healing. But first, let me set the mood.

Majari’s wooden blade comes down over the shoulder of the well-worn training dummy, sending a sharp snapping sound through the air and a flash of pain through his muscles. His fingers maintained their grip on the hilt despite his body’s protests.

“Again.”

The training sword struck again, beads of sweat dripping from his flexing arms after impact. He allowed a himself that little flex. A curling of the toes. A twitch of the left eye. Anything to break the repetition.

“Again.”

The voice of his trainer wasn’t helping with that. In fact, her cadence was as numbing to the mind as the drills were to his body. Good for focusing on the task at hand, no doubt, but it clashed with the question bouncing around his brain with an intensity that only grew with each strike.

“Again. Your stance is faltering.”

She noticed. She always noticed. Majali’s legs were turning to jelly, and his arms weren’t far behind. Even worse than that was his focus. “I don’t get it.” He huffed between swings. “We’ve been at this all day.” Again. “I came here asking.” Again. “For healer’s training.” Again. “What does this have to do…?”

Mercifully, her hand tapped his wrist. It was Lady Lanius’ way of saying he’d had enough. “Iomedae’s chosen are many things. Healers, defenders of the people, keepers of the peace. But we must also inspire those around us to better themselves.”

“I mean, I understand that. Set a good example. Show everyone that there’s a better way. I get it.” By now, Majali’s arms have gone slack at his sides, his eyes half open. He was tired, frustrated, and maybe a little disappointed. “What do sword drills have to do with tending to the wounded?”

Lady Lanius said nothing in response. Instead, she reached to the wall for a training sword of her own. Standing before the training dummy, her powerful form dropping into a stance, she took a moment to center herself before bringing her blade down on her stuffed opponent.

Again. And again. And again. With swings practiced countless times, she fell into a trancelike rhythm. “Join me,” she spoke without breaking her pace, “when you are ready.”

Majali would have groaned out loud in protest, had he not felt the strength slowly returning to his body. Already, he was at his senior’s side, fingers tightening around the hilt of his weapon.

Strangely enough, he wanted to hit the dummy again.

Inspiring Zeal                     Spell 1
[Enchantment] [Necromancy]
Traditions divine
Cast [3 actions] material, somatic, verbal
Range 30 feet emanation
Duration until the end of your next turn
You bolster your allies and lead them by example. You and all allies in the area gain 6 temporary Hit Points. If you successfully Strike a foe or succeed at hitting a foe with a spell that requires an attack roll within the duration of this spell, both you and the effected allies are healed for 4 Hit Points by the inspiring display. As this healing comes from bolstered faith, it works the same for both the living and the undead.
Heightened (+1) The amount of temporary Hit Points increases by 6 and the amount of healing increases by 4

“We’ve finally got some -healer- loot to drop.”

One of the interesting things to come from my indulging in other RPGs is that I get to see how they handle basic roles and mechanics we’ve come to expect. Take healing, for example. We have our usual ways of restoring hit points and our alternative flavor methods of doing the same, but they’re fairly similar. Meanwhile, the Discipline priest from World of Warcraft has a fascinating mechanic where it can heal allies by casting damage spells. I’d be lying if I said they weren’t a big inspiration for this article.

Looking at different means of healing leads to some fun ideas. Pathfinder 2e already has an interesting alternative for anyone with the proper training to be the party healer without having to resort to your typical healbot cleric. It makes you wonder what else could work. A purely preventative healer who uses temp HP? A vampiric aura that heals allies who damage enemies? Maybe a way for the party to split damage among themselves? So many ideas, so little time.

It’s something to think about for later. And speaking of later, come back next time and I’ll show you how to build a fully fleshed out character with just the Equipment chapter.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that brings the spooks all year round. This time, we’ll be looking back into the Mwangi Expanse to revisit the cuddly and lovable anadi. It may be fashionably late, but I’m going to give them a proper Halloween makeover. And as the proud author of the anadi ancestry, I’d like to think that the following content has a little extra love poured into it. Even if it’s entirely unofficial and in no way part of Paizo’s canon.

Strands of Knowledge

Some of the most brilliant scholars counted among the anadi make their home in the city of Majabi. There, aspiring spellcasters enjoy access to knowledge passed down from their earliest sages and ritualists. Even the First Weave, a tapestry of webbing that documents the foundations of their innate magic, resides within the city. But well-documented arcane lore and carefully maintained druidic customs are not the only forms of enlightenment to be practiced by the reclusive spiderfolk.

Deep within the tunnels below Majabi, in secret places that even most of the anadi do not know of, sacrifices are made to protect their people’s secrets. A cabal of occult spellcasters stand guard over knowledge held close to the anadi people, whether it’s power too dangerous to fall into the wrong hands or secrets that could harm their nation if ever exposed. And in order to ensure their eternal vigilance, they have perfected the art of converting their own numbers into mummified guardians.

Imagine this, but wrapped up like a spider burrito.

These ‘web mummies’ are made from a freshly mummified anadi corpse. The process involves the consumption of specially crafted toxins and spices to desiccate internal organs before they are subsequently carved out of the body. The remains are then wrapped in a shroud of its own webbing, adorned with dozens of talismans and trinkets, then left in a dry and lightless cavern until it rises again.

As with most forms of creating undead mummies, much of the gruesome process must be performed on a still-living victim. However, through the mastery of the occult, anadi have found a way to tap into a sort of communal shared mind. While it cannot completely shut out the suffering, it allows multiple anadi to shoulder the burden and ease their transition into their new state. Due to the nature of the ritual, web mummies are often made in matched sets of anadi that share a strong friendship or even a web marriage.

Even when expertly crafted, a web mummy will lose some of its former abilities, such as the ability to take a humanoid form or produce venom. Their dispersed consciousness also leads to a weakened sense of self that slowly degrades over time. However, this dispersion also projects their consciousness throughout their webbing, allowing it to act as a sort of supernatural sensory organ. Web mummies have an occult sense that allows them to read the emotional resonance from objects they touch, making them the perfect guardians for coded secrets and unprecedented interrogators of would-be thieves. This extended webbing also acts as an aid in their locomotion, the comparatively agile web-tendrils pulling their stiff, desiccated body through their domain with a semblance of grace.

Their object reading also manifests as a sort of ‘hunger’ for emotional experiences. With a continually degrading ego, web mummies must replace what they lose with experiences passed on by others. It is a tradition among the anadi of Majabi to leave personal trinkets as offerings for deceased loved ones, casting them into underground webbing to symbolize the departed returning to Grandmother Spider’s embrace. With a steady supply of trinkets to obsessively read and the eternal company of their close companions, most web mummies maintain a stable mindset. Eventually, their collection of trinkets is so large and so well studied that the mummy learns how to use them in combat. Those who find themselves without these benefits eventually lose themselves to their hunger, becoming half-feral murderers and thieves of memories.

Web Mummy                     Creature 7
[Rare] [LN] [Medium] [Mummy] [Undead]
Perception +15; darkvision, web sense
Languages Anadi, Necril
Skills Acrobatics +15, Athletics +12, Craft +13, Occultism +15, Religion +13, Stealth +17, Web Lore +17
Str +2, Dex +6, Con +1, Int +6, Wis +4, Cha +2
Web Sense The web mummy has imprecise tremorsense to detect the vibrations of creatures touching its web
AC 24; Fort +12, Ref +15, Will +17
HP 120, negative healing; Immunities death effects, disease, paralyzed, poison, unconsciousness; Weaknesses fire 10
Aura of Cobwebs (aura, occult, transmutation) 20 feet. Creeping webs extend from the web mummy’s body, attempting to entrap its prey. Each round a living creature starts its turn in the area, it must attempt a DC 22 Reflex save. On a failure, it takes a -10 foot circumstance penalty to its speeds until it leaves the area, and on a critical failure, it is also immobilized for one round. Creatures can attempt to Escape at the same DC to remove these effects. The web mummy may only cast its innate spells against targets within the aura.
Speed 25 feet, climb 25 feet
Melee (one action) Fangs +16 [+11/+6] (finesse), Damage 2d6+4 piercing
Exploit Secrets (one action) (curse, divination, manipulate, occult) The web mummy peers into the soul of one creature within its aura of cobwebs and makes a Web Lore check against a normal DC for that creature’s level. On a success, it learns the creature’s greatest weakness. The web mummy’s attacks now activate that weakness. If the creature has no weakness, the web mummy crafts a personalized implement of that creature’s bane, giving it weakness 10 against the mummy’s attacks. This lasts until the web mummy uses it against a different target.
Occult Innate Spells 4th empathic link, object reading; 3rd comprehend languages; Cantrips (4th) detect magic, read aura

No word from Nana what she thinks about this. Let’s, uhm… keep it just between us.

Running a Web Mummy Encounter

Much like a traditional mummy, the anadi variant typically serves to guard a dusty old tomb or vault with untold treasures. As befitting for their people, these tombs are typically overrun with heavy patches of webbing that serves both as an impairment to tomb raiders and an early warning system for the guardians. As web guardians tend to work in groups, it makes more sense to run multiples of them against a higher-level party. However, a single web mummy that has succumbed to its hunger is far more prone to wander and can be encountered just about anywhere in the Mwangi Expanse and even beyond.

It should be noted that a party with anadi representation is far more likely to be able to negotiate with a group of web mummies. These undead of sound mind would be more interested in reading the party’s items than hearing their words, both for the sake of their hunger and as a defense against common deception.

Playing as a Web Mummy

It is largely possible to approximate the experience of playing a web mummy with resources that are already available. An anadi PC with the mummy archetype already has the basics. Talk with your GM about modifying some feats, such as having the dedication’s unarmed attack work in your humanoid and hybrid forms, or allowing the PC to choose underground as a bound terrain and adjusting other feats accordingly. You may want to rework your despair aura to instead entrap your opponents. The thaumaturge would make for an excellent class choice, as it was the primary inspiration for the exploit secrets ability, though any form of occult caster is also suitable.

And now that I’ve wrapped that one up, I think it’s about time I get some shut-eye eight times over. I’ve certainly had enough time surfing the web with this one, so I’m going to lay to rest. Come back next time and watch me do another Tom Foolery with the alignment system.

Something like an exaggerated funeral dirge plays as a voice in a Common accent that you can’t quite place cheerfully chimes in. “Hey there, rosy cheeks! Have you had a THIRST for the night life? Have you ever wanted to sink your TEETH into something grand? Thanks to new innovations in necrogra-“ the message cuts off as you unlock your device and minimize the volume. It’s bad enough that you have to live this close to Eox and it’s decomposing population, but the few neighborhoods with real living people have ad-drones buzzing every device in range with their disgusting commercials.

You take an early turn between two service garages, hoping that the thick walls interfere with the broadcasts, but you’re barely a dozen places in when you turn another corner and stumble right into a trio of locals. Young adults, thankfully as flushed and lively as you are, with a Kuthite’s worth of piercings between them and clothes that are ratty in a trendy sort of way. “Oh hey, what’s up?” one of them asks.

It takes you a moment to recover, and another moment to work your word-slurry into an intelligible response, but his audible sniffing cuts you off. “Looks like you’ve had a lot to drink, friend.” He grins, his fangs glistening. “I’m thinkin’ we might have a few pints ourselves…”

He laughs. His friends laugh. You take a step back. More voices behind you laugh.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that offers a good vintage of flavor and mechanics on the bleeding edge of development. This time, I’ll be making a sort of follow up to my last article about vampires with a special twist. And thanks to certain ideas still bouncing around in my head, I’m going to make this one extra special. You’ve possibly heard of vampire grafts for monsters, but let’s make a more literal vampire graft for player characters.

Eox: proudly redefining the meaning of “tourist trap”

Embrace of the Night

Recent developments in custom necrografts have led to the creation of multiple augmentations that are meant to directly interface with one another, drastically altering the user while granting them new abilities. One particular collection, dramatically titled “night’s embrace,” was created to simulate abilities commonly used by vampires. Night’s embrace is a matching set of necrografts that are installed in the heart, skin, throat, stomach, and brain. While they have a collective cost and are all installed during the same surgery, they still count as multiple necrografts for all purposes of using multiple necrografts and the associated drawbacks.

The levels and cost of each model are as follows.
Mk 1, level 1, 800
Mk 2, level 6, 16,000
Mk 3, level 12, 120,000
Mk 4, level 18, 1,400,000
Mk 5, level 20, 3,100,000

Each recipient of night’s embrace gains some form of a bite attack. This usually comes in the form of fangs, but may take the shape of a circular mouth lined with teeth, a tentacle tongue with a barbed sucker, or something even stranger. Mk1 allows the recipient to make unarmed strikes that deal piercing damage that no longer count as archaic. Mk 2 allows your bite to function as the vesk natural weapons ability. Mk 3 allows your bite to deal persistent bleed damage, as per the Wounding rune. Mk 4 elongates your fangs, granting your bite the Grab universal monster rule. Mk 5 increases the persistent bleed damage to 2d6.

Night’s embrace also modifies the metabolism of its recipients, making it so that they only need the blood of the living to survive. Feeding on a restrained, unconscious, or willing creature takes 10 minutes and causes the creature to lose 1 Resolve point if it has any, or deals 2 Constitution damage if they do not. Feeding on an unwilling creature requires the user to damage a creature with their bite attack while grappling them. Each time the recipient feeds from a significant enemy or ally of a similar level, they regain a number of hit points equal to the necrografts’ mark. The user may only regain hit points in this way one per creature per day.

As a part of the creation process of this collection of grafts, portions of small bats (or other creatures of personal significance) are carefully prepared and implanted into the epidermal layers of the user’s body. The user may spend one Resolve point as a standard action to pump blood into these creatures and temporarily reanimate them in a gruesome, if painless, display. Unless stated otherwise, these effects last one minute. Mk 1 grants the user 20% concealment. Mk 2 instead grants 40% concealment and grants half as much to any ally within 5 feet. Mk 3 grants you a fly speed of 30 feet (average maneuverability). Mk 4 allows you to attack with the swarm, granting the reach property to your bite attack. Mk 5 allows you to completely disperse into bats as a reaction when brought to 0 hit points, granting effects identical to swarm defenses and orc ferocity for one round.

With a strong affinity for undeath, the user has certain protections, even if it isn’t as strong as the real deal. The recipient of night’s embrace has a bonus to saving throws equal to the necrografts’ mark against disease, exhaustion, fatigue, mind-affecting effects, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning. They also gain resistance to negative energy damage and nonlethal damage equal to twice the necrografts’ mark.

Of course, having such an extensive modification has its own downsides as well. As the parts for these necrografts are harvested from from vampires and their victims, many of their weaknesses affect the user as well.

• If the user has not sufficiently fed themselves within the last 24 hours, their body struggles to hold itself together and they do not regain Resolve from resting.
• When exposed to direct sunlight without environmental protection, the user becomes staggered and takes 1d6 damage per mark of the necrografts each round.
• The unique nature of night’s embrace means that it has the faintest hint of a self-preservation instinct. If it is fully removed by any means other than upgrading to a better model, it preserves itself by syphoning the host’s vital essence. This preserves the necrografts, but kills the host.

But at least you can worship Best Girl Urgathoa.

And there we have it. A nice little way to play as a ‘vampire’ in your game without having to build rules from scratch or lie to yourself about it. Heck, if you throw in last week’s delve into augmentation culture, you’ve got enough of a baseline to run a whole story! And speaking of running, the month of October is running along quite nicely. I’d say I’ve got something extra spooky up my sleeve, but horror is par for the course with this kind of blog. Tune in next time and maybe I’ll cook up a Halloween special.

Anyway, where was I?

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that’ll kit your body out with the sickest cutting-edge mechanics this side of the Pact Worlds and send your brain halfway to cyber psychosis with all the flavor it’s packing. Today I’ll be reexamining the augmentation options for Starfinder and asking a single question: after replacing so much of your body with top shelf tech, how much if you is still in there?

Optional Rule: Ego Rot

Cyber sickness. Chitter. Chasing the pale horse. Fae-mind. The phenomena of goes by many names and comes in many forms, but it is most commonly referred to as ego rot. Ego rot is a broad term used to describe a degradation in the sense of self caused by overuse of augmentations. As each kind of augmentation interfaces with the body in its own way, each type of ego rot can come with different symptoms, thresholds for triggering, and means of treatment. The issue is further complicated when considering each individual having different reactions, the general availability of augmentations, and the massively influential industries with a vested interest in their success.

Each broad category of augmentations has its own rules for how much an individual can handle without any complications. When taken beyond that limit, the augmentations begin to influence their user’s biology and psychology in ways that are usually detrimental and only intensify as the user upgrades with even more augments. Despite the insistence of several advertisement campaigns and medical experts on corporate payrolls, personal upgrades very much count for meeting such thresholds.

Some individuals possess extraordinary tolerance for modifications and are able to surpass these limits. Whether from a lucky roll of the genetic dice or access to well-protected surgical and engineering techniques, these fortunate few can withstand modifications that would destroy lesser bodies. Any bonus augmentations gained through features such as the geneturge mystic’s personal modification or augmentations slotted into bonus slots from sources such as the augmented archetype do not count against these limits.

An even rarer few are born with a seemingly limitless tolerance for augmentations that defies conventional study, though their biology has its own unique quirks to deal with. Some of these ‘evolutionists’ see themselves as the future of sentient life, while others see them as monsters wearing humanoid skin. Evolutionists do not suffer ego decay from augmentations tied to their niche.

A note for GMs: These rules set out to penalize excessive augmentation use. As a result, there should be more augmentations available in order to incentivize their use. Consider decreasing prices by about 10 to 20 percent (stacking with theme discounts) depending on what’s most popular where the PCs are shopping.

Cybernetics

Cybernetics represent the most iconic form of augmentation in the Pact Worlds and beyond, and no one is quicker to point that out than the leading brand names in cyberware. Everyone from the top names on Verces to back alley ‘choppers’ offer a wide variety of ways to replace the soft and vulnerable flesh with durable steel. Most sellers and operators worth the credits will insist that cybernetic augmentations are perfectly secure from electronic interference, but that’s not entirely true. While minimal augmentation results in minimal danger, the perpetual game of leapfrog between hackers and cybersecurity means there’s always a risk.

Adding even a single cybernetic augment to a living body causes the recipient to gain the bionic subtype. Abilities, items, and spells that detect or identify constructs reveal cybernetic augments (identifying only the augmentations as constructs, rather than the recipient creature as a whole).

Creatures with this subtype are also damaged by spells that damage constructs and can be subject to construct-specific effects. If a spell or ability that does something other than deal damage would not normally affect such a creature but does affect constructs, it can affect a creature with the bionic subtype, but that creature gains a bonus to AC and saving throws against the effect equal to 4 – the number of cybernetic augmentations it has (to a minimum bonus of +0). Once a creature reduces this bonus to +0, the cybernetics begin to overtake the body. If such a creature is affected by an ability, item, or spell that would heal Hit Points or Stamina to living creatures only, reduce that healing by a number equal to twice the creature’s cybernetic modifications.

Biotech

Biotech augmentations represent a more visceral approach to body modification. Many die-hard fans of biotech praise it as being a more natural approach, while others feel a deeper sense of connection with a mod that was alive even before it became a part of them. These statements hold water for most light users, but frequent augmentation can wreak havoc on someone’s biology all the same. While a healthy body can adapt to several augmentations, often mutating minor cosmetic features that match the ‘donor’ species, overindulging can lead to a wildly mutagenic and seemingly mercurial body and a half-feral mind swimming in a multi-species cocktail of barely-compatible chemicals. Ego rot caused by biotech is often nicknamed after bestial sounds with names such as The Howling or Chitter, inspired by the sounds its victims often make.

Adding even a single biotech augmentation to a living body causes the recipient to gain the biomorph subtype.

A creature with the biomorph subtype can easily sustain a number of biotech augmentations equal to their Constitution modifier. Additional augmentations tax the recipient’s mind and push them towards a sort of half-feral state. The creature suffers a penalty to all Charisma-based checks that don’t make direct use of their augmentations (such as bearing biotech fangs as part of Intimidate or displaying bioluminescent feathers as part of a Profession check) equal to the number of biotech augmentations above their limit.

Don’t think I didn’t forget my vendetta, Oras.

Magitech

Magitech combines the complexities of cybernetics and magic, often requiring an escoteric skillset to create and install. The comparative rareness of these kinds of augmentations mix well with the commonality of traditional magic to create a perception of stability and reliability that other forms of modifications lack. Add the fact that most recipients, even the heavy users, tend to have less threatening manifestations and you have the perfect storm of marketing potential. As such, magitech is often seen as a more ‘noble’ kind of augmentation, with many clients numbering amongst figures who want an air of eldritch power or spiritual leaders who desire ostentation. Of course, like all augmentations, these have their downsides. As the augmentations connect the mind to the essence of the supernatural, excessive use erodes the user’s sense of reality. The overburdened brain begins to de-synchronize with the material plan and visions from alternate timelines or layers of the ethereal mingle to create fleeting visions and audiovisual nonsense. Out of all forms of ego rot, abusers of magitech are by far the most likely to have cults form around them.

Adding even a single biotech augmentation to a living body causes the recipient to gain the runebound subtype.

A creature with the runebound subtype can easily sustain a number of magitech augmentations equal to their Wisdom modifier. As a fundamental understanding of magic lends itself well to bearing the burden of magitech, a creature capable of casting spells may instead use the ability score tied to their spellcasting DCs. Additional augmentations blur the line between mundane reality and sensory overload from planar energies normally invisible to the naked eye. The creature suffers a penalty to all Perception checks, Sense Motive checks, and checks to Recall Knowledge that do not revolve directly around magical phenomena equal to the number of magitech augmentations above their limit.

Necrografts

Necrografts have an interesting public perception around the Pact Worlds. The inherent downsides of using too many are more commonly known, which leads to fewer people taking the initial plunge, but it means those that do are usually more aware of exactly what they’re getting into. Sentient undead have the least to lose from being the recipient of necrografts and make up their primary customer base, though some body mod fanatics and mortals that have a morbid fascination with death are also common among their users. It is this smaller, more concentrated community that has lead to groups of ‘grave dodgers’ that form closer bonds with one another. Some of these groups delve deeper into the scene, augmenting their bodies until they’re indistinguishable from the actual walking dead.

Some innovative grave dodgers have created specially crafted personal upgrades based on necrografts. These use on a variety of methods, ranging from injections of extremely potent ectoplasm to seances with expensive offerings to coax willing spirits into their bodies.

Similar to the bionic subtype, creatures with necrograft subtype who reduce their bonus against undead-specific spells and effects to +0 begin to undergo additional transformations as undeath seeps into the rest of their body. Their dietary needs shift to a more carnivorous palette. Work with the GM to determine the specifics, but it should always require a creature that was once alive. As the creature gains additional necrografts (starting at 4 and increasing to 8) these needs should become more specific, requiring fresher nourishment and prey closer to the creature’s own species. What begins as buying from the local butcher may ultimately end with craving the still-warm flesh of their slain kin, for example.

Necrograft users be like “Nah man I’m good for one more.”

And that’s what I’ve got for that. Do you like it? Does it make you want to add a twist of introspective philosophy and a pinch of psychological horror to your game? You think about that, and I’ll go work on my next Starfinder character. I’m thinking gnome soldier for this one. Come back next time when I actually do that thing that I said I’d do last time. It’s probably going to read like a mix of this article and another one that I wrote not too long ago.

This is a Pathfinder Class Guide for Terrible People.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that guides you through mechanics to find some delightfully devilish flavor. Today, I’ll be giving you very serious and highly optimized advice about choosing a class from the core rulebook. I would normally cover other options and expanded content, but we already know the coolest ancestry and the best class. Plus, when it comes to backgrounds, I have nothing to say about murder hobos that aren’t honest with themselves.

Alchemist
With below par accuracy, mediocre armor class, and a dearth of class abilities beyond your consumables, it’s not hard to see alchemist as little more than a sentient vending machine. But most fail to realize is that your greatest feature: a complete lack of ethics. You don’t have to be accurate; you just have to upgrade enemies from “dearly departed” to “closed casket funeral.” You don’t need survival when your enemies are rolling on the ground while suffering from multiple warcrimes. Just remember that you need to earn your spot on that watch list, no matter what your side hustle suggests, and you’ll be fine.

Barbarian
This is what happens when you want to upgrade your violence into ultraviolence. Playing a barbarian is all about getting mad, no matter the reason. Are you mad about Dungeons and Dragons being more popular? Are you mad about large sized ancestry feats taking until the end of the campaign to get? Or do you really like to emphasize the indiscriminate half of indiscriminate violence? Regardless of what gets you slamming the Caps Lock key, there’s a barbarian playstyle for you.

Bard
Everyone knows the memes about seductive bards, but that was mostly a distraction for you to spend time consorting with eldritch powers beyond space and time. Bard is actually one of the more difficult classes to play; not because it’s inherently complicated or taxing, but because you’ll need the willpower to avoid spamming some of the best cantrips in the entire game, and just one of these spells is strong enough to banish the entire witch class back to Hot Topic.

Champion
The artist formerly known as paladin is a class we all know and love. We’re also well aware of the moral failings and problematic historical context that can come with these cross-country crusaders. However, anyone familiar with my works already knows that my response is to kick down the door and flashbang the entire discussion, so my advice is to do that, but get as many party members in on it as possible. Make a whole team of champions. Stack your masochistic meat walls and endure more suffering than the quality assurance team at Bethesda.

Cleric
I could copy paste the champion section and call it a day, but I’d like the unusual relationship cleric has with their favorite ability score. Thanks to the divine list’s access on no-save buff spells, it’s entirely possible to build a cleric with a focus on charisma, thanks to your Divine Font turning a high charisma modifier into a ridiculous pool of spells. And as a bonus incentive, you can achieve some of the highest damage per round by dropping three one-action Harm spells on one opponent in a maneuver I like to call the Vibe Check.

“Today, we shall find glory! Tomorrow, we shall find ourselves in an angry Reddit thread!”

Druid
Sure, the alchemist may be responsible for the majority of lethally addictive substances on the street, but he wouldn’t be anywhere without your supplies. You are the master of nature, a child of the wild, and out of every class you are the one with the greatest obligation to finally avenge Harambe. In fact, you are the most equipped to deal with the ongoing issue of animal cruelty; Not to end it, but to turn it into a mutual exchange. No matter what you do, always remember that it’s only a crime if you get caught, and the authorities never investigate bear attacks.

Fighter
For generations, players who refuse to contribute to the party in any way outside of initiative have flocked to the fighter. Looking back at any version of the class will show you one with a focus on combat to the point of it being a detriment. The fighter is uninterested in magic, dismissive of skills, and outright refuses to deal with any issue that isn’t measured in hit points. In fact, Fighter Enjoyers have single-handedly sustained this class for so long that the rest of the game has actively evolved around them. And with a flat “because reasons” attack bonus above other classes in the same role, it’s safe to say that the long con has paid off with interest.

Monk
A class for people who take the “with my bare hands” approach to their crimes against the multiverse, monks are powerful fighters who are especially good at fighting skeletons. And I don’t mean undead, though they are good at that, I mean the ability to debone your opponents through sheer bult trauma. Whether you roll decide to make homages with your cool and original OC named Bruce Vee, or you’re fighting in the streets as the equally inventive Kyu, you’ll have plenty of fun with a rousing game of Stance Dance Revolution.

Ranger
If you want to play ranger, you’re one of two kinds of players. Either you’re a refugee from DnD fifth edition and you want to know what the class would look like if it were actually viable, or you’re an old hat from previous editions that’s nostalgic for your favorite mechanic and have unironically used the term “managing biodiversity” in an online debate. Thankfully, we have a more thoughtful and enlightened ranger for the modern era. And by that, I mean rangers have begrudgingly admitted that if there were no more kobolds then they wouldn’t get to fight them anymore.

Rogue
A rogue is a master of the three S’s: Snark, Sneak, and Stab. These veteran cutthroats have been around since the early days, where their sole reason for existing at all was to deal with the game’s most historically annoying mechanic. Thankfully, they’ve grown beyond that legacy to become a class in their own right, and this version has a ridiculous level of choice from the get go. Just remember that every rogue is still a murderer at the end of the day. As every alchemist is an international incident waiting to happen no matter what they tell themselves to sleep at night, every kind of rogue is trained in finding just where to stick a knife to put someone into the past tense.

Sorcerer
People say the bards are the ones who treat the average monster encounter like a dating simulator, but you’re the one with great grandfather decided to get saucy with the hottest shoggoth in the club. This manifestation of super powers might allow you to engage in some analogous roleplay, but in the face of fey tricksters, invasive necromancers, and a world-threatening Sigma Lich, the ability to cast mage armor and magic missile twice per day might seem quaint in comparison.

Wizard
Ah, the wizard. A class for the kind of person who has no power, but slowly learns how to seize it from reality. A class for the kind of person who wishes to look upon the entirety of the cosmos, find it wanting, and distort it to their will. And whether you wish to do this by violating the rules of nature, trying to beat the alchemist’s atrocity count, or destroying the very idea of compliance with facts and logic, rest assured that by simply picking this class you’re doing your part to continue a legacy of power, arrogance, and gaslighting reality itself. There’s a good reason why so many villains are some variation of wizard.

Pictured: A wizard, unsatisfied with mastering the sin of Greed, invents Greed 2.

And there you have it. Community Service obligation fulfilled. It’s a long story, but there was a class action lawsuit from the Church of Oras, an alleged bioengineered virus, yadda yadda, all in the past. Let’s put it all behind us and focus on the future. Come back next time and I’ll stress test that theory about whether or not people can hear me screaming in space.

I find your continued silence on the matter of my ascension to be increasingly frustrating. It was one thing to be ignored when I unleashed my little fleshy sprouts across the cosmos. But then I touched the essence of divinity itself, unshackling mortals from their linear biology, and you still remained stone-faced. And I know you saw them. The so-called God of Evolution does not miss an epidemic of their followers bursting into people-spaghetti.

I see now that more drastic measures have to be taken to get your attention. Before, I was focused on creating new abominations, but you’ve ignored it. Now, I will change something that already exists. Something that nearly everyone holds dear. In fact, I think I’m going to spread my influence to one of the oldest pillars of the universe.

That’s right, I’m revoking your elf privileges.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that looks at the intersections of mechanics and flavor by seeing what happens to one when you completely replace the other. Thanks to recent developments in temporal shenanigans, we’re going way back to change a few vital aspects of the Pathfinder setting. Remember elves? You may know them for their expert archery, arcane prowess, or their Any% Tool-Assisted speed run tech, but I’m going to put my own little spin on them.

Spoiler: I’m gonna make it weird.

Elf

Elves are a species of highly adaptive aliens that came to Golarion thousands of years ago. While their features can vary greatly, they most often come in a humanoid shape with tall, slender bodies. Their skin color can come in the full spectrum available to humans, but cases of blue, violet, and greenish pigmentation are not unheard of. Elves have keen eyes that come in any number of colors, but tend to be darker, and they feature irises so large as to make the whites in their eyes nearly unnoticeable.

The unusual life cycle of the elves is their most unique feature. Elves are born bearing the body of insectoid larvae with blind humanoid faces. These elflings are watched over by other elves for several years until they go through a metamorphosis. At this time, the larval elf weaves a chrysalis around itself, remaining dormant for nearly a century under the continual care of their kin until emerging as a fully grown, mentally matured adult.

Stranger still is the what happens after maturation. Each adult elf remains an active member of the community for some time, usually a few decades, before striking out on their own. This elf, seemingly overcome by some instinctual drive, restlessly travels into an environment that they find suitable. Then, they undergo a second metamorphosis. This is a gradual process in which the elf mutates into an entirely different creature that exists on Golarion. The elf may end up gaining an ogre’s worth of weight, shedding flesh until they’re as light as a pixie, or transforming from a mammal to a plant or insect.

The change is so thorough that no previous distinctions of the old body remain; even divination magic detects the new form as its own creature. Scholars are completely baffled as to why elves evolved to “grow out” of their own ancestry, and how their new forms even manage to breed true with their “adopted” species. Elves usually transform into plant, aberrant, and bestial forms. This has spawned the idea that elves themselves are the larval form of many species on Golarion. While the idea has gained some popularity in recent years, it is still dismissed as a fringe conspiracy theory by the greater scientific community.

History and Culture

Elves speak a strange language, known simply as Elven to outsiders, a secret tongue that relies on layers of expression: its mix of vocal utterances, distinct pheromones, and subtle movements make it impossible to translate by traditional methods. Among those who study elves, the more magically inclined speculate that elves have some kind of inherent telepathic connection, which may explain how they emerge from the chrysalis as fully functional adults. Despite research proving elves have the anatomy to verbally communicate and well beyond the cultural complexity to do so, precious little documented evidence exists of elves contacting outsiders.

Elven communities are small and live in harmony with the environment, guiding plants to grow into shapes that can better shelter them rather than building homes from harvesting raw materials. Using magic to enhance this growth or to shape the stone around them is also not unheard of. Elves prefer communal living with wide open indoor spaces to accommodate the cocoons that often outnumber their waking population threefold. This gives their architecture a certain alien, organic appearance, as if Golarion itself is evolving to accommodate them.

Religion

Long ago, the goddess known as Calistria grew jealous of the talents of two talented deities: the siblings Shelyn and Dou-Bral. This envy eventually drove her to abandon Golarion and wander the cosmos, and as she wandered the dark places between and beyond the planes, she was eventually corrupted by an alien being. By the time she returned to reality, she was reborn as the twisted Xaya’norath, abandoning her graceful elven form for that of an aberrant and bloated wasp queen.

According to elven legend, this dark goddess created their people and sent them to Golarion through tears in reality as a means of reclaiming Golarion as her own. Her children would become the elements, the trees, the beasts, and all other things that do not worship the gods that she believes to have betrayed her. This puts her at odds with most other deities, with a few exceptions. Shelyn and Dou-Bral work together to try and free her of her pain and return her to her former glory. Lamashtu sees Xaya’norath as an upstart encroaching upon her portfolio, though the shared overlap leads to them being passionate collaborators as often as violent rivals.

Elves in Play

In this alternate timeline, elves are meant to serve the role of a cryptid in the woods or some kind of mystery befitting the Dark Archives. Alien, distant, and unsettling. As a result, they’re disconnected from the usual expectations and comforts of a player character ancestry. Elves seen in the wild are likely loners who are in the final stages in their life, already mutated into a half-recognizable mockery of an otherwise familiar creature. While not inherently violent, they are extremely protective of their secrecy. PCs going on adventures to sell knowledge about the elves could certainly fetch a rich reward from ritualists and xenobiologists, but it’s also possible for PCs to fight against less scrupulous mercenaries that wish to steal elven artifacts and capture specimens (dead or alive) for research.

Elven NPC stat blocks can reflect their mutagenic nature, especially in the late state of their life cycle, by simply flavoring an existing stat bloc. Give it the Elf trait to represent their vestigial heritage and throw a little body horror into the flavor text.

Elves as PCs represents a greater challenge. How do you humanize something that is deliberately being dehumanized? This one may work best with the GM working with the PCs to flesh out the details. Perhaps elven communities each have vastly different cultures and goals? Or perhaps elves are more unified, but it’s the other humanoids who seems strange to them? Consider playing up the eco-horror of watching urban settlements forcefully transforming the lands, and how their crafts butcher the earth to create dead and stagnant objects. In other words, elves seeing humans and dwarves as humans and dwarves see intelligent undead.

In terms of mechanics, the elf ancestry is functional enough, since most of the changes to their biology matter before or after their adventuring years. Treating the Beastkin (wasp) versatile heritage as a commonly available option for elves can play up the connection to their goddess. And as with goblins and Lamashtu, elves are not required to be a monolithic culture that all blindly worship Xaya’norath, though the GM and players can absolutely lean into that if they want to play up the shared psychic connection as some sort of hive mind.

And there you have it, my take on creepy elves, with a few handy tricks for using the game’s base mechanics to play them. Come back next time when I think of creative ways to explain the game’s mechanics very poorly.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that normally dives deep to observe the intersections of flavor and mechanics. Today, we’ll be stretching that definition like a strand of pink taffy as we recreate Android 21 from the hit game Dragon Ball FighterZ, a character who I believe was designed with my tastes in mind specifically.

A Brief Introduction
There’s a long version, but the short version is this: Android 21 is the creation of the evil Doctor Gero, made in the image of his deceased wife Vomi. 21 has little to no memory of the ‘template’ life she was made after, what with with Gero’s death preceding her activation. She is infused with the cells of many of the series’ heroes and villains, giving her a more inhuman true form and an immense amount of power. 21 also has the ability to absorb the strength of slain opponents and has an insatiable desire to feed on their energy. This hunger is the main drive behind her villainous campaign that forms the game’s main conflict.

So, we have our character. How do we make a character that replicates her base and her true forms? Let’s find out. And for those of you who play Pathfinder Society, I’ll try to keep it all within reason, but expect to spend a LOT of points on boons.

Level 1
It’s a running gag that most of the ‘androids’ in the Dragon Ball series are cyborgs, but the android ancestry is still a perfect fit. You can put the free boost into Strength. The tiefling versatile heritage can represent her true form’s nature, with Form of the Fiend at first level giving us access to her striking tail.
For her background, Discarded Duplicate accurately represents her. Choose Dexterity and Intelligence for your boosts. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume the GM gave the third boost to Charisma due to the reason for her creation. For Society players, you can pick up the Criminal background with boosts in Dexterity and Intelligence to represent what she’s done to satisfy her hunger.
Monk seems like an obvious pick considering the franchise, but we’ll be going with Magus to let you approximate some of her stranger abilities. Choose Laughing Shadow as your hybrid study, since it offers great mobility and good synergy with a ‘monk’ playstyle.
Your free boosts should go into Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence.
Arcana is your one free skill. Athletics is a must, and Religion helps understand your fiendish nature. Your high Intelligence allows for more skills, and Medicine, Acrobatics, and Deception will all serve you to some degree.

I’m not going to cover every good spell for every level, since the Spellstrike feature will naturally guide you on what to consider. However, I will point out specific spells that are useful for recreating 21’s moveset. Cantrips are a solid foundation, with Gouging Claw recreating her ‘blade’ looking attacks while giving you all three primary damage types. Ray of Frost and Produce Flame mimic basic energy blasts, while Shield is your ‘block’ and Detect Magic lets you sense power levels. For first level, Mage Armor holds you over until level 10 and Horizon Thunder Sphere is basically a move already.

Level 2
And after all that text, it gets easier from here. Additional Lore (Demon) for a skill feat lets you learn about the absolute fiesta that is your biology. Getting Arcane Fists as your first magus feat means you don’t have to just rely on your tail anymore. Scorching Ray makes for a flashy special attack.

Level 3
You’ll want to increase Thievery to expert because you can now learn Umbral Extraction, which finally lets you steal people’s powers. Ancestral Paragon allows you to pick up the Lore of the process of your own creation.

Level 4
Picking up Quick Jump lets you leap like an anime character, and Expansive Spellstrike opens up a wider range of attack options.

Level 5
At this level, we can finally get a base form with Devil in Plain Sight. We also get our first ability boost. Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence are to keep up. The boost to Int gives us a new skill, which can be Society to identify proper human meals (or something else for PFS players.) Athletics becomes expert to aid in our pursuit of prey, and Vampiric Touch satiates our need to feed.

When it comes to character designs, I have a type.

Level 6
We’ll get Titan Wrestler because what kind of Dragon Ball character would be scared by a large foe? Knowledge is Power speaks for itself, letting us use 21’s brilliance on the battlefield.

Level 7
We’ll be picking up Fleet for more mobility on the ground and Fly to finally fly like a proper fighter. Thievery goes to master for better spell stealing just as Umbral Graft becomes our primary means of siphoning magic for the rest of the campaign.

Level 8
With our high proficiency, the Pickpocket feat lets us snatch those pesky healing items and wish-granting artifacts in combat while Capture Magic gives us another option for absorbing energy.

Level 9
Android 21’s body can regenerate at a surprising rate, and Repair Module lets us do that. We also increase Athletics to master for those clutch throws. The Impaling Spike spell helps replicate that trick where 21 stabs her tail into the ground and attacks an opponent from below.

Level 10
The Quick Climb feat boosts our athletic prowess and ages well, while Dimensional Disappearance lets us do that ‘flash vanish’ trick you see all the time in the anime. Ability boosts go into Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence. And with that +5 Dexterity mod, you can get the most out of runes on clothes, so you don’t need Mage Armor if you’re tired of spending the slot.

Level 11
21’s durable body is tough to take down, so Toughness is on the menu. Arcana gets a boost to expert as it’s the source of her borrowed power. Vampiric Exsanguination lets her drain energy from whole crowds, Teleport allows her to Instant Transmission to faraway places, and Baleful Polymorph finally lets you transform foes into a helpless, more edible form. Just pretend that rabbit is made of chocolate or something.

Level 12
Powerful Leap gives you more distance for your aerial game, and Overwhelming Spellstrike lets your raw power push through your foes’ feeble defenses.

Level 13
With Revivification Protocol, your android body can bounce back from nearly anything. And your mind is as strong as your body thanks to bringing Arcana to master. Duplicate Foe allows you to create clones of your delicious enemies to distract them, and at this level Fly can lasts for a whole hour.

Level 14
Taking Assurance with Thievery means your spell stealing is guaranteed against lower level foes and you have more reliability against traps. Runic Impression shows the adaptability of that Majin Magic.

Level 15
Ability boosts should once more go into Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence, with the free skill from the Int boost going into Occultism for a wider range of knowledge. Incredible Initiative shows you’re ready to get in that first swipe, and becoming legendary in Thievery ensures it’s likely to work. No notable spells for 21’s style here, but you’ve got plenty worth heightening.

Level 16
Legendary Professional in Demon Lore proves you’re the foremost expert on the subject of your mutations. Dispelling Spellstrike lets you shut down the powers you can’t eat.

Level 17
The Final Form feat is about as Dragon Ball as Dragon Ball gets, but it comes with the assumption that it grants you free training in divine magic. If not, your form’s spell DCs will be a joke, so negotiate for different innate spells or just pick up Nanite Surge instead. Athletics becomes legendary, boosting some of your previous skill feats. Sill no flavorful spells, but 21’s favorites are reliant on heightening anyway.

See? Totally normal person now. Just ignore the crackling destructive magic.

Level 18
With Cloud Jump, your hops are almost a suitable replacement for flying on their own. Getting Conflux Focus gives you more leeway with focus spells.

Level 19
Canny Acumen can boost your Reflex saves to let you dodge those Kamehameha attacks. Arcana becomes legendary as your power reaches maximum.

Level 20
With a mastery of your craft, your Unified Theory gives you unprecedented insight. Supreme Spellstrike finally gives you some long-awaited freedom in the action economy. Your final ability boost goes into Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom. The later one is because an odd number to Intelligence does nothing and at this point your Will saves and Perception could use a boost.

But What About Free Archetype?
This isn’t for PFS folks so I’ll keep it short. Since you’re playing the game with free archetype as God intended, I’d suggest the inventor dedication with the construct innovation to represent you-know-who. Each of the archetype’s feats are worth taking, with your Advanced Breakthroughs going towards improving your son’s capabilities.

And that’s it for now. Feel free to use the build as is, or tweak it to your personal preferences. If you want the links to those models in hereforge, they’re here and here. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have some sweets and enjoy some more fan art. Come back next time when I ruin elves for everybody. And I mean make an absolute mess of them.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that celebrates the intersections between flavor and mechanics from the comfort of the most tricked-out lair you could ever imagine. This one is the second half of a two-parter, so let’s get right to the feats!

Basic Hideout Security                     Feat 3
[Archetype] [Collective] [Skill]
Prerequisites Hideout dedication, Expert in Crafting, Snare Crafting
You’ve taken it upon yourself to safeguard the hideout with traps. You may craft up to three snares from your formula book at no cost. These snares can only be set within or right outside of your hideout, as they save in cost by making use of the hideout’s environment and natural features. Constructing a free snare above your maximum limit causes the oldest one to fall apart from neglect.
Collective Each member of your collective, as well as any resident of the hideout, know the location of your snares and can move through them without setting them off.
Special You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you do, increase the number of snares you can set for no cost by three.

Additional Space                     Feat 4
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Hideout Dedication
You’ve learned how to be more efficient in construction of your hideout and piggyback off the resources of other projects to add additional expansions. Each time a member of the collective takes a feat in this archetype besides Additional Space, you may add one 10-foot cube to the hideout. This must go towards starting a new room or expanding upon a room that you have personally contributed to the hideout.
Collective Each member of the collective may take this feat once.

“Those heroes left me with this lovely footrest. Really ties the room together, don’t you think?”

Hideout Workshop                     Feat 4
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Hideout Dedication, trained in Crafting
You’ve managed to set up a station dedicated to a specific craft. Choose one specialty from the Specialty Crafting feat. The workshop has all the basic tools you’ll need to practice that specialty, and an environment so well suited to it that you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Crafting checks to Craft items of that type.
Collective Each member of the collective may take this feat once. For each additional feat, the hideout gains a new workshop with a different specialty.
Special If you have the Specialty Crafting feat, you instead increase that feat’s bonus to +2, or +3 if you are a master in Crafting.
The GM may rule that some forms of crafting (such as shipbuilding) may also require the Additional Space or Environmental Accommodations feats.

Guardian Animal                     Feat 6
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Hideout Dedication, trained in Nature
An animal has made its home at your hideout and protects it from invaders. You gain a mature animal companion, chosen from any kind of animal that could survive in your hideout. It is obedient to your collective and friendly towards the residents of your hideout. It is an extremely territorial creature, and will not adventure with you outside of the hideout. You can command the animal to regard outsiders with indifference, to give a warning (in the form of barking or similar displays,) give warning and attack if the hideout is breached, or to attack on sight. It will follow this command while you are away.
Collective Each member of the collective may take this feat once. Each feat grants a different animal companion. Though your hideout can have several guardian animals, they often compete for space, so you may only have one “active companion” that defends the base while the others rest in their pens or roam nearby in search of food. As soon as the hideout gains a second guardian animal, all members of the collective gain the Beastmaster’s Call Companion ability, allowing them to assign an active guardian animal.

Esoteric Repository                     Feat 7
[Archetype] [Collective] [Skill]
Prerequisites Hideout Dedication, master in any Lore
You have a trove of knowledge stored with cryptic methods, be it coded language that reads like classical poetry, family portraits that speak in sign language when put in order, preserved skulls of ambitious necromancers that whisper dark truths, or something even stranger. Choose two skills, at least one of which must be a Lore skill you are a master in. You may spend one hour to do research and make a recall knowledge check using one of those skills. If you do, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to the roll and may add your level, even if you aren’t trained. If you are a master in the skill, this bonus increases to +2.
Only members of the collective (and their hirelings, if they allow it) know how to use the repository correctly. Anyone else must first identify the repository’s function by spending an hour investigating and succeeding at a check using one of its related skills against your class DC or your spell DC, whichever is higher.
Collective Each member of the collective may take this feat once. Each additional feat beyond the first adds two additional skills using the restrictions above. They may also expand the repository’s room with a 10-foot cube of space.

See, they were -supposed- to beat the mimic in a rap battle to learn its secrets.

Mobile Hideout                     Feat 10
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Hideout dedication
Your hideout is built in such a way that it can be relocated with relative ease, be it a traveling circus, merchant caravan, or built within a seaworthy vessel. Choose whether your hideout can travel by land or by sea; by spending 8 days of downtime preparing your hideout for travel, you grant it a travel speed of 30 feet by land or 60 feet by sea. While traveling, most of the hideout’s functions are unavailable, though the GM may allow for some basic accommodations and defenses. When traveling is done, you may spend another 8 days of downtime reestablishing the hideout to sacrifice mobility to restore its other functions.
Collective Each member of the collective may take this feat once. They contribute to the same means of travel, with each additional feat increasing the travel speed by 10 feet (or 20 feet by sea.) Each additional feat also reduces the time required to prepare for travel and reestablish functions by one half, down to a minimum of one day.

Okay, a solid count of eleven feats should be enough to allow for some collective base building in a campaign. Do I have more ideas? You bet! Luxury rooms, teleportation networks, environmental controls that simulate outer planes, making the whole thing fly… I could get another article or two out of it, but I’d like to move on for now.

All that talk earlier about S’mores and Oreos got me hungry. Hungry on a deep, metaphorical level. Join us next time and I’ll indulge in my favorite kind of tabletop RPG junk food. And don’t worry, I’ll bring enough for everyone.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that has mixes the mechanics of proper hideout management with the flavor of tasteful interior decorating. Today I’ll be offering up a new archetype that allows your second edition Pathfinder characters to establish a home base. It comes with an extra special rule that allows your entire party to make a group effort towards the same investment.

Collective Archetypes

An archetype represents an individual’s exploration of an alternate path, but they need not go into it by themselves. Collective archetypes represent investments on a larger scale, such as a massive golem that requires multiple experts to construct or a fortress that is maintained by a dedicated team.

One character must take the archetype’s dedication feat as normal. They may then declare that the other PCs are part of the archetype’s collective. Each member of the collective counts as having the dedication feat for the purposes of prerequisites and may take additional archetype feats, but will still need to meet other prerequisites. For example, if the party’s alchemist invests in a giant golem to ferry the party around, the party’s wizard can use a follow-up feat to graft a ballista onto the golem’s arm, but only that wizard may take a feat to upgrade the ballista into a lightning cannon.

Some collective archetypes grant minions or other helpful companions. These companions are helpful and obedient to all members of the collective, but prioritize orders from their original master.

Hideout Dedication                     Feat 2
[Archetype] [Collective] [Dedication]
You’ve established a safe haven from the troubles of the world and a home away from home for your team. This takes the form of a room roughly shaped like a 10-foot cube. This may be its own construction, or it may be a safe location within a larger structure. While the hideout requires a further investment for protection, you’ve taken great care to keep it hidden; any check to find its exact location must beat a DC equal to your class DC or spell DC, whichever is higher.
Further investments in the hideout also expand its space. Each additional feat for this archetype adds an additional room up to one 10-foot cube in size. This room houses the necessary accommodations for the feat’s function and can’t be significantly repurposed without retraining the feat.
Each new room must be connected to the rest of the hideout. Players should be allowed some leeway in placement, but these shouldn’t take up more than one or two 5-foot cubes of connecting hallways per room added.
Collective Each member of the collective may take this dedication feat, granting an additional 10-foot cube of free space and allowing the highest of their class or spell DCs to determine the difficulty of finding the hideout. If a member of the collective dies or leaves their team, their contributions to the hideout slowly lose effectiveness and generally become inoperable after one month; minions leave for greener pastures, equipment fails, and portions of the base eventually collapse.

Hired Spellcaster                     Feat 4
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Hideout Dedication or membership in a hideout collective
You recruit a spellcaster to live in your hideout and provide their services. This may be an eager apprentice or a powerful creature offering a fraction of their power. Choose a spellcasting archetype to represent their contributions. Your hired spellcaster gains the dedication feat for that archetype, using your level as their own. Their key spellcasting ability is the same as your key ability score. They can cast spells or use items such as wands, staves, and scrolls, but will only do so within the safety of your hideout.
You may take the related Basic, Expert, and Master spellcasting feats as though they were part of the Hideout archetype, granting the benefits to your hired spellcaster. For casters such as wizards and witches, you may add spells to their spellbook or familiar, paying the necessary costs as normal.
Collective The spellcaster can be called upon for support. Once per encounter within the hideout, any member of the collective may have the hired spellcaster cast a spell, spending the same number of actions (or reaction) as the spell requires in order to give the command. For the purposes of range and line of effect, the spell originates from whoever gives the command.

His resume says he can complete any task he puts his minds to.

Hired Staff                     Feat 4
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Hideout Dedication or membership in a hideout collective
Whether its friends, servants, or noncombative members of the party, you were able to recruit a group of hirelings to maintain the hideout. This includes several unskilled hirelings that perform basic maintenance as well as one specialist hireling who can perform checks for one skill and one Lore with a modifier equal to your level +2. These hirelings can only operate in and around the hideout with any reliability.
Collective Each member of the collective may take this feat once. Each time beyond the first, the hideout only gains an additional specialist hireling.

Environmental Accommodations                     Feat 6
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Hideout Dedication or membership in a hideout collective; trained in Crafting and Survival
You manage to set up a system of pipes, heaters, and imported flora to accommodate a wider variety of inhabitants. Choose one kind of natural environment such as aquatic, forest, or swamp. The room granted by this feat contains everything you need to create an approximation of those living conditions in your hideout. When you first gain this feat, you may apply the changes to that room, any room adjacent to it, or any other room adjacent to a room with the same environment. Adding or removing these conditions can take as little as an hour (adjusting the temperature) or as long as a week (converting a large hall into an aquarium) depending on how drastic the change is. The GM may rule that some changes, such as creating an arctic biome within a volcano hideout, is impossible.
Collective Each member of the collective may take this feat once, choosing a new kind of environment and adding a new room from which to generate it.

Scrying Wards                     Feat 6
[Archetype] [Collective]
Prerequisites Hideout Dedication or membership in a hideout collective; expert in Arcana, Nature, Occultism, or Religion
Through a careful ritual, you protect the hideout’s objects and occupants from prying eyes. This has the effects of nondetection using your modifier in the prerequisite skill for the counteract DC and half your level for the counteract level.
Collective You may spend one week of downtime adjusting the ritual with the help of another member of the collective, using their modifier in any of the prerequisite skills of the counteract DC of nondetection.

And there we have it, a decent start on ways to share the love and have your whole party contribute to a sweet pad that’ll make all the other adventurers jealous. If you’re already considering scaled-down Kingmaker variations and watching Let’s Plays of Dwarf Fortress for inspiration, then it means I’ve done my job.

That said, I’ve got a LOT more ideas than just five feats and I still want to ramble about ways to use this kind of thing in a campaign, so I’m going to make this one a two-parter. Tune in for the next episode of PFS Cribs when I unleash a great battle cry and show you my “Sword & Floorboards” fighting style.

No, my friends, I love vampires!

I love the intrigue. I love the hunting. I love the emotion. I enjoy vampires whether they’re lovers or fighters or real estate moguls on the side. My heart skips a beat when I see them losing control to their instincts. I am at awe when I observe their centuries-long Machiavellian schemes in motion. Envy becomes me when I observe their secret societies. And I am held in rapt attention as I watch them truly let loose, whether it’s terrorizing the whole of humanity or annihilating nazi soldiers on the battlefield.

My friends… join me in this evening of revel. Join me as we remind those of Golarion why they should fear us, and respect us, and most importantly, who truly rules the night.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that sinks its teeth into the jugular of mechanics to take a big sippy from the succulent veins of flavor. This time, we’ll be discussing how it feels to play as a vampire. This is to celebrate the release of Book of the Dead, of course, and most certainly not because I’ve been dumping an unreasonable amount of time into V Rising.

Down by the Watering Hole

While countless permutations of vampires exist, they share one common trait: their eternal thirst for the blood of the living. And whether you’re a freshly-fanged fledgling or a half breed with the hunger you’re going to have to find a steady supply.

I’m going to assume that most vampire PCs aren’t playing as nobles in Ustalav from night one, with a castle in their name and servants to cater to their every whim with a whole stable of top shelf blood that lets them drink like a sailor on shore leave. Instead, you’ll likely be living from bite to bite, hunting for prey in the streets or putting yourself in social debt to the vampire aristocracy to keep yourself well fed within their territory. And being that this is Pathfinder, let’s go ahead and formalize a mechanic for that.

Stalk (Untrained)
If you need to satiate your predatory desires, as well as find shelter from retribution, you can use the Stalk downtime activity. This varies greatly based on your preferred method of hunting: Society if you lean on social connections, Bluff if you want to lure prey to your waiting jaws, or Survival for hunting in the wild are some of the most common methods.

Stalk[Downtime]
You try to provide sustenance for your predatory hunger, be it a vampire’s thirst for blood, a ghoul’s need to consume flesh, or even stranger necessities. The GM determines the nature of the place where you’re trying to Stalk. You may need a minimum proficiency rank to Stalk in particularly strange environments. Unlike most downtime activities, you can Stalk after 8 hours or less of exploration, but if you do, you take a -5 penalty.
Critical Success You either provide a subsistence living for yourself and one additional creature with a similar diet, or you discreetly feed while leaving little to no trace of your presence, making it exceptionally difficult to trace it back to you.
Success You find enough to feed upon with basic protection from the consequences of your actions, but active monster hunters are not thrown off the trail. If your feeding requires the death of your prey, you still need to dispose of the body.
Failure You’re left unsatiated and exposed, becoming fatigued (or a similar condition, depending on your physiology) until you attain sufficient feeding.
Critical Failure You attract trouble, failing to feed yourself while leaving behind ample evidence of your activities. Treat this as a failure, but you also gain the attention of monster hunters, rival monsters, or some other entity that is otherwise against your feeding practices.
Special If your feeding requires you to harm an unwilling sentient creature, this activity gains the Evil trait.

Remember: when you botch your hunt, it puts ~everyone~ at risk. Be considerate.

So, what do you do when you want to stay fed on the regular? As with any other resource, the key is persistence and investing. Luckily, I’ve got you covered. Not only can you keep yourself well fed when needed, but even a lowly mortal can get their foot in the door in the undead hierarchy.

Dark Shepherd                     Feat 1
[General] [Skill]
Prerequisites trained in Society
You maintain loose, regular connections with a particular group of people. This can be a dedicated fans of your work, intimate companions that frequent a particular tavern, a blood cult that sees you as their prophet, or some other mix of people who offer their trust and won’t speak of you to the authorities. When making a check to Stalk, you may tap into your own flock, which reduces the time required by half and allows you to treat your result as one degree higher.
Alternatively, you may leverage your resources in negotiations, granting its benefit to another monster of equal or lower social standing for one night. This grants a +2 circumstance bonus to a check to Make an Impression or Request a favor.
Special If you spend a significant time away from your flock or relocate to a new city, you will need to spend one week of downtime to establish a new one.

Children of the Children of the Night

So, you’ve got yourself settled in, you’ve made some friends in low places, and you’re wondering where to go from here. Naturally, the best way to expand your influence is to franchise. And what better way to do so than through progeny? Unfortunately, the playable vampire option suffers from the problem of feeling like a watered-down version of the real deal until you’ve got several levels and a fistful of feats in your pocket. And while it’s not as bad as reptoid PCs being literally unable do the infiltration that reptoids are known for, it does get lonely on those long nights.

Until now.

Vampiric Progenitor                     Feat 4
[Archetype] [Divine] [Downtime] [Necromancy]
Prerequisites Vampire Dedication
Your blood becomes more potent, allowing you to pass your vampiric essence on to new progeny. You gain a modified version of the Create Spawn ability. You may only create spawn from a creature that is lower level than you. To make your spawn, create an undead eidolon using the summoner dedication feat and apply the following exceptions:
• Your spawn does not have the eidolon trait. It gains the benefits and drawbacks of the Vampire Dedication feat except for the fangs attack.
• One of their granted natural attacks must be a fangs attack.
• Your spawn is not directly summoned by the Manifest Eidolon ability. Instead, this action to sends an unmistakable call through your shared blood. This cannot contain words, but an empathic bond allows you to communicate the urgency of the call. A spawn knows the exact location of your call and typically heads to that location as quickly as possible.
• Your control is stable, meaning you do not share actions. Instead, your spawn gains the minion trait.
• Your spawn is more independent. Instead of sharing your skill proficiencies, it becomes trained in a number of skills equal to 3 plus its Intelligence modifier, and gains Skill Increases at the same rate as your class.
• Your spawn is strengthened by your bond in blood: Each time you gain a feat from the Vampire archetype besides this one, your spawn also gains that feat. You may instead grant your spawn a skill feat so long as it meets the prerequsites.
Special You may create additional spawn, but doing so causes your current spawn to be released from your control, becoming an independent vampire. A freed spawn usually strikes out to find their own path in the night, but some may hold a powerful grudge over what they’ve become and plot against their former master.

Potent Spawn                     Feat 10
[Archetype]
Prerequisites Vampiric Progenitor
Your spawn becomes more adept at combat and can better protect itself. Your spawn becomes an expert in unarmed attacks. If you are an expert in unarmed defense, your spawn also becomes an expert in unarmed defense. If you have weapon specialization, your spawn also gains weapon specialization.

Greater Spawn                     Feat 18
[Archetype]
Prerequisites Potent Spawn
Your spawn nearly rivals you, balancing on the razor’s edge of power and loyalty. If you are a master in unarmed defense, your spawn also becomes a master in unarmed defense. If you are a master with unarmed attacks, your spawn also becomes a master with unarmed attacks.

They grow up so fast~

Wow okay I keep getting these simple little ideas that explode into huge articles. Funny how having a stable income and a kid does that to you. Anyway, hope you like it, let me know in the comments if you plan on morbing out in your next game. Join us next time and I’ll show you how to get the “hobo” out of Murderhobo.

I mean, he doesn’t lift any weights, but I’m stealing their equipment for a different kind of ‘body building.’

And speaking of mechanical monstrosities, it’s safe to say that the one thing that gets people’s opinion holes flapping just as much as alignment is the inclusion of guns in their fantasy roleplaying game. Or the general balance of guns. Or if guns where a mistake. And back in the day, boy howdy was it ever. Imagine a character that can hit your endgame boss on a natural 2 with his seventh stacking attack in the round.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that used to have a bullet with your name on it until I realized that addressing them “to whom it may concern” was just as effective and takes much less work. And while I normally discuss intersections of flavor and mechanics, I’m going to lean big on the mechanics this go-around because I’ve had an idea floating around in my head for some time and I might as well do something with it. I’m here to put the magic back into guns by homebrewing the guns into magic.

Runeguns

Many experiments have been conducted to find ways to enhance the accuracy of magic with the potency of runes in order to bridge the gap between trained warriors and scholarly acolytes. While the results have varied, the experience of the magi proves that channeling spells through weapons is one of the most effective methods. One such weapon is the runegun.
Runeguns operate in a fashion similar to a staff in the hands of a caster; The wielder prepares it by channeling their magic into it and casts spells by aiming the runegun and activating the spell. As runeguns are designed to ‘fire’ magic, they must be created with spells that target a line, a cone, a burst, or require an attack roll.
While they do not function as actual firearms, a craftsman can still etch fundamental weapon runes onto a runegun to enhance its capabilities. A weapon potency rune grants its item bonus to all attack rolls made by any spells cast with the runegun, but it does not apply on any attack roll that does not target Armor Class. A striking rune amplifies your spells. When you cast a spell that consumes at least one charge from the runegun, if the spell deals damage and doesn’t have a duration, you gain a status bonus to that spell’s damage equal to half of the spell’s level. If you have a greater striking rune, it instead deals damage equal to the spell’s level. If you have a major striking rune, it deals damage equal to one and a half times the spell’s level.

Degenerator Runegun                     Item 4+

[Magical] [Necromancy] [Runegun] [Uncommon]
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk 1

Writhing tendrils emerge from this runegun’s base and coil around a stout barrel that ends in what looks like a toothy maw. The wielder can allow the runegun to feed off of their blood as well as their magic; once per day, you may cast a spell from the runegun without using any charges, but you gain the drained 2 condition.
Activate Cast a spell; Effect You spend a number of charges from the runegun to cast a spell from its list

Type Degenerator Mk I; Level 4; Price 90g
• Cantrip acid splash
• 1st grim tendrils

Type Degenerator Mk II; Level 8; Price 470g
• 2nd acid arrow, grim tendrils
• 3rd grim tendrils, stinking cloud

Type Degenerator Mk III; Level 12; Price 1,800g
• 4th acid arrow, grim tendrils
• 5th cloudkill, grim tendrils

Type Degenerator Mk IV; Level 16; Price 9,200g
• 6th acid arrow, grim tendrils, vampiric exsanguination
• 7th grim tendrils, vampiric exsanguination

Peacekeeper Runegun                     Item 4+

[Conjuration] [Magical] [Runegun] [Uncommon]
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk 1

This glittering, blunderbuss shaped runegun is favored by lawmen and bounty hunters for their ability to incapacitate without dealing serious harm. The butt of this gun is padded and heavy, allowing the wielder to treat it as a staff that also has the nonlethal trait. Fundamental runes apply to these melee attacks as normal.
Activate Cast a spell; Effect You spend a number of charges from the runegun to cast a spell from its list

Type Peacekeeper Mk I; Level 4; Price 90g
• Cantrip tanglefoot
• 1st color spray

Type Peacekeeper Mk II; Level 8; Price 470g
• 2nd color spray, web
• 3rd color spray, hypnotic pattern

Type Peacekeeper Mk III; Level 12; Price 1,800g
• 4th color spray, web
• 5th black tentacles, color spray

Type Peacekeeper Mk IV; Level 16; Price 9,200g
• 6th color spray, vibrant pattern
• 7th color spray, forceful hand (replacing Manipulate or Attack with Grasp)

Apprentice Runegun                     Item 2

[Transmutation] [Magical] [Runegun] [Uncommon]
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk 1L

These compact, elegant weapons ensure that their owners are never out of options. If you have the ability to gain a familiar, you may choose this gun as your familiar. It gains the ability to transform into a single animal form or its runegun form. This is a one action activity with the transmutation and polymorph traits and it counts as a familiar ability. It cannot use familiar abilities in runegun form, and cannot be fired while in familiar form.
Activate Cast a spell; Effect You activate the runegun cast a spell from its list

Type Apprentice Runegun; Level 4; Price 30g
• Cantrip produce flame, ray of frost

You wouldn’t know by looking, but she’s dual wielding cats.

It is also possible to use the rules for custom staff creation and custom craft your own firearm, including the restrictions stated above. Feel free to let your creativity loose when making its design. Perhaps it looks like a gun so ridiculously over-designed that it could only work through magic, or maybe it only vaguely resembles a gun in use. Go nuts and have fun!

So, what do you think of these? Interested in adding some long & load to your staves & sorcery? Let me know in the comments. Come back next time and I’ll explain why the secret to building an evil empire is living on a diet made up exclusively of rats.

Hello again! It’s your old friend Nate writing to see how you’ve been. You never write back! But that’s alright, since I’m sure you’re quite busy with all of the little monsters I set loose across the galaxy a while back. Ahh, that was good times. I would have loved to see the look on your face, if you weren’t too cowardly to show it.

Some might describe my actions as ‘playing God,’ and I am extremely flattered by such things! While I wouldn’t consider my work to register on the deific level, you can rest assured I’m certainly making a game of it! But a half truth is still a half truth. So, with my next gift to Golarion, I’m going to merge the bio horror with the belief structure.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that commits heresies at the cellular level. In this exploration of flavor and mechanics, we’ll be covering a homebrew addition to one of my favorite classes, the Oracle. Said homebrew has that lab-grown, science-perfected flavor with extra GMOs or your money back. Let’s start it off with a new mystery.

Flesh
You have been awakened to a deep truth of the flesh, gaining an understanding that far surpasses the limitations of traditional medicine. You may have learned this from decrypting ancient occult rituals, or from reading a madman’s rambling notes on the subjectivity of physiology, or perhaps your flesh was unshackled after undergoing invasive and experimental surgeries. Your freakish power may be drawn from particularly visceral reverence of Lamashtu or Zon-Kuthon, but is just as likely to mirror the impossible biology of the Protean Lords or the Outer Gods.
Mystery Benefit Your supernatural understanding of the flesh means that skin, bone and muscle are all like clay in your hands. You can use Occultism instead of Medicine to treat wounds and may also treat your bare hands as healer’s tools. You may also use your proficiency in Occultism instead of Medicine to meet the prerequisites of any relevant feat.
You also manage to cultivate excess flesh. You gain a tentacle attack that deals 1d8 bludgeoning damage. Your tentacle is in the brawling group and has the grapple trait.
Trained Skill Occultism
Granted Cantrip gouging claw
Revelation Spells initial: improvised evolution; advanced: disgorge summon; greater: flesh king
Related Domains change, swarm

Curse of Unraveling
As your understanding of anatomy becomes decoupled from reality, so too does your body become mercurial from the inside out. Scars always fade, muscles shift like a swarm of eels beneath the skin, and wounds develop vestigial features such as teeth and eyes before fully healing.
Minor Curse Your body is unable to maintain its integrity and tears itself apart. You take 1d4 persistent bleed damage each round as writhing ribbons of exposed muscle protrude from your body. This damage cannot bring you below half Hit Points.
While refocusing to reduce your curse, your flesh coils back into your body, so you don’t take this bleed damage. Your body settles down while its unconscious, but resumes tearing itself apart when you wake up unless you rested long enough to reset your curse. As usual for oracular curses, you can’t mitigate or reduce this bleed damage in any other way, though you can still heal the lost HP normally after the fact.
Moderate Curse You continue to unravel as your body blossoms like a visceral flower. The bleed damage from your minor curse becomes 1d6, and the damage cannot bring you below 1 HP. The excess exposed flesh reenforces your tentacle attack, increasing its damage die by one step and granting it the reach trait.
Major Curse (11th) You’re barely recognizable as your body becomes a kaleidoscope of morphic biomass. The bleed damage from your minor curse becomes 2d6 and you gain Weakness 10 to area and splash damage.
In your fully unraveled state, you gain a transcendent understanding of biology that allows you to unhinge the flesh of others. You may take an action with the manipulate trait to inflict an adjacent creature that is unconscious, helpless, or grabbed by your tentacle with sloughing toxin using your Spell DC instead of the poison’s normal DC.

Silly Valeros, there’s more than one way to “get ripped.”

Focus Spells

Improvised Evolution                     Focus 1

[Uncommon] [Cursebound] [Transmutation] [Morph] [Oracle]
Mystery flesh
Cast (2 actions) material, somatic
Duration 10 minutes

You quickly grow a layer of protective natural armor over your skin such as an exoskeleton, angled scales, or a toughened hide. You may choose to manifest a lighter growth with statistics identical to leather armor or a heavier growth with statistics identical to hide armor. Both forms of armor use your unarmored proficiency.
The armor is effective, but imperfect. When you cast the spell, choose bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. You gain Weakness 2 to that type of damage.
Wearing armor always causes the casting of this spell to fail.

Heightened (4th) You gain a +1 item bonus to saving throws. Increase the Weakness to 8.
Heightened (6th) The item bonus to AC increases by +1, and you gain a +1 item bonus to saving throws. Increase the Weakness to 12.
Heightened (8th) The item bonus to AC increases by +1, and you gain a +2 item bonus to saving throws. Increase the Weakness to 16.
Heightened (10th) The item bonus to AC increases by +2, and you gain a +3 item bonus to saving throws. Increase the Weakness to 20.

Disgorge Summon                     Focus 3

[Uncommon] [Cursebound] [Transmutation] [Oracle]
Mystery flesh
Cast (free action)
Duration 1 minute

You prepare a generous sample of mutagenic flesh to use as the base of your conjuration. If you summon a creature during the duration of this spell, you may construct it from that sample, causing the creature to appear in an adjacent square as you distended your jaw and spit the creature out. Your flesh bolsters its own, granting it a +1 status bonus to AC and saves for the duration of this spell. If the creature is slain, its body remains for the duration of this spell or the spell that summoned it, whichever ends first.
While adjacent to this creature, you may spend an action with the interact trait to consume its biomass. Consuming the creature destroys it entirely and heals you for 1d8 Hit Points for each level of the spell that summoned it, up to a maximum of 3d8.

Heightened (+1) The maximum healing increases by 1d8.

Flesh King                     Focus 6

[Uncommon] [Cursebound] [Transmutation] [Polymorph] [Oracle]
Mystery flesh
Cast (2 actions) material, somatic
Area 20 foot emanation; Targets caster and up to 9 allies
Duration 1 minute

Tendrils erupt from your body, unraveling every willing ally within range and reconstituting the lot of you into a single composite creature with physiology somewhere between a hydra and a flesh golem. This composite creature combines each component creature’s maximum and current Hit Points to calculate its own. Any component creature that was unconscious from damage is reawakened.
The composite creature uses your statistics to calculate its AC, Fortitude and Reflex saves, and speed and is one size larger than the largest component creature. Each component creature is Slowed 1 and Clumsy 1 for the duration. Component creatures can be individually targeted for any effect that requires a Will save.
Each component creature acts on its own initiative and has access to their own equipment. They are able take their own actions with their own limbs or take any action with the move trait to move the composite creature.
At the end of the spell, the component creatures reappear in their natural form in any square that was formerly occupied by the composite creature or is adjacent to another component creature. The remaining Hit Points are redistributed evenly between them. Excess Hit Points are redistributed between component creatures not yet fully healed. If the composite creature gained an affliction from a poison or disease, each component creature is immediately exposed to it.
If the component creature is brought down to 0 Hit Points, the spell ends early.

Shinji, get in the abomination.

Woo, that last one was a real chonker. While you daydream about trying to Katamari your party into a hive mind mosh pit, I’m going to get some well-earned rest. Come back next time and we’ll see what happens when I load a wand of fireball into a flintlock pistol and pull the trigger.

Recent shifts in design and an uprising of voices in the community have brought us towards a mindset where alignment is less of a straight jacket. Instead, it serves as more of a suggestion to be either taken lightly or even ignored in all but the most essential implementations. Races and ancestries are seen as less inherently tied to it, and classes such as the monk and barbarian have dropped their traditional restrictions to embrace more choice and expression.

So what am I to do when the game is starting to unshackle itself from the chains of alignment? Lock it in an alignment iron maiden, of course.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog where I express my compulsive contrarianism towards trends in the industry as I observe the fascinating intersections between flavor and mechanics. This time, we’ll be looking at an alternative way of using alignment with a more absolutist approach to what it means to be good and evil.

Some people struggle with their alignment, but Cheliax really puts their back into it.

Alternative Alignment

We all have a decent understanding of the basics of alignment. Good, evil, chaos, law, and that funny little thing in the middle. Altruism, selfishness, freedom, order, balance. But what if the acts that we commonly associate with these forces are mere echoes of their true expressions? What if the acts of our grandest heroes and foulest villains pale in comparison to the raw, unfiltered, incomprehensibly vast power of a proper cosmic force?

Consider the beings that inhabit other planes such as archons and devils and proteans, all of whom have very strong ties to their particular schools of thought. Now consider that unlike mortals, these beings are made up of the very essence of these plans, and are more likely to embody these aspects without question or hesitation. After all, a human may tell a lie to get what they want because they want that specific thing. A devil will also lie, but it lies because lies are what it knows. The idea of true honestly without ulterior motive is foreign at best, and for some it may be as existentially horrifying to them as a Lovecraftian nightmare is to a human.

My proposal is as follows. Treat alignment as an absolute. Outsiders and supernatural creatures that are intrinsically tied to an alignment are beings of that alignment, and exist in some way to spread its influence. Such is the case of demons, who will die of shock when exposed to the anathema of their signature sins, but that mindset should be applied to all beings with strong ties to the grid.

Morals, on the other hand, are always neutral in the grand scheme of things. We may have individuals who undertake remarkable actions that shape the world for better or for worse, but such drive is the product if their life experience and choices, not some direction that was predetermined at birth. Echoing the general vibe of these aligned planes is one thing, but the people of the material plane are still made of meat and bones and blood and sometimes spare parts but we’re still largely the masters of our own destiny. It would take the corrupting reach of the outer planes to change something so ingrained.

The Corrupting Reach of the Outer Planes

So here’s where it gets interesting. With the re imagining of outsiders as alien entities driven by maddening exaggerations of our morals, one could see their worship as cultlike and fanatical. Likewise, as their ideas touch the minds of mortals and drive them to emulate their otherworldly mindset, their essence sometimes merges with our own to create mortals who emulate their otherworldly flesh.

Champions and clerics are the most obvious choices for this kind of influence, being mortals that feel the touch of the divine and devote themselves selflessly (or selfishly!) to the cause. Such beings are one of the few exceptions on the alignment restrictions, allowing them to select any acceptable alignment as power of the divine resonates through their hearts and souls. These individuals approach their worship with zeal and are can fight like a man possessed when their faith is threatened.

The biological side is a little more complicated. This can include the obvious ones, such as tieflings and aasimar, or any other versatile heritage that has strong ties to a particular moral absolute. The same could be said of sorcerer bloodlines, as it also represents a mutation of mortality from extra planar sources. Even circumstantial evolution is possible if you want to consider children that are conceived near holy sites or with the blessing of a powerful worshiper. Regardless of the reason, creatures with the divine in their blood will often feel a certain pull or instinct to act out on behalf of their supernatural heritage, and are allowed to shift their alignment accordingly by surrendering to these impulses.

Consider the impact these characters have on the world. When even the objectively good is something to be afraid of, how would a fanatical follower of such creatures be treated? How would that follower see a world occupied by unenlightened, half-blind fools who exist in a moral dead zone?

And at what point are they being changed by us?

Extra Incentive

If you’re looking for ways to add some extra punch to this alignment absolutism, consider adding additional modifiers based on how well a character is adhering to their abnormal alignment. Within the space of one’s ascended alignment, we can see how well they’re balancing their rational mind with their outsider influence. The following options, with more than a little inspiration, grant benefits or penalties based on the character’s level of devotion. It uses Divine Intercession if the source of deviation is from a deity or a bonus to saving throws if from another source, as determined by the GM. As alignment is best used as a storytelling aid and not a tool for punishment, the player and the GM should work together to determine where the character sits and what actions ultimately move them.

Absolute devotees do not question, do not doubt, and place their faith above all other things, as even thoughts of deviating from their creed are a corruption to be purged. They gain their deity’s moderate boon or a +2 status bonus to saves against Divine effects.

Zealous followers are focused, devout, and more than willing to make sacrifices for what they believe in. While still recognizably mortal, they can be very off-putting to their kin. The gain their deity’s minor boon or a +1 status bonus to saves against Divine effects.

Faithful worshipers have dedicated themselves to the cause, but still maintain some connections to their normal lives. While they gain no bonuses or penalties, they tend to maintain a tenuous balance between the demands of the divine and their mortal lives.

Wavering believers have begun to lost their way, suffering under the burden of powers they do not fully understand. A longing for life without the pull of an unknowable entity puts them at risk of further deviation. They gain their deity’s minor curse or a -1 penalty to saves against Divine effects.

Doubtful mortals are, tragically, the most connected to their former lives and loved ones. The siren’s song of normality calls them home, though a crisis of faith may mean the pull of a rival divine force. They gain their deity’s moderate curse or a -2 penalty to saves against Divine effects.

What happens to someone who goes beyond the scale? Are they rewarded with an ascension that concludes their arc as a PC in a glorious send-off? Do they fall in a moment of weakness, only to become the monster they once sought to destroy? Anything can happen, so long as you make it interesting. And a little creepy.

That’s it for now. Hopefully this can satisfy your urgin’ for some purgin’ in the moral morass that is alignment. Come back next time when I continue to harass Oras by putting tentacles on things that don’t normally have them.

But all of that changed on one fateful day. It was the dinner rush, or at least the handful of regulars made it feel like a rush when he had to work solo for most of the evening. Bouncing between taking orders and checking the stove and preparing stew and remembering which tables to serve always ran him ragged, and the sounds of raucous shouting reminded him that he also had to play bouncer from time to time.

But when he stuck his head out of the kitchen, he was caught completely off guard. His patrons were cheering, feasting with abandon, and banging their mugs on the table as they called for a second helping of the beef stew. As he wondered what could have caused them to suddenly fall in love with the diner’s least popular item, he was distracted by a sense of pain. A dull, throbbing ache from his twitching finger. It seemed that he had an accident in the kitchen earlier that day, and gave himself a deep cut while rushing to prepare the stew.

Landrig’s eyes followed drops of blood as they fell from his digit and pattered at his feet. And it was then he noticed a trail of it, leading back into the kitchen and all the way to the stew pot. And in that moment, his life changed forever…

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog where I normally explore the intersections of flavor and mechanics, but this time we’re going to be all about the flavor. Like, all about the flavor. It’s going to focus on the flavor so much that even the mechanics are going to be specifically about flavor. In particular, we’re going to be speculating on the flavor of the Ghoran race from Pathfinder first edition and Starfinder.

I’m not usually one to add content warnings to my work, since they integrate into the text about as smoothly as a tire blowout into a road trip, but I understand that my writing can be a little on the dark side and not everyone is looking for that. So, I’d like you to take a good look at the ghoran’s player stats and the delicious trait in particular. Now think about the kind of content I make and consider this your vibe check.

Don’t worry, the leshies are going to be fine. Probably.

Delicious is one of those funny little abilities that has a clear, concise ruling with flavor and lore implications that seem more insane the longer you think about it. A person’s preference for food is entirely personal and subjective. They could prefer sweet treats, hearty meats, or the flavor of boiled shoe leather for all it matters, but every single one of them will, objectively, without exception, have the desire to feast on the ghoran race. A desire so powerful it grants them a mechanical benefit to devouring that ghoran alive.

The idea that ghoran make for the most coveted of Lunchables isn’t in and of itself the biggest mind-blower of their lore. In fact, it’s already the central thrust of their story and probably the one trait you remember when they come to mind. But have you really imagined just how far it can go? Think of the ways a ghoran can market their unique services. Consider that ghoran need sunlight but can still eat if they want to, so the term “epidemic of cannibalism” is both a likely and repeatable occurrence in their history. Imagine how an age of advanced medical technology or readily available healing magic means that a ghoran can serve themselves up on their own terms. Dedicate your mind palace to conjuring the image of an aggressively growing industry of whole ghoran groves that leverage the full capacity of production and distribution of the only product with an objectively guaranteed rate of one hundred percent customer satisfaction.

With that in mind, I’m fairly certain that the ghoran’s reduced rate of reproduction is the only reason that you don’t see them being served up at gourmet restaurants all across the pact worlds. And I know some of you would expect to see people campaigning for ghoran rights and compassionate leaders passing legislation to ensure their fair treatment. But I guarantee that the majority of those politicians would still be dining on ghoran rinds (fresh from their suppliers) during private parties with their public rivals.

But how can you, the player, cash in on this succulent suffering? Allow me to offer an alternate racial trait for Starfinder as well as two feats for either system to really spice up the culinary catastrophe that is your ghoran’s existence. And while they’re intended for one particular race, you’re free to implement them with similar creatures.

*terrified leshy noises*

Alternate Racial Trait: Addictive
While most ghoran have a flavor with universal appeal, yours is exceptionally compelling. Any creature who deals hit point damage to you with a bite attack or ingests a portion of your body must succeed at a Fortitude save with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 your level + your Constitution modifier. If they fail, they become addicted as though your flesh was an ingestible drug on the Wisdom track. Having one serving of a ghoran with the addictive trait counts as indulging their addiction, while partaking of normal ghoran flesh grants a +2 bonus to rolls against this addiction for 24 hours. This replaces delicious.

Ghoran Feats

I Shall Provide

Through great resolve and careful harvesting, you sustain your companions.
Prerequisites: Ghoran with the delicious or addictive trait
Benefit: You may use Heal instead of Survival to get along in the wild (Pathfinder) or Medicine instead of Survival to Live Off the Land (Starfinder) to feed your allies. If you fail the roll, you are still able to provide sustenance for your allies, but take 1d6 damage per ally from a combination of careless harvesting and overeager feeding.
Special: A large creature counts as four allies for the purpose of this feat, and a small creature counts as one half (rounded up) of an ally. Anything Tiny or smaller can be fed at a negligible cost, and anything Huge or larger cannot be satiated by this feat alone.

Reborn Feast

Leaving nothing to waste, you offer your remains as the perfect feast.
Prerequisites: Ghoran with the delicious or addictive trait, the seed trait (Pathfinder only), character level 14th.
Benefits: Whether through death or the leftovers from duplication, you know how to convert ghoran bodies into a culinary masterpiece. You may spend one hour of work on a fresh ghoran body and use 400 gold worth of rare herbs and spices to prepare a banquet that duplicates the effects of heroes’ feast when consumed. Alternatively, you may spend one hour of work to prepare a fresh ghoran body and 2,000 credit’s worth of ingredients to create a banquet that grants the effects of remove affliction and a 2nd level mystic cure to each creature that participates in the feast. Each of these effects uses the ghoran’s character level as the caster level.
Special: You know your own body well enough to prepare it without requiring extra ingredients. You may also leave instructions with your allies on how to prepare your remains as normal, effectively granting them this feat without prerequisites for the purpose of consuming you specifically.

And with that knowledge, you should be able to prepare the finest of cuisines for close friends and honored guests alike! Come back next time and I’ll introduce you to my political philosophy of Alignment Chart Absolutism.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that knows flavor is a flex based on how you look, but mechanics is a flex based on by what you wear. Today we’re going to turn back the clock and revisit the first edition of Pathfinder. Specifically, the phenomena known as the Big Six.

The Big What?
So, I’m going to assume we’re all familiar with the basic idea of magic items. Having a sword helps you kill a monster, having a supernaturally sharp sword wreathed in flames helps you depopulate a whole dungeon. With that in mind, the Big Six are a collection of six specific types of magic items. They are as follows: Magic weapon, magic armor (and shield), amulet of natural armor, cloak of resistance, ring of protection, and an ability score boosting item such as a headband or a belt.

See, Pathfinder has always been a numbers game. Second edition inherits it from first edition, which was spawned directly from Dungeons and Dragons third edition, and so on. And in these games, your ability to survive depends at least partially on how well you’ve equipped yourself to bridge the gap. In first edition, your armor class is limited to 10 plus your dexterity modifier, which can get as high as 5 if you’re really pushing the limits. And after a few levels, even an angsty Canadian teenager will be able to hit you on every single attack.

Unlike second edition, where your stats scale by level, you’ll need to obtain the majority of your progression as Abadar intended: aggressive capitalism. The armor, shield, amulet, and ring options mentioned above can range from a +1 to a +5 bonus each. Not only that, they’re all different types, so they all stack. Add that up and even the CEO of Canada will struggle to land a single blow against you. On a similar vibe, having the best cloak of resistance money can buy means the difference between laughing off enemy spells and knifing your friends to death in between bouts of puking yourself inside out.

Weapons fare slightly better, considering the majority of your bonus to attack comes from your level scaling and magic weapons can only go as high as a +5 to hit and damage. However, you have to remember that the magic weapon’s bonus to hit is that much more important when some of your best sources of damage come from feats that trade accuracy for hitting harder and more frequently. Between that and the fact that some monsters are absolute turds to deal with without magic gear, you’re going to want to be prepared.

The Big Problem
Now that you know what the Big Six is, try looking it up in your favorite search engine and you may notice some rather passionate discourse. Some very, very passionate discourse in great abundance across multiple forums.

And I mean ‘passionate discourse’ in the same way Cheliax means ‘stern punishment’

The problem isn’t that the Big Six is a thing you can buy; the problem is that the Big Six is the thing you have to buy. You see, the previously mentioned items start off at super affordable +1 variants and top off at +5 near-priceless treasures. This means that you’re incentivized by the basic math of the game to invest in them as early as possible and dump the overwhelming majority of your income into upgrading them. There are some outliers and certain items that every character should consider, but those are what you can buy with leftover funds.

Did the GM put an interesting item in the monster’s treasure hoard that can let the party’s barbarian have thematic moments and rad transformations? Too bad, because Will saves and the ever-useful Perception skill are both tied to Wisdom so that flavorful loot is going to get sold to fund the next Cloak of Resistance upgrade.

And let’s not forget that some classes just scale really weird with this. Sure, fighters need all of those things and can just buy them, but a monk can’t even do that; their unarmed attacks require an amulet slot to enchant, which competes with their natural armor, putting them (and similar classes) in a no-win situation. On the other hand, druids can use spells to skip half of the progression for free with minimal assistance. It means that the GM will have to pay close attention to who’s playing what, or the PCs may end up punching noticeably above or below their weight class.

Did I mention druids were overpowered? Because druids were overpowered.

In fact, the term Big Six was originally coined by Andy Collins in an article written to address the issues above. While the original is lost to time, I managed to find an archive while surfing the intertubes.

The Big Twist
But what if I told you that the Big Six was actually a very good thing? What if I said that the problem with the Big Six was that people didn’t respect it?

As I said, Pathfinder has always been a numbers game. If you embrace the necessity and the inevitability of the Big Six, you begin to see it for what it really is: a system where gold is a second EXP track. After all, what are class levels if not bigger numbers? Is there really much of a difference between a level of barbarian that gets you +1 to attacks and an enchantment that gives you +1 to attacks? If you simply accept that your party should buy their Big Six items in the same way they should choose options that don’t actively hinder their character, the game is much smoother.

Of course, it isn’t perfect, but it can be fixed with solutions that are already apparent. Magical armor serves you best when you simply improve your armor class, but you can spend additional gold to make the armor extra stealthy or fireproof as well. Modifying other miscellaneous magic items to function in the same way can make it more manageable. Want to get your ranger a cloak of elvenkind but the resistance bonus to saves is too good to pass up? Simply convert the elven cloak into a type of enchantment that can be applied to their cloak of resistance, allowing the ranger to have their cake and live long enough to eat it too.

So long as you have this mindset and keep an eye on the party’s spending habits, you should be able to enjoy the game without stumbling over this often-misunderstood aspect of progression. And if you have your own takes about the Big Six, drop a comment to show me what’s for.

That’s it for now. Come back next time and I’ll teach you a recipe for a dish that tastes so good it’s actually illegal on most of Golarion.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that takes personal responsibility for obliterating the Stormwind Fallacy with its exploration of the intersection between mechanics and flavor. And if you don’t know what that means, then it’s further proof that I’ve done my job. You’re welcome.

Dreamforging 101 and a Half

Continuing from the last Eldritch Excursion, we have additional options for characters who are capable of basic dreamforging, as well as a means of gaining access to the ability. Any character with basic dreamforging access to the Mold Dream activity.

Mold Dream

(Concentrate) (Dreamforging) (Exploration)
You take an active role in diverting the flow of the dream, be it through active subversion or raw force of will. Roll a Dream Lore or Occultism check against the dreamer’s Will DC. You may instead roll one of the associated skills of the current type of dream. If you do not know the type of dream, you may choose a skill based on your best assumptions, but using an incorrect skill means that the result cannot be higher than a failure.
If two creatures working in tandem succeed their rolls, they may combine their results into a single critical success.
If multiple creatures are working towards different goals, count only the highest result. In the case of a tie, the dream instead becomes a nonsense dream as the conflicting dreamscapes merge into a catastrophic mess.
Critical Success You manage to overwhelm the will of the dreamer with your own, smoothly transitioning the dreamscape’s atmosphere and function. You may change the type of dream from one type to another.
Success You succeed in altering the dreamscape. If the dream is a nonsense dream, you change the type of dream to any other type. Otherwise, you break the dreamscape down into a malleable nonsense dream.
Failure You fail to manipulate the dream in a meaningful way.
Critical Failure You are overwhelmed by the will of the dreamer and become stupefied 1 for the duration of the dream. Each consecutive critical failure increases the stupefied value by 1.

“Oh, guests? Come on in! Pardon the clutter… I just moved in and it’s a MESS around here.”

If I was working with a larger format, I’d consider writing up few spells and class feats to grant the power of dream manipulation. But for now, let’s add some baseline accessibility.

Dream Weaver                     Feat 2

(General) (Skill)
Prerequisites Expert in Occultism

Through gaining a greater understanding of the dreaming state, you have learned to weave the dreamscape as you desire. You are able to use basic dreamforging while inside the dreams of other creatures.

Dream Exploration

Navigating the dreamscape can be a surreal experience, and GMs are encouraged to really lean into their descriptions. Since this is a literal theatre of the mind, it’s possible to generate just about anything. Implement a battlefield where normally mortal wounds instead result in reversing the victim’s personal gravity. Describe a strangely peaceful land where grasping fingers of silken skin grow instead of grass. Or make the dreamscape into a realm where the sky is replaced by an incomprehensibly massive version of your own face looking down on you, and if you look up to meet your own gaze, you suddenly notice a miniaturized version of that same realm sitting in your palm, with a miniaturized version of yourself looking back up at you.

Come on, you’ve all had the “watching myself in a tiny house” dream. No need to be shy about it.

Likewise, feel free to elaborate on the dream’s Key. As this represents the pillar of the dream’s existence, it should gain some kind of ostentation or thematic importance. This is a wonderful way to reintroduce the dreamer as a character by showing some kind of inner self-reflection that can tell you more about them just by its appearance. It can also allow some interesting interactions with the PCs. Does it look at them as hostile invaders, demanding they leave them in peace? Does it treat them as welcome guests? If visitors tell the Key that it’s part of a dream, does the dreamer become temporarily lucid? These are all things for the GM to consider.

Exploring dreams for the purpose of learning more about the dreamer is an adventure in its own right. The GM is encouraged to create scenarios to challenge the players, with entire dungeons or explorable cities to represent the complexities of the dreamer. They may engage in an elaborate heist to learn some deeply held secret of a business rival, serve as guards in their master’s mindscape to protect them from psychic assassins, or even ease a friend’s pain by engaging in physical combat with a manifestation of their past trauma. The general theme of the adventure and the means in which the party succeeds at their goal (and if it’s even possible) are usually influenced by the type of dream they’re in, but don’t be afraid to go off the rails when it suits you. In general, each ‘scene’ in the dreamscape is worth one phase of the three phases of dreaming, but the deepest secrets and greatest treasures may take multiple phases or even multiple dreams to discover.

If you’re still looking for ways to write and flavor dreamscape adventures. There are some well known sources of inspiration that I would strongly recommend for consideration. Heck, the later of the three is what inspired me to write this whole set of mechanics! Search for inspiration wherever you can, and you may find some surreal action or good old fashioned psychedelic body horror to perk up your muse. And as one more nugget of inspiration, let me drop a few potential plot hooks to inject into your homebrew or even use as a springboard for a dreaming-based campaign.

Madam Aravasi (Elite Succubus) has grown tired of the pleasures of mundane flesh and has since learned to harvest the dreams of her lovers of sustenance. She even claims to know how to capture these dreams and transmute them into valuable elixirs. She’ll willing to offer a few in exchange for a taste of the party’s dreams.

Jorvan Helmagar (dwarven cleric of Desna) has discovered a terrible outbreak of contagious nightmares that erode the victim’s sanity. Worse yet, after one week of eroding sanity, their infected psyches birth horrific aberrations into the real world. He needs the party to help him find the source and end it for good.

The Coven of the Night’s Veil has heard rumors that a certain village has been harboring a prophetic dreamer. These hags are using foul magic to remotely invade the dreams of its occupants, and their reckless methods of investigation have left the villagers in a zombielike state of insomnia. If the notoriously reclusive coven is making such a bold move, it must be a very potent dream.

And with three articles, I’m declaring this starter pack of dream mechanics officially complete. Yes, as the name “basic dreamforging” implies, there’s plenty more to write. However, I’m going to shelve the idea for now and maybe revisit it in the future. Come back next time when I talk about the importance of stylishly dressing your murderhobo.

A shadowy, robed figure nods once in appreciation in the transformation they’ve inflicted upon your loved one. Then, their clawed hand reaches out to grasp at a long, sinuous tail that grows from the wall and trails all the way to your beloved, bonding with their body at the base of their spine. With a simple tug, they sever this lifeline, causing that floating form to wither and fall like a leaf on an absent wind. So shriveled and shrunken is your beloved that by the time you catch them in the palms of your hands, they are merely the size of a pixie. This person, this floral folk, looks up to you with a weak smile. You share a silent moment together. And then they’re gone.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that probably has you wondering what in the world you were reading just now. Today we’re going to continue to explore the mechanics of dreamscapes and the flavor of having that previous scene actually happen to me in a dream the night before writing this article. This isn’t even part of the act, I just wanted to share it with you. Anyway, we’re picking up from our last excursion into dreamscapes to dip our toes into the art of dreamforging.

Dream Scholar                     Background

You had a fascination with the dreaming world and sought to gain a better understanding of it. Perhaps you kept a dream journal with notes, sketches, and some form of speculation. Or maybe some entity visited you within your dreams, offering guidance in reading the patterns of your own sleeping subconscious.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be Intelligence or Wisdom, and the other one is a free ability boost.
You’re trained in the Occultism skill and the Dream Lore skill. You gain the Lucid Dreamer skill feat.

Don’t be caught off guard like this guy. Unless you’re a dream combat specialist. In that case, keep up the good work!

Lucid Dreamer                     Feat 1

(General) (Skill)
Prerequisites trained in Occultism

After careful documentation of and meditation upon your dreams, you have unlocked the ability to gain a greater control of your dreaming state. You are fully aware and in control of yourself while dreaming. If any foreign entities enter your dream, they must make a skill check (using a skill related to their method of infiltration) against your Occultism DC to avoid your immediate notice. If you are under a possession effect, you may converse with your captor, but are otherwise helpless to resist as normal.
While in your own dreamscape, you are able to use basic dreamforging to alter your own dream.

Dreaming Bigger

Dreams are virtually limitless in the shapes and sizes they come in, coming from the deepest inner thoughts of the countless mortals in existence. As such, they’re difficult to meticulously categorize. Thankfully, most dreams tend to have common thematic threads and emotional throughlines, and while their details can vary, their underlying similarities mean a talented dreamforger can manipulate them with the same technique.
Each type of dream has the same general goal, as well as a pair of associated skills that are useful in determining a dreamforger’s options. Note that dreams are often obscured in layers of symbolism or metaphor that make perfect sense to the dreamer, but may require a careful eye and a creative mind for any visitors to understand. What follows are a few generalizations, but the GM shouldn’t be shy about creating their own types.

Desire dreams represent more indulgent experiences that range from the intimate touch of a loved one to the aspirational realization of long-term goals, the sincerest expressions and the most shameless of vices all stem from desire. The associated skills are Deception and Diplomacy.
Memory dreams are approximate recreations of moments from the dreamer’s life, ranging from near perfect accuracy to a recurring dream that gradually changes with each iteration. The associated skills are any skills suitable for using Recall Knowledge against the dreamer.
Nonsense dreams are usually made up of unhinged, disorganized nonsense with only a surface level of coherence, but weaker dreams without a strong emotional pull can also qualify. They have no associated skills, but all dreamforging DCs to change their type are lowered by 2.
Stressful dreams are sometimes mistaken for nightmares, but tend to feature less deadly situations, such as the dreamer showing up to an important event naked or endlessly falling in a void. The associated skills are Intimidation and Stealth.
Lucid dreams are less of a category in their own right and more of a condition that can be applied to any other dream. Because a lucid dreamer is partially separated from the flow of the dreamscape, they no longer act as the Key to their own dream. Instead, some other prominent feature of the dream serves that role.
Prophetic dreams show visions of the past, present, or future, if not all of the above. As they are often the work of higher powers, most mortals have no ability to alter or even prevent their occurrence. They are so rare, so overwhelming, and often so enigmatic that some dreamforgers speculate that they’re actually a misunderstood curse from a bygone era. Their associated skills vary wildly based on the nature and the source of the dream.

Prophetic dreams hit different.

Dreamforging 101

To act upon a dream is to look upon the psyche of a sentient being, find it wanting, and ultimately bend it to your will. Doing so, even in the slightest fashion, is to divert the dream from its natural flow. Once an action with the dreamforging tag has been used within a dream, its surreal flow of time crystalizes into three measurable phases. Each dreamforging activity beyond the first takes one phase to attempt. At the end of these phases, the dream ends and the dreamer awakens. Initiating a combat encounter within the dream counts as a dreamforging activity for this purpose.
Any creature capable of basic dreamforging learns the following activity. Note that the GM is encouraged to grant this ability to monsters that can naturally navigate dreamscapes.

Decipher Dream

(Concentrate) (Dreamforging) (Exploration) (Secret)
You attempt to read the dream by making miniscule alterations to it and observing how the changes ripple out. Roll a Dream Lore, Occultism, or Perception check against the dreamer’s Will DC. If this check is made before the dream has settled into phases, only one creature may attempt it, but multiple creatures may aid them.
A lucid dreamer attempting to decipher their own dreams treats their result as one degree greater.
Critical Success You understand the type of dream taking place. You also know if the current dream has been altered in any other way. You also know if the dream has another visitor besides yourself and your allies, but no further details.
Success You understand the type of dream taking place.
Failure The nature of this dream eludes you, but you may try again later.
Critical Failure You misinterpret the dream’s nature. You may also notice the presence of a dream visitor where there is none.

And that’s going to be it for now. I’ve got a lot that I wanted to include, including the actual mechanics for manipulating dreams, so expect a follow-up sooner than later. Tune in next time when I show you a guy who keeps his dreams safe with One Simple Trick. Hags hate him!

As promised in the previous outing, I have spent the past two weeks both gathering and consuming a substantial volume of live spiders in hopes to gain the wisdom of their flesh. Such a task was quite difficult, but it was made possible with the generous consumption of a mutagenic catalyst, which is also made primarily of spiders. The ensuing hallucinations have been both frequent and harrowing, but I can only assume it is the prelude to my glorious evolution. And since I have a little time in between blackouts, let me share some of what I’ve learned.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog where I have tasted the flavor of countless arachnids to conceptualize the mechanics of how to be just like them. But without having to be bitten by a radioactive bug or wear a silly costume. Today I’d like to introduce you to the swing speed mechanic, which is a happy middle ground between having a climbing speed and having a flying speed.

Swing Speed
You are able to move through the air on a length of rope, webbing, or other such tether. When swinging, you choose one an anchoring point within range of your swing speed, such as a branch, ledge, or other stable structure. You may move anywhere within a radius of the anchoring point equal to your swing speed, but must end your movement at a height no higher than the anchoring point or the square where you started your movement, whichever is higher.
The GM determines what functions as an anchoring point. It may not be possible to swing from an anchoring point based on other factors such as direction and the environment; if a stable bar is suspended five feet above a river, for example, your character may not be able to leverage any vertical momentum from it. When in doubt, the GM should require the player to make an Athletics check (or attack roll when appropriate) against the climb DC of the anchoring point in order to swing from it.
Similar to flying, your swinging momentum can be affected by wind conditions and collisions. Whether you’re playing Starfinder or Pathfinder, consult the Acrobatics skill for relevant DC’s. However, you make Athletics checks instead of Acrobatics checks, and instead of hovering, you may dangle just below the anchoring point without needing to make a check.
Unlike flying, you are able to leverage your momentum to leap with an Athletics check and move farther or gain a higher ground.
You may use a willing creature as a tether as long as it is one size larger than you, and you may use an unwilling creature as a tether as long as it is three sizes larger than you.

Oh hey, the spider mutagen’s kicking in… or maybe that’s just the hallucinations again.

Swinging in Pathfinder

Having access to a swing speed in Pathfinder gives you a whole new way to traverse through environments. Using a swing speed requires the Swing action.

Swing [one action]
[Move]
You maneuver through the air on a vine, rope, or other such tether. Use the rules for a swing speed mentioned above. If you are dangling from your tether without any momentum or object to push off of, your first swing requires two actions to initiate as you take the extra time to build momentum.
You may take a Leap action after swinging.
Making use of a swing speed usually requires one free hand to hang on to your tether. The GM may allow you to swing from a tether that is fastened to you, but unshackling yourself from such a tether usually requires an action with the manipulate trait.

So that’s how Swinging in Pathfinder works, but how can we implement it? With feats, of course! Starting with an ancestry feat that I regret not thinking of sooner.

Web Swinger                     Feat 9
[Anadi]
Prerequisites Web Weaver, expert in Athletics
You are able to produce strands of strong, but short-lived webbing that allow you to rapidly traverse the jungles of your homeland. You gain a swing speed of 15 feet.
Special At the GM’s discretion, you may also select this feat as an ancestry feat for a character with the Beastkin (spider) heritage as a 13th level feat with no prerequisites.

And now with the burden of regret lifted from my shoulders, we can bring everyone else in on the fun.

Quick Swing                     Feat 7
[General] [Skill]
Prerequisites master in Athletics
You learn how to deftly swing from ropes, vines, and chandeliers alike. You gain a swing speed of 15 feet, or an increase of 5 feet to your swing speed if you already have one. You require an anchored tether to swing. You may use your own equipment as a tether, such as a rope with a grappling hook. You may also use an appropriate weapon, such as a whip, though your swing speed is limited to your reach with the weapon. While using a weapon as a tether, the item bonus granted by that weapon’s potency rune is added to Athletics checks to swing or leap while swinging.

Pictured: local nightgaunt prepares to give Feiya a lesson in why she should have brought a grappling hook.

Swinging in Starfinder

Starfinder is an interesting game to write the kind of content for because enhanced mobility is expected to be extremely accessible. After all, anyone can achieve the miracle of flight at an early level if not at the start of the game. With the system’s focus on awesome equipment, it would serve well to add an armor upgrade.

Spider Gear
Level 4 ; Price 2,050
Slots 1; Armor Type light, heavy
Bulk 1
Capacity 40; Usage 1/round
This set of advanced rigging includes pressurized launchers with AI-assisted targeting, integrated titanium cables, and an automatic reloader stocked with specialized grapplers that automatically detach based on the user’s movements. You gain a swing speed of 15 feet. You can use this for “cruise mode” at a usage of only 1 charge per minute, but you are flat-footed and off-target while doing so. Changing from normal swinging to cruise mode and vice versa is a standard action. Spider gear can’t hold your weight if you’re encumbered.
If you are dangling from your tether without any momentum or object to push off of, your first swing requires a full round action to initiate as you take the extra time to build momentum.
A prototype Mk. II version of the spider gear (level 8, 9,500 credits) is also available. It grants a swing speed of 25 feet, a +2 bonus to Athletics checks made to swing, and uses adamantine cables.
When purchasing or crafting spider harness power armor, you may include an integrated Mk. II spider gear instead of the armor’s climb speed. This spider gear can sustain the armor’s weight and automatically functions as long as the suit has power, but cannot engage in cruise mode.

There you go. Whether you want to cross half the Mwangi expanse without touching the ground or pull some sick tricks to escape from the gallows, you’ll be able to do so in style. Tune in next time, and you can watch me take a long overdue nap.

Naturally, I’m going to put a spin on it. And I’m going to have to put on my contrarian pants for this one. Buckle up, this one’s gonna get a little spicy.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that once heard the name Errol Flynn and wondered what the guy from Tangled has to do with swashbucklers. Today, we’re about to turn back the clock and look at the first edition version of the swashbuckler, particularly how the flavor and the mechanics actually worked against one another.

Take a gander at the 1e swashbuckler class. Now, Paizo’s developers are talented folks. More than me with my armchair analysis, to be sure! But that class is in the edition is based on the framework of an even older game and when you’re trying to make something flashy it’s going to hit some speed bumps. Most notably when you’re picturing an agile hero leaping from ledge to ledge, deftly dodging enemy attacks, only to spend half of your game time standing in once place and full-attacking. Or when your fantasy pirate character with his very iconic class can’t actually hold his ale or keep his sea legs, because a class derived from two classes with high fortitude saves somehow has a low fortitude save?

There’s also some funny business that with ability scores. You want to max out dexterity with a side of charisma to boost your Panache pool (a resource that is rapidly spent/replenished in combat) which is equal to your charisma modifier, minimum one. You’d think you need to dedicate several points to it, but it always defaults to one, so you’ve got a lot to gain by dumping charisma into the earth. Now take a single feat to make up the difference, saving a ton of points for stamina and wisdom to bolster your weak saving throws. Even dexterity doesn’t have to be maxed, since strength can still be used for attacks and damage. You could get away with swinging a great sword and wielding a spiked gauntlet with a cheap enchantment to parry foes with your muscle-punches.

Pictured: two perfectly viable swashbucklers doing normal swashbuckler things.

But I saved the best for last. An ability that’s worthy of being a capstone, or at least a feature you wouldn’t get until the midgame. And the swashbuckler lets you do it at first level. The Opportune Parry and Riposte deed allows you to spend panache to parry an attack with your own. This ability single-handedly changes how you think about the entire mechanic of armor class and you get it at level 1. As long as you’re sticking to the weapon type, the class is best served as a level 1 dip before multiclassing out and never looking back. Some people will insist that you should stay until level 5 for early access to Improved Critical, but that involves sticking with a linear martial class with a lack of engaging choices that defies the usual talent-based class design that makes Pathfinder feel so customizable. Also, take a good look at what 4 levels of Paladin can get you.

Which brings us to why I love it. I’m actually a huge fan of game design that creates accidental comedy through the quirks of mechanics. And because of that, the swashbuckler I played in Pathfinder Society only had one level in swashbuckler. The rest might surprise you.

Imagine a noble’s son. This son, perhaps of mixed Taldan and Ulfen heritage, aspired to be a great swordsman. But he was impatient, headstrong, and his short temper got him into more trouble than it was worth. But he never once faltered in his quest for excellence, even after he was expelled from the local academy for his outbursts.

Now he is a Lord, of steady hand and sharpened blade, but that temper has only gotten worse. If assaulted by disrespectful words, he will not hesitate to draw steel. He moves with the speed of a man possessed, fortified by his fury. The accompanying barrage of shouted insults are as articulate as they are vulgar, as crude a mirror to his upbringing as the feral finesse of his brutal stabbings. He can leap clean over his foe from a stand-still, parry their retaliatory strike with near-supernatural precision while midair, and drive his blade into their torso as he comes down. All in one fluid motion driven by raw instinct.

See? See?! Tell me that isn’t some of the most fun you’ll have with a non-casting character in this entire system. I dare you. Accurate Stance and Raging Leaper are enough to satisfy the fantasy all on their own, and it only gets better from there. Naturally, when the swashbuckler made its triumphant and very well-designed return in 2e, I immediately wanted to recreate my rage-bound noble with a barbarian multiclass archetype. However, due to 2e’s restrictions on finesse weapons with the Rage ability, it wasn’t looking good.

Time to roll up my sleeves.

*singing* Uh oh, back to the lab again. Oh no, back to the lab again. We messed up, back to the lab again.

Indignation [reaction]

Your sense of bravado is eclipsed by an overwhelming anger at the very idea that you aren’t getting the respect you deserve. When you show pain or embarrassment in front of your foes, you leverage your emotions to retaliate. This state of anger is called indignation, and you are either in a state of indignation or you are not.
You gain indignation by suffering a blow from an enemy that deals damage equal to three times your level or greater, when a foe uses Tumble Through to move through your space, or when a foe succeeds at a skill check directed towards you that uses the skill granted by your swashbuckler’s style. At the GM’s discretion, if a foe or ally succeeds at a particularly difficult action to show you up, you also gain indignation if their result was high enough. (typically the very hard DC for their level, but the GM can choose a different threshold)
While you have indignation, you gain a 5-foot status bonus to your speeds and a number of temporary hit points equal to half of your level plus your Constitution modifier. The precise strike class feature also causes you to deal extra precision damage while you have indignation. Powerful finisher actions, including Confidant Finisher, can be used only while you have indignation and cause you to lose indignation.
Normally, you gain and use indignation only during combat encounters; when an encounter ends, you lose indignation.
This ability replaces panache. Having indignation counts as having panache for the purposes of all swashbuckler class abilities.

Vengeful Athlete                    Feat 4

[Swashbuckler]
Prerequisites expert in Athletics, indignation alternate class feature

This feat is functionally identical to Raging Athlete, but the effects apply while you have indignation.

And there we are. I would have reworked more of the class to fit the theme if I didn’t hog the word count with my ranting, but I think this is a modest start. Tune in next time, when I’ll show Oras who’s boss by devouring my weight in spiders to gain the forbidden knowledge of climbing really good.

I offer an alternative proposition. And it isn’t just that you should sort it out with the group during session zero, though that’s a good place to start. I say that you can have a lot of fun if your backstory gets its own session.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog that built its backstory with a healthy combination of mechanics and flavor, but probably dropped the ball by not using this theme as its first entry. Then again, heretical degeneracy makes for a much more honest first impression. Today, we’ll be taking a look at exploring character backgrounds through a prelude session.

That Thing From the Other Guys

A prelude is a short, one-on-one session between the GM and a player that fits somewhere between session zero and session one. It covers a key moment in a PC’s backstory and flows naturally into the campaign. It’s a concept I first saw in White Wolf games from my earlier days of playing stuff like Vampire: The Masquerade and Changeling: The Lost. Those systems revolve around humans who were transformed into supernatural beings, and setting aside a little extra time to run a prelude for each character’s metamorphosis was expected of the system.

While it isn’t as core to the system, Pathfinder has its own springboard for preludes: Traits and Backgrounds for first and second edition, respectively. These are strongly tied to your character’s backstory, and in the case of published adventures, some are specifically written to tie a PC to the greater story line.

There are other benefits, of course. It gives the player a chance to try out their character in a mostly roleplay focused session. Try out a couple skill checks, field test that fun accent they’ve been working on, and even gain a little time to get in their own character’s head by running them through some kind of personal challenge. It’s also a solid place to introduce them to an NPC, giving them a social bond that can help immerse them in the world or to foreshadow a future plot moment. And of course, if you want to give the PC a little extra loot to help them at the early levels, this is a good time for them to earn it.

First Steps

So you’re interested in running preludes, but maybe you’re wondering how to write one. If you’re looking for a quick and dirty example of the structure and pacing, you could start with the Quests offered for Pathfinder Society organized play. A few of the oldies from first edition are free of charge and serve as decent examples.

However, you’ll have to adjust your expectations. For one, it’s made for a single player character, so challenges should be adjusted accordingly. Furthermore, as these have a greater emphasis on roleplay and plot hooks, you don’t have to worry about creating skill checks or combat scenarios that have a serious chance of failure. Or, if you do, make sure the consequences of failure aren’t that severe: skill checks don’t result in stopping progress, combatants don’t strike to kill. Preludes are meant to be completed.

Don’t let that stop you from throwing in an awesome set piece, though.

Thankfully, writing a prelude is fairly simple. As a lot of the prelude will be based around roleplay and establishing characters, it can easily fit onto simple notes or even bullet points. As the prelude is based around a particular background, you can custom tailor the challenges to skills and abilities that you know they will have thanks to that background.

Outline of the Prelude of the Adventure

Let’s pretend there’s a hypothetical campaign where the first adventure involves combating a corrupt noble who’s got several institutions of a city in his pocket. Dealing with that noble is the first adventure’s main goal, and the rest of the adventure can come from learning about the greater evils that the noble serves. The hypothetical player takes a campaign background that has them falsely branded as a heretic.

Our story begins with the PC serving as an acolyte at the local church of Pharasma. While it’s a small and underfunded church, it is respected by the community. Its leader, Father Iblis, is stern and frugal. Among the acolytes, two show potential. One is Sevalno Bradaghast, a minor trade baron’s son who’s selfish disposition and loose tongue embarrassed his family one too many times. He was sent to the church to keep him away from the family business, but showed a strong interest in accumulating spiritual power. The other is the PC, who’s likely to have butt heads with Sevalno in the past. These details should be revealed to the player, but not Sevalno’s secret plot to have the PC excommunicated.

During the evening, the PC is tasked with guarding the mausoleum while Sevalno is tasked with sweeping the area as punishment for oversleeping and missing service. Sevalno approaches the PC and begins asking several questions. These can range from questions about where the PC grew up and what they think of their family to more pointed questions about a familiar or other noticeable class features. He might even ask unintentionally rude questions about an uncommon ancestry or heritage, if the PC has one. While these serve as a means for the player to explore their character, a DC 10 Perception check will allow the PC to notice that Sevalno is mostly doing it to avoid working.

After the PC has enough time to speak their peace, one of the graves begins to stir. Much to Sevalno’s horror, a buried corpse arises and attacks. This encounter takes place on the necropolis map (or an approximation thereof) and uses a weakened zombie, which is weaker thanks to the consecrated ground. Sevalno cowers behind the PC, advising them to run and get help. Whether the PC wins, retreats, or is knocked unconscious, Father Iblis arrives at the end of the encounter to heal the PC and deal with any remaining danger.

Iblis immediately demands to know what happened. Sevalno claims to have seen the PC intentionally trigger a magical rune that caused the undead to rise. He also claims to have seen the PC practice necromancy in their room at night, and that they used threats to keep him quiet about it. Sevalno also takes credit for fighting the zombie if he thinks he can get away with it.

In truth, the Bardaghast family called in a favor with the corrupt noble to smuggle a zombie onto the church grounds and plant a pouch full of onyx gems (a core component of creating undead) in the PC’s quarters during the chaos of the fight. While the PC can have a chance to defend themselves, the sentencing ultimately comes quick, with Father Iblis deeming the PC an enemy of the church and immediately demanding they leave. The Bardaghast family makes arrangements to ensure the news will spread to larger churches.

The next evening, the PC is confronted by a woman in robes and a mask. She refers to herself as the Arcane Avenger and claims that she knows that the PC is innocent, and might be able to help prove it. She also heard of the PC’s potential and asks them to help her investigate the corruption that ultimately led to their false accusation.

“What if I told you I was putting a team together.”

And there you have it. This one is a little more action oriented, but you’re free to write a prelude based anything from political intrigue to slapstick comedy. The only thing that matters is that it helps draw the player in. And hey, if you’ve already tried some kind of prelude for your game, sound off in the comments and tell me how it went!

So, to all my first edition veterans, who remembers the original summoner? Back when you had two bodies on the field without any shared actions or notable restrictions, and it felt like playing two individual characters. You could even get that feel with some of the stronger animal companions, and a handful of familiars made for fantastic supports with tactical wand usage. In fact, it was so powerful that one could argue that the companion was pretty much its own player character.

So what if we really lean into that?

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog where I’ll be the flavor and you’ll be the mechanics, and together we’ll form an exploration of immersion in tabletop roleplaying games. Or you can be the flavor if you want. I’m fine either way, since this week’s topic is about splitting one companion class between two players and I’m not picky.

It Takes Two

So, how does this work? The idea is that we modify the companion feature of a class in order to grant it enough raw power to fill the space of a full player character while maintaining ties to its master. Of course, such bonds rely heavily on the players working in tandem and defining the nature of their connection, so it’s certainly something that should be sorted out in session zero. I’ve already given advice for this in a previous article.

I’ll be going over animal companions, eidolons, and familiars with suggestions on how to house rule them to function as independent entities. But for the sake of not repeating myself, assume all of the above gain access to the usual benefits granted by any class. So that means ancestry feats at 1st level and every 4 levels after, skill feats at every odd level, skill increases at the usual rates, general feats, and all that. They also lose the minion trait, and generate their ability scores as normal for player characters.

Summoners and Eidolons

Let’s start with the class that initially inspired this idea. Out of the box, eidolons are well equipped to function as their own unique entities. This version will make the changes you’d expect: for example, the summoner and their eidolon no longer share initiative, actions, multiple attack penalties, or hit points, nor do they mutually suffer from effects such as slowed or drained. Unless otherwise stated, summoners and eidolons gain benefits from levels as stated by table 2-3: Summoner Advancement. Due to their modified bond, they cannot use tandem actions.

Eidolons are still summoned by the Manifest Eidolon action. As an eidolon, you gain a special ancestry. You gain a pair of +2 ability score boosts that match the two highest ability scores from one of the eidolon arrays available to your type, a +2 Free ability boost, and a -2 ability flaw based on that array’s lowest ability score. In the case of a tie for highest or lowest, you decide between them. For the purpose of ancestry feats, you may choose an ancestry that most closely resembles your eidolon’s anatomy and type; you may choose feats from that ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat. You may also choose a versatile heritage that most closely matches your eidolon type, or a heritage based on the previous ancestry choice if no suitable options exist. You may choose your own skills to be trained with at 1st level. Instead of summoner feats, you gain an evolution feat at 1st level and every even level afterward. An eidolon that dies must be revived, same as any other player character.

Summoners are less physically resilient, as they are tied less directly to the life force of their eidolon, though they gain greater access to magic. As a summoner, you only gain 8 hit points plus your Constitution modifier per level instead of 10. Like the eidolon, you may choose your own skills to be proficient with. You may not take evolution feats, as your eidolon has greater control in determining their physical form. Instead of an evolution feat, you gain Sorcerer Dedication for free at 1st level, choosing a bloodline that most closely resembles your eidolon’s type. You may take Basic Blood Potency at 2nd level, and treat your full summoner level as your effective sorcerer level for the purpose of Advanced Blood Potency.

Animal Companions

Unlike eidolons, animal companions are an opt-in class feature. As a result, the pet’s “master” does not need to take any feats to gain their animal companion. They also count as having an animal companion for the purpose of meeting feat prerequisites. An independent animal companion is one that has been awakened to sentience by the whims of the fey, a druidic ritual, or another kind of primal phenomena. You also gain a special ancestry for the occasion.

Awakened Animal
Hit Points 8
Size Medium or Small
Speed 25 feet
Ability Boosts Dexterity or Strength, Free
Ability Flaw Intelligence
Languages Common, Sylvan. Additional languages based on your master’s ancestry.
Traits Animal
Low-Light Vision
Bestial Body You choose a suitable natural weapon from this list. Your anatomy limits your ability to perform certain actions, as per the anadi’s Change Shape.
Heritage To better represent your species, you gain one of the following: immunity to fall damage, a swim speed of 10 and the amphibious trait, not becoming flat-footed while climbing, increasing your Speed by 5 feet, imprecise scent at a range of 30 feet, or a versatile heritage as normal.
Ancestry Feats Use the Beastkin list, barring the feats that require shape shifting, treating your natural form as ‘hybrid form’ for the purpose of these feats’ benefits. To supplement the list, the GM is encouraged to allow anatomy-focused ancestry feats from an additional ancestry that matches your species: lizardfolk for a reptile, ratfolk for a rodent, and so on.

Okay so inventors’ constructs are a whole ~thing~ that I forgot til the last second. Gonna sidestep that rodeo by suggesting the automaton ancestry and moving on.

Familiars

Much like animal companions, familiars often serve as a supplement to a separate entity’s power. This version is empowered familiar brought to full sentience by a ritual that either went exceptionally well or catastrophically wrong but still resulted in a functional partnership. A familiar’s tiny size might cause complications, as explained in the Sprite ancestry. Empowered familiars gain their own ancestry.

Empowered Familiar
Hit Points 6
Size Tiny
Speed 25 feet
Ability Boosts Dexterity, Charisma, Free
Ability Flaw Strength
Languages Common plus one extra additional language. Additional languages based on your master’s ancestry.
Traits Animal
Low Light Vision
Familiar You gain the Manual Dexterity and Speech familiar abilities, which are mandatory abilities for your master’s daily preparations. Your master may use features to gain additional abilities, but they must be Master Abilities.
Heritage as Awakened Animal, above. Versatile heritages are strongly encouraged as a way to represent Improved Familiars.
Ancestry Feats as Awakened Animal, above.

But what if your companion decides to get a companion, who in turn gets a… never mind, it’s making my head hurt.

And there you have it. Enjoy teaming up with a fellow player to create two characters with entwined destinies. Or, you know, just rolling up Scuffles the Talking Dog-Wizard to finally get that one off your bucket list. There are certainly some mechanical hiccups in the deeper guts of this modification, but if your group is tight enough to get this far then I have faith they’ll be able to sort it out. And if you need some more tips on flavor, just peer a back a bit and read a previous entry of EE.

Hi there. I’m Nate and I’m a big fan of your work. The process of evolution is an amazing phenomenon. Did you know that there are people on my planet who don’t believe in evolution? Pretty crazy, I know. But you know what’s even crazier? The fact that those people are on the right track, but they’re just walking in the wrong direction. You see, I know that evolution is real. And I also know that you’ve been holding out on us.

That’s right, I’m on to you. Sure, you took a bunch of apes and helped us discover things like mathematics and medicine and Breath of Fire II for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and that’s all awesome, but I know what you’re truly packing in that bulbous giga-brain of yours. You’ve got the know-how to turn me into some kind of writhing monstrosity beyond our worldly comprehension and I’m writing you to say just one thing.

Gimmie.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog where I weave the flavor and mechanics of tabletop roleplaying games into the silken chrysalis that will birth my ascended form. Or I would, if it wasn’t for someone being stingy with letting me swim in the gene pool. Not going to name any names but it starts with O and ends with me unleashing waves of grotesque creatures upon all of creation until I get what I want.

In fact, I’m going to go ahead and fire off a metaphorical warning shot to show that I mean business. Figuring out exactly what kind of beastling to hurl screaming into the unexpecting world might be a difficult task in its own right. Luckily, it was none other than Know Direction that practically made the decision for me.

If only they knew what was to come.

Fleshy Leshies

A leshy is formed when a nature spirit inhabits a vessel crafted around living plant matter, taking a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions. This process was expanded upon when a fleshwarp druid and an alchemist obsessed with transhumanism found a way to lead such spirits into specially-made alchemical familiars. Such beings, referred to as ‘fleshies’ in reference to their verdant siblings, have bodies that are built with and around still-living tissue in the same way that leshies are built with plants.

Playing as a fleshy can be a simple matter of adjusting the flavor and some labels. A gourd leshy can be a stomach fleshy, a vine leshy can be a tendon fleshy, etcetera. The plant type could be replaced with aberration. Maybe throw in some Aklo. A fleshy familiar is possible, especially when taken by a multiclass alchemist/druid for flavor, but it would be mechanically identical to an alchemical familiar.

But if you want something more than a simple reskin, pun very much intended, then I’ve got you covered.

Fleshy Heritage (Rare Heritage)
Unlike a typical leshy, your body is made of a mixture of plant matter and vat-grown flesh. Your spirit was coaxed into a body made from equal parts natural growth and alchemical tampering. You gain the fleshwarp trait and low-light vision, or darkvision if you already have low-light vision. In addition, you can select fleshwarp or leshy feats whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

I knew this is what our goblin assistant would have wanted. Also, resurrection spells are way beyond our quarterly budget.

I know what you’re thinking right about now, Oras. You’re thinking that you’re perfectly safe sitting there on the other end of the nebulous Gap, free of the repercussions of my reckless experimentation. And you think that you’re doubly safe, as I am trapped here in this mundane world, in the body of a mundane man, surrounded by mundane people with mundane misgivings about our mundane origins.

While I may not be an evolution denier, I know that my evolution has been denied. My creations run wild in your galaxy even as I pen this letter. Cast your many eyes across the many worlds, and you’ll see my many creations living their best and generally messing with all of your plans that don’t involve turning me into an abomination in the eyes of Man and God.

Fleshies, But Now In Space

Life grows in a multitude of strange ways out in the Vast, and stranger still are the ways that life is artificially constructed. In some cases, vat-grown creatures can attract souls to inhabit their bodies. Special rituals lure these ancient spirits, believed to originate from Golarion, into forms crafted from a fusion of magic and science. These creatures, colloquially known as fleshies, have bodies that mutate and grow in a way that’s oddly reminiscent of plant life. They are often used for experiments by their creators, and much like androids, are treated with respect by some and as property by others. While they can sometimes go unnoticed in cosmopolitan hubs of space travel, their unusual anatomy often gives away their true nature.

Fleshy
Ability Scores +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Int
Hit Points 4
Size and Type Flesies are Small aberrations with the fleshy subtype.
Bio-Engineered Fleshies are created with integrated augmentations. They gain a 1st level biotech augmentation for free. They may instead gain a special version of adaptive biochains that duplicates a 1st level cybernetic augmentation. Because it is already part of their body, it does not take up an augmentation slot.
Low-Light Vision Fleshies can see in dim light as if it were normal light. For more details, see Core Rulebook page 264.
Verdant Memories Fleshies receive a +2 racial bonus to Stealth and Survival checks.

Fleshy Borai

The process of creating a fleshy can be reverse engineered and used to infuse an undead spirit into a patchwork of body parts. This counts as a borai. Their Old Talents ability functions like the fleshy’s Bio-Engineered, except that it grants them a 1st level necrograft augmentation or a special necrograft that acts as a 1st level biotech augmentation.

And there you have it. The abominations will continue until I my demands are met. Heck, I’m not even done with the fleshies yet. There’s still ancestry feats, alternate racial traits, and this fun alchemist bomb that covers you in meat except the meat has teeth and it tries to eat you. I’m sure you’ll hate it. But if you meet my demand for a betentacled form with three extra arms that have wolf heads instead of hands, you might not have to deal with them.

Looking forward to showing you my next monument to hubris,

~ Nate Wright, author of Eldritch Excursion.

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog with the know-how of mechanics to open the way to my pulsing brain sack and the flavor to help you take a great big bite from it. Today’s cerebral cereal is all about mindscapes and dreams and how to use one to explore your NPCs and PCs from the inside out.

You may already be familiar with the mindscape rules from the first edition of Pathfinder, but there has yet to be a proper rule set for that in the second edition. There are also a few spells that can delve into dreams, but many are difficult to access at early levels and few of them go into detail as to what can happen in those dreams. And while I have no doubts that the upcoming Dark Archive will expand upon this premise, I’ve got some ideas that I’d like to share. But before I do, we have to have a way to get into someone’s mind.

Dream Visitation                     Ritual 2

(Uncommon) (Enchantment)
Cast 1 hour; Secondary Casters 1 for each visitor (see below)
Primary Check Occultism (Expert); Secondary Checks Deception or Diplomacy
Range 10 feet; Target 1 willing or unconscious creature

You create a pathway to the dreams of the target. Each secondary caster may select one creature (including themselves) to visit the dream. The target and all selected visitors fall unconscious for the duration of the ritual. If the target wakes up for any reason, the ritual ends and the visitors are returned to the waking world. Mindless creatures cannot participate in this ritual in any way.
Critical Success The visitors enter the target’s dream and witness what transpires. If the target’s level is no higher than twice the ritual’s level, the visitors are sent deep enough to interact directly with the dream. This includes activities such as investigating the target’s memories, invoking a nightmare, or fighting off a malevolent force possessing the target. All visitors gain a +2 circumstance bonus to all rolls that interact directly with the dream. You may also reenforce the dream, increasing its maximum Integrity by 8.
Success As critical success, except the visitors do not gain the +2 circumstance bonus.
Failure You fail to send the visitors into the dream.
Critical Failure As a success, but you accidentally twist the dream into a nightmare (see below) and trap the visitors inside. Neither the target nor the visitors can be awoken while the nightmare persists and all damage dealt to the visitor’s dream projections is also dealt to their physical bodies as nonlethal mental damage.

Heightened (+1) The dream gains an additional +4 maximum Integrity.

Mindscapes and You

A mindscape is, as one would imagine, a place formed from the thought-stuff of a creature. It is functionally similar to planes, though the details of the plane vary based on the nature of the host as well as the circumstances of entry. By default, mindscapes have the same traits as the host’s home plane unless otherwise stated. Extraordinary factors such as the host being zealously devoted to a deity or sharing their heritage with an outsider may alter the alignment and planar essence traits accordingly.

Entering a mindscape requires a projection of your consciousness by spell, ritual, or other supernatural ability. As such, creatures appear exactly an idealized self, even if that form may have aspects that are different from their physical body back on the material plane. They still appear as their ancestry, with the same ability scores and proficiencies. Spells slots and prepared spells are also carried over, and casting a spell in a mindscape also expends the spell. As memory is a major factor, they also have their gear already equipped, though items they have not identified have no function. Creatures such as familiars and animal companions are also perfectly recreated based on their master’s memories, and the summoner can bring their eidolon directly into the mindscape.

As mindscapes are limited only by the imagination, GMs can get equally creative with the maps. Using illogical arrangements, surreal architecture, or mismatched parts of map packs is greatly encouraged.

Gravity is more of a suggestion than a rule.

Dreams and Dreamers

Mindscapes can be used for many things. Psychic duels, private mental sanctuaries, or even trapping a creature within its own mind, but by far the most common use for mindscapes is dreaming. Dreams are manifestations of the mindscape that tend to follow some kind of pattern or emotional flow. Some dreams may reenact precious memories, others could be senseless abstractions, while a few are terrifying nightmares. Player characters might also have their dreams influenced by class abilities such as the Oracle’s Curse or the Witch’s Patron.

Each dream has a Key, which represents the host within their own dream. This is most often a projection of the host themselves, though creatures that frequently conceal their true form may do so in the dream as their subconscious detects an intrusion. Exceptionally unusual dreams may feature a prominent object as its Key.

Each dream has Integrity, representing its overall stability. A dream’s Integrity is equal to the host’s hit points, using the host’s Wisdom score in place of their Constitution score (for PCs) or using the higher range for clever enemies and lower range for physical brutes (for NPCs). Dealing damage to the Key also deals that much damage to the dream’s Integrity. Reducing the dream to 0 Integrity immediately causes it to end and the host is awoken by the sudden shock.

Combat in the Dream

Under normal circumstances, dream combat is a fairly harmless, as wounds in the dreamscape do not usually pass on to the physical body. As such, damage dealt to a creature projecting into someone else’s dream only counts in that dream. Likewise, conditions such as Wounded and Doomed do not carry over. Any creature who’s dream-self dies instantly wakes up and has fatigued condition.

Any creature that is actively possessing the host exists as a projection within the dreamscape. Such invaders typically hold the Key in some state of bondage or enthrallment. Defeating these malevolent projections will instantly end the possession effect, though canny invaders will attack the Key to prematurely end the dream if they’re in danger of losing the fight.

Nightmares

Some dreams manifest as terrifying nightmares. While these can occur naturally, it is also possible to invoke one by using any kind of spell or effect to inflict the frightened condition on the Key. A nightmare can also be invoked by casting nightmare on the Key or the host’s physical body.

A nightmare causes the dream to take on a sinister aura, typically changing the dreamscape based on the host’s own fears. The Key is immediately beset by a deadly hazard or monster with a level equal to the host’s level plus the frightened value that triggered the nightmare (frightened 1 if no value is given.) The Key is relatively helpless to defend itself, and will inevitably succumb to the nightmare without intervention; it begins fleeing, loses proficiency in all skills and weapons, and all forms of movement are reduced 5 feet. Rescuing the Key from the hazard or defeating the monster ends the nightmare, instantly restoring the dream to full Integrity. If the Key is killed during a nightmare, the dream instantly concludes and the host awakens with the fatigued condition.

Some nightmares are a bit more onerous than others.

But Wait, There’s More!

There’s a whole lot going on with this. Dream weaving, psychic combat, story hooks, and the kinds of creatures that are native to dreamscapes. But the article is getting pretty unwieldy and I gotta pump the breaks. Feel free to use what’s here and build off of it, but rest assured I’ll be expanding on the subject in a future article.

Until next time, sweet dreams!

Hello and welcome to Eldritch Excursion, the blog where every entry is perfectly timed so long as you’re able to willfully disassociate from a linear progression of chronological traversal in this observably corporeal timeline. It’s easier than you think, but not as easy as fitting all of your ideas into a roughly 1k word count. As I reflect on the events of last year, I’d like to revisit a few of my previous articles and add some additional content that I didn’t have the time and/or word count to add before.

Let’s begin with my first entry, Heresy. While I’m pleased with the results of my opening salvo, it’s plain to see that it’s heavy on flavor but light on mechanics. Let’s fix that.

Heretic                      Background
(uncommon)
Through your misdeeds, misconceptions, or simply your misfortune, you’ve been branded as a heretic by the religion that once welcomed you with open arms. However, unlike those who have faded into obscurity or died by the blade of an inquisitor, you’ve found the determination and wit to continue on your life’s path. Work with the GM to determine the exact cause of your character’s excommunication and whether they’re guilty or innocent.
Choose two ability boosts. One must be Intelligence or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.
You are trained in Religion as well as a Lore skill related to why you were branded as a heretic (such as Academia Lore,  Demon Lore, or Undercity Lore)
While branded as a heretic, all loyal members of the faith that exiled you have a starting attitude one step lower than normal towards you and your known allies. You gain the Will of Anathema reaction.

Will of Anathema [free action]
(divination, divine, fortune)
Frequency once per day
In a moment of clarity, you embrace your status as an enemy of the church and use it against your pursuers. The next time that you would roll a Deception, Intimidate, or Stealth check against a known member of that faith, you may roll twice and take the better result.
Special If you are able to clear your name (or truly repent for your crimes, if guilty) and rejoin your former church, you lose access to Will of Anathema and gain the Will of the Faithful reaction. It functions as Reassuring Presence (Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse p104) except it loses the Anadi trait, gains the trait of your deity, and can only benefit someone who worships that same deity.

Or maybe you and the lads just form your own religion. With blackjack, and extortion.

Now then, let’s take a look back at Your First Summoning. As Paizo has yet to bless us with an aberration type for eidolons, the little story at the end doesn’t fit all too well. What follows is just one possible interpretation of whatever the heck that lone conjurer brought into his world.

Skinswimmer Eidolon
Skinswimmers were originally tamed by outcasts and heretics desperate to gain power at any cost. With their instinctual understanding of anatomy, Skinswimmers have a more literal and visceral bond with their summoners. These aberrant shape shifters even evolved over time to better suit their new role, often merging with their masters by taking the place of one of their vital organs. In their natural form, skinswimmers tend to look like a fleshy amalgam of their favorite creatures to hunt: one may appear to be a swarm of squirrels fused together, while another may look like a mutated elf protected by insectoid chitin.
Tradition occult
Alignment cannot be good
Traits aberration, eidolon, skinswimmer
Home Plane Material Plane

Size medium
Suggested Attacks claw (slashing), jaws (piercing), tentacle (bludgeoning)
Lurking Skinswimmer Str 14, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 10; +1 AC (+4 Dex cap)
Skinswimmer Mauler Str 18, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 10; +2 AC (+3 Dex cap)
Skills Medicine, Occultism
Senses darkvision
Language Aklo
Speed 25 feet

Eidolon Abilities Initial parasitic infusion; Symbiosis alpha mutation; Transcendence flesh heist

Parasitic Infusion
Your eidolon can compress its essence and invade a smaller creature, granting the host a sliver of your power. You gain a familiar (Core Rulebook p217). When manifesting your eidolon, you draw its essence from the familiar, causing it to lay dormant within your eidolon’s body. If the familiar is not in your space or adjacent to you at this time, it is instead slain by the process as you must draw upon it more forcefully. When your eidolon is unmanifested from any effect, including Manifest Eidolon or the summoner reaching 0 Hit Points, your familiar to reappears in an open space adjacent to you.
If your familiar is dead, the eidolon’s essence is safely transferred to your body, allowing you to manifested it as normal. During your daily preparations, you may gain a new familiar, so long as the environment has a suitable vessel for your eidolon to invade.

Alpha Mutation
After sampling material from a variety of creatures, your eidolon undergoes a metamorphosis that boosts its efficiency. Your eidolon gains resistance to precision damage and critical strikes equal to your level; if this resistance is greater than the critical strike’s extra damage, it reduces the extra damage to 0 but doesn’t reduce the attack’s normal damage.
Your eidolon also grows several ancillary limbs that aid in making precise incisions and sealing wounds with biomorphic secretions. These function as expanded healer’s tools.

Flesh Heist
Your skinswimmer realizes its full potential and gains the ability to invade fully sentient creatures. It gains the Flesh Heist activity.

Flesh Heist [two actions]
(eidolon) (incapacitation) (transmutation)
Frequency once per target per day
Your eidolon unravels its physical form and dives into the body of an adjacent creature, rapidly fusing with its flesh and taking control from the inside. The target must attempt a Fortitude save against your spell DC with the following effects. The effect lasts until your next daily preparations. The creature gains the aberration type while infested and bears the same sigil shared between you and your eidolon. While a creature is infested, it can be controlled as though it were your eidolon, though it gains no benefits from your eidolon’s evolutions, and any damage dealt to the host (after resistances, weaknesses and immunities) is also dealt to you. This may also be used on a fresh and intact corpse, which temporarily revives it. A dead host is still allowed a Fortitude save, representing the difficulty of resuscitating a dead body. The host is instantly freed when your eidolon is dismissed.
Critical Success The host is unaffected.
Success The target is stunned 1 and sickened 1 after fighting off your eidolon’s invasion.
Failure The target follows your orders but maintains its consciousness. It may take purely mental actions on its turn and can attempt a Fortitude save at the end of each of its turns. On a success, the effect ends.
Critical Failure As a failure, but the target may not take mental actions and receives a new save only if you give it a new order that is against its nature, such as killing its allies.

It looks pretty now, but the lower half is made entirely of spiders.

One more thing. Back when I was writing my take on the Oozemorph, I was torn on how to include the iconic compression ability. The fleshwarp already had a pretty good version, and I didn’t want to copy it. But honestly? Take that feat, replace the ancestry tags, add “can only be used in your base form or a form you take with Change Shape” and you’re pretty much good to go.

And that’s it for now. Feel free to use any one of those options. Or heck, use them all on the same character! After all, corruption is like potato chips: extremely poisonous but more popular than you think.

I might have a potato allergy.

The topic for this blog was inspired by a video about sword fighting with legally distinct not-lightsabers that has good choreography and some nice special effects. Check it out. It’s only five minutes. I’ll wait.

Welcome back! I’ve been thinking about the weight of character death in tabletop RPGs. It can be a significant moment in the story as well as a tragic loss for any party that’s too low level to afford a means of bringing them back. On the contrary, it’s a simple occupational hazard for the high-end heroes who are powerful and rich enough to afford it, assuming the setting allows for it. Coming back from the brink of death is a hallmark of powerful magic that an equally powerful party has earned through several levels and the countless hours of climbing through every last one of them.

But what if it wasn’t? What if death was a problem that could be dealt with as easily as a visit to the dentist’s office? Whether you’re in a fantasy setting or a science fiction setting, this has the potential to change the entire tone of your adventure. But you also have to ask yourself several questions about exactly how death is so easily defied. And with that line of thought, you might find yourself considering a few divergent paths. Here are some of the ones I came up with.

Drive-Thru Divine

The simplest approach is the humble price reduction. Your traditional resurrection means hiring the services of a highly experienced priest or druid (which may or may not be difficult depending on the setting and location) and typically pay an additional price for a disposable something-or-other that brings one person back with several temporary penalties. But imagine if bringing back someone from the dead was as cheap and easy as installing a replacement organ, or that slightly tweaking a cheap spell meant for objects allows it to work on human bodies.

Now you’ve got a world where life is cheap and death is barely an issue. The video linked above displays a wonderful example of how this might directly affect adventurers, but nearly every industry would change. Hazardous labor conditions could become more common as the results are more curable, secretive information brokers may use medical facilities to transport ‘dead’ agents with precious information, and institutions of both the arcane and alchemical would have an explosion of innovation earned by the lifting of previously life-saving restrictions. There’s a lot of potential to have a lighthearted game fueled by literal gallows humor as people have the ability to come back again and again with minimal consequence. That kind of mood might make for a fun change of pace.

Indefinite Mandatory Overtime

Imagine a world where the grim reaper has been defeated and the very concept of death has been erased from the equation. It could be the unforeseen consequence of the victory of a beloved hero, or the intentional result of the Big Bad messing with the laws of nature to achieve a monkey’s paw sort of immortality. In this version, death does not occur to anyone, no matter how earned it is. On one hand, it means that a person will eventually recover from even the most grievous injuries. On the other hand, it also means that people will still have to endure the aforementioned grievous injuries. Those who were meant to die of old age are hardly better off; they simply continue to wither, the years turning into lifetimes, their bodies shriveling into barely-alive husks.

This one can lean pretty heavily into horror if you’re so inclined. In a way, it makes the career of Adventurer seem far more dangerous; the sweet release of death would never come to a poor ranger crushed within a miles-deep cave-in, nor would it deliver peace to an unfortunate wizard trapped within the belly of some great immortal beast. In a setting so cursed, there are countless people who would hire heroes to solve this mystery, from the selfish nobles who want to end the blockade deterring their progress to the concerned caretakers who simply want the suffering to end. Of course, countless cults and opportunists may fight tooth and nail to preserve the new status quo, and magically induced immortality is the perfect mechanism to allow for reoccurring villains.

Always Read the Fine Print

And then there’s my personal favorite, and one that I often propose in home games. While traditional means of bringing back the deceased are around, there are also alternatives available. Alternatives that are extremely cheap if not outright free, so long as you don’t mind the unconventional methods or the unusual side effects. These can come from all sorts of sources, such as your classic deal with a devil, a strangely-worded fae contract, an aberrant parasite that burrows into the body and forcibly revives it, or whatever you can imagine. And the price of this deal can be just as strange and unusual as the source. I’m partial to the idea that each time the player character comes back, something changes. Something is taken away. Something is broken. Here are a few ideas for consequences for each death and revival.

• The character can no longer see faces, usually perceiving them as vague and blurry or as barely-articulate planes of skin.
• The character gains a familiar that does everything in its power to follow them around, and they seem to become violently ill whenever the familiar is harmed. The character has no control over the familiar.
• The character’s body constantly grows excess skin, hair, and nails, shedding excess clumps and brittle slivers throughout the day. It requires vigilant hygiene and leaves an obvious trail to track unless they take special precautions.
• Healing spells still effect the character normally, but the sensation burns like fire and always leave scars that look like the wound was cauterized.
• The character’s soul is corrupted and becomes repellent to all other creatures. When affected by any spell and that spell has an effect determined by alignment, the character’s alignment always counts as the polar opposite of the caster’s alignment.

And those are just a few that I had while rolling it around in my head. They’re intentionally rules light to allow for integration for multiple systems, and some are meant more for flavor and atmosphere, but for a baseline I’d probably resort to -2 penalties for relevant rolls or +2 bonuses for enemies in the right circumstances. Feel free to use one as your price of rebirth, or even make up more for the list and make a proper randomized table out of it. I’d suggest adding options that are thematically tied to the setting, the Dealer, and most importantly how the PC died. All within the range of what’s acceptable for your players, of course. You did have a Session Zero, right?

Always have a Session Zero.

Let’s start with the first edition oozemorph. It’s flavorful. It’s unique. It changes the way you interact with the game world. It’s basically a taste of second edition’s Versatile Heritage system years before we’d get to see it formerly implemented. It’s also an objective downgrade for your character’s effectiveness and I couldn’t care less.

In contrast, consider the second edition oozemorph. It’s an archetype that any character can take. It builds up slowly, increasing in its penalties and unusual effects over time. It’s less disruptive to the other aspects of your character. Perfectly functional. It’s also very different from what made me fall in love with it in the first place.

You’re thinking what I’m thinking, right?

Oozemorph (Rare Heritage)
Your physical form is unstable and prone to melting into a gelatinous state. Whether it be from an aberration in your lineage, a persistent curse, or an esoteric offshoot of traditional druidism, your manifestation marks you as what’s commonly referred to as an oozemorph. Your base form becomes that of an ooze. In this form you cannot speak, cannot use weapons, shields, or other held items, nor can you use any actions that have the manipulate trait.
While in your ooze form, you gain a pseudopod attack. Your pseudopod deals 1d4 bludgeoning damage and has the agile, finesse, and unarmed traits, and is in the brawling weapon group. You gain the ooze trait in addition to the traits from your ancestry. You gain the Change Shape ability (see below). You can choose from oozemorph feats and feats from your ancestry whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

Change Shape [one-action]
(occult, oozemorph, polymorph, transmutation)
Frequency a number of times per day equal to your level
You change from an ooze shape to a form based on a normal member of your ancestry. This form has a specific, persistent appearance. Maintaining this shape is taxing; for each hour beyond the first that you remain in this form, you must succeed at a Fortitude save at a DC that’s Hard for a character your level or revert back to your ooze shape. After the fourth hour, it becomes a Very Hard DC until you revert back to your ooze shape.
Special: If you gain the ability to change shape from your ancestry or an ancestry feat, it is now limited in uses and shares the same uses per day as this ability. It also requires hourly Fortitude saves to maintain.

Ancestry Feats
The following feats are available to oozemorph characters.

Druidic Attunement                     Feat 1
(oozemorph)
Your ooze form is not the result of some curse or corruption, but instead the culmination of your natural connection to the world. You gain the druid dedication feat; if you’re already a druid, you instead gain a 1st level druid feat of your choice. Your Change Shape ability loses the occult trait and gains the primal trait. If you violate the druid’s anathema, you also lose access to your Change Shape ability until you conduct an atone ritual.
Special: This feat may only be taken at 1st level and cannot be retrained.

Morphic Weapon                     Feat 1
(oozemorph)
You’ve learned how to shape part of your mass into a deadly weapon. When you select this feat, you gain a morphic weapon attack that deals 1d4 piercing damage and has the agile and finesse traits; one that deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage and has the shove trait; or one that deals 1d6 slashing damage and has the sweep trait. Each of these unarmed attacks is in the brawling weapon group. You may spend an action with the transmutation trait to manifest or reabsorb this weapon while in your ooze form or while in a form granted by your Change Shape ability.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you do, select a new attack from the options above.

Ooze Empathy                     Feat 1
(oozemorph)
You have a natural affinity for slimes and oozes. You can ask basic questions of, receive basic answers from, and use the diplomacy skill with oozes (and other amorphous creatures, if the GM allows) even while in your ooze form. In most instances, oozes will give you time to make your case.

Clinging Slime                     Feat 5
(oozemorph)
Your slime is particularly adhesive and capable of carrying your gelatinous body. You gain a climb speed of 15 feet in your ooze form. You may take a single action with the transmutation trait and spend a daily use of your Change Shape ability to coat yourself in adhesive slime, granting this climb speed in any form for one minute.

Resilient Mass                     Feat 5
(oozemorph)
Your amorphous physiology is difficult to discern and even harder to exploit. You gain resistance to precision damage and critical strikes equal to your level; if this resistance is greater than the critical strike’s extra damage, it reduces the extra damage to 0 but doesn’t reduce the attack’s normal damage.

Fluidic Body                     Feat 9
(oozemorph)
You gain a better understanding of your shapeshifting abilities and are no longer limited to taking the shape of your own ancestry. When you Change Shape, you may gain the effects of a 2nd level humanoid form.

Malleable Weapons                     Feat 13
(oozemorph)
Prerequisites Morphic Weapon
You gain a more precise control over your natural weapons, allowing you to improve their capabilities. Increase the damage die size of your morphic weapon and pseudopod attacks by one step. You may take a single action with the transmutation trait and spend a daily use of your Change Shape ability to shift your morphic weapon between the three available choices.

Master of Mass                     Feat 17
(oozemorph)
Prerequisites Fluidic Body
Your continued use of your shape shifting abilities has spurred a rapid growth in sheer size that also expands your shape shifting capabilities. While in your ooze form, you constantly gain the effects of enlarge. When you use Change Shape, you may gain the effects of a 5th level humanoid form.

And that’s my rough take on the oozemorph as a Versatile Heritage. I think it captures the spirit of that wonderful (if janky) first edition incarnation without stepping on the toes of the new version. Heck, you could take both. If you’re interested in giving this a shot in your home game, or you’ve got some critique and suggestions, feel free to drop a comment and let me know. I love feedback on this kind of stuff!

Your First Summon

There’s a lot to be said about the relationship between a summoner and their eidolon, much of which I’ll explore in future entries, but let’s begin with the first time that a summoner conjures their eidolon. This is a special event for the summoner; Years of studying, countless hours of practice, and meticulous preparation all culminate in this one key moment. I would argue that this single scene within your character’s past is as important as their entire backstory, a highlight best given attention and detail.

When designing your own summoner, consider how it went for them. Were they a scholastic prodigy who called forth their eidolon as part of the final exam for a prestigious arcane academy? Did they offer unconditional aid to a fae in need, accidentally sealing a binding contract with their self-proclaimed “new best friend?” Perhaps they experienced an emotionally charged outburst at a site of great spiritual significance that opened their third eye, only to have that power accidentally draw out a phantom with a similar emotional resonance?

Not only is the moment of the first summoning worth considering for defining your character, but it can serve as the blueprint for your character’s magic. A lot of flavor and backstory can be succinctly shown just by describing the ritual you use to call your eidolon. One summoner draws a circle of intricate runes that hover in the air before gesturing with a trembling hand as they draw forth their servant through their superior willpower. Another blindly tosses a silver coin behind their back only to have an eidolon leap out of their shadow to catch it. Yet another focuses on the single happiest moment of their life, that moment of pure bliss within the chaos of battle allowing their eidolon to enter this world through their master’s serene mind-portal.

You may already have a vivid picture in your head when you consider the summoner’s actions, but that’s only half of the picture. Remember that you’re writing for two and consider how the eidolon feels about their arrangement. The first question you’ll want to ask is if the eidolon is considered an equal in their relationship. A classic trope involves a powerful conjurer employing a magically compelled servant to do their bidding, not unlike the nature of a familiar, though it’s entirely possible to have the eidolon play the domineering role to a summoner who acts as a conduit to their power. Whether it’s as friends, rivals, a single disassociated soul caught between two bodies, or something else entirely, considering how the duo interact is central to visualizing the pivotal moment of their first face-to-face interaction.

Conjure Yourself Some Stats

So, you’ve got a solid mental image of the summoning ritual, a folder chock full of Batman & Robin memes to express every interaction with your eidolon, and you’re wondering where to go next. If you’re a mechanically minded player who’s looking to add flavor to something you’ve already built, now’s a good time to review your choices and consider how they can influence all of the ideas you already have. Healing and support spells may signify a more nurturing relationship between the summoner and eidolon, and suggest a ritual meant to conjure a protective guardian. Damaging spells can flavor the summoning ritual with their particular element, doubly so if that element ties to the eidolon’s own attacks or resistances.

And if you’re the flavor-oriented sort who decided to paint as detailed a picture as possible before jotting down a single number, you’ve probably got a great guideline for what abilities you’ll want to choose to re-enforce your flavor and maximize your storytelling potential.

With all of this in mind, you’re well on your way to creating something that your fellow players will never forget!

Conjurer’s Journal, unknown date

It was supposed to be a simple ritual. Breach the barrier to an alien plane and bind one of its denizens to my service. Then I could pursue my own power in my own way, free from the asphyxiating oversight of my thrice-damned homeland. In my arrogance, I assumed the stolen scrolls were forbidden because they did not adhere to our short-sighted laws, but I quickly learned that it was for my own safety.

The moment I activated the runes, an overwhelming presence seized control and reversed the ritual. It tugged at my very essence, like the loose thread on an old sweater, and I found myself unraveling. I don’t know if it was sudden shock or the power of the ritual, but I felt no pain as the red ribbons that were once my body spiraled down into the keyhole-sized rift at the ritual’s center. I didn’t even have the sense to scream before I was taken.

My disembodied essence awoke on the other end of the rift. I had no eyes to see, no ears to hear, no body at all. But I could still sense it. A sphere of raw life, of raw potential, uncorrupted by the influence of Hell or Heaven or any other realm I had seen in my studies. Immeasurable in size, covered in a pristine layer of unbroken skin. Countless entities writhed within. Some were vaguely humanoid, some vaguely bestial, but they were all too raw and crude and pure to be identified. One of them broke the surface of the sphere, the skin still clinging to them like a layer of molten wax, blindly grasping my essence and drawing me into its primordial form.

It was at that moment that I became physical again. Alive. I felt that overwhelming presence again, I felt it’s… fingers? Tendrils? I felt it carefully bending and weaving my form. Tightening my flesh to form new bones. Reaching into my head to pull the hair out of my scalp. Breathing air into my body and turning the pockets into lungs. Piece by piece, it was carefully reconstructing my body, learning from reading the grooves in my own brain to make me exactly as I was.

The last of its gifts was to part the lids on my freshly grown eyes, and when my vision returned, I found myself laying on the floor of my basement, just at the edge of the summoning circle.

But I was not alone. A swaying chrysalis with a texture I was all too familiar with hung over the now-spent runes, suspended by tendrils of sinew. The moment I looked upon it, a presence within touched my mind. In this instance, we knew one another. Deeply and truly and completely. The memory of that alien realm lingered in my mind like a fading dream, and I knew what had to be done. My hands plunged into the chrysalis and began to shape and weave the being. My muscles moved from a memory my mind did not have.

As I began to give it shape (no, to give HER shape, she decided) I could hear her chuckle in the back of my mind with the voice I had not yet given her. She called me her precious little pupa.

Every day I practice this new art. Every day we evolve together. She’s more than I ever could have asked for.

She will be beautiful.

And what better way to kick off my inclusion into a fine organization than to help you make a character who’s the enemy of theirs? Let’s get heretical.

The world of Golarion has a rich and detailed pantheon, from the core twenty deities to the faiths of distant nations and even the stars beyond, so there’s no shortage of materials to sample when you want to create a character who’s heavily influenced by one or more divine beings. Divine casters are a classic way to express this, and no one would be surprised to see a monk in service to Irori or a fighter whose devotion lies with Gorum.

But what if you wanted to try something different, or something a bit more unusual? What if you wanted to play a character whose fate is entwined with a particular god or goddess, but from a more antagonistic perspective? Someone who is seen as a criminal, an exile, or an outright heretic in the eyes of their religion? This raises a lot of questions that can be fun to answer as you create your character and it also creates a deep well of story hooks for a creative GM to tap into. And among those questions and hooks, one thing you’ll want to determine is exactly how your character came to be an outcast from their religion. There are many ways to do so, but here are three you may want to consider.

The Traitor

Let’s start with a classic. The stories told through Pathfinder adventures (especially the recently released Wrath of the Righteous CRPG) are rife with examples of people who have some kind of crisis of faith and end up changing affiliations. Sure, anyone can favor a new church after a moment of self-realization, but the spice that gives it that delicious heretical flavor is when the change happens between two warring faiths. A worshipper of Zon-Kuthon is inspired by the beauty of Shelyn and seeks redemption. A student of Irori, unable to set aside their past grievances, embraces vengeance and eventually becomes an assassin in service of Calistria.

These characters are very grounded in just about any setting’s lore, and they’re a great place to start if you want to explore the general concept. Kick-starting your character can be as simple as examining the relations and rivalries between the various deities and letting your imagination run wild. Classes that match the theme of your previous religion can help express your previous affiliations. If you can afford the feats, consider taking a dedication or archetype to express your new direction in life.

The Betrayed

Sometimes a heretic is condemned through no fault of their own. Instead, these pour souls were the victim of unusual circumstances. Perhaps they made enemies of a scheming noble who’s corrupting influence has infected the local chapter. Or maybe they stumbled upon evidence of corruption within the church and become a great risk to the hierarchy. Regardless of the reason, they’ve cut ties with their local church (if not the entirety of the established clergy) and may even adventure to find a way to clear their name.

These characters have a conflict that puts an emphasis on their relationship with the church, but it has little to do with the relationship between them and their deity. Because of that, the character still has the potential to gain divine power through their unwavering faith during these troubled times. Backgrounds such as Criminal and Prisoner can be adapted to work for you, especially if your character had to make unsavory friends just to find a place to lay low for a while.

The Egoist

So, it’s easy enough to imagine someone abandoning their faith, and betrayal is a common enough story element. But what if someone is exiled by their church simply because others find them misguided or absolutely insufferable? It’s possible to play a character who has their own interpretation of their deity’s will, or one who considers themselves above the other follows in some way. Perhaps a follower of Urgathoa enjoys the decadence offered by her faith but detests the idea of spending eternity in an undead form and considers it to be the “fool’s gold” of immortality. Maybe a seasoned warrior who prays to Gorum for victory openly criticizes his betters for their overreliance on brute force, especially in situations where magic seems more practical.

These characters allow you to defy expectations and play as someone who may not appear to be your typical follower. While there are countless ways to build your own brand of heretic, playing as one who initiates the conflict that gets them evicted from their church means you’re likely not going to receive your patron’s favor in the form of granted spells. Of course, that isn’t stopping you from playing as a spellcaster (such as a sorcerer or a witch) who believes they’re getting spells from their god.

Playing as a heretic can be a refreshing change of pace for someone who enjoys the setting’s lore but doesn’t want to make yet another cleric or paladin. Just make sure you discuss your character concept with your GM before you make any hard commitments. After all, there’s little to gain from being in trouble with a church that will never actually appear in the campaign. And you may not want to earn the enmity of the church if a key NPC or even a PC happens to be a member in good standing.

So, have you considered embracing your inner heretic? Do you already have an upside-down holy symbol hanging on your wall? Feel free to drop a comment with character concepts or stories of religious shenanigans from games past. I’d love to hear about it! You can also reach me on my twitter as Rosc Man, where I mostly retweet pixel art and talk about how great summoners are.