#CR!Codex | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thecreaturecodex · 1 month ago

Text

Wheel of Monsters

Image © @bowelfly

[April Fools! Like previous April Fools' monsters I've done, this is intended to be fully usable at table, just... weird. Most of my previous April Fools monsters have been pop culture references, and this one is, just a little slantwise. The expression "wheel of monsters" has been rattling around my head for years, inspired by game shows and game show parodies like Wheel of the Worst. The monsters its summons pulls from by default are mostly ones on the Codex, but I've included guidelines on how to customize it if you don't want to look up a whole bunch of bespoke stat blocks (assuming, of course, anyone actually uses this abomination at table).]

Wheel of Monsters CR 15 CE Aberration This thing is a quadruped with a long tail and clawed limbs, but its semblance to sane life ends there. Instead of a head, it has a vertically oriented dial with twelve facets, each with a different combination of eyes, teeth and strange glyphs. A single eye sits in the center of the wheel atop the axle. Spikes protrude forward from the edge of the wheel, plucked by a stinger at the end of a long tail. Said tail also has a strange flap on it that has the appearance of a sign, or possibly scoreboard.

The wheel of monsters is a strange tool in the service of the Dominion of the Black. They were invented by the daelkyr Harsanash, whose interests lie in the role that chance events play in increasing entropy and the downfall of complex systems. The wheels of monsters exploit chance by generating random spells and summoning random monsters, drawn from distant worlds under Dominion control or the depths of the Dimension of Dream. These far-flung summons have already had disastrous effects, as now both the quori and beholders know about Golarion and its corner of space, and gaze upon it with envious eyes.

Despite their grotesque appearances, wheels of monsters are quite intelligent—geniuses by the standards of humanoids. They tend to have something of a split personality; obsequious and loyal to higher ranking Dominion creatures, even less powerful ones, but snide and condescending to most other lifeforms. Most wheels of monsters have a fondness for cracking jokes and giving color commentary during combat. All of its many mouths are capable of speech, and it can alter the pattern and coloration on its tail flap with incredible precision in order to spell out words in any language it knows. A common behavior is to speak primarily through one mouth, with an unctuous tone, while making sounds like crowd noises and cheers with its other maws.

A wheel of monsters is usually on the move in combat, stalking from place to place in order to better make use of their spells. They are excellent climbers and have at least the possibility of flight through their random spellcasting, and so prefer to have a birds-eye view of the action in order to better place monsters or effects. A wheel of monsters keeps its tactics flexible, but almost always summons a monstrous minion as soon as it can to engage foes. In melee, they can sting with their plectrum tails, inducing confusion in foes, and grab with their claws. They prefer to split those attacks up, stinging enemies to disrupt their tactics and then focusing the bulk of their violence on a single target. If a wheel of monsters has a foe grabbed, it lowers its spiked face on top of their victim and spin it, tearing with all of its spikes and teeth simultaneously. When fighting on their own terms, wheels of monsters will gladly flee a losing fight, but gladly sacrifice their lives in order to promote the objectives of their superiors.

Appropriately enough for a creature of weaponized chance, different wheels of monsters may be able to call forth different spells or summons by spinning their wheels. In order to adjust the wheel of monsters’ spellcasting spin, replace some or all of the spells with spells of the appropriate level. A wheel of monsters can call upon two spells of each level from 1st to 6th. In order to adjust the wheel of monsters’ summoning spin, replace some or all of the monsters with monsters of the appropriate challenge rating. A wheel of monsters can summon two monsters of each CR between 8 and 13.

Wheel of Monsters CR 15 XP 51,200 CE Large aberration Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +27

Defense AC 29, touch 17, flat-footed 24 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 luck, +13 natural) hp 225 (18d8+144) Fort +17, Ref +16, Will +16 Immune curses, disease, poison Defensive Abilities fortune’s favor

Offense Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft. Melee 2 claws +19 (1d8+7 plus grab), sting +19 (2d6+7 plus confusion) Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with sting) Special Attacks rake (bite, 4d8+7), spellcasting spin, summoning spin

Statistics Str 24, Dex 19, Con 27, Int 20, Wis 14, Cha 21 Base Atk +13; CMB +21 (+25 grapple); CMD 36 (40 vs. trip) Feats Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Mobility, Nimble Moves, Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack Skills Acrobatics +25 (+29 jumping), Bluff +17, Climb +30, Fly +11, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (arcana, planes) +23, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +26, Perception +27, Spellcraft +20, Stealth +18; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Protean, Undercommon, telepathy 100 ft. SQ no breath

Ecology Environment any land or underground Organization solitary Treasure standard

Special Abilities Confusion (Su) A creature stung by a wheel of monsters must succeed a DC 24 Will save or be confused, as per the spell, for 1 minute. If the confused creature gets the “act normally” result two turns in a row, the effect ends early. This is a mind-influencing compulsion effect, and the save DC is Charisma based. Fortune’s Favor (Su) A wheel of monsters has a +3 luck bonus to its AC and to its saving throws. Spellcasting Spin (Su) At will as a standard action, a wheel of monsters can spin its wheel to cast a random spell. These function as the spell cast at CL 15th, except that it does not provoke attacks of opportunity and the save DC for all of these abilities, if applicable, is DC 24. The save DC is Charisma based. The wheel of monsters can choose the target or area of the spell as normal for any legal target after determining the spell cast. Roll a d12 to determine the spell cast each time the wheel of monsters uses this ability 1. magic missile 2. mage armor 3. blur 4. scorching ray 5. fly 6. lightning bolt (Reflex half) 7. enervation 8. fire shield 9. cone of cold (Reflex half) 10. spell resistance 11. disintegrate (Fortitude partial) 12. globe of invulnerability Summoning Spin (Su) As a standard action, a wheel of monsters may spin its wheel to summon a random monster from the following table. Monsters summoned in this fashion appear within 60 feet of the wheel of monsters and remain for 15 minutes or until dismissed. A wheel of monsters can use this ability as many times per day as 3 + its Charisma modifier (8/day for an average specimen), but can have no more than one monster summoned at a time through this method. Roll a d12 to determine the monster summoned each time the wheel of monsters uses this ability: 1. animate dream 2. neh-thalggu 3. aros 4. quori, hashalaq 5. rukanyr 6. yad-pollom 7. p’nahki 8. quori, du’ulora 9. garsonite 10. gogiteth 11. beholder 12. ectodactyl

#pathfinder 1e #pathfinder rpg #d&d #april fools #wheel of monsters #aberration #dominion of the black #original art #bowelfly #who knocked it out of the park with this one

335 notes · View notes

pathfinderunlocked · 1 year ago

Text

Conscript - CR 1/4 Commoner

Armor is too expensive for these troops. If you want them to last longer, just conscript more of them.

Artwork by mannequin-atelier on DeviantArt.

In much of the middle ages, an army's composition heavily relied on untrained soldiers, recruited from the normal commoners in nearby towns. These men were often armed with only the weapons and armor they brought from home, or possibly with a simple helmet or wooden shield. The weapon of choice for such conscripts across most of history and most of the world was polearms, due to their ease of use, superior reach, and cheap manufacturing compared to a mostly-metal weapon like a sword.

I was pretty surprised that I couldn't find a stat block for a level 1 commoner in the NPC Codex or any other official Pazio book that fit this kind of idea. The basic CR 1/3 foot soldier from the Gamemastery Guide is a warrior, not a commoner, and has chainmail, three backup weapons, and a healing potion. There are some other level 1 commoners, but they have improvised weapons, aren't human, or are otherwise not really appropriate for a conscript. This stat block should better represent a soldier that was literally just grabbed off the farm and handed a spear and told to fight.

The longspear in its stat block has the broken condition, but it's not literally broken; it's just such bad quality that it functions as a broken weapon.

These might be appropriate enemies for a level 1 party to fight, but mostly I personally use them as friendly NPC soldiers when the players are elite special forces working with the military. You can have a unit of thirty conscripts like this, and a group of level 3 or 4 PCs will still be the heroes who have to actually do everything, without it feeling like they're literally fighting a whole war by themselves.

If you need a lot of them for a big battle, see the conscript troop stat block.

Conscript - CR 1/4

This man holds a spear and shield, and fights for his homeland wearing the dirty clothes of a peasant.

XP 100 Human commoner 1 N Medium humanoid (human) Init +0 Senses Perception +0

DEFENSE

AC 12, touch 10, flat-footed 12 (+2 shield) hp 4 (1d6+1) Fort +1, Ref +0, Will +0

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft. Melee broken longspear -3 (1d8-1) Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with longspear)

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 9 Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 11 Feats Endurance, Shield Brace, Skill Focus (Profession [farmer]) Skills Craft (woodworking) +3, Profession (farmer) +7 Languages Common SQ shield and spear Gear broken longspear (cannot be repaired), heavy wooden shield

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Shield and Spear (Ex) A conscript gains Shield Brace as a bonus feat, even if he doesn't meet its prerequisites, but only gains the benefits of this feat while wearing no armor. A conscript treats a polearm as a one-handed weapon when used with a shield.

#d&d #pathfinder 1e #humanoid #commoner #human #npc

60 notes · View notes

justicegundam82 · 11 months ago

Text

Hackmaster to PF1 Conversion: Boarfolk

Hello! Here is my latest conversion... a rather simple one, all things considered, this one coming from the Hackmaster tabletop games.

I should add that I got some ideas from the work of the Creature Codex blog, who converted the Pigfolk some time ago.

I hope you will enjoy my conversion, and as always, tell me if there is something I should improve.

BOARFOLK

Image (c) GreyRat48 on DeviantArt

This humanoid creature is tall and well-built, with the head of a wild boar and covered in hirsute, coarse fur.

BOARFOLK CR 2

XP 600

CG Medium Humanoid

Init +0; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +3

DEFENSE

AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 15 (+4 natural, +1 shield)

hp 19 (3d8+6)

Fort +5, Ref +1, Will +1

Defensive Abilities ferocity

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.

Melee obsidian machete +5 (1d6+2 / 19-20; fragile) and bite -1 (1d4+1); or bite +4 (1d4+2)

Ranged sling +2 (1d4+2)

Special Attacks hatred (orcs)

STATISTICS

Str 15, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 15, Wis 11, Cha 8

Base Atk +2; CMB +4; CMD 14

Feats Power Attack, Weapon Focus (machete)

Skills Climb +6, Craft (weapons) +6, Knowledge (any one) +8, Perception +3, Profession (any one) +8, Survival +4

Languages Common, Orc

Special Qualities erudite

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate and cold forests

Organization solitary, pair, gang (3-10 plus 1 leader of level 2-4) or village (10-60 plus 1 lieutenant of level 2-4 every 20 individuals, 1 druid/shaman of level 4-6 and 1 chief of level 5-7)

Treasure standard (obsidian machete, sling with 20 bullets, buckler, other treasure)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Erudite (Ex): A boarfolk can choose a single Knowledge skill to always be considered a class skill for him. Boarfolk usually choose Knowledge (engineering) or Knowledge (nature) for this ability.

Hatred (Ex): Boarfolk gain a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against humanoid creatures of the orc subtype because of their special training against these hated foes.

Boarfolk are a surprisingly ancient race, rumored to be the original ancestry that orcs and pigfolk originated from. Unlike their brutish cousins, however, boarfolk have a rather sophisticated culture with intricate religious practices, and their cities are known for their remarkable innovations and efficiency. Most of them have a natural predilection for mathematics and physics. Boarfolk communities tend to be relatively small, living in simple but well-constructed villages hidden in deep forests, where they use trees for their shade and natural beauty.

Not ones to neglect their physical prowess either, boarfolk are trained in fighting from an early age, and are known for their skill in using their specially-forged obsidian weapons. They tend to be peaceful and avoid unnecessary violence, but their closeness to crueler and more belligerent orc subraces is a sore point for boarfolk - they regard orcs as degenerates, and pigfolk as abominations who offended their deities in ages past with some horrific sacrilege, and the hatred is very much mutual. The pigfolk's tendency for worshipping Great Old Ones lends credence to these rumors, but nothing definite is known. In any case, comparing boarfolk to pigfolk is a safe way to earn the boarfolk's scorn and irritation.

Boarfolk tend to revere gods of nature or Primal Spirits, and many of their rites revolve around trees. Most of their divine spellcasters are druids, but shamans are quite common as well. Arcane spellcasters are rather common as well, as a boarfolk's sharp mind is surprisingly apt for the study of such magic.

Boarfolk are rather large for Medium creatures, and they average about 7 feet in height, while weighing 300 pounds.

#pathfinder rpg #pathfinder 1e #conversion #hackmaster #boarfolk #furries

39 notes · View notes

dreadfutures · 3 months ago

Text

So I have been playing the (astonishingly long) free Eternal Strands demo. Which I appreciate, I think that's a great move.

So after about 10 hours... It's... fine?

It's a little clunky. Response time is a little slow, character movement is a little sluggish, and I've gotten caught on (or randomly ROCKETED INTO SPACE from) the geometry of the environment. The camera can be incredibly annoying at times.

Art wise, it is allergic to cut scenes/conversations with the character models. Instead you get awkwardly long fade outs and then animations in the style of a cheaper Dragon Prince/CR will play out a cut scene. Or you'll awkwardly long fade out and have some illustrations of the characters propped up like cardboard cut outs on either side of the screen with a dialogue box in between. It's something I would expect from a different genre of a different budget, and it is offputtingly awkward to me to have it breaking into a Dauntless/Monster Hunter/etc type 3D Unreal Engine game. Like it's one thing when it's Hades and you never get close to your characters, yeah, bring up an illustration. But these characters are 3d models who can interact with the environment and make expressions so... is it just *cheaper* to pull up the 2d standees? It feels jarring.

Mechanically it reminds me of Dauntless, back in the days before they were bought by crypto and went to shit. Smaller main hub, but same ideas and kind of the same art style ngl. There's no timer/shrinking zone the way there is in the Fortnite-likes, but the Monster Hunter/Dauntless/etc gameplay loop of "craft in the hub, warp out to a biome, track down the colossal monster, harvest parts, return to hub, craft more" is there.

There's a stamina bar and a dodge roll AND parries (if you want) so hey, I expect to see IronPineapple try it for his steam dumpster diving series for everything with souls mechanics lol.

Don't worry, it's not, though.

There's more plot, since it's a single player game. And it almost makes me laugh. A world where magic once flowed freely and was used widely suffered some sort of ancient long forgotten about turmoil/disaster; to contain the disaster, a magical barrier called The Veil was erected. Magic users on the now non-magical side of the Veil are persecuted and viewed with suspicion. You're going into the Veil bubble to discover what really happened and uncover ancient magic... And the ancient magic is apparently powered by giant, blue, branching, living mineral veins that are totally not lyrium. Oh and there are these robots that sound and act exactly like the suits of armor guardians in Veilguard lol. When you go out into the different biomes you get a screen just like Veilguard that tells you how many treasures, and what kind, you still have to find in that area. Those treasures are things like armor and weapon schematics, and plot related codexes you piece together to learn about the world. There are elements of personality you can choose for the main character with dialogue but they don't really change anything. And there are sort of base building elements... a bit... well mostly it's just leveling up shops.

I keep thinking, this game is if Veilguard was built for coop like it was originally intended to... but never actually connects to the internet. Yeah there are traces of Veilguard live service in Veilguard, but Eternal Strands is literally built *exactly* like these giant live service monster hunter type games, and it's weird to me that it's single player.

It's... fine.

Dauntless felt smoother and more mechanically pleasing than this back in the day. Eternal Strands has the basic mechanics of the fighting and the running around, but it really wants you to focus on how there are interesting gameplay mechanics in Eternal Strands. The way magic works feels like it's trying to be like Control (but not as smooth), and there's a Shadow of the Colossus style "climb onto the big monster and hold on for dear life as it runs/flies/tries to shake you off" except the physics sometimes goes NUTS and the camera really doesn't like it when you do that, and interesting attempts to interact with the environment, except... I got a fire spell that I'm told to melt ice with, but boy. The ice returns REAL fast, and the mana runs out REAL fast, and you can't run, and the cold chip damage stunlocks you......making it really hard to navigate the way it's telling me I should.

They really really want you to build armor with stats built for different biomes, but there's something about the numbers that feels very unbalanced to me. The amount of heat resistance you need to survive being face blasted with dragon fire vs the amount of cold resistance you need to survive the awful stunlock cold chip damage feels disproportionate and unintuitive. They want you to make lighter armor w higher elemental resistance to traverse the extreme weather parts of the biomes, but it's not like there's no fighting in those areas? So it becomes a choice: this ENTIRE excursion into the biome is about me surviving an element and running for my life from every beast who sees me (and aggros from VERY far away), and this OTHER excursion I will actually be able to walk around at a good pace for exploring and harvesting and stuff, except NOT in that one corner that's frozen solid.

The cosmetics of the armor change with the items you harvest, but only in color, really, which falls short of the genre standard.

It's... fine. It meets the minimum of genre standards for monster hunter types, and there's a little bit of that "one more run" itch, and the characters are likeable but not incredibly interesting, but honestly?

It's... fine.

#eternal strands

13 notes · View notes

the-whatcherof-89 · 8 months ago

Text

Pearlescentmoon aka Pearl Moo the Un-beelivable Postmaster.

CR 18 NG/NE Medium Humanoid Shapechanger.

XP 153,600 (if used as npc for encounter)Human Entothrope Werewasp(Bee variant)Vigilante (Splintersoul)17

Neutral Good/Evil Medium humanoid Shapechanger(Human, vermin)

Init +6; Senses Perception +27 Darkvision 60ft Low light vision

AC 29, touch 19, flat-footed 23 (+6 Dex, +4 Deflection, +9 Armor) (+2Natural armor in Hybrid/vermin form) Hp 165 (17d8+85) (17 temporary Hp while in Hybrid/Vermin form)

Fort +17, Ref +22, Will +16 (+1 in Fortitude and Reflexes while in Hybrid/vermin form)

Speed 30 ft, 20ft climb, 60ft flying(good) Melee Axes+20/15/10 1D6+2(+9d8 precision damage)

Only in hybrid/vermin form: 2 Natural attack+18 1d4+2 Sting+18 1d8+2 plus poison(DC24 1/round for 6 rounds 1d2 Dex cure 1 save) and curse of entothropy DC15 Ranged Crossbow +19 1D8+3(+9d8 precision damage)

Racial Bonus feat (Master crafter), +1 Skill point per level, Speed 30 ft, Change shape Hybrid/vermin form(+2 Natural armor+2Dex +2Con, DR 5/silver, 20ft climb, 60ft flying, Darkvision 60ft, Low light vision, Natural attacks, Curse of entothropy), Entothropic emphaty, Insect mind.

Traits Excellent penmanship, Empty mask.

Class features Splintered identity, Seamless guise, Vigilante specialization: Stalker(+9d8 precision damage), Social talents: Renown, Celebrity discount, Great renown, Social grace[Bluff, Intuition, Stealth], Safe house, Quick change, Sudden change, Surprising change, Vigilante talents: Lethal grace(natural attacks, axe), Evasive, Cunning feint, Blind spot, Hide in plain sight.

Str 10, Dex 22, Con 20, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 24

Base Atk +12/7/2; CMB +18; CMD +28

Feats Strong personality, Extra vigilant feats: Strike the unseen, Vital punishment, Up close and personal, Combat skill(Improved vital strike, Greater vital strike), Shield of blades, Signature weapon(axe), Returning weapon.

Skills Acrobatics +16, Appraise +6, Bluff +17, Climb +8, Craft(Stone & Metal) +20, Diplomacy +11, Disguise +20, Disable device+20, Escape artist +12, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (Dungeon +6, Engineering +6, Local +6, Nobility +6), Linguistics +3, Perception +17, Perform(oratory) +11, Profession(Postwoman) +10, Ride +10, Sense motive +4, Sleight of hand +15, Spellcraft +19, Stealth +26, Survival +5, Swim +10, Use magic device +11.

Languages Common, Draconic, Elven, Orchis, Aquan, Infernal, Vermin empathy.

Combat gear Distance Cunning Light crossbow+1, 50+2 Bolts, Merciful huntsman axe+2, Silencing axe+2, Ring of protection+4, Shadow mithral chain shirt+5, Belt of physical might+4 (Dex, Con), Headband of mental prowess+4 (Int, Cha, Spellcraft), Cloak of resistance+4, Amulet of mighty fists+2, Burglar boots(minor), Gloves of reconnaissance, Coat of pockets, Courier’s secret pouch, Hat of disguises, Black marketeer’s bag, Bookmark of deception, Codex of conversation, Corset of the Vishkanya, 4 Potions of Cure critical wounds , Manual of quickness of action+2(Used), Tome of leadership and influence+2(Used), 6 Doses of Blue Whinnis, Vigilante’s kit, Postmaster’s outfit, Mwk thieves tools, 2 Cats(Nugget & Olive), 10GP, The crimson shroud(Artifact).

The crimson shroud: This artifact is a ring with many ruby shards poking from the golden surface and glows and eerily crimson during the nights of full moon creating a full red cloak to shield the user. During said nights, the holder of the ring becomes even more unhinged and powerful granting a +6 bonus on Natural armor Strength and Constitution (an effect similar to the barbarian rage but without any other effects). The user feels compelled to perform acts of violence for no reason or under some animalistic instinct but NEVER against other creatures of the same kin(like humans or other bee creatures). While the user cannot notice or remember the acts it has an instinct to prevent to remove the ring as it makes the user immune to fear and charms that would even “suggest” to remove it. Furthermore, the ring rewards those that performs act of violence (even under guise) by granting the holder a regenerative ability healing the individual by 2Hp each round and increasing by 1 for every victim or defeated target (to a maximum of 10) during the night. The ring is said to be made with the crystallized blood of a war god and the only way to destroy it is to find his corpse and deliver it. To remove it from the finger without harming the user, one must use a couple of Rings Gates to deliver the ring on the other side at 100 miles, then have it being pulled out using a DC25 Strength check.

Background PearlescentMoon simply known as Pearl or Mrs Moo is one of the many inhabitants of the land of Hermits where many buildings defy the laws of possibility and brings wonder to those who lay their eyes upon them. Pearl is known as one of the many that helped to build many of these wonders, especially for Grian. She is in her own right a great builder herself that loves to mix various styles and she is known to have recently created a postal service along with Ethoslab and Tangotek where she is the Postmaster. She is a friendly outgoing person, especially with the “Soup Group” composed of Geminitay and ImpulseSV. However, deep beneath some people remember another Pearl, a red one, one that predated, hunted, killed: the Scarlet Pearl. Very few remember the events that transpired during the events known as Double Life but one that stood was when Pearl fell into a different more “Scarlet”persona, one that spilled the blood of both friends and foes. For some unknown reasons(maybe for the best) Pearl thinks that the event was but a dream. Who knows, maybe the other hermits subdued her to make her forget the event and let her return to her “better self” or maybe something more macabre occurred, no one knows. However, while her work distract her form these dreams she keeps seeing them especially during the full moon. One night she was restless and could not sleep so she went for a walk, the night was clear and tranquil but her fear of seeing again those dreams was more real than ever. “Do you want to be free of those dreams? I can make it happen.” Said a voice. Pearl jolted but found no one she was alone. “If you want to discover your crimson self and surpass it come find me, if you can. A guiding light is however, mandatory.” And she noticed a crimson light coming from a small hole in the ground. Pearl heard whispers in her head and could not resist, her hand reached in and as it came out it was wearing a golden ring with rubies on it. As soon as that happened the world changed around her and she found herself in a new land close to a town in front of an abandoned postal office. Her memories wandered but could not remember much, however she remained under her instinct as postmaster and carried on her duty not knowing that the night would have called for her other self to spread and grow her hive using her sting and punishing the criminals around the land. The Crimson Pearl was reborn, albeit a little different.

Image made using Heroforge.

#minecraft #roleplay game #pathfinder #pathfinder roleplaying game #hermitcraft #heroforge #pearlescentmoon #pearlescentmoon double life #double life smp

9 notes · View notes

omniblades-and-stars · 4 months ago

Note

17 for the rook asks!

Oh a delightful prompt for sure! I had a lot of fun doing this instead of my job, and I won't apologize for it!

From the personal journal of Maribel Ingellvar, Mourn Watcher, also known as "Rook"

On the spirit which calls themself the "Caretaker"

(Translated from Nevarran)

Spirit appeared as Bellara repaired the Eluvian. They called themself the "Caretaker" (appearance: copper/bronze mask with four sets of eyes stamped around the entirety of its head, scarves and a cloak. Set apart from other spirits by what appears to be material clothing, but is not. Unusual, but not unheard of.) Referred to the lyrium dagger as "the Wolf's fang" and allowed us passage through the mirror.

CT seems to belong to the Crossroads. They also maintain the Lighthouse to some degree, may even be tied to it in some fashion, hard to discern.

Helpful spirit, identifies needs and desires and attempts to provide?

Theorize they are the one leaving nostalgic bits and bobs around for the others. Spirit of Compassion or something similar, perhaps? Some of the others are quite disconcerted by them. Understandable, on the presumption CT helped Solas. Must remember a spirit does not have the context to maintain the same moral guidance we would. They are driven by a singular desire: to help. They remind me, unsurprisingly, of some of the stronger spirits in the Necropolis. Perhaps, that's why I'm not discomfitted by their presence as are some of my colleagues.

Asked CT today if it was one spirit that goes between places, or several in many places at once. Their answer, "As needed, Traveller," while on its face is cryptic, is however quite a helpful answer. The Fade operates on desires and needs, endless possibilities. I see no contradiction to this spirit being one and many at the same time.

CT can improve and enchant material weapons and armor. Fascinating. Their enchantments are very helpful. I really do not enjoy being singed by Venatori mage-fire. My hair thanks CT.

I found an old children's storybook in my room, the one with the story about a witch with a house made of sweets deep in the woods. I had this book when I was young, it has the same torn binding and curled pages. Impossible. I accidentally set this on fire when my magic manifested as a child, it was burnt to cinders. Asked CT about it, they said, "A piece of home for the aching heart." It seems the longer we're here, the stronger CT gets. That they can manifest an object from such an old memory is astonishing. We (Prof. Volkaren, Bellara and I) hypothesize that the spirit grows in power as they fulfill their purpose here in the Fade. I should visit the Necropolis again…

CT expressed disgust at the Blight corrupting the Crossroads. They expressed what can only be described as smug satisfaction when that awful dragon was destroyed seems to confirm that the Crossroads is intrinsic to their being.

CT helped to unlock Solas's study (in the roundabout way spirits often do, not unused to playing chase with wisps, fortunately.) It's as if they have deemed us worthy of seeing the Wolf's secrets. The mural is beautiful. Why did Solas need such a large study? It's oppressively lonely in there, I can't stand it.

Does CT know our plans for stopping Solas? They must, they know our needs without us saying what they are. This begs the question, does CT only desire to help whoever lives in the LH or do they have a deeper understanding of our goals and a want to help further them? CT does not help the Venatori and Antaam who enter the CR. This indicates, at the very least, that they have a value system, a way they decide who's friend or foe. I wonder if they will decide at some point that we're foes? Is it the dagger that keeps them on our side?

Not the dagger. Solas has it now, CT continues to offer aid. I'm glad for it, I've grown fond of them. I missed them while I was gone.

Make me write some Codex entries for a Rook? I have 4 of them so go nuts.

#daisy screaming into the void #this is my ask game tag now #datv spoilers #just in cases #rook: Maribel

4 notes · View notes

thorraborinn · 11 months ago

Note

What's your view on the word 'íviði', from Vǫluspá stanza 2, "níu man ek heima, níu íviði, mjötvið mœran fyr mold neðan." I just encountered this and that the meaning of it seems very contested. Why is it so unclear?

There's a discrepancy between the word "íviði" in the Codex Regius and íviðjur in Hauksbók and which also appears in the singular íviðja (dative íviðju) in Hyndluljóð and a þula of names for troll-women. I think most recent editions/translations accept that the Codex Regius actually did once say íviðjur but that it's faded and become unclear. It certainly wasn't written out in full but it does seem possible that an abbreviation (probably a small "r" above and to the right of the word, in that darkish patch) could have faded with time:

I think it's worth considering that CR and Hauksbók could have different words here, as the two redactions differ in other ways too, but I do think it's more likely that the word was always íviðjur in both, and that the discrepancy is due either to fading with age or just a mistake on the part of the CR scribe. I'm going to treat them as the same.

Since it doesn't come up very often we don't have a lot of context for interpreting it. The fact that it comes up in a list of troll-woman names makes defining it as "troll-woman" straightforward, as its other attestations can more or less easily be interpreted that way, but other interpretations are possible and it could also have ended up on that list of names by misunderstanding. Or it could have a different core meaning, but also be used as a troll name in addition, like how gríðr is a word meaning 'greed' but is also the name of a troll-woman or giantess.

On its surface, the word looks like it describes something that lives 'in the woods': í 'in' + við- 'wood' + -ja (derivational suffix). That probably would have been satisfactory to any Norse speaker, and is a pretty good name for a trollish person.

But meanwhile, there is a widespread Germanic set of words, Old English and Old Saxon inwid, OHG inwit, etc all with meanings related to 'deceit, guile.' This probably occurs in Old Norse in the compound íviðgjarn, though it seems this word only appears once (Völundakviða). An earlier cognate of the Old English adjective inwidda (< *in-widjan-) could, inflected for the feminine, be the direct antecedent to the word íviðja in Old Norse. It's possible that this is the origin of the word, and it just happened to develop into a word that would be subject to interpretation as 'in the woods' later on.

A third interpretation compares it to the word viðja 'withy (flexible shoot or twig)' and emphasizes its context in proximity to the world tree in Völuspá. This seems possible as well, though the í- prefix is hard to explain.

All of these are reasonable, we can probably debate the relative likelihood of one interpretation or another but probably can't declare one definitive. All these interpretations may have been available to the speakers of Old Norse who gave us the word too, so it might have been unclear to them as well, or maybe the multiplicity was a feature and not a flaw. Then again they didn't use the word very often so maybe they had a hard time being precise with it.

9 notes · View notes

stelliferousduo-a · 4 months ago

Text

;;ooc: For the New Year, I will be reviewing all of my current Genshin builds & how I want to improve them in the upcoming year.

This is a very long post so buckle up! I currently have 27 characters geared up and ready to go which is way too many, I am aware. I should really start investing more in a few select units but I love the Genshin cast so much, I want to use them. T ^ T There's still so many other units I want to build too but I'm all out of artifacts haha.

Of course, we have to kick things off with my girl herself!

Right now, I have an 'all-purpose' build on her with balanced ATK%, EM, CRIT and ER% stats.

As much as I would love to have a cracked 4P BiS for each separate element, I simply have not had the time nor resin to do so while also giving some love and attention to my other characters. T ^ T

I do have her skill and burst talents leveled to at least 10-11 for all elements, with Dendro MC having the highest investment because it is the element I use the most.

In terms of which elements I use - from most to least - it would be: Dendro, Electro, Geo, Hydro, Anemo. All of them are used as sub DPS characters aside from Hydro - who has no off field abilities so she is a vape DPS instead.

Goals: First and foremost, I really want to get Jade Cutter for her. This does mean I will have to change her sands to an ER% one and her circlet to a crit DMG one, so it will require some additional farming, unfortunately. I do have a pretty good off set ER% sands but no emblem crit DMG circlets.

My precious boy is finally on a 4P vermillion set! He is definitely high investment and without Xianyun, he does not hit those crazy numbers yet but I hope she will have a rerun in either 5.4 or 5.5 so I can give his damage another boost.

Goals: I would like to get a sands with a bit higher crit DMG and perhaps some ER on there as well. The one Lumine has an off-piece right now is pretty good, but that would require an on-set crit DMG circlet with a decent amount of ER%. The circlet he has right now has a bunch of ER% rolls and that's exactly what this build needed since I don't have his C1 or a triple anemo team to boost the particle generation.

The second little meow meow is here! He got a 5* weapon quite recently when I pulled Lost Prayer from standard banner. His build does not rank very high on Akasha but I enjoy using them. In overworld, I prefer Wanderer over Xiao because he's not reliant on his burst to do 90% of his damage.

Goals: Getting a 4P desert pavillion is obviously the dream but I don't know if that will happen this year haha. A goblet with both crit stats or a flower with some atk% and higher crit DMG would be nice. I might go back to strongboxing some VV next year so perhaps he'll get an upgrade there!

This man is the GOAT. His crit DMG is on the lower side for an obsidian codex build but this is what works for me now since I don't have a crit rate weapon on him. The damage he does in a classic burning team with a F2P craftable weapon (albeit R5) is honestly pretty insane. He has saved me the past 3 abyss cycles and I have not regretted pulling him at all.

Goals: A crit DMG circlet is the ultimate goal. This would require either more crit rate stats on his other artifacts or switching back to Serpent Spine for his weapon. Although I'm not even sure if it would translate to more damage since the Earth Shaker passive is really good on him. Perhaps I will pull for his signature on his rerun, we'll see...

Alhaitham you are hot af but you're also one of the hardest characters to build...This man needs EM, crit and ER% and he ascends with NONE OF THOSE. I do have other builds with higher CV but then his ER is barely existent so I had to find a balance. I think a bit more CR and maybe some less CD might get me better results but I have switched around artifacts on this man so many times, I just cannot anymore. T ^ T Gilded Dreams has to be my most unlucky artifact set ever...

Goals: I would love to get his CR up to 70~75% while maintaining at least 300 EM and 150-160% crit DMG. I tried to pull for his signature but lost to Skyward Harp, unfortunately. If I do end up getting Jade Cutter from chronicled, I might sometimes put it on him so I can focus more on crit DMG with his artifacts.

Mualani is a character I was super excited about getting because I loved everything about her: design, vibes, idle animations, etc. Hydro is one of my favorite elements too. At first her playstyle was really fun because in Natlan, she can keep surfing almost endlessly. ...But then I began playing her in Abyss or outside of Natlan and suddenly I had to actually stack her hits quickly or her skill would end with me only getting 1 or 2 skary bites off. I am a skill issue player and I suck at playing her, so she has been benched for the past month or so. I really hope I can get better at playing her one day because her damage potential is insane. She has hit the highest numbers on my account ever with over 300k in Abyss.

Goals: Her build is super solid as is, but a bit more EM won't hurt. Her crit DMG is quite inflated so I wouldn't mind sacrifying some of that for more HP%, EM and a teeny bit more crit rate.

My very first 4* from standard and the only Pyro DPS on my account to this day. Hu Tao? Nah. Lyney? Nope. Arle? Nu-uh. I have a C2 Diluc collecting dust because Yanfei is my girl! She might not be as strong as 5* units, but I love her attack combos and always have a blast playing her!

I recently changed her build from 4P Wanderer's to 2P 2P because Tighnari needed some of her pieces. At first I thought it would be a downgrade but the boost in ER% and crit DMG makes it so she actually hits harder.

Goals: A flower and feather from Wanderer's Troupe with similar stats as my current 2P MH so I can get her back on a 4P would be nice. A bit more crit rate wouldn't hurt either. She does get a 15% increase when targets are below 50% HP, which is nice against chonky bosses but doesn't do as much against overworld mobs which die very quickly anyway.

I used to have this boy on 2P WT and 2P Deepwood but by yoinking some pieces from Yanfei, he's now on a 4P Wanderer's Troupe! I feel the difference more with him than I do with Yanfei, so I think it was worth it.

My biggest struggle with Tighnari is that I can never fit Nahida on his teams, so I end up having to run Zhongli on deepwood instead. Perhaps in the future I will build my Kirara to fill the role of shielder + deepwood holder instead. For off-field electro, my only options are Fischl and Kuki but Kuki isn't great for ranged combat and Oz is single target, so I need Kazuha for grouping & spreading the electro aura to the other enemies.

Goals: Higher crit DMG and for Hoyo to make an electro shielder with off field electro application lol.

My electro queen and the first 5* I pulled from standard banner! She was my main for the longest time alongside Yanfei. I have been purchasing Wolf-Fang from the BP forever so she doesn't have to share with Alhaitham lol. Again, I might sometimes run her on Jade Cutter went I get it from the Chronicled Wish.

Goals: Her pieces are honestly kind of garbage but her crit DMG ascension + crit rate weapon make up for a lot. I do have a flower with higher CV but I need this one for the EM - which is already very low for an aggravate comp. I'm forced to run her with double dendro + Nahida to get about 250 extra EM.

The Pyro Archon - BOUKEN DA BOUKEN! I swap around his circlet and weapon quite a bit depending on what my team needs. Favonius with crit rate circlet when I need particles, Sapwood for the bigger attack buffs and healing bonus circlet when I run him as a solo healer with Furina. He never gets all of the fanfare stacks but usually the atk buff he provides is more valuable than getting full fanfare.

Also yes, I activated his C6 and have not regretted it at all. I actually like playing around with it at times.

Goals: I would love to get more personal damage out of Bennett as he can actually hit really hard with his burst when running a Pyro DMG goblet and crit circlet. I just haven't really invested enough in Noblesse to have the right pieces for that.

I did not get Xingqiu until quite a few months into playing the game and even when I did, I did not build him right away because I hate his original design lol. Now that he has a skin, it's gotten much more comfortable for me to play him because I actually enjoy looking at him. His build is pretty average but he does what I need him to do - apply a whole bunch of Hydro and enable reactions such as vape, hyperbloom, etc.

He is insanely strong and while his design might not be my personal favorite, it would be a huge loss not to use him in a lot of my teams.

Goals: Level his talents to 1/12/12 and maybe get a bit more CV on him. Other than that, he does his job just fine as is.

I have a love-hate relationship with this girl right here. I know she's supposed to be AMAZING but my build on her is pretty mid and I also really struggle with Oz uptime...In AoE content in particular, she feels quite clunky when you don't have a grouper like Kazuha around.

Goals: Get a better crit rate circlet or an on-set atk%/EM sands which will allow me to use an off-set crit rate circlet.

Do not fear, Yaoyao is here! Using her as a typical healer did not do much for my account nor did I enjoy playing her that way, so instead I slapped my unused MH set and spare Deathmatch on her. I also have a spare PJWS but Deathmatch gives more CR so it works better with my current pieces.

Goals: Get a flower with crit rate on it. The one I had on her previously was given to my Yanfei, so I had to change my build a little. Yaoyao is not top priority - of course - but I'll have to farm the MH/GT domain anyway for Fischl and Albedo so if I get an upgrade for her along the way, I won't complain.

Zhongli also has two builds: the first focuses more on his personal damage as a burst sub DPS. The second one is specifically for teams with a Dendro DPS, either Kinich with Bennett/Xiangling or Tighnari with Fischl/Kazuha.

Zhongli is the second limited 5* character I pulled and while he is never the highest DPS option for a team, he is so comfortable for a skill issue player such as myself, I can not imagine how I would play this game without him.

Goals: I think I want to eventually change his sub DPS build to 2P Noblesse / 2P Tenacity for the 20% HP. I generally run him with. Bennett on teams which benefit from the atk% boost, so the 4P is a bit overkill. It's just that right now, I have better DPS pieces for Noblesse than for Tenacity.

Probably the easiest character to build on my entire account because I already had a 4P VV with EM main stats ready before I pulled him. (Thank you Strongbox for that EM goblet!) Even with lower crit stats, he still does amazing and his grouping is so much fun when taking on smaller mobs in the overworld. Just like Zhongli, I cannot imagine an account without him. I skipped on C1 Xiao to have a guaranteed for this boy and I do not regret it at all.

Goals: A feather with EM and a flower with more EM would be nice. Or more ER on my sands/circlet which could allow me to run an EM weapon instead. Although Fav is so good for team-wide particles, I think it's more worth it than hitting the 1000 EM on him.

The other Pyro Archon, Xiangling! Even though she's on banners every other patch, she's never on the ones I wish on so this girl is stuck at C0, unfortunately. Maybe I can get a copy or two from the Chronicled Wish banner because I would love to have her C4. Her build is pretty good but without C4, her damage output is just a lot less, unfortunately. T ^ T

Goals: Cons, please...Also maybe a bit more ER% and EM without sacrificing too much crit.

Remember when I said Gilded Dreams is my unluckiest artifact set? When it comes to Alhaitham pieces - it is - but Kuki pieces? Oh boy the game loves giving me those HP% and EM rolls. Just look at those feather and flower! I have her on a 5P Gilded now because I don't have a single off-piece which is better lol.

Goals: An EM goblet with HP% is the only thing which could improve this right now. It's very low priority though because her heals are pretty decent even now.

Kaeya is a character which I was not originally going to build but I had these artifacts leftover and figured: why not. It's not a great build but he's mostly there to enable melt reactions.

Goals: I would like to give him a proper build and improve his pieces. Especially the goblet is not great but it's the only Cryo DMG goblet I have leveled on my entire account whoops.

The best character in the whole game, anyone? Seriously Furina is so good - both her personal damage and her support capabilities. When I use her in the overworld, I can just sit around for the most part and let her little animals take care of the easy mobs.

Goals: Get a bit more ER. I sometimes have to switch her to fav, especially in teams where she's the only Hydro character. Other than that I'm very happy with her build!

My first limited 5* and the character I started playing the game for. I love soft pastel girls and Kokomi fit the bill perfectly! Even though she cannot crit, her mono hydro team with Xingqiu, Kazuha and Furina is so comfy to play and I have actually cleared the Abyss with it as well.

Goals: None at the moment! I do have a lot of wasted crit rolls on her pieces so I might eventually farm a second Ocean-Hued Clam set. Then I can potentally transfer some of these pieces over to a character like Qiqi or Charlotte who can benefit from the crit stats more. I should probably level her weapon to 90 as well haha.

Nahida my beautiful radish baby!! I am so sorry that I had to skip you in 4.4 but my guaranteed Xiao was waiting for me. When I got her and Kuki on her latest banner, it instantly boosted my account by giving me access to some very strong hyperbloom teams. I can slot her and Kuki on basically every team and it works great!!

I have another build with almost 100 EM but way less crit rate so I actually prefer this one. Especially since I generally run her with a 1000 EM Kuki so she still gets the full buff with her burst!

Goals: Perhaps a bit more ER on the goblet or some more EM on the flower/feather. Crit rate on the sands or crit DMG on the circlet would be nice too but none of those are priority.

This is barely a build but I do use him in some double Geo comps so I decided to put him here. Not having his 'signature' from the limited event hurts me every day. Harbinger is a great weapon but it does mean he is attached to Zhongli's hip or I have to swap off him very quickly.

Goals: Where do I even begin? I want to do a complete overhaul of his build. Either a new 4P Golden Troupe with better substats, or I might aim for a 2P husk 2P GT or even 4P husk instead. I am also considering leveling the new Natlan DEF% sword for him. It all depends on the main stats/substats I can get on my artifacts.

My Faruzan is basically just there to buff Xiao/Wanderer, which is why her pieces are very scuffed. I just tried to get enough ER and some crit rate to proc the favonius weapon. Which is a shame because her personal damage at C6 is nothing to scoff at either.

Goals: I want to get more Tenacity pieces so I can give her a proper build with a nice 1:2 crit rate (60/120 would be ideal) without sacrificing ER. A bit more atk% would be nice too. Lastly, I want to get her final acension and max out her burst level talent for optimal buffs.

I don't use my Jean super often, but sometimes her team-wide healing is very nice alongside Furina. I got her from Noelle's banner when I just started playing so I honestly should give her more love, but I've build too many units, it's hard to give all of them attention.

Goals: I think having a 4P VV set might be better on her so she can also res shred when I'm playing any team with reactions. I also want to get a bit more crit DMG and atk on her.

Layla's shield is THICC and that is all I need from her. If I ever get her C6, I might build her for damage too but right now her shield and normal attack buffs are all I need. I love her design so it's a shame I can't play her on field, but she's still quite useful to me in melt or freeze teams.

Goals: Right now I'm happy with her even though she does not crit. Her shield is almost as strong as Zhongli's and the fact that she does have some decent Cryo application is nice when I use her with Yanfei.

This character threw me off guard with his personality so much. I thought he was gonna be an edgy/cold boy but he's such a precious ray of sunshine!! I am so glad I managed to get her on one yolo 10-pull. His build is something I threw together quite quickly so he's hard-carried by his weapon but I love using him in taser and even hyperbloom teams!

Goals: I want to switch him over to Chain-breaker so I don't have to keep on swapping Skyward Harp between him and Tighnari. This means I will have to get a better 4P Scroll set on him so that's a top priority for now.

Last but not least, we have everyone's favorite housewife - Thoma! I got C6 while wishing for Kinich and this is pretty much the only team I use him on right now - hence the 4P deepwood on him. He doesn't do much damage on his own but he enables Kinich to do big PP damage and that's honestly what I want from him the most.

Goals: His HP% is quite low because he's only level 70 for now. I would like to get him up to 80/90. I generally run Zhongli on my Kinich teams as well (giving him Layla's tenacity set) so the weaker shield is not that big of an issue. I maybe want to play around with Burgeon Thoma too, but that would require getting FLOP pieces.

#{ out of character }#genshin impact #genshin impact builds

2 notes · View notes

waidwn · 2 years ago

Text

9 People You'd Like to Get to Know Better

i got tagged by both @cr-noble-writes and @ad-astra13 <3 thanks for the tag

Last Song: The Few Not Fleeting by Nothing More

Currently Watching: Codex Entry's Pathologic, For Those Who Will Never Play It videos (which i highly recommend if you're down to listen to some very long videos about a niche video game)

Currently Reading: i just finished Red, White, and Royal Blue. i'm planning to read Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell next, but have not actually started. I'm also reading a variety of fanfics, as always.

Current Obsession: i mean, Mass Effect is always there i suppose. and @cr-noble-writes's Alex has made me kind of obsessed with pigeons lately 😂

not tagging people right now because Anxiety™. feel free to consider yourself tagged if you want to do this though!

#tag game

6 notes · View notes

meowdei · 8 months ago

Note

guys should i switch to a crt rate circlet on my kinich

my current circlet is cr dmg w 7% cr and my other circlet is cr rate w 24% cr dmg and 10% atk% cuz hes low on atk

my ratio (w codex buff) is 85 cr 260 cd but my other ratio could be 100/220

im going for top 1% btw

I would test it because the attack is honestly good to have especially if you don’t have his signature. It depends on how much attack you’re getting tbh bc 40 crit dmg decrease is quite a big drop too so it might not be worth it in the end. But again it doesn’t hurt to test it and if his cannon does better with more attack than cd than yes I’d definitely switch over

#my asks

1 note · View note

waystatus · 4 months ago

Text

Eh, as someone who likes indie RPGs and also D&D/Pathfinder, to say that the statements you've called "gleeblor" are "perfectly self-evident" feels a lot like bashing on D&D because you don't get why people would like it.

Just to lay my cards on the table, my favorite system is Chronicles of Darkness, and exactly because combat is a relatively uncommon thing and when it happens it's always dramatically interesting because combat is so dangerous there is no way to make a combat not at least somewhat risky for both sides.

D&D on the other hand is descended from wargames and as a result has tactical combat as a fundamental assumption of its mechanics. To say that

the existence of CR makes it so that you might as well replace the "habitat" entry for every creature in the Monster Manual with "a fight to the death with the player characters, which it is supposed to lose"

is a little like saying

you might as well replace the "habitat" entry for every creature in the Demon Codex with "a fight to the death with the Imperium, which it is supposed to lose"

Like, yeah. That's what the game is about. If you don't want a game about tactical combat then you shouldn't play D&D, and you shouldn't criticize D&D for being a game about tactical combat.

(My response to the criticism about past editions not having CR is that the reason CR was invented is to fix what was widely perceived as a flaw in past editions, namely that a DM who wasn't very familiar with the system could easily lead to the party wiping without meaning to. This is why indie RPGs that have tactical combat as a main focus like Lancer do have some kind of encounter balancing rules, and often have GMs asking about encounter balance online just the same as DMs in D&D.)

One of the funnier manifestations of gleeblor is Pathfinder players: I'll make a post about how D&D will color people's expectations of what RPGs can be like and create a very narrow set of expectations about the medium, and inevitably some Pathfinder player will be like "haha yeah those D&D players should really broaden their horizons, Pathfinder fixes all of their issues," and my friend. I'm sorry to say this but you are not immune to gleeblor and in many regards where it comes to expectations of playstyle created by the game, your favorite game is in fact just another company copying D&D's homework and slightly altering the wording.

#rpgstatus #d&d

2K notes · View notes

thecreaturecodex · 3 months ago

Text

If I Ran the Zoo: Energy Types

Pathfinder 1e is built off of the chassis of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition. And early in the game’s life especially, backwards compatibility was a priority. Which means that some bad decisions that D&D 3e made were grandfathered into Pathfinder 1e, and then were revised in PF2e. Energy types are one of them.

The canonical five energy types in PF1e are acid, cold, electricity, fire and sonic. Sonic damage is very rare, as is sonic resistance. There are other effects that deal damage in ways that are similar to energy types, like positive and negative energy and force damage, but are not defended against in the same way.

And then there’s poison. In previous editions of D&D, poison did hit point damage for the most part, unless it just instantly killed your character. There’s a lot of instant-kill poisons in AD&D. So it might have seemed like a good idea to change that, and to showcase the new concept of ability score damage, by making most poisons deal ability score damage. In actual practice, this means that characters have to recalculate a lot of their statistics every time they take damage from poison, slowing down play. And for low level characters without access to lots of lesser restoration spells, a fight with venomous monsters may result in days of downtime to recover. Not so great for the story driven heroic fantasy model that most D&D and PF games default to.

Both Pathfinder 2e and D&D 4e course corrected from this model, and made poison a type of energy damage. In PF2e, flat penalties to particular rolls are inflicted with status conditions like weakened and stupefied. In D&D 5e, penalties to abilities are very rare.

So, in the same spirit as PF2e and D&D 5e, I am going to make some revisions to the energy types. The Codex is going to use these energy types going forward, and I intend to go back over some older monsters in order to apply them retroactively. Mostly in terms of using the terms “mental” and “radiant” on previous monsters, but also changing some monsters that deal acid damage to poison (because that was already a change made in adaptation, so I’m changing it back) or changing the poisons of some monsters, particularly low CR monsters, from dealing ability damage to hit point damage.

Homebrew Rules: Expanded Energy Types There are eleven energy types, split into two categories. The five energy types that are the most common in nature are referred to as the primal energies—acid, cold, electricity, fire, poison. The six energy types that are more common in the Great Beyond and are controlled with magic are the esoteric energy types—force, mental, positive, negative, radiant and sonic. Positive energy typically heals the living and negative energy typically heals the undead.

Spells in PF1e that grant energy resistance, such as resist energy and protection from energy, give their full protection against the primal energy types only. Against most esoteric energy types, they give half of their normal protection. For example, a resist energy spell cast by a 3rd level caster can grant resistance 10 to acid or fire, but only resistance 5 to mental or radiant damage. These spells grant no resistance to force damage. Spells that only protect against specific energy types, such as draconic reservoir, are unchanged.

Dwarves and other playable species that gain a bonus on saving throws vs. poison gain resist 5 to that energy type as well. The breath weapon of green dragons deals poison damage, not acid damage.

#pathfinder 1e #pathfinder rpg #pathfinder homebrew #if i ran the zoo #energy types #magic #magic the gathering #mtg art #housekeeping

101 notes · View notes

pathfinderunlocked · 9 months ago

Text

Multimind Sorcerer - CR6 Sorcerer

As for how to deal with you, I'm of two minds. One of them is psychic and the other is dead.

Artwork by TsunamiXD on Twitter.

After taking a few weeks off, I'm back with a fairly straightforward addition to your NPC codex.

This sorcerer was, at one point in her life, just a psychic bloodline sorcerer, but she opened her mind too much and let something else in. Perhaps on purpose, or perhaps by accident - although she seems to have it mostly under control now, at least.

Since her only way of damaging corporeal enemies is magic missile, she's mainly a support caster. Casting magic missile with the Fearsome Spell metamagic is a solid play though.

Multimind Sorcerer - CR 6

The elven woman seems torn between staring intently at you as if seeing into your mind, and being distracted by what seems like a figment of her imagination that you can't see or hear.

XP 2,400 Elf Crossblooded Sorcerer 7 CE Medium humanoid (elf) Init +12 Senses low-light vision, see invisibility; Perception +4

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 15 (+1 deflection, +3 Dex, +4 mage armor) hp 32 (7d6+14) plus 12 temp hp Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 vs. enchantment Defensive Abilities possessed bloodline arcana (6/day) Immune sleep

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft. Melee mwk quarterstaff +2 (1d6-1) Special Abilities psychic strike (6/day, DC 16)

Racial Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +10 (+12 to cast defensively)) 1/day—disguise self (DC 14)

Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 7th; concentration +10 (+12 to cast defensively)) 3rd (5/day)—purge spirit (DC 16), shadowmind (DC 17) 2nd (7/day)—false life (already cast), see invisibility (already cast), share memory 1st (7/day)—anticipate peril (already cast), mage armor (already cast), magic missile, shadow trap (CL 8th; DC 15), shadowfade (CL 8th) 0th (at will)—dancing lights, detect magic, disrupt undead (ranged touch +5, DC 13), light, ray of frost (fire), read magic

Bloodlines psychic, possessed

BASE STATISTICS

Without anticipate peril, false life, mage armor, and see invisibility, the sorcerer’s statistics are Senses low-light vision; Init +3; AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 11; hp 25.

STATISTICS

Str 8, Dex 16, Con 11, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 16 Base Atk +3; CMB +2; CMD 16 Feats Eschew Materials, Fearsome Spell, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Reach Spell, Spell Focus (illusion) Skills Bluff +7, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Knowledge (religion) +6, Perception +4, Sense Motive +11, Spellcraft +11, Use Magic Device +7 Languages Common, Elven SQ arcane focus, bloodline arcana (possessed bloodline arcana, psychic spellcasting), crossblooded drawbacks, elven immunities, keen senses, shadowplay Gear potion of cure moderate wounds, masterwork quarterstaff, belt of mighty constitution +2, ring of protection +1, soul soap (2), 35 gp

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Arcane Focus (Ex) Elves with this racial feature gain a +2 racial bonus on concentration checks made to cast arcane spells defensively.

Possessed Bloodline Arcana (Su) 6 times per day, when the multimind sorcerer casts a non-cantrip spell, she can roll the next Will save she attempt against a mind-affecting effect before her next turn twice and take the better result. If she has already failed a save against a mind-affecting effect, she can instead attempt another Will save against that ongoing mind-affecting effect after successfully casting her spell. The multimind sorcerer can use this ability only once against a given mind-affecting effect.

Psychic Spellcasting (Su) The multimind sorcerer's sorcerer spells and spell-like abilities count as psychic instead of arcane. She uses thought and emotion components instead of verbal and somatic components when casting her spells.

Psychic Strike (Su) 6 times per day, the multimind sorcerer can target one creature within 30 feet that she can see; that creature must succeed at a Will saving throw (DC 16) or it takes 1d6+3 points of damage and becomes shaken for 1 round. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Shadowplay (Ex) Elves with this racial feature cast spells with the darkness, light, or shadow descriptor at +1 caster level.

#d&d #pathfinder 1e #npc #humanoid #elf #sorcerer

4 notes · View notes

justicegundam82 · 10 months ago

Text

3.5 to PF1e Conversion: Beholderkin, Spectator

Here I am with a new conversion... and this time, I'm about to tackle the Beholderkin from the 3.5 book Lords Of Madness. Of course, I'm going to take some liberties and try to put my own spin on them, but overall, I'll try to keep these conversions as campaign-neutral as possible. Clearly, you guys are free to adapt the lore to your own game world.

The Creature Codex and the Creature Chronicle have already written up two great PF1e conversions of the Beholder here and here. I'd really reccomend you check them out!

With that out of the way, here I give you the first of my Beholderkin conversions - the Spectator.

BEHOLDERKIN, SPECTATOR

Image (c) Wizards Of The Coast, from Lords of Madness, author J. Nelson

This spherical creature’s leathery body is crowned with four slender eyestalks, each terminating in a small lidless eye. A fifth eye, much larger than these, is located on the front of the sphere, above a toothy maw.

SPECTATOR CR 5

XP 1’600

LN Medium Aberration (beholderkin, extraplanar)

Init +8; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +18

DEFENSE

AC 18, touch 15, flat-footed 13 (+4 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural)

hp 51 (6d8+24), planar fast healing 2

Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +6

OFFENSE

Speed 5 ft., fly 30 ft. (good)

Melee bite +9 (1d8+1)

Ranged eye ray +9 touch (see below)

Special Attacks eye rays, spell turning

Spell-like Abilities (CL 7th, concentration +9)

3/day - create food and water

1/day - plane shift (self only)

STATISTICS

Str 13, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 15

Base Atk +5; CMB +6; CMD 20

Feats Alertness (B), Dodge, Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse

Skills Diplomacy +8, Fly +14, Intimidate +12, Knowledge (planes) +12, Perception +18, Sense Motive +14, Stealth +10, Survival +10; Racial Modifiers +4 Perception

Languages Common, Beholder; telepathy (see below).

Special Qualities beholderkin traits, guardian creature, naturally buoyant

ECOLOGY

Environment any (Axis)

Organization solitary, pair or cluster (3-6)

Treasure standard

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Beholderkin Traits (Ex/Su) Spectators are beholderkin, creatures that are distantly related to true beholders. Beholderkin have a very wide range of appearances and abilities. Not all share the xenophobia of true beholders, though most are still evil and cruel in nature.

Creatures of the beholderkin subtype share the following traits:

All-around Vision (Ex): A beholderkin sees in all directions at once and cannot be flanked.

Eye Rays (Su): All beholderkin can manifest dangerous magical effects by firing a beam from its smaller eyes. See individual beholderkin’s description for details.

Eye Rays (Su) A spectator can fire one eye ray as a standard action each round. Treat these as ranged touch attacks with a range of 60 feet and no range increment. A spectator cannot choose to use the same eye ray two rounds in a row. A creature struck must make a saving throw (DC 15) or be affected as by a spell at CL 7th, except that it only effects the target struck. The save DC is Charisma based.

- Fatigue: The target must make a Fortitude save or become fatigued. A fatigued creature that fails to save against this effect becomes exhausted.

- Inflict Moderate Wounds: This ray works like the spell, causing 2d8+7 points of damage (Will half).

- Hold Monster: The target must succeed on a Will save or be affected as though by the spell.

- Telepathy: A spectator can communicate telepathically with its target for the round. As a free action, a spectator can make a suggestion (as the spell; Will negates) to the creature it is currently telepathically speaking to.

Guardian Creature (Ex) A spectator beholderkin counts as an outsider for the purposes of summoning spells such as planar ally or planar binding.

Naturally Buoyant (Ex) A spectator's body is naturally buoyant. This buoyancy allows it to fly at a speed of 30 ft. with good maneuvrability and grants it a permanent feather fall effect (as the spell) with personal range.

Planar Fast Healing (Ex) A spectator beholderkin's fast healing only functions when the creature is on its native plane of Axis.

Spell Turning (Su) A spectator's central eye produces a 90-foot cone. Once per round, the spectator can attempt to turn back upon the caster a single spell or spell-like ability targeting it. In order to turn back a spell, the spectator must succeed at a concentration check with a DC equal to 15 + the caster level of the original caster. If this check is successful, the original caster suffers the effects of the spell as if it had been casted by the spectator itself. Only single-target spells that explicity target the spectator may be reflected this way, and only one each round. Area effect spells may not be reflected.

Spectators are extraplanar beholderkin native to the plane of Axis, and are known to be among the most reasonable and moderate of the beholderkin. They are often summoned to the Material Plane by arcanists who need a reliable guardian that does not require a great deal of resources to protect a valuable object or place, though they are not enthusiastic of working for humanoids or other creatures of the Material Plane. However, they possess a sense of duty and a loyalty to their summoner that is unusual amongst beholderkin, and they pride themselves on their guardianship abilities.

A spectator's bizzarre behavior manifests in two different personalities that share the same consciousness. Under normal circumstances, a spectator tends to be open, if cautious, and willing to chat with those it comes across. However, they can slip into a more introverted state of mind, where they spend a long time, possibly even decades, pondering philosophical questions and contemplating mysteries. A spectator that is left in isolation for a long time guarding a charge may develop some unexpected quirk - such as talking about itself in third person, or change their voice to resemble that of its summoner.

Unusually pacifistic for beholderkin standards, spectators only fight to protect their charges or their own lives. Unless guarding something, they tend to avoid combat by flying away or using plane shift to return to Axis. If protecting an item, or if fighting becomes necessary, a spectator will typically start by using its fatigue and telepathy eye rays to incapacitate its opponents, usually throwing in a suggestion in order to convince the opponent to leave it alone. Only in the face of stubborn intruders will the spectator resort to lethal force, paralyzing its enemies and blasting them with negative energy. They will try to keep obvious spellcasters within the reflective cone from their central eye.

A spectator is about 3 feet wide and weighs about 250 pounds.

#conversion #pathfinder 1e #pathfinder rpg #beholderkin #spectator #dungeons and dragons #lords of madness #aberration #cr 5

3 notes · View notes