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Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:29 PM
Gramarie

http://www.ffcompendium.com/art/6-terra_magitek-a.jpg
Are you ready? I hope you are ready because I am ready

Table of Contents

Introduction
Base Classes
Gramarist
Disciplines
Alchemetrics
Arcanodynamics
Biollurgy
Eldrikinetics
Geoccultism
Heuristicism
Kaleidomantics
Imachination
Yggdratecture
Prestige Classes
Apogineer
Arcanitect
Ayuscientist
Contractor
Dreamason
Graughtsman
Lode-Bearer
Prime Mover
Masνnist
Shadowright
Miscellaneous
Blueprints
Bubbles
DMing with Gramarie
Pricing Gramarie
Really Really Big Stuff
Glossary

Introduction
"I believe there are beautiful things seen by the astronauts."

HEY! This thread got far too big for its britches; there's a new thread over here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=320298) which is up to date with the latest gramarie goodness!

Okay, so here's how it is. Magic is amazing, wonderful stuff, but I am really tired of having everything be about micromanaged combat all the time. I like fighting stuff, but I also really like worldbuilding and interacting with immersive and controllable game elements. I personally firmly believe that having consistent rules and predictable outcomes is fundamentally good for the kinds of games that I enjoy. To that end, I have written a system that creates the kinds of worlds that I want to play in.

This is going to be different from what you are expecting. Using these rules will change your setting, and a lot. This is a document all about using magic in creative and imaginative ways in order to replicate technology. It's incredibly open-ended. I've thought a lot for the last six months about stuff that you could do with it, and the main conclusion I've come to is that there's a lot more that I haven't thought of. I feel like that's something that's been missing in D&D lately. I'm tired of having tiny little arbitrary powers that have a small self-contained effect and which never have any impact on the game world as a whole. I'm tired of a DM-focused game that is all about controlling and disempowering players. If you enjoy that sort of thing, you will probably not enjoy the stuff in this document. This material is all about transparent world-building, that the players can interact with, and creating a world in which they can take actions that have foreseeable repercussions.

So, I hope that you check it out! This is possibly the most ambitious thing I've ever made, and it's certainly one of the most rules-heavy. It's probably the last really huge thing I'm going to make for D&D 3.5, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I hope you like it!

– Kellus (Chris Johnston), August 2012

HEY! There's an entire forum (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?board=152.0) to talk about and discuss this project over on minmax boards! If you want to chat about any particular part of the system, like a particular prestige class or principle, that's an awesome place to do it! Or post here instead, that's cool too! :smallsmile:

Change Log

August 15th, 2012– Published
August 15th, 2012– Added notes from backup about multiple gramarists working on the same principle, and some stuff about radiomantic metal that must have gotten shifted from an early draft.
August 15th, 2012– Added a clause in eldrikinetics about being able to reduce Push output.
August 21st, 2012– Clarified the rules about maximum speeds and engines in parallel.
August 21st, 2012– Gave some hard rules on phlogiston. People that like ice rejoice!
August 21st, 2012– Modified the class table to include uses per day of spectroconstruction, and cleaned up the rules text on it.
August 21st, 2012– Added some rules text to clear up confusion on arcanodynamics and YGGD 241.
August 21st, 2012– Changed the rules substantially for numbers and fuels in engines. If you were doing anything with it previously, double-check your numbers. It should now be substantially easier to use.
August 21st, 2012– Added some text to kaleidomantics about rotation with a reference point.
August 21st, 2012– HEUR 302 is now more specific about activating embedded principles multiple times.
August 21st, 2012– Kaleidomantic filters now have rules about opposing the motion of a filter and the weight that they can support.
August 21st, 2012– ALCH 101 now stacks, and takes less time to prepare. Meanwhile, orichalcum is now somewhat harder to come by. Also, alkahest is a thing!
August 21st, 2012– Arcanodynamics can't drop the temperature below absolute zero.
August 22nd, 2012– Added a minimum value to the heat capacity of ALCH 101 so you don't end up dividing by zero. The universe is safe once more
August 22nd, 2012– Black filters stop summoning effects, since they rely on information passing through the filter
August 22nd, 2012– Prime Mover published
August 22nd, 2012– Blueprints are now a thing
August 22nd, 2012– Bubbles can take up less space if you want them to
August 22nd, 2012– Lode-Bearer published
August 22nd, 2012– The usurp space mother lode ability needed clarification
August 24th, 2012– Biollurgy published
August 24th, 2012– A few small updates to biollurgy. Xenoalchemist level, Hit Dice per inch of thickness, 0-level grafts.
August 24th, 2012– Wrote the first draft of the glossary
August 24th, 2012– Added a gestation period for custom species
August 24th, 2012– Rejiggered for alphabetical order after Biollurgy
August 24th, 2012– Added some notes on manipulative limbs and body slots for a chassis
August 25th, 2012– Corner scenarios for a semi-space, including the protruding weight a portal can support, cover and concealment behind one, and damage to it
August 25th, 2012– Toggle transformers on or off as a standard action and as a logical decision
August 25th, 2012– Added a density column for metal statistics and made it drastically easier to target stuff with Alchemetry
August 25th, 2012– Changed the caster check DC for a few effects to a predictable formula
August 25th, 2012– Tethering principles now offer a saving throw if you don't want something tethered to you
August 28th, 2012– New pricing rules: now with added value
August 28th, 2012– Better explanation, I hope, of Black filters
August 28th, 2012– Some fixes on Yggdratecture exploits, and the definition of the term inside
August 29th, 2012– Contractor published
August 29th, 2012– Changed gold output to not create crazy wtf amounts of energy!
August 29th, 2012– Modified the text to spectroconstruction to clarify the labour it provides
August 29th, 2012– Added some text about the labour provided from the contractor's capstone
August 29th, 2012– You can build a soul!
August 29th, 2012– Red filters: now with less murder!
September 1st, 2012– Added Heal as a class skill to the prestige classes
September 1st, 2012– Notes about bull rushing unattended objects with magnetic fields
September 1st, 2012– Graughtsman published
September 1st, 2012– Kaleidomantic filters now interact with other filters of the same colour
September 2nd, 2012– Caster level for eldritch blast
September 2nd, 2012– Added a new discovery for the graughtsman
September 2nd, 2012– Logical decision limit for an EI
September 2nd, 2012– Dreamason published
September 2nd, 2012– EI's burn ebbs for XP
September 2nd, 2012– Fixed a c/p in the dreamason
September 9th, 2012– Shadowright published
September 10th, 2012– Three new discoveries for the shadowright.
September 27th, 2012– Clarified rules text on the 10th level ability of the prime mover.
December 12th, 2012– Masνnist published
December 12th, 2012– Added an important cap on the ruby ruination discovery so that you can't blow up the solar system. Darn!
December 12th, 2012– You now can't have a nigh infinite number of programmed wish-granting machines assembling, von Neumann style, other wish-granting machines.
December 12th, 2012– Tools for gramarie are now described in each section. Artifacts forthcoming
December 13th, 2012– Major in the universe
December 14th, 2012– Geoccultism published
December 14th, 2012– Changed the rules a little bit on how universalists and specialists work, hopefully to equally incentivize them! Also did lolwut page merging to fit geoccultism on the first page.
December 14th, 2012– Apogineer published
December 15th, 2012– Dungeonjammer published
December 16th, 2012– Sunmetal now ruins the day of geoccult poles in the area of a radiomantic explosion
December 17th, 2012– Platinum transformers are pretty awe-inspiring (religious pun!)
December 17th, 2012– Ayuscientist published
December 17th, 2012– Arcanitect published
December 18th, 2012– Platinum poles are aliiiiive
December 18th, 2012– Group chat enabled with whisperreed
December 18th, 2012– Hey, I caught one before everyone else! Acid transformers were using the wrong volume; a flask of acid is a pint, not a cubic foot.
June 30th, 2013 - Stellar Cartographer published
Canada Day! 2013 - Feats!
Canada Day! 2013 - Millwight published
July 2nd, 2013 - Asternomist published

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:30 PM
The Gramarist

"This is my world. It follows my rules."

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/210/d/8/The_Architect_by_evermind_design.jpg
Image credit evermind-design (http://evermind-design.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

In a world as fabulous and frightening as we find ourselves, knowledge is a valuable commodity. Many marvels seem like magic to the uneducated, but the intellectual knows that all phenomena must follow certain rules and laws, even if we don't quite understand them, and even if they might potentially rip our faces off as they spawn tentacled horrors. Science is the great leveller, allowing for equalisation between those people who can arbitrarily shoot laser beams out of their eyes and those who can't. The mechanisation of the magical is collectively known as gramarie, and thus one who learns the skills to use and control it is a gramarist.

There are several different disciplines of gramarie:

Alchemetry is the study of matter. More specifically, it's about quantifying and exploring the empirical principles at work in commonplace alchemy. Alchemetry is all about transforming substances and tweaking their properties.
Arcanodynamics is the study of arcane power. Arcanodynamic principles explore the relationships between magical energy (commonly known as puissance) and more common forms of energy, such as heat and light.
Biollurgy is the study of life. It explores the distinction between the living and nonliving, and can walk the fine line between the two.
Eldrikinetics is the study of magical motion. The powers that propel magic vehicles, defy gravity, and generate momentum are the principal focus here.
Geoccultism is the study of the environment and ley lines. It deals with thaumaturgic poles which tweak and modify the world around them, sometimes to extreme lengths.
Heuristicism is the study of control systems and circuits. It allows you to link magic together in fascinating new ways.
Imachination is the study of the real and the nonreal. It explores the mechanics of generating false sensations and illusionary interactions.
Kaleidomantics is the study of the magical prismatism of light. Kaleidomantic filters are refracted curtains of colour which can be used to separate agents based on the nature of light.
Yggdratecture is the study of other worlds and dimensions. The malleable nature of a fantasy planar cosmology sometimes works in your favour.

Game Rule Information

Abilities: Intelligence is far and away the most important skill for a gramarist. Gramarists who prefer to serve in battle as low-grade artillery will enjoy high Dexterity scores to make their eldritch blasts more accurate. However, it's important to recognize that gramarists are not focused on combat at all, and will not do well if that's their primary goal.

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at 1st Level: (6 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Class Skills: The gramarist's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis) and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Gramarist
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Principles Known

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Baccalaureate principles, eldritch wick, specialization|
1

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Eldritch blast +1d6|
2

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Spectroconstruction|
3

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Bonus feat, eldritch blast +2d6|
3

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Spectroconstruction (2/day)|
4

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Eldritch blast +3d6|
5

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Spectroconstruction (3/day), magisterial principles|
6

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6|Bonus feat, eldritch blast +4d6|
6

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6|Spectroconstruction (4/day)|
7

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Eldritch blast +5d6|
8

11th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Spectroconstruction (5/day)|
9

12th|+6/+1|+4|+4|+8|Bonus feat, eldritch blast +6d6|
9

13th|+6/+1|+4|+4|+8|Spectroconstruction (6/day)|
10

14th|+7/+2|+4|+4|+9|Doctorate principles, eldritch blast +7d6|
11

15th|+7/+2|+5|+5|+9|Spectroconstruction (7/day)|
12

16th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+10|Bonus feat, eldritch blast +8d6|
12

17th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+10|Spectroconstruction (8/day)|
13

18th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+11|Eldritch blast +9d6|
14

19th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+11|Spectroconstruction (9/day)|
15

20th|+10/+5|+6|+6|+12|Bonus feat, eldritch blast +10d6, the architect|
15

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the gramarist.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a gramarist you are proficient in all simple weapons and light armour. You are not proficient in shields of any kind. By spending two skill points when you take your first level in this class, you can claim a single martial weapon proficiency as a one-time bonus by spending some time on (shudder) physical education.

Eldritch Wick (Sp): The study of gramarie is very closely related to the study of pure magic. Arcane energy is one of the purest forms of puissance, and as you learn about the principles that govern the flow of magic, you also learn to generate that energy yourself. At 1st level you gain an eldritch wick, which is a touch attack that deals 1 point of damage. This ability can be used at will, and is treated like as a spell-like ability whose caster level is equal to your Hit Dice. Your eldritch wick is the equivalent of a 0th level spell.

Your caster level for your eldritch wick (and, later, your eldritch blast) qualifies you to take feats, prestige classes, and other such venues which require a generic caster level. It does not count as arcane, divine, or anything else more specific than a vanilla caster level.

Specialization: All initiates of gramarie tend to gravitate towards one discipline or another; at 1st level you must pick one discipline to specialize in. You gain a competence bonus of half your class level on the key skill of your chosen discipline, and can select principles from that discipline which are marked with the [Specialist] tag. A specialist cannot select any doctorate-level principles from other fields of study than their specialization.

You can choose "general studies" as your specialization, in which case you have chosen to major in "the universe". These gramarists are known as universalists, and while their guidance counselors might say they lack direction, they actually know exactly what they're doing. A universalist can select magisterial-level (200-level) specialist principles from any discipline as doctorate-level principles, but can never select doctorate-level specialist principles. They can, however, learn any non-specialist doctorate-level principle once they gain access to that tier. If you are a universalist, you also never qualify for prestige classes or other venues that require specialization.

A universalist adds this competence bonus to Knowledge (architecture and engineering) checks.

Principles of Gramarie: As a student of gramarie, you have many avenues of learning available to you. At 1st level, and again whenever indicated on your class table, you learn a new principle. Principles are supernatural (Su) abilities which bend or break the laws of physics, but not quite in the same way that most magic does. Principles can be used whenever you have the time, materials and inclination; they are effectively usable at-will if you are in an appropriate situation. Principles come in three grades: Baccalaureate, Magisterial, and Doctorate. You gain access to these higher grade principles as shown on your class table. Once you achieve the Doctorate level (at your 14th class level) you may refer to yourself as a doctor of your that discipline. You cannot put off learning a principle; if you do not qualify for one when you would otherwise receive it, it's lost. If a principle is marked [Specialist], it can only be learned by a specialist in that discipline.

A principle is not cast, it is prepared. By preparing a principle multiple times, you can change the volume or size of the target affected. For example, if a principle targets 1 cubic foot of material, by preparing it twice (and thus spending twice as long on it) you could target 2 cubic feet of the material instead. A special case is made for bubbles, which are spherical effects. For more information on the size of bubbles, refer to the miscellaneous section at the end of this document.

If a principle requires materials, you need extra materials every time you prepare it. You can also improve a principle later on my adding more materials to it (if applicable) and by spending more time on it. This also forces you to make a new skill check on it. Speaking of skill checks, you can always choose to use Knowledge (architecture and engineering) as the skill to prepare a principle instead of the discipline key skill, but you take a -10 penalty on the check. In the same vein, you can take 20 on key skill checks made to prepare a principle, but you can never take 10 on them. Bear in mind that taking 20 means taking 20 times as long as you normally would, which for gramarie can be very long indeed. To prepare a principle you must be within range of touch of the structure or object or location on which you are setting the principle for the duration of the preparation.

If multiple gramarists know the same principle, they can work simultaneously on the same project. For example, two gramarists could prepare the same principle at the same time, and the principle would count as having been prepared twice. Later a third gramarist who also knows that principle could show up and prepare it again, and the principle would then have been prepared three times. A gramarist can choose to 'lock' a principle that has been prepared, meaning that only he can continue work on it later. Bypassing the lock requires making a key skill check (based on the discipline) which beats the principle's current skill check by 5 or more.

Eldritch Blast (Sp): Once you move beyond a simple cursory understanding of arcana, you can learn to project your power in the same way as those whose magic is in their blood. At 2nd level your eldritch wick becomes an eldritch blast, which is a ranged touch attack that must be made within 60ft. Your eldritch blast deals 1 damage, plus 1d6 damage for every two class levels as shown on your class table. Aside from the small difference in damage, this blast is interchangeable with that gained from other classes, and additional eldritch blast damage from other sources adds to this eldritch blast. Your eldritch blast has an equivalent spell level of half your Hit Dice, and the caster level of the effect is equal to your Hit Dice.

Spectroconstruction (Su): Building super awesome architecture would take a while if you had to do it all yourself. Luckily you have at your beck and call an army of spectral labourers willing to take one for the team. Starting at 3rd level, every day you can cause an effect equivalent to a lyre of building (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#lyreofBuilding) (building effect) for 30 minutes. You gain an extra daily use of this ability at 5th level and every 2 levels thereafter. You can use this effect on its own merits, or as part of a project, as you see fit.

No Perform check is required to initiate this effect, but instead you must make a DC 18 Knowledge (architecture and engineering) check every time you activate it (+3 to the DC for every additional time per day you activate it). Failure indicates the daily use is wasted. You cannot split up individual uses of this ability; if you do not use all 7,200 man-hours during the activation period, they're lost.

It's not always entirely clear how useful a man-hour is, because it's not always clear how to quantify labour. The lyre of building is an ambiguous wondrous item at best, so while it's the only reference that exists in this case, it's not exactly helpful in the strictest sense. So for your convenience here is a small list of commonly manufactured items and an estimate of the number of man-hours required to build them in the real world. This should provide a decent starting point for you to determine how many man-hours you'll need for a given project.

{table=head]Man-hours|Project
20|A well-made cart
50|One 5ft. cube of a tunnel
300|A gypsy's carriage
5,000|A nice house
7,200|Maximum labour from one spectroconstruction
44,000|A small boat
200,000|A large building
300,000|Industrial factory
600,000|A viking ship
1,000,000|The Colossus at Rhodes
2,000,000|A fortified castle
7,000,000|The Empire State Building
15,000,000|The Titanic
650,000,000|The Great Pyramid of Giza[/table]

It should also be prominently mentioned that the work from this effect is akin to unskilled labour. You can use it to build, essentially, anything that doesn't require a Craft check of any kind.

Bonus Feat: As a student, you inevitably pick up a few lessons along the way which aren't necessarily taught in a classroom. At 4th level, as well as every four levels thereafter, you gain a bonus feat you qualify for. A universalist can instead choose a principle which they qualify for in place of a feat.

The Architect (Ex): An amateur could do something right; a professional never does it wrong. At 20th level, you're far beyond being a master of magical engineering. Every Knowledge (architecture and engineering) check you make is maximised (treated as a natural 20), as well as the rolls for your specialization's key skill.

The true revelation at this level, however, is the perfect understanding you have achieved of the connection between magic rules and the convential laws of physics. Knowing how these principles of weird science interact allows you to transcend the normal preconceptions of what is and what is not 'possible'. All of your principles are now extraordinary in nature, and for all intents and purposes any machine or structure you build out of them is considered nonmagical in every way.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:33 PM
Alchemetry

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/072/4/8/chemistry_by_antuniey-d4snp3v.jpg
Image credit Antuniey (http://antuniey.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

"We're made of star-stuff."

Alchemetry is the careful application of magical charges to alter the fundamental properties of materials and objects. A master of alchemetry understands materials on a very deep level, and knows how to cause drastic changes with small applications of puissance. Any engineering project which calls for materials outside of the mundane requires someone skilled in alchemetry. Alchemetry was originally conceived as a scientific offshoot of the royal art of alchemy, and bears many outward resemblances to this pseudoscience. However, alchemetry actually deals with contacting and negotiating with the spirits of everyday matter, and convincing them to change the way they form materials.

Alchemetry often involves the use of astronomic gauges and astrolabes, employed to determine the alignment of heavenly bodies, as well as more traditional alchemical supplies such as flasks and scales. Any such specialized equipment counts as a masterwork piece of equipment, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Diplomacy check made to prepare an alchemetric principle. The Almagest is a mythical alchemetric treatise which is said to describe the motion of the planets in exacting detail.

Key Skill: Diplomacy


ALCH 101: Intro to Alchemetry
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: Solid material of no more than 8 cubic ft. and weighing no more than 5,000 lb
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle alters the fundamental properties of material. The target must be a single body of uniform material. As part of this principle, you make a Diplomacy skill check to convince the atomic spirits of the material to rearrange themselves to your liking. At the end of the preparation, you can apply one of the following changes to the body. Any body can only have one modification to a given statistic at a time (for example, a body of iron can't have its durability raised twice).

Durability: The hit points per inch of thickness of the target are increased or decreased by half your Diplomacy result (minimum 1 hit point per inch).
Hardness: The hardness of the target is increased or decreased by one fifth of your Diplomacy result (minimum 0).
Heat Capacity: Somewhat less common than most operations, the target increases and decreases in temperature by a different factor than it normally would from external heat sources and temperature conditions. Divide your Diplomacy result by ten (minimum 1), and pick either that number or its inverse (1/the result) as the new heat capacity factor. All temperature changes to the body are multiplied by this factor before being applied to it. This also affects fire and cold damage sustained by the target.
Sturdiness: The break DC of the target can be increased or decreased by one quarter of your Diplomacy result (minimum DC 3). This change applies to anything that is made out of the material in the future.


ALCH 202: Irregular Properties
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: ALCH 101, Diplomacy 8 ranks
Target: Solid material of no more than 8 cubic ft. and weighing no more than 5,000 lb
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle applies strange elemental properties to a body of material. The target can be made of different materials, but must be touching while this principle is being applied. If the target is ever broken up after this point, all of the pieces carry the effect of the principle. At the end of the preparation, you can apply one of the following properties to the body. Material can only carry one of these properties at a time.

Buffering: The target neutralizes acids and bases on contact. Acid damage deals half damage to it just like normal energy effects. If it comes in contact with a fluid that deal acid damage and is not destroyed by it after a number of rounds equal to the number of squares the fluid could cover, the fluid is rendered pH neutral (assuming the target remains in contact with the fluid).
Flammability: The target becomes flammable. It loses all fire resistance or fire immunity, and fire damage ignores the hardness of the material. Fire deals full damage to the material instead of half damage.
Magnetism: The target becomes magnetic, and is treated as ferrous for all purposes related to magnetics. Electricity deals double its normal damage to it, which for most metals means that it deals full damage to it instead of half damage.
Resonance: The target hums with a resonant sensation, allowing it to transmit sound in a way most materials do not. Sonic damage no longer ignores the material's hardness, and it deals half damage just like normal energy effects.


ALCH 286: Mysterious Metallurgy [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: ALCH 101, Diplomacy 8 ranks
Target: Solid planetary metal body of no more than 8 cubic ft. and weighing no more than 5,000 lb
Preparation Time: 2 hours

This principle uses strange procedures involving astrology to realign a material's spirit with a different planet. The target must be a single body made of one of the planetary metals. As part of this principle, you make a Diplomacy skill check to realign the metal's alignment. The principle can be applied to any of the following metals: copper, gold, lead, mercury, iron, silver, and tin. The base metal is changed into one of the other planetary metals, chosen when the preparation is complete. Each metal also has a Diplomacy DC to achieve in order to transmute into; failure indicates wasted effort. Volume is conserved in the transformation, even if the weight of the metal body changes.

The planetary metals have the following statistics:

{table=head]Planetary Metal|Hardness|Hit Points Per Inch|Melting Point|Boiling Point|Break DC Modifier|Diplomacy DC|Density
Copper|8|20|1084 °C|2562 °C|+3|25|560 lb/cubic foot
Gold|5|10|1064 °C|2856 °C|+1|50|1,200 lb/cubic foot
Lead|2|30|327 °C|1749 °C|+5|20|700 lb/cubic foot
Mercury|5|15|-39 °C|357 °C|+0|35|840 lb/cubic foot
Iron|10|30|1538 °C|2862 °C|+10|30|490 lb/cubic foot
Silver|5|10|962 °C|2162 °C|+1|20|650 lb/cubic foot
Tin|2|5|232 °C|2602 °C|-2|15|360 lb/cubic foot[/table]

Copper: Copper is exceptionally conductive to electricity. Electricity deals one-quarter damage instead of half damage to it.
Gold: Gold created with alchemetry is real gold, but is also distinguishable from naturally occuring gold. An Appraise check (DC 20) indicates the gold's artificial nature. It is difficult enough to produce that it is often still accepted as a trade currency, albeit at a significantly lower exchange rate than natural gold. Gold is very inert, and does not rust.
Lead: Lead is a durable material which is fairly easy to produce, but it is also poisonous. Anyone who spends a lot of time wearing or handling lead is susceptible to lead poisoning on a daily basis, which works like a poison with a DC of 16 and which deals 1d4 Con damage as the primary and secondary damage.
Mercury: Note that at normal adventuring temperatures, mercury is a liquid. Mercury is a powerful poison, with a DC of 20 and dealing 1d6 Str damage as the primary and secondary damage. Mercury is exceptionally conductive to electricity. Electricity deals one-quarter damage instead of half damage to it.
Silver: Silver created with alchemetry is real silver, but is also distinguishable from naturally occuring silver. An Appraise check (DC 10) indicates the silver's artificial nature. Alchemetric silver is so easy to produce that it is very close to worthless as a trade material. Silver is exceptionally conductive to electricity. Electricity deals one-quarter damage instead of half damage to it.
Tin: Tin is an exceptionally flimsy material, but it is easy to produce. It is also very resistant to acids and corrosion; acid effects deal only a quarter of their normal damage to tin.


ALCH 325: Preternatural Fluids
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any two ALCH principles, Diplomacy 15 ranks
Target: Material of no more than 8 cubic ft. and weighing no more than 5,000 lb
Preparation Time: 1 hour

Learning this principle allows you to affect fluid bodies with your alchemetric principles. All of your alchemetric principles can now be used to target liquid or gaseous bodies, although the fluid to be affected must be enclosed and separated from other freely moving fluids in order to alter it.

This principle in its own right allows you to convince the free spirits of fluids to change their motion slightly. As part of this principle you make a Diplomacy check. At the end of the preparation, you can apply one of the following changes to the body.

Density: The density of the target is altered by a factor of up to a tenth of your Diplomacy result. This changes the weight of the target by the factor specified, and causes a fluid to exert a different amount of pressure.
Phase Change: The melting or boiling point of the target is increased or decreased by a number of degrees Centigrade (or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit multiplied by this result), up to your Diplomacy result.


ALCH 364: Unexpected Materials [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three ALCH principles, Diplomacy 15 ranks
Target: Planetary metal body of no more than 8 cubic ft. and weighing no more than 5,000 lb
Preparation Time: 4 hours

This principle allows you to refine a planetary metal to a new level of supernatural purity. This principle targets a body made of a planetary metal, and ascends it to a higher form. As part of this principle, you make a Diplomacy check. You must meet the Diplomacy DC of the superplanetary metal you are trying to transform the material into. Each planetary metal has one higher level form which it can be turned into. These superplanetary metals have the same statistics as their normal counterparts, but gain a special property.

In addition to the normal planetary metals, this principle can target an 8th metal: platinum. Platinum is an odd case, and while it can be ascended with this principle, it is not a valid choice for ALCH 286. For all other purposes, it is treated as a planetary metal. Platinum and its ascended form have a density of 1,340 lb/cubic foot.

Copper: Copper ascends into carmot, which is the key element to the philosopher's stone. Consuming carmot freezes the aging process in any living thing for 24 hours. Carmot in general is an element of preservation, and anything touching carmot does not decay, rot, rust, or otherwise wear out. Carmot has a Diplomacy DC of 60.
Gold: Gold ascend into sunmetal, which is a radiomantic element. Radiomantic elements deal 1 negative level per round to anyone who handles them. The DC to remove a negative level from a radiomantic element is 25. If at least a cubic foot of radiomantic material is charged with at least 100 ebbs of puissance on a given round, it detonates in an explosion with a radius of 1 mile per cubic foot of metal. The explosion deals 1d10 negative levels to every living thing in the area, hellfire damage equal to the total number of ebbs channeled into the metal (Fortitude save for half damage against DC 25) and it poisons the earth; no living thing can grow there for the next 50 years. Geoccult poles in the area are affected by this. If the number of ebbs channeled in the explosion exceeds the Survival check of the pole, it is destroyed and the metal used in its construction disintegrated; other geoccult poles set up in the area in the next 50 years must beat this DC or disintegrate upon preparation. Sunmetal has a Diplomacy DC of 85.
Lead: Lead ascends into cursed lead, which is a protective material that has antimagical properties. Any enclosed space made of cursed lead is filled as if with an antimagic field (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/antimagicField.htm) effect. Cursed lead has a Diplomacy DC of 55.
Mercury: Mercury ascends into quicksilver, which carries the elemental nature of speed. Objects and structures made from quicksilver experience time at a faster rate than other materials. For all purposes, they experience two rounds for every normal round. Spaces, creatures, and objects completely enclosed by quicksilver experience the same effect, although it's usually impossible to interact with the outside world from such a location in order to take advantage of the property. Quicksilver has a Diplomacy DC of 70.
Iron: Iron ascends into phlogiston, which gives off heat perpetually. Phlogiston always radiates heat as if it were on fire, but it never burns up. This heat radiates out 5ft. from the phlogiston body (with an additional 5ft. for every size category of the phlogiston body above Medium). This area is raised to an arbitrary temperature of at least 1,000 degrees Centigrade at all times. Anything that burns at those temperatures must make a DC 15 Reflex save every round it remains in the area or catch on fire (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#catchingOnFire). Phlogiston has a Diplomacy DC of 65.
Platinum: Platinum ascends into orichalcum, which is the metal of the gods. It has the statistics of adamantine for all mundane purposes. Orichalcum can store gramaric energy as a battery; every cubic foot of orichalcum can hold up to 100 ebbs of puissance indefinitely; it's normally handled in beads, which can each store a single ebb. Orichalcum has a Diplomacy DC of 100.
Silver: Silver ascends into moonsteel. Moonsteel gives off an unearthly silver glow, and extends onto the Ethereal Plane. It interacts with both the corporeal and the incorporeal. Moonsteel has a Diplomacy DC of 55.
Tin: Tin ascends into alkahest, which is an agent of entropy. It has the normal statistics of tin, but breaks down in water to create an incredible solvent. This works like universal solvent (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#universalSolvent), but can also dissolve any of the planetary metals. Any planetary metal body that spends time immersed in an alkahest solution takes a cumulative -1 penalty to its hardness every round. When its hardness reaches 0, it begins taking 1d6 nonlethal damage every round (even though objects don't normally take nonlethal damage). If the metal is removed before reaching 0 hit points, the nonlethal damage and penalty to hardness disappear. When the body's hit points reach 0, it is dissolved into the solution, adding its volume to the volume of the alkahest. If the alkahest solution is later dried out, dissolved metals can be retrieved in granular form from the solute. Alkahest has a Diplomacy DC of 50.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:38 PM
Arcanodynamics

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/240/9/6/war_of_the_worlds_by_herodees-d2xg1zv.jpg
Image credit HeroDees (http://herodees.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

"You can't win. You can't break even. You can't quit the game."

It's well known that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but only changed from one form to another. Although wizards don't really like to think about it much, it's generally understood that every fireball they throw channels some small portion of fire out of the vast elemental void, and as energy is lost in that translation the multiverse is a little poorer for it. Arcanodynamics is the study of the nature of magical energy exchange, and teaches techniques which can convert energy between forms. It is the root of nearly all sustainable gramarie, as it allows for self-powered machines and circuits which can run on things other than bolts of magic and intangibles such as hope or dreams.

Arcanodynamics requires the use of advanced mathematical formulae and referral to complex enthalpy tables to calculate the rates of energy transferrals. Such material is often collected and bound into thermodynamic reference tomes. A reference like this counts as a masterwork piece of equipment, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Use Magic Device check made to prepare an arcanodynamic principle. Maxwell's Skull is a powerful magical artifact said to house the spirit of a demon knowledgable in all aspects of energy change and transfer.

Key Skill: Use Magic Device


ARCD 101: Intro to Arcanodynamics
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisite: None
Target: 1 cubic foot of silver or wood
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle transforms a raw material into an arcanodynamic transformer. For a true energy conversion, you will need two arcanodynamic transformers which are touching, one designated as input, and one designated as output. As part of this principle, you make a Use Magic Device skill check to transform a volume of nonmagical material into either an input or output transformer; this decision cannot be changed later. An input transformer emits a field, a bubble with radius of up to 5ft. which absorbs a particular kind of energy in the area. If connected to an output transformer, the energy is transformed and emitted as a different kind of energy.

An input transformer's bubble (or 'net') radius depends on how many times you prepare the principle, as normal for bubbles. For an output transformer to alter the energy absorbed, the output principle must have been prepared at least as many times as the input principle. An input transformer without an output transformer dissipates the energy absorbed into the aether, which can be useful for less complicated problems. All energy is measured in ebbs, which is a generic unit of supernatural power. A transformed can only ever channel a number of ebbs in a given round equal to the Use Magic Device check. If the energy that could be absorbed exceeds this limit, the excess is not absorbed. Transformations which provide a rate at which energy is transformed is typically by round unless specified otherwise.

When you prepare this principle, you decide the way an input transformer will absorb energy, or you decide the way an output transformer will distribute energy. Different materials are keyed to different kinds of energy, and yes, you can mix an input and output transformer of the same material. If for any reason a single effect would be caught by two different nets at the same time, the net which was most recently set up in the area takes precedence. If it's still unclear for some reason, flip a coin.

Anyone touching a transformer can turn the input or output effect on and off with a standard action, suppressing the bubble field. These are also logical decisions that can be made in a circuit connected to the transformer.

This particular principle allows you to use silver and wood for arcanodynamics.

Silver: A silver transformer channels magical energy by creating a field that dissipates spells or by transforming energy into eldritch power.
Input: Eldritch input absorbs spells and spell-like abilities which enter the net. This applies only to effects which are normally vulnerable to spell resistance. Any spell or spell-like ability which targets anything inside the net or which passes through the net in the case of a projectile spell (such as an magic missile (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicMissile.htm) is subject to the absorption effect. The net has an effective spell resistance of 5 + 5 for every ARCD principle you knew when you prepared this principle (preparing this principle again lets you update the DC later on). A silver net generates 1 ebb per spell level absorbed.
Output: Eldritch output transforms energy either into raw magical power or into a specifically prepared spell. The choice is made when this principle is used and the transformer is first established. If raw magical power is selected, the field spontaneously generates a bolt of magical power whenever a transformation happens. By default this bolt strikes the nearest living creature for 1d6 untyped damage per ebb (this is a supernatural ability), as a ranged touch attack; the transformer is treated as a weapon in this case. The bolt can be aimed by anyone holding the transformer. In either case, there is a maximum range on the bolt of 100ft. per ebb transformed.
Alternatively, a spell can be cast into the transformer when it is first prepared. If the transformer then absorbs a number of ebbs at least equal to the spell level of the particular spell it is keyed to, it then activates the spell in its memory. If the spell chosen has costly material components or an XP cost, 50 times that amount of the resource must be sacrificed when the transformer is first created. All relevant decisions as far as targetting or other controlled aspects of the spell are decided ahead of time by the gramarist preparing the transformer, or can be overridden by someone holding the transformer. If a lesser number of ebbs are absorbed, the energy is instead transformed into a raw magical bolt as described above. A silver output can be used to charge further transformers with the same spell, but the same price for XP costs and material components needs to be paid. A transformer or a heuristical circuit which it is attached to cannot pay XP themselves, but a willing subject touching the circuit can contribute their XP towards the project.

Wood: A wooden transformer channels puissance, which is a gramaric charge. Please note that this is a fairly complicated ability which is primarily used in conjunction with the discipline of heuristicism. This also deals in manipulating raw puissance, and the ebbs generated or absorbed with this kind of net are actual ebbs which can be used in a circuit. This should not be confused with most nets which simply use ebbs as a unit to represent the magnitude of the energy being moved around.
Input: Puissance input absorbs a gramaric charge which enters the net. This can be primarily used to interrupt or redirect a circuit created with a principle of heuristicism. If a circuit is running through the net and gramaric energy flows along it, the energy is absorbed into the transformer instead. This generates a number of ebbs for the transformer equal to one less than the number of ebbs absorbed.
Output: Puissance output releases a raw gramaric charge to power some component or another. The transformer must be hooked up to a circuit to use this option, as it simply releases the energy into it. This option releases a number of ebbs equal to one less than the number of ebbs transformed.


ARCD 204: Nonlinear Waves
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisite: ARCD 101, Use Magic Device 8 ranks
Target: 1 cubic foot of crystal or gold
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like ARCD 101, except that it allows you to use crystal and gold for your arcanodynamics in addition to any other materials you know.

Crystal: A crystal transformer channels sonic energy by absorbing or creating vibrations.
Input: Sonic input absorbs sound and resonance within the net. This creates a silence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/silence.htm) effect inside the net. Any sound which is negated is transformed into energy. Regular noise from four creatures is transformed into one ebb per round. Sonic effects are also transformed. For every 6 sonic damage negated, one ebb is generated.
Output: Sonic output releases, appropriately enough, sound. This can either be in the form of controlled sound or as a sonic blast. Controlled sound generates a create sound (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/createSound.htm) effect, with a manifester level equal to the number of ebbs transformed. The sound created is specified when the transformer is first prepared, but can also be altered by anyone holding the transformer. Alternatively, if a sonic blast is created, it takes the form of a cone of sonic damage. The cone is aimed in a predetermined direction, but can be turned by anyone holding the transformer. It has a cone size of 10ft. per ebb and deals 1d6 sonic damage per ebb transformed. The cone offers a Fortitude save for half damage against a DC of the Use Magic Device check.
Gold: A golden transformer channels luminous energy by absorbing or emitting light.
Input: Luminous input transforms ambient light into energy, creating a field of darkness (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/exploration.htm#visionAndLight) inside the net. It generates energy every turn based on the ambient light. Full daylight generates 3 ebbs per round, normal light generates 2 ebbs per round, and shadowy illumination generates 1 ebb per round. Alternatively, any effect which specifies bright or searing light dealing damage, such as searing light (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/searingLight.htm) which passes through the net is negated, and transformed into 1 ebb per caster level (or per 8 points of damage, if not a magical effect).
Output: Luminous output generates illumination within the bubble. The level of the illumination depends on the amount of energy transformed. If 2 ebbs are transformed, shadowy illumination is generated. If 3 ebbs are transformed, normal light is generated. If 4 ebbs are transformed, full daylight (including all benefits related to daylight, such as its effects on vampires) is generated. A specific level of radiance can be set when the transformer is first prepared, and the level can be modulated by anyone holding the transformer. Excess energy is transformed into a bolt of searing light, which can be released in a predetermined direction or aimed by anyone holding or directing the transformer (or as a logical decision). The bolt of light deals 1d8 damage per ebb, and works as a ranged touch attack with a maximum range of 100ft. per ebb.


ARCD 230: Interpretive Charges [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisite: ARCD 101, Use Magic Device 8 ranks
Target: 1 cubic foot of copper or tin
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like ARCD 101, except that it allows you to use copper and tin for your arcanodynamics in addition to any other materials you know.

Copper: A copper transformer channels electric energy by generating or dissipating loose electrons at a molecular level.
Input: Electric input absorbs electric damage. Any effect that deals electric damage which either targets something inside the net or which passes through the net is absorbed. 1 ebb is generated for every 6 electricity damage negated. Specifically magnetic effects that target any metal inside the net are negated as well (including from mundane magnets or a repel metal or stone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/repelMetalOrStone.htm) effect). For every 100 lb. of metal which is prevented from moving due to a magnetic effect, 1 ebb is generated, to a maximum of 10 ebbs every round.
Output: Electric output releases an electric current. This can take the form of a generic bolt of lightning or a sustained charge. Bolts of lightning released deal 1d6 electricity damage per ebb transformed, and take the form of a line with 20ft. of length per ebb. By default bolts of lightning target the nearest metal object within range but outside of the net, but they can be aimed by anyone holding the transformer. Alternatively, a sustained current is transferred into conductive metal touching the transformer, and creates an electric potential of 1 volt per ebb transformed. The form of transformer to be used is determined when the transformer is first prepared.
Tin: A tin transformer channels acidic energy by generating or dissipating protons at a molecular level.
Input: Acid input neutralizes acidic media that enter the net. Every pint of acid neutralized like this generates 1 ebb. Neutralized acid is considered to have all of its original properties, except it deals no acid damage. This neutralizes loose acids, but not acid which is required for life, such as stomach acid while it is still in the stomach. Pure acid damage is also absorbed; any effect which deals acid damage against a target inside the net or which passes through the net is absorbed, generating 1 ebb for every 6 acid damage negated.
Output: Acid output transforms a liquid into an acid. It targets a reservoir of liquid with a volume of at least 1 pint which is within the net; by default the closest such body to the transformer is targetted. The reservoir becomes acidic, and is treated as a body of acid from a flask of acid (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#acid). Every pint of liquid is equivalent to a single acid flask; excess ebbs increase the acid damage, at a rate of 1 ebb for every 1d6 extra acid damage for every pint. For example, if the transformer targets a 3-pint container of water, 12 ebbs transformed would create the equivalent of 3 acid flasks worth of acid which each deal 4d6 acid damage (or 4 damage to creatures within 5ft. of a hit). Anyone controlling the transformer can choose which reservoir within the net to target. The target liquid retains all of its original properties, it just also deals acid damage as a splash weapon.


ARCD 350: Unlikely Thermodynamics
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisite: Any two ARCD principles, Use Magic Device 15 ranks
Target: 1 cubic foot of ice or mercury
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like ARCD 101, except that it allows you to use mercury and ice for your arcanodynamics in addition to any other materials you know. These uses very much oppose one another, and a lot of the time anything you could do with one can be done with a clever application of the other.

Ice: A transformer made of ice channels fire by absorbing or emitting heat. Note that solid ice is required; if the transformer melts, it's effectively destroyed.
Input: Heat input creates a field of room temperature (20 degrees Centigrade), unless the ambient temperature is less than that, in which case the net maintains the ambient temperature instead. If the ambient temperature is greater than the temperature in the net, the extra heat is absorbed into the net, at a rate of 1 ebb generated for every 10 degrees Centigrade greater than the temperature in the net. Fire damage is also transformed; any effect which deals fire damage against something within the net or which passes through the net is absorbed, at a rate of 1 ebb generated for every 6 fire damage.
Output: Heat output warms the area of the net by 5 degrees Centigrade for every ebb transformed. Alternatively, the temperature can be fixed to a specific point warmer than the ambient temperature, in which case the excess energy is transformed into a bolt of flame. A specific temperature difference can be chosen when the transformer is first prepared, or selected by anyone holding the transformer. Extra energy becomes a line of fire, with a size of 20ft. per ebb. This is aimed in either a predetermined direction or aimed as chosen by someone holding the transformer. The fire bolt deals 1d6 fire damage per ebb used in it, with a Reflex save (DC equal to the Use Magic Device check) for half damage. Note that the specific temperature selected can actually just be 'ambient temperature', in which case all of the energy absorbed is channeled into the fire bolt.
Mercury: A transformer made of mercury channels cold energy by directly controlling molecular motion. Note that solid mercury is required, and if the transformer melts, it's effectively destroyed.
Input: Cold input creates a field of room temperature (20 degrees Centigrade), unless the ambient temperature is greater than that, in which case the net mainains the ambient temperature instead. If the ambient temperature is lower than the temperature in the net, the extra cold is absorbed into the net, at a rate of 1 ebb generated for every 10 degrees Centigrade lower than the temperature in the net. Cold damage is also transformed; any effect which deals cold damage against something within the net or which passes through the net is absorbed, at a rate of 1 ebb generated for every 6 cold damage.
Output: Cold output chills the area of the net by 5 degrees Centigrade for every ebb transformed. Alternatively, the temperature can be fixed to a specific point colder than the ambient temperature, in which case the excess energy is transformed into a cone of cold. A specific temperature difference can be chosen when the transformer is first prepared, or selected by anyone holding the transformer. The ambient temperature can never fall below -373 degrees Centigrade. Extra energy becomes a cone of cold, with a size of 10ft. per ebb. This is aimed in either a predetermined direction or aimed as chosen by someone holding the transformer. The cone deals 1d6 cold damage per ebb used in it, with a Fortitude save (DC equal to the Use Magic Device check) for half damage. Note that the specific temperature selected can actually just be 'ambient temperature', in which case all of the energy absorbed is channeled into the fire bolt.

ARCD 365: Unsubstantiated Light [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisite: Any three ARCD principles, Use Magic Device 15 ranks
Target: 1 cubic foot of lead or platinum
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like ARCD 101, except that it allows you to use lead and platinum for your arcanodynamics in addition to any other materials you know.
Lead: A leaden transformer channels nuclear energy by capturing and controlling the energy contained within radiomantic materials.
Input: Radiomantic input absorbs the negative levels that a radiomantic element normally gives off (typically sunmetal, as described in alchemetrics). Every cubic foot of radiomantic material that is inside the net produces 10 ebbs every round. A single cubic foot of radiomantic material can provide up to 10 minutes of energy before it becomes inert. While it is within a lead input net, radiomantic material can be handled safely and cannot explode.
Output: Radiomantic output deals negative levels to everyone in the area at a rate of 1 per round. The DC to remove them is 25. Every negative level given out requires 5 ebbs; the field starts by targeting the lowest Hit Die creature in the area, and working its way up from there. Excess ebbs are transformed into 1d6 hellfire damage each that is dealt as a lump sum to every creature inside of the net (Fortitude save against the Use Magic Device check for half damage).
Platinum: A platinum transformer channels faith by refracting the prayers of the faithful and interceding in the flow of the divine.
Input: Prayer input creates a field where prayers do not reach their target deity. This blocks the ability for a deity to hear or acknowledge the prayers of their followers. Even a salient divine ability such as True Knowledge (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#trueKnowledge) is unable to penetrate the divine firewall established in the area. This field absorbs prayers and chants of faith, as well as attempts to regain divine spells. Particular spells which specifically request a boon from a patron deity, such as a miracle (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/miracle.htm) spell or a commune (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/commune.htm) spell are similarly absorbed. Every round, a single devout being inside the area praying generates 1 ebb of puissance; this petitioner must be truly of the faith, and not merely going through the motions. Churches that can afford them regularly use platinum transformers to test their congregation's faithfulness (and who says science and religion can't get along?). If a divine spellcaster attempts to regain their spells while in a platinum inpur field, they fail to regain any spell slots, and 1 ebb is generated for every spell level that they would have regained. A specific spell that requests intercession which is cast in the field similarly fails, and also produces 1 ebb per spell level.
Output: Prayer output transforms energy into prayers which are sent to a particular pantheon or deity. A platinum transformer can be prepared to specifically target one patron, or it can be built more generally, in which case the target deity or pantheon can be changed as a logical decision for the transformer. Prayers take many forms, but in general this consists of a message (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/message.htm) effect, sent directly to the patron (or to their agents, depending on how that deity deals with prayers). The message can contain a number of words equal to the amount of puissance put out in ebbs. This is often a convenient way of providing gods with raw power, as many of them can make use of puissance themselves; typically the target deity generates 1 ebb for every five words in the message. If at least 3 ebbs are transmitted in this way, a consecrate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/consecrate.htm) effect occurs in the output net for a good-aligned deity, and a desecrate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/desecrate.htm) effect occurs for an evil deity. Prayers sent to neutral deities can generate either kind of field, as chosen with a logical decision. The effect lasts for 1 hour per word transmitted. If at least 15 ebbs are sent to a deity using this kind of tranformer, a temporary hallow (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hallow.htm) or unhallow (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/unhallow.htm) effect occurs, as appropriate, for the same amount of time (no material component required). If at least 100 ebbs are transformed into prayer, a miracle (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/miracle.htm) is generated in the area. The exact details of the miracle vary, and can be chosen as a logical decision, but are limited to any of the effects which do not require an XP expenditure.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:39 PM
Biollurgy

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/188/f/7/flesh_golem_by_kachima-d56cccw.jpg
Image credit kachima (http://kachima.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

"You must know life to see decay."

The meaning of life has always been one of the biggest fascinations of intelligent species, as they try to divine some purpose to the chaos they find themselves in. The question of whether life inherently has some preordained purpose is much more interesting when you actually have a bunch of superpowerful creatures that claim to be deities that created you. However, some gramarists explore other possibilities for the nature of existence, and their studies inevitably lead them to the discipline of biollurgy. This discipline allows a gramarist to explore the nature of the living and the material, and to create order from random mutation; it allows them to explore the kinds of systems that might have once led to their own existence.

Biollurgy involves typical medical supplies, including syringes, knives, and anatomical charts. More interestingly, it also requires rudimentary electrical equipment, including wiring, voltaic cells, and an archaic form of welder known as a phlogistifier. Any specialized equipment like this is treated as a masterwork item, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Heal check made to prepare a biollurgical principle. The Vitruvian Man is a legendary schematic which shows the secret geometry of the flesh and how it can be worked into the cold precision of a machine.

Key Skill: Heal


BIOY 101: Intro to Biollurgy
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisite: None
Target: 1 cubic foot of organic material or solid planetary metal
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle transforms either inanimate or organic material into a kind of material which lies somewhere in-between: biostructure. Biostructure shares traits with both creatures and objects. As part of this principle, you make a Heal check. You can target either living or dead organic material, or any kind of planetary metal (copper, lead, gold, iron, mercury, platinum, silver, or tin) with this principle. However, you can only target one kind of metal or one creature with every preparation, and you must prepare this principle consecutively enough times to target the entire metal body or creature (or at least a part of the creature that has been separated from the whole). Biostructure is a kind of organic metal material, and looks like flesh, bone, muscle, and metal twisted together in a semblance of life.

Biostructure is treated as both a creature and an object. A mass of biostructure has the Aberration type, and although it has Strength and Dexterity scores of 0 and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores of –, it does have a Constitution score. Biostructure has a Constitution score of your Heal check divided by 5, plus 10. A mass of biostructure has one Hit Die per inch of thickness (the first one is maximized, as normal). It receives bonus hit points based on its Constitution modifier, as normal for a creature. Biostructure is mindless, and thus is immune to any effect requiring a Will saving throw. It is also treated as an unattended object, and automatically fails any effect requiring a Reflex saving throw. It makes Fortitude saving throws as normal.

Biostructure also has hardness; if it was created from a metal, it has the hardness of that metal. If it was created from a creature with damage reduction /–, it uses that number instead. Otherwise, it has a hardness of 2. Biostructure also continually repairs itself, and has fast healing of half its hardness (minimum 1). Like an object, biostructure can also be broken with a sharp application of force. The break DC of biostructure is 10 + its Hit Dice + its Constitution modifier. Unlike most objects, biostructure is living matter and is vulnerable to critical hits, precision-based damage, death effects, bleeding effects, and so on. Biostructure has the same energy resistances of most objects, receiving half damage from electricity and fire, and one-quarter damage from cold. If the biostructure was made out of a metal with different energy resistances, these resistances are used instead. Similarly, it also retains any alchemetric modifications, up to and including special properties of ascended metals. Biostructure is not automatically destroyed at 0 hit points, but instead bleeds out like a living creature.

Biostructure is always treated as either a living creature or an object for any effect which specifically targets one or the other; for example, it receives full benefit from mundane healing with the Heal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/heal.htm) skill, a cure light wounds (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/cureLightWounds.htm) effect, or an effect that repairs objects such as the Craft (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/craft.htm) skill. In general, biostructure can have any of the same conditions applied to it as a living creature, except where its non-ability scores would invalidate it (for example, it can be lit on fire, but cannot be fascinated). Biostructure does not melt or boil, but instead burns like an organic material. It weighs as much as the material that you used to create it.

You can also use this principle to join two masses of biostructure together into a single one. The combined mass has the worst of all of the individual statistics between the two masses, but adds the volume of them together. Preparing this principle also lets you shape the biostructure however you like based on its volume. Living creatures who object to you transforming part of them into biostructure or attaching more biostructure to them are allowed a Fortitude save to resist the procedure, against a DC of 10 + 5 for every BIOY principle you know.

Whenever you prepare this principle, you set a new Heal check for the mass as normal, which potentially changes its hit points. You can also reshape it, potentially changing its thickness and thus Hit Dice. If any change would add new hit points, it receives them healed on top of its previous hit points. However, preparing this principle doesn't heal damage that was previously dealt to the biostructure. If Hit Dice or hit points are removed from, hit points that the biostructure still has are removed first, potentially destroying the biostructure if it has received unhealed damage in any given location.

Biostructure doesn't need to eat or drink, but it does breathe (usually through noisy, rasping lungs that gasp at the air), which means that it can convert gases from one form to another. Your options for this conversion are between any two of the following gases: oxygen, carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, or water vapour. One cubic foot of animate structure can transform up to a quarter of a gallon of gas every round. The particular gas conversion performed by a mass of biostructure is set when you prepare this principle, and can be changed by preparing it again; joining biostructure lets you pick either gas conversion to be dominant for the joined mass. Similarly, it also can only survive in a set temperature range (no more than a 100 degree Centigrade spread). You can set this range when you prepare the principle; ambient temperatures outside this range are treated as extreme weather for the biostructure.


BIOY 228: Animate Construction
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisite: BIOY 101, Heal 8 ranks
Target: 1 cubic foot of biostructure OR a finished chassis
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle transforms a freestanding mass of biostructure into what's known as a biollurgical chassis. A chassis is a collection of biostructure given a form of actual life. It gains a Strength score and a Dexterity score, which combined equal twice the Constitution score of the mass. The exact values are set when this principle is first prepared, and neither the Strength nor the Dexterity can be more than twice the value of the other. The chassis has an Intelligence of 1 or 2 (chosen by you), a Wisdom score of 10, and a Charisma score of 2. This change makes it vulnerable to a wider range of effects, and it responds to many things like a creature now (such as effects requiring Reflex saves). However, it is still made of biostructure, and counts as an object for all relevant purposes as described in BIOY 101; it also keeps its hardness (but loses its fast healing).

This principle is possibly unique in that once a chassis has been created, this principle cannot be reprepared on it to add mass or change its fundamental statistics. Instead, it is immutable after taking on life of its own. Thus, to create a chassis larger than 1 cubic foot, a longer amount of time must be spent on multiple preparations of this principle at the point of original conception. For example, by spending eight hours at the outset, the chassis could be 8 cubic feet in volume, unchangeable afterwards. As part of this principle you make a Heal check, which must match or exceed the Heal check originally made to create the biostructure; upon success, this becomes the new Heal check of the chassis. Failure indicates the principle doesn't take hold, but the time spent on it is still wasted.

A chassis has different Hit Dice than a normal mass of biostructure. It trades its normal Hit Dice for a single Aberration Hit Die, and gains an additional Hit Die for every size category above Medium. It has a full complement of senses, including colour vision, normal human hearing, scent, taste, and touch. A biollurgical chassis cannot advance by nature of its racial Hit Dice, and never seems to wear out or grow old. It is never at risk of dying from old age, but also cannot reproduce. Now that it has true life, it also requires a normal diet, including water to drink and food to eat. When you prepare this principle you can decide whether the chassis subsists on vegetable matter (herbivorous), animal matter (carnivorous), or both (omnivorous). Whatever you decide, a chassis requires its own body weight in food every month. It also requires a full 8 hours of sleep every night. The chassis has a maximum ground speed of 20ft., plus 10ft. for every size category above Small. You can also decide exactly what the chassis looks like: it can either resemble dead and decayed flesh, sewn-together body parts, a horrifying monstrosity of protruding eyes, flesh, bone, and metal, or a robot. Your DM may allow other aesthetics upon request.

Your chassis does not have any natural weapons or other features normally. However, you can add some features later on by preparing this principle again on a finished chassis. This causes the chassis to twist and mutate and grow in strange new ways; this procedure works very much like a xenoalchemical graft (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205119). You don't need to have the normal class features to perform this, or any monstrous material. A chassis can have up to three features grown onto it in this way, and each one requires a new preparation of this principle. Every time you add a feature you need to match the Heal check originally made to create the chassis. Success indicates that you can add a single graft of 1st or 2nd level. These grafts are not restricted by normal body slots, since there's no telling what the chassis looks like at this point. This principle can also grow one 0-level graft as well, representing mundane appearances or handicaps built into the chassis. This doesn't take up a normal slot. The xenoalchemist level for any graft grown like this is equal to the Hit Dice of the chassis, and the saving throw against one of these grafts' effects has a DC of 10 + 1/2 the chassis' HD + the chassis' Constitution modifier.

By default a chassis has up to two manipulative limbs, such as arms or pincer claws. It also has a full complement of body slots to wear magic items or to receive further grafts. However, if you want to get a little more creative with the anatomy, you can trade out body slots in either of these two cases at a rate of 2:1 at the moment of conception. That is, by removing two body slots you can add another of an existing slot, such as removing the Legs and Throat graft slots to add another Arms graft slot. Once you decide on the anatomy like this, it can't be changed.


BIOY 273: Artificial Reckoning [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisite: BIOY 101, Heal 8 ranks
Target: A finished chassis
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle grants some kind of advanced control or intelligence to a biollurgical chassis. As part of this principle, you make a Heal check, which must match or exceed the original Heal check made to create the chassis. Upon success, you must choose one of the following options. A chassis can have more than one of them (aside from Circuited and Sentience simultaneously).

Circuited: The chassis loses its Intelligence score entirely again, and becomes mindless. However, it is now a valid node for a heuristical circuit (created by HEUR 101) to target, and the actions of the chassis are now considered a logical decision for such a circuit. Commands can be given in plain language through the circuit, and it can relay sensory information back into the circuit. Advanced features, such as triggers and responses, can be placed on the chassis' behaviour like normal for any part of a heuristical circuit. An exotic intelligence in the circuit can control the chassis as if it was the brain of the creature. A sentient chassis is allowed a Will saving throw to resist this, against a DC of 5 + 5 for every BIOY principle you know.
Instincts: The chassis receives up to 10 broad instructions that dictate its general behaviour, although it is unable to think beyond them. These are more instincts than anything else, such as 'search for food', 'follow directions', 'hunt birds', and so on. If you prepare this principle multiple times, you can add additional instincts. A sentient chassis is allowed a Will saving throw to resist this, against a DC of 5 + 5 for every BIOY principle you know.
Sentience: The chassis' Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores increase to 10. It is now fully sentient and self-aware, and can take actions in its own self-interest. It automatically learns and can speak Common, and is eligible to take levels in any NPC or PC class that it qualifies for (although until it does, it keeps its first Aberration Hit Die, like any intelligent creature). This also grants the chassis a soul.


BIOY 340: Erratic Mutations
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisite: Any two BIOY principles, Heal 15 ranks
Target: A finished chassis
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle allows further alteration and mutation of a biollurgical chassis. As part of this principle, you make a Heal check, which must match or exceed the original Heal check made to create the chassis. Upon success, you can cause a new graft to grow from it, as if you were using BIOY 228. However, this principle targets three new graft slots, which can hold 3rd or 4th level grafts. Otherwise, this works exactly like the grafting version of BIOY 228.


BIOY 381: Eccentric Genetics [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisite: Any three BIOY principles, Heal 15 ranks
Target: A finished chassis
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle allows you to modify the genetics of a biollurgical chassis, allowing it to grow and propagate beyond its original design. As part of this principle, you make a Heal check, which must match or exceed the original Heal check made to create the chassis. The chassis can now advance in Hit Dice like a normal creature, and it advances by one size category with every 5 extra Hit Dice (to a maximum of up to three size categories beyond its original size; the maximum size is set when you prepare this principle). You can also set one method of your choice for the chassis to reproduce, such as asexual budding, normal mammalian reproduction (in which case the chassis gains gender, and you can immediately spend 12 hours making an identical chassis of the other gender), egg-laying, and so on. Along with these changes, the chassis loses its immunity to old age; you can set a maximum age, anywhere up to your Heal check result in years. Adult age, middle age, old age, and venerable age are determined accordingly.

When the chassis reproduces, certain features are passed down. Instincts are inherited, or sentience if the chassis is sentient. Grafts are also inherited, although every child has a 1% chance per graft (1 on a d100) of an inherited graft being the graft 1d4 spots down its list instead (looping around to the top of the list if the roll would take it past the final graft, and moving down one graft further if the new requires a prerequisite the chassis doesn't have). Only one such mutation can occur per child. 0-level grafts are also always mutated, causing similar but slightly different appearances from the parent; they don't count as a primary mutation, however.

Reproduction requires a certain gestation period, based on the size of the initial creature to be born (that is, the size category at the lowest Hit Dice). The gestation period is 1 month, with an additional four months for every size category above Tiny. Reproduction is possible when a chassis reaches adulthood.

Otherwise, the species breeds true, and is for all intents and purposes a new creature fresh from the Monster Manual.


Playing as a Biollurgical Creature: A chassis is viable as a PC. With your DM, follow the guidelines with these principles to design a race, or your DM might use them to design new artificial species for her campaign setting. A chassis has a Level Adjustment of +1 for a basic Medium-sized race that has a Heal check of 10, sentience, and three 1st or 2nd level grafts. A chassis that also has three 3rd or 4th level grafts instead has a Level Adjustment of +3. Being made out of exceptionally sturdy or alchemetrically altered materials could also raise the Level Adjustment by an additional +1 or +2 based on the extra advantage.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:40 PM
Eldrikinetics

http://th08.deviantart.net/fs51/PRE/i/2009/335/8/7/Take_me__the_ship_of_my_dreams_by_Osokin.jpg
Image credit Osokin (http://osokin.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings"

The nature of motion is one of the oldest problems of mankind; as a species we seem to be addicted to speed, and other humanoid races are no better. The ability to transport materials at high speeds and across great distances makes many amazing feats of civilization possible. Eldrikinetics is the study of magical principles which can create this movement using powerful thaumaturgical engines. An eldrikinetic ship scoffs at gravity!

Eldrikinetics typically makes use of predrawn sets of blueprints, schematics, and parametric drawings of various engines and vehicles. Other useful supplies include pendulums and springs to test various principles of motion. Any piece of equipment like this counts as masterwork, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Concentration check made to prepare an eldrikinetic principle. A particularly famous kinetic device is the Foucalt Pendulum, which is said to be able to control the motion of the earth itself.

Key Skill: Concentration


ELDK 101: Intro to Eldrikinetics
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: 1 cubic foot of material
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle transforms a mass of material into an eldrikinetic engine. An engine can generate a certain amount of Push, which is a kind of imparted momentum. Every engine has a particular kind of fuel which can be used to generate its Push, although all of them can also run off of pure puissance if they're hooked up to a circuit. When an engine generates Push, it moves itself in a certain direction, and brings anything attached to it along for the ride.

To determine how fast a structure moves, you need two things: the magnitude of the Push, and the Bulk rating of the object (including the engine). The Bulk rating can be found from the following chart:

{table=head]Size Category|Bulk Rating
Fine|1
Diminutive|8
Tiny|27
Small|64
Medium|125
Large|216
Huge|343
Gargantuan|512
Colossal|729
Enormous|1,000
Immense|1,331
Behemothic|1,728
Cavernous|2,197
Mountainous|2,744
Vast|3,375
Unusally heavy (stone, metal, etc)|x 2
Unusually light (cotton candy, paper, etc)|x 1/2[/table]

For example, a single simple orthogonal engine has a Bulk rating of 54 (Tiny size for a 8 cubic foot block, multiplied by 2 for being unusally dense).

Determining the speed is the fun part, and is slightly more maths-requisite. Get a calculator! You divide the Push generated by the Bulk rating of the thing moving. Then round down. Multiply this value by 30 feet per round. Ta-da! You now have the speed your object moves every round. Control systems are relatively simple to install (DC 20 Knowledge [Architecture and Engineering] check) in order to steer the craft.

Like any principle, if this principle is prepared more than once you can end up with an engine much larger than normal. For every additional time you prepare this principle you need an additional 8 cubic feet of the appropriate material; the engine must be a single solid unit no matter the size. If you supply enough fuel for the extra size you get extra Push out of it. So, for example, if you spend three hours preparing an engine which is three times as large as normal and feed it three times the normal fuel required, it generates three times the normal Push. If you feed it less fuel than the maximum, the entire engine still moves, but only produces Push equivalent to the fuel used. When you combine into a larger engine like this, you're said to have multiple engines in parallel.

For ease of reference, here's the speed of some basic Bulks, against up to five engines in parallel. Note that there are certain benchmarks for speed. At a speed of 1,800ft. objects can now be considered as projectiles for ranged attacks (this speed is hereafter known as projectile speed). These objects deal damage based on their weight, as described in Complete Warrior. At a speed of 6,698ft. the speed of sound is broken, also known as mach 1. Similarly, mach 2 is a speed of 13,397ft. and mach 3 is a speed of 20,096ft.

At certain Bulk Ratings you run into a maximum speed. This is the maximum speed that can be achieved from a single engine or set of engines in parallel. In order to exceed the listed maximum speed, an object would need two or more entirely separate sets of engines acting on it simultaneously.

{table=head]Bulk Rating|Example Object|100 Push|200 Push|300 Push|400 Push|500 Push|Maximum Speed
1|Wood chip|Projectile|Projectile|Mach 1|Mach 1|Mach 2|Mach 3
2|Bullet|1,500ft.|Projectile|Projectile|Projectile |Mach 1|Mach 3
8|Arrow|360ft.|750ft.|1,110ft.|1,500ft.|Projectile |Mach 3
27|Spitoon|90ft.|210ft.|330ft.|420ft.|540ft.|Mach 2
64|Chest of drawers|30ft.|90ft.|120ft.|180ft.|210ft.|Mach 2
125|Human with a jetpack|-|30ft.|60ft.|90ft.|120ft.|Mach 1
216|Automotive|-|-|30ft.|30ft.|60ft.|Mach 1
343|Light aircraft|-|-|-|30ft.|30ft.|Mach 1
512|Pirate ship|-|-|-|-|-|Projectile
729|Tarrasque with a jetpack|-|-|-|-|-|900ft.
1,000|Small house|-|-|-|-|-|450ft.
1,331|Big house|-|-|-|-|-|240ft.
1,728|Temeraire|-|-|-|-|-|120ft.
2,197|The Chrysler Building|-|-|-|-|-|60ft.
2,744|The Hindenburg|-|-|-|-|-|30ft.
3,375|Flying island fortress|-|-|-|-|-|30ft.[/table]

At mach 1, objects are considered projectiles for ranged touch attacks. At mach 2, they also catch enemies flat-footed unless the target has uncanny dodge. At mach 3, they deal double their normal damage, with the extra damage being sonic energy damage.

An engine has a set amount of Push that it generates, but that is a maximum. When this principle is first prepared, you can set the Push output to any number you like up to the maximum value. This can be changed later with a comparable Concentration check to the one made when the engine was set up. It should also be noted that an engine produces Push (and, consequently, speed) which occurs in the space that the engine is inside. This means that the engine must have more than 50% of its volume inside of the dimension where it's producing its Push.

As part of this principle you make a Concentration check. The Concentration check doesn't really come into play much, but if anyone tries to dismantle the engine, the Disable Device DC is equal to your Concentration check.

This principle allows you to make the following engine:

Simple Orthogonal: A simple orthogonal engine uses wood as a fuel source and is made out of iron. It requires 1 pound (about 1 log) of wood for 1 minute of operation, during which it generates 100 points of Push per round. This engine pushes orthogonally to the gravity in the area, which means that it moves horizontally along whatever plane it is on. A simple orthogonal engine can also be sustained for one round with 6 ebbs of puissance.


ELDK 219: Atypical Ballistics
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: ELDK 101, Concentration 8 ranks
Target: 1 cubic foot of material
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like ELDK 101, but you can also build the following engine:

Ballistic: A ballistic engine uses bone as a fuel source and is made out of copper. It requires 1 pound of bone (about a human armbone), at which point it can be activated three times before refuelling. Unlike most engines, a ballistic engine imparts its Push to an object it's touching instead of to itself. The object is then launched at any angle the operator likes. This allows the engine to make actual ranged attacks with the object being launched if it is moving fast enough. Every time the engine is activated it generates a one-time burst (instead of sustained motion) of 400 points of Push. A ballistic engine can also be charged for a single use with 6 ebbs of puissance. Objects launched with a ballistic engine have a range increment of 1/20 their speed (round down).

Ballistic engines are treated as ranged weapons, and can be enchanted or enhanced just like one.

ELDK 276: Unnatural Propulsion [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: ELDK 101, Concentration 8 ranks
Target: 8 cubic feet of material
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like ELDK 101, but you can also build the following engines:

Ascending: An ascending engine uses daylight as a fuel source and is made out of silver. It requires full daylight to operate, but as long as it is in an area of full daylight it generates 200 points of Push per round. In the light of the full moon it is even more effective, and can generate twice this amount. This engine pushes upwards, opposing the direction that gravity is acting on the engine. An ascending engine can also be sustained for one round with 8 ebbs of puissance.
Submerging: A submerging engine uses blood as a fuel source and is made out of flesh. It requires 1 gallon of fluid blood for 1 minute of operation, during which it generates 200 points of Push per round. This engine pushes downwards, in the same direction as gravity is acting on the engine. A submerging engine can also be sustained for one round with 8 ebbs of puissance.

It's also important to note that if a vehicle has both a powered ascending or submerging engine as well as a powered simple orthogonal engine, it can act as if it had a special movement speed. This is called a two-part engine. The combination of ascending and orthogonal provides a fly speed, and the combination of submerging and orthogonal provides a swim speed (assuming the vessel is otherwise suitable). The speed is equal to the lower of the two speeds per round available from the composite engines. With a fly speed the vessel is treated as having an average maneuverability for any relevant purposes. That being said, if you'd rather work out the actual logistics of the exact activations and headings of the two Pushes, feel free. This is merely a simplification for ease of gameplay.


ELDK 355: Strange Locomotion
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any two ELDK principles, Concentration 15 ranks
Target: 8 cubic feet of material
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like ELDK 101, but you can also build the following bizarre engines:

Badgerdrawn: A badgerdrawn engine uses nuts and acorns as a fuel source and is made out of stone. It requires 5 pounds (about a cubic foot) of nuts or acorns for 1 minute of burrowing, during which it generates 200 points of Push per round. This engine can only be used when it is in contact with dirt or loosely packed earth, and allows the engine and whatever it is attached to to burrow through the dirt. The engine can pull its structure through dirt or loose earth in any direction, but cannot pull it out of the earth. A badgerdrawn engine is also sustained for one round with 10 ebbs of puissance.
Beeform: A beeform engine uses honey as a fuel source and is made out of amber. It requires 1 gallon of honey for 1 minute spent in bee form, during which it generates 200 points of Push per round. This engine, while active, transforms the engine and whatever structure it is attached to into a swarm of bees. The affected structure and any creature on board into an intelligent swarm, temporarily giving it the Swarm subtype. The Push can be used to move it in any direction above ground, and counts as a fly speed appropriate to the speed granted by the Push. It counts as having a perfect maneuverability for all relevant purposes. A beeform engine can also be sustained for one round with 10 ebbs of puissance.
Lightningleap: A lightningleap engine uses electricity as a fuel source and is made out of solid mercury. It requires 10 volts of electric potential for every leap it makes. Every leap provides the equivalent of 200 points of Push in any direction, as the engine and whatever it is attached to transforms into a bolt of lightning. The vehicle reconstitutes into its original form at the other side of the leap. It also deals electricity damage to everything it passes through during the leap (10d6 damage with a Reflex save for half damage, against a DC equal to the Concentration check of the engine). A lightningleap engine can also be activated for a single leap with 10 ebbs of puissance.
Stonefish: A stonefish engine uses seawater as a fuel source and is made out of diamond. It requires 10 gallons of seawater for 1 minute of stone swimming, during which it generates 200 points of Push per round. This engine can only be used when it is contact with stone, metal, or any other kind of earth material. The engine allows movement in any direction while the vehicle is submersed in the stone, and allows it to move through stone or metal like a fish swims through water. It counts as having a swim speed equal to the the speed granted by the Push. A stonefish engine can also be sustained for one round with 10 ebbs of puissance.


ELDK 399: Immaterial Travel [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three ELDK principles, Concentration 15 ranks
Target: 8 cubic feet of material
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like ELDK 101, but you can also build the following engines:

Aetherial: An aetherial engine uses moonsteel as a fuel source and is made out of cold iron. It burns 1 cubic foot of moonsteel for every minute spent travelling incorporeally. While active, the engine and the vehicle it is attached to becomes incorporeal, and it generates 400 points of Push per round. It can travel in any direction on the Ethereal Plane during the effect, and for all intents and purposes has a perfect maneuverability and a fly speed with a speed equivalent to that granted by the Push. An aetherial engine can also be sustained for one round with 15 ebbs of puissance.
Planejumping: A planejumping engine uses sunmetal as a fuel source and is made out of adamantine. It requires 1 cubic foot of sunmetal for every jump that it makes. Every time it's activated, it pulls itself and the structure attached to it through the planar void, to another Plane as if by a gate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/gate.htm) effect (travel version only). It generates the equivalent of 1,000 points of Push, although it doesn't physically move. Instead, there must be at least enough Push generated from the engine to impart a speed of 30ft. to the vehicle. A planejumping engine can also be powered for a single jump with 30 ebbs of puissance.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:41 PM
Geoccultism

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs39/i/2008/314/0/3/Change_of_Seasons_by_Holicia.jpg
Image credit Holicia (http://holicia.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

"Everything must go somewhere."

Geoccultism is an intricate art that involves thaumaturgically aligning the essence of a place to a particular orientation through a combination of manipulating ley lines and magnetic fields. Through the use of a ruling pole, a skilled geoccultist can create a variety of weather conditions and terrains, suitable for everything from ideal agriculture climates to advanced meteomantic warfare. To truly master geoccultism, one must know the land like they know themself, and often better.

Geoccultism is aided with enchanted compasses and ancient atlases, to locate and track ley lines across the surface of the earth. Dowsing rods are also commonly employed to pinpoint the location and orientation of geoccult poles. An aid like this counts as a masterwork piece of equipment and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Survival check made to prepare a geoccult principle. The Imago Mundi is perhaps the most famous arcane atlas ever compiled, and always shows the exact alignment of seven 'ley plates', islands of geolomantic power which move inexorably below the surface of the earth.

Key Skill: Survival


GEOC 101: Intro to Geoccultism
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisite: None
Target: At least 100 lb of planetary metal
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle transforms a continuous mass of metal into a geoccult pole, which emits a field geomagnetically attuned to a specific biome. The metal transformed emits a bubble-shaped field, except that it has a different size than normal. The field begins at a radius of 500ft., and every additional preparation of this principle adds an additional 100ft. of radius to it. The particular biome created depends on the planetary metal used to create the pole. A geoccult pole is immobile once created; it is fixed in the geography of the land. It can be broken out of geomagnetic alignment with a DC 30 Strength check (+5 for every GEOC principle you know), but this ruins the principle and returns the pole to its original state. Molten metal can be transformed into a geoccult pole, but enough mass must remain in the fluid body to maintain the required amount; otherwise the effect is similarly broken. A biome condition spreads slowly, at a rate of 5ft. per round out from the pole, until it reaches its ultimate radius.

Geoccult poles slowly consume themselves to provide the fuel for their biome. Every day they consume 5 lb for every 100ft. of radius. If this consumption reduces the mass of the pole below the critical mass, the pole collapses. The critical mass is defined as 100 lb multiplied by 1 + the number of times the radius has been increased (that is, the required mass to use the principle itself). Additional mass can be added to a geoccult pole by placing appropriate metal so that it touches the main body. The mass is slowly subsumed into the body of the pole over the following ten minutes. If a geoccult pole is hooked up to a heuristical circuit, puissance can be used to pay for mass which would otherwise be consumed, at a rate of 1 ebb for every 10 lb of metal that would be needed.

If a feature requires upkeep, that is, additional expenditure of metal or puissance to maintain itself, this can happen over time. An appropriate amount of puissance must be supplied to the pole to pay for the feature's upkeep; the full amount of puissance must be provided in 10 rounds. That is, at least one-tenth of the puissance must be supplied once a round for ten rounds, or until the full cost is paid. Payment is due at either midnight or midday, as chosen when the pole is established. If on a Plane without such times, payment is still due every 24 hours, starting from the establishment of the pole.

If there are multiple features which need to be supplied puissance to maintain, they can be paid one after the other, with no round in-between when no puissance is being transferred. If there is such a break, all of the necessary metal for remaining features is drawn from the body of the pole. If there is ever not enough mass in the pole to keep it above the critical limit, the pole collapses.

A geoccult field does not overwrite everything in the area, only natural elements. Trees, rocks, leaves, grass, dirt, and so on, are subsumed into the pole; if the field is broken later on, the old terrain elements reassert themselves as if nothing had happened. Animals and artificial elements such as houses, are not subsumed like this; instead, the landscape changes around them. Things that a geoccult pole creates are real and tangible, and last if taken out of the area. Once removed, they don't disappear if the pole collapses.

As part of this principle, you make a Survival check. This check determines the potency of the biome. You must make a certain DC in order to create the pole in the first place, or the principle is wasted to no effect; this critical DC is shown in the condition entry. For every 5 points you beat the critical DC of the check, any effects caused by the biome have their saving throw DC increased by 1, the skill check they require increased by +3, and any damage dice increased by 1 die. As the biome spreads, the baseline terrain of the area changes to that of the biome. This is essentially the foundation of the land.

If two biomes come into contact, one of them overwrites the other; whichever has a higher Survival check is dominant.

The poles that you can use include:

{table=head]Planetary Metal|Critical DC|Biome|Baseline Terrain
Copper|20|Forest|Rich soil
Gold|25|Arctic|Permafrost
Iron|25|Desert|Sand
Lead|20|Swamp|Peat
Platinum|20|City|Basalt
Tin|15|Grasslands|Dirt[/table]

Arctic (Permafrost): Permafrost is essentially frozen soil. The ground in this biome remains frozen year round, and the air temperature also grows fairly chilly thanks to convection. The ground is inhospitable to plants; only the hardiest arctic plants can grow roots deep enough to penetrate the frozen topsoil. In practice, this biome typically ends up creating a cold desert. An arctic biome has an average temperature of 0 Centigrade during the day to -40 Centigrade at night. Arctic biomes receive 50% less precipitation than most biomes, and what they do receive is typically in the form of blinding snowstorms.
City (Basalt): Basalt is pretty much just simple cobblestone. Nothing grows on it, although it's nice for walking along and riding horses on. A platinum pole doesn't have much effect on the local climate, although wind patterns tend to be broken up by large structures and sharp corners.
Desert (Sand): Speaking of which, a desert is primarily filled with sand. This is a wasteland that has little nutritional value stored in the ground, which leads to a vicious cycle where plants can't grow in the area to provide nutrients for other plants. Sand is incredibly inhospitable, and also hard to travel on, since it's loose. You cannot run on sand, and horses only cover half their regular distance in a day. A desert biome has an average temperature of up to 40 Centigrade in the day, and as low as freezing (0 Centigrade) at night. A desert biome receives 50% less precipitation than normal biomes.
Forests (Rich Soil): This is a dark carbon-rich soil perfect for trees and general agriculture. Profession (farmer) and similar checks made to grow things in the soil gain a +2 bonus, and annual yield using this soil (assuming it's used over the entire growing season) is increased by 25%. Rich soil depletes quickly, and consecutive yields after a boom year yield only 75% of their normal potential. Forests have a temperate climate, ranging from 5 to 25 Centigrade.
Grasslands (Dirt): The dirt created here is very sturdy and enduring. Although not as rich in nutrients as the dark soil of the forest, grasslands dirt perseveres. This is the baseline soil which is assumed in general. Grasslands typically have a pleasant climate, with similar temperatures to a forest.
Swamp (Peat): Peat is very wet, very mucky soil. It's filthy to move around in, and requires a DC 10 Balance check every round you move through it to avoid getting really muddy. It's got a huge moisture content, and is very well-suited to some kinds of plants. Traditional crops like grain can't grow here at all, but any species of plant which can cope with the extremely wet conditions can do quite well; oak trees, tea trees, and other plants with shallow roots find themselves at home. Any plant well suited to the terrain grows 50% faster than it would elsewhere. Swamps often have very humid and muggy climates; 10 to 25 Centigrade is common, with a consistent relative humidity of up to 70%.


GEOC 235: Bizarre Biomes
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: GEOC 101, Survival 8 ranks
Target: At least 100 lb of planetary metal
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like GEOC 101, except that you can place features into the biomes that you are creating. By maintaining contact with the pole during the spread of a biome, you can place terrain features, such as trees or mineral deposits, inside of the area as it grows. Alternatively, these can be changed as a logical decision or by preparing the principle again. Changes introduced like this after the fact also spread from the pole at a rate of 5ft. per round, overwriting previous features (you must still remain in contact with the pole during the spreading effect to place terrain features). If a pole's effect is broken, the old terrain reasserts itself at the same rate. Every biome has a baseline feature, which is a characteristic of the land itself which is intrinsic to the biome's nature. The baseline terrain of the biome is free; additional terrain features require the immediate consumption of metal from the mass of the pole, as described in the feature entry.

Some features require upkeep; features which need to replenish themselves (such as a tree which has been cut down) do so over a period of one day, consuming again as much material as was required to station them in the first place. Features can be placed on top of things that already exist, such as manmade structures in the area. However, the primary owner of a structure is allowed a Will saving throw (DC 10 + 5 for every GEOC principle you know) to resist the encroachment of the geoccult field. Success indicates that that pole cannot place any features inside, on, or in the structure in question. This spread also does not grant you any special insight into what is inside such as structure; if you don't know what it looks like inside, you're essentially just placing features randomly in the dark.

Many of the features described here are fairly rudimentary. If you have access to additional supplementary material, such as the supplements Frostburn: Mastering the Perils of Ice and Snow (for a gold pole) or Sandstorm: Mastering the Perils of Fire and Sand (for an iron pole), feel free to make use of their more extensive geography choices. Work with your DM to determine what would be a reasonable price for various natural terrain features from these supplements. Note that supernatural terrain elements are not appropriate for this principle.

The features you can place are:

Arctic [Gold]: A gold pole allows you to spread an arctic biome. An arctic area has permafrost as its baseline, and additional terrain features include black ice, ice, rock, scrub, snowdrifts, and trees. The arctic is a cold, inhosbitable place, filled with many frozen dangers.

Black Ice: Black ice is exceptionaly dangerous ice, in that it's very unreflective and also very slippery. This makes it hard to notice until you're actually on it. To even notice black ice, someone needs to succeed on a DC 20 Spot check. This works like ice (see below), except that a DC 10 Balance check is required even to move normally on it. If someone on black ice fails to notice that it's there, the Balance check DC to move across it doubles, and failure indicates that they fall prone. Black ice costs 25 lb for every 5ft. sheet.
Ice: Ice is frozen water, and this describes an ice sheet on the ground. it could cover up a frozen body of water, or just packed smooth snow. It costs 2 squares of movement to enter a square covered in ice, and the DC of Balance and Tumble checks there increases by 5. A DC 10 Balance check is required to run or charge across ice. Ice costs 5 lb for every 5ft. sheet.
Rubble: This is either light or dense rubble strewn across the ground by avalanches in the past. Light rubble increases the DC of Balance and Tumble checks by 2. Dense rubble costs 2 squares of movement to enter into, and increases the DC of Balance and Tumble checks by 5, and of Move Silently checks by 2. Light rubble costs 5 lb for every 20ft. patches, while dense rubble costs 5 lb for every 10ft. patch.
Scrub: Scrub is hardy, reasonably nutritious plantlife which can survive the harsh conditions of the tundra. One 5ft. patch of scrub will sustain a herbivorous Medium-sized creature (including omnivorous humanoids, although not for prolonged periods of time) for a day, but they'll be unsatiated until they get more filling food. Scrub costs 2 squares of movement to enter into, and it provides concealment. It grants a +2 circumstance bonus on Hide checks. Scrub costs 5lb for every 5ft. patch.
Snowdrifts: Snowdrifts are large shifting bodies of snow. This snow is typically lighter and more powder than normal, and is very difficult to move in. When moving in a snowdrift, one is treated as if it's 20 degrees Centigrade colder than it actually is. It costs double movement to travel through a snowdrift, and Balance, Hide, Survival, and Tumble checks all take a -5 penalty. Snowdrifts are mobile terrain features which blow with the wind, and can cover other terrain elements. Snowdrifts cost 25 lb for every 10ft. drift.
Trees: These are nearly always coniferous trees which thrive at high latitudes. Trees tend to be fairly sparse in a tundra environment, but it's not uncommon to see lone trees eking out their survival. These work like the light trees (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#forestTerrain) described in the SRD. Light arctic trees cost 5 lb, and occupy a negligible space; they cannot be placed any closer than 10ft. separation.

City [Platinum]: A platinum pole allows you to spread a city biome. A city has cobblestone as its baseline, and additional terrain features include bridges, buildings, fountains, roads, sewers, and walls. A city is a generally hospitable place, designed to be inhabited by humanoid creatures.

Bridges: Bridges are roadways that extend over chasms, bodies of water, and other otherwise dangerous terrain. A bridge extends the cobblestone basis of the biome out into a gentle arch, which can hold 200 lb for every 5 ft. of width at once. A bridge costs 5lb for every 5ft. section.
Building: Buildings are where people tend to live. A single application of this particular terrain feature is called a storey. A single storey is a 20ft. by 20ft. by 10ft. room, with doors and windows arranged to taste on the walls, floor, and ceiling. If multiple stories are stacked on top of each other, a staircase can be installed which connects the two, positioned either along one of the outer walls or in the center of the storey. If two stories are placed immediately adjacent to each other, the two rooms can be merged into a single larger room. Each storey, upon creation, generates a deed, which allows the holder to create or remove subdividing walls, windows, doors, staircases, and balconies inside that storey. This task requires 10 minutes for each feature to be added or removed, and can only be done by the legal owner of the deed. In fact, a deed may only be transferred via legal means, such as inheritance, sale, dowry, and so on, unless the original creator of the deed decides otherwise at the time of placement. A single storey costs 50 lb.
Fountain: A fountain is a pleasant landmark that allows free access to clean, drinkable water. A fountain constantly emits a stream of fresh water, flowing out at a rate of 5 gallons every round. A fountain that isn't connected to a source of water consumes 10 lb of metal each round to produce the necessary liquid. A fountain costs 60 lb of metal to produce; in addition, if there is any statuary that the creator of the fountain wishes to incorporate, the fountain costs an additional 30 lb. Intricate ornamentation may require an appropriate Craft check, as decided by the circumstances.
Road: A road is a surface intended to be easy to walk along. Creatures following a road can travel overland (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/movement.htm) 20% faster than they otherwise would be able to. In addition, if a stretch of road has a width of 20ft. or more, this feature can also produce bullseye lanterns (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm) that hang 7ft. above the ground every 60ft. along the road, supplying constant light. Four 5ft. sections of road costs 10 lb to produce.
Sewer: A good sewer allows you to pipe water (or other liquids) to a fountain, or take wastewater away from a road. Sewers are usually created 10ft. below ground, and cost 10 lb for each 125 cubic foot block of ground altered. In addition, by spending an additional 10 lb on a section of sewer, a pipe is created that connects it to either a fountain or a road; this is either a release or a drain, respectively. If a sewer connects to a body of liquid, it consumes it at a rate of 10 gallons per round. Furthermore, a pipe can fuel two fountains for every body of liquid it taps into. If a fountain is fueled by a pipe connected to a body of liquid that isn't fresh water, it produces that liquid instead. Liquid waste has to go somewhere, which means that it doesn't just disappear when it goes into the sewer. Every sewer needs to end somewhere, and for an initial cost of 20 lb plus an additional 5 lb for daily operation, you can install a water purification system in your sewer line. This is a 5ft. block (125 cubic foot) which is placed at some point along your sewer; liquid which goes in is purified, as if with a purify food and drink (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/purifyFoodAndDrink.htm) effect. A single water purification system can handle 7.5 gallons of liquid every round.
Wall: A good wall keeps the city safe! Each of the costs on the table below are for a single 10ft. section; each section has an AC of 3 and a Hardness of 8. A gate can be added to a wall for no additional cost.

{table=head]Wall Dimensions|Hit Points per Section|Cost
20ft. tall, 5ft. thick|450 hp|20 lb
30ft. tall, 10ft. thick|720 hp|60 lb
40ft. tall, 15ft. thick|1170 hp|120 lb[/table]

Desert : An iron pole allows you to spread a desert biome. A desert has sand as its baseline, and additional terrain features include cacti, packed earth, quicksand, rubble, sand dunes, and undergrowth. Deserts are dangerous wastelands, unsuited to normal life. Only the hardiest survive their brutal conditions.

[i]Cacti: A cactus is a desert plant typically spiny and sharp to the touch. Cacti provide concealment, and a +1 bonus to AC and Reflex saves to anyone in the same square. However, one can only make use of these bonuses by moving in close quarters around the cactus, dealing 2d3 piercing damage every round. You cannot climb a cactus, but it is filled with liquid that can be harvested with a DC 15 Survival check. Cactus juice will hydrate people, but those who drink it report hallucinations and fevers (-4 penalty to mental ability scores until they get eight hours of rest out of the sun). Cacti otherwise work like light trees, as described in the gold (arctic) pole section. A cactus costs 15 lb and cannot be closer than 10ft. to another cactus.
Packed Earth: Packed earth is useful for desert trails, and for leading pack animals. It's solid enough to walk on easily, but it's impossible to grow anything in it. Pack earth costs 5lb for every 5ft. square.
Quicksand: Quicksand (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#marshTerrain) is an imfamous desert danger. This is ground that appears solid until any weight is put on it, at which point it begins to suck the mass inside of it. Quicksand costs 25 lb for every 5ft. patch of it.
Rubble: Desert rubble works like the rubble described in the gold (arctic) pole section. Desert rubble is cheaper, however, being a more common sight without snow everywhere. Desert rubble costs 5 lb for every 40ft. patch, and dense rubble costs 5lb for every 20ft. patch.
Sand Dunes: Sand dunes are huge moving swathes of sand which envelop the landscape. They arrange themselves with a gentle slope facing into the wind, and a steep slope on the opposite side. Sand dunes are loose terrain, and maneuvering in them costs twice as much movement as normal. Sand also gets everywhere, which you'll be noticing for weeks afterwards. Balance and Tumble checks have their DC's increased by 5 in a sand dune, and standing up from prone is a challenge as it's nearly impossible to get a good hold on anything to stand up; standing from prone is a full-round action unless you have a special ability to speed this up (such as kip up, in which case it's unchanged). Sand dunes are mobile features which move with the wind, and can cover other terrain elements. Sand dunes cost 5 lb for every 50ft. patch.
Undergrowth: Undergrowth (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#forestTerrain) is mostly composed of vines, roots, and bushes, and it restricts movement. Undergrowth created with an iron pole is the light type descibed. Undergrowth costs 5 lb for every 5ft. patch.

Forest [Copper]: A copper pole allows you to spread a forest biome. A forest has rich soil as its baseline, and additional terrain features include fungus, logs, moss, streams, trees, and undergrowth. Forests are ideal for providing natural resources such as wood and to scavenge for food. Forest soil is exceedingly fertile, and can be very useful for agriculture.

Fungus: Fungus is reasonably nutritious and can grow in the absence of light as long as it has a decent supply of nutrients and peace and quiet; however, anyone untrained in Survival (0 ranks) has a 5% chance of picking a poisonous mushroom when gathering food from a fungus patch (Fortitude DC 15, initial and secondary damage 1d4 Con). Someone trained in Survival can make a DC 25 Survival check to gather up to three such poisonous mushrooms from any given 5ft. patch. Fungus patches are softer than the ground; falls onto them count as being 20ft. shorter than they actually are. Mushrooms, once picked, take a day to grow back. Fungus patches cost 50 lb for every 5ft. patch.
Logs: Logs are a common sight in a forest. They provide cover like small walls, and typically stand from 1ft. to 3ft. high. They can be placed to run over streams, although travelling longitudinally on a log requires a DC 10 Balance check and twice as much movement as normal. A log takes up a space of 5ft. by 10 to 200ft., decided at placement. Logs cost 5 lb for every 10ft. in length.
Moss: Moss is a light covering of greenery on the ground. It is very soft, and aside from being pleasant to the touch, it is very easy to move quietly on. All Move Silently checks made on moss gain a +4 circumstance bonus. If moss is placed on a log, the Balance check to move on it is doubled. Moss is reasonably nutritious, and some species can survive on it. It also grows ridiculously fast, and replenishes itself every six hours instead of every day. Moss costs 5 lb for every 10ft. patch.
Streams: A stream is no wider than 5 to 10ft. wide, and no more than 5ft. deep. These are freshwater streams, but unless connected to an outside water supply the water will quickly grow stagnant and gross. Streams cost 5 lb for every 10ft. in length.
Trees: Trees (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#forestTerrain) are of course the most important feature of any forest, useful for hiding, climbing, tactical positioning, wood, and so on. The trees created with a copper pole can be light or massive. Light trees require negligible space, while massive trees require a 5ft. square. Light trees cost 5 lb, and massive trees cost 20 lb. Trees can be placed at a discount when grouping them together in a forest; up to four light trees can be placed in a single 5ft. square, and the third and fourth are free. Similarly, up to two light trees can occupy the same square as a heavy tree, and they are also free.
Undergrowth: This works like the undergrowth described in the iron (desert) pole section. Undergrowth created with a copper pole is the light type descibed. Undergrowth costs 5 lb for every 5ft. patch.

Grasslands [Tin]: A tin pole allows you to spread a grasslands biome. Grasslands have a baseline terrain of dirt, and additional terrain features includes clay, grass, shale, streams, tall grass, and trees. Grasslands are fairly straightforward terrain with not too many surprises. It's excellent terrain to settle on, and the ground is very reliable for agriculture. Grass is a perfect foodstock for domesticated animals, and in general grasslands are ideal for developing some measure of civilization.

Clay: Clay is a useful material which exhibits plastic behavious when it's mixed with water. This makes it very important for artisans and craftsmen to use for their work. The clay this pole creates is a solid deposit near the surface, which is rocky and solid, which acts like light rubble. Balance and Tumble checks made on clay have their DC increased by 2, and a failed check smashes the clay, destroying 25% of it every time. A single clay feature contains 2d6 lb of clay and takes up a 5ft. square. Every 5ft. square of clay deposit costs 25 lb.
Grass: This is the main reason you'd be using this biome. Grass is a very hardy, useful plant that can be created in large quantities. It is ideal as a feedstock, and livestock raised on this grass grows 10% larger than normal livestock of their kind. The grass created is still growing, and thus has an 80% moisture content; it must typically be dried out before being used as feed. Grass costs 5 lb for every 10ft. patch.
Shale: If clay is hard to balance on, shale is even worse. Ride, Balance, and Tumble checks across shale have their DC increased by 5. A failure causes the person attempting the action (including the mount, if applicable) to fall prone on the shale, taking damage as if from a 20ft. fall. Running and charging across shale is impossible on foot. Shale costs 5lb for every 5ft. patch.
Streams: These are the same kinds of streams described in the copper (forest) pole section.
Tall Grass: Tall grass is especially dangerous and easy to hide in. Hide and Move Silently checks gain a +4 circumstance bonus in it. Beyond that, this grass provides twice as much grass material as the grass baseline terrain, and is dry to start off with. This feature is placed in 5ft. squares. Tall grass costs 15 lb for every 10ft. patch.
Trees: These are the light trees described in the copper (forest) pole section, although they tend to be deciduous instead of coniferous.

Swamp [Lead]: A lead pole allows you to spread a swamp biome. A swamp has peat as its baseline, and additional terrain features include acid bog, mucky ground, quicksand, standing water, sulphur jets, and trees. Swamps are generally not very nice places to be, but there are some hard to come by materials that often show up in them. Swamps can be dangerous, and tend to attract the worst sorts of black magic. Most people stay no longer than strictly necessary.

Acid Bog: Acid bog has a faint green hue, making it difficult to notice except in good light. Spotting an acid bog bog before entering it requires a DC 20 Survival check. If the moving creature succeeds on a DC 10 Survival check but not a DC 20 check, he notices that the square is with bog but does not identify it as acid bog. Acid bog deals 1d6 points of acid damage per round of exposure, or 6d6 points of acid damage with total immersion. Most acid bog is only about 1 foot in depth, making total immersion unlikely (although prone creatures count as fully immersed). It costs 2 squares of movement to move into a square with acid bog, and the DC of Balance and Tumble checks in such a square increase by 2. Acid bog imposes a –4 penalty on Move Silently checks. Acid bog costs 10 lb for every 5ft. patch.
Mucky Ground: This is ground that is half water and half dirt, resulting in a sticky, sloshy ground that is difficult to move in. As a result, characters traveling in mucky ground must move at half speed and make DC 10 Balance checks every 60ft. If a character fails that check, they fall prone and get mucky. Alternatively, a character may attempt to move at standard speed through the ground, but must make a DC 15 check every 60 ft. A character that is running or charging through murky ground must make DC 20 Balance checks every 30 ft., making it nigh-impossible to move quickly on the mucky ground. Mucky ground costs 5 lb for every 10ft. patch.
Quicksand: This is the quicksand described in the iron (desert) pole section, except with mud instead of sand. Anyone who gets stuck in a swamp quicksand pit gets unavoidable filthy from head to toe. Swamp quicksand is more common than desert quicksand, and thus is cheaper: it costs 20 lb for every 5ft. patch of it.
Standing Water: Standing water is a common occurence in swampy areas, and is super gross. It's not at all useable for cooking or cleaning, and usually has lots of nasty stuff living in it. It is, technically, water, so it could be purified with magic to be useable. Any standing water which is left on its own (typically for at least a week) tends to attract mosquitoes and especially stirges (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/stirge.htm). Every 5ft. square of standing water can sustain a flock of stirges, who lay their eggs in the filthy water. Standing water costs 10 lb for every 5ft. square.
Sulphur Jets: These are jets emerging from the moist ground or standing water bodies which give off a mixture of sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide gas (known as swamp gas). They're not really very pleasant, and actually very dangerous to people not equipped to breathe them. Anyone that breathes in swamp gas must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or become nauseated. Swamp gas is super-flammable, and the tiniest flame or spark inside of a sulphur jet can cause a fireball (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/fireball.htm) effect (effective caster level equal to the number of adjacent sulphur jets inside the radius, to a maximum of 10) centered on the source of the flame. Detecting swamp gas is kind of hard, and usually done by scent. Anyone with the scent special ability just knows when they're in an area filled with swamp gas. Everyone else needs to succeed on a DC 15 Survival check first. Sulphur jets cost 25 lb each, and occupy a 5ft. square. They can be placed in standing water as well as peat.
Trees: These are the light or massive trees described in the copper (forest) pole section. Trees in a swamp are placed at the same discount as in a forest, and get vines besides. Vines allow easy climbing and swimming; anyone can climb a swamp tree with a DC 5 Climb check, and can move at double speed through a swamp without touching the ground if they succeed at a DC 15 Climb and Jump check every round (they don't have to touch the ground, either, which is pretty awesome when you think about how much horrible stuff there is on the ground in a swamp). To use this movement, they must move only through squares containing trees. Light trees require negligible space, while massive trees require a 5ft. square. Light trees cost 5 lb, and massive trees cost 20 lb.

A special thank you to the people I worked with on the SWAMPGAS (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72683) project all that while ago, you guys were awesome. And also the best organized and actually completed and released project I've yet seen on these boards!


GEOC 291: Unknown Oceans [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: GEOC 101, Survival 8 ranks
Target: At least 100 lb of planetary metal
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like GEOC 101, except that it allows you to use the final two planetary metals in your geoccultism: mercury and silver.

In addition, you can now change the topology inside any biome that you create; this is called (appropriately) a topology feature. This works like a terrain feature, but can be placed concurrently with pretty much any other terrain feature. A topology feature can be placed concurrently with basically any normal feature, but there are limits to how it can be set up. You cannot have two adjacent 5ft. squares with a difference in slope between them of more than 10 degrees. Every 5ft. you want to raise or lower a 5ft. square relative to its original height costs 5 lb of metal.

Note that this is actually pretty much useless for silver and mercury biomes, since the actual topology of the area is far below the surface of the water. However, it can technically still be used if you really want to dig an underwater trench or something.

{table=head]Planetary Metal|Critical DC|Biome|Baseline Terrain
Mercury|35|Wetland|Freshwater
Silver|40|Ocean|Saltwater[/table]

Wetland (Freshwater): This creates essentially a freestanding body of freshwater, sometimes known as sweetwater. Essentially a lake, although the exact term would describe on the geography and placement. Freshwater bodies are typically several hundred feet deep in the middle, tapering up sharply at the edges. When you spread this terrain, you can decide the exact depth, although it cannot be more than 450ft. deep at any point. Freshwater is amazing for any kind of life, and is very important for settlements and civilization. This freshwater is created pure and free of contaminants.
Ocean (Saltwater): This creates a freestanding body of saltwater; essentially a salt lake, although it could also be connected to an outside ocean. This works basically the same as the wetland, except that it can be much, much, much deeper. It can be as deep as six miles down in the middle. Saltwater can't be drunk by most humanoids, although sahuagin and many other aquatic races find it prime habitat.

There are also a few features you can place around these bodies. These terrain features can be places around the edge of your body of water, and are at ground level instead of below the earth. Wetland can have mudflats and reeds around it, and ocean can have sandbars and tidepools around it.

Mudflats (Wetland): Mudflats are, appropriately enough, flat planes of mud which are really easy to get stuck in. It's basically normal dirt and soil which is so wet from the nearby body of water that it's become a huge mass of mud. It's impossible to move in, like at all. Someone would have to make a superhuman (DC 25) Balance check to move freely across the surface of it, and they still couldn't run or charge. Anyone who gets stuck in it is moving at 5ft. per round, if that (DC 10 Balance to move at all). Seriously, this stuff is just not fun. Mudflats cost 50 lb for every 5ft. patch.
Reeds (Wetland): Reeds are a little more pleasant. These are big cattails, rice paddies, and similar. They can be used to make really cool wind instruments, and also are great to hide in. They grant a +8 circumstance bonus on Hide checks made in them. Unfortunately, they grow in ankle-deep water, which is kind of gross. Rice is also an amazing crop, and the same amount of land used growing rice instead of wheat can feed twice as many people. Reeds cost 10 lb for every 5ft. patch.
Sandbars (Ocean): Sandbars are the shorelines that people normally associate with oceans. This works like the sand described in the desert section, except that there's a hell of a lot more water in it. In general, you can find water just by digging down a little bit. Sandbars are free.
Tidepools (Ocean): Tidepools are a clever way to trap fish without line or net. Tide comes in, deposits fish, and backs out. Tidepools are really cool tiny little ecosystems, and you find all sorts of neat edible stuff in them. A 5ft. patch of tidepools delivers enough food for four people every day assuming there are edible fish in the saltwater body, and that the tidepools are close enough to the shore to catch the tide. Tidepools cost 30 lb for every 5ft. patch.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:43 PM
Geoccultism (Part II)

GEOC 323: Curious Climates
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any two GEOC principles, Survival 15 ranks
Target: At least 100 lb of planetary metal
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like GEOC 101, except that it allows you to spread an additional kind of feature from your geoccult poles: a climate condition. This principle allows you to connect your geoccult poles to fundamental meteorological gradients, producing appropriate climate change inside of the biome. Whenever you set up a geoccult pole, you can choose to introduce a climate to the area as well as more tangible environmental features. Similarly, you can update a previously constructed geoccult pole to contain a climate element by preparing this principle on it once (no matter the size) and matching or exceeding the Survival check made to construct it. The climate change introduced can be turned on or off, or set to a specific level, as a logical decision. Alternatively, the climate feature can be modulated as a standard action when touching the pole by making a matching Survival check.

Climate conditions are tied to a particular metal, but thanks to your new mixing ability (see below) you can have interesting weathers in strange biomes. Climate changes can be implemented either globally (in the entire field of the pole's effect) or locally (in circles of 100ft. radius). Every hour that a climate change is in effect, it consumes metal as described in its description. Note that metal is consumed for each separate weather change, so if you decide to split up the area and have different climate conditions in different parts of it, you pay for all of them. They also have more extreme forms; A geoccult pole can be manipulated either physically or through a heuristical citcuit to trigger an extreme weather condition with additional instantaneous metal consumption. Controlling a climate condition, either standard or extreme, is a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity.

In addition, you can now mix your biomes slightly. By incorporating a second metal into the body of a pole, you can make use of a single terrain feature off of that biome's list, or even that biome's climate condition (although you can only have one climate condition at a time). However, metal consumed to place and sustain the feature is drawn from this secondary reserve, and additional masses of the second metal must be added to replenish it. Once you pick the specific terrain feature for the pole to have access to, it cannot be changd. It can be placed as many times as you like inside the biome within these constraints. If the smaller pole falls below its critical mass, the parent pole starts to burn itself to pay for the feature instead, at a ratio of 10:1 (and not in your favour, either).

{table=head]Planetary Metal|Terrain|Climate Condition|Extreme Weather Condition
Copper|Forest|Heat Wave|Wildfire
Gold|Arctic|Snow|Hailstorm
Iron|Desert|Sandstorm|Earthquake
Lead|Swamp|Fog|Flood
Mercury|Wetlands|Cold Wave|Cold Snap
Platinum|City|Smog|Acid Rain
Silver |Ocean|Rain|Thunderstorm
Tin|Grasslands|Wind|Tornado[/table]

Note that you must know GEOC 291 to use mercury or silver poles.

Copper (Heat Wave): An iron pole allows you to cause heavy heat waves, which can be big risks of sunstroke in places that are already hot. A heat wave raises the ambient temperature by up to 20 degrees Centigrade. This might be balmy in the arctic, but deadly in a desert. Every hour that a heat wave is in effect it consumes 5 lb for every 5 degree temperature increase from the pole.
Gold (Snow): Snow is basically the king of nasty weather conditions. If you don't live in Canada or somewhere else northern (or really far southern, I guess), you probably think snow is kind of cute and fluffy. I just want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that I hate you. Falling snow has the same effects on visibility, ranged weapon attacks, and skill checks as rain (see the ocean section below), and it costs 2 squares of movement to enter a snow-covered square. A day of snowfall leaves 1d6 inches of snow on the ground. You can also choose heavy snow, which has the same effects as normal snowfall, but also restricts visibility as fog does (see the swamp section below). A day of heavy snow leaves 1d4 feet of snow on the ground, and it costs 4 squares of movement to enter a square covered with heavy snow. Heavy snow accompanied by strong or severe winds may result in snowdrifts 1d4Χ5 feet deep, especially in and around objects big enough to deflect the wind—a cabin or a large tent, for instance. Snow has the same effect on flames as moderate wind. Light snowfall costs 15 lb of metal for every hour of effect, and heavy snowfall costs a whopping 40 lb of metal every hour.
Iron (Sandstorm): Technically sandstorms (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#sandstorms) are really just strong wind in the desert, but we treat them like they're their own separate thing (so that you can enjoy having sandstorms in a swamp). A sandstorm reduces visibility to 1d10Χ5 feet and provides a -4 penalty on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. A sandstorm deals 1d3 points of nonlethal damage per hour to any creatures caught in the open, and leaves a thin coating of sand in its wake. Driving sand creeps in through all but the most secure seals and seams, to chafe skin and contaminate carried gear. Every hour that a sandstorm is in effect it consumes 15 lb of metal.
Lead (Fog): Fog can be pretty dangerous in a fight, since you can't really see anything. A lead pole produces fog, mist, whatever you want to call it (okay, technically it has to do with the visibility from the air between 3/8 and 5/8 of a statute mile). Fog obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5ft. Creatures 5ft. away have concealment (attacks by or against them have a 20% miss chance). Fog consumes 10 lb of metal for every hour that it's in effect.
Mercury (Cold Wave): A cold wave, as you'd expect, is the opposite of a heat wave. It lowers the temperature by up to 15 degrees Centigrade. Every hour that a cold wave is in effect, it consumes 5 lb for every 5 degree temperature decrease from the pole.
Platinum (Smog): Smog is a huge breathing hazard associated with urban areas. Though the danger is not immediately apparent, smog obscures all sight beyond 10ft., including darkvision. Creatures 10ft. away or further have concealment in smog (attacks by or against them have a 20% miss chance). In addition, creatures with the scent special ability cannot detect creatures beyond 20ft. due to the sharp, acrid scent of the smog. Finally, every hour a creature spends inside smog inflicts 1 nonlethal damage to them, which cannot be healed naturally while they remain in the cloud. Smog consumes 10 lb of metal for every hour that it's in effect.
Silver (Rain): Rain makes things wet, and in general is not very pleasant. It reduces visibility ranges by half, resulting in a -4 penalty on Spot and Search checks. It has the same effect on flames, ranged weapon attacks, and Listen checks as severe wind. It also gets things wet after three full rounds of exposure. You can also choose heavy rain as an option, which doubles the normal penalties and gets anything exposed for even a single full round soaking wet. Normal rain costs 5 lb per hour, and heavy rain costs 10 lb per hour.
Tin (Wind): A tin pole allows you to cause windstorms, inciting winds (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/weather.htm#winds) of up to 70 mph as a regular thing. The pole can be controlled to produce wind between 0 and 70 mph. Strong winds consume metal every hour they're in effect equal to 5 lb per wind category.

The extreme weather conditions include:

Copper (Wildfire): Okay, maybe it's not a weather condition per se, but it's still pretty awesome. This is a huge brush fire that engulfs everything flammable in its path. It burns through the area, leaving ash behind. Basically, all of the flammable features will have to replenish themselves the next day. Natural wildfires are unpredictable, but a geoccult wildfire is controlled from the pole. A wildfire can be between 50ft. wide and however wide you want (out to the limits of the zone). A wildfire can advance at up to 120ft. per round, scorching the land behind it. A wildfire has three main dangers: heat damage, catching on fire, and smoke inhalation.
Breathing the air in a wildfire causes a character to take 1d6 points of damage per round (no save). In addition, a character must make a Fortitude save every 5 rounds (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or take 1d4 points of nonlethal damage. A character who holds his breath can avoid the lethal damage, but not the nonlethal damage. Those wearing heavy clothing or any sort of armor take a -4 penalty on this save. In addition, those wearing metal armor or coming into contact with very hot metal are affected as if by a heat metal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/heatMetal.htm) spell. Additionally, characters engulfed in a wildfire are at risk of catching on fire (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#catchingOnFire) when the leading edge of the fire overtakes them, and are then at risk once per minute thereafter. Finally, wildfires naturally produce a great deal of smoke. A character who breathes heavy smoke must make a Fortitude save each round (DC 15, +1 per previous check) or spend that round choking and coughing. A character who chokes for 2 consecutive rounds takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. Also, smoke obscures vision, providing concealment to characters within it. A wildfire is very destructive, but potentially also very useful. It only costs 50 lb to get it started, and every round spent controlling it costs 10 lb of metal.
Gold (Hailstorm): Hail is not pleasant. This works like a sleet storm (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/sleetStorm.htm) effect, with an effective caster level equal to half of the Survival skill check of the pole. Additionally, creatures out in the open take 2d6 bludgeoning damage every round (Reflex DC 15 for half damage) from the massive hailstones, far larger than what nature normally spits out. A hailstorm can effect an area of any size, up to the full pole area, costs 75 lb to get started, and lasts for 1 round per effective caster level.
Iron (Earthquake): Earthquakes technically also aren't weather, but they are really cool. This works basically like a earthquake (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/earthquake.htm) effect, with an effective caster level of half of the Suvival skill check of the pole and an effective spell level of 7. The earthquake starts with an 80ft. radius, but can be expanded over subsequent turns to target adjacent areas inside of the geoccult zone. An earthquake costs 200 lb to begin, and 175 lb every subsequent round that it's maintained (hitting additional area sections). You cannot target the same area twice with the same earthquake.
Lead (Flood): A flood is a lot of water that comes out of nowhere. I mean, in real life it comes from lots of rain or something, but this actually just appears out of thin air. It's a wave of water from 10 to 12ft. high which just starts somewhere in the zone, up to 80ft. in length. It travels in a direction you choose, and basically just wipes out everything along the way. Anything loose is swept up and carried with it. A flood wave travels at up to 100ft. per round, and does everything you would expect. It's basically treated as a Colossal creature with a Strength score of 40 bull rushing everything that it touches. Everything it strikes takes 5d6 points of bludgeoning damage (Fortitude DC 20 for half damage). The flood causes massive infrastructure damage to any structure in strikes, if it doesn't destroy it completely. The flood travels for 5 rounds, at which point it dies down. You can control the exact speed of the wave, as well as making small adjustments to its trajectory of up to 10 degrees per round. A flood costs 200 lb to kick off, but only needs 25 lb of metal to control every round.
Mercury (Cold Snap): A cold snap is a super brutal wave of cold. It drops temperatures by 40 degrees Centigrade, which is a hell of a lot. This is just brutal, antarctic style cold. Exposed vegetation just dies. Non-salinated water snap-freezes to 50ft. down, killing aquatic wildlife. Creatures exposed take 4d6 points of cold damage every round (Fortitude DC 25 for half damage). Flames are extinguished, and any character touching or holding metal is affected as if with a chill metal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/chillMetal.htm) effect. A cold snap thankfully doesn't last for long. It costs 150 lb to start, and costs 100 lb every round to maintain.
Platinum (Acid Rain): This is not weather that you want to be caught in; acid rain is identical to heavy rain, except that every round that a creature spends exposed causes it to take 2d6 acid damage. Even when an exposed creature gets out of the rain, they take 1 acid damage until they dry off. Acid rain costs 100 lb to kick off, and lasts for an hour.
Silver (Thunderstorm): A thunderstorm is devastating. It includes winds (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/weather.htm#winds) of up to 50 mph, as well as heavy rain. Every round that it's active, you can call down a lightning bolt that deals 1d10 d8's of electricity damage in a 5ft. radius to a specific point in the affected area. These bolts offer a Reflex save (DC 20) for half damage. A thunderstorm costs only 50 lb to get started, and every bolt costs an extra 25 lb. A storm lasts for an hour before petering out.
Tin (Tornado): This is strong wind (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/weather.htm#winds). Like, really really strong wind. All flames are extinguished. All ranged attacks are impossible (even with siege weapons), as are Listen checks. Instead of being blown away (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#blownAway), characters in close proximity to a tornado who fail a DC 30 Fortitude save are sucked toward the tornado. Those who come in contact with the actual funnel cloud are picked up and whirled around for 1d10 rounds, taking 6d6 points of damage per round, before being violently expelled (falling damage may apply). While a tornado’s rotational speed can be as great as 300 mph, the funnel itself moves at up to 250ft. per round at your discretion. A tornado uproots trees, destroys buildings, and causes other similar forms of major destruction. A tornado is 75ft. in radius, and can be controlled from the geoccult pole. Tornados cost 175 lb to start, and an additional 125 lb every round that it's maintained and controlled.


GEOC 374: Supernal Ecologies [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three GEOC principles, Survival 15 ranks
Target: At least 100 lb of planetary metal
Preparation Time: 1 hour

You've reached the pinnacle of geoccult knowledge, and have discovered secrets of ecology that nature itself hasn't found yet. You've discovered supernatural terrain features that you can place in your biomes just like normal features.

Arctic [Gold]: Arctic supernatural terrain features include deadsnow, living glacier, and mirror ice.
Deadsnow: Deadsnow is like regular snow, but those who pass beyond the mortal coil in it find their souls frozen in the shell of their bodies. At the following midnight, the body is reanimated as a zombie (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/zombie.htm). The zombie is controlled by the geoccult pole as a logical decision; the pole can have a number of Hit Dice of deadsnow zombies under its thrall at a time equal to twice the Survival check made to prepare it. Deadsnow costs 100 lb for every 5ft. patch; it only snares the soul if the victim's body lies in the patch of snow at midnight.
Living Glacier: Living glacier is like a sheet of fluid ice which is a living thing unto itself. It's essentially a guardian of the area, but more than that it works like a body for the pole. The glacier itself is an elder ice elemental (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/elemental/elemental-ice/elder-ice-elemental), but its senses can all relay information to the pole. Anyone controlling the pole can take over the body of the living glacier and control it as if it were them, although this leaves their body helpless for the duration of the control. A living glacier costs 300 lb to place, and there can only be one of them for every 500ft. of radius of the zone.
Mirror Ice: This is basically like a regular sheet of ice, except it refracts and bends light in amazing and interesting ways. Anybody standing on a sheet of mirror ice projects four mirror images (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mirrorImage.htm). However, the image of anyone who stands on the ice is stored in the pole's memory; it stores the information to later make a clone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/clone.htm) of the creature, and anyone who can cast the spell can use the pole's memory as the piece of the creature required for the casting. The clone later created will be able to communicate telepathically with the geoccult pole, no matter where it is (even on other Planes). Mirror ice becomes inert and dull if removed from the geoccult zone. Mirror ice costs 400 lb to place a 5ft. patch.
City [Platinum]: City supernatural terrain features include bizarchitecture, power ribbons, and zeitgeists.
Bizarchitecture: Sometimes you just have to have a pair of roads in the same place; that's where bizarchitecture comes in. Unlike a normal feature, bizarchitecture is applied to a group of features, hereafter referred to as a set. When designing the features for an area, up to two sets can be placed in the same location; a single set is designated the default set, and the other set is designated as the secondary set. Once the sets have been placed, the secondary set cannot be accessed or observed by any means except under conditions designated when the sets were originally created; these conditions can be restricted to any conditions that would be able to trigger a magic mouth (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicMouth.htm) spell. When the conditions for accessing a secondary set are met, any creature that meets the criteria treats the secondary set as if it were the default set, and vice-versa. Creatures who are inside a set of features always treat that set as the default set, regardless of whether or not they still meet the conditions. This means that, for example, if a pair of buildings are in different sets and are in the same location, creatures in one building cannot interact with or observe creatures or objects in the other building by any means. A true seeing (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trueSeeing.htm) effect allows simultaneous observation of both sets of features, but the observer can still only interact with the set that is currently real for them. Creating bizarchitecture multiplies the cost of each component feature for a set by 10.
Power Ribbons: Power ribbons carry puissance inside of a biome; this allows for an even spread of ebbs throughout the biome's features. A single gramaric component or heuristical citcuit can be attached to a given end of a power ribbon. Thereafter, every heuristical circuit that contains a section of that power ribbon is treated as if it were overlapping every other heuristic net that the power ribbon runs through. Power ribbon costs 100 lb for every 50ft. extent.
Zeitgeists: A zeitgeist is a spirit that instinctively derives demographic information from a biome. More simply, a zeitgeist is an exotic intelligence whose heuristical bubble includes only the pole of the biome, but whose telepathy covers the entirety of the biome zone. In addition, its Mindsight allows it to automatically know the age, race, gender, and legal and marital status of every creature that it can sense. If a zeitgeist is present in the pole, a bizarchitectural set's condition in order to be accessed can make use any information which the zeitgeist is able to automatically derive. A zeitgeist cannot be fooled with conventional methods, but a misdirection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/misdirection.htm) effect causes the zeitgeist to read the demographic information of the misdirected proxy instead. A zeitgeist costs only 100 lb to create, but multiplies the rate at which the pole consumes itself every day by 10.
Desert : Desert supernatural terrain features include brassbrush, firesand, and mirage oases.
[i]Brassbrush: This is living brass which grows from the ground. It can be harvested as brass, but more importantly as it grows it reproduces gramaric modifications, and it counts as copper for all gramaric purposes; it does not count as metal for any other purpose. That is, it's plant matter which you can prepare gramaric principles on as if it were copper. Any gramaric principle which is prepared on the brassbrush remains stored in the plant. If it is cut and regrows, it regrows with the principle prepared on it. This includes all sorts of things, including ELDK principles, ALCH principles, and even further GEOC principles. Brassbrush retains its metallic memory outside of the zone, but it only grows in hot, dry, desert conditions. If it regrows in the pole's zone, this costs new metal like normal. However, if it's taken outside it takes a week to grow to its full size, but requires no input aside from nutrients. Brassbrush costs 500 lb for a single 5ft. patch, and a single 5ft. patch of it itself weighs 25 lb.
Firesand: Firesand is exactly like regular sand, except that it burns on contact with water. This makes the rare rainfalls in the desert quite spectacular, but more importantly it's very useful for gramarie. One tablespoon of firesand when mixed with sufficient water will produce flame even hotter than phlogiston (2000 degrees Centigrade) for five minutes before burning out. It also produces 50 cubic feet of superheated dry steam at 500 degrees Centigrade from this reaction. Firesand costs 250 lb for a single 5ft. patch.
Mirage Oases: A mirage oasis is somewhere between a trick of the light and a true illusion. It's a part of the terrain of the desert where the particular combination of arcane resonance and heat patterns create some a very convincing illusion. Any IMCH illusion which is placed in this illusion finds that a visual component creates itself to fit the illusion perfectly, no matter what the rest of the illusion does. This essentially means that it's impossible for the visual component to cause a sensory mismatch. Thanks to the connection to the pole's knowledge of the area, the mirage uses this knowledge to create as convincing an illusion as possible, making fundamental disconnects based on sight almost impossible to occur as well. A mirage oasis is actually a very pleasant locale beneath the illusion, and is always both fertile and a pleasant climate no matter what weather condition is going on in the rest of the desert. A mirage oasis costs 200 lb for a single 5ft. square.
Forest [Copper]: Forest supernatural terrain features include ancient oaks, heartwood, and nymph pools.
Ancient Oaks: Ancient oaks are semi-intelligent trees which can read the memory of the ground beneath them. You can communicate with them through the pole telepathically, and they can answer any question about the land or the history of it back several hundred years (treat it as having a +20 modifier for all Knowledge checks related to its field of expertise). An ancient oak is also a sentinel (it has the same senses as a treant) and alerts the pole when anything unusual happens in the geoccult zone. Ancient oaks are otherwise not intelligent; they serve their puspose, but nothing more. They are merely spirits of history that have a mandate to protect their forest. An ancient oak costs 500 lb, and is otherwise the same as a massive tree. It needs to grow for a month before it can communicate with the pole.
Heartwood: Heartwood is a living deciduous wood which has intriguing properties when it comes to gramarie. It can be directed to grow in any shape that the pole dictates, as if with wood shape (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/woodShape.htm), except that much finer detail than normal is possible. Anyone directing the pole or making logical decisions for it can use their own Craft ranks to form the heartwood into the shape of something that requires a Craft check. Heartwood physically works like darkwood (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialMaterials.htm) but also has the interesting property of connection. If a heartwood tree is taken from a geoccult zone and planted in another geoccult zone where it can grow, the two poles can communicate telepathically with each other. Someone controlling one pole can also impose their will over the other; if this is resisted by someone controlling the second, resolve it as an opposed Will save. The victor can make logical decisions for the other pole (and, if it's connected to one, its circuit) for the following round. Heartwood otherwise works like a light tree, and costs 400 lb to place. The second pole takes over the upkeep on it if a tree of it is planted in its zone.
Nymph Pools: A nymph pool is a special place to the fae. It's one of the few mystical secluded places of nature left to them, and they treasure it. After a month undisturbed, a nymph pool attracts a nymph (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/nymph.htm) who acts as an emissary between the one who controls the zone and her court. More tangibly, she can sanction a faerie wish (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wish.htm) once a month as long as the pool is undisturbed (although subject to the standard sidhe word games). A nymph pool is a standing body of water that must be at least 100ft. away from all other bodies of water, trails, and paths. If anyone comes within 100ft. of it except for the one who controls the geoccult pole, the nymph flees from them. A nymph pool costs only 100 lb, but the water in it needs to be replaced daily at a cost of 50 lb per day to maintain its purity.
Grasslands [Tin]: Grasslands supernatural terrain features include ghostgrass, lightning pools, and standing stones.
Ghostgrass: Ghostgrass is prized mostly for its ability to interact with the incorporeal. It is tangible to both the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane, and is often used to send signals back and forth between them. Anyone who eats ghostgrass straight from the ground becomes incorporeal for the following five minutes. This has been exploited to great effect in the past to lead spectral charges against fortifications. Ghostgrass grown outside of the zone loses this special property, but still interacts with both material and incorporeal creatures. Ghostgrass costs 250 lb per 5ft. patch, and is otherwise like normal grass.
Lightning Pools: Lightning pools are perhaps some of the most interesting terrain features available. These work like batteries for puissance, but with a key difference. A single 5ft. pool can store up to 100 ebbs, but if the water is taken from the pool then the communal store of puissance can be accessed by tying the water sample into a circuit. Each pool can potentially split into 100 separate reservoirs of water, each of which can access the shared bank of puissance and make deposits or withdrawals. Lightning pools charged with puissance hold an arcane potential, and crackle the occasional static discharge, which is what led to their fanciful name. If the lightning water is diluted with other fluids later on, the effect is lost, but the bank of puissance is not adversely affected unless all of the lightning water is destroyed like this. A single lightning pool costs 5,000 lb and does not replenish itself until all of the water has been drawn from it and destroyed. The geoccult pole can also be used as a way to tap into the bank of puissance stored in a pool.
Standing Stones: This is a mysterious set of standing stones arranged in a circle, which are commonly used to chart astronomical events. Any kind of predictions, divinations, foretellings, prophecies, or fortune telling effects all gain a +2 bonus to their caster level for being made inside of a set of standing stones. Standing stones also offer refuge from the ravages of the outside world. Creatures within the citcle find that transient effects on them, such as spells with set durations, do not wane as long as they remain in the circle. For good or ill, time spent in the circle of standing stones is apart from outside of them, and does not count against the duration of any transient effect (up to a maximum of five transient effects on any given creature inside of the circle). A set of standing stones takes up a 20ft. radius circle and costs 800 lb of metal to erect.
Ocean [Silver]: Ocean supernatural terrain features include krakenhaunts, truewater crevices, and prismatic reefs.
Krakenhaunts: Krakenhaunts are whirlpools on the surface of the ocean which draw guardians from the deep to protect the zone. As a standard action, puissance can be channelled through the geoccult pole into the krakenhaunt to conjure up a guardian as if with a summon nature's ally (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonNaturesAllyI.htm) effect, but only for saltwater aquatic animals. This costs a number of ebbs of puissance equal to 1 + the spell level being imitated. The caster level (and thus duration) of the effect is equal to half the Survival check of the pole. The conjured guardian is under the control of whoever is making logical decisions for the geoccult pole. A krakenhaunt costs 500 lb, and though it otherwise is a dramatic piece of the ocean, it has no effect on swimmers.
Truewater Crevices: This crevice must be placed on the ocean floor, a full four miles down. It is a portal to any other ocean on another Plane, and the exact location is set when it is placed with the pole. Once opened, the portal cannot truly be shut again, only blocked off or sealed with mundane means. The portal can be any size so long as it is at an appropriate depth. A truewater crevice costs 1,000 lb per 5ft. square of the portal.
Prismatic Reefs: A prismatic reef is a coral structure found built up from the ocean floor, even above the sea level.. It has the intriguing property that it can be grown in specific shapes (as if with a stone shape (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/stoneShape.htm) effect), and it absorbs pigmentation in a unique way. As long as it is still alive (hasn't been cut), if a kaleidomantic filter touches it, the entire reef assumes the colour and properties of the filter, as if it were just a very complicated 3D structure built out of the filter and fixed in space. If the filter is later removed, the reef returns to its normal solid state. Prismatic reef costs 250 lb for every 125 cubic feet of it, and it must be affixed on the ocean floor. It cannot grow more than 30ft. above the free surface.
Swamp [Lead]: Swamp supernatural terrain features include black lagoons, haunted bogs, and ignes fatui.
Black Lagoons: A black lagoon is a frightening locale filled wih spooky voodoo power. Necromancy spells cast from a black lagoon add +2 to their caster level and DC in a black lagoon, and it's also inextricably linked to the haunted bogs feature. Anyone who dies while in a black lagoon has their soul stolen as if with trap the soul (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trapTheSoul.htm) and stored in the geoccult pole. A black lagoon costs 500 lb per 5ft. patch.
Haunted Bogs: Souls which have been stolen in a black lagoon find use in a haunted bog. These are basically factories which transform souls into one of several forms. Souls can be transferred into a haunted bog from the geoccult pole as a logical decision, and then the bog can be directed how to use them. It takes two hours to process a soul, and a single patch of bog can only be working on one of them at a time. A soul can be transformed into 10 ebbs of puissance to be put into a circuit, a tablespoon of anitu dust (a drug popular among fiends), 100 XP for an Exotic Intelligence controlling the circuit (although it can't gain XP from creatures with an ECL more than 10 below its own) or for use in crafting, or, interestingly, memories: all of the knowledge and memories the soul had accumulated in its life is transferred to the geoccult pole, where it can be accessed later. Whatever use the soul is put to, it's utterly destroyed. Whatever was left of the creature becomes a wraith (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/wraith.htm), which haunts the haunted bog. Haunted bogs cost 250 lb per 5ft. patch.
Ignes Fatui: Ignes fatui, or wil 'o' the wisps, are a common sight in swamps meant to lead astray the unwary. When you place an ignus fatuum in the zone, it is visible from anywhere in the zone, no matter where you are, glowing faintly and dancing to an unheard tune. Normal measurements and directions don't work out correctly within 500ft. of the ignus. Any measurement or calculation made from a compass, map, astrolable, or other such instrument is off by up somwhere between -50% and +50% of the true value. Particular instruments or objects can be made immune to this effect by linking them with the geoccult pole as a standard action. An ignus fatuum costs 400 lb of metal, and every time it falsifies a measurement it draws an additional 50 lb of fuel.
Wetlands [Mercury]: Wetlands supernatural terrain features include cryptid caverns, healing springs, and whisperreeds.
Cryptid Caverns: These are an actual change to the geography of the lakebed, cutting out caverns below the surface of the water in the side of the shoreline. Things can hide in these caverns and never be discovered, no matter how closely people might look. The caverns are blocked as if by a nondetection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/nondetection.htm) effect and a screen (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/screen.htm) to resemble the regular lakebed wall (both effects have a caster level equal to half the Survival check, and a save DC of 10 + 5 per GEOC principle you know). However, things in the caverns can still communicate normally to the pole. Cryptid caverns cost 300 lb for every 5ft. square to be cut out and blocked. The exact image of the screen can be changed as a logical decision through the pole.
Healing Springs: Healing springs are basically just what they sound like. This is a fountain of healing water that perpetually flows up through the lake in a particular spot. Water taken from the fountain cures any disease, including magical diseases. They also heal 2d8 hit points and restore 2d6 points of ability damage. If someone drinks it while suffering from a negative level (but before making the saving throw to turn it permanent), the negative level is removed. Healing spring water taken outside of the geoccult zone transmutes into mud. A single healing spring costs 1,000 lb, and needs to be replenished every day.
Whisperreeds: Whisperreeds are just like normal cat-tail reeds, except that they transmit sound across huge distances. When two whisperreeds are cut from the same stalk (after it grows back the following day, obviously) any sound or vibration which affects one of them will instantaneously affect the other, as well. This allows the transmission of area effects that deal only sonic damage; if one reed is inside of the area, the effect spreads out from the second reed as if it were the originator of the effect. Sonic damage can only be channeled once like this before it degrades to harmlessness. This is a form of quantum entangling, and thus is not limited by the speed of light. Multiple reeds cut work in the same way, transmitting an equal amount of sound from all of them. However, the total sound level is distributed between all of the extra receptors, dividing it up accordingly. For example, one reed being used to talk to three others would have its transmitted sound level reduced to one third of its original intensity. Whisperreed costs 200 lb per 5ft. patch, and otherwise works like normal cat-tail reeds.


Heuristicism

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/295/e/f/ef065be7ff039b251a155d93ef5818c9-d4dnesk.png
Image credit griffsnuff (http://griffsnuff.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."

Heuristicism is a really strange meta-discipline, which deals with rules, triggers, contingencies, and control. Any magic, even the most mundane, is useless to us if there is no way to control it. Heuristicism offers a way to manipulate and control even absurdly complex systems which can grow out of gramarie. Although it's not especially useful in its own right, heuristicism is possibly the single most important discipline (except maybe for arcanodynamics) for building amazing and wondrous things. It's no understatement to say that without heuristical circuits, gramarie wouldn't be nearly as ubiquitous and marvelous as it is.

Heuristicism can be improved with visual and tactile aids during the preparation to simulate the connections that are being made. Braided cords are often tied around objects to be connected in a circuit, and grinding stones can be employed to score components with matching marks, improving the sympathetic connection between them. Props like this count as masterwork pieces of equipment, and provide a +2 circumstance bonus on the Autohypnosis check made to prepare a heuristical principle. A particularly famous circuit material is the Dmu Thag, a superplanar cord supposedly woven by an ancient race of giants when they built a machine to break into heaven.

Key Skill: Autohypnosis


HEUR 101: Intro to Heuristicism
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: Two or more pieces of gramarie
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle joins two or more works of gramarie together into a heuristical circuit. The things you can join with this principle include: eldrikinetic engines, yggdratectural spaces, semi-spaces, fluxes, and demiplanes, arcanodynamic transformers, and imachinary illusions. These pieces do not need to be touching, but this principle creates a bubble with a radius of up to 5ft. Each piece to be joined must touch or be be contained within the bubble to be considered part of the circuit. You can also choose to exclude particular pieces when you first prepare this principle. The circuit field is tethered to a point in space, or to a particular object or creature. If one of the components moves outside the field or is destroyed, the circuit falls apart (although it reestablishes if the component returns).

When you set up a circuit, you can choose the path that puissance takes through it, and you can redefine any choices which were originally made when the individual components were set up. For example, if you have a circuit which includes a polarcane magnetic flux, when you prepare this principle you can choose to change the direction of the magnetic force inside the flux. These are called logical decisions. If anything in the circuit generates puissance (typically an arcanodynamic transformer), you can control the flow of the puissance inside of the circuit as a logical decision as well. For example, you can route the puissance from there to an eldrikinetic engine, or to another transformer, and so on.

As part of this principle, you make an Autohypnosis check. Logical decisions can be changed by anyone who is within the bubble of the circuit and who makes a Autohypnosis check of equal or greater result than the original check. Attempting to control a circuit is a standard action which provokes attacks of opportunity. Circuits are visible on the Ethereal Plane, where they look like silver cord joining the components together.

You can join two heuristical circuits together, but only to channel puissance between them. You cannot make logical decisions for one circuit by controlling an adjoining circuit.

If you try to tether a circuit to an unwilling target, they are allowed a Will saving throw to resist it at the end of the preparation. The Will DC is 10 + 5 for every HEUR principle you know.


HEUR 245: Nonstatic Instruction
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: HEUR 101, Autohypnosis 8 ranks
Target: Heuristical circuit
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle targets a heuristical circuit whose bubble you are inside. It places a control point into the circuit, at the location and in the form of your choice. This is a point where anyone can access the circuit and make a decision for the components that are inside of it as if they were controlling the principle. No Autohypnosis check is needed, since this is intended to allow the untrained to control parts of the circuit. They can also control the flow of the puissance in the circuit, and can change the path it takes or turn the flow on or off from the control point. Making any single decision from a control point is a standard action, so large circuits can benefit from having multiple control points in them. When you prepare this principle, you can choose exactly what authority each control point in the circuit has, and what decisions or changes they can make to the circuit. To place a control point you must make an Autohypnosis check as part of preparing this principle which meets or exceeds the original check of the circuit.


HEUR 266: Unorthodox Triggers [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: HEUR 101, Autohypnosis 8 ranks
Target: Heuristical circuit
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle targets a heuristical circuit whose bubble you are inside. You can place a single trigger and response in the circuit, which is a particular decision that is reached in the logic of the circuit (turning a component on or off, changing a component's effect, redirecting puissance, and so on). The trigger can be any plain language circumstance which would be reasonable for a contingency (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/contingency.htm) effect. This trigger and response, once created, is embedded in the circuit. To place a trigger you must make an Autohypnosis check as part of preparing this principle which meets or exceeds the original check of the circuit.

By making an Autohypnosis check inside of a circuit which beats the circuit's check by 5 or more, someone could discern any sets of triggers and responses in the circuit. This is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

The wording of a trigger and its response can be modified by other trigger and response pairs, or by someone controlling the circuit.


HEUR 302: Abnormal Behaviour
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any two HEUR principles, Autohypnosis 15 ranks
Target: Heuristical circuit
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle targets a heuristical circuit whose bubble you are inside. As part of this principle you must also prepare a principle which has an immediate effect such as an alchemetric transformation or a kaleidomantic filter (the time required for this principle is in addition to the preparation time of HEUR 302, but you only need to prepare it a single time). You may program this active principle into the heuristical circuit, to be activated at some physical location within the bubble of the circuit. By routing puissance to this embedded principle, you can cause it to start preparing itself just as if it was being prepared for the first time. This has a drain of 1 ebb per round while the principle is being prepared.

Any relevant decisions for the embedded principle, such as target, shape, effect, number of times prepared, and so on, are valid logical decisions which can be made when you first prepare HEUR 302 or which can be controlled through programming triggers or a control point. If the principle requires raw materials, they must be within the heuristical circuit bubble at the time that the embedded principle is activated.

The embedded principle remains embedded after activation, and can be prepared by the circuit multiple times if all the other requirements are met.

To embed a principle you must make an Autohypnosis check as part of preparing this principle which meets or exceeds the original check of the circuit.


HEUR 328: Exotic Intelligence [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three HEUR principles, Autohypnosis 15 ranks
Target: Heuristical circuit
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle targets a heuristical circuit whose bubble you are inside. You must prepare this principle as many times as the heuristical circuit was prepared to begin with (based on the radius of the bubble). As part of this principle, you must make an Autohypnosis check which meets or exceeds the original check of the circuit. If successful, you install an artificial intelligence into the circuit which is a real thinking consciousness. The consciousness has an Intelligence between 3 and your own Intelligence -2, chosen when you prepare this principle. The intelligence can have any alignment you like, as well as any number of goals, aims, and ideals. You can also establish parameters for behavious which the intelligence is not allowed to break, or rules that they are required to follow.

Once established, the intelligence cannot be modified or changed. It takes on its own personality and mannerisms, although it is bound to your original rules. It has control over every aspect of the circuit, and can make all relevant logical decisions as it sees fit as a free action. The intelligence created has a Wisdom and Charisma score equal to its Intelligence score, and can take purely mental actions. It has no Hit Dice, but can take 10 on any kind of mental skill check. It has telepathy and mindsight within the heuristic bubble, but otherwise no senses. An intelligence like this (commonly called an EI) can make up to 100 logical decisions in the circuit per round.

If someone tries to control the circuit through a control point or with a Autohypnosis check, the intelligence is allowed to make an opposed Intelligence check in order to stop the attempt from succeeding.

The intelligence can also maintain the circuit if it is disrupted. Even if a component is removed, the intelligence can keep the rest of the circuit running as long as they don't depend on the function of the missing component. However, every time a component is removed from the circuit, the intelligence must make a Will save against a DC of 10 or be destroyed.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:44 PM
Imachination

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/174/c/b/My_Dream_World_by_TheBroth3R.jpg
Image credit TheBroth3R (http://thebroth3r.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

"No, don't you get it? If you die in Canada, you die in REAL LIFE!"

The marvelous art of illusion is a dying tradition these days. In the past it is said that there were practicioners of the art with unsurpassed cleverness and guile, while now it seems relegated to the most obvious and tired uses possible. It seems the world has outgrown the use of illusion and the creativity it requires; at the very least, the kind of creativity and outside-the-box thinking it requires are punished and repressed in traditional colleges of magic. However, there exist those who remember some of the old tricks and knacks clever magicians invented to fool the unwary. The discipline of imachination is in many ways a modernization of the oldest and (many say) outdated school of magic. But then again, those with surpassing disdain for the marvelous art are often those most at its mercy, for they believe only what their eyes and ears tell them. And as any student of imachination could tell you, your eyes and ears lie to you all the time...

Imachination often involves using material which naturally distorts sensory information to more easily mold an illusion. Prisms to refract light, exotic perfumes and spices, and musical instruments are all common aids to imachination. Any such equipment counts as a masterwork item, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Bluff check made to prepare an imachinary principle. The Full Moon Cello is a legendary instrument which is said to weave colours and sounds together in mysterious ways when played.

Key Skill: Bluff


IMCH 101: Intro to Imachination
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle causes a field of space to give off sensory elements that are not actually there. As part of this principle, you make a Bluff check and target an immobile point in space or an object or creature which will serve as the centre of the effect. This is known as the spatial reference. The reference point gives off a bubble-shaped field of radius 5ft. which has an illusory component to it.

Illusions created with this principle work differently than normal illusions (although please bear in mind that for the rest of this discipline whenever I mention 'illusion' I'm talking about the illusions generated by these principles). They do not offer saving throws to disbelieve them just by interacting with them. Instead, you are allowed a sensory check whenever something about the illusion is unbelievable for some reason. The sensory check is a skill check against a DC of the Bluff check made when this principle was first prepared. The particular skill to use is specified in the sensory output list.

If the sensory check is prompted by an illusion which seems to be missing a sensory component you would normally expect it to have, such as a painting that you can see but not feel, this is called a sensory mismatch. You can make (or the DM will make for you) a skill check against every sensory component present in the illusion, with a +5 bonus on the check for every component that is missing. You gain a +10 bonus on the check for every component which is actually mismatched, which means you are receiving contradictory information (for example, a beverage that tastes like apple juice but smells like rhino urine). You can only make one skill check per day per sensory component present in the illusion.

If the sensory check is prompted by an impossible scenario that you sense, such as a solid wall which a thrown rock goes through, this is called a fundamental disconnect. You can immediately make (or the DM will make for you) a skill check against the unbelievable sensory output with a +20 bonus. You can make as many kinds of checks against the same illusion as you like, but each must have a different triggering event.

Once an illusion is disbelieved, it's sort of like one of those optical illusion 3D puzzles from the 90's. Once you know the trick to it, it's like a switch flips in your head and you can see through it at will. As a free action someone who knows the truth of the illusion can choose to believe or disbelieve the illusion, whichever is more convenient to them at the time. When you disbelieve an illusion, you can still sense a harmless translucent overlay (or echo, or faint whiff...) of it, allowing you to sense what it is and what it's doing.

Illusions can not actually harm people. If for any reason they seem to hurt people or cause a condition that hurts them, or makes them think they're being hurt, they only take nonlethal damage, and then only until they disbelieve the illusion, at which point they laugh it off. That being said, it's entirely possible for an illusion to lead someone to actually hurt themselves, such as an illusionary covering over a pit of lava.

Illusions by default only have one sensory output, but by preparing this principle multiple times you can add extra senses. However, that can end up taking a while for big bubble effects, since you have to prepare it the same number of times for the appropriate size bubble for each sense. So to make things simpler, for every extra sense you want to tack on inside the field, add +30 minutes to each preparation of this principle. You use the same Bluff check for every sensory output in an illusion.

Any illusion created has a sense output, a form, and a function. You choose all three of these components when you first prepare this principle. This principle allows you to make illusions with the following form:

Additive: An additive form illusion generates a sensory output on top of the sensory output normally coming from the bubble. This could be adding a smell that wasn't there previously, making it feel like there is a wall in the field, or anything else you can imagine. However, it does not remove any sensory component that already existed in the field. So while you could create the image of a hippo, you can't remove the image of the emu that is actually in the space (although you could place the image of the hippo overtop of the emu if you like).

This principle also allows you to make illusions with the following function:

Static: A static function illusion creates an unmoving, unchanging sensory output. It doesn't change, either with response to stimuli or to your commands after being constructed. They can be mobile if fixed to a spatial reference that is moving, but they do not move themselves. For example, a visual illusion of a hippo fixed to an arrow being loosed would seem like an unmoving and nonresponsive hippopotamus was being shot through the air.

Lastly, when you prepare this principle, you must select one of the following senses to target:

Auditory: An auditory illusion targets the sense of hearing. It's opposed by a Listen check. Auditory illusions can replicate any kind of sound you can imagine, which seems to be emanating from any point inside the field that you like. Trying to replicate someone's voice or a specific sound requires some kind of check like normal, or something like the mimicry ability (see the kenku racial features for more details). Noises can be pretty damn loud, but not loud enough to cause actual hearing impairment, deafness, headaches, sonic damage, or to shatter glass or crystal. Static examples of auditory illusions could be a looped conversation or message, a repeating noise, and so on. An example of a real-life auditory illusion is the condition of tinnitus.
Gustatory: A gustatory illusion targets the sense of taste. It's opposed by a Survival check. Gustatory illusions can create any combination of salty, sour, bitter, savoury, or sweet taste sensations in a food which is within the field. This kind of illusion is usually best used when fixed on the food itself as a reference point, since it's pretty useless if the food leaves the area of effect. If you try to replicate a particular taste you are not familiar with, anyone who is familiar with it gets an automatic chance for a fundamental disconnect when they taste it for the first time. An example of a real-life gustatory illusion is a hot pepper.
Olfactory: An olfactory illusion targets the sense of smell. It's opposed by a Survival check. Anyone without the scent special ability is termed scent-dumb, and takes a -20 penalty on Survival checks against an olfactory illusion (seriously, the difference between a human and a dog smelling things is intense). An olfactory illusion works much the same as a gustatory illusion, except without the five particular components. In general your best bet is to specify particular odors that the area smells like, or mimic the smell of a particular person, creature, location, object, or so on. If you yourself don't have the scent special ability, it's assumed that you're not familiar with any scent you create, as described in the gustatory illusion section. An example of a real-life olfactory illusion is the condition of phantosmia.
Tactile: A tactile illusion targets the sense of touch, and this is where stuff starts to get a little weird. It's opposed by a Survival check. A tactile illusion makes it feel like there's something in the field of the illusion that is not actually there. Anyone who believes the illusion, for all intents and purposes, treats the tactile component as if it were an actual object. However, it's important to note that this illusion is not actually there. You cannot walk across an illusionary bridge or up illusionary stairs, because it will not actually support weight. But someone who believes that it is real will actually feel like the stairs or the bridge is there right up until they actually try to put their weight on it. For example, someone who believes in an illusionary wall can push against it, lean on it, feel detail in it, all without even generating a disbelief check of any kind, because their own muscles and nerves are lying to them about what's actually there. Their body is actually supporting itself when they lean on the illusion. It's only if they try to jump through the wall, throw a rock through, or anything else that can't be cheated by misfiring neurons, that they will get a chance to disbelieve it. If you don't see the distinction right away, that's okay. This kind of illusion is really strange in a lot of ways, but also incredibly potent, since the victim's own body does the work of convincing them for you. An example of a real-life tactile illusions is the cutaneous saltation effect.
Visual: A visual illusion targets the sense of sight. It's opposed by a Spot check. Visual illusions are some of the most common and well-known illusions, and for the most part it's the same here. You generate the image of something that doesn't actually exist. If you try to replicate something instead of just making it up, you'll probably have to make some kind of additional Bluff or Forgery or Knowledge or Disguise check like normal in order to show you know your stuff. I wish I could be more specific, but visual illusions are probably the most versatile overall, and there are a million different things you could do with them. In general, if you have to make a secondary skill check for authenticity, anyone with experience with the thing being illusioneered should be able to make an opposing skill check for a one-time chance at a fundamental disconnect. An example of a real-life visual illusion is a rainbow.

Any further principles you learn which augment these three lists can be mixed together when making illusions.

If you try to tether an illusion to an unwilling target, they are allowed a Will saving throw to resist it at the end of the preparation. The Will DC is 10 + 5 for every IMCH principle you know.


IMCH 267: Unbound Expectations
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: IMCH 101, Bluff 8 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like IMCH 101, except that it provides you with two additional forms for your illusions:

Ablative: An ablative form illusion removes a sensory output which already exists in the field of effect. Depending on the sense used, this could be either removing everything of that sensory output (such as every smell in the area) or particular parts or components of that sensory output (such as removing the taste of almonds from a cup of tea). Static ablative illusions can be a little tricky, and a lot of the time end of being just fields where things become invisible or silenced or whatever when they go inside of them. That being said, more subtle erasures are usually more effective.
Differential: A differential form illusion alters a sensory output that already exists in the field of the effect. These are some of the most advanced illusions, because they can actually cause subtle variations in the sense, not just blunt extra sensations or removed sensations. For example, a differential gustative illusion could cause all tea in the area to taste spicier than normal, or for someone to seem somewhat taller than they actually are. If you're trying to work out when something is additive, ablative, or differential, just remember that differential illusions usually work with what's there and modify it, rather than just inventing or deleting things whole-cloth.


IMCH 295: Imperfect Images [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: IMCH 101, Bluff 8 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like IMCH 101, except that it provides you with additional functions for your illusions:

Adaptive: An adaptive function illusion is much like a static illusion, except that it adapts to its surroundings in the same way as something real that it is based on. For example, this can create the image of grass which bends when someone steps on it, or blows in the wind, or which turns brown in the autumn. This doesn't provide any kind of intelligence or interactivity to the illusion, just an added layer of realness.
Programmed: A programmed function illusion can be either static or adaptive in nature, but it also has explicit programming built into it as well as any number of triggers for the behaviour. For example, this can generate auditory illusions which interact with people speaking to it, illusionary people who can cook an illusionary meal at the request of a real person, and so on. This is entirely a set of triggers and responses which are built into the illusion when you first construct it.
Controlled: A controlled function illusion is neither static nor adaptive, but instead changes sensory outputs based on the direction of someone who is either standing at the centre of the effect or who is holding an object that the spatial reference is tied to (or who is themselves the spatial reference). At will, as a free action, the controller can modify the sensory output of the illusion. They cannot change the actual sense targetted or the form of the illusion, and they cannot even change the fundamental nature of it (although this is a murky area at best rules-wise, again because of the freeform nature of illusions). In general, controlling an illusion allows someone to control its responses personally, allowing them to decide how the illusion responds to the environment and outside stimuli.


IMCH 334: Nonsensical Senses
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any two IMCH principles, Bluff 15 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like IMCH 101, except that it provides you with obscure new sensory outputs for your illusions:

Mental: A mental illusion targets the sense of mindsight. It's opposed by a Concentration check. Anyone without the mindsight special ability doesn't even recognise that this sensory component is present, and thus doesn't interact with it in any way. A mental illusion allows you to generate the sensation that there are living intelligent people present in the field of the illusion. These false intelligent creatures can be shaped to seem to be whatever race, class, or alignment you like. They also seem to be present for any effect that would detect their thoughts, which you set when you first invent them.
Thermal: A thermal illusion targets the sense of thermoreception. It's opposed by a Survival check. Thermal illusions can make something feel hot, cold, tepid, or anything in between. This includes anything like objects, creatures in the field, the air itself, or really whatever you can imagine. It doesn't actually change the temperature, but it can make people think that something is warmer or colder than it actually is.
Vestibular: A vestibular illusion targets the sense of equilibrioception. It's opposed by a Balance check. The stability special ability grants its bonus to skill checks to detect the false nature of a vestibular illusion. Vestibular illusions interact with the sensations of ascension or descension, like in an elevator. Alternatively, they can make people in the field feel like they are turning, accelerating, or moving in any direction the illusion dictates. Unlike many sensory outputs, vestibular illusions only exist in the minds of people who are actually in the field of effect. Something like a visual illusion can only create visual constructs that are in the field, but those constructs can be seen from far away. A vestibular illusion only exists in the minds of people who are actually inside of the illusion bubble.
Vibratory: A vibratory illusion targets the sense of tremorsense. It's opposed by a Survival check. Anyone without the tremorsense special ability doesn't even recognise that this sensory component is present, and thus doesn't interact with it in any way. A vibratory illusion can make it seem like any kind of false sensory output you like which would normally be detectable to tremorsense is in fact in the field of the illusion. Vibratory illusions typically must be of something in contact with the ground or a nearby object in order to send the illusionary vibrations through the medium.


IMCH 388: Glamourous Gramarie [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three IMCH principles, Bluff 15 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like IMCH 101, except that it creates illusions that are so realistic that people can convince themselves that they're actually being hurt. As they say, lit on imaginary fire is still lit on fire. Illusions you create can now actually bestow the following conditions until the illusionary nature of them is realised: ability damaged, ability drained, blinded, blown away, checked, confused, cowering, dazed, dazzled, deafened, energy drained, entangled, exhausted, fascinated, fatigued, frightened, knocked down, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, petrified (yes, really, although they don't actually turn to stone; they just think they did), shaken, sickened, staggered, and stunned. For all intents and purposes they will act as if they actually had these conditions until they are no longer sensing the illusion or they realise its illusionary nature. Damage these conditions or your illusions in general create is now real damage, as the victim's body makes it real for them.

One of the stranger things about this principle is that, quite literally, it's all in your head. So while an illusion really can make you think you're dying of lead poisoning, that only works if you know that lead is poisonous in the first place. In this instance, it's very much a case of what you do know can hurt you. Illusions make you sense something that isn't actually there, but unless you know what the shape of the illusion is, you can't really be expected to know that it can hurt you. It's not reasonable at all to assume that everybody in the game setting is intimately familiar with the capabilities of every monster and can identify them by sight, any more than they should be expected to know toxic chemicals from their smell.

In general, whenever this becomes an issue (that is, whenever the effects of an illusion depend on the subject knowing a piece of trivia), the DM should decide how obscure the knowledge is based on an appropriate Knowledge skill. Recall that really obvious facts typically have a Knowledge DC of 10, basic questions have a DC of 15, and really tough questions have a DC of 20-30. To determine if the subject knows the fact necessary to complete the illusion, have them take 10 on the appropriate Knowledge skill (even untrained) as a sort of 'common sense' check. This is to determine their off-the-cuff knowledge about the subject, and whether they are familiar enough with it to be able to prey on their expectations. Which is, of course, the essence of illusion.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:45 PM
Kaleidomantics

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs41/f/2009/006/f/c/Illusion_by_k_tim.jpg
Image credit k-tim (http://k-tim.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

"The colour of truth is grey."

Being one of the most useful disciplines for any kind of structural engineering project, kaleidomantics allows the selective filtration of external factors from an area. By careful application and construction of a filter, many seemingly impossible projects become not only possible, but simple. Kaleidomantic filters are much like a cross between a wall of force and a mundane sieve, except that the things they filter out are much more bizarre and intriguing than spaghetti.

Kaleidomantics involves the use of various kinds of dyes and pigments to dilute and purify various hues. Cloth of vibrant colour is exceptionally useful to create a filter, as some of the essence of the colour is drawn from the fibres of the specimen to reinforce the barrier. Any such gear counts as masterwork, and thus provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Spot check made to prepare a kaleidomantic principle. There is a legendary fabric known as the Technicolor Dreamcloth, which is exceptionally powerful for use in the construction of kaleidomantic filters.

Key Skill: Spot


KALD 101: Intro to Kaleidomantics
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle creates a kaleidomantic filter, which is a magical barrier that excludes an external factor. A filter acts exactly like a wall of force (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wallOfForce.htm), except that, well, it's not made of force. Kaleidomantic filters are typically 1/16 of an inch thick, and can take any 2D shape, oriented in space however you like. As part of this principle you make a Spot check, which determines the durability of your filter.

Every time you prepare this principle you can add area to the filter. Each preparation gives you 25 square feet, although this can be laid out however you like. However, every part of the filter must be connected, and the surface of the filter must be at least 1/16 of an inch thick at all points.

Any given filter has one particular factor which is excluded from entry, and one particular vulnerability. To that factor alone the filter acts like a full-on wall of force, while to literally everything else the filter remains completely permeable. Each filter excludes one particular factor, although you can set up more than one filter over the same area in space; they can even intersect.

A kaleidomantic filter is located in space based on a reference point that you set when you prepare this principle. You can also base it on an item or a creature, which allows it to be moved later. Once established, a filter is permanent unless it's hit by it's vulnerability. A filter can be disassembled by striking the filter with its particular vulnerability, as noted in the entry.

If a kaleidomantic filter is fixed to something which then rotates, the filter rotates through space as well. It keeps the same orientation to the reference point established at preparation. Kaleidomantic filters also can interact with other filters of the same colour; they cannot pass through each other.

If a moving kaleidomantic filter is opposed in its movement by some agent, this works exactly like trying to push a solid object (if it's moving fast enough, it can also deal damage as a projectile). If the agent is pushing against the movement of the filter, there is an opposed Strength check between the person (hereafter known as the controller) moving the filter (by moving the object it is fixed to or by having the filter fixed to themselves) and the person being pushed. If the controller succeeds, they can make an immediate bull rush check using the size category modifier of the filter and their own Strength modifier in order to push the agent in the direction they like. If the agent succeeds on the Strength check, they can move the filter based on their carrying capacity (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/carryingCapacity.htm), treating the filter as weightless and moving whatever it's attached to along with it until the start of the controller's next turn.

On the other hand, a single filter fixed in space can support as much weight as an immovable rod (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rods.htm#immovableRod), and can be moved in the same way. Every additional preparation beyond the first adds 2,000 pounds of support to the filter.

If you try to tether a filter to an unwilling target, they are allowed a Will saving throw to resist it at the end of the preparation. The Will DC is 10 + 5 for every KALD principle you know.

The first filters typically taught are the red and orange filters, which are useful for a broad range of applications:

Red: A red filter excludes heat. Changes in temperature or external sources of hot or cold do not pass through the filter or have any effect on the temperature of the other side. Any physical objects which move through a red filter which are warmer than the ambient temperature on the other side have their temperature reduced to match the temperature on the other side of the filter. Living creatures cannot have their internal temperatures forcibly changed by this effect, but all inanimate material is subject to the filtration. A red filter is vulnerable to extremely low temperatures. If it absorbs a total amount of cold damage equal to the Spot check, it collapses.
Yellow: A yellow filter excludes solid stone and metal. Metals dissolved in a liquid can move through, but any of these natural materials in the solid phase are blocked from passage. This filter cannot be established so that it intersects solid stone or metal; any attempt to do so fails. A yellow filter is vulnerable to disintegrating effects. Any effect which would destroy inanimate matter or which specify that they destroy a corpse can cause the filter to collapse. A yellow filter's AC against a disintegrate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/disintegrate.htm) effect is equal to the Spot check.


KALD 207: Unearthly Colours
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: KALD 101, Spot 8 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like KALD 101, except that you learn two new colours which are important for large-scale civil engineering projects:

Blue: A blue filter excludes water. Water which is contained in some other container or body can be carried through, but freeflowing water cannot pass through the filter. If the water is mixed with something else or has something dissolved in it, it is still blocked by the filter up until it has 1000 parts per million of impurities (that is, 1 part other agent for every 1000 parts water). A blue filter is vulnerable to force effects. The filter collapses if it sustains a total amount of damage equal to the Spot check from effects that are specifically made of force or which specifically strike incorporeal creatures.
Orange: An orange filter excludes loose gases. Gases which are inside of something else can be carried through the filter (such as the oxygen in someone's lungs), but anything in the gaseous phase cannot of its own accord pass through the barrier. An orange filter is vulnerable to strong winds. Whenever it is struck by winds with a speed in mph exceeding the Spot check, it collapses.


KALD 238: Extrareal Hues [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: KALD 101, Spot 8 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like KALD 101, except that you learn two new colours which are especially useful for handling dangerous substances:

Green: A green filter excludes poisons. Poisonous vapours and the like cannot pass through the filter, and liquid poisons which are carried through are purified of toxins and poisons. Agents which are eliminated in this way typically leave a harmless gritty residue on the surface of the filter. Poisons inside of creatures which are vital for survival are unaffected, but all natural poisons which are used as part of a special attack or attack routine are rendered harmless until the body replaces them (typically half an hour or more). A green filter is vulnerable to extradimensional effects. It collapses if an extradimensional space with a volume in cubic-ft. of at least the Spot check is established inside of, or moved through, the filter.
Indigo: An indigo filter excludes acids and bases. Any agent with a pH of lower than 6 or greater than 8 cannot of its own accord pass through the filter. Again, an exception is made for acids or bases which are inside of a living creature and necessary for survival. However, acids and bases inside of an artificial container which are carried through have the pH pushed to 6 or 8, whichever is closer to its current acidity (this typically leaves the substance incapable of causing acid damage). An indigo filter is vulnerable to sunlight. It collapses in an area of full daylight, or when it sustains a total amount of damage from effects which specifically mention sunlight or radiance equal to the Spot check.


KALD 347: Superlunar Pigments
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any two KALD principles, Spot 15 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like KALD 101, except that you learn the final filter, which has some rather obscure applications:

Violet: A violet filter excludes living things. Anything which is alive cannot pass through the filter, although things which were previously alive pass through with no problem. This blocks the undead, but allows the passage of artificial constructs such as golems, which has led to some interesting ethical, legal, and theological debates. This filter cannot be established to intersect a living creature; any attempt to do so fails. A violet filter is vulnerable to antitheurgical effects. If any dispelling or antimagic effect is used against the filter, the caster level is tested against a DC of 5 + 5 for every KALD principle you knew when you prepared this principle (you can prepare this principle again later to update the DC). Success for the dispeller indicates that the filter collapses.


KALD 379: Imperceptible Shades [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three KALD principles, Spot 15 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

When I said that was the final filter, I was lying. This is the super-secret actual final filter. This principle otherwise works like KALD 101.

Black: A black filter excludes information. For all intents and purposes, whatever happens on one side of the filter is literally unknowable from the other side. It blocks every traditional sense, as well as any other means of gaining information about what's going on on the other side of it. Supernatural senses, magical attempts to perceive, scry, or otherwise circumvent the barrier, all fail. Effects that rely on retrieving information from the other side of filter, such as a summon monster (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonMonsterI.htm) effect, also fail if the caster is enclosed by black filters. Even deities attempting to pierce the veil with a salient divine ability must make a Will save against the key skill check roll of the filter in order to perceive beyond it. Essentially, all sensory information of any kind is blocked from passage. Physical means of passing through the filter still work perfectly well, and brains can pass through a Black filter with no ill effects. However, sensory information cannot pass beyond the boundary of the effect. The quantum mechanical ramifications of this I'll leave up to your group to decide. A black filter is vulnerable to certain prismatic effects. It collapses if a prismatic effect is used on it when the result rolled for the colour of the effect results in 'roll twice more'.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:47 PM
Yggdratecture

http://th00.deviantart.net/fs32/PRE/i/2008/198/2/3/Portal_by_arsenixc.jpg
Image credit arsenixc (http://arsenixc.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

"But there's a world beyond what we can see and touch, and that world lives by its own laws. What may be impossible in this very ordinary world is very possible there, and sometimes the boundaries between the two worlds disappear, and then who can say what is possible and impossible?"

The simple knowledge that there are infinite Planes and spaces beyond the world we perceive has massive ramifications on almost every field of study. From the philosophical implications to the simple physical construction of the cosmos, planar cosmology has a very tangible impact on those within it. Yggdratecture is, broadly speaking, the study of space and time. And in true dungeoneering spirit, what can be studied can be twisted to your advantage. This discipline teaches how to shape and reshape space-time into an image you find more suitable.

Yggdratecture is a non-linear discipline, and is often one of the most difficult to wrap one's mind around. It's almost a requirement to have at hand at least one mathematical textbook on multi-dimensional space-time. Abstruse physical objects can also be a great aid to capturing the essence of warped space, such as 6-dimensional mφbius strips, or boxes which only have a single surface. Any reference like the counts as a masterwork piece of equipment, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Forgery check made to prepare an yggdratectural principle. Gabriel's Horn is a legendary multidimensional device purportedly created by an archangel to combat the planar incursions of the forces of Baator.

Key Skill: Forgery


YGGD 101: Intro to Yggdratecture
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle creates an extradimensional bulge, which is a small space that is bigger on the inside than the outside. This is known as a semi-space. A semi-space is tethered to the Plane on which it is created, and can only be accessed from there. A semi-space connects to its home Plane through a portal with a radius no smaller than 1/16" and no larger than the width of the space itself. This decision is made when the semi-space is first prepared, and can be changed by anyone touching the portal from the inside. A semi-space cannot be completely closed, or it disappears permanently. Material inside of the space at the time is ejected into its home Plane.

A semi-space requires a spatial reference as to its location on the home Plane. This can either be a fixed point in space, or an object or creature. For example, it could be tied to a bag such that the opening of the bag is the same as the opening of the portal, and moving the bag moves the entrance to the semi-space. Alternatively, the portal could be fixed in space in a chosen orientation. Weight inside of a semi-space is not counted, but anything that protrudes from the portal has weight. This weight is applied to whatever the portal is tethered to (a creature or an object), adding to its own encumbrance. If a portal is instead fixed to a point in space, it supports protruding weight like an immovable rod (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rods.htm). Every further preparation of this principle can add 2,000 lbs of carrying capacity to a portal fixed in space. If it is torn from its reference with a Strength check or from overburden, a semi-space collapses permanently.

A semi-space can be at most 2ft. by 2ft. by 2ft. Unlike most principles, you cannot prepare this principle multiple times in order to create larger spaces. As part of this principle you make a Forgery check, which determines the DC for Spot checks to notice the portal in space.

A semi-space portal is opaque from the back-end (it looks like a sheet of static), and the opening can be used to provide concealment (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/combatModifiers.htm#Concealment) based on its size. It provides partial concealment (20% miss chance) to a creature the size of the portal or up to one size category larger. Creatures smaller than the portal can use it for total concealment (50% miss chance). Depending on the orientation in space, a portal can also provide basic cover (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/combatModifiers.htm#Cover). However, any effect which misses a target because of an open portal instead deals damage to the space itself. A semi-space also takes damage from area effects such as a fireball (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/fireball.htm) when there is an open portal in the area of effect. A semi-space is always treated as failing Reflex saves against area effects. A space has effective hit points equal to the Forgery check made to create it, and collapses permanently when it sustains this much damage. A semi-space can be repaired by preparing this principle again on it, in which case the new Forgery check sets the amount of effective hit points it has.

A semi-space which collapses closes from access and shunts all matter inside of it into the nearest space to its opening on the Plane on which it was tethered. Bubbles and other area effects which are created on one side of a portal do not pass through the portal to the space on the other side. In order to affect the area on the other side of the portal, whatever is causing that effect must be inside the other space. This effectively means that the area effect from, for example, an arcanodynamic transformer, doesn't pass beyond the boundaries of the portal, and the transformer must be more than 50% on whatever side of the portal the bubble is going to take effect on.

If you try to tether a space to an unwilling target, they are allowed a Will saving throw to resist it at the end of the preparation. The Will DC is 10 + 5 for every YGGD principle you know.


YGGD 212: Polarcane Geometry
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: YGGD 101, Forgery 8 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like YGGD 101, but with some special exceptions. First of all, instead of creating a semi-space, it creates a bulge in the home Plane known as a flux. This takes the form of a bubble-shaped field of radius 5ft. that has different rules than the normal space on the Plane. Unlike YGGD 101, you can prepare this principle multiple times as normal for a bubble in order to make a larger flux. A flux is tethered, like a semi-space, either to a physical object which is at the centre of the flux (and thus can be moved around) or to an arbitrary point in space from which the flux permanently radiates. This decision must be made when the principle is first prepared.

Polarcane fluxes have special properties. You can choose one of the following flux properties to occur inside of the space:

Gravity: This kind of polarcane flux has different gravity than normal. Inside of the bubble, gravity moves in a different direction than normal. You can set the direction of gravity when you first prepare the principle, and it can also be changed by anyone touching the center of the flux or the object to which it is tethered as a standard action. If you prefer, you can lock the gravity when you first prepare the flux, so that it cannot be changed later. Otherwise, treat this like a reverse gravity (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/reverseGravity.htm) effect, except with gravity pointing in the relevant direction. The Reflex save DC to grab something is equal to the Forgery check of the flux.
Magnetic: This kind of polarcane flux has special magnetic properties associated with it. As part of this principle you make a Forgery check, like with YGGD 101. This check determines how powerful the push or pull of the special magnetic forces in the flux are. When you prepare the flux, you can decide whether it is an attractive flux or a repellent flux. Whenever magnetic or ferrous metal objects (or creatures) enter into the flux, they are immediately subject to the magnetic force. This effect is equivalent to a bull rush, either directly towards or away from the centre of the flux. The effective attack roll for the bull rush is equal to the Forgery check of the flux. Objects and creatures which start their turn inside of the flux are immediately subject to another magnetic bull rush. If obstacles prevent them from completing the forced movement, they take damage as if from falling the same distance. Unattended objects are treated as taking 10 on their 'opposed' Strength checks for a magnetic bull rush, and the flux is treated as being Medium in size, although it can affect any sized object or creature. Anyone touching the center of the flux or the object to which it is tethered can change the direction of the magnetic force as a standard action. If you prefer, you can lock the direction of the magnetism when you first prepare the flux, so that it cannot be changed later.


YGGD 241: Incongruous Pathways [Specialist Only]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: YGGD 101, Forgery 8 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like YGGD 101, but with some special exceptions. The semi-spaces you create with this principle can be closed from the inside, causing the portal to disappear from sight on the home Plane. In addition, you can prepare this principle successively up to eight times on a single space, allowing for a semi-space with a maximum volume of 64 cubic ft. (eight 2ft. x 2ft. x 2ft. cubes). Finally, whenever you prepare this principle you can choose to join the semi-space you are creating with another semi-space you've made in the past. This creates a second, connecting portal inside of each semi-space which exits into the other semi-space. Any particular semi-space can only be connected to two other semi-spaces, and you cannot remove a connection once it has been made.

If you have the ability to create a flux, you can choose to have a special flux property occur inside of semi-spaces you create, at your option when you first prepare it.


YGGD 353: Uncanny Cosmology
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any two YGGD principles, Forgery 15 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like YGGD 101, but with some special exceptions. You can successively prepare this principle as many times as you like, allowing you to make spaces which are as large as you have time to build. When you prepare this principle, you can also choose to separate it from its tethered Plane, turning it into a true demiplane. If you're building a demiplane instead of a semi-space, every preparation of this principle requires twice the normal time. However, you get to set the planar traits of the demiplane, including the morphic (excluding sentient morphic), elemental and energy, alignment, and magic traits. You cannot change the time trait of your demiplane. Any relevant decisions about the traits of your demiplane are made with the first preparation of this principle, and cannot be changed afterwards. A demiplane continues to exist if it is closed off from the Plane it is tethered to; the portal can be reopened, but only to the same Plane it is tethered to. Otherwise, the demiplane can be accessed with normal planar travel.

A demiplane's fabric is not as fragile as that of a semi-space, and it cannot be destroyed from damage.

If you know YGGD 212, you can apply a special flux property to your demi-plane when you prepare it. You can also choose to shape your demiplane like a bubble. Instead of a flux property, you can choose to set a gravity trait on a demiplane you create.

If you know YGGD 241, you can also connect semi-spaces to a demiplane. Unlike a normal semi-space, any number of semi-spaces can be connected to a single demiplane. You can also connect multiple demiplanes together.


YGGD 371: Abstruse Causality [Specialist Only]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three YGGD principles including YGGD 353, Forgery 15 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like YGGD 353, except it allows you to set the time trait of any demiplane you create. If you have already created a demiplane before learning this principle, you can retroactively set a time trait with a single preparation. Time traits that you can set include:

Double Time: For every round that passes on the Material Plane, two rounds pass on this demiplane.
Erratic Time: Time randomly slows down and speeds up on this demiplane, as described here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/planes.htm#erraticTime).
Normal Time: Time on this demiplane flows the same way as on the Material Plane.
Slow Time: For every round that passes on this demiplane, two rounds pass on the Material Plane.
Timeless Magic: This demiplane is timeless with respect to magic. All spells cast with noninstantaneous duration are permanent until dispelled.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:48 PM
Prestige Classes

Prestige classes are a little interesting in a gramarie setting, because of the strange relationship gramarists have with the technology level of the setting. Each of these prestige classes has special powers and perks of gramarie available to them, but these boons aren't generally available to the market or society as a whole. Prestige classes are prestigious, and the implication behind that is that they're generally unique in a campaign setting. These are avenues of focused learning that specific characters and villains might explore, but which aren't generally available to the world itself. The ramifications of this are that you can't normally purchase or commission something that requires a unique discovery from one of these prestige classes; these special bonuses and abilities are for personal use by those that make it into the class.

Another question people might ask, is, "why are these classes so awesome?". It's absolutely true that most of these represent a straight-up power-up for the gramarist. It's sort of like the basic wizard class. A very simple core class, with a lot of possible options to branch out into. These prestige classes might feel busy, but all it is is giving gramarists interesting things to do while still giving them new directions for their gramarie, too.


The Contractor

"Let's make a deal."

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/032/2/6/Devil__s_deal_by_MamonnA.jpg
Image credit MamonnA (http://mamonna.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

Power comes in many shapes and sizes, but perhaps the most underrated and most useful of all is the power of persuasion. Convincing other people to do your work for you is way better than actually having to learn to do stuff yourself. Gramarists who discover this tend to delve into more exotic ways of getting people to do stuff for them, and those who delve deep enough and dark enough might become contractors. Contractors are gramarists who have reached an agreement with the powers of the Lower Planes to requisition fiendish labourers and Outside help. Beyond these terms, contractors also learn to spread their talent for coercion to the great forces beyond the cosmos, the vestiges that lie between Planes. A contractor is a master of manipulation, deception, and above all else, control.

Requirements: To become a contractor you must meet all of the following requirements.
Feats: Negotiator
Gramarie: Any two ALCH principles
Skills: Bluff 8 ranks, Diplomacy 10 ranks, Knowledge (the Planes) 3 ranks
Special: Must make contact with a high-ranking entity from the Lower Planes
Specialization: Must be specialized in Alchemetry

Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Class Skills: The contractor's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Contractor
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Principles|
Maximum Vestige Level|
Soul Binding

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Fiendish license, soul binding|
+0|
1|
1

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Alchemastery|
+1|
2|
1

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|–|
+2|
3|
1

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Alchemastery|
+3|
4|
1

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|–|
+3|
4|
2

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Alchemastery|
+4|
5|
2

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Doctorate principles|
+5|
6|
2

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6|Alchemastery|
+6|
7|
2

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6|–|
+6|
7|
3

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Alchemastery, solomon's key|
+7|
8|
3

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the contractor.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a contractor, you gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Fiendish License (Ex): As a contractor, you have a fiendish license to do business on the Lower Planes, which gives you some precedent and prestige in negotiations with Outsiders from those regions. Your fiendish license is an actual piece of ID that you need to carry on you whenever you want to make use of any of the abilities it authorizes. You gain various abilities based on your fiendish rank, which is the sum of your class level and your Charisma modifier. Only permanent changes to your Charisma result in an increase in your fiendish rank. This rank is also what various baatezu can detect your rank as, as described in Fiendish Codex II.

{table=head]Fiendish Rank|Licensed Ability
1|Silver Tongue
2|Faust's Enclosure
4|Negotiation
6|Overseer
7|Outside Insurance
8|Talented Negotiator
10|SOP
12|Expert Negotiator
13|Not in it for the Money
16|Grand Negotiator
19|Indentured Service[/table]

Silver Tongue: Your dealings with the denizens of the Lower Planes have granted you some insight into their manipulation and deal-making techniques. You gain an unholy bonus to Diplomacy and straight-up Charisma checks equal to half your class level, and this bonus is doubled against Good-aligned creatures.
Faust's Enclosure: To conduct a deal you need to lay down certain ground rules, which is difficult to do when people can just teleport away from you. At will you can use magic circle against evil (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicCircleAgainstEvil.htm) and dimensional anchor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/dimensionalAnchor.htm) effects as spell-like abilities. Your caster level for these effects is equal to your Hit Dice.
Negotiation: You've been authorized to contract fiends for assignment in the Material Plane. You can use a lesser planar binding (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/planarBindingLesser.htm) effect at will as a spell-like ability and with a caster level equal to your Hit Dice. You can only call Outsiders with the Evil subtype with this binding, and you gain a +3 bonus on the Charisma check to compel them to do your bidding if the task or assignment furthers the aims of your fiendish patron.
Overseer: It's important to make sure that a job gets done and done well. You can include a clause in your bindings that allows managerial oversight. If you beat the opposed Charisma check on your negotiation ability by at least 5, you can initiate a sense link (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/senseLink.htm) effect with the fiend at will. Your manifester level for this effect is equal to your Hit Dice. Fot every 4 ranks beyond 6, you can link to an additional sense simultaneously.
Outside Insurance: It always pays to have insurance. If you beat the opposed Charisma check on your negotiation ability by 10 or more, you can place the fiend on retainer as insurance. The fiend is dismissed from immediate service, and they can keep any payment you've offered them. However, if a specific set of circumstances occurs (such as your death, but really anything that's specified during the binding) they are placed under a geas (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/geasQuest.htm) to follow a specific set of instructions determined during the negotiation. Once they have fulfilled the instructions, they are released from the geas and the transaction is complete.
Talented Negotiator: The Hit Die limit for your negotiation ability increases to 12 HD.
SOP: It's standard procedure to have the personal identification of any fiendish employee on file. If you beat the opposed Charisma check during your negotiation ability by 5 or more, the fiend is obliged to give you their name. If you beat the check by 15 or more, they are compelled to tell you their truename, if they know it.
Expert Negotiator: The Hit Die limit for your negotiation ability increases to 18 HD.
Not in it for the Money: You can now pay for service in a currency that fiends actually care about: souls. Instead of money or gold, you gain a bonus on the Charisma check for your negotiation ability if you present the fiend with a soul (trapped such as with a trap the soul (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trapTheSoul.htm) effect) equal to +1 for every 6 Hit Dice of the trapped soul. Speaking of which, you're now authorized to collect souls. Once per day per point of your Charisma modifier, you can use a trap the soul (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trapTheSoul.htm) effect as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your Hit Dice.
Grand Negotiator: The Hit Die limit for your negotiation ability increases to your ranks in Diplomacy (if that would be greater than 18).
Indentured Service: There's no service like continual service. For every 10 points you beat the opposed Charisma check of a negotiation by, the fiend is compelled to assist you for one additional task beyond the first. Extra tasks are determined after the initial roll, and can be only as hazardous or dangerous to the fiend as the initial task.

Soul Binding (Su): Your powers of negotiation are not just limited to fiends and atomic spirits. They extend into the furthest reach of the cosmos, and the trapped spirits that reside there. You can contact a vestige and make a pact with it. At 1st level, you can make a pact with only one vestige, but you can make a pact with another simultaneous vestige at your 5th and 9th class levels. You must complete the summoning and binding process with each vestige separately, so that each has its normal chance to influence you. You bear the physical sign of binding of each one. Unlike most binders, your effective binder level (EBL) does not determine your maximum vestige rank; instead, refer to the class table. Your EBL is equal to your fiendish license rank, and determines all other functions related to binding vestiges. If the vestige you are trying to contact is of a higher level than your indicated maximum, you cannot summon it.

To contact a vestige, you must draw its unique seal visibly on a surface, making the image at least 5ft. across. Drawing a seal requires you to mark a surface, and 1 minute of concentration. A seal not used within 1 minute of its drawing loses all potency, and must be redrawn. Some vestiges also have special requirements for contact, as noted in their entries. Once you have drawn the seal, you must perform a ritual calling of the vestige as a full-round action, which fails if you cannot be heard. An image of the vestige appears after this calling, and disappears 1 round after you finish addressing it.

To make a pact with a vestige you must make a binding check, which for you uses a check of 1d20 + your class level + your Cha modifier (the silver tongue ability applies to this check). This requires 1 minute, although you can choose to rush it as a full-round action by taking a -10 penalty on the check. You must make this check alone; others cannot help you with it. Whether the check succeeds or fails, you gain the powers granted by the vestige for 24 hours. If you fail the binding check, the vestige influences your personality and your actions, and you are said to have made a poor pact. If your check is successful, you show no ill effects and maintain control over your personality.

While under the influence of a vestige, you must adhere to its requirements to the best of your ability. If you are conscious and free-willed, and you encounter a situation in which you cannot or will not refrain from a prohibited action or perform a required one, you take a -1 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, and checks until that vestige leaves you. These penalties stack if you disobey multiple vestiges.

The Difficulty Class (DC) for a saving throw against any supernatural power granted by a vestige is equal to 10 + your class level + your Cha modifier. For more information on vestiges and the binding thereof, refer to the Tome of Magic.

Alchemastery (Ex): Your fiendish insight allows you to delve deeper into your command of the atomic. In particular, the elder engineers of the Lower Planes can lend you their advice about the highest forms of metal. At 2nd level and every two levels thereafter, you learn a new discovery which relates to the discipline of Alchemetry from the following list.

Amazing Alkahest: Your alkahest is an incredibly great solvent. Any alkahest solution that you create can now dissolve any inanimate object, not just a planetary metal. Otherwise, this follows all of the same rules for dissolving a planetary metal.
Continual Carmot: Carmot that you create now provides not only preservation, but restoration as well. Any object under its effects repairs itself at a rate of 1 hit point per round. Similarly, any creature under its effects gains fast healing 1.
Lethargic Lead: Enclosures surrounded by your cursed lead are now extremely slow, to the point where they have an equal and opposite effect to that of quicksilver. Objects and structures made from your cursed lead now experience time at a slower rate than other materials; for all purposes, they experience one round for every two normal rounds. Spaces, creatures, and objects completely enclosed by your cursed lead experience the same effect
Mysterious Moonsteel: Moonsteel that you create is partially made out of moonbeams. It weighs nothing at all, no matter how much of it there is. Anything inside of a moonsteel enclosure is treated as being under a perpetual blink (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/blink.htm) effect.
Oefficient Orichalcum: You must be at your 10th class level to select this discovery. Orichalcum that you create is especially great at channeling puissance in it. Circuits that are set up between a wood transformer and a battery made out of your orichalcum no longer lose an ebb to inefficiency in the transfer. In addition, your orichalcum can now hold twice the number of ebbs that the same volume could normally hold.
Phlegmatic Phlogiston: Your phlogiston is especially pfiery! The heat aura around it radiates out an additional 5ft., and the area that would have been in the aura before now burns white-hot at a temperature of 2,000 degrees Centigrade.
Platinum Standard: You must be at your 10th class level to select this discovery. You can now transmute other metals into platinum with ALCH 286, but at a 10:1 ratio (that is, you only end up with 1/10 the volume you started with). The DC for platinum is 65.
Quixotic Quicksilver: Your quicksilver's especially quick. Quicksilver's elemental time trait now applies to anything that is touching at least half a cubic foot of quicksilver (479 fluid ounces).
Square-Cube Law: Learning this discovery allows you greater insight into the nature of three-dimensional structures. Your ALCH principles can now target any applicable body which has a volume of no more than 81 cubic feet and a weight of no more than 350,000 lb.
Sublime Sunmetal: Sunmetal that you create is now extremely radiomantic. It produces an aura with a radius of 5ft. (plus 5ft. for every size category of the sunmetal body beyond Medium) in which its handling effect occurs. The negative levels from the sunmetal exploding are now equal to one-tenth of the ebbs channeled into it (minimum 10 negative levels).
Very Irregular Properties: Energy exists not in a vacuum, but in conjunction with other kinds of energy. Discovering this allows you to place two ALCH 202 qualities on a given body at the same time.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At 2nd level, and again whenever indicated on the class table, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. At 7th level you gain access to Doctorate-level principles, and can refer to yourself as a doctor of any discipline you attain that level of knowledge in.

Solomon's Key (Su): At 10th level, your talent in negotiating extraplanar favours has reached its zenith. Whenever you make use of the spectroconstruction class feature, you're no longer just calling up unskilled labourers. Instead, the spirits you invoke are borrowed from the souls of architects and engineers who wound up in the Lower Planes. Spectroconstruction now allows you to craft things which require intricate craftsmanship, using your Diplomacy check instead of any necessary Craft check for the labour. In addition, you can trade regular labour for a single preparation on your behalf of ALCH 101, at a rate of 100 hours of unskilled labour for every use of the principle over the half-hour of spectroconstruction.

The Craft skills used in your spectroconstruction must still be normal crafting skills which exist in your game. If you're in doubt about whether a technology level is appropriate for your game setting, consult your DM about the intended craft. You can use this ability to perform the labour for magic item crafting, but you must have the required Craft feat and supply the materials and XP required for it as normal.


The Lode-Bearer

"This is my burden to bear, and no one else's. The fact that it's actually pretty bitchin' doesn't really enter into it."

http://th02.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2010/058/1/0/Eternal_Descent__4_var__cover_by_SANTI_IKARI.jpg
Image credit SANTI-IKARI (http://santi-ikari.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

It's said that in the past, there was an ancient civilization that was much smarter and more advanced than the races today. Whatever that civilization might have been, some accounts refer to the loden, a martial branch of that society which studied the exotic properties of magnets. Thanks to gramarie, today it's possible for those with an interest in magnetism to explore the ancient techniques and lores of that group. These individuals, known as lode-bearers, are the most martial of gramarists, as they study ways to manipulate magnetism to give them an unfair advantage in combat. In order to become a lode-bearer, one must first learn to twist the fabric of space and time, especially in ways that shape magnetic fluxes.

Requirements: To become a lode-bearer you must meet all of the following requirements.
Base Attack Bonus: +3
Gramarie: YGGD 212
Skills: Forgery 10 ranks, Knowledge (geography) 4 ranks, Martial Lore 2 ranks
Special: Eldritch blast class feature
Specialization: Must be specialized in Yggdratecture

Hit Die: d8
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Class Skills: A lode-bearer's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Forgery (Int), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Lode-Bearer
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Principles|
Maneuvers Known|
Maneuvers Readied|
Stances Known

1st|+1|+2|+0|+0|Heir to the loden, loden lore|
+0|
3|
2|
–

2nd|+2|+3|+0|+0|Eldritch blast +1d6, mother lode|
+1|
4|
2|
–

3rd|+3|+3|+1|+1|Loden lore|
+2|
4|
2|
–

4th|+4|+4|+1|+1|Eldritch blast +2d6, mother lode|
+3|
5|
3|
+1

5th|+5|+4|+1|+1|Loden lore|
+3|
6|
3|
–

6th|+6|+5|+2|+2|Eldritch blast +3d6, mother lode|
+4|
6|
3|
–

7th|+7|+5|+2|+2|Loden lore|
+5|
7|
4|
–

8th|+8|+6|+2|+2|Eldritch blast +4d6, mother lode|
+6|
8|
4|
+1

9th|+9|+6|+3|+3|Loden lore|
+6|
8|
4|
–

10th|+10|+7|+3|+3|Eldritch blast +5d6, mother lode|
+7|
9|
5|
–

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the lode-bearer.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: As a lode-bearer you are loded for bear and ready to rock. You gain proficiency with all martial weapons. You're also proficient with light and medium armour, as well as light and heavy shields. You are not proficient with heavy armour or tower shields.

Heir to the Loden: The soldiers of the loden were powerful warriors who used magnetic talents to cheat in combat. Be part of that proud tradition. With an hour of meditation on the secrets of the ancients and a DC 20 Forgery check to mimic ancient rituals, you can designate a single metal weapon as your lodenblade (or lodenhammer, or lodenaxe, or whatever). Your lodenblade is your connection to the wisdom of the ancients, and is the channel through which you activate your magnetic abilities. You must be wielding it in order to activate any of your martial maneuvers, loden lores, or stances from this class. You can designate a new lodenblade at any time with another skill check.

By drawing an electromagnetic field around your lodenblade, you can energize it with a static charge. As a swift or move action, you can charge your lodenblade with electricity. All successful attacks you make with your lodenblade before your next turn deal additional electricity damage equal to the damage from your eldritch blast.

Loden Lore (Ex): At 1st level and every two levels thereafter, you discover a secret martial technique to apply magnetic principles to combat. Every time you gain this class feature, you learn one of the following techniques. These abilities mimic the strange magnetic combat styles of the ancients, and depend on successfully copying their techniques. They can be used at will as a swift action by making a successful Forgery check (failure indicates the swift action is wasted). Every technique you learn also grants you a permanent +1 bonus on Forgery checks.

Attractive Blow (DC 15): This technique charges your metal weapon with magnetic power for 1 round. If you attack someone armed with a metal weapon during the round, your weapon automatically gets a disarm attempt with a +4 bonus if you beat the touch AC of your opponent with your normal attack. This disarm attempt does not provoke an attack of opportunity. All attacks you make until your next turn have this ability.
Heavy Metal (DC 25): This technique causes metal to weigh more heavily on your enemy. You make a single ranged touch attack using your lodenblade against a target made of or wearing substantial amounts of metal, within your ground speed of you. On a successful hit, you deal no damage but the weight of all the metal objects that the target is carrying or wearing is doubled. For every 10 points your Forgery check beats the DC, the weight is doubled again (that is, another x2 modifier using normal additive multiplication rules for D&D).
Intercept Projectile (DC 20): You can activate this ability as an immediate action when a projectile is aimed at you. You must decide whether or not to activate this ability after you know that you are being targetted but before you know if the attack succeeds. An unattended metal object weighing no more than 5 lb which is within a 30ft. radius of you leaps into the path of the projectile, protecting you. The attack is resolved normally as if the projectile had been aimed at the metal object instead of at you. For every 10 points your Forgery check beats the DC, you can intercept one additional projectile before the start of your next turn.
Magnetic Freefall (DC 25): You gain a magnet speed of twice your ground speed until the start of your next turn. A magnet speed lets you use magnetic fields to quickly maneuver around metal. As a normal move action, you may fall directly towards any ferrous metal object or structure which weighs at least half as much as you. You move directly towards the metal object, even if something nonmetal is in the way. In such a case, you end your movement adjacent to the barrier, in such a way so that it stands directly between you and the metal target. If you beat the DC of this loden lore by 10 or more, you don't have to spend a swift action to activate it. You may target a metal object from a distance equal to your magnet speed. No matter how far you actually move with your magnet speed, it still consumes your entire move action. A magnet speed will allow you to move against gravity, but at the end of the movement gravity begins to affect you normally (although you don't start to fall until your next turn, giving you the chance to keep freefalling if you activate this technique again). Magnet movement is similarly unaffected by rough terrain and the like. Initiating a magnetic movement takes hardly any time at all, and thus doesn't occupy you very much. As such, movement with a magnet speed does not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving through threatened spaces (the enemy's gate is down). A magnet speed may not be used to move to a metal object that you are already touching, no matter the size.
Molten Mail (DC 15): This technique calls up ambient metals around you, condensing them into a molten layer of armour which fits you like a second skin. You gain a circumstance bonus to your armor bonus to AC of +1, with an additional +1 for every 5 points you beat the Forgery check by. You gain damage reduction of the same amount, penetrated only by adamantine. The armour lasts until the start of your next turn, at which point the metal sloughs off you harmlessly.
Rock and Roll (DC 25): By striking your lodenblade, it produces a resonating tone (or heavy metal music, at your option). This is equivalent to the inspire courage bardic music effect. It lasts until the start of your next turn. The bonus granted by this effect is +1, although for every 10 points you beat the Forgery DC the bonus increases by +1. If you have the inspire courage ability from another source, you can add the bonus to this ability. This effect only lasts until the start of your next turn, although you can use it on consecutive rounds.
Thrash Metal (DC 20): You immediately make a ranged touch attack using your lodenblade against a target made of or wearing substantial amounts of metal, within your ground speed of you. On a successful hit, you deal no damage but can make a free bull rush attempt against them.

Maneuvers Known: At 1st level, you gain knowledge of three martial maneuvers. These maneuvers can be selected from the Iron Heart, Shocking Sky (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67570), or White Raven disciplines. Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you can use it. Your maneuvers are considered extraordinary abilities unless otherwise noted in its description. Your maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you initiate them. You learn additional maneuvers at higher levels. Upon reaching level 4, and every even-numbered level afterwards (6th, 8th, and 10th) you can choose a maneuver to replace a maneuver you already know with a maneuver of the same or lesser level which you have access to. This class provides a full initiator level for the purposes of selecting martial maneuvers.

Maneuvers labelled 'supernatural' in the Shocking Sky discipline are extraordinary when you use them, because you activate them by the natural manipulation of electromagnetic fields with your magnetic talent.

Maneuvers Readied: You can ready two maneuvers you know at 2nd level, but as you advance in level and learn more maneuvers, you can ready additional maneuvers at the same time. You ready maneuvers by stretching and practicing swordplay for 5 minutes. You need not sleep or rest to ready your maneuvers; any time you spend 5 minutes attuning yourself with your weapons, you can change your readied maneuvers. You begin an encounter with all your readied maneuvers unexpended.

To recover your maneuvers in battle, you must call lightning from the sky to strike your weapon. This is a swift, move, or standard action which deals electrical damage to everything and everyone within 10ft. of you equal to your eldritch blast damage (Reflex save for half-damage, DC 10 + 1/2 your Hit Dice + your Int modifier), and renews all of your readied maneuvers. This can only be done outside under the sky; otherwise it takes a full-round action to renew a single maneuver. This refreshing technique is an extraordinary ability, special effects to the contrary.

Eldritch Blast: At 2nd level, and every two levels thereafter, your eldritch blast deals an additional +1d6 damage. Levels in this class stack to determine the caster level and effective spell level of your eldritch blast.

Mother Lode (Ex): At 2nd level, and every two levels thereafter, you learn a secret art that the loden used to reshape the fabric of the world. You can choose one of the following discoveries. If a discovery relates to an yggdratectural space, semi-space, flux, or demi-plane that you create, you can retroactively apply a discovery to a field you have established in the past with an hour's work and a matching key skill check to its current value.

Flux Capacitor: A polarcane flux can have any number of flux traits, although only one of any given kind (for example, you can't have gravity pulling in two different directions). If you have the ability to apply flux traits to other spaces, you can place multiple such traits in them as well.
Going Nowhere: To learn this discovery, you need to be able to join semi-spaces together with portals. You can now join a portal to a place that you haven't seen before; this works like a teleport effect (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/teleport.htm), with the same chance of making a mistake in the coordinates of the point you're joining. The portal you create in the unknown space is immovable, and fixed in space once established.
Intense Causality: To learn this discovery you must know YGGD 371. Whenever you prepare an YGGD principle, you can twist the fabric of space-time in order to cause one of the following effects:
Reduce the time to prepare the principle by half.
Roll the skill check twice and select the result you prefer.
Keeper of the Keys: You can close spaces without them being destroyed permanently. You can also lock portals to semi-spaces and demiplanes, by touching it and making a Forgery check which meets or exceeds the original. In order to open the portal, a matching Forgery check needs to be made.
Plane Sense: By touching a portal, you can tell the size of the space that it connects to and any flux traits or planar traits in effect on the other side.
Reverse Geometry: When you set up a flux, you can choose to reverse its dimensionality. Instead of a semi-space which is bigger on the inside than the outside, this is a flux which is bigger on the outside than the inside. This counts as the flux trait; the area is actually two size categories smaller than the space it takes up in the outside world. Anything which enters into the flux is squeezed into that space as if they were in a small constrained area.
Usurp Space: By making a Forgery check that matches or exceeds the check of a space you are inside, you become the creator of the flux for all intents and purposes, including joining that space with other spaces.
Weird Time: To learn this discovery, you must know YGGD 371. To use it, you must be inside of a demiplane that you created with the Erratic Time trait. By spending an hour and making a Forgery check of equal or greater value to the check of the demiplane, you can reroll the Erratic Time Trait's time flow roll.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At 2nd level, and again whenever indicated on the class table, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. At 7th level you gain access to Doctorate-level principles, and can refer to yourself as a doctor of any discipline you attain that level of knowledge in.

Stances Known: At 4th level, you gain knowledge of one stance from the Iron Heart, Shocking Sky (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67570), or White Raven disciplines. At 8th level you gain knowledge of a new stance from one of these disciplines. Stances labelled supernatural from the Shocking Sky discipline are considered extraordinary when you use them.


The Prime Mover

"Being he who moves without being moved. A perfect unmoved mover, a cause without cause, and thus one who can build without being built upon in turn. In short, an island of considered rationality amidst the disorder of life."

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs51/i/2009/334/f/c/Telekinesis_by_A_Teller.jpg
Image credit A-Teller (http://a-teller.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

There are people who think, and then there are the thinkers. In the fast-paced modern world that gramarie makes possible, there are few who take the time for true introspection and meditation. Those who do might join the ranks of the prime movers, those scientists and dreamers whose thoughts take them places others couldn't even imagine. The deepest and most profound secrets of the physical world can only be reached with true depth of thought, and a prime mover is as much a philosopher as she is a mechanic or engineer or physicist. Also, she learns how to kill stuff with her brain, because this is fantasy after all.

Requirements: To become a prime mover you must meet all of the following requirements.
Gramarie: Any two ELDK principles
Skills: Concentration 10 ranks, Knowledge (any two) 8 ranks each
Specialization: Must be specialized in Eldrikinetics

Hit Die: d4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifer

Class Skills: A prime mover's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Prime Mover
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Principles

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Meditant, telekinesis (minor)|
+0

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Elder kinetic, telekinesis (levitate)|
+1

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Telekinesis (force)|
+2

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Elder kinetic, telekinesis (thrust)|
+3

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Initiate mediant, telekinesis (maneuver)|
+3

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Elder kinetic, telekinesis (embiggened)|
+4

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Doctorate principles, telekinesis (fabricate)|
+5

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6|Elder kinetic, telekinesis (multitask)|
+6

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6|Master meditant, telekinesis (swift)|
+6

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Elder kinetic, telekinesis (simple)|
+7

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the prime mover.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a prime mover, you gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Meditant (Ex): You think deeply about a lot of things. Even if you don't have power points, you can use the Concentration skill to gain psionic focus (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/concentration.htm#gainPsionicFocus). You gain a bonus of 1/2 your class level on Concentration checks whenever you have psionic focus.

At 5th level, this ability improves. Whenever you have psionic focus, you can treat all Knowledge skills as trained, and substitute a Concentration check for any Knowledge check (albeit at a -5 penalty).

At 9th level, this ability improves. By expending your psionic focus when making a Knowledge or Concentration check, you can take 10 on the check even if stress or distraction would normally prevent you from doing so. This includes taking 10 on checks to prepare principles.

Telekinesis (Su): Through sheer force of will, you can move things with your mind. You gain various innate powers, which are only available to you when you have psionic focus. Your caster or manifester level for these effects is always equal to your class level. If these abilities imitate powers, you cannot augment them. Except where otherwise specified, these abilities work like spell-like abilities or psi-like abilities.

At 1st level, you can use matter agitation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/matterAgitation.htm) and mage hand (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mageHand.htm) effects at will.
At 2nd level, you can use a levitate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/levitate.htm) effect at will. Your weight limit for this effect is 100 lb per rank in Concentration.
At 3rd level, you can use a telekinetic force (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/telekineticForce.htm) effect at will. Your weight limit for this effect is 50 lb per rank in Concentration.
At 4th level, you can use a telekinetic thrust (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/telekineticThrust.htm) effect at will, and are under a touchsight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/touchsight.htm) effect whenever you are psionically focused. Your weight limit for the thrust effect is 50 lb per rank in Concentration.
At 5th level, you can use a telekinetic maneuver (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/telekineticManeuver.htm) effect at will.
At 6th level, all of your telekinetic abilities are automatically Enlarged (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#enlargePower) without having to expend your psionic focus in order to activate this effect.
At 7th level, you can telekinetically shape things to your desire. You can use a fabricate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/fabricate.htm) effect at will. If you lack the appropriate Craft skill, you can use the Concentration skill to imitate any Craft skill for this effect at a -10 penalty on the check.
At 8th level, you can maintain concentration on a number of simultaneous telekinetic abilities equal to your Intelligence modifier as long as you have psionic focus.
At 9th level, you can activate any of your telekinetic abilities as a swift or move action instead of a standard action, if applicable.
At 10th level this class feature becomes an extraordinary (Ex) ability instead of a supernatural (Su) ability, and the granted telekinetic abilities become extraordinary (Ex) instead of spell-like or psi-like (Sp/Ps).

Elder Kinetic (Ex): At 2nd level, and every two levels thereafter, you discover a peak of learning known to the ancient meditants about the nature of motion. You can choose one of the following discoveries. If a discovery relates to eldrikinetic engines that you create, you can retroactively apply a discovery to an engine you have built in the past with an hour's work and a matching key skill check to its current value.

Aeronautical Savant: Any eldrikinetic engine you create which generates a fly speed can be controlled more finely; this increases the maneuverability by 1 stage, to a maximum of perfect (this even applies to a two-part engine). They also generate a flat 50 more points of Push over their normal amount (if you know both this and the overclock discovery, this modification is applied after overclocking the engine).
Artillery Expert: Ballistic engines that you create treat projectiles being launched as if they were one size category smaller than they actually are for the purposes of determining their speed, but one size category larger than they actually are for determining the damage that they deal.
Badger Badger Snake: Badgerdrawn engines that you create can be pushed into a frenzy. This is a burst effect that requires 10 times the normal amount of fuel, but it causes the engine and whatever is attached to it to shapechange (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shapechange.htm) temporarily into a badger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/badger.htm) of the appropriate size category. The badger can take a single round of actions, under the control of whoever is controlling the engine. During this turn, its burrow speed is multiplied by 10. At the end of its action, the badger transforms back into its original shape. This is a transmutation effect.
Electric Innovation: Lightningleap engines that you create can take advantage of the mutable nature of energy. Whenever a lightningleap engine is activated, whoever controls the engine can choose an alternate energy form from the following types: acid, cold, fire, and sonic.
Fish out of Water: Stonefish engines that you create can now allow a vessel to leave the earth medium they travel through. By burning up 5 rounds of stone swimming from the minute normally provided, the stonefish engine can launch a vessel through the air like a Ballistic Engine (except launching the engine, as well). The Push generated for this leap is multiplied by 5 (1,000 points of Push normally available for every leap from every engine in parallel). The engine must be immersed in stone, dirt, or metal at the start of the jump.
For the Swarm: Beeform engines that you create are now more intricate. While in bee swarm form, whoever is controlling the engine gains telepathy out to 1 mile for every 200 points of Push generated, but only with bees. They can usurp the bees' senses, as if with a sense link (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/senseLink.htm) effect, but for every sense the bees have. They can also control all bees in the area, as if with a control plants (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/controlPlants.htm) effect, but for vermin. Both of these effects last for as long as the engine is in bee swarm form. Intelligent bees can resist the controlling effect with a Will saving throw (DC equal to the Concentration check of the engine).
Green Energy: Any eldrikinetic engine that you create can be sustained for one round or one burst with 1 less ebb of puissance than listed in its description (if you know both this and the overclock discovery, this modification is applied after overclocking the engine).
Intricate Engineering: Any eldrikinetic engine that you create has its size reduced. An engine that normally requires 1 cubic foot per preparation now only requires a 6" cube per. An engine that normally requires 8 cubic feet per preparation now only requires 1 cubic foot per.
Overclock: Any eldrikinetic engine that you create has its Push output increased by up to 20%, but its fuel requirements increase by 50% (including puissance) when you exceed its normal output.
Size Matters Not: Any eldrikinetic engine that you create ignores the modifier to Bulk for unusually dense or heavy materials. You can treat any kind of material as being normal density for its size category.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At 2nd level, and again whenever indicated on the class table, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. At 7th level you gain access to Doctorate-level principles, and can refer to yourself as a doctor of any discipline you attain that level of knowledge in.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:49 PM
The Graughtsman

"I'll show you some intelligent design."

http://th02.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2010/002/2/9/God_Wannabe_by_Light_Schizophrenia.jpg
Image credit Light-Schizophrenia (http://light-schizophrenia.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

There are many charlatans who claim to have some secret knowledge of the workings of flesh. Physicians and their ilk scrape the surface, clinging to the desperate need to maintain some facsimile of life. Xenoalchemists (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205119) are parasites, chopping nature's beauty apart in their reckless abandon to find something interesting. However, there are those whose study of life and death takes them deeper into the workings of biology than any other. These fleshworkers, known as graughtsmen, are unsurpassed in their manipulation of life. Where a physician preserves, or at best repairs, a graughtsman creates. Where a xenoalchemist severs, a graughtsman invents. They are engineers, thinkers, scientists, to whom life is nothing so much as a blank slate waiting to be engraved with their vision of the future.

Requirements: To become a graughtsman you must meet all of the following requirements.
Feats: Extraordinary ArtisanECS
Gramarie: Any two BIOY principles
Skills: Appraise 4 ranks, Heal 10 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 8 ranks
Specialization: Must be specialized in Biollurgy

Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Class Skills: The graughtsman's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Concentration (Con), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Graughtsman
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Graft Level|
Principles|
Craft Reserve

1st|+0|+2|+0|+2|Biocraft, harvest material, xenomachinery|
1|
+0|
100

2nd|+1|+3|+0|+3|Master grafter|
1|
+1|
200

3rd|+1|+3|+1|+3|Bonus feat|
2|
+2|
300

4th|+2|+4|+1|+4|Master grafter|
2|
+3|
400

5th|+2|+4|+1|+4|Gramarie graft|
3|
+3|
500

6th|+3|+5|+2|+5|Bonus feat, master grafter|
3|
+4|
600

7th|+3|+5|+2|+5|Doctorate principles|
4|
+5|
700

8th|+4|+6|+2|+6|Master grafter|
4|
+6|
800

9th|+4|+6|+3|+6|Bonus feat|
5|
+6|
900

10th|+5|+7|+3|+7|Master grafter|
5|
+7|
1,000

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the graughtsman.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a graughtsman, you gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Biocraft (Ex): You can use your ranks in Heal less 3 (-3) as your caster level for the purpose of crafting magic items. You also gain a craft reserve every level, as shown on your class table. You can use this reserve in place of XP for the purpose of crafting magical items. You do not keep your previous reserve when you gain a new class level, instead replacing it with your new reserve. In other words, spend 'em while you got 'em.

In addition, any special bonuses you might possess such as Skill Focus which apply specifically to the Heal skill you can apply to Craft skills, although this does not allow you to attempt such checks untrained. Speaking of which, you gain a bonus to Heal checks of half your class level.

Harvest Material (Ex): As a graughtsman you can quickly identify, catalogue and remove for future use the pieces of monsters which make them so dangerous. Harvesting remains requires two minutes of work with a helpless creature or recently dead (within one hour) corpse. It requires two skill checks.

First, you must make a Knowledge check relating to the monster's type. The relevant Knowledge skill required is described under the uses of Knowledge, but since that's kind of obscure I'll just list them here for you. It's worth noting that if you don't know what type the monster was you can simply attempt a broad Knowledge check and the DM will choose the appropriate skill for you.

{table=head]Knowledge Skill|Monster Types
Knowledge (arcana)|Constructs, dragons, magical beasts
Knowledge (dungeoneering)|Aberrations, oozes
Knowledge (local)|Humanoids
Knowledge (nature)|Animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, vermin
Knowledge (religion)|Undead
Knowledge (the Planes)|Outsiders, elementals[/table]

The DC for the Knowledge check is equal to 10 + the monster's HD. You can always attempt these checks, even untrained thanks to your broad training in general monstrous physiology.

If the Knowledge check is successful, the DM shall describe to you the pieces available for harvest. In general, this consists of informing you about supernatural and extraordinary abilities, breath weapons, natural weapons, movement modes, and so on. This might seem a little vague, but you can always request particular information about an aspect of the monster. If there is a piece of the monster you wish to harvest for one of your grafts, you can move on to the second skill check. You can only harvest material if it's appropriate for a graft you currently have access to.

Once you decide which piece of the monster you want (each graft has a particular requirement in the original monster and you can harvest one graft's worth of material from any given monster) you make a Heal check at the same DC. If successful you manage to procure the material needed for the chosen graft. The material is usable for about three days. If it's not used before then it begins to go rancid and becomes unusable unless you store it in a freezing environment (time spent in such a state effectively pauses the time limit).

If the Heal check is unsuccessful you cannot try again to harvest that material from the monster, but you can attempt additional pieces that you find useful. If you successfuly harvest one, however, the rest of the monster becomes contaminated and unusable. You can store as many of these monster pieces as you want, but the DM should decide on their weight and the space required to store them based on the monster they came from.

Xenomachinery (Ex): Xenomachinery takes pieces of monsters and turns them into wacky gizmos and gadgets. In general, there are two kinds of xenomachines: tools and accessories. A tool is, well, a usable tool. It's a held item which has an active power stapled to it from a graft. Any graft which grants a power which is activated, such as a draconis fundamentum or an oceanic infusion is suitable for being placed on a tool xenomachine. An accessory grants passive effects, which come from any graft which provides an 'always-on', non-activated effect. This includes grafts such as demon skin and an extra limb.

Creating a xenomacine requires the graft component to be attached, and the item for it to be attached to. Tool xenomachines are held items, which typically include things like weapons, wands, shields, and so forth, but could actually be anything that people hold in their limbs, such as a stick off the side of the road. When someone holds a tool xenomachine, they can access the graft as if it was attached to an appropriate body slot on them. If there is a daily limit or other restriction on a graft's use, the limit is carried with the graft itself, and is independant of who might be using it at any given time. Accessory xenomachines are attached to worn pieces of apparel or wondrous items which occupy non-graft body slots. Anyone wearing an accessory xenomachine has access to the graft power as if it was attached to them. You need to match up compatible slots, but the item slots and the body slots don't sync up exactly. Here's a conversion for you.

Body Slots vs Item Slots
{table=head]Body Slot|Usable Item Slot
Arms|Arms
Body|Body (armour)
Eyes|Face
Hands|Hands
Head|Head
Legs|Feet
Shoulders|Shoulders
Throat|Throat
Torso|Torso
Waist|Waist[/table]

You cannot put a graft onto a ring. Any given wondrous item or piece of clothing or tool can only have a single graft attached to it at a time. Higher level grafts also require more powerful items to be attached to, as shown on the following chart.

Xenomachine Caster Level Requirements
{table=head]Graft Level|Minimum Caster Level of Item
1|–
2|1
3|5
4|10
5|15[/table]

This restriction applies equally for tool and accessory xenomachines.

Actually attaching a graft to a xenomachine is a fairly straightforward process. It takes half an hour per caster level of the item, plus half an hour per Hit Die of the creature that provided the graft component. Afterwards, you make a Heal check against the Craft check that was made to make the item in the first place (for items the party didn't make, or if you just forget, assume the crafter took 10 on the check with the bare minimum ranks necessary for the construction). Success indicates the graft is successfully attached. Removing a graft from a xenomachine is possible, but takes the same amount of time, a Heal check at least as great as the original one to attach the graft, and destroys the graft component in the process. If you beat the original Heal check by 10 or more, you master it, and can remove the graft without destroying it; alternatively, this lets you claim it as if you had built it. With a half-hour process you can touch up a xenomachine you built to raise its grafter level to your current level of achievement.

At 1st level you can only attach 1st level grafts to items. You gain access to grafts of higher levels as shown on your class table. Your grafter level for your xenomachines is equal to your ranks in Heal less 3.

Master Grafter (Ex): Your mastery of the flesh continues to expand. At 2nd level and every two levels thereafter, you learn a new discovery about the nature of biollurgy and fleshworking that allows you greater insight into the natural form. Every time you gain this feature, choose an ability from the following list.

Artificial Fleshshape: You can now choose to create a biollurgical chassis of a different type. Whenever you use BIOY 228 to create a chassis, you can choose for it to be a Construct. If you do make it a Construct, you can choose to install a cockpit inside of it, which any intelligent creature can use to operate the chassis. If you install a cockpit, the chassis loses its Intelligence score entirely, and cannot be affected with BIOY 273. Instead, any creature of a size of at least two size categories below the chassis can ride in the cockpit and operate it with a DC 10 Knowledge (arcana), Disable Device, or Ride check for one round. While operating it, the riding creature is considered entirely subsumed in the chassis, and for all intents and purposes acts as the chassis for that round. Constructs gain additional hit points based on their size categories, as described here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#constructType)
Bizarre Fleshshape: You must be at least at your 6th class level to select this discovery. You can now choose to create a biollurgical chassis of a different type. Whenever you use BIOY 228 to create a chassis, you can choose for it to have one of the following types: Plant, Ooze, Outsider, Undead, or Vermin. An Outsider has a native Plane of whatever Plane it was created on. A vermin is inherently mindless, and does not gain an Intelligence score; it can still be made sentient with BIOY 273, but it loses its mindlessness at that point.
Genetic Gramarie: You must be at your 10th class level to select this discovery and know BIOY 381. If a chassis that you create counts as an arcanodynamic transformer or an eldrikinetic engine and breeds, its descendants inherit the principles of gramarie that have been prepared on it from those two schools.
Heart of the Matter: You must be at your 10th class level to select this discovery, and know BIOY 340. You can use BIOY 340 to place a single 5th level graft on a chassis. This is a separate slot apart from the normal graft slots on the chassis.
Infinite Faces: You can place any number of 0th level grafts on a chassis, instead of just one.
Material Fleshshape: You can now choose to create a biollurgical chassis of a different type. Whenever you use BIOY 228 to create a chassis, you can choose for it to have one of the following types: Animal, Dragon, Giant, Humanoid, Magical Beast, or Monstrous Humanoid.
Real Steel: The nature of metal is malleable, and the skilled artisan can mold it to his liking. Whenever you create biostructure, you can choose for it to have the statistics of iron as far as hardness and hit points per inch of thickness goes, no matter what metal went into it. Biostructure treated this way is alway considered ferrous.
Volcanic Ventilation: In addition to the other gas processing options you have, you can choose to have biostructure that you create process sulfur dioxide.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At 2nd level, and again whenever indicated on the class table, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. At 7th level you gain access to Doctorate-level principles, and can refer to yourself as a doctor of any discipline you attain that level of knowledge in.

Bonus Feat: At 3rd level and again at 6th level and 9th level, you learn a bonus feat which must have the tag.

Gramaric Graft (Ex): At 5th level, you unlock a special skill that transcends the borders between xenoalchemy and gramarie. You learn a special graft which imbues knowledge of a gramaric principle in someone. This works like a normal graft, except that you must spend an additional amount of time on the procedure as normal for preparing the principle in question. For xenomachinery, you spend this additional time while 'attaching' the graft (even though there is no monstrous material) to the item. Gramaric grafts are treated as accessory xenomachines, since they simply imbue knowledge of a principle.

You must know the principle you wish to imbue the subject with, and you must be able to implant grafts of that level. After the procedure, the subject can use the principle as if they had learned it themselves. They must still make any relevant skill checks involved with the principle themselves. The subject does not need to meet any of the normal prerequisites to know the principle, but they also do not count as "knowing" the principle for the purposes of meeting prerequisites on prestige classes, other principles, and other such venues. They can prepare the principal, but that's it.

This is a 2nd level graft for a Baccalaureate-level principle, a 4th level graft for a Magisterial-level principle, and a 5th level graft for a Doctorate-level principle. Gramaric grafts fill the Head body slot, and no other.


The Dreamason

[i]"What have your dreams done for you lately?"

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/253/a/6/a6070a4b80b96db8385ada2b58a4f79a-d2xwfji.jpg
Image credit MichaelO (http://michaelo.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

Many marvels and spectacles exist in the world, but these pale in comparison to the wonders that can only be constructed in the imagination. Every night, countless beings drift off to sleep, and dream of amazing, brilliant ideas which must disappear with the morning like so much dew upon grass. To most, this is simply the way life proceeds. To some, however, this is an unconscionable waste. These gramarists, known as dreamasons, believe that dreams are nature's greatest resource, and that we cannot afford to squander them on meaningless diversions and fantasies. Dreamasons belong to a secret society who work on behalf of all humanity (and monstrous humanity) to harness the power of dreams for the greater good.

Requirements: To become a dreamason you must meet all of the following requirements.
Feats: Body Fuel
Gramarie: Any two HEUR principles
Psionics: Power point reserve of at least 1 point
Skills: Autohypnosis 10 ranks, Craft (basket weaving) 1 rank, Concentration 4 ranks, Knowledge (psionics) 4 ranks
Special: Eldritch blast class feature
Specialization: Must be specialized in Heuristicism

Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Class Skills: The dreamason's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Dreamason
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Maximum Power Level|
Powers Known|
Principles

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Dreamcatcher (psionic), eldritch blast +1d6, stream of consciousness|
1|
1|
+0

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Oneirotecture|
2|
2|
+1

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Eldritch blast +2d6|
2|
3|
+2

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Dreamcatcher (lucid), oneirotecture|
3|
4|
+3

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Dreamaster, eldritch blast +3d6|
3|
5|
+3

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Oneirotecture|
4|
6|
+4

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Dreamcatcher (strengthsapping), eldritch blast +4d6|
4|
7|
+5

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6|Oneirotecture|
5|
8|
+6

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6|Eldritch blast +5d6|
5|
9|
+6

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Dreamcatcher (mindfuel), oneirotecture|
6|
10|
+7

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the dreamason.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a dreamason, you gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Dreamcatcher (Ps): A dreamcatcher is a special kind of circuit which draws energy from perhaps the greatest untapped source of puissance: the mind. Whenever you set up a circuit with a HEUR principle, you can choose to make it a dreamcatcher. A dreamcatcher draws puissance from intelligent living creatures within the area of the circuit. This draining effect occurs automatically when an applicable creature enters the net, although certain creatures can be excluded from the dreamcatching as a logical decision in the circuit. Energy that has been caught is stored in a 'dream reserve', which is a dispersed energy field in the circuit; it has no physical location. A dream reserve can store up to an amount of puissance equal to 10 times the Autohypnosis check of the circuit in ebbs. However, only an amount in ebbs equal to the check can be moved around in the circuit in any given lump-sum at a time. Instead of spending puissance in the dream reserve normally, an Exotic Intelligence in the circuit can burn it to gain XP, at a rate of 10 XP for every ebb burned. Note, however, that an Exotic Intelligence can only gain XP from creatures within 10 ECL's of its own level. It also can never transfer this XP to any creature, through any mechanism.

As you advance in this class your dreamcatchers can drain different kinds of energy. At 1st level you can only weave psionic dreamcatchers. Once you learn additional dreamcatchers, you can decide which kind to weave whenever you establish a circuit. Whenever you would be able to change the Autohypnosis check of a circuit, you can change the kind of dreamcatcher.

Psionic: At 1st level, you learn how to weave a psionic dreamcatcher. This kind of circuit drains power points from living intelligent psionic creatures in the circuit. Every round, creatures with power point reserves inside of the circuit's area of effect must make Will saving throws (DC 10 + your class level + your Intelligence modifier) or lose up to 2 power points each. The dream reserve gains 1 ebb for every power point drained like this.
Lucid: At 4th level, you learn how to weave a lucid dreamcatcher. This kind of circuit drains dreams from sleeping living intelligent creatures in the circuit. Every round, sleeping creatures inside of the circuit's area of effect must make Will saving throws (DC 10 + your class level + your Intelligence modifier) or suffer a nightmare (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/nightmare.htm) (caster level equal to your Hit Dice). The dream reserve gains 1 ebb every round for every creature currently suffering a nightmare inside its area. Removal from the area ends the nightmare immediately, and a creature that saves against the effect is immune to the nightmare for 10 minutes. You can program the details of the nightmare into the dreamcatcher when you set it up, or allow their subconscious to create it.
Strengthsapping: At 7th level, you learn how to weave a strengthsapping dreamcatcher. This kind of circuit drains bodily health from living creatures in the circuit. Every round, living creatures with Con, Str, and Dex scores inside of the circuit's area of effect must make Fortitude saving throws (DC 10 + your class level + your Intelligence modifier) or be affected as if with your Body Fuel (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#bodyFuel) feat. They take 1 point of damage to every physical ability score, and the dream reserve gains 2 ebbs.
Mindfuel: At 10th level, you learn how to weave a mindfuel dreamcatcher. This kind of circuit drains mental capacity from living intelligent creatures in the circuit. Every round, intelligent creatures with Int, Wis, and Cha scores inside of the circuit's area of effect must make Will saving throws (DC 10 + your class level + your Intelligence modifier) or take 1 point of ability damage to each of their mental abilities. The dream reserve gains 3 ebbs every time this happens. Unless otherwise specified, an Exotic Intelligence in the circuit is vulnerable to this effect. Creatures who die from this effect have their souls transformed into puissance, generating a one-time burst of 10 ebbs. However, they cannot be raised from the dead short of a wish (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/wish.htm) spell or similar effect.

Eldritch Blast (Ps): Your eldritch blast continues to improve with your advanced mental powers. It deals additional damage as shown on your class table, and now counts as either a psi-like ability or a spell-like ability, whichever would be more useful to you at the time. You have a manifester level for your eldritch blast equal to your Hit Dice.

Psionics: As an architect of the mind, you have access to special psionic powers. Whenever you achieve a new level, you unlock the knowledge of a new power. Choose the powers known from the psion/wilder power list. You cannot choose powers from restricted discipline lists or from other class power lists. You can manifest any power that has a power point cost equal to or lower than your manifester level. Your maximum power level is shown on your class table, and your manifester level for your powers is equal to your Hit Dice.

The number of times you can manifest powers in a day is limited only by your power point reserve. You do not regain power points every day like most psionicists, but instead you can use your eldritch blast to steal the consciousness of other intelligent beings to fuel your psionics.

As a dreamason, you simply know your powers; they are ingrained in your mind. You do not need to prepare them (in the way that some spellcasters prepare their spells). The Difficulty Class for saving throws against your powers is 10 + the power’s level + your Intelligence modifier.

Stream of Consciousness (Ps): Your eldritch blast is like an extension of your will. Whenever you succeed on striking an intelligent enemy (Int of 3 or greater) with your eldritch blast, you regain a number of power points equal to the number of damage dice dealt with the blast. You add your ranks in Autohypnosis to your power point reserve to figure out how many power points you can hold at any given time. However, you do not gain bonus power points from an ability score, and you do not regain these power points from rest. You have a bonus on Autohypnosis checks of one half your class level, and this special bonus also adds to your power point reserve; other such bonuses to your Autohypnosis skill do not.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At 2nd level, and again whenever indicated on the class table, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. At 7th level you gain access to Doctorate-level principles, and can refer to yourself as a doctor of any discipline you attain that level of knowledge in.

Oneirotecture (Ex): As you gain knowledge in the secret schemes of dreams, you can apply these advances to your gramarie. At 2nd level and every two levels thereafter, you learn a new discovery from the following list to advance your heuristical calculations and circuits.

Backdoor: You (and only you) no longer need to meet the Autohypnosis check required to modify triggers, responses, or control points in a circuit that you (and only you) built. You are always treated as passing these checks.
Hidden Code: You can choose for triggers and responses that you place in your circuit to be hidden from normal view, or even appear masked as something else. Someone must beat your Autohypnosis check by 15 or more to see past this camouflage.
Moore's Law: The number of logical decisions which an EI that you create can make in your circuits per round doubles. You can take this discovery multiple times, and it follows mathematical multiplication rules instead of D&D additive multiplicative rules.
The Most Exotic: You must be at your 10th class level to select this principle, and you must know HEUR 328. Your EI's are now much more resilient than normal; they never have to make saves to avoid being destroyed when components of the circuit are destroyed or removed. They can also be as intelligent as you, instead of having a maximum Intelligence of your own Int less 2.
Rabbit Hole: Your heuristical circuits now penetrate the fabric of space and time. If there is a portal inside the area of one of your heuristical circuits, the circuit penetrates the portal. On the other side of the portal, it spreads out in a bubble of the same size as the original size around the portal. The two bubbles are for all intents and purposes the same circuit. Information and puissance can be seamlessly transferred back and forth between them.
Variable of Volume: If you work out the maximum volume of your circuit based on the formula of volume being equal to (4/3)*pi*radius^3, you can set up circuits which are other shapes than bubbles. This principles do not have a minimum number of preparations, and the circuit field can be formed into any shape that you like using the volume available to you. The shape must be continuous, and at no point can be less than 6 inches by 6 inches thick.
We Are All Connected: You must be at your 10th class level to select this principle. Overlapping circuits that you set up can communicate with each other and connect to nodes inside of each other. Each circuit can only communicate and interact with circuits it is personally overlapping with, not other circuits further down the line.

Dreamaster: At 5th level, you learn the secret to transforming puissance back into psionic potency. Whenever you are standing inside of one of your dreamcatchers, you can tap into the dream reserve and use it to fuel your psionic powers as if it was your own personal power point reserve. However, one power point is lost to inefficiency whenever you activate this ability; this lost power point does not count against your maximum spent on the power.


The Shadowright

"And for those of you who are watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green."

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/041/7/b/In_the_Shadows_by_dolphy.jpg
Image credit DolphyDolphiana (http://dolphydolphiana.deviantart.com/) of deviantart.com

Secrets by their nature lie outside normal knowledge, and as long as secrets exist there will be those who seek only to uncover them. Everything in the world has a reflection, and just as light reflects upon a mirror, so does truth cast a reflection of falsehood. All reflections ultimately wind up in the realm of shadows, the hidden places that sit aside our world. Those who seek secrets from this desolate place often find more than they bargained for– shadowrights are some of those who go looking for reflected truths, and discover more truth than they could possibly handle. These gramarists learn secrets about the colours of the world which reshape the way they see it. For weal or woe, nothing can hide from a shadowright's black gaze...

Requirements: To become a shadowright you must meet all of the following requirements.
Gramarie: Any two KALD principles
Skills: Knowledge (nature) 8 ranks, Spot 10 ranks
Special: Must be exposed to the Plane of Shadow at some point
Specialization: Must be specialized in Kaleidomantics

Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Class Skills: The shadowright's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Shadowright
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |
Priciples|
Mystery Level|
Shadowsight

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Mysteries, shadowsight|
+0|
1st|
Midnight

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Colour of magic, shadow seal (red)|
+1|
1st|
Catoptric

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Shadow seal (yellow)|
+2|
2nd|
Ranging

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Colour of magic, shadow seal (blue)|
+3|
3rd|
Connected

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Shadow seal (orange)|
+3|
3rd|
Thermal

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Colour of magic, shadow seal (green)|
+4|
4th|
Fluid

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Shadow seal (indigo)|
+5|
5th|
Primal

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6|Colour of magic, shadow seal (violet)|
+6|
5th|
Penetrating

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6|Shadow seal (black)|
+6|
6th|
Frequent

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Colour of magic, shadow seal (white), shadowrong|
+7|
7th|
Intimate

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the shadowright.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a shadowright, you gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At 2nd level, and again whenever indicated on the class table, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. At 7th level you gain access to Doctorate-level principles, and can refer to yourself as a doctor of any discipline you attain that level of knowledge in.

Mysteries: As a shadowright you are privy to many secrets of darkness that others might never know even exist. You learn mysteries of shadowcasting; you have a caster level equal to your Hit Dice for these mysteries. At midnight, dawn, midday, and dusk, you can realign your shadow's spirit, granting you different mysteries. You can be aligned to a number of mysteries at a time equal to your Charisma modifier; these mysteries can be used at will. Your maximum mystery level is shown on your class table. The save DC against your mysteries is equal to 10 + your class level + your Charisma modifier. Mysteries are described futher in Tome of Magic. Additional mysteries can be found in the Descent of Shadows (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74519) project.

Shadowsight (Ex): A shadowright's distinguishing feature are her eyes of blackest night, which see into dark corners of the Plane of Shadows which mortal creatures cannot penetrate. You have a bonus on Spot checks of half your class level, and as you advance you gain many strange and useful augments to your sight:

Midnight: At 1st level, you gain eyes of midnight, which render you colourblind. This is not just normal red/green colourblindness, either; a shadowright sees only in shades of grey. Your eyes become a deep and opaque black.
Catoptric: At 2nd level, you gain catoptric vision. All of the Plane of Shadow is but a reflection, and now your gaze penetrates such images. Your eyes now see through reflections; mirrors are transparent for you, and your sight is permanently polarized. This eliminates bright light reflected off of shiny surfaces.
Ranging: At 3rd level, you gain ranging vision. Your vision becomes something wild and alive, and returns to you. Your eyes can now measure distances. Whenever you look at a surface, object, or creature, you can tell at a glance the distance between you.
Connected: At 4th level, you gain connected vision. The Plane of Shadow has many ties to the material realm, and your eyes now see the connections between seemingly disparate things. Your eyes can now see gramaric circuits as a shadow floating in space, as well as the connections that join its components.
Thermal: At 5th level, you gain thermal vision. There exists no hot or cold on the Plane of Shadows, only light and dark. You can tell the temperature of anything you look at, out to a distance of 60ft. This thermal sight penetrates objects and surfaces, and allows you to distinguish living creatures inside of the area whose internal temperature is different from the ambient temperature.
Fluid: At 6th level, you gain fluid vision. Shadows are fluid, variable things that are dynamic and ever-changing. You can tell the composition of any fluid (liquid or gas) that you look at.
Primal: At 7th level, you gain primal vision. The Plane of Shadow is a thing alive, and a piece of it resides inside of every animate thing. You can pinpoint animate creatures within 120ft. of your sight, whether they are alive, undead, or constructs.
Penetrating: At 8th level, you gain penetrating vision. Darkness allows us to tell day from night, and now your vision allows you to tell the real from the nonreal. You automatically get a chance for a fundamental disconnect whenever you look at an illusion with a visual sensory component. You only get one such free attempt per illusion.
Frequent: At 9th level, you gain frequent vision. Just as fast as the speed of light is the speed of the darkness that it casts. With your sight moving at such speeds, how can mortal barriers obstruct you? As a free action, you can turn this ability on or off; while active, you can see through obstacles within 120ft. of you. You can choose how many layers to penetrate inside of the area of effect. Lead is the only thing that blocks your vision; however, while this ability is active, you give off radiation like a radiomantic metal with the same volume as your body (and can explode like one).
Intimate: At 10th level, your sight ascends to its highest form, and you gain intimate vision. All places are one when they are bathed in shadow. Any location you look at is now treated as being "familiar" to you for the purposes of scrying, teleporation, and other such effects, no matter the distance separating you.

Colour of Magic (Ex): Magic has many colours, and only you can see all of its shades. At 2nd level and every two levels thereafter, you learn a special discovery about kaleidomantics from the following list:

Unimpeachable Pigmentation Technique: Your filters are exceptionally well stuck in space. Whenever you fix a kaleidomantic filter to a point in space (instead of to someone or something), the Strength DC to move it increases by 5 and every preparation of it can hold an additional 1,000 lb.
Charcoal Chicanery: Whenever you construct a black filter, you can program it with an imachinary sensory component that you know. Any attempt to retrieve information from beyond the filter returns instead the illusory sensory component. This is essentially a new way to deliver an imachinary illusion, except instead of being fixed on a point in space, the illusion is based around the filter. By its nature a black filter blocks normal sensory information of all kinds, and thus this illusion works like a combination of an ablative effect and an additive effect. You prepare the illusion on top of the filter for the purposes of time use, although you can use the filter's Spot check instead of the normal key skill check for the illusion.
Colourgami: If you're willing to do the math to work out the surface area, you can construct curved kaleidomantic filters instead of flat 2D shapes. You can join them together like normal, but any one preparation of a filter can only have one radius of curvature.
Orange Originality: Whenever you construct an orange filter, the filter imprints itself with the first gas to contact it (or you can set a particular gas when you construct it). It becomes selective only to that kind of gas, and is completely permeable to other gases. Concentrations must be accurate to within 1,000 parts per million to trigger the filter.
Purple Perception: Whenever you construct a violet filter, the filter imprints itself with living things it comes in contact with. Whenever you (and only you) touch the filter, you can see the face and alignment of every living creature that touched the filter in the last day, in reverse order.
Ruby Ruination: Whenever you construct a red filter, heat that's blocked from passage is absorbed into the filter, like an ice arcanodynamic transformer. However, you cannot remove ebbs from it with a circuit or connect it to an output; instead, if the filter ever collapses it releases a fireball centered on itself, with a radius of 5ft. per ebb of heat absorbed, and dealing 1d6 fire damage per ebb. This fireball offers a Reflex save for half damage against the same DC as your mysteries. A red filter like this can store up to 1,000 ebbs of heat before it tops off; any excess heat is nullified like normal.
Teal Telemetry: Whenever you construct a blue filter, you (and only you) can tell just by touching it the volume and pressure of water pressing on it.
Ultramarine Ultimatum: Whenever you construct an indigo filter, protons and electrons accumulated by the filter can be recombined into their natural state. Whenever an acid is neutralized, the filter gains a number of 'proton points' equal to the damage per round the acid dealt, multiplied by the cubic feet of it neutralized. Whenever a base is neutralized, the filter gains a number of 'electron points' equal to the damage per round the base dealt, multiplied by the cubic feet of it neutralized. When the filter collapses, it spontaneously generates a volume of liquid water equal to 100 cubic feet of water for every pair of proton and electron points it's holding.
Verdant Venom: Whenever you construct a green filter, instead of eliminating toxins you can refine them. Fluid poisons that pass through your filter are not made inert, but instead they become more concentrated; as long as there is fluid for the venomous agent to reside in, someone can use your filter to purify such a poison. Refining a fluid poison works by moving part of the fluid through the filter, and thus concentrating the poison in the rest of the fluid. At least half of the fluid must be passed through the filter, and if additional volume of fluid is added to the poison later, the refinement is lost. Refining a poison increases the save DC by 4, and it deals an additional damage die of ability damage.
Xanthous Xception: Whenever you construct a yellow filter, you can program a single planetary metal into it as an exception. This metal can pass through the filter as if it weren't stone or metal, while the filter retains its impermeability to every other kind of stone and metal.

Shadow Seal (Su): All colours are but pale imitations of black. Shadow is the purest expression of the colour of the cosmos, and you learn various ways to harness its might. At 2nd level, you learn to seal a colour of magic; this is an area effect that extends around you to a radius of 50ft. Inside of the area, all colour of that type disappears. Prismatic effects and kaleidomantic filters which are composed of that colour might collapse. You can make an immediate Hit Die check (against the caster level of a prismatic effect) or an opposed Spot check (against the Spot check of such a filter) to collapse the coloured effect. You can only try to collapse a given effect once per day, when it first enters your seal area.

You activate or deactivate this ability as a free action, and every time you turn it on you select which colour you want to seal. You gain various benefits from sealing a colour, as its power is locked away inside of you. At 2nd level, you can only seal the colour red. However, as you advance in level, you learn to seal additional colours.

Red: At 2nd level you learn to seal the colour red. This grants you immunity to any effect that would change your temperature unless you wish to accept it. You gain fire and cold immunity while sealing the colour.
Yellow: At 3rd level you learn to seal the colour yellow. This seal grants you the equivalent of a constant stoneskin (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/stoneskin.htm) effect (caster level equal to your Hit Dice), but only against stone and metal weaponry or objects.
Blue: At 4th level you learn to seal the colour blue. This seal grants you immunity to the effects of pressure and dehydration effects.
Orange: At 5th level you learn to seal the colour orange. This seal relieves you from the need to breathe. This grants you immunity to drowning and inhaled dangers.
Green: At 6th level you learn to seal the colour green. This seal grants you immunity to poisons.
Indigo: At 7th level you learn to seal the colour indigo. This seal grants you immunity to the corrosive effects of acids and bases; this works like acid immunity.
Violet: At 8th level you learn to seal the colour violet. This seal grants you immunity to positive and negative energy effects unless you wish to accept them.
Black: At 9th level you learn to seal the colour black. This seal provides you with a constant nondetection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/nondetection.htm) effect, and immunity to sonic damage as well as damaging effects which specify blinding or searing light.
White: At 10th level you learn to seal the colour white. This seal provides you with immunity to radiomantic effects, including radiomantic negative levels and radiomantic hellfire damage.

Shadowrong (Ex): At 10th level, you learn the super-duper secret 9th kaleidomantic filter! Knowing this ability allows you to construct white filters; add the following choice to your list of filter colours:

White: A white filter excludes radiomantics. It works like lead for the exclusion of radiomantic negative levels and radiomantic hellfire damage. As an interesting side effect, it also blocks detecting effects which are specifically blocked by lead. A white filter is vulnerable to darkness. It collapses if the entire filter is enclosed in an area of total darkness.


The Masνnist

This class can be found here! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14368107#post14368107)


The Apogineer

This class can be found here! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14379683#post14379683)


The Dungeonjammer

This class can be found here! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14381511#post14381511)


The Ayuscientist

This class can be found here! (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8477.0)


The Arcanitect

This class can be found here! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14395448#post14395448)


The Stellar Cartographer

This class can be found here! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15532942#post15532942)


The Millwight

This class can be found here! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15537250#post15537250)


The Asternomist

This class can be found here! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15543991#post15543991)

Kellus
2012-08-15, 04:51 PM
Miscellaneous Topics

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

Feats

Advanced Placement [Gramarie]
Tutoring and extra studying pays off; you've written an advanced placement exam to qualify you for a more challenging course load.
Benefit: Select a single principle that you would normally not qualify for based on specialization or class. You now qualify for that principle. You cannot select a principle of a higher grade than you have access to yet, and this does not remove prerequisites consisting of either specific principles or a number of prerequisite principles of a certain discipline.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time, choose a different principle that you would not normally qualify for.

Alternating Arcane Current [Gramarie]
I'll collapse your waveform, if you know what I mean
Prerequisite: Arcane Current, Complex Mathemagics, Int 19
Benefit: You can apply your Complex Mathemagics feat to your eldritch blast whenever you use it to power gramaric devices. You also gain two additional uses per day of the feat.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time, you gain two additional uses per day of Complex Mathemagics.

Arcane Current [Gramarie]
dQ/dt, where the Q stands for MAGIC
Prerequisite: Eldritch blast class feature
Benefit: Your eldritch blast can now be used to power gramaric devices. If released into a circuit or a device which has been set up to receive a puissant input, you can power it with 1 ebb for every five points of damage it would normally deal.
Special: You can take this feat up to five times. Each time, the efficiency increases by 1 such that it requires one less point of damage for each ebb of puissance generated.

Basic Mathemagics [Gramarie]
And who says math is useless in the real world?
Prerequisite: Int 13
Benefit: If you succesfully identify the purpose of a gramaric device, you can activate this feat in order to obtain a numerical analysis showing the possible range of values of the output (the RNG of the device's effects). You can use this feat a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Complex Mathemagics [Gramarie]
You've studied the mathemagical quantization of the imagination!
Prerequisite: Basic Mathemagics, Int 15
Benefit: Whenever you activate a gramaric device which rolls a random result, you can activate this ability as a swift action immediately afterwards in order to take the complex conjugate of the result, which causes the new result to be the maximum possible roll minus the original result. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence modifier.

The Colour out of Space [Gramarie]
You've discovered a horrifying new colour! You call it pink.
Prerequisite: KALD 101, Spot 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Spot checks. In addition, you have discovered a strange new colour which doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the cosmos. Just looking at it causes lesser peoples' minds to snap like a twig. Whenever you succeed on the Spot check to create a kaleidomantic filter by 5 or more, you can infuse this bizarre new colour into the filter, which causes anyone looking at it to make a Will save (DC 13 + your Cha modifier at the time of construction) or be [url=http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#confused]confused[/colour] for the next round. This effect can be avoided by averting one's eyes, like a gaze attack. Saving successfully against this effect does not imply protection on following rounds. Aberrations are immune to this effect; this is a supernatural mind-affecting pattern effect.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Spot).

Carbon Copy [Gramarie]
Theft is really just the ultimate expression of artistic appreciation; they should actually be honoured, not outraged
Prerequisite: YGGD 101, Forgery 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Forgery checks. In addition, whenever you create a mundane forgery, you can instantly prepare YGGD 101 as an immediate action to create a tiny semispace of no larger than 1ft. in any dimensions in order to envelop the original work if it is at hand. As soon as the object is removed from the semispace, the space collapses.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Forgery).

Creative Surgeon [Gramarie]
What do you call the person who graduates last in their medical class?
Prerequisite: BIOL 101, Heal 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Heal checks. In addition, whenever you successfully use the Heal skill to create a biollurgical chassis, you can trade out graft slots at a 1:1 ratio, giving you much more freedom to create twisted monstrosities.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Heal).

Desperate Improvisation [Gramarie]
We need to make this fit in a hole made for this, using nothing but that.
Prerequisite: Must be able to prepare Magisterial-grade gramaric principles, Ingenious Engineer, Wis 17
Benefit: You can either work frantically or ingeniously when you prepare a principle with a material requirement. If you work frantically, you can prepare the principle in half the time with twice the material. If you work ingeniously, you can prepare the principle in twice the time with half the material.

Diplomatic Immunity [Gramarie]
It's just been revoked!
Prerequisite: ALCH 101, Diplomacy 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks. In addition, whenever you argue an alchemetric principle, you can include a clause which invalidates one of the obscure energy types: this includes things that technically aren't energy types, but are treated like them in sourcebooks, such as positive or negative energy, hellfire, desiccation, and so on. The material being affected gains immunity to this obscure energy in addition to the other effects of the principle.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Diplomacy).

Double-Blind Transformations [Gramarie]
The best way to figure out what kind of transformer it is is really just to poke it until it works
Prerequisite: ARCD 101, Use Magic Device 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Use Magic Device checks. In addition, you can use a Use Magic Device check to activate arcanodynamic transformers blindly. This is a full-round skill check which provides an amount of pseudo-puissance to the transformer equal to your Use Magic Device result. If this meets the limit on ebb transfer for the transformer, it converts the energy into its output form, which you can then target or control as if you were making the logical decision for the circuit. You can only successfully use this skill check type on any transformer once, and you cannot use it on a transformer you created.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Use Magic Device).

Equivalent Circuits [Gramarie]
Resistance is futile
Prerequisite: HEUR 101, Autohypnosis 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Autohypnosis checks. In addition, whenever you connect two gramaric devices with a heuristical circuit, you can choose for the connection to be a short circuit or an open circuit if you succeed on the Autohypnosis check by 5 or more. If you make a short circuit, the circuit can only connect those two devices; nothing else can be hooked up to it, and they cannot be part of any other circuit. However, the flow of puissance between the two devices is improved; any supply of puissance from one to the other is increased by 10%. If you choose to make an open circuit instead, the bubble is 5ft. in radius larger than it otherwise would be, but the flow of puissance through the circuit is dampened, decreasing all transfers of puissance inside the circuit by 10%.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Autohypnosis).

Extra Credit [Gramarie]
You took additional credits for either the love of learning, or because you're a keener.
Benefit: You learn a gramaric principle that you qualify for. Characters without any previous gramaric training can learn 101 principles, and can prepare them just like an actual gramarist. You cannot use this feat to learn an additional theory.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times, until you have a number of bonus principles equal to your Charisma modifier. However, you can only have a single bonus principle of your highest grade (Baccalaureate, Magisterial, or Doctorate).

Force of Mind [Gramarie]
Your engines work at the speed of thought!
Prerequisite: ELDK 101, Concentration 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Concentration checks. In addition, if you succeed on the Concentration check to build an eldrikinetic engine by more than 5, the engine can be powered by pure willpower. Psionic characters can transfer power points into the engine to activate it in place of normal fuel or puissance at a rate of 1 power point per ebb normally required. They remain limited in the number of power points they can spend in any given round on any given task, just like manifesting a power. Psionic characters must be either touching the engine, or be in telepathic range of it if they have telepathy. They are allowed to make logical decisions for the engine while powering it.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Concentration).

Imachinary Friends [Gramarie]
You're so good at imitating people, you don't even need the real thing!
Prerequisite: IMCH 101, Bluff 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Bluff checks. In addition, whenever you create an illusion which contains a component designed to imitate a specific individual, you can make a special Bluff check which works like a Disguise check in order to imitate that specific person. Anyone interacting with the illusion needs to see through the disguise as normal for disguises before they are allowed a chance for a fundamental disconnect (note that a sensory mismatch can still prompt a chance to reveal the illusion).
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Bluff).

Ingenious Engineer [Gramarie]
When the chips are down, you figure out a way to put them back up such that they can support an optimal load. At least for a little while.
Prerequisite: Must be able to prepare gramaric principles, Wis 15
Benefit: You can prepare a principle in a single full-round action, but it only lasts for the next five rounds.)

Mystic Huntsman [Gramarie]
The best defense against magic is CONSTANT VIGILANCE
Prerequisite: GEOC 101, Survival 4 ranks, Track
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Survival checks. In addition, you can use the Track feat to follow heuristical circuit connections (DC 15) or locate geoccult poles inside of biomes (DC 20). You can also sense the presence of imachinary illusions within a mile with a DC 40 result, although this doesn't tell you the exact for the illusion takes.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Survival).

Reverse Engineering [Gramarie]
Engineering is so much easier when someone else does the hard part for you.
Prerequisite: Must be able to prepare gramaric principles, Int 17
Benefit: By spending an hour examining a gramaric device, you can reverse engineer the blueprint for it by making a Knowledge (architecture and engineering) check which matches the original skill check made to create it.

Blueprints

A blueprint is a schematic describing exactly how to prepare a principle to the unenlightened. Creating a blueprint requires a gramarist who knows the principle to spend eight times the normal preparation time. She also needs to have appropriate materials of course, including paper or parchment and some sort of writing implement, and usually engineering tools such as a compass and straight-edge.

Any principle can be scribed into a blueprint, but a principle with the [Specialist] tag can only be read by another gramarist specialized in the same discipline. A principle can be prepared from a blueprint by anyone with an understanding of gramarie at least one tier lower than the level of the blueprint itself:

{table=head]Tier of Blueprint|Minimum Tier of Reader
Baccalaureate|Untrained
Magisterial|Baccalaureate
Doctorate|Magisterial[/table]

Reading the blueprint and preparing the scribed principle requires a key skill check as normal, but it must also meet a certain benchmark. This is DC 20 for a Baccalaureate principle, DC 40 for a a Magisterial principle, and DC 60 for a Doctorate principle. Preparing a principle from a blueprint takes twice the normal amount of time. Upon successful completion of using the blueprint, it can only ever be used thereafter to improve upon the original principle from it; it cannot be used for a separate activation. However, anyone reading from the blueprint can use it to modify or improve the original work, as normal.

Blueprints generally cost the normal rate based on the time it takes for them to be scribed (that is, about eight times the cost of simply hiring a gramarist to prepare the principle in the first place).

Bubbles

Many principles create or affect bubbles of radius 5ft. A gramarist can create bigger bubbles by preparing principles multiple times like any principle, but there are certain benchmarks that must be met to create a larger bubble:

{table=head]Bubble Radius|Minimum No. of Preparations
5ft.|1
10ft.|8
15ft.|27
20ft.|64
25ft.|125[/table]

And so on in that fashion. A bubble can actually take any shape you like that would fit into the bubble of the appropriate size, but you still need to prepare the principle enough times to create that volume of effect. Essentially, you can always choose to have the bubble fill less than the full volume of the bubble if you like.

DMing with Gramarie
How to gramarie (and you can too!)

Games that involve gramarie are very very different from games that do not. The entire point of the system is to allow interaction by players into the technology level and culture of the world that you've constructed. The important thing to understand are the ramifications of the different levels of power that gramarie allows.

In general, there are three levels to gramarie. The first is what I call "low-impact magitek". This is the setting that comes from having only Baccalaureate-level principles around, it's what's in E6, and in general it's what you'll find in default low-magic campaign settings where few people even make it to 7th level. The tech level of this kind of setting is pretty close to normal D&D, and is similar to what you might find in Eberron, for instance. Some of the interesting things that you can probably expect in a low-impact magitek setting are rudimentary automobiles, materials that are stronger and more durable than you'd find in most settings, and some interesting construction techniques that leverage kaleidomantic and arcanodynamic abilities to build stuff that would be hard to build in the real world. Yggdratectural semi-spaces allow for things like portable cover for armies and excellent food and supply storage, which makes warfare much more plausible than a setting where half the population eats dirt for a living. In general, there are some interesting technologies available at this point, but they aren't necessarily widespread, and anything complicated requires a skilled psychic technician to operate (heuristical circuits still need Autohypnosis checks to operate at this point). If that's a tech level that you feel comfortable with, feel free to keep it nailed there for your entire campaign. There's not much impact from higher level technologies if the PCs are the only ones with it, since the abilities and techniques can't be leveraged for society as a whole. This approach is also pretty good for an introduction to gramarie, and to explore if it's something you want to go more in-depth into.

The second level of tech is probably my personal favourite, which I call "magitek renaissance". It comes online at 7th level with magisterial principles. In a magitek renaissance you've really got technology blossoming. This level allows rayguns, airships, giant robots, cannons, submarines, and a lot of other really cool stuff. This is where the applications start to open up, and more importantly, they become accesible to an untrained citizenry. It's like the difference between having the internet in universities and government, and putting it into the hands of the people. With control points and programming now available in circuits, anyone can use gramarie, or it can even basically run itself. In general, this level of technology is great for exploration and having fun with the ideas and world-building gramarie makes possible. I'd recommend it for any kind of magical empire or high-magic society. A great approach for a group that wants to have a little more fun and invent crazy stuff.

The final level of tech is pretty extreme; I call it "doomsday magitek". This is a post-scarcity, post-everything setting. It's pretty nuts, but then, it only exists when the population is 14th level and higher, so yeah. Anything you can imagine is pretty much possible here, from building artificial intelligences to manage a demiplane, to flying island fortresses that jump between Planes and bring their citizenry with them in giant alternate-dimension prisons that they use to power their nuclear weapons. I reserve this level of tech for PCs that make it to that point and want to have some high-level fun, or for extraplanar societies that are explicitly supposed to be lightyears more advanced than the Material Plane. This is seriously crazy-town, and is just incredible as a toolkit for a clever DM. This is the stuff that you can use to actually show how the magical empire operates, while still having the rules to allow PCs to interact with it. This is why you're here.

Now, a super-important point to make here which I touched on in the renaissance section is that the level of the PCs is not the same as the tech level of the setting. Any particular player character is limited by both his particular field of study (remember that a lot of the coolest tricks are Specialist only) and his time that he can invest. As a DM you're totally in control of how much time the PCs have to invent, practice, and explore the options that this system allows. Just because a player character has doctorate level principles doesn't mean your setting will implode, because there's only so much that one PC working on his own can do with this system. Massive societal changes require groups of high-level gramarists working together to get huge stuff accomplished.

Basically, there are a lot of possibilities with this system, but that's not a bad thing. It's sort of an equalizer between the DM and the players. Players have access to abilities which can cause permanent, visible changes in the world, but the DM has all of the same tools to construct a setting around. However you use it, just remember to have fun!

Pricing Gramarie

This is a really interesting topic. How do you price something made out of gramarie? The answer depends very much on the technology level of your setting, and the gramarie-tech that's already out there. That being said, when you get right down to it, gramarist is a job. It happens to be a very well-paying job, but then, so is manufacturing walls of iron as a wizard or binding efreeti in your spare time. Gramarists have to make a living somehow; the primary resource for a gramarist, as you may have noticed, is time. They can make a lot of really awesome stuff, but it takes some time, and in some cases that amount of time is ludicrously large. The only stuff that they will be able to churn out in fast production cycles are small-scale personal equipment, like rayguns and jetpacks. Large-scale engineering projects are going to require massive investments of time, large teams of gramarists working together, or preferably both.

When you buy something made of gramarie, you're essentially buying a set of principles that have been prepared on your behalf, and you're buying the raw materials. Every principle that has been used has a value of anywhere from 1 to 9. Every principle starts at a value of 0 for price. Principles that have been prepared multiple times are treated as separate principles for pricing.

{table=head]Factor|Value
Baccalaureate Principle|+1
Magisterial Principle|+3
Doctorate Principle|+5
Baccalaureate Tech-Level Setting|+2
Magisterial Tech-Level Setting|+1
Doctorate Tech-Level Setting|+0
[Specialist] Principle|+2[/table]

Once you establish the value of each principle that went into the thing you're buying, check this chart for the price of purchasing it:

{table=head]Value|Price
1|3 gp
2|9 gp
3|27 gp
4|81 gp
5|243 gp
6|729 gp
7|2,187 gp
8|6,561 gp
9|19,683 gp[/table]

Now, this means that in most settings, gramarists (even at 1st level) can make a pretty decent wage. If you're going to include gramarie at those levels, you're going to have to get used to that reality. Gramarists do awesome stuff for the setting, and they get rewarded for it. If you have an aversion to this kind of economic power, feel free to place things like tariffs on gramarie profits, taboos against comissioning it, political reasons they can't sell their work, and so on. But seriously, making money is not as big of a deal as most people feel like it is, because any adventurer can make money if they decide to start up a business or farm for a hundred years or something. Please consider allowing people to make money in your game and buy stuff with it that people actually do buy with money, like land, property, people, and bling.

Really Really Big Stuff

Some of the stuff that gramarists make is big. Really, really big. Colossal just doesn't cut it when you're talking about actually making flying islands. Here's an expansion of the size category rules which clarifies some of the numbers about size categories beyond Colossal. I realize that this is just delaying the problem, since you might need bigger stuff, but it's a pretty good start. If in doubt about some of the qualities of things this size, continue normal mathematical progressions for all size qualities as you move beyond Colossal.

Space and Height of Really Really Big Stuff
{table=head]Size Category|Space Limit|Height Limit
Colossal+ [Enormous]|1,600 sqft. (64 squares)|128ft.
Colossal++ [Immense]|2,500 sqft. (100 squares)|256ft.
Colossal+++ |4,900 sqft. (196 squares)|512ft.
Colossal++++ [Cavernous]|10,000 sqft. (400 squares)|1,024ft.
Colossal+++++ [Mountainous]|19,600 sqft. (784 squares)|2,048ft.
Colossal++++++ [Vast]|36,100 sqft. (1,444 squares)|4,096ft.[/table]


[b]Glossary

There is a lot of terminology that goes together with gramarie. I've tried to make the new key words and phrases as self-explanatory, consistent, and easy to follow as I can, but if you're curious what a particular term means, check this reference guide!

Alchemetry: A discipline of gramarie that deals with altering material statistics. Fantasy analogue to materials engineering.
Ambient Temperature: The average temperature in degrees Centigrade of the environment, not any particular object in it. More than half of the area must be this temperature for it to be the ambient temperature.
Arcanodynamics: A discipline of gramarie that deals with converting energy from one form to another. Fantasy analogue to energy engineering.
Ascended Metal: A planetary metal can be ascended with ALCH 364, which gives it some kind of supernatural property.
Biollurgy: A discipline of gramarie that deals with creating life and shaping it. Fantasy analogue to biomedical engineering.
Biostructure: A gross building material that shares traits with both objects and creatures.
Blueprint: A written reference of a principle. Allows a layman to use the principle.
Bubble: A spherical shape commonly used by gramarie.
Bulk: A rating that provides an estimate of how bulky something is. Based off of size and density.
Chassis: A mass of biostructure given life.
Circuit: A heuristical bubble that connects various things together into a control system.
Controller (Kaleidomantics): The person controlling the motion of a kaleidomantic filter.
Control Point: A location built into a circuit where anyone can make logical decisions for the circuit.
Eldrikinetics: A discipline of gramarie that deals with motion and engines. Two main focuses are ballistics and transport. Fantasy analogue to mechanical engineering.
Energy Damage: There are five kinds of energy damage in D&D: acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic.
Engine: A machine you build with eldrikinetics which transforms fuel or puissance into motion of some kind.
Ferrous: Ferrous metals are in this document defined as any kind of metal which either is a magnet or reacts to a magnet.
Filter: A 2D shape of light that separates out some agent based on its colour.
Flux: An yggdratectural field where some weird physics effect occurs.
Form (Imachination): The way an illusion interacts with what it's covering. This can be adding, changing, or removing the sensory information already present.
Function (Imachination): The way an illusion interacts with the rest of the world through its behaviour.
Fundamental Disconnect: Happens when an illusion presents information which is logically impossible. Offers a chance to disbelieve the illusion.
Geoccultism: A discipline of gramarie that deals with the environment and ecology. Fantasy analogue to environmental engineering.
Gramarie: Fantasy equivalent of science and technology which provides a different way to interact with magic.
Gramarist: Someone who uses gramarie, or more specifically a character class that teaches principles of gramarie.
Heuristicism: A discipline of gramarie that deals with control and programming. Fantasy analogue to computer engineering.
Imachination: A discipline of gramarie that deals with senses and false information. Fantasy analogue to social engineering.
Inside: The term inside describes what space an object is on. In Yggdratecture it means that that object is more than 50% on one side of a portal or another, and the effect it produces takes place on the space it's inside.
Kaleidomantics: A discipline of gramarie that deals with light and filtration. Fantasy analogue to civil engineering.
Key Skill: Every discipline has a key skill which is used when you prepare a principle from it. Gramarists can substitute Knowledge (architecture and engineering) checks for a key skill check at a penalty.
Logical Decision: Any kind of decision which changes the way a principle or component works. Logical decisions can also be changed in a circuit.
Planetary Metal: There are eight metals that are very important to gramarie, and are based on the alchemical planetary beliefs from real life. They are copper, gold, iron, lead, mercury, platinum, silver, and tin.
Portal: The entryway to an extradimensional space or other plane.
Principle: The gramarie equivalent of spells. Principles come in three grades: Baccalaureate, Magisterial, and Doctorate. Some principles are marked with the [Specialist] tag, and can only be learned by a specialist in that discipline.
Puissance: Puissance is a generic form of magical energy. Think of it like the electricity that drives magic. Puissance is measured in ebbs (eb).
Push: A kind of imparted momentum granted by an engine. It creates a speed for the target for one round.
Radiomantic: A metal which gives off arcane decay continually. Very dangerous and hard to handle.
Semi-Space: A small extradimensional space created by yggdratecture.
Sense Output: The sensory component given off by an illusion. Keyed to a particular sense.
Sensory Mismatch: Happens when two senses don't agree about what's they're sensing. Offers a chance to disbelieve an illusion.
Spatial Reference: A point in space designated as a reference point to the location and orientation of some effect. Can be fixed in space, or attached to a creature or object. Moving a reference moves the effect.
Spectroconstruction: The way that a gramarist gets mundane construction and labour accomplished on his own. References possibly the most ambiguous magic item ever, sorry about that.
Transformer: An arcanodynamic transformer is a chunk of metal which either absorbs energy or emits energy. By sticking two of them together you can convert energy from one form to another.
Trigger/Response: A combination of a specific set of circumstances or requirements to be met, and the decision that a circuit will make in such an event.
Two-Part Engine: An abstraction created when you have a powered simple orthogonal and an ascending or descending engine. You can treat the vessel as if it had a fly or swim speed for ease of gameplay.
Yggdratecture: A discipline of gramarie dealing with extradimensional spaces, planes, and magnetism. Fantasy analogue to structural engineering.

To-Do

Arcanitect prestige class
Stellar Cartographer (Asternomist?) prestige class
400-level theories
Traditions, perks that specialists in the gramarist class can pick up
Saboteur base class
Sapper base class
Feats

Zale
2012-08-15, 05:53 PM
I have no words.

This is wonderful.

Awesome.

radmelon
2012-08-15, 05:55 PM
Looks like Welknair (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182780)has some competition. I haven't had a chance to read through it yet, but it's obvious that a massive amount of work has gone into this.

Amechra
2012-08-15, 09:20 PM
This is gorgeous.

I think I'll start designing things now.

But tell me; can you use non-Wood transformers to power a Circuit? And are there, for a lack of better words, "switches" on the transformers?

For example, if I were to make an Input transformer and an Output transformer, and I connected them, would I get to control when the spell got cast without the addition of a circuit? Or would it be automatic upon generation of the necessary amount of ebbs.

I'm kind of wondering how societies would view Submerging engines; after all, they are powered by blood...

Edit: Also, do you gain more Principles known and of a higher grade if you were to enter the Eldritch Theurge PrC, for example?

jojolagger
2012-08-15, 09:44 PM
I have done my first read through. That ssaid, not best critiqueing mindset right now, so will post comments later. I'll likely also have a few schematics for you.

That said, a note right away if you can have circuits tell other circuits what to do by a complex interface thing that needs batteries.

Now I'm going to lose focus on this for a bit, so as to avoid giving my self a headache due to the innate possible complexity caused by including FPGA's in D&D. and dimensional stuff.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 09:48 PM
This is gorgeous.

I think I'll start designing things now.

But tell me; can you use non-Wood transformers to power a Circuit? And are there, for a lack of better words, "switches" on the transformers?

For example, if I were to make an Input transformer and an Output transformer, and I connected them, would I get to control when the spell got cast without the addition of a circuit? Or would it be automatic upon generation of the necessary amount of ebbs.

I'm kind of wondering how societies would view Submerging engines; after all, they are powered by blood...

Edit: Also, do you gain more Principles known and of a higher grade if you were to enter the Eldritch Theurge PrC, for example?

Good questions!

1. No, a transformer needs to be made of wood in order to actually output puissance into a circuit. The other kinds of transformer use ebbs as a unit to describe the amount of energy being moved around, but you need a wood output transformer to actually use it as puissance.

2. No. An input transformer continually gathers energy. If there is an output transformer touching it, the energy moves to the output side and is transformed (hence the name). So as an easy way to break the process, just separate the two of them. But otherwise, as long as there is the right kind of energy being supplied to the input side, the output side will generate whatever it is that it generates.

3. Yes, it would automatically cast when it had gathered enough energy to cast the memorized spell. A heuristical circuit trigger would allow you to deploy it whenever you want.

4. I imagine that would depend on the society! :smallwink:

5. No, normal prestige classes don't advance gramarie, since it's an entirely separate ability set. That being said, I've got some PrCs coming for some fairly simple hybrid classes to diversify a little.

Glad you like it!


Looks like Welknair has some competition. I haven't had a chance to read through it yet, but it's obvious that a massive amount of work has gone into this.

Hey, thanks! I've been working on this for literally months, there are just so many pieces that have to fit together just so for the idea to work. Welknair's done some really cool stuff there, and I liked his material for this, but it wasn't what I was looking for for the games I want to run. :smallsmile:


I have no words.

This is wonderful.

Awesome.

Thank you! I hope you enjoy using it!

EDIT


That said, a note right away if you can have circuits tell other circuits what to do by a complex interface thing that needs batteries.

Circuits can interact with each other, but only to move puissance between them. So, you could move puissance being generated inside of one circuit to a battery which is inside both it and a second circuit, and then have the second one programmed to remove the puissance from the battery, for example. The easiest battery, if you're looking for one, is orichalcum. It can store energy up to 100 ebbs per cubic foot.

Amechra
2012-08-15, 10:10 PM
A few things that will tell me exactly what I think of this project:
1. Is there a way to diminish the amount of Push that an Eldrikinetic engine produces?

2. What senses does the Heurisistic intelligence get?

3. Is there any way that a certain principle can be automated?

4. Can you apply stuff like Alchemetry to constructs?

Because if 1 is a no, then I can't design a precise filing system.

Because if 2 is a "seeing and hearing like a human within 60' of the circuit", then I can make you TV, the Internet, and a buncha other things.

Because if 3 is a no, then my dreams of a factory churning out super-steel or whatever is a wash.

Because if 4 is a no, then anyone who wants to make a better Golem will be saddened.

I can make a foundry, though: it's as simple as having a crusher (an exercise left for the reader) on a tilt, which goes over an Orange kaleidomantic filter that is covered by the bubble produced by an Ice Output Transformer (just raise the melting point on the ice, and Bob's your uncle), generating enough heat to melt the metal.

The metal then drips through, into a vat that has been treated to have a low Heat Capacity, which has been set up mechanically like one of those little drinky-birds, which means it dumps into a groove that leads to a set of bar molds, which are on a specialized dispenser.

The molds, still containing molten metal, are then slid down into a small container where an Ice Input Transformer flashes on and off, which removes all of the heat in the bars instantly, without introducing the cracking and warping that dumping it in cold water would have.

The bars are then sent off to be manipulated further by a team of Gramarists, and then are sent off to smiths and the like as high-quality metal.

You need high hardness? No problem. You need it to be light? No problem.

If Intelligences can see, then all you need is an Intelligence with instructions to faithfully reproduce anything that it has read, connected to an Controlled Additive Visual illusion, replicating any page that the Intelligence has seen, to basically have a Kindle.

You can combine Imachination and Kaleidomantics to mess with an enemy's head; after all, once you've figured out that a Purple barrier always blocks living things, you aren't going to try to pass through, even though it might just be a hastily set up Red barrier with a Tactile and Visual Static Additive Illusion slapped on top. Or, hell, even just the illusion.

Yggdrarchitecture is invaluable for any minituarization you perform; after all, where else are you going to store your jet-pack? Seriously, gramarie is pretty heavy stuff.

Kellus
2012-08-15, 10:21 PM
A few things that will tell me exactly what I think of this project:
1. Is there a way to diminish the amount of Push that an Eldrikinetic engine produces?

Um... no, but there should be and I'll put one in. BUT (and it's a big but) Push generates a speed. You never have to move your speed. The only time it would be an issue is if you're throwing projectiles that can't choose to reduce their speed, and for whatever reason you want them flung slowly. But it's still a good point, I'll edit it in there.


2. What senses does the Heurisistic intelligence get?

I believe I specified they get telepathy and mindsight inside of the circuit bubble, and they're effectively senseless outside of that. I imagine they'd be most effective with someone (underling?) inside of the bubble to act as a sense array for them.


3. Is there any way that a certain principle can be automated?

Yes, in fact there's a whole principle about it: HEUR 302. It lets you program a principle into the circuit, which can then be activated and prepared at a later date when conditions are met.


4. Can you apply stuff like Alchemetry to constructs?

Yes. They are made out of materials.


Because if 1 is a no, then I can't design a precise filing system.

Because if 2 is a "seeing and hearing like a human within 60' of the circuit", then I can make you TV, the Internet, and a buncha other things.

Because if 3 is a no, then my dreams of a factory churning out super-steel or whatever is a wash.

Because if 4 is a no, then anyone who wants to make a better Golem will be saddened.

Sorry about crushing your dreams for number 2. :smallwink:


I can make a foundry, though: it's as simple as having a crusher (an exercise left for the reader) on a tilt, which goes over an Orange kaleidomantic filter that is covered by the bubble produced by an Ice Output Transformer (just raise the melting point on the ice, and Bob's your uncle), generating enough heat to melt the metal.

The metal then drips through, into a vat that has been treated to have a low Heat Capacity, which has been set up mechanically like one of those little drinky-birds, which means it dumps into a groove that leads to a set of bar molds, which are on a specialized dispenser.

The molds, still containing molten metal, are then slid down into a small container where an Ice Input Transformer flashes on and off, which removes all of the heat in the bars instantly, without introducing the cracking and warping that dumping it in cold water would have.

The bars are then sent off to be manipulated further by a team of Gramarists, and then are sent off to smiths and the like as high-quality metal.

You need high hardness? No problem. You need it to be light? No problem.

If Intelligences can see, then all you need is an Intelligence with instructions to faithfully reproduce anything that it has read, connected to an Controlled Additive Visual illusion, replicating any page that the Intelligence has seen, to basically have a Kindle.

You can combine Imachination and Kaleidomantics to mess with an enemy's head; after all, once you've figured out that a Purple barrier always blocks living things, you aren't going to try to pass through, even though it might just be a hastily set up Red barrier with a Tactile and Visual Static Additive Illusion slapped on top. Or, hell, even just the illusion.

Eee hee hee hee hee I love it :smallbiggrin:


Yggdrarchitecture is invaluable for any minituarization you perform; after all, where else are you going to store your jet-pack? Seriously, gramarie is pretty heavy stuff.

Weight has nothing to do with it!

Answerer
2012-08-15, 10:40 PM
You have no idea how unbelievably excited this makes me.

Amechra
2012-08-15, 10:42 PM
The Encumbrance system creates an abstraction of weight and volume, and squashes it into one "weight" type dealy.

I should have said "bulky". I'm sorry.

And the ability to program Principles into a circuit is amazingly useful; I do have one question, though:

How unbalanced would it be to have some method to speed up Principle use?

You see, I had an idea about having a Warship that has a circuit ready to ramp up the hull's Hardness really quickly upon entering battle.

But, hmm, a little math...

Let's say you don't have much to do, and the Barbarian is worried about his little steel sword being sundered.

So you go off somewhere, and let's say that you are a level 2 half-Elf Gramarist; you just want to increase the hardness of the metal, no biggy.

So you roll a Diplomacy check; Alchemetry is your Specialty, and you took Skill Focus (Diplomacy), and that half-elf feat that gives you +3 for Synergies instead of +2, and have a masterwork tool of Diplomacy.

You also have a friend come over, who can make a Diplomacy check with you; how grand!

You also spend skill points getting 5 ranks of Bluff and Sense Motive, for the synergy bonuses.

You rolled middling on your Charisma, getting only a 15.

So, for your check, you roll 1d20+23, for an average of 33, for a +6 to Hardness. Your range is 4-8 points of hardness added or subtracted from your item. Or you could cut the weight of all that coinage you found to around a sixth of its normal weight.

Fast forward to level 4; your bonuses have now increased, so you are rolling a 1d20+27, for a 5-9 point range.

This goes great in Gestalt with a build that gets crazy-high Diplomacy checks (I think the record is about a +120 to Diplomacy by 20th; that's a +24-+28 bonus to Hardness, for real fun!)

But yeah, I hope at least one of the prestige classes is going to mix it with Truenamer, because using Truename checks instead of the skill checks normally needed (within limits, of course), is rather snazzy.

Pyromancer999
2012-08-15, 10:46 PM
Hmmmm....a bit complex, but nice.

Most important question: Can I make robots with this? As in, is it possible to do that?

Also, can the effects of principles be done on the fly?

Kellus
2012-08-15, 10:47 PM
You have no idea how unbelievably excited this makes me.

Haha, awesome. :smallsmile:


I should have said "bulky". I'm sorry.

No, I was just going for the cheap quote. You're entirely right that the stuff you make weighs a hell of a lot.


How unbalanced would it be to have some method to speed up Principle use?

Unfortunately, very unbalanced. The key limiting factor for a gramarist is time, between spectroconstruction and principles that take an hour+ to prepare. And there are already a few ways to get around that, with time traits on demiplanes and solid quicksilver buildings.

But yeah, skill checks are nice because they can get crazy good pretty fast with some optimization, but nothing in the system really breaks with wtfbig skill numbers. Most of the results are for benchmarks or opposed checks.

jojolagger
2012-08-15, 10:56 PM
Hmmmm....a bit complex, but nice.

Most important question: Can I make robots with this? As in, is it possible to do that?
Probably, yes, but very complex ones. However, I'm fairly sure you can do it without any specialist principals.
Also, I'm fairly sure it's complex enough that if won't fly, in most games. Seriously.

Also, can a Herusitic Circuit use if statements and/or Boolean logic? ex. (if [(Battery A above 5 ebb) and (triggered)] then release all ebb via silver out)

Kellus
2012-08-15, 11:01 PM
Probably, yes, but very complex ones. However, I'm fairly sure you can do it without any specialist principals.
Also, I'm fairly sure it's complex enough that if won't fly, in most games. Seriously.

Also, can a Herusitic Circuit use if statements and/or Boolean logic? ex. (if [(Battery A above 5 ebb) and (triggered)] then release all ebb via silver out)

I tend to agree about the robot, although there's an 8th discipline in the works dealing with animate things.

If you can describe the condition in plain language that most people could understand, it's fair game. Not, and, if, or, are all pretty reasonable. :smallsmile:

Garryl
2012-08-15, 11:04 PM
This is very cool and reminds me of Spacechem. I'm poring over things, trying to grok how Heuristics and Arcanodynamics work (and interact). Fun little puzzle you made, Kellus. For example, right now I'm trying to puzzle out something to use a random time trait plane as a time multiplier. Drop something in, do some automated tests to check the time differential somehow, and pull it out if it's not fast enough.

I am concerned that there isn't anything this can do (as far as I've read, which isn't all of it) that existing magic can't, especially with copious use of magic traps. Even without, computers have been made with undead (Deep Rot), and from there it's only a small step to most of the automation possible with this system. Still looking for whatever it is I may have missed.

Amechra
2012-08-15, 11:04 PM
Probably, yes, but very complex ones. However, I'm fairly sure you can do it without any specialist principals.
Also, I'm fairly sure it's complex enough that if won't fly, in most games. Seriously.

Also, can a Herusitic Circuit use if statements and/or Boolean logic? ex. (if [(Battery A above 5 ebb) and (triggered)] then release all ebb via silver out)

Actually, robots are fairly easy; you just need to have a circuit that does movement and energy loops, and an Intelligence, and it is fairly easy.

But yeah, otherwise, since there aren't any sensors, I would be at a loss for making a simple robot.

Seriously, Kellus, would it have killed you to make a sensor that doesn't have a resolution of a square foot to a pixel? It would have made making a Bremmerman Device so much easier.

Of course, our hardest test will be making the simplest possible Turing complete device/von Neumann Machine with this system...

Kellus
2012-08-15, 11:14 PM
I am concerned that there isn't anything this can do (as far as I've read, which isn't all of it) that existing magic can't, especially with copious use of magic traps. Even without, computers have been made with undead (Deep Rot), and from there it's only a small step to most of the automation possible with this system. Still looking for whatever it is I may have missed.

This is actually a really good point, and brings up something I want to talk about. There actually shouldn't be anything that you can do with this system that you can't do with enough effort with normal magic (okay, that's a lie, normal illusions are awful). The thing is, in normal D&D magic doing cool awesome engineering is usually about finding loopholes and exploits in combat-oriented spells. The tricks are obscure, needlessly complicated, and are often criticized as not being RAI.

I went at it from the other direction. I started from the premise that what I want is a game world that has all of these wonderful pieces of magical engineering in them, and tried to design a rules set that made them possible. Other advantages that you'll find with this system are the nice delineation into tiers of tech-level, a system that's more integrated for everybody (not just spellcasters), and rules that are in general more transparent and accessible.

Glad you like it! :smallsmile:

Amechra
2012-08-15, 11:49 PM
Alright, so setting up a Flux is based off of the plane that you are on, right?

So if I were a 14th+ level Yggdrarchitecture specialist, could I set up a 2x time Demiplane, and then set up an area of Flux with 2x time, and then put a box of Moonsilver there, for a 8x time bonanza? (I love my workshop, yes I do, I love my workshop, how about you?)

Or the other way around, for a 1/4 time area?

Kellus
2012-08-16, 12:10 AM
Alright, so setting up a Flux is based off of the plane that you are on, right?

So if I were a 14th+ level Yggdrarchitecture specialist, could I set up a 2x time Demiplane, and then set up an area of Flux with 2x time, and then put a box of Moonsilver there, for a 8x time bonanza? (I love my workshop, yes I do, I love my workshop, how about you?)

Or the other way around, for a 1/4 time area?

I think a double stacking is the best you're going to get. You can set a flux property to a demiplane when you first make it (or a gravity trait), but if you set up a flux inside of your own demiplane it's just going to be a different magnetic or gravity effect in the field compared to the rest of the demiplane. It doesn't get a totally separate set of planar traits compared to the rest of the Plane.

But yes, the time demiplane as a whole and the quicksilver workshop are feasible, so a 4x time flow is doable. Although bear in mind that that takes two Specialist principle from two separate disciplines, so you'd have to procure the quicksilver from another gramarist.

Amechra
2012-08-16, 12:12 AM
Of course; after all, we could share the workshop, making wonders in a fourth of the time...

bobthe6th
2012-08-16, 02:07 AM
so, a simple nuke would be one cobic foot of sunmetal, 1 cubic foot of orchium, and a circut set for contact or some such... then dump the charge into the sunmetal... nasty. I would ask, could a lead transformer input be used as a sort of decontamination system? or hell a nuke shield(super buffed lead plated ship, each plate being a lead input transformer. when you get nuked the radiation is absorbed into puristance... make a couple if you want to be sure.)?

Garryl
2012-08-16, 08:24 AM
Current thought experiment:
- Create device that makes things. Input materials and commands (likely through ebbs down a circuit), and it performs the desired principles on the materials in question. Bonus points if it can be made entirely of quicksilver or manipulate a quicksilver airlock for double speed, although that's not quite as necessary. Must also be able to output finished materials.
- Make a random time plane attached to another, regular (or double) time plane. Stick the aforementioned device inside, removing and repeating as necessary to ensure its presence in a 1 round:24 hours time flow.
- Resulting device should have a 28800:1 time efficiency ratio. If you can input commands and materials once per round, it has 48 hours worth of principles to enact on them.

jojolagger
2012-08-16, 10:53 AM
- Make a random time plane attached to another, regular (or double) time plane. Stick the aforementioned device inside, removing and repeating as necessary to ensure its presence in a 1 round:24 hours time flow.
- Resulting device should have a 28800:1 time efficiency ratio. If you can input commands and materials once per round, it has 48 hours worth of principles to enact on them.
In order to to that, you'd need the planejumping engine, hooked up to a circuit in the "Nexus", which has circuitry connected to clocks in many random time planes. It then automatically planeshifts to whichever plane is going fastest.
And you need enough erratic time planes to assure best flowing time rate. And you'd need in all either enclosed in quicksilver or made of it to actually reach 28800:1. You can't stack time x2 and erratic time, as there effects overwrite each other.

Garryl
2012-08-16, 11:27 AM
In order to to that, you'd need the planejumping engine, hooked up to a circuit in the "Nexus", which has circuitry connected to clocks in many random time planes. It then automatically planeshifts to whichever plane is going fastest.
And you need enough erratic time planes to assure best flowing time rate. And you'd need in all either enclosed in quicksilver or made of it to actually reach 28800:1. You can't stack time x2 and erratic time, as there effects overwrite each other.

Time testing can be done with an engine that generates/outputs 100 ebbs per day. Stick it across, and if you have ~100 ebbs 1 round later, you have a fast timestream. Otherwise, recall it and stick it into another timestream. I haven't read the details on the power, robotics, and logic magitek yet, but this should be doable.

Eldan
2012-08-16, 11:28 AM
Love it. I'd call it the most interesting system on these boards, and I haven't even read it all. I'll give you a proper response once I got that far.

jojolagger
2012-08-16, 11:40 AM
Time testing can be done with an engine that generates/outputs 100 ebbs per day. Stick it across, and if you have ~100 ebbs 1 round later, you have a fast timestream. Otherwise, recall it and stick it into another timestream. I haven't read the details on the power, robotics, and logic magitek yet, but this should be doable.

However, I we must probe each timestream in turn, we lose efficiency. As such, it is more effective to use logic circuits and shift charges, and measure the relative times each probe takes to shift a charge back. Power generation should be built into the machine that'll be sitting in 28800:1 time, not wasted where it'll be 1:14400 time.

Amechra
2012-08-16, 12:48 PM
So, once the automation is up, what are we building?

I mean, we could make a sensor array by having a circuit that generates <Divination effect desired>, that is wired through a paraplegic gnome we stuck in a Flux, which the Intelligence in control of the circuit then uses to sense things.

And, thanks to the wealth of different illusion options...

We could build the Holodeck if we wanted to; you could even kill someone with it, if the Grammarist is a high enough level...

Hmm... Just thought of an awesome steering system; the circuit in the control area of the craft generates a precise illusion of the are around the craft, scaled to the pilot. There is another circuit with an Intelligence that translates the mental impulses of the pilot into controls for the engines and weapons.

If you wanted to make your ship harder to steal, set it up to be steered by a creature with Tremorsense and Mindsight.

jseah
2012-08-16, 12:58 PM
Firstly, let me congratulate you on making this Incredibly Awesome set of rules.

Anyway, it is probably intended but even while reading, I have already thought of multiple applications and devices (often before I even finished a section). This is great stuff.
I have broken down the devices into individual modules, so they can be easily mixed and matched.

Generators

Curie Effect (aka. nuclear reactor)
100 ebbs + 1 cubic foot of sunmetal (which is 4 hours = 2400 ebbs) = nuke. Nuke deals d10 negative levels to each creature in 1 mile radius, also some hellfire damage.
So if you can stuff 2500 ebbs generation into that mile radius, you make a profit. Given that transformer bubbles are actually quite small, you should be able to make lots of Ice behind heatshields (which have been buffed for resistance to fire, perhaps using normal magic enchantment)

Of course, you can also spend more ebbs to perform the alchemical transition of any metal into gold (2 hours = 1200 ebbs) and then into sunmetal.

Given that it's 1 mile radius, the number of transformers you could stuff in would be truly gigantic so I see no problems in meeting the 3700 ebbs breakeven point and have a nuclear reactor able to transform 1 cubic foot of any metal into some insane amount of energy. Better have a huge orichalum battery to tide you over to the next cycle (in 6 hours time).

One would also think that Red kaleidomantic filters would come in rather useful in blocking collateral damage, although lead transformers would also be nice to have.

Planck-Becquerel Generator (aka. Solar Panel)
Dead simple, a Gold Input wired to Wood Output (and then transferred wherever) FYI, assuming a mere 6 hours of full daylight, a Gold Input generates 3 ebbs per round = 10 800 ebbs.

A single Eternal Flame spell would generate 2 ebbs per round indefinitely.

Carnot Engine
Get a fire elemental, make it sit in a corner (perhaps trap via magic circle)
An Ice transformer next to it will generate a perpetual flow of ebbs although with a varying output (d6s are kinda wonky). An orichalum capacitor to smooth the flow is required.

A larger scale (but far more expensive) option without the moral implications would be a permanent wall of fire.

----------------------------------------

Appliances

Lightning Cannon
Copper Output wired to some source of energy. Probably transmission based, so the source would be a Wood Input. The Input is fed ebbs from any particular generator or even just an orichalum battery.

bobthe6th
2012-08-16, 02:17 PM
Appliances

Lightning Cannon
Copper Output wired to some source of energy. Probably transmission based, so the source would be a Wood Input. The Input is fed ebbs from any particular generator or even just an orichalum battery.

your thinking to small... wire a silver block as the out put, that a friendly wizard has added disintegrate to(or from your factory for disintigration canons with a silver block taking the place of the wizard), then just set it up to dump 6 points of energy from a battery or your generator. you now have a really nasty spell on a stick, activatable with little effort.

jseah
2012-08-16, 02:53 PM
^I was at work then and didn't want to try accessing d20srd.org. XD

But yes, it is conceivably possible that... hmm...

Neumann Cycler
A Gold Transformer to Silver Output could simply chuck Light cantrips to generate net energy. 1 ebb per Light spell, generates 2 ebbs per round for 100 rounds. >.>

Given a field of base metals (a ton of copper), it could slowly transmute the copper into more Gold and Silver and then set up a copy of itself.
Replication time: A couple of hours.

Practical application is left as an exercise to the user.

Eldan
2012-08-16, 02:58 PM
Can that be chained for more net energy output in one machine? Then you could spend half hte energy on reproduction, and the rest on some useful task. Or build some kind of switch, that switches them over once you have enough.

Edit: I need to calculate how much energy is needed to make metal lighter than air...

Zale
2012-08-16, 03:02 PM
You could make a magic cannon with this.

Silver Outputs.

With a block of orichalcum. Make some sort of circuit that would cause the orichalcum to touch the Silver Output when you needed..

One cubic foot would mean 100d6 points of damage.

Now, if you automated that with an Intelligence..

Sentry Cannons. Hehehe..

I want to make a ship with this. A huge flying ship with cannon and gods only know what else.

I can't express how much I love this right now. I haven't been this excited since I discovered GURPS.

jojolagger
2012-08-16, 03:54 PM
First system
Alch 325 used to lighten systems, assuming factor of 4 results in 1/4 the bulk.
Needs a Demi-plane with a large battery in the center. This bot slowly expands the demi-plane while also creating sub-spaces on the demi-plane with a light source and a gold in, which are all linked back to the battery at the center of the demi-plane.
It needs two specialists to build, but they need only be level 7 in their respective disciplines. If the Yggdratecture specialist is Level 14, you can cut all times in half.

Generator Generator
(Orthagonal Engine 13.5 bulk, 6 ebb in, 100 push out
Silver Out (True Creation) Bulk 2, 8 ebb in, 3000 xp, 1 cu. ft. block of copper out
Silver out (Continual Flame) Bulk2, 2 ebb in, 2500 gp, light source out.
Heuristical Circuit
Abnormal Behavior (YGGD 241, YGGD 353) semi-space with link to demiplane, 2 hour, 1 ebb in
Abnormal Behavior (HEUR 101) Builds circuit, 1 hour, 1 ebb in
Abnormal Behavior (ALCH 286) Transforms Copper to Gold, 2 hours, 1 ebb in
Abnormal Behavior (ACRD 204) Truns gold into gold input, 1 hour, 1 ebb in
Uncanny Cosmology semi-space linking bot to battery

2 hour run time via concurrency, 2 ebb/s^2 production, 19616 ebb per cycle, 38000 start up ebb needed for full efficency
Breaks even after 14 hours of runtime, million ebb surplus after 42 hours)

Gnorman
2012-08-16, 04:12 PM
They should have sent a poet

Eldan
2012-08-16, 04:21 PM
So, how do I have to kill/pay/sleep with/homebrew for/serenade to get someone to run an all Magitek campaign?

Edit: and the SI unit of Magical Energy should totally be the Thaum, btw. Gigaebb doesn't have the same flow as Gigathaum.

Vauron
2012-08-16, 04:35 PM
I'm almost disapointed that basically all of you went straight to martial uses. I'll start with something less inherently murderous: a train.

The train runs on silver rails which are constantly charged with high voltage currents by various stations on the line. Copper inputs are positioned such that they are just in range of the rails, removing any need to have fuel on hand.


Now, I figure that 30 mph is a decent speed to shoot for. Playing with the calculator tells us that 1 mph is roughly equal to a speed of 10 feet per round*, so we are shooting for a speed of 300. Lets say a freight train has a bulk of 2000**, order to reach the target speed we'd need a total push of 20 thousand. So, 200 engines are needed, and they require a total of 1200 puissance per round. Since I'm assuming a magisterial principal, lets assume level 9 is the highest level involved. At that level it is easy enough to make UMD checks in the thirties, so I'll assume that each transformer can handle 35 ebbs/round. This means that 32 copper/wood transformer pairs will be needed to supply power to the engines.

So, in total, a size enormous electricity powered freight train will require:
32 Copper Inputs
32 Wood Outputs
200 Orthogonal engines
Lots of rails with as low an electrical resistance as possible
Stations across the line which can provide the needed charge.



*Actually its closer to 9.6, but we are rounding already, so eh.
**I ran these numbers assuming a heavy Enormous train, but really I should have used a smaller size category.

Amechra
2012-08-16, 04:54 PM
Hey, attempting to make the internet doesn't have a direct martial use! Cut me some slack here.

Though I did have an awesome idea for a villainous plan:

The End of Caster Supremacy. Forever.

It will take forever (or a lot of workers, that is), but...

Silver Input Transformer. The Bubble needs to transcribe the Plane that you are on. My calculations (which I'll post when I get home) assume a planet the size of Earth, and a nice little drill to get there.

Switch it on, connect it to a circuit that stores all the energy.

With all the Aid Anothers you'll be getting, the SR to cast a spell will be crushing; all but a few spells will be effectively removed from that plane forever.

Alternatively, just drop a Submerging Badgerdrawn Stoneswimming vehicle powered by an Ice Transformer and some stored Ebbs.

The result? A machine that will deposit itself in the center of a planetary mass. And which would effectively be immune to the heat, due to the transformer drawing it all in.

Now, my friends, I would like you to look up "the Neutronium Alchemist". That would be this principle applied to the Sun.

Eldan
2012-08-16, 04:57 PM
Interesting. And makes a good villain for a caster campaign.

bobthe6th
2012-08-16, 05:12 PM
another great villan plan... DISINTEGRATE THE WORLD

build a massive disintegration beam array, and pour in the ebbs. assuming caster level 11 for min caster level, and 6 ebbs a pop to power the beams, each 6 ebbs=110ft^3 of removed matter. assuming 100 beam transformers, thats 11,000ft^3 of mater every 6 seconds, or 110,000ft^3 every minute. the earth's volume is about 1,083,210,000,000... so 9,847,364 minutes, or 164,123 hours, or 6,838 days, or about 18 years...
in eighteen years THE WORLD WILL BE GONE. just costs 600 ebbs a round, easily made with any of a number of setups, like the infinite light generator. heck, if you could make more then 100 transformers you could cut down the time by a lot.

Amechra
2012-08-16, 05:14 PM
I found the ultimate Earth defensive net!

It only takes 40480 years to build it! If you are using Erratic Time Factories! Divided by the number of Factories in use!

It requires roughly 3,073,949,180,215 TONS of Sunmetal.

But yes, upon hitting the big red button, we can plane-shift the planet.

(The earth is pretty much 152,424,712,660 Vast portions. Yes, it is BIG.)

Eldan
2012-08-16, 05:15 PM
Question: as a vampire skilled in magitechnical skills, what would it take to disintegrate the sun? Including getting the apparatus there. I'm thinking a sufficient amount of push could work, or a space elevator.

Amechra
2012-08-16, 05:20 PM
Give me a bit, but I think I can crunch out a Gold/Mercury generator that turns light into cold that will be large enough to snuff out the sun.

EDIT: Get to generating Simulacra, bub; you'll need 95,046,582,003,269,947,090,587,000
Preparations to make a generator that will put out the sun.

Of course, that is assuming that you need to off it in one go...

Or we could just make a large enough Black Kaleidomantic barrier; light is information, and thus would be blocked.

jojolagger
2012-08-16, 05:21 PM
Question: as a vampire skilled in magitechnical skills, what would it take to disintegrate the sun? Including getting the apparatus there. I'm thinking a sufficient amount of push could work, or a space elevator.

You just drop the heat inputs into the sun via projectile engines. You can have them bleed the ebb off into nothing without problem, and each will drain skill check ebb worth of heat from the sun every second.

bobthe6th
2012-08-16, 05:23 PM
Question: as a vampire skilled in magitechnical skills, what would it take to disintegrate the sun? Including getting the apparatus there. I'm thinking a sufficient amount of push could work, or a space elevator.

just dump exotic particals into it, make it go nova(surounded by a vast net of ice transformers or some such...

the other option would be to eat it with lead and ice transformers... just straight up eat the sun for energy.

jseah
2012-08-16, 05:25 PM
Now, I figure that 30 mph is a decent speed to shoot for. Playing with the calculator tells us that 1 mph is roughly equal to a speed of 10 feet per round*, so we are shooting for a speed of 300. Lets say a freight train has a bulk of 2000**, order to reach the target speed we'd need a total push of 20 thousand. So, 200 engines are needed, and they require a total of 1200 puissance per round. Since I'm assuming a magisterial principal, lets assume level 9 is the highest level involved. At that level it is easy enough to make UMD checks in the thirties, so I'll assume that each transformer can handle 35 ebbs/round. This means that 32 copper/wood transformer pairs will be needed to supply power to the engines.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but your train is impossible.

An Orthogonal Engine generates 100 push for 54 bulk. This gives a naked engine a velocity of a little over 55 ft per round (~6.25 mph).

Additional push requires a bigger engine and this scales linearly, so there is no way to break the 6.25 mph limit.

Vauron
2012-08-16, 06:39 PM
Sorry to rain on your parade, but your train is impossible.

An Orthogonal Engine generates 100 push for 54 bulk. This gives a naked engine a velocity of a little over 55 ft per round (~6.25 mph).

Additional push requires a bigger engine and this scales linearly, so there is no way to break the 6.25 mph limit.

Silly jseah. Your words are directly contradicted by both the text and the table. First, look at the table. I'll wait. Have you looked at it yet? If you have, you will clearly see that speeds in excess of 6.25 mph are entirely possible. Or do you seriously believe that mach 3 is slower than 6.25 mph?

Second, look again at the bulk ratings compared to the space they take up. A size tiny engine is a cube with a length of 2 feet, and as the default it is capable of producing 100 units of Push. Now, a size large engine is a cube with a length of 10 feet, and for the purpose of Push generated it is considered to be 125* of the tiny engines. Now, lets look at the Bulk Rating of a Large engine. We see it is 532. Math time: does 532/54= 125? Of course not. The bulk rating does not scale linearly, while Push score does.

If we look at the number of stuff I specified, all the engines together would not fill a Huge space. Even adding the transformers, cabins, and structural bits, I could fit things into a Gargantuan engine easily without reducing engines or transformers. Although, as a freight train, lots of extra horsepower could be useful.

The math to determine speed is simple enough. The only real messy bit is my insistence in working with mph.

1. Divide the Push generated by the Bulk rating
2. Round down
3. Multiply by 30
Each orthogonal engine supplies 100 push**, so the maximum Push rating will always be the number of engines working in concert, times 100.



*2 feet^3= 8 cubic feet.... 10 feet^3=1000 cubic feet.... 1000 cubic feet/8 cubic feet= 125 units

**So, for example, if you spend three hours preparing an engine which is three times as large as normal and feed it three times the normal fuel required, it generates three times the normal Push.

Simple Orthogonal: ... it generates 100 points of Push per round. ...

Ziegander
2012-08-16, 06:50 PM
This is far too much for me to comprehend at once. It is maddening! Maddening I tell you!

And also wonderful.

I have one suggestion: Allow multiple Gramarists preparing the same principle to halve the preparation time required as an option instead of simply doubling the scope. If two Gramarists can achieve double the wonders in the same time, why can they not produce a normal result in half the time?

sirpercival
2012-08-16, 07:13 PM
This is absolutely awesome. Why do you keep making stuff that I want to add to Magipunk? Like, this should replace my Magitechnician (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=2809.0) in several dozen ways. Why couldn't you post this months ago when I was working on that? :P

bobthe6th
2012-08-16, 07:25 PM
revealing a hidden post

jseah
2012-08-16, 07:32 PM
Ahahaha, this is what I get for not reading properly and doing too much math too fast. I just glanced at it and thought "oh, this is exactly the same as this other game in engine design, right, useless", with the assumption that Bulk = mass and Push = newtons.

I had assumed the higher speeds were for the purpose of the Ballistic engine, which can easily make the projectile do it. And I think this is still mostly due to the Ballistic engine.


So revision time.

Let's see. A Tiny object being 2x2x2 (since 8 cubic feet = tiny as per the text) and a Medium is 5x5x5 (since that's the space of a medium creature).

So you can fit 15.625 engines into a Medium object and thus it scales less than linearly. The exact scaling would be:

Starting from a Medium object, assuming each size category expands 5ft along each axis, then the number of engines you can fit into a space of X-1 categories above medium (where Medium size has X = 1) is:
X^3 * 15.625

The bulk of each size category (assuming Medium and up):
(4+X)^3

Therefore, the push to bulk ratio scales with size category according to:
X^3 * 15.625 * (4+X)^-3
I made a nice graph:
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh47/jon_seah/PushtoBulkscaling.png

Blue is the linear scaling line, this is Medium sized and = 1/8.
Red is the actual Push to Bulk scaling. So for any particular X size of engines, this will move the Y axis number * 8 times faster than a Medium size engine block.
An engine size at X = 25 would be 10 times as efficient (and go 10 times as fast) as an engine at X = 3 (where the scale is roughly 1).
Ok, since Bulk per volume goes down as size goes up, I can only conclude that bigger objects are actually easier to move per ton than smaller objects. (either that or Push works differently depending on the size of an object pushed)

I forsee alot of arguments over what is considered "an object".

EDIT:
Some playing around with the formula indicates that ~15 is the maximum scaling you can get. This is around X = 300 or so (this is a cube about half a kilometer on each side) and after that the rise starts to get really really slow (16 is not reached even by X = 1E20) or even asymptotic.

So yes, there does exist a maximum speed (even if not capped by the table) due to weirdness with the scaling.

Garryl
2012-08-16, 07:46 PM
This is far too much for me to comprehend at once. It is maddening! Maddening I tell you!

And also wonderful.

I have one suggestion: Allow multiple Gramarists preparing the same principle to halve the preparation time required as an option instead of simply doubling the scope. If two Gramarists can achieve double the wonders in the same time, why can they not produce a normal result in half the time?

If two cooks can make two 3-minute eggs in 3 minutes, why can't they make one 3-minute egg in 90 seconds?

Eldan
2012-08-16, 07:58 PM
Hm. I don't see any way of directly affecting organic matter (though I still haven't read most of this). I suppose that would be the cook's problem :smalltongue:

jseah
2012-08-16, 09:31 PM
Have been too caught up with the awesomeness, missed asking my usual set of questions.

Things that need to be defined:

What is an 'object'?
What is a 'point in space'?


They seem obvious and you can gloss over it in a standard adventuring dungeon crawl game, but with excessive magic flying about (and there certainly is here), answering these questions is required.

Welknair
2012-08-16, 10:49 PM
I am continuously impressed by your work, Kellus. I approve of this addition to the realm of Magitech. :smallsmile:

I very much look forward to seeing the PrCs you have coming. I'll see if I can find the time to give it a more thorough read through and review a bit later.

Answerer
2012-08-17, 09:49 AM
As an electrical engineer, I have to object to the way transmuting something into a conductive metal causes it to take more damage from electricity. Electricity damages (nonliving) things by heating it, and electricity causes the most heat when it has to fight through more resistance. Lowering the resistance should decrease the damage it takes.

This is why you stick a lightning rod (made of something conductive like iron) on a building (made of something not particularly conductive, like stone or wood) – the electricity can pass easily (and therefore cooly) through the iron, without causing the immense heat that can damage stone or wood. (Electricity also preferentially flows through the "path of least resistance" since it involves burning less energy to get through it.)

For reference, the power dissipated by electricity passing through a material is equal to the current times the voltage. Current itself is equal to the voltage divided by the resistance, so the power is the voltage squared divided by the resistance, for a given voltage. Thus, higher resistance means more power dissipated as heat, means more damage to the object in question.

(If you're talking about a constant current, then you'd get the current squared times the resistance, which would mean more power for higher resistance, but in the vast majority of situations electricity is caused by a voltage difference, not some magically-constant current. Getting a constant current under different loads requires a voltage source that has a feedback loop designed to maintain that current.)

(Also, I've heard it said that humans are more gravely affected by current than by voltage. I don't know the biology of this, but if you could reduce the resistance of the human body, you'd be increasing the current that goes through it for a given voltage, thus leading to more damage. But less burning, more of the electrical current messing with the electrical systems of your body.)

(As a final note, being encased in something conductive also protects you from electricity. Because the electricity can flow around you more easily than it can flow through you, very little current actually passes through you. In the ideal case, none does; this is called a Faraday cage, and in such cases the voltage difference around you is zero, because the cage is conducting the electricity so efficiently.

This is why you are generally safe from lightning inside of a car: even if your car was to be hit by the lightning, the electricity would pass straight through the steel cage around you to the ground. The only place it would bother having to fight through higher resistance is the last jump, either through the tires or through the air between the car and the ground. That last step would cause a lot of heat, since both are excellent insulators; I imagine a lot of tires pop in such situations. But unless you're hiding under the car, you won't be anywhere near that power dissipation.)

Qwertystop
2012-08-17, 11:04 AM
I have no words.

Partly because this is confusing to my mildly-tired brain, but still.

THERE ARE NO WORDS.

Merchant
2012-08-17, 02:15 PM
The only thing I would like to see is for a race that has this as a favored class and feats for both the class and the race.

On top of that I love this. I'm reading it a second time to get my head around all the rules for each principle. Is it possible to simply power all these devices by using the eldritch blast?

I was wondering if it was possible, to create 'something' that allows the Gramarist to throw an enemy at mach 3? It is a scary thought but is it even possible?

Eldan
2012-08-17, 02:20 PM
Hm. Goblins and Gnomes are the classical technology races.

Zale
2012-08-17, 02:36 PM
I WANT TO PLAY A GOBLIN GRAMARIST AND BLOW EVERYTHING UP.

Hehehehehehehhehe.

Or just blast it to hell and back.

Eldan
2012-08-17, 06:29 PM
Scratch that.

Warforged Gramarist.

With plating of alchemetric metals.

And eldrikinetic transformer components.

Zale
2012-08-17, 07:21 PM
Scratch that.

Warforged Gramarist.

With plating of alchemetric metals.

And eldrikinetic transformer components.

I want to make a mad scientist now.

I really really do.

Srsly.

Silva Stormrage
2012-08-18, 03:07 PM
Just finished reading through the class, though I don't understand what this class does low levels :smallconfused:. It doesn't seem to be able to do much other than spam eldritch blast. At high levels I can see him making a tank or flying jet and cannons but he needs too many principles to do that at low levels. Is that intended?

Edit: Also what is the weight for a cubic feet of all the materials? I couldn't find a weight in the SRD for things like silver and gold and had to google them. Are the special materials like sunmetal the same weight as the material that made them (in this case gold)?

Morcleon
2012-08-18, 08:26 PM
First, this is awesome. I love it. Add in epic levels, and let the insanity begin... :smallbiggrin:

Questions:
1. What is the temperature of phlogiston? How far does it radiate heat?

2. Can you combine phlogiston with a ARCD 350 ice input transformer to generate an infinite source of ebbs? Blue ice, preferably with an ALCH 101 heat capacity decrease...

3. Can kaleidomantic filters be shaped into spheres, cubes and other hollow shapes?

4. If two arcanodynamic transformers have the same area of net, say a silver and an ice, and a polar ray is cast into the area, which net takes precedence?

5. Can a heuristical circuit reach into an open extradimensional space (a bag of holding, an enveloping pit, etc.)? What about a closed one?

6. How does one extract/store ebbs in orichalcum?

7. Can't you simply take five transformers (one each crystal, copper, tin, ice, mercury) and give yourself universal energy immunity for a ridiculously low price?

8. For spectroconstruction, is the "+3 for every additional time per day you activate it" a +3 to your check or a +3 to the DC?

9. Can you put the number of daily uses next to the "Spectroconstruction" entry on the table (1/day, 2/day, etc.) so it's a bit easier to tell without having to count the number of previous entries?

10. What are specialists of each discipline called? Perhaps... Alchemaster, Arcanodynamicist, Eldrikineticist, Heuristicist, Imachinater, Kaleidomancer, Yggdratect)

11. What is the significance of the maximum speeds for the larger objects? Is it an arbitrary number based on size, or is there an equation behind them?

12. Is there a way to increase the fly maneuverability for a two-part engine?

13. Can you upgrade an existing item's skill check/bubble? How would one go about doing this?

14. Do arcanodynamics transformers have to be 1 cu ft? Can they be smaller?

15. Would the following arrangement work?

Materials required:
1 enveloping pit
A lot of blue ice and iron.
A bit of silver and wood.

1. Fill the enveloping pit with an array of iron and heat-capacity-decreased blue ice. Use ALCH 364 and ARCD 350 to turn them into phlogiston and ice transformers respectively. This should generate an arbitrarily large number of ebbs per round.

3. Use ARCD 101 to make a silver output transformer and connect it to the giant battery with a wood transformer.

4. Shoot something for damage equal to (UMD check)d6.

5. Repeat each round until target is dead, or has run away.

Zale
2012-08-18, 08:38 PM
7. Can't you simply take five transformers (one each crystal, copper, tin, ice, mercury) and give yourself universal energy immunity for a ridiculously low price?

You'd need to be a Specialist in Arcanodynamics. And keep the ice from melting or the mercury from melting.

And have a high enough UMD check to channel all the energy.

Morcleon
2012-08-18, 08:55 PM
You'd need to be a Specialist in Arcanodynamics. And keep the ice from melting or the mercury from melting.

And have a high enough UMD check to channel all the energy.

Use blue ice (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040911a&page=5) (which has the melting point of iron) and put the mercury in a container of blue ice, which places the mercury at a constant temperature of 0 Centigrade.

Taking 20 on the UMD generally allows you to absorb all the energy you want, unless it's from a ridiculously powerful source. Remember, it takes 6 points of energy damage to equal 1 ebb.

Zale
2012-08-18, 10:29 PM
Taking 20 on the UMD generally allows you to absorb all the energy you want, unless it's from a ridiculously powerful source. Remember, it takes 6 points of energy damage to equal 1 ebb.

Good point.

There's always Force.

Morcleon
2012-08-18, 10:53 PM
Good point.

There's always Force.

Umm... Silver transformers? :smallbiggrin: Although that's more SR than anything else...

Omnicrat
2012-08-19, 04:18 PM
I've been looking at these forums for a few years now, but nothing ever pushed me over the edge and made me want to sign up for an account. Until this.

I've ALWAYS wanted something like this in D&D, and I've been looking for it for a long time.

I just have one suggestion; add a glossary post.

I've usually been able to look through this right before I go to bed, and it has so much new terminology its hard to follow. When I try to read this, my head it swimming with terms I only half understand, if I half understand them. Also, I know from personal experience that terms one has developed and has been using for months, while being perfectly clear and obvious to one, might not (most likely will not) be so to a new reader.

I'm about to go to sleep now, but I'm sure I'll have more posts in the not too distant future. Keep up the good work! :smallbiggrin:

Orderic
2012-08-19, 05:30 PM
Same with me, Omnicrat. This is absolutely awesome.

Now, I have a two questions...

1) Can a Ballistic Engine push itself as well? Because if the answer is yes, then we could combine it, the orthogonal engine and the hang glider from the Arms and Equipment Guide to build a flying machine as soon as we get access to magisterial principles.

2) Unless of course... Can most of an engine be stored inside a semi-space while still working as intended?

Also, now it is finally possible to build a portable, pirate ship shooting gun!

Concerning the submerging engine... It doesn't have to be powered by blood. We could just use the acid found within the stomachs of innocent children.
...Wait, thats evil? Fine, we'll just burn some wood.

*grumble* stupid good people... always taking away all the fun...

afroakuma
2012-08-19, 06:18 PM
Mr. Kellus, I have not told you in a while just how much you are my favorite.

Special bonus points for the Canada quote and the spectaculat art selections.

Eldan
2012-08-19, 06:32 PM
Note to self: stat up Canada as a particularly lethal demiplane where resurrection is impossible.

General Patton
2012-08-19, 08:14 PM
Therefore, the push to bulk ratio scales with size category according to:
X^3 * 15.625 * (4+X)^-3
EDIT:
Some playing around with the formula indicates that ~15 is the maximum scaling you can get. This is around X = 300 or so (this is a cube about half a kilometer on each side) and after that the rise starts to get really really slow (16 is not reached even by X = 1E20) or even asymptotic.

So yes, there does exist a maximum speed (even if not capped by the table) due to weirdness with the scaling.

15.625 * (X/(X+4))^3
The limit, as X approaches infinity, of (X/(X+4))^3, is 1. Therefore, there is indeed an asymptote at 15.625


So, just double-checking, Black Filters prevent any perceptive Divine Salient Abilities, Portfolio Sense, and a Deity's ability to know when its name or titles are spoken? I have an idea. Come, step through this barrier with me...
Now, my colleagues, as a Gestalt of Ozodrin and Gramarist, *manifests True Nature, suppressing the Fear effect* you all know this terrifying ball of eyes before you *gestures to self* is capable of truly cosmic feats of visual resolution. *resumes Worldly Guise* I assure you, none shall ever pierce this veil. Now, first order of business: the secret plan to kill Vecna.

jojolagger
2012-08-19, 08:49 PM
Edit: Also what is the weight for a cubic feet of all the materials? I couldn't find a weight in the SRD for things like silver and gold and had to google them. Are the special materials like sunmetal the same weight as the material that made them (in this case gold)?

12000 coins to one cu. foot Draconomicon
50 coins to a pound. dmg
240 lbs. per cu. foot therefor
for most metals in D&D

tried, reasdon post is kinda backwards

Merchant
2012-08-20, 01:54 AM
Scratch that.

Warforged Gramarist.

With plating of alchemetric metals.

And eldrikinetic transformer components.

Though I get the eldrikinetic transformers. Wouldn't the living parts of the Warforged be at risk of getting poisoned from lead and mercury. And is there even away for it to survive changing part of it to sunmetal? The living parts would be destroyed.

I think two races should be created, at least.
One a construct and the other a race that first pioneered Gramiore.

I am trying to imagine the construct with an AI circuit. You roll for the highest mental stat, you subtract 2 and that becomes the stats for Int, Cha, and Wis. Seeing as that is as high as you can get an AI when a Gramarist makes it. Penalty to Str and Dex due to maybe being newly activated and unclear with physical properties directly (create some 'accustom' Age catagory where when they reach a certain "age" they get a +1 to Str and Dex due to now being used to their new forms). The bonus for them would be that they are not hindered by specialist rule, meaning you can specialize in as many principles as possible. ACF would be having a choice to sacrifice a additional use of Spectroconstruction for a new principle. There's a total of 9 Spec.Constr. You basically sacrifice how quickly you can build large scaled 'anythings' and are allowed to broaden you techniques.

Another race might be natural gramarists and get a feat "Extra Principle" at level one. (Extra Principle could be normally allowed as early as level 3 to stop Human race from being to perfect for this group.

Orderic
2012-08-20, 03:29 AM
Though I get the eldrikinetic transformers. Wouldn't the living parts of the Warforged be at risk of getting poisoned from lead and mercury. And is there even away for it to survive changing part of it to sunmetal? The living parts would be destroyed.

Fortunately, Warforged are immune to poison and energy drain.

And something else... is it really impossible to take yggdratectural portals to other planes, without recreating them there?

LordotheMorning
2012-08-20, 07:41 AM
This is jaw-dropping. The sheer amount of flavor in this class is astronomical. Absolutely love it.

Small questions about a few numbers, though.

Why would an 8 cubic ft. engine considered tiny? That sounds more like medium sized or even large sized to me.

Semi-spaces are at first limited to being 2 cubic feet, but later you get to prepare it an additional 8 times. How does it go from 2 to 64? It seems to me like it should from 2 to a maximum of 16 because you're adding 2 each time. Or is it exponential?

Is Arcanodynamics useless without Heuristicism? If you've got two transformers in touching each other physically, their fields are going to overlap and nothing will happen?

Vauron
2012-08-20, 08:14 AM
This is jaw-dropping. The sheer amount of flavor in this class is astronomical. Absolutely love it.

Small questions about a few numbers, though.

Why would an 8 cubic ft. engine considered tiny? That sounds more like medium sized or even large sized to me.

Semi-spaces are at first limited to being 2 cubic feet, but later you get to prepare it an additional 8 times. How does it go from 2 to 64? It seems to me like it should from 2 to a maximum of 16 because you're adding 2 each time. Or is it exponential?


Note that the unit of measure is cubic feet. To find the length of a side of a cube when all you have is the cubic feet, you need to find the cube root. In this case, the cube root of 8 is 2. This means that those 8 cubic feet transformers are cubes whoses sides are 2 feet long. To give you some contrast, a 5 foot cube like those used by medium characters takes up 125 cubic feet.

The whole 'cubic feet' thing is also your problem with semi-spaces, although the fact that Kellus went from noting the length of the sides in YGGD101 to cubic feet in YGGD241. A cube that has a volume of 64 cubic feet has sides that are 4 feet long.

LordotheMorning
2012-08-20, 04:29 PM
Note that the unit of measure is cubic feet. To find the length of a side of a cube when all you have is the cubic feet, you need to find the cube root. In this case, the cube root of 8 is 2. This means that those 8 cubic feet transformers are cubes whoses sides are 2 feet long. To give you some contrast, a 5 foot cube like those used by medium characters takes up 125 cubic feet.

The whole 'cubic feet' thing is also your problem with semi-spaces, although the fact that Kellus went from noting the length of the sides in YGGD101 to cubic feet in YGGD241. A cube that has a volume of 64 cubic feet has sides that are 4 feet long.

So the maximum size of a semi-space isn't even large enough to fit a person inside without crouching down? I'm not sure why you'd even bother creating a flux inside one at that point.

One other question I forgot to ask: Is there any way to store ebbs without Orichalcum? If you absorb energy from with a transformer, it must be used then and there or it dissipates, correct? For example, could a Ballistics engine store ebbs of puissance needed to fire it and save it for later?

Also, changing a Hueristic circuit seems like a pain if you need to beat your own autohypnosis check every time you do it. What if you roll a 20 while setting it up, and as a result you only have a 1/20 of being able to change it? Or can you bypass the need to roll a check if you are the one who set up the circuit?

Kellus
2012-08-21, 01:25 AM
Hey, people like it! But seriously, let's respond:


Curie Effect (aka. nuclear reactor)

Very clever! Yes, nuclear energy is the way to go if you have enough room and are a high enough level, for sure!


Planck-Becquerel Generator (aka. Solar Panel)

Yeah, just like in real life, solar generators can produce a fairly consistent stream of small energy outputs.


Carnot Engine

Haha, I was wondering when people were going to bring elementals into the mix! Moral ramifications aside, they're certainly a nice source of constant heat.


Neumann Cycler

You've got some pretty awesome ideas! The light cycle is a clever exploit in the pricing of cantrips! It's certainly conceivable that you could use it to replicate itself, although you would need some high level heuristical programming for it. You would also need to reproduce the heuristical principles every time you make a new machine, though.


You could make a magic cannon with this.

Yes, you absolutely could! But remember that you can only channel a number of ebbs in a transformer in a given round equal to your Use Magic Device check. And while skill checks can get pretty wtfhuge, results in the hundreds are still pretty tough.


Edit: and the SI unit of Magical Energy should totally be the Thaum, btw. Gigaebb doesn't have the same flow as Gigathaum.

Ahaha, originally I was going to use thaum, but then I remembered that it was plagiarism and decided not so much. Ebb comes from Eldritch Blast, which seems to me to be the most consistent and reproducible magical effect in the game at low levels. And, from a level 1 warlock it would be the equivalent of 1 ebb.


I'm almost disapointed that basically all of you went straight to martial uses. I'll start with something less inherently murderous: a train.

I love trains! Yours is simple, but very well done! Perfect to slot into a renaissance magitek setting!


The End of Caster Supremacy. Forever.

I'm kind of a little afraid of what I have wrought now. :smalleek:

But seriously, that's pretty badass.


DISINTEGRATE THE WORLD

Really don't need to say any more (make sure you've got your personal demiplane set up to escape to first). :smallcool:


plane-shift the planet

I need to play more games where this kind of thing gets said.


Sorry to rain on your parade, but your train is impossible.

Vauron is exactly right here. If you have multiple engines affecting the same body, the body can exceed the listed "max speed". The max speed is the maximum you can get from a single engine, no matter how many times you prepare it. I'll clarify this in the text.


I have one suggestion: Allow multiple Gramarists preparing the same principle to halve the preparation time required as an option instead of simply doubling the scope. If two Gramarists can achieve double the wonders in the same time, why can they not produce a normal result in half the time?

"Nine women can't make a baby in one month." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks's_law)

But hey, glad you like it! And that goes for the kind words from everyone! :smallsmile:

(next page of responses in next post)

Kellus
2012-08-21, 02:06 AM
This is absolutely awesome. Why do you keep making stuff that I want to add to Magipunk? Like, this should replace my Magitechnician in several dozen ways. Why couldn't you post this months ago when I was working on that? :P

'Cause I was still trying to figure out how the hell Push should work? :smalltongue:


And I think this is still mostly due to the Ballistic engine.

You're mostly right. You're never going to get a flying island moving at Mach 3, but I needed rules that worked for both broad applications of engines in real life: ballistics and transport. That being said, there is the nice fighter-jet sized sweet spot where you can get vehicles that legitimately count as projectiles.


I forsee alot of arguments over what is considered "an object".

I don't think so, it's pretty broad. Most engines just move themselves and whatever they happen to be attached to comes along for the ride. So if a person is strapped to the engine (jetpack), the person + the engine is the "object" for determining Bulk. The only time it's different is for the Ballistic Engine so that you can make cannons that fire, I dunno, miniaturised suns.


Hm. I don't see any way of directly affecting organic matter (though I still haven't read most of this). I suppose that would be the cook's problem

As I mentioned before, the last discipline got postponed because of holidays. It'll be out shortly, and deals with organic material and animate stuff. :smallsmile:


What is an 'object'?
What is a 'point in space'?

The object part seems mostly sophistry (it has a game definition already, and it's pretty self-explanatory), but the point in space part is interesting. I went with the decision to have a lot of principles simply anchor themselves to a given point, and this is where the "game" part of it kind of hampers stuff. Depending on your cosmology, you pretty much have to assume that that point is unmoving relative to the general plane/planet/turtle that it's on. So if your setting happens to take place on the actual real-life Earth, the heuristical circuit doesn't go whizzing off into space the moment you finish it just because the Earth is orbiting the sun. It's an abstraction, which I regret, but it's easier to use in play than pretty much any alternative. Most of those principles also allow you to fix them to objects or people though, which I imagine will be a more popular option for most applications.


I am continuously impressed by your work, Kellus. I approve of this addition to the realm of Magitech.

Hey, thanks! Your magitech is pretty awesome, but not really what I was looking for. You've come up with some ingenious stuff, though! :smallsmile:


As an electrical engineer, I have to object to the way transmuting something into a conductive metal causes it to take more damage from electricity.

That is a very, very comprehensive argument. I'm sorry for the mistake, I'm a Mech E in training, not an EE, and know little about the ways of electricity. I will change the text such that conductive metals now receive less damage from electricity. Thank you for the advice! :smallredface:


The only thing I would like to see is for a race that has this as a favored class and feats for both the class and the race.

I don't really like class-specific feats in general for a lot of reasons (that I won't go into here), but the favoured race is a nice idea. I like the idea of goblins, gnomes, and warforged, and I'll see what I can put together. Thanks for the idea!


Just finished reading through the class, though I don't understand what this class does low levels . It doesn't seem to be able to do much other than spam eldritch blast. At high levels I can see him making a tank or flying jet and cannons but he needs too many principles to do that at low levels. Is that intended?

Yes. This is not a primarily combat-oriented class. Spamming eldritch blast just gives him something to do so that he doesn't feel totally useless in battle, but really it's a class for a different kind of campaign. :smallsmile:


Edit: Also what is the weight for a cubic feet of all the materials? I couldn't find a weight in the SRD for things like silver and gold and had to google them. Are the special materials like sunmetal the same weight as the material that made them (in this case gold)?

Yes, google and wikipedia are your best bet. All of the metals behave like their real-life counterparts, and the special materials specifically mention that they have all of the properties (including density therefore) of their base planetary metals except for the special new stuff.


1. What is the temperature of phlogiston? How far does it radiate heat?

"On fire" is a fairly nebulous term, you're right. I'll clarify that, and probably cite the fire elemental's burn ability to explain it (or make stuff up).


2. Can you combine phlogiston with a ARCD 350 ice input transformer to generate an infinite source of ebbs? Blue ice, preferably with an ALCH 101 heat capacity decrease...

I don't see why not!


3. Can kaleidomantic filters be shaped into spheres, cubes and other hollow shapes?

Any 2D shape. So cubes could be done with six applications, and other 3D shapes would have to have various degrees of complexity. Spheres would be nearly impossible, but you could get close once you get to something like a 100-sided die...


4. If two arcanodynamic transformers have the same area of net, say a silver and an ice, and a polar ray is cast into the area, which net takes precedence?

An arcanodynamic transformer only works when you have one input and one output transformer touching, so you'll never have perfectly overlapping nets. But that's a good point that you could have situations where it's not clear. I'll specify that the latest net set up in the area takes precedence.


5. Can a heuristical circuit reach into an open extradimensional space (a bag of holding, an enveloping pit, etc.)? What about a closed one?

Yes.


6. How does one extract/store ebbs in orichalcum?

It would have to be inside of a circuit, you can use a body of orichalcum as a repository for spare puissance. So instead of just dissipating puissance from a wood transformer, you can move the puissance into the battery. Then you can use a circuit to move the puissance from the battery to the whatever.


7. Can't you simply take five transformers (one each crystal, copper, tin, ice, mercury) and give yourself universal energy immunity for a ridiculously low price?

Yes, at level 14 and by carrying around 5 cubic feet of metal. Energy resistance/immunity is overrated.


8. For spectroconstruction, is the "+3 for every additional time per day you activate it" a +3 to your check or a +3 to the DC?

+3 to the DC, but I can see the confusion. I'll clarify the text.


9. Can you put the number of daily uses next to the "Spectroconstruction" entry on the table (1/day, 2/day, etc.) so it's a bit easier to tell without having to count the number of previous entries?

Okay!


10. What are specialists of each discipline called? Perhaps... Alchemaster, Arcanodynamicist, Eldrikineticist, Heuristicist, Imachinater, Kaleidomancer, Yggdratect)

Nope! The specialists are the prestige classes that are going to be going up as soon as I get off my butt and stop replying and get back to work! They are the Contractor (Alchemetry), the Arcanitect (Arcanodynamics), the Prime Mover (Eldrikinetics), the Dreamason (Heuristicism), the Sidhengineer (Imachination), the Shadowright (Kaleidomantics), and the Lode-Bearer (Yggdratecture).


11. What is the significance of the maximum speeds for the larger objects? Is it an arbitrary number based on size, or is there an equation behind them?

jseah mostly worked this out earlier, but it's a limit to keep giant stuff from breaking the sound barrier but still allow fighter jets and bullets. There is a method to my madness! (this time at least)


12. Is there a way to increase the fly maneuverability for a two-part engine?

The two-part engine is an abstraction for game play. It's a rough approximation of what the actual movement of something powered by those two engines would look like, so no. If you want better maneuverability, use one of the higher-end engines.


13. Can you upgrade an existing item's skill check/bubble? How would one go about doing this?

Yes, as described in the Principles of Gramarie class feature, the latest time you prepare the principle sets the skill check for the principle in general. So if you don't like the skill check, you can just reprepare it if you have time. Taking 20 generally means 20 hours of work on it, but allows a skill check of 20 until more work needs to be done on it.


14. Do arcanodynamics transformers have to be 1 cu ft? Can they be smaller?

They can be bigger!


15. Would the following arrangement work?

Um, I'd need to look at it closer and look up blue ice, but it seems like it could work. Let me get back to you?

By the way, awesome questions! Thank you for the input! :smallbiggrin:


I just have one suggestion; add a glossary post.

I'm glad you like it! That's an excellent idea, and I think I might use the last post for it (since I'm not sure I'm going to bother putting up sample schematics: all they do is limit creativity, half the fun of it is imagining what you could do, as this thread shows!)


1) Can a Ballistic Engine push itself as well? Because if the answer is yes, then we could combine it, the orthogonal engine and the hang glider from the Arms and Equipment Guide to build a flying machine as soon as we get access to magisterial principles.

No, and that's exactly why not. :smallwink:


2) Unless of course... Can most of an engine be stored inside a semi-space while still working as intended?

That's an interesting question, and I'm going to go with yes. As long as part of the engine is on the Material Plane, it can generate Push on that Plane. Although the semi-space would also have to go along for the ride... Also, it opens up some interesting applications once you can link semi-spaces!


Mr. Kellus, I have not told you in a while just how much you are my favorite.

:smallredface:


Note to self: stat up Canada as a particularly lethal demiplane where resurrection is impossible.

"The Demiplane of America's Hat"


Another race might be natural gramarists and get a feat "Extra Principle" at level one. (Extra Principle could be normally allowed as early as level 3 to stop Human race from being to perfect for this group.

Haha, that's exactly why I don't like class-specific feats. If you don't get the feat you're at an automatic disadvantage compared to every other gramarist, and it just becomes a boring feat tax. :smallsmile:


And something else... is it really impossible to take yggdratectural portals to other planes, without recreating them there?

I'm not sure I understand the question entirely, but if you're asking if you can move a semi-space to another Plane, the answer is yes. That's assuming it's tethered to an object or a person, of course.


This is jaw-dropping. The sheer amount of flavor in this class is astronomical. Absolutely love it.

Thank you! I'm glad you like the feel of the system! I tried to make it setting-agnostic as much as I could so it could be used almost anywhere, but that makes it hard to give a flavour of its own. I didn't really want it to end up just "vanilla" if you know what I mean.


The whole 'cubic feet' thing is also your problem with semi-spaces, although the fact that Kellus went from noting the length of the sides in YGGD101 to cubic feet in YGGD241. A cube that has a volume of 64 cubic feet has sides that are 4 feet long.

Good call! I will check that out and iron out one of the two instances for consistency.

EDIT: Okay, I checked it out, and the reason for the confusion was that YGGD 101 specifically creates 2ft. x 2ft. x 2ft. cubes, instead of letting you shape 8 cubic feet of extradimensional space. This is mostly to prevent silliness abusing weird shapes. Now, YGGD 241 specifically mentions that it lets you prepare YGGD 101 up to 8 times on the same space, so while it does only say that you have 64 cubic feet, it's implied that that space is made up of eight 2x2x2 cubes arranged however you want and attached to each other. I clarified this in the text. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!

Thank you everybody for the kind words! Now I have some revisions to make! :smallsmile:

LordotheMorning
2012-08-21, 03:40 AM
I did a bit of number crunching and theory crafting, and I'm finding the numbers on Eldrikinetic engines to be a little difficult to work with.

I started off by trying to create a gun:

A solid cubic foot of coal weighs around 84 pounds, meaning it takes 28 pounds of coal just to fire a bullet, which deals 1d3 points of damage. The price of lowest quality coal I googled and found to be about 38 cents per pound, meaning it costs $10.64 to fire a standard ballistic engine once. From the estimations I found here (http://www.d20source.com/2008/04/how-much-is-a-gold-piece-worth), a gold piece is probably between 80 and 160 dollars. For the sake of math, I'll assume it's worth $100.

The result is that it costs one silver piece to fire a ballistics engine with enough push to fire a bullet, dealing 1d3 damage, assuming that our modern exchange rates are any sort of fair reference. Alternatively, a cubic foot of loose coal pieces weighs between 40 and 60 pounds, meaning it would still take 13 to 20 pounds of coal, costing between 5 and 7 copper pieces.

This doesn't sound too bad until you consider that a bow doesn't cost anything to fire (except for the arrows themselves) and deals 1d8. And where are you going to keep all that coal? 28 pounds per shot, compared to .1 pounds per shot that you'd get firing an arrow, makes it a pretty cumbersome form of ammunition.

If Yggdratecture works the way I hope it does, and objects inside a semi-space are weightless, you could potentially solve this problem with YGGD 241 by creating a weightless chamber for coal that could be as large as you need it to be (by creating semi-spaces within semi-spaces). Seeing as how the engine to launch your bullet in the first place would be large enough to warrant the use of semi-spaces in the first place, the engine could be placed in a semi-space, with more semi-spaces holding coal directly above it. Thus, you could end up with a fairly elegant looking rifle whose moving parts are all in a semi-space mounted on it's front. The barrel of the ballistics engine would presumably exude from the semi-space for aiming purposes, like this:

http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss154/LordoftheMorning/roughergunschematic.jpg

Again, this sounds managable, but creating a gun in this way would require the use of your specialization, a very valuable commodity seeing as how you only get one, in Yggdratecture. Pulling this off without YGGD 241 would be difficult. A cubic foot of copper weighs about 550 pounds, which means you sure as hell aren't going to be carrying around 8 times that much unless the completed engine weighs less than the materials you need to make it (?), but fortunately you have just enough room to store 8 cubic feet in a non-upgraded semi-space. From there you'd have to rig a device to hold another semi-space above that one to load coal into an input device that also pokes out of the first semi-space, like this:

http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss154/LordoftheMorning/roughgunschematic.jpg

(My apologies if the text is a little hard to read.) This doesn't take into account a third loading mechanism for the actual bullets. Depending on how much coal can be held within the engine itself(?), and if it can do the same with bullets (?), these extra semi-spaces may or may not be necessary. Regardless, if you do not specialize in Yggdratecture, you will not be able to upgrade the amount of push your gun creates due to space and weight limitations (you can only fit one engine inside a 2-by-2-by-2 semi-space), which means you'll be stuck with 1d3 damage unless you don't care about being able to take the gun with you (such as if you wanted to mount it on a ship). Either way, despite all these hoops we jumped through, we're still far inferior to a simple bow.

At this point, the only way to make this model better would be to change the ammunition to something that takes better advantage of the Gramarist's abilities. I suppose you could shoot Phlogiston for 1d6 fire damage, but that's only if you wanted to specialize in Alchemetry. The only other idea I have would be to create a huge heuristic circuit around yourself and literally launch output Arcanodynamic transformers at the enemy which are set to contingently resume output on contact with your target (Related question: can you have multiple output transformers keyed into the same input if you only use one at a time?). Due to the size requirement of transformers, though, they'd be too bulky to go fast enough do any projectile damage. Anyone else have any ideas?

EDIT: Would it be possible to create a Kaleidomantic net gun? Essentially, use the same trick with a large heuristic circuit, and launch the spatial reference of a Kaleidomantic barrier, which is contingently set to activate upon being launched? The result would send a yellow or purple barrier flying at your target, but I wouldn't even know how to rule the aftermath of doing something like that... Either way, I don't think it works because you can't suddenly activate Kaleidomantic barriers, can you?

Now what if I wanted to bite the bullet, take Yggdratecture specialization, and upgrade the engine size using the former model instead of the latter? Shooting arrows at mach 3, for 2d8 damage that hits flat-footed touch sounds pretty good.

One could fit an engine of up to 64 cubic feet inside an upgraded semi-space, which means it would generate 1,600 push instead of 200. 20,000/30 = 666.6, so unless our Push/Bulk is close to that, we're not getting anywhere near Mach 3. 1,600 push divided by the 8 bulk of an arrow is only 200, which results in a speed of 6,000 ft., which isn't even enough to break Mach 1! Maybe we can at least shoot arrows one size category larger? 1600 push divided by 27 bulk, multiplied by 30 is... 1,778 ft., just 22 ft. shy of projectile speed. Fortunately, bullets with a bulk of only 2 could be fired at 24,000 ft., which is enough to break mach 3 by a healthy margin. The best we can do with a handheld gun seems to be 2d3, but it hits on flat-footed touch, which isn't bad. If you have any static modifiers, the double damage could actually be quite delicious. Does that double damage work with sneak attack dice?

So what is the cost? One shot of this gun is going to burn a whopping 224 pounds of coal! This is admittedly only around 8 sp per shot, which all things considered doesn't seem all that bad, but that's still a lot of coal to have to get your hands on! The most considerable price is still definitely the fact that you would have to use your specialization in Yggdratecture to pull this off. There's also enchantments to consider. Could you enchant this gun the way you could a normal bow? Could you give it properties? How would returning bullets interact with it?

EDIT: It occurs to me now that you could afford to use less push to get a bullet going mach 3. Those extra numbers in 24,000 don't do anything, so it would cost a little bit less than I thought.

Could I fit an even larger engine inside a semi-space if I were to link it to a second semi-space, or would that violate the rule that says it must be a single solid unit? Could I store an 8-by-8-by-4 solid piece inside two linked semi-spaces?

It seems to me that increasing the push of a Ballistic engine to 300 or even 400 wouldn't be a bad idea. 300 base push would allow for mach 1 arrows, or for tiny-sized objects to reach projectile speed. 400 wouldn't allow any increased benchmarks, but it would still make it a little bit easier on the resource demand. It's seems reasonable to me that a one-time launch engine could exceed the power of a continual motion engine like orthogonal by more than just x2 without being too ridiculous.


Now I'd like to move on to the concept of an air-ship. Due to the abundant nature of sunlight, we don't have to worry about fueling the ascending engine, but there's still the orthogonal part to consider. To move an airship at 30 ft., you'd need at least 512 units of push, which means at least 6 Orthogonal engines to manage a 35 ft. speed. This would require 6 cubic feet of wood per round. It was difficult to find an estimate the average cubic feet of wood in a tree via google, but I finally found a statistic saying that an average of two trees go into a unit called a cord, which as an 8 by 8 by 4 stack of wood, for 128 cubic feet. Now, a cord is has empty space in it, because it's just a bunch of logs tightly stacked together, so it's probably closer to 100 or 90 cubic feet of actual wood. The end result is that a tree will produce an average of about 50 cubic feet of wood, which is enough for a little over 8 minutes of travel with my size 6 orthogonal engine. Certain trees, like adult Oak, will produce much more, and other trees like Aspen will produce much less.

In order to power my airship, I'm burning a tree every eight minutes minutes or so, or 7.2 trees in an hour. Moving at 35 ft., I'm going at about 7 miles per hour (according to the PHB), so I'm burning a little more than one tree per mile. Assuming the ship can run 24 hours a day, I could cover 168 miles in a day, which is probably around 173 trees, or 8640 cubic feet of wood.

This provides another big logistics problem. A cubic foot of wood is going to weigh anywhere from 25 to 60 pounds, so even at it's lightest that's going to be 216,000 pounds of wood! I can't take all that on board without increasing the bulk of the ship, can I? By how much would it increase? How much energy could I save by installing sails on my airship? Where am I'm I gonna get all this wood? Can I buy it? Can I used Spectroconstruction to harvest it? Am I not just inviting the DM to throw angry druids at me?


Overall, I think it might be easier to measure out materials required in terms of weight instead of cubic feet. Heavier wood is obviously denser, which means the engine should get more energy from it. The same applies to coal and various other fuels. Could it perhaps be that Eldrikinetics has a little too much resource demand for a little too little push?

In order to make the class playable in a normal session, I think we're going to need a lot more information. There ought to be a chart of all the materials a Gramarist might need to use, their weight per cubic foot, their price per cubic foot (or per pound), the amount of man-hours it would take to harvest or mine a cubic foot (or the amount one could harvest in one use of Spectroconstruction), so that logistics questions don't take so much research to answer. I have no problem googling stuff like this, but if I have to do it in the middle of a session, the rest of my group is going to be cross with me.

I'm also really eager to know what the prices of Sunmetal, Orichalcum, and other ascended metals are, because one of the first things I'd want to do would be to buy an Orichalcum battery. That might be tricky to balance. If it costs too much, then Alchemetry specialization becomes a gold mine. Too little, and who would ever want to specialize in Alchemetry?

LordotheMorning
2012-08-21, 05:28 AM
I don't want to double post, but my last one was getting so hairy I figured I should start over since this is a new subject.

I looked over the Kaleidomantics section again, and I'm afraid I'm not clear how their spatial references are supposed to work. You can fix a barrier to a point in space, that much is obvious, but I'm not sure what happens if you connect it to an object, because the barrier is essentially 2-dimensional. If you set up a purple barrier affixed to, say, a foot-long bar of metal, could you then simply grab the bar and slide the barrier to the side like a door? (It would be important to note that a non-stationary purple barrier wouldn't have any collision with the ground.)

Can the spatial reference be affixed to the barrier by one of the ends instead of the middle, and can the object therefore be something like the threshold of a doorframe? I could set up a submarine with blue barriers if so (or a spaceship with orange barriers and gravity fluxes), but I would need to be sure that the barriers would move with the submarine.

Can I create a purple barrier so slim that it acts like a piercing weapon? Could I then make what would essentially be a brilliant energy spear by affixing it to one end of a hilt or shaft? (though not a slashing or bludgeoning weapon because I think those would require weight to do damage). If this is the case, and I really hope it is, one could then potentially increase the damage dice on my gun design by having them shoot razor-sharp discs of superlunar pigment bound to bullets. The effective size and weight would remain the same, but I would essentially be shooting large chakram at that point. The final step would be to carve slight grooves into the bullets to ensure they loaded properly (I don't them firing with the blade end facing away from what I'm aiming at)

Kellus
2012-08-21, 02:47 PM
Okay, huge posts! Let me answer some of the questions?

I personally think that coal would be most useful as a power source on board a ship or something, where you're using big engines to launch cannons or harpoons or something, and where you can store all the coal you would need (or keep the spaces that connect to places where you keep all the coal). For firearms, if you really want to launch physical objects, you might have more luck with an eldrikinetic engine built out of a semi-space, that is powered straight off of puissance from the input. So either a wood-output transformer or actual orichalcum beads or bars that you buy and then insert into the firearm to charge it. For example, a bar of orichalcum with 10 ebbs in it (enough for one shot) is about 100 gp, and can be recharged later. Or a light-input puissance-output transformer that's powered by everburning torches or something. Or a gun that actually shoots magic missiles when you yell loud enough.

Basically, what I'm getting at is that there are a lot of ways to look at almost any problem in the system. The other main thing to mention is that your personal level isn't necessarily the same thing as the technology level of the setting. You might just be able to buy phogiston and orichalcum, since they don't go away when you use them. This all depends on the setting you're in, and is the main reason why this material is as much for DMs as it is for players.

Okay, the airships: if your problem with wood-burning engines is storage space, YGGD 101 provides pretty much as much storage space as you need. Or you could just use actual sails, and use the wind to move, like a boat; once you defy gravity, the hard part is done. A very small force can get a levitated object moving pretty easily. Or you could look at other methods of lift, like dirigibles or vacuum airships; both of those are possible with kaleidomantic filters.

That being said, you raise some excellent points on the numbers needed for Push. I tried to err on the conservative side to prevent abuses, but after spending the last few hours checking math, I'm inclined to agree with you. I'm going to increase the Push from a Ballistic engine to 400 points, and decrease the wood requirement for a simple orthogonal engine to 1 pound of wood every minute. So you'll still need a lot to propel big stuff for long periods of time, but not chopping-down-forests numbers. :smallwink: (Also, it makes automotives more feasible)

Coal is also probably a bad resource to use for a Ballistic Engine, since it's not really defined in-game. I'm going to change the fuel required for a Ballistic Engine to bone instead, and reduce the required fuel to 1 pound of bone per shot. That should make things a little easier to have firearms of various types and sizes. I'll be noting fuel requirements in both weight and volume to make things more user-friendly as well.

The higher level engines seem mostly reasonable as they are, especially since you'll have all sorts of additional options at the 300-level. Like a demiplane made of acorns that you carry in your pocket, for example. But I'm going to reduce the fuel requirement for all of them slightly.

The price of all of the high-level metals is the same as any other gramarie: 10 gp per Baccalaureate principle, 100 gp per Magisterial principle, and 1,000 gp per Doctorate, plus the cost of the materials needed.

Thank you for the suggestions!

Kaleidomantics:

Yes, once you fix it to an object or creature you can move it around however you like, and it rotates in space. Blue filters that are fixed around a frame to make a submarine move with it and turn with it and everything.

Yes, by the text (and by intention), a Violet filter can be used to make touch attacks if it's launched, since it passes through everything that's not living matter.

EDIT: The other big change that I made was to reduce the volume for the actual SO Engine and Ballistic Engine to 1 cubic foot per preparation. You still need huge room for the fancy engines, but those ones are now a little easier to carry around. :smallsmile:

Note: If anyone's confused about any changes, the OP always has the latest dates of changes and modifications to the rules text.

jseah
2012-08-21, 03:28 PM
Oh my goodness, you can move Kaleidomantics?!

*jaw drop*


Too bad though, Neumann cyclers are impossible unless embedded principles from Abnormal Behaviour don't go away when they are activated. (ie. they can be activated as many times as you have ebbs to power)


EDIT:
holy crap. Tie a violet filter to an arrow, fire the arrow at mach 3. *splat*

General Patton
2012-08-21, 04:49 PM
1-Get two people
2-Prepare a 10X10 horizontal Violet Filter under person A's feet, relative to them
3-Prepare a 5X5 horizontal Violet Filter over person B's head, relative to it
4-Person A stands 2.5 feet from person B
5-Person A grabs the Violet Filter ledge above himself and pulls himself up

Problem, gravity?

Zale
2012-08-21, 05:27 PM
That could be an interesting type of flooring. If one did not mind things going away if you dropped them..

Amechra
2012-08-21, 05:45 PM
Alright, part of me wants to design a von Neumann machine using this system...

You would need to be a Heuristicism specialist, though; you kinda need to shove an AI and all the principles necessary onto nets...

Though this does lead to the issue of... wait, no, you would only need one of each principle involved, as well as an intelligence that was instructed in making copies, and nothing else...

Because it would be necessary to set them to minimum Intelligence, or else they would get dumber with each cycle, and that would be bad.

But, yeah, anyway, it would take me a bit to write it up, but you would only need (off the top of my head) a Transformer, a couple of Heuristic nets, a few Eldrikinetic engines, a couple sub-spaces, and maybe a few Alchemetry principles, to be sure that I would be dealing with the proper materials.

Int 3 is smart enough for me to coordinate self-replication, right?
---

A question I have been meaning to ask; namely, we can connect a Silver input and a Wood output, for example, to convert magical energy into ebbs, right?

jseah
2012-08-21, 06:13 PM
The thing with self replication is that principles can't cast principles (apart from the contingent one).
That's what I meant when I said Neumann Cyclers need embedded principles from Abnormal Behaviour to not go away when activated.

Kellus
2012-08-21, 06:19 PM
Int 3 is smart enough for me to coordinate self-replication, right?

Int 3 is the minimum for sentience. That's why Animals all have Int 1 or 2 and why Int 3 is the minimum for a half-orc character.


A question I have been meaning to ask; namely, we can connect a Silver input and a Wood output, for example, to convert magical energy into ebbs, right?

Yes, you can connect any input to any output.

As far as the embedded principles going away after one activation, that certainly wasn't the intent. The idea was that the principle is programmed intot the circuit, and whenever the circumstances are met or triggered, it activates that principle in a preprogrammed way. So you can have things like orichalcum-manufacturing plants and stuff. I'll take a look at Abnormal Behaviours and make sure that's clear. :smallsmile:

jseah
2012-08-21, 06:51 PM
All right! The Neumann Cycler is officially possible!

To start things off, here's a Independent Locomotion module. This is intended to be a platform that other modules can be stuck on.
Eg. a scout to go find raw metal sources.

Independent Locomotion
Planck-Becquerel Generator - Eternal Flame x 3
-> Simple Orthogonal Engine

The trick:
The 6 transformers are shaped into equal sections of a sphere and the Simple Orthogonal engine is a hollow iron sphere wrapped around the outside.
The 3 gold inputs occupy marginally larger sections than the Wood output and have a little hollow to themselves on the inside of the engine shell, that hollow contains an Eternal Flame to power it.

A Heuristical circuit pegged to the center connects all of them in the appropriate ways and contains an Exotic Intelligence (or is part of one).

This is the smallest moving independent unit I can manage. It just rolls around, ideal for flat land.

The Jumping Jack is identical except that the shell is made of copper and is a Ballistic engine. The engine moves the internal transformers, which then causes the entire ball to hop. This engine is more designed to climb stairs or rocks that the rolling ball cannot get up.

LordotheMorning
2012-08-21, 07:03 PM
Thanks for your response! I'm sorry, but I ended up casting another Wall of Text. If you want to get the rest of your content out before worrying about my concerns, I totally understand.


I personally think that coal would be most useful as a power source on board a ship or something, where you're using big engines to launch cannons or harpoons or something, and where you can store all the coal you would need (or keep the spaces that connect to places where you keep all the coal). For firearms, if you really want to launch physical objects, you might have more luck with an eldrikinetic engine built out of a semi-space, that is powered straight off of puissance from the input. So either a wood-output transformer or actual orichalcum beads or bars that you buy and then insert into the firearm to charge it. For example, a bar of orichalcum with 10 ebbs in it (enough for one shot) is about 100 gp, and can be recharged later. Or a light-input puissance-output transformer that's powered by everburning torches or something. Or a gun that actually shoots magic missiles when you yell loud enough.

That reminds me. What would be the caster level on said magic missles? 3? :smalltongue:


That being said, you raise some excellent points on the numbers needed for Push. I tried to err on the conservative side to prevent abuses, but after spending the last few hours checking math, I'm inclined to agree with you. I'm going to increase the Push from a Ballistic engine to 400 points, and decrease the wood requirement for a simple orthogonal engine to 1 pound of wood every minute. So you'll still need a lot to propel big stuff for long periods of time, but not chopping-down-forests numbers. :smallwink: (Also, it makes automotives more feasible)

Fantastic. One question, though. Is spiral motion producible by an orthogonal engine? How fast would you have to spin an object to make it a weapon, say to make whirring buzz-saws?


Coal is also probably a bad resource to use for a Ballistic Engine, since it's not really defined in-game. I'm going to change the fuel required for a Ballistic Engine to bone instead, and reduce the required fuel to 1 pound of bone per shot. That should make things a little easier to have firearms of various types and sizes. I'll be noting fuel requirements in both weight and volume to make things more user-friendly as well.

If you're changing the fuel source to bone, might you also want to change the material of the ballistics engine from copper to something that makes a more thematic fit? I love the way flesh engine to blood fuel/gold engine to sunlight fuel fit, and it'd be a shame to break that. For that matter, does the thematic of bone fit the mechanic of the ballistic engine?


The price of all of the high-level metals is the same as any other gramarie: 10 gp per Baccalaureate principle, 100 gp per Magisterial principle, and 1,000 gp per Doctorate, plus the cost of the materials needed.


This led me on another number-crunching crusade, and the results I found are a little scary in terms of balance. If Eldrikinetics were a little too weak, perhaps Arcandodynamics are a little too strong. It seems to me that if you manage to obtain any significant amount of orichalcum, your power skyrockets. If it's 1,000 gp/hour, and the principle takes 4 hours, then that's 4,000 gold + the price of tin for 200 cubic feet or 500 ibs, whichever is exceeded first. Turns out Tin is about 456 pounds per cubic foot, so you could get just about, 1.09 cubic feet for 4,000 gold, enough to hold 109.6 ebbs, or 110 if you round up. Now add the price of tin, for which I'll use the same method I used to derive the price of coal (which is a rough method to be sure). Tin is currently $5.07 per pound, which I'll round to $5, which is 5 sp if 1 gp = $100. The price for my 500 pound block is then only 25 gp. The full battery would therefore cost 4,025 gp.

With the Gold transformer, I can get access to nigh infinite energy at a slower rate of accumulation by level 5. With a single gold transformer, I can generate 3 ebbs per round, meaning I could charge it fully in 37 rounds, a little under 4 minutes. Now, 3 ebbs per round might be balanced for level 5, enabling you to deal 3d6 damage or cast a level 3 spell with the right transformer, but with an Orichalcum battery things get ridiculous quickly. The only thing stopping me from buying sunmetal and dropping nukes at this point would be price. Going off some of the other posts in the thread, I could get a cubic foot of gold for 12,000 gp, and then transform it into sunmetal for 4,000. So for about 20,000 gold, which 4 level 5 players could manage if they pooled resources, they could drop a nuke. If you have Hueristic specialization, then you won't even have to worry about killing yourself in the blast, because you can set it to go off in 5 minutes/on impact/whatever else.

Of course, 20,000 gold is a lot for a one-use trick, so there's also a more sustainable way to have fun with Orichalcum using a simple Silver transformer. Assuming level 5 again, I could take 4 minutes to charge the battery. Then, assuming max ranks and 16 CHA, I could take a 20 on my UMD check for 31, enabling me to fire bolts of 31d6 untyped damage 3 times per encounter at level 5! After combat, set out your generator for about 4 minutes and you're good to go again. We'll call it a Death Ray. Setting this up would cost... 12,000 for the gold transformer, 1,200 for a silver transformer (rough estimate, assuming silver is worth 1/10 of gold and disregard differences in density between the two metals), and 4,025 for the Orichalcum, for a total price tag of 17,225 gp. Due to the weight, I'd probably have to have it carried by a wagon, or I suppose I could simply keep all the but the business end of it inside a semi-space (which almost seems a bit unfair).

The price is really the only thing that brings any balance to it, and even then I'm fairly certain that an orthodox enchanted item capable of doing what this does would be a waaaay more expensive. I didn't expect a gold transformer to cost quite as much as it does, but regardless, the major problem is Orichalcum, which is, in my opinion, the best ascended metal by a long shot. Even Sunmetal has only specific uses and requires Arcanodynamic specialization to harness as an energy source. For 4,000 gold it's an absolute steal. It turns that meager 3 ebbs per round into a god-like force to be reckoned with. This must have been why I assumed I wouldn't have access to Orichalcum when I built that gun in my earlier post, because I guessed that if I did, I'd be on my way to bigger and better things. The idea of storing ebbs completely revolutionizes the way the class works. Producing 3 ebbs per round doesn't sound too bad until you introduce a way to store it, at which point it turns into 43,200 ebbs per day, the equivalent 4,800 9th level spells. Something like should either cost more than you could imagine or simply be impossible. I want to feel as though ebbs are difficult to get without a lot of preparation and resources, but Orichalcum breaks this by making actual ebbs per round produced irrelevant.

I can think of a number of general suggestions to tone it down a bit, which I will spoiler in case you'd rather come up with your own idea (I don't want to stifle your creativity).

-Adjust the price of Gamarie to the level of magitechnology in the world. In a Doomsday Magitech world they would sell Doctorate for 1,000 per hour while in Magitech Rennaissance they would sell it for a much higher price, and in Low-Impact world, it would cost a fortune. This would make sense because skilled gramarists might be incredibly rare in a more traditional setting.

-Severely reduce the amount of ebbs a cubic foot of Orichalcum can hold.

-Severely reduce the amount of ascended metal you can create with a single 4-hour preparation.

-Limit the amount of puissance you can have flowing through a Heuristic Circuit by some factor of your autohypnosis check. This would prevent atomic explosions from being as easy to create, but it wouldn't prevent the Death Ray, however, as one could simply max ranks and take a 20 again.
EDIT: Actually scratch that idea completely because you could always just make more circuits.

-Implement some form of diminishing returns to Orichalcum batteries. Perhaps they aren't rechargable, or perhaps they're less efficient at storage the larger they are. Perhaps they lose energy over time when inactive? Or maybe drastically increase the amount of time it takes to charge Orichalum?

-Raise the price of Orichalcum specifically by a large amount, or use a more precious metal as its base (like platinum).

-Make it so that transformers can only absorb/output a certain amount in accordance with their size, meaning that it would probably take more than a cubic foot of silver to get to 31d6.

Also, can any of the ascended metals be found in nature?

Thinking about weight vs. cubic feet got me thinking that if ALCH 364 is overpowered, ALCH 101 might be underpowered. Stone is going to be somewhere between 145-160 pounds per cubic foot, which means about 3.3 cubic feet of stone per preparation. So, you see that stretch of the town wall you'd like to harden? The one that's 100 feet wide, 10 feet thick, and 20 feet tall? Better get crackin', cuz that's gonna take you 6,060 hours to do! And that's probably not even the whole wall! Might wanna take another look at other principles with similar targets, because I'm noticing a trend that weight per cubic foot is usually a lot higher than anticipated.



Yes, once you fix it to an object or creature you can move it around however you like, and it rotates in space. Blue filters that are fixed around a frame to make a submarine move with it and turn with it and everything.

If that's the case, then I'm gonna need some rules for damage/knock-back when you get crushed/pushed by one of these babies, because to me, the #1 coolest thing to do with this is shoot them at people. I'd want to rig up a 20 ft. chain, fix a barrier to it, and then swing at in a circle to shunt people around. Hell, you could literally make a giant flyswatter and swing it through buildings to splat the people inside! It'd probably be some sort of modified bullrush, using a function of the weight of the spatial reference to which the barrier is linked, but leverage might also be a factor. You probably know more about physics than I do. :smallbiggrin: Or perhaps there's already something in the established rules you could use to calculate it?

Worse still I could create an 100 ft. long (or more) spinning blade out of a violet barrier, and propel it with a powerful orthogonal engine (like I mentioned earlier). Ride that baby through town and you've got a giant lawn-mower that mows living things instead of lawns. But how do you even begin to calculate how much damage that would do?


Yes, by the text (and by intention), a Violet filter can be used to make touch attacks if it's launched, since it passes through everything that's not living matter.

This is so unbelievably cool.


EDIT: The other big change that I made was to reduce the volume for the actual SO Engine and Ballistic Engine to 1 cubic foot per preparation. You still need huge room for the fancy engines, but those ones are now a little easier to carry around. :smallsmile:

Also good.:smalltongue:

One last thing: Would darkness created by an input gold transformer be magical or natural darkness for the purposes of darkvision?

EDIT: One other MAJORLY important question. You know that rule with crafting that says you work 8 hours a day and you can't work more than that per day? Do Gramarist's get that too?

I'm sorry to drill you like this. If you want to hold back responding until you finish your final discipline/prestige class stuff, then by all means do so. I'll be paying rapt attention.

Morcleon
2012-08-21, 07:23 PM
@LordotheMorning: Actually, your trick can be improved upon quite significantly, with my P/I (phlogiston/ice) Generator! (Disclaimer: Does not actually make pie.)

Put 8 cu ft of phlogiston (heat-radiating) in a semi-space, and make the entrance a 1 in diameter chip or something similar. Place an input ice transformer made of blue ice (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040911a&page=5) in a 1x1x1 semi-space with an opening of the same size and shape of the first entrance. Place the two openings together. Get a heuristical circuit to bond the ice input transformer to a silver output transformer, which is also placed in a semi-space with a small opening (placed on a staff or something). Assuming 14th level and arcanodynamic specialization, your UMD check is:

17 (ranks) + 5 (Cha) + 2 (mstwk tool) + 7 (class boost) = 33

Take 20 on the ice and silver, and you get 53 ebbs transformed per round, converted to 53d6 at about a mile range as (effectively) a free action each round. The entire apparatus (assuming you make everything yourself except for the phlogiston and not including the relatively small amounts of raw material) costs 4000 gp.

The P/I generator makes 100 ebbs per round, and considering this array only uses 53 ebbs per round, you can add on even more transformers. And if you add on even more generators, you get even more power per round! Also, it has insignificant weight (about three marbles and a staff), and you only need one staff, no matter how many generators and firing points you add.

This can all be done at a lower level (and higher optimization), but requires you to buy more stuff.

General Patton
2012-08-21, 07:27 PM
I believe the simplest version of my troll physics flying device would be a Violet Filter shaped like a box with an open top, with its spatial reference being a steering wheel like object. Sit in the box holding the object and lift/turn it.


If that's the case, then I'm gonna need some rules for damage/knock-back when you get crushed/pushed by one of these babies, because to me, the #1 coolest thing to do with this is shoot them at people. I'd want to rig up a 20 ft. chain, fix a barrier to it, and then swing at in a circle to shunt people around. Hell, you could literally make a giant flyswatter and swing it through buildings to splat the people inside! It'd probably be some sort of modified bullrush, using a function of the weight of the spatial reference to which the barrier is linked, but leverage might also be a factor. You probably know more about physics than I do. :smallbiggrin: Or perhaps there's already something in the established rules you could use to calculate it?

I second this notion. A surface being held at a fixed distance from something else that can be moved will break physics as soon as someone starts interacting with both the Filter and the object it's affixed to. You can't even meaningfully calculate the motion since there's no forces involved with some of the components of this system. Without constructing physics for it, you could carry infinite weight on a Filter glued to an object and create bootstrap drives that we can only assume move at infinite speed.

LordotheMorning
2012-08-21, 07:41 PM
That could be an interesting type of flooring. If one did not mind things going away if you dropped them..

You are now imagining a dungeon in which the floor is a purple barrier suspended above an enormous pit. In this room, you encounter a fighter who is the best damn disarmer you've ever seen. You drop your weapon and down it goes. Like a rust monster, but infinitely more creative and amusing.

@Morcleon: Yeah, Phlogiston may potentially be another problem-causing ascended metal. My point wasn't to optimize it, but to point out how much power you can get by level five as a way to help Kellus balance. At the very least, this happens at level 14, and at that point things start to get broken anyway. I'm also not sure if Phlogiston stacks addi- *checks numbers of Phlogiston and Ice transformers*... :smalleek:. Phlogiston is a full 980 degrees hotter than room temperature, so it produces 98 ebbs/round?! And that means normal fire does near that too!

EDIT: I think I should have read your entire post before typing my response. I think Kellus is gonna have to swing a nerf bat at this one too.:smalleek:

Also, I think you forgot about the price of blue-ice. Unless you used Alchemetry to make it.

Kellus
2012-08-21, 07:43 PM
Thanks for your response! I'm sorry, but I ended up casting another Wall of Text. If you want to get the rest of your content out before worrying about my concerns, I totally understand.

Wow, you have some really insightful questions. I'm being lazy and putting off finishing Biomachinery, so let me answer your questions first.


That reminds me. What would be the caster level on said magic missles? 3? :smalltongue:

The same as the caster level of the caster who placed it there in the first place. You need to cast a spell into an arcanodynamic transformer in order to get it to output the spell in the first place.


If you're changing the fuel source to bone, might you also want to change the material of the ballistics engine from copper to something that makes a more thematic fit? I love the way flesh engine to blood fuel/gold engine to sunlight fuel fit, and it'd be a shame to break that. For that matter, does the thematic of bone fit the mechanic of the ballistic engine?

Bone I think thematically works fairly well (violence), and is at least something that isn't going to cause arguments finding in-game like coal. I'll admit copper doesn't thematically have much of a link to it, but it does have the sort of spirit of early ballistics, cannons, and firearms that I think the principle evokes, so I think it'll do. I want to make sure it's a planetary metal to make sure it's in good supply, and most of the others are already taken.


(interesting stuff about pricing and orichalcum)

This is a really interesting topic. I agree that the idea of storing puissance allows you to do a lot more than ever before. At 14th level+ that's totally okay, since everything is lolwtfbbq but before that it can certainly have some nasty side-effects with clever parties.

I'll think about various scenarios, but I think the most reasonable solution is to be careful as a DM introducing any higher tech level material into lower tech settings.

I've tried to stay away from the economic side of things, mostly because:

1. I don't really care
2. I don't know much about economics
3. Any economic decision is predicated on the specifics of the setting

Especially number 3. I can't make generalisations like "orichalcum is especially valuable in low-tech settings", because maybe someone wants to run a low-tech game set in a post-apocalyptic setting where the fallout of the angel wars has left a lot of orichalcum and phlogiston deposits lying around. Essentially, I trust DMs to understand the material, and control how it enters into their game. Orichalcum is a Doctorate-level effect for a reason.

But let me think a little more about it, I might at the very least put some guidelines in about handling orichalcum in the setting. At least advise DMs not to hand out massive chunks of it.


Also, can any of the ascended metals be found in nature?

No, unless you want them to be in your setting.


Thinking about weight vs. cubic feet got me thinking that if ALCH 364 is overpowered, ALCH 101 might be underpowered. Stone is going to be somewhere between 145-160 pounds per cubic foot, which means about 3.3 cubic feet of stone per preparation. So, you see that stretch of the town wall you'd like to harden? The one that's 100 feet wide, 10 feet thick, and 20 feet tall? Better get crackin', cuz that's gonna take you 6,060 hours to do! And that's probably not even the whole wall! Might wanna take another look at other principles with similar targets, because I'm noticing a trend that weight per cubic foot is usually a lot higher than anticipated.

The 101 principles don't have especially large impacts on the setting, and in this case at least it's pretty much exactly what I was aiming for. 6,060 hours is quite a while for one party member, but if he hires, say, a construction crew of 50 1st level gramarists, he can be done in about a week. Faster if they're elans or warforged or something else that doesn't need to sleep. The point is that in order to do big-scale stuff like that you need teams and crews working together to get big engineering projects done. On your own, you can harden the party's equipment and stuff, sure. But fortifications? Good thing that most kingdoms have engineering corps with their armies.


If that's the case, then I'm gonna need some rules for damage/knock-back when you get crushed/pushed by one of these babies, because to me, the #1 coolest thing to do with this is shoot them at people. I'd want to rig up a 20 ft. chain, fix a barrier to it, and then swing at in a circle to shunt people around. Hell, you could literally make a giant flyswatter and swing it through buildings to splat the people inside! It'd probably be some sort of modified bullrush, using a function of the weight of the spatial reference to which the barrier is linked, but leverage might also be a factor. You probably know more about physics than I do. :smallbiggrin: Or perhaps there's already something in the established rules you could use to calculate it?

Well, that's an interesting point. Luckily walls of force already exist in the game, and have rules for how they interact with people. For trying to push and squish people, bull rushes seem perfectly reasonable, and lets them try to resist it with their Strength. I would start by figuring out the size of the filter for the bludgeoning damage it deals, and treat it as an improvised weapon that initiates a bull rush based on the attack roll + the size modifier of the filter. At some point, the actual rules inevitably break down, and you need to make a judgment call based on the specific circumstances; no ruleset can predict every scenario. That's exactly why every part of this ruleset tries to reference existing material as much as possible so you know exactly how an effect slots into the game.

That being said, see my response to General Patton below.


One last thing: Would darkness created by an input gold transformer be magical or natural darkness for the purposes of darkvision?

Natural darkness. Magical darkness that darkvision doesn't work in always specifically mentions it, like an actual darkness (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/darkness.htm) effect.

@Morcleon–

Haha, I'm not sure I'd rely too much on blue ice. I get that it's pretty cool, but the intent was that when an effect specifies "ice" it means actual frozen water. :smallwink:

The main problem with a phlogiston/ice transformer is that phlogiston has a temperature of 1,000 degrees Centigrade around it, and even with alchemetric modification, there's only so much heat you can channel away with arcanodynamics. If you can set something up to get around that, it's a fantastic source of energy!


I second this notion. A surface being held at a fixed distance from something else that can be moved will break physics as soon as someone starts interacting with both the Filter and the object it's affixed to. You can't even meaningfully calculate the motion since there's no forces involved with some of the components of this system. Without constructing physics for it, you could carry infinite weight on a Filter glued to an object and create bootstrap drives that we can only assume move at infinite speed.

This is a really good point. I'll write up some rules for kaleidomantics for what happens when something is pushing back against a moving filter that should hopefully clear up some of the confusion. :smallsmile:

Morcleon
2012-08-21, 07:52 PM
@Morcleon–

Haha, I'm not sure I'd rely too much on blue ice. I get that it's pretty cool, but the intent was that when an effect specifies "ice" it means actual frozen water. :smallwink:

The main problem with a phlogiston/ice transformer is that phlogiston has a temperature of 1,000 degrees Centigrade around it, and even with alchemetric modification, there's only so much heat you can channel away with arcanodynamics. If you can set something up to get around that, it's a fantastic source of energy!

Blue ice is frozen water. It just happens to be super awesome frozen water from the deepest areas of the oldest glaciers. :smallbiggrin:

As for the heat...


The material is cold and feels identical to regular ice upon casual observation, blue ice only melts under intense and direct application of heat, similar to iron.

I assume this means its melting point is that of iron, which is ~1500 degrees Centigrade. If the problem is with channeling of heat, it's not that hard to simply place another (or another 2 or 3 or 4 :smalltongue:) ice transformer in conjunction with the phlogiston it to channel the rest of the heat.

jojolagger
2012-08-21, 07:54 PM
Int 3 is smart enough for me to coordinate self-replication, right?
Int 1 is sufficient for reproduction. Animals manage that by themselves.
Also, why not use semi-spaces linked to a demi-plane, such as the one my generator generator would be on, to act as a power source for the bots instead of generating the power on them.
Same goes with AI, possibly even using the same link. You know you want the self replicating machines to be legion.



-Adjust the price of Gamarie to the level of magitechnology in the world. In a Doomsday Magitech world they would sell Doctorate for 1,000 per hour while in Magitech Rennaissance they would sell it for a much higher price, and in Low-Impact world, it would cost a fortune. This would make sense because skilled gramarists might be incredibly rare in a more traditional setting.
Here is an idea with a nice table.
{table]2 above setting|100,000 gp/hour
1 above setting|10,000 gp/hour
setting level|1,000 gp/hour
1 below setting|100 gp/hour
2 below setting|10 gp/hour[/table]
This way, in a low magitek setting, high level magitek is really damn pricey, while low grade magitek is in the general magic item territory.
As you add magitek to the setting, it gets cheaper, but highest grade magitech never goes below 1000 gp per hour.


-Raise the price of Orichalcum specifically by a large amount, or use a more precious metal as its base (like platinum). A platinum base would result in a 120,000 gp price tag per cubic foot, plus gramarist expenses. In a high magitek setting, that's 124,000 gp for 100 charges, or 1240 gp per charge. Which is a fair bit more reasonable, as you'd need almost 40kgp for the 31d6 deathray. And then it only stores a single shot. With the 1/2 wealth on 1 item thing enforced, a character would need to be at least level 12 to start with such a battery.
In low magitek, it'd be 520,000 gp, or 5200 gp per charge. 161200 for a single 31d6 deathray shot capacity. Said character would need to be level 17.
At those prices at those levels, it is quite reasonable, considering what else is available.

Edit: Also, Alch 101 (heat capacity) can result in immunity to fire and cold damage with a result of 0. Said result can also apply a 1/0 multiplier to fire damage on an iron golem, meaning any fire damage fully heals them. Then use Alch 364 and make it a phlogiston golem. It now fully heals, always.

Kellus
2012-08-21, 07:56 PM
Blue ice is frozen water. It just happens to be super awesome frozen water from the deepest areas of the oldest glaciers. :smallbiggrin:

Okay, I'm sorry, but I'm not personally responsible for every stupid thing that WotC has written in random splatbooks. :smalltongue: It's not ice just because it has 'ice' in the name, any more than Baatorian green steel is the same thing as normal steel. Or the colour green for that matter.

That being said, if your DM thinks it's reasonable, go nuts! I'm not going to tell you how to play your game!

LordotheMorning
2012-08-21, 08:14 PM
The 101 principles don't have especially large impacts on the setting, and in this case at least it's pretty much exactly what I was aiming for. 6,060 hours is quite a while for one party member, but if he hires, say, a construction crew of 50 1st level gramarists, he can be done in about a week. Faster if they're elans or warforged or something else that doesn't need to sleep. The point is that in order to do big-scale stuff like that you need teams and crews working together to get big engineering projects done. On your own, you can harden the party's equipment and stuff, sure. But fortifications? Good thing that most kingdoms have engineering corps with their armies.

The thing about this, though, is that a Gramarist can build a house in thirty minutes by himself with Spectroconstruction. If he can build it that fast, why should it take him weeks or months to strengthen it? I'd say this principle has one of the least abuseable uses in the first place because you can only use it to increase a given attribute once, so you have little to fear from improving it by. There's also the notion that various other principles, such as ARCD 101 and HEUR 101, are not only incredibly useful, but essential for most of the things you'd want to do with the class.

I also edited in this question on my earlier post, but I must have been too late to be seen: You know that rule with crafting that says you work 8 hours a day and you can't work more than that per day? Do Gramarists get that too?

@jojolagger: Those platinum prices are pretty steep. Maybe a little too steep. Although at the same time, I'd actually rather it be too hard than too easy so that my DM doesn't just think I'm trying to be cheesy.

Funny thing about that, actually. My DM homebrewed in something he calls X-Spheres, which are little crystal artifacts that are remnants of an ancient civilization that was very adept at manipulating "mana" (which is functionally identical to the idea of puissance). X-Spheres are a major part of the plot, and are essentially really, really good Orichalcum batteries. The party has managed to collect a few already, so if I do get to take levels of this class, I'm gonna be having a lot of cheese for dinner. Most of the ones we've found have been full, but we have no way to charge them. I have a glove that allows me to draw puissance from the battery to cast a spell instead of having it count for my spells for day. Now, if I can take this class, I can learn to charge them... I showed him this thread and joked that was practically already using these rules without realizing it. I think the complexity of some of the rules confused him a bit, but I think he'll come around. Especially since it's such an absolutely perfect fit for his setting.

Kellus
2012-08-21, 08:36 PM
The thing about this, though, is that a Gramarist can build a house in thirty minutes by himself with Spectroconstruction. If he can build it that fast, why should it take him weeks or months to strengthen it? I'd say this principle has one of the least abuseable uses in the first place because you can only use it to increase a given attribute once, so you have little to fear from improving it by a bit. There's also the fact that various other principles, such as ARCD 101 and HEUR 101, are not only incredibly useful, but essential for most of the things you'd want to do with the class.

That's an interesting distinction. Heuristicism, and arcanodynamics (to a lesser degree) are what I think of as 'systemic' disciplines, whose main use is to work inside of a machine as a whole. Alchemetrics is much more of a standalone field, and is mostly useful for providing the materials to do crazy stuff with (especially the highest level principle). Spectroconstruction is specifically nothing that mundane labour can't solve in its own right. The lyre of building described digging ditches, mines, building stuff, and so on. Magically enhancing the durability or heat capacity of materials isn't something that a normal work crew would be able to do. Even though people in the thread haven't yet figured out crazy stuff to do with ALCH 101 on par with the others, I'm confident that there are quite a few abusable things to do with it (and in fact it's practically required for some of the stuff like ice transformers). It's also interesting because it's very useful in its own right in a more standard combat scenario, since you can increase the durability or hardness of stuff.

Now that you mention it, though, I'd completely forgotten about that limit of a single buff to a material. I'd intended to remove that clause at one point, and had even been considering allowing a single preparation to set each of the qualities to the point on the slider that you like. I'm sorry for the error, stuff sneaks through from draft to draft. :smalleek:


I also edited in this question on my earlier post, but I must have been too late to be seen: You know that rule with crafting that says you work 8 hours a day and you can't work more than that per day? Do Gramarists get that too?

No.


@jojolagger: Those platinum prices are pretty steep. Maybe a little too steep. Although at the same time, I'd actually rather it be too hard than too easy so that my DM doesn't just think I'm trying to be cheesy.

That does actually make me feel a little better about orichalcum, including since it seems a better fit for it than tin. I still stand by that it's up to the DM to allow higher tech into low-tech scenarios, but I understand also that that's an infuriating cop-out. So I think I'll place platinum in as an 8th option for the final set of planitary metals, and figure out something else interesting for tin. Thank you for the suggestions, jojolagger and lordothemorning!


Funny thing about that, actually. My DM homebrewed in something he calls X-Spheres, which are little crystal artifacts that are remnants of an ancient civilization that was very adept at manipulating "mana" (which is functionally identical to the idea of puissance). X-Spheres are a major part of the plot, and are essentially really, really good Orichalcum batteries. The party has managed to collect a few already, so if I do get to take levels of this class, I'm gonna be having a lot of cheese for dinner. Most of the ones we've found have been full, but we have no way to charge them. I have a glove that allows me to draw puissance from the battery to cast a spell instead of having it count for my spells for day. Now, if I can take this class, I can learn to charge them... I showed him this thread and joked that was practically already using these rules without realizing it. I think the complexity of some of the rules confused him a bit, but I think he'll come around. Especially since it's such an absolutely perfect fit for his setting.

Haha, I hope that it works well. What's the worst that could happen?

Amechra
2012-08-21, 08:42 PM
Hmmm...

Will the Alchemetry specialist PrC include some feature that will let you apply ALCH 101 more than once to an object, just not the same enhancement twice? Because, as it is, I cry a little when I see that you can't, you know, make a really hard, difficult-to-break substance out of, say, tin.

Plus, I totally want to increase the Melting point of Ice and the Heat Capacity of said Ice.

It isn't that hard to hit DC 100 Diplomacy checks, which are what you would need to get a piece of ice with precisely a 100 degree melting point and a heat capacity of 1/10th.

Let's see... specializing in Alchemetry gives you a good +43 modifier, with full ranks and 20 levels in the class...

Skill Focus (Diplomacy) is a +3, you obviously want to play a Half-Elf with that synergy-boosting feat (+9 from all the synergies), Masterwork Tools, a casting of Guidance of the Avatar (+20 to a skill check)...

That's a +77 modifier. We just need another +4 or more to make ice that will not melt if you use it as a box to hold Phlogiston.

Let's say 2 or more assistants Aiding Another?

Then we get 998 Ebbs a minute. Not bad... Especially since this is pretty cheap, and can be sold for a pretty penny, I would think...

Kellus
2012-08-21, 08:56 PM
Hmmm...

Will the Alchemetry specialist PrC include some feature that will let you apply ALCH 101 more than once to an object, just not the same enhancement twice? Because, as it is, I cry a little when I see that you can't, you know, make a really hard, difficult-to-break substance out of, say, tin.

Plus, I totally want to increase the Melting point of Ice and the Heat Capacity of said Ice.

You now can! I made some revisions, letting you stack buffs on materials. For some reason in an earlier draft I thought that would be unbalancing. :smallconfused:

LordotheMorning
2012-08-21, 09:19 PM
Hmmm...

Will the Alchemetry specialist PrC include some feature that will let you apply ALCH 101 more than once to an object, just not the same enhancement twice? Because, as it is, I cry a little when I see that you can't, you know, make a really hard, difficult-to-break substance out of, say, tin.

Plus, I totally want to increase the Melting point of Ice and the Heat Capacity of said Ice.

It isn't that hard to hit DC 100 Diplomacy checks, which are what you would need to get a piece of ice with precisely a 100 degree melting point and a heat capacity of 1/10th.

Let's see... specializing in Alchemetry gives you a good +43 modifier, with full ranks and 20 levels in the class...

Skill Focus (Diplomacy) is a +3, you obviously want to play a Half-Elf with that synergy-boosting feat (+9 from all the synergies), Masterwork Tools, a casting of Guidance of the Avatar (+20 to a skill check)...

That's a +77 modifier. We just need another +4 or more to make ice that will not melt if you use it as a box to hold Phlogiston.

Let's say 2 or more assistants Aiding Another?

Then we get 998 Ebbs a minute. Not bad... Especially since this is pretty cheap, and can be sold for a pretty penny, I would think...

I still that's that's way too strong. It can be powerful, but that many ebbs is just excessive. I thought it was crazy when I thought it made 98 ebbs, and now that I realize I did the math wrong... well. That outstrips every other power source by a huge margin. You don't even need Phlogiston to do it. Just light a fire.

I had another idea as to the price of ascended metals- the skill check. One could charge a lot of money for something that requires the services of someone capable of getting a skill up that high. The price could potentially include the DC of the skill check required as a factor.

I do hope the Alchemetry specialist is able to use ALCH 101 in some sort of superior manner. I had this image in my head about building small 10-by-10 forts on the fly, reinforcing them, and then getting the whole party inside to have the best chokepoint defense ever. A Gramarist would be a wonderful class to defend a position with.

Kellus
2012-08-21, 09:29 PM
ou don't even need Phlogiston to do it.

Nope! Phlogiston radiates a massive amount of heat, but 1,000 degrees Centigrade is about the temperature of a flame, not of the ambient temperature in an area. Depending on the area and whatnot, most flames wouldn't raise the ambient temperature by much more than 10-50 degrees, as we know from real life. Recall that an actual fire doesn't deal more than 1 or 2 d6 fire damage (being caught on fire only deals 1d6 damage per round). If it's not clear how to interpret it, there's usually another way to go about it. A normal flame would generate a few ebbs, and then puff out. Phlogiston specifically warms an area to incredible flash point temperatures because it's magic.


I do hope the Alchemetry specialist is able to use ALCH 101 in some sort of superior manner. I had this image in my head about building small 10-by-10 forts on the fly, reinforcing them, and then getting the whole party inside to have the best chokepoint defense ever. A Gramarist would be a wonderful class to defend a position with.

I don't think you'll be disappointed. :smallwink:

Amechra
2012-08-21, 09:37 PM
Sweetness!

Though I realized after posting that I can make ice that could carry Phlogiston as a box very easily.

You just need to raise the melting point by 20+ degrees, and then set the bubble up to include the ice.

Done and done; if you can buy the services of a couple of 14th level Grammarists, you could pull this off at level 1; as it is, if you are working alone, you can set up your first 998 ER (Ebb (per) Round) generator at 14th level, in less than a day.

This begs the question: is there any way to boost the temperature of Phlogiston? I kinda want to find some really high ER generators, and I think a boosted temperature Phlogiston would be quite the boost.

Let's see... you would need 100 cubic feet of Sunmetal to match a P/I generator with an S/L generator. That being said...

Unlike a P/I generator, you wouldn't be able to drop an S/L generator of similar rate into a tub of Quicksilver, which is then dropped into a Fast Time sub-space, for a good old 3992 ER. Sure, it takes a pair of 14th level specialists to pull off, but you needed one of them anyway (if you were to do this solo, anyway.)

Seriously, when you adjust for size, a P/I generator is the most efficient, full stop. The next best option, a S/L generator, takes up 50.5 times as much space, and no other generator comes close, except for maybe a Silver generator filled with a nice Arcane Fusion spell, though that doesn't feel legal for some reason... (Arcane Fusion is a 7th level spell that in effect casts 11 spell levels, iirc; it would generate an effective 4 ER, if you take looping into account, which barely seems worth it...)

You know, if you want to be damn sure that all Vampires are gone, you can just connect a P/I generator to a Gold output; you get 9945 feet of Daylight equivalent, at the very least, which is constant.

On a side note, I wonder...

Yep, we can chill an area below absolute Zero by creating a P/I generator attached to a Mercury output.

That... is something that you might want to disallow...

LordotheMorning
2012-08-21, 09:39 PM
Nope! Phlogiston radiates a massive amount of heat, but 1,000 degrees Centigrade is about the temperature of a flame, not of the ambient temperature in an area. Depending on the area and whatnot, most flames wouldn't raise the ambient temperature by much more than 10-50 degrees, as we know from real life. Recall that an actual fire doesn't deal more than 1 or 2 d6 fire damage (being caught on fire only deals 1d6 damage per round). If it's not clear how to interpret it, there's usually another way to go about it. A normal flame would generate a few ebbs, and then puff out. Phlogiston specifically warms an area to incredible flash point temperatures because it's magic.

Oh. Well that's better because I was about to say "EDIT: As a matter of fact, all you really have to do is build a larger Ice transformer, hold it over a fire, and enjoy your profit of 1000+ ebbs that you make before the ice totally melts," but you nipped that one in the bud. All the same Phlogiston is still better than Sunmetal, and you can't even capture energy from Sunmetal unless you specialize in Arcanodynamics (which means you have to buy your Sunmetal).:smallannoyed:

Kellus
2012-08-21, 09:47 PM
Done and done; if you can buy the services of a couple of 14th level Grammarists, you could pull this off at level 1; as it is, if you are working alone, you can set up your first 998 ER (Ebb (per) Round) generator at 14th level, in less than a day.

Not sure where you're getting a thousand ebbs a round from; an ice transformer generates 1 ebb for every 10 degrees, so your icebox only generates 98 ebbs per round.

Heh. Only.


This begs the question: is there any way to boost the temperature of Phlogiston? I kinda want to find some really high ER generators, and I think a boosted temperature Phlogiston would be quite the boost.

Not yet. I'm sorry, I'm working on the prestige classes as we speak! :smalleek:


Yep, we can chill an area below absolute Zero by creating a P/I generator attached to a Mercury output.

That... is something that you might want to disallow...

Holy hell. I would have thought it self-evident because 3rd law, but I'll make sure to put in a statement disallowing temperatures below -373. :smalltongue:

Amechra
2012-08-21, 09:51 PM
Phlogiston emits heat at 1000 degrees centigrade.

1000-20=9980/10=998 ER.

I don't know where you are getting 98 ebbs from...

Kellus
2012-08-21, 09:54 PM
Phlogiston emits heat at 1000 degrees centigrade.

1000-20=9980/10=998 ER.

I don't know where you are getting 98 ebbs from...

Um, because 1,000-20 is 980, not 9,980? :smalltongue:

EDIT: Your first post had it right; it's about 998 ebbs per minute, every 10 rounds.

General Patton
2012-08-21, 10:01 PM
For stationary Filters, does preparing it again to increase the load-bearing capacity also increase the Strength Check DC to move it?

Bootstrap Drives now involve Bull Rushing yourself upward/forward. I'm not sure why I love this so much, but I do. So, do you automatically win the opposed Strength Check against yourself as the controller? If not, does succeeding as the agent cause your weight to push the Filter back downward? Seems like that would make it function with a 50/50 chance of going up or down, with the average expected progress being zero.

Kellus
2012-08-21, 10:04 PM
For stationary Filters, does preparing it again to increase the load-bearing capacity also increase the Strength Check DC to move it?

No, it just increases the load it can support. I'm assuming the DC 30 Strength check is what's necessary by RAW to 'rip' something from a spatial fixture point.


Bootstrap Drives now involve Bull Rushing yourself upward/forward. I'm not sure why I love this so much, but I do. So, do you automatically win the opposed Strength Check against yourself as the controller? If not, does succeeding as the agent cause your weight to push the Filter back downward? Seems like that would make it function with a 50/50 chance of going up or down, with the average expected progress being zero.

You can always choose to fail a check, so in this particular instance where you're opposing yourself, you could choose whichever result would be the most advantageous to you. :smallsmile:

Qwertystop
2012-08-21, 10:09 PM
I just realized that Alchemetry could be memetic.

You're convincing the spirit of, say, a block of wood to be harder. What stops the spirit of that wood from deciding that your argument is so good that it will repeat your argument to the nearby hammer? Proceed from there.

Amechra
2012-08-21, 10:17 PM
Alright, so I fail mathematics forever. I will now attempt to not cry.

Although, a GS/C Generator can give you 5 ER... if you don't allow it to stack. If you do allow it to stack, then you can laugh at that silly P/I generator.

Consider: a basic bubble will contain 26 cubic feet, already accounting for space lost because of the Input block itself.

Assuming that you could only cast Ghost Sound once in a 5' cubed area, that means you could cast 26 CL 5 Ghost Sounds in that bubble, for a total of 130 ER.

Sure, it only lasts for 35 seconds at level 7 (when you can first do this solo), but consider... you could have a Silver output generate Ghost sounds, maybe 5 of them for a nice, steady 5 Ghost Sounds replaced a round, with a 6th used to reset the 26th one...

That would mean that you could get a constant 125 ER generator, with a slight dip every 35 seconds. At 7th level. Without help. Total cost? 150 GP, given that you could just transmute Iron into Silver anyway, making Silver really damn cheap.

This is, of course, assuming that you can't fit Ghost Sounds into an even smaller area; if you are willing to deal with making a massive number of Silver Outputs, all stored in subspaces, and can make an argument for 1 ghost sound every 1' cube... You'd get something like 16250 ER, before accounting for the SOs that you would need to keep the damn thing up.

The only other generator that can come close is a S/L generator, which would give you a nice, steady 260 ER generator if you were to pack it around the generator.

Of course, that's if you want someone to be able to kill everything within 26 miles by simply rerouting those Ebbs back into the Sunmetal, and want to pay 27000 gp for the services of the Grammarists to make it...

For that much money, you could have 180 GS/C generators, for a good 22500 ER.

Kellus
2012-08-21, 11:01 PM
Alright, so I fail mathematics forever. I will now attempt to not cry.

Although, a GS/C Generator can give you 5 ER... if you don't allow it to stack. If you do allow it to stack, then you can laugh at that silly P/I generator.

Consider: a basic bubble will contain 26 cubic feet, already accounting for space lost because of the Input block itself.

Assuming that you could only cast Ghost Sound once in a 5' cubed area, that means you could cast 26 CL 5 Ghost Sounds in that bubble, for a total of 130 ER.

Sure, it only lasts for 35 seconds at level 7 (when you can first do this solo), but consider... you could have a Silver output generate Ghost sounds, maybe 5 of them for a nice, steady 5 Ghost Sounds replaced a round, with a 6th used to reset the 26th one...

That would mean that you could get a constant 125 ER generator, with a slight dip every 35 seconds. At 7th level. Without help. Total cost? 150 GP, given that you could just transmute Iron into Silver anyway, making Silver really damn cheap.

This is, of course, assuming that you can't fit Ghost Sounds into an even smaller area; if you are willing to deal with making a massive number of Silver Outputs, all stored in subspaces, and can make an argument for 1 ghost sound every 1' cube... You'd get something like 16250 ER, before accounting for the SOs that you would need to keep the damn thing up.

The only other generator that can come close is a S/L generator, which would give you a nice, steady 260 ER generator if you were to pack it around the generator.

Of course, that's if you want someone to be able to kill everything within 26 miles by simply rerouting those Ebbs back into the Sunmetal, and want to pay 27000 gp for the services of the Grammarists to make it...

For that much money, you could have 180 GS/C generators, for a good 22500 ER.

I like the basic idea a lot, but the main problem is that you can't have multiple of the same spell effect taking place in the same area at a time. Ghost sound has an area of effect of a bubble itself with radius 25ft. + 5ft. per 2 levels. And as far as I can tell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/castingSpells.htm#stackingEffects), when you place one ghost sound overtop of another one, the first disappears, since they're both changing the sound in the area. It's the same reason you couldn't normally make a magic item that releases 5,000 ghost sounds at once to level a city with the sound of 100,000 humans yelling. It's a weird part of the rules, because it's the only spell that really does anything like that, but by default spells don't stack in the same area with themselves.

Actually, come to think of it, the other main problem that I see is that ghost sound is an Illusion (Figment) (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#figment), it doesn't even create real sound. It just makes people think they're hearing something. So, not actually going to generate any puissance. Sorry to rain on your parade! :smallfrown:

Amechra
2012-08-21, 11:13 PM
Fine, then, I'll just get 26 Dire Tigers, Shrink them down to medium size, and then I'll compel them to roar constantly.

Might want to buy them as Effigies, so that I won't have to feed them, and they won't get antsy.

LordotheMorning
2012-08-22, 01:01 AM
Ya know what's missing? A Kinetic energy transformer. One that transfers g-force caused by motion into ebbs. You could hire some poor fool to crank it all day, or you could put it in a demi-plane with a constantly shifting gravity. Though, it should probably offer less energy than you would need to propel an orthogonal engine, otherwise you'd end up a machine that generates power while moving. Might involve a little too much science?

EDIT: Although I suppose the output to that transformer might be too similar to Eldrikinetic? Or it could just bull rush people. Bull rushing is good. :smallamused:

Kellus
2012-08-22, 01:36 AM
Ya know what's missing? A Kinetic energy transformer. One that transfers g-force caused by motion into ebbs. You could hire some poor fool to crank it all day, or you could put it in a demi-plane with a constantly shifting gravity. Though, it should probably offer less energy than you would need to propel an orthogonal engine, otherwise you'd end up a machine that generates power while moving. Might involve a little too much science?

EDIT: Although I suppose the output to that transformer might be too similar to Eldrikinetic? Or it could just bull rush people. Bull rushing is good. :smallamused:

I stayed away from something like that specifically because I decided that all kinds of motion, momentum, and kinetic energy should be the domain of eldrikinetics. I like the idea in theory, but there's too many complicated feedback loops that could quickly become NI when you can power engines with puissance and then use the kinetic energy to generate more puissance.

Although, interestingly, there are some roundabout solutions. For example, I believe that there's one transformer which transforms magnetic pull into puissance, you could set up an interesting perpetual motion generator using a magnetic flux...

Just to Browse
2012-08-22, 02:51 AM
ALCH 101, heating effect: 1 over a number is the reciprocal, not the inverse. An inverse of 2 is -2, and a reciprocal of 2 is 1/2. Also, that's a pain in the butt to deal with. First off, you're dealing with awkward physics already of water heating with equal effort to metal (because physics), then you're requiring the material to be uniform so I can affect maybe my suit of armor and then nothing else, and then the usefulness of the heating capacity only actually kicks in when you're getting 20, which means an annoyingly high roll at low levels, or a lot of time spent.

Heck, the whole ALCH 101 is pretty meh. You're not getting anything in combat from there, which means while the casters are pulling our their crossbows on round 3, you're pulling a crossbow that is effectively equivalent in all circumstances in round 1. It really hurts.

Kellus
2012-08-22, 03:40 AM
ALCH 101, heating effect: 1 over a number is the reciprocal, not the inverse. An inverse of 2 is -2, and a reciprocal of 2 is 1/2. Also, that's a pain in the butt to deal with. First off, you're dealing with awkward physics already of water heating with equal effort to metal (because physics), then you're requiring the material to be uniform so I can affect maybe my suit of armor and then nothing else, and then the usefulness of the heating capacity only actually kicks in when you're getting 20, which means an annoyingly high roll at low levels, or a lot of time spent.

Heck, the whole ALCH 101 is pretty meh. You're not getting anything in combat from there, which means while the casters are pulling our their crossbows on round 3, you're pulling a crossbow that is effectively equivalent in all circumstances in round 1. It really hurts.

The reciprocal is sometimes called the multiplicative inverse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplicative_inverse). Since I explain in parentheses what I mean immediately afterwards, I don't think it's a huge source of confusion.

I'll admit that changing the heat capacity factor isn't as glamorous or immediately useful as some of the other 101 principles, but the whole point of alchemetry is modifying material properties. In D&D, materials don't have a ton of things to distinguish them from any of the others: hardness and hit points per inch are pretty much it.

As far as realism goes, I agree that it's not, strictly speaking, ideal, but it works fairly well with the stuff that you would want to do with it. At level 1 you can be expecting results between about 7-27, so you've got a sizeable chance of having a factor of 2 or 1/2 to work with. And when you have results closer to 100 at higher levels, x10 or x1/10 is still reasonable enough for when you're doing things like encasing phlogiston in an icebox.

Meanwhile, combat-wise, I totally agree with you. The class is not made for combat. I understand that combat is the main minigame for D&D, and given enough time there's a lot of things the gramarist can do to help in combat. But if you're expecting him to actually be able to pull his weight in fights, especially at lower levels before he can get some synergistic principles working together, you're going to be disappointed.

I agree that ALCH 101 is not the most useful 1st level principle you could pick, but there's nothing that says you have to learn it at 1st level, even if you specialize in Alchemetry. Wait until you actually have something you want to use it for, or until you have more appealing Diplomacy checks. There are certainly enough ways to optimize skill checks out there! :smalltongue:

jojolagger
2012-08-22, 03:57 AM
Alch 101 is the best starting principle.
Have 0 ranks in diplomacy, Cha 14, the Dishonest and suspicious traits, and roll a 1, for a result of 0, and and a heat capacity factor of 0 (immunity to fire and cold at level 1), or 1/0 (for super healing iron golems, or really nasty alchemist's fire.

Kellus
2012-08-22, 04:04 AM
Alch 101 is the best starting principle.
Have 0 ranks in diplomacy, Cha 14, the Dishonest and suspicious traits, and roll a 1, for a result of 0, and and a heat capacity factor of 0 (immunity to fire and cold at level 1), or 1/0 (for super healing iron golems, or really nasty alchemist's fire.

Man, you forget one time to put in the obligatory "(minimum 1)"... :smallwink:

LordotheMorning
2012-08-22, 05:24 AM
Alch 101 is the best starting principle.
Have 0 ranks in diplomacy, Cha 14, the Dishonest and suspicious traits, and roll a 1, for a result of 0, and and a heat capacity factor of 0 (immunity to fire and cold at level 1), or 1/0 (for super healing iron golems, or really nasty alchemist's fire.

Come on now, that can't be the way it was intended. Wouldn't the heat factor technically by undefined then? When the object is subjected to heat, it doesn't know how to react, and then likely opens a wormhole.

EDIT: Swordsage'd.

jseah
2012-08-22, 07:01 AM
Neumann Cycler continued...

All of these will be pegged onto Independent Locomotion balls. There really isn't any reason not to have it, since it generates enough ebbs for most purposes if you're not moving. And the ability to move to things is better than just bringing it back.

Principle Constructor
Intro to Heuristicism + (Eternal Flame -> Gold Input) x N/2 -> Abnormal Behaviour x N

1 embedded principle of every type.

The Principle Constructor is the primary replication unit of the Neumann Cycler. This is the workhorse that manufactures more units.

Self-replication:
The principle constructor will make a new heuristical circuit by activating its Intro to Heuristicism first, this is pegged to an Independent Locomotion ball inside its area.
It then activates its embedded Abnormal Behaviour to embed an Abnormal Behaviour into that circuit.
The new circuit then routes its power to activate its own embedded Abnormal Behaviour targeting itself while the principle constructor contributes a copy of each one of the embedded principles in turn. An Independent Locomotion ball produces a base of 6 ebbs per round and so 6 principles will be embedded simultaneously.

Once the new circuit is ready, additional Intro to Heuristicism principles are activated on it to grow the circuit to the desired size. Multiple Principle Constructors will often contribute their own activations to grow it faster.

Principle Constructors are incredibly expensive in terms of time to make and will make up the smallest proportion of an active Neumann Cycler.

Limited Principle Vehicles (various)
Since transmuting metals with principles will be in particularly high demand, it makes no sense to use a full Principle Constructor to do it.

A Metal Transmuter is identical to a Principle Constructor but only contains one embedded principle, Mysterious Metallurgy.
A Transformer Plant is likewise the same but for the various Arcanodynamics principles, the most common being Silver, Gold and Wood. These will often be posted together with Metal Transmuters.

Spell Engine
(Eternal Flame -> Gold Input) x N -> Silver output
Obviously enough, this fires off spells where N is spell level / 2.

This can be used in conjunction with Principle Constructors to produce more spell engines.
The primary power of a spell engine lies in the summoning lines (particularly Planar Binding) and primarily in Lantern Archons which can cast Eternal Flame at will for zero cost.
Summoned monsters serve as grunt power to move/dig/fly/scout, they are all vastly more efficient and accurate than eldrikinetic engines. A standard General Purpose Vehicle, the workhorse of the Neumann Cycler and a control node, will be an Independent Locomotion with a Summon Monster Spell Engine.
Another very useful Spell Engine is Fabricate to shape the finished metals into the desired shape (often spheres)

Contrary to what I was originally expecting, the command and control nodes will not be the Principle Constructors but rather the Spell Engines. They sit on the interface between the gramarie and the arcane. A Neumann Cycler will not have a central C&C intelligence to pull the strings; it exists as a network that uses swarm intelligence, the only way to take it down is to destroy all the Principle Constructors.
A single one of them + 1 General Purpose Vehicle will be able to mine anything required to continue replication, although the loss of the different spells in Spell Engines will be a major blow.

The principle side serves primarily as a means to produce more Spell Engines, letting the arcane side serve as the "hands" that manipulate the world.


A good place to start will be some disintegrate-carrying Spell Engines dumped into the Elemental Plane of Earth to make a hole. Then a General Purpose Vehicle to mine any available metals and produce Eternal Flame. Then you add Limited Principle Vehicles to transmute the metals and eventually a Principle Constructor.
Such a mining-purposed Neumann Cycler will then proceed to mine the Elemental Plane of Earth for metals to replicate, yielding gems for spell components (to build new spell engines for material cost spells). Excess materials can be shuttled to the Prime Material plane to the waiting masters for use in normal society. General Purpose Vehicles and Limited Principle Vehicles will also see much use in the Prime.
The base mining operation can also serve as a springboard to launch new operations into other planes, although you are limited to the availability of metals.

Qwertystop
2012-08-22, 10:23 AM
I just realized that Alchemetry could be memetic.

You're convincing the spirit of, say, a block of wood to be harder. What stops the spirit of that wood from deciding that your argument is so good that it will repeat your argument to the nearby hammer? Proceed from there.

Nobody has anything to say about this? Really?

Omnicrat
2012-08-22, 10:27 AM
Nobody has anything to say about this? Really?

Maybe the atomic spirits cannot communicate with one another?

General Patton
2012-08-22, 11:03 AM
Nobody has anything to say about this? Really?

I like it. Perhaps you can take a number of -5 Penalties to your Diplomacy Check to have the material pass on your argument to that many more chunks of material.

So, no one cares about what I pointed out about Black Filters letting you make secret plans to kill Vecna? "Secret plan to kill Vecna" is the very definition of pinging a deity's Portfolio Sense and almost universally causes a TPK before you even initiate Step 1. But Kaleidomancer don't care, he does what he wants.

Omnicrat
2012-08-22, 11:08 AM
So, no one cares about what I pointed out about Black Filters letting you make secret plans to kill Vecna? "Secret plan to kill Vecna" is the very definition of pinging a deity's Portfolio Sense and almost universally causes a TPK before you even initiate Step 1. But Kaleidomancer don't care, he does what he wants.

I cared about it. I thought it sounded awesome. The type of thing you could build a campaign around. If you consider being able to hide from the gods far too OP, then I'm sure an argument can be made that the gods keep an extra eye on Kaleidomancers to check that sort of thing. They may not know your actual plan, but it's still probably VERY hard to out smart a god.

jseah
2012-08-22, 11:20 AM
I cared about it. I thought it sounded awesome. The type of thing you could build a campaign around. If you consider being able to hide from the gods far too OP, then I'm sure an argument can be made that the gods keep an extra eye on Kaleidomancers to check that sort of thing. They may not know your actual plan, but it's still probably VERY hard to out smart a god.
The Neumann Cycler (now working) makes mass application of gramarie painless and relatively fast. They can easily black filter everything, including the mining operation itself.

Omnicrat
2012-08-22, 11:24 AM
The Neumann Cycler (now working) makes mass application of gramarie painless and relatively fast. They can easily black filter everything, including the mining operation itself.

That is a good point. But again, if the gods think you're up to something or just want to make sure you aren't, they could dispell your filters, unless your level 20.

General Patton
2012-08-22, 11:40 AM
I cared about it. I thought it sounded awesome. The type of thing you could build a campaign around. If you consider being able to hide from the gods far too OP, then I'm sure an argument can be made that the gods keep an extra eye on Kaleidomancers to check that sort of thing. They may not know your actual plan, but it's still probably VERY hard to out smart a god.

If you attach Black Filters to a bunch of objects for your party members to carry around, then when you all meet up in one place, it'll be like a shell game and no one will be able to track who's inside of which Filter. If you have as many of these mysterious Filters running around as you have known accomplices/suspects, but then you actually bunch together while summoned minions carry the decoys around, you can completely defy the deity's expectations of what each agent is capable of.

"This group I've been watching has 5 members and there are 5 of these barriers I can't see through. This particular one is heading to one of my temples, but I know none of these meddlers could single-handedly kill my worshippers and head priest."

But then you get to the temple's doorstep, reach into a bag of holding and pull out an item with an even bigger Black Filter that engulfs the entire temple, and your whole party slaughters the priests. Confused god is confused.

Omnicrat
2012-08-22, 11:47 AM
I don't know about you. but if one of my temples went dark, I would do everything in my power to get it back. This includes sending my avatar to destroy the barrier (which is quite easy for a god) and wreak a terrible vengeance on those who sought to slaughter my followers.

edit: this of course assumes I am a god.

jseah
2012-08-22, 11:50 AM
The filters also aren't immune to infiltration. Someone could easily just peep in physically.

Omnicrat
2012-08-22, 11:52 AM
The filters also aren't immune to infiltration. Someone could easily just peep in physically.

While true, I have to assume anyone trying this scheme would be using layered filters. But that's still a good point against black filters being a god killers best friend.

General Patton
2012-08-22, 12:14 PM
Wait a minute, do Black Filters interfere with a Cleric's ability to recover their Spell Slots? Their prayers would go unheard. What about the other way around? A Deity that can't hear any of his followers' prayers. Does this also cut off the effects of worship? Perhaps it could inflict a penalty of 1/20th of the Spot check result to an encapsulated Deity's Divine Rank. Are summoning effects and things like Gate going to be prevented by an information cutoff?

Kellus
2012-08-22, 01:01 PM
Wait a minute, do Black Filters interfere with a Cleric's ability to recover their Spell Slots? Their prayers would go unheard. What about the other way around? A Deity that can't hear any of his followers' prayers. Does this also cut off the effects of worship? Perhaps it could inflict a penalty of 1/20th of the Spot check result to an encapsulated Deity's Divine Rank. Are summoning effects and things like Gate going to be prevented by an information cutoff?

That depends entirely on your interpretation of exactly how divine magic works. Since by RAW it seems that clerics get their magic just by the act of believing hard enough in something, I would say they can recover their spell slots inside of a Black filter just fine. The archetypal example of course being the clerics of 'concepts' instead of straight-up deities.

Now, summoning is another matter entirely. It's fairly clear that teleportation and gate effects and their ilk are blind from one side of a Black filter to the other. Normal summon effects like summon nature's ally, summon monster, planar ally, and planar binding all seem to specify that they're actually contacting and retrieving an actual monster from somewhere else. So yes, I would say that they are impossible to use surrounded by a Black filter. On the other hand, an effect that creates a new monster, like the astral construct power, would work just fine.

This is an excellent catch, and I'll update the text accordingly. :smallsmile:

Amechra
2012-08-22, 01:10 PM
So, we have been essentially ignoring Yggdratecture... despite the fact that you can have interplanar doorways at 7th level using it, due to the wording of YGGD 241; you simply need to connect two subspaces, flattened out into a 4' by 8' doorway in both cases, and then walk through.

Boom, you got yourself a permanent planar gate. It's kinda small, but Medium creatures fit through easily, and travel time is negligible.

I would reword the ability to connect two subspaces so that it doesn't work if the flux traits you have running in it are different (with the exception of gravity; that just assigns the direction of the opening relative to the subspace.); you get messy things like a hyperacceleration device once you hit 14th level...

I do think you should be able to make single-use Blueprints of Principles, so that you can hand them off and get construction projects distributed to the masses; you can only fit a single Preparation on them, but that should be enough.

On a side note, this is actually giving me a cool idea for a campaign setting, prompted by a single thought:

What kind of things would the Post-Doctorate level of Principles be capable of? I mean Epic level, by the way.

The basic idea is that there used to be Principles far more distinct than those here that have since been erased conceptually from reality, and there are just fragments left (stuff I'll call Understandings, because that sounds semi-religious to me :smallamused:) that can be found in old records in ruins (perfect adventure fuel!)

Example Understandings would include:

Flesh Engineering Understanding: Allows you to treat flesh as if it were a distinct planetary metal for the purpose of Alchemetry. Changes are hereditary.

Stone-as-Clay Understanding: You can temporarily treat any planetary metal or stone that you use this Understanding on as if it had the general properties of clay; in other words, you can simply sculpt Orichalcum into bracelets and such, which will probably look really pretty.

Question-of-Scale Understanding: You can treat a single cubic inch as if it were a cubic foot for the purpose of the amount of material you can apply a Principle to.

Two-Point Time Understanding: You can connect a sub-space to itself at different points in time; however, all points of time advance in lockstep, you can't use this to travel back before the initial point of set-up for the subspace, and if one side is "broken", then the entire time-travel device breaks.

Imagine the works of the ancients! Seeds you can plant that will grow into houses, carriages, or whatever you wish! Animals that can consume tin, and excrete Orichalcum (or whatever)! Engines that can fit in a hand, that nonetheless produce enough thrust to allow a man to fly...

Then the gods looked down, and saw that the world was black to their senses; then, they came down and razed the wonders of the world...

The small gods rose up, and joined their heavenly counterparts; for a single, horrid day, Grammarie ceased to function; the materials began to follow their divinely-ordained properties, all the potential time-portals vanished, and the world of Man fell apart.

Only a few ruins are left, far from where the gods made their wrath felt; in them, they have wonders of a lost age...

I'm thinking the current state of the setting is at maybe Magisterial level in some rare places, while most of it is at Baccalaureate level; Grammarie is no longer considered a science, so much as a religious practice. Engineer-Priests pray to gods, who "grant" them the necessary Preparations, in their magnanimity.

If this sounds cool, I'll elaborate on the theme...

Kellus
2012-08-22, 01:21 PM
So, we have been essentially ignoring Yggdratecture... despite the fact that you can have interplanar doorways at 7th level using it, due to the wording of YGGD 241; you simply need to connect two subspaces, flattened out into a 4' by 8' doorway in both cases, and then walk through.

Boom, you got yourself a permanent planar gate. It's kinda small, but Medium creatures fit through easily, and travel time is negligible.

I would reword the ability to connect two subspaces so that it doesn't work if the flux traits you have running in it are different (with the exception of gravity; that just assigns the direction of the opening relative to the subspace.); you get messy things like a hyperacceleration device once you hit 14th level...

I do think you should be able to make single-use Blueprints of Principles, so that you can hand them off and get construction projects distributed to the masses; you can only fit a single Preparation on them, but that should be enough.

On a side note, this is actually giving me a cool idea for a campaign setting, prompted by a single thought:

What kind of things would the Post-Doctorate level of Principles be capable of? I mean Epic level, by the way.

The basic idea is that there used to be Principles far more distinct than those here that have since been erased conceptually from reality, and there are just fragments left (stuff I'll call Understandings, because that sounds semi-religious to me :smallamused:) that can be found in old records in ruins (perfect adventure fuel!)

Example Understandings would include:

Flesh Engineering Understanding: Allows you to treat flesh as if it were a distinct planetary metal for the purpose of Alchemetry. Changes are hereditary.

Stone-as-Clay Understanding: You can temporarily treat any planetary metal or stone that you use this Understanding on as if it had the general properties of clay; in other words, you can simply sculpt Orichalcum into bracelets and such, which will probably look really pretty.

Question-of-Scale Understanding: You can treat a single cubic inch as if it were a cubic foot for the purpose of the amount of material you can apply a Principle to.

Two-Point Time Understanding: You can connect a sub-space to itself at different points in time; however, all points of time advance in lockstep, you can't use this to travel back before the initial point of set-up for the subspace, and if one side is "broken", then the entire time-travel device breaks.

Imagine the works of the ancients! Seeds you can plant that will grow into houses, carriages, or whatever you wish! Animals that can consume tin, and excrete Orichalcum (or whatever)! Engines that can fit in a hand, that nonetheless produce enough thrust to allow a man to fly...

Then the gods looked down, and saw that the world was black to their senses; then, they came down and razed the wonders of the world...

The small gods rose up, and joined their heavenly counterparts; for a single, horrid day, Grammarie ceased to function; the materials began to follow their divinely-ordained properties, all the potential time-portals vanished, and the world of Man fell apart.

Only a few ruins are left, far from where the gods made their wrath felt; in them, they have wonders of a lost age...

I'm thinking the current state of the setting is at maybe Magisterial level in some rare places, while most of it is at Baccalaureate level; Grammarie is no longer considered a science, so much as a religious practice. Engineer-Priests pray to gods, who "grant" them the necessary Preparations, in their magnanimity.

If this sounds cool, I'll elaborate on the theme...

Those are some cool as hell ideas. I personally hate epic-level stuff, because the game becomes essentially unplayable, which is why all three tiers of this system happen in the normal 1-20 range. But that is a very clever idea for meta-principle effects, and I would think about just straight-up making them [Epic] feats that epic-level gramarists can take to advance their understanding. Because the setting that they make possible is actually kind of killer. :smallamused:

The Blueprint idea is interesting, and similar to something I'd considered previously. I need to think more about it, especially to make sure it's not just an easy way to get around discipline specializations, but I'll probably put something similar to it into the text.

I'm going to go get off my ass now and finish the first couple PrCs, because I'm tired of saying stuff will be up 'soon'. :smallsmile:

Eldan
2012-08-22, 01:44 PM
Well, given that Atlantis in our world is mentioned has having extensively used Orichalcum, it would explain what happened to them.

Amechra
2012-08-22, 02:03 PM
Does anyone else have ideas for Understandings? I'm thinking that they should at least be powerful enough that they give any city-state that has exclusive access to them will be able to easily overcome any city-state that doesn't have super-tech.

Hell, maybe if I restricted the setting to E8 (so that Magisterial Principles would be the pinnacle of technology, only being able to be used by the best Grammarists, or through Blueprints), then Doctorate Principles would basically become Understandings, since they allow downright weird things.

And I'm visualizing Understandings as being kind of a slotless artifact; they are pathways burned into your brain, that are nigh-impossible to communicate to others.

This could potentially lead to a Commoner 1 getting the ability to transmute Planetary metals into their superior versions imprinted into his memories, erasing some less important things in the course of the alteration.

I have no problem with this; it could actually lead to the Commoner becoming a Grammarist of surpassing skill, for ****s and giggles.

I personally wouldn't let a player start with a Doctorate-level Understanding (or any of the others, for that matter...), but
DM's have the final say.

And as for the gods... Mulletmanalive had a pretty neat start to a small gods "template", which I think will see a lot of use...

Eldan
2012-08-22, 02:10 PM
Hm. Heuristic Understanding. True Intelligences that can learn and grow (basically, take class levels). Intelligences with souls.

Perhaps the giants of Eberron had an Understanding of that kind which lead to the creation of true warforged.

Vitalism. Make an unliving material be treated as alive for all magical and gramarical (gramatical? gramaristic?) purposes.

Kellus
2012-08-22, 02:31 PM
Those could be some wicked-awesome plot hooks or elder secrets to spice things up. I like!

Also, the first prestige class is now published, the prime mover. :smallsmile:

Amechra
2012-08-22, 02:47 PM
I like the Prime Mover, and I eagerly wait for the rest.

And I just had a cool idea (at least in my head); casters produce Ebb with every heartbeat, at a rate of 1 ER/ECL, up to a maximum of an ER equal to their caster level.

Of course, you need to get the heart out of them, and somehow keep it beating... or, if you have the proper Understandings, you can literally just reshape the Mage into a generator...

Then again, this is only really worth it once you get into higher level spellcasters, which are higher level spellcasters. I don't think I need to elaborate further.

You know, I might need to homebrew a Bioengineering equivalent (Biosynechdicism, maybe?) set of Principles, to function as Understandings (and because I kinda want to be able to make a bioengineer with this system.) Maybe have it set to mesh with the grafting rules a bit?

Maybe when I have time...

Eldan
2012-08-22, 02:49 PM
I like the Prime Mover, and I eagerly wait for the rest.

And I just had a cool idea (at least in my head); casters produce Ebb with every heartbeat, at a rate of 1 ER/ECL, up to a maximum of an ER equal to their caster level.

Of course, you need to get the heart out of them, and somehow keep it beating... or, if you have the proper Understandings, you can literally just reshape the Mage into a generator...

Heart of Stone, Spell Compendium. You take out your still beating heart and replace it with a rock, to gain damage reduction. Your heart is then stored somewhere.

Kellus
2012-08-22, 02:52 PM
I like the Prime Mover, and I eagerly wait for the rest.

And I just had a cool idea (at least in my head); casters produce Ebb with every heartbeat, at a rate of 1 ER/ECL, up to a maximum of an ER equal to their caster level.

Of course, you need to get the heart out of them, and somehow keep it beating... or, if you have the proper Understandings, you can literally just reshape the Mage into a generator...

Then again, this is only really worth it once you get into higher level spellcasters, which are higher level spellcasters. I don't think I need to elaborate further.

You know, I might need to homebrew a Bioengineering equivalent (Biosynechdicism, maybe?) set of Principles, to function as Understandings (and because I kinda want to be able to make a bioengineer with this system.) Maybe have it set to mesh with the grafting rules a bit?

Maybe when I have time...

I'm sorry, I am working on the last discipline, which deals with living things and bio-machines, and it does in fact use grafts for one of the 300-level principles. If I'd known how in-demand bioengineering was going to be, I'd have waited to publish until it was done! :smalltongue:

Putting the finishing touches on the second prestige class now, and then I'll get back to it.

Eldan
2012-08-22, 02:53 PM
Hm. I just read your DMing for Gramarie section. Seems my etherworld setting is already Magitek Renaissance, it has most of the things on your list, though most count as just magical items with handwaved explanations on how they are made.

Amechra
2012-08-22, 02:58 PM
Yippee!

I get bioengineering! Please tell me that you can make Grafts hereditary; it would make me ever so happy.

Eldan
2012-08-22, 03:02 PM
Now I just had a nightmarish vision. I was a DM and allowed Gramarie in the Etherworld setting and the player maximized the control skill and got a huge vat of protoplasm...

And yes, I am quite excited for a bio discipline. A look at migh avatar might be a hint :smalltongue:

Kellus
2012-08-22, 03:06 PM
I get bioengineering! Please tell me that you can make Grafts hereditary; it would make me ever so happy.

I don't want to give too much away, especially because I'm still trying to think through all the loopholes and interactions before I publish it, but the last principle is called Eccentric Genetics and deals with reproduction and passing down traits and mutations. :smallsmile:

EDIT: Also, blueprints are now a thing you can write. Excellent idea!

Amechra
2012-08-22, 03:17 PM
Yay for Blueprints! And for altering genetics!

I swear, this stuff is just too perfect for my most devious campaign setting thoughts...

Hmm... gotta think of a Grammarie Patron (the ones who taught the arts to the races)... He Who Takes Faces as Payment may work, especially once the Bioengineering Principles are ready...

Gotta take those faces somehow, right?

Orderic
2012-08-22, 03:29 PM
I have a little question.
How does the number of Preparations increase for bubbles?


Apart from that, I think that Airships would not actually be used very much. Only for exploration, war and because rich people like floating above everyone else.
The thing is, if an airship reaches an unexplored area, the first thing that should be done is setting up an yggdratectural portal. As soon as one is established, the airship is no longer usefull for transport to that portal and can travel on to other places.

Kellus
2012-08-22, 03:42 PM
Good questions!


I have a little question.
How does the number of Preparations increase for bubbles?

It's cubic, based on how the volume of a sphere increases with the radius. A sphere with radius 5ft. has a volume of 523.5 cubic feet, while a sphere with radius 10ft. has a volume of 4,188.8 cubic feet. I make the assumption that every preparation can add 523.5 cubic feet to the volume of the bubble, and you get nice cubic relationship as 4*pi/3 cancels out.


Apart from that, I think that Airships would not actually be used very much. Only for exploration, war and because rich people like floating above everyone else.
The thing is, if an airship reaches an unexplored area, the first thing that should be done is setting up an yggdratectural portal. As soon as one is established, the airship is no longer usefull for transport to that portal and can travel on to other places.

I absolutely agree. Airships should definitely be for exploration, war, and luxury, because those are the things that I would want an airship for. Once you've found somewhere you want to move to, it's a million times more efficient to set up a permanent portal. It's a common theme in a ton of sci-fi, that the pioneering ships set up the jump gate or whatever back to the home base. But then, other people could sabotage the portal, stranding everyone on one side... :smallamused:

Amechra
2012-08-22, 03:47 PM
You know what would be pretty cool? The ability to shape bubbles in distinct shapes! So you could have cylindrical bubbles, cubic bubbles, or even some in more esoteric shapes!

Kellus
2012-08-22, 04:22 PM
You know what would be pretty cool? The ability to shape bubbles in distinct shapes! So you could have cylindrical bubbles, cubic bubbles, or even some in more esoteric shapes!

No problem! Whenever you make a bubble you can now choose to have it fill less of the volume than you want in order to make a specific shape, although you still need to meet certain benchmarks for the size of the field to play with in the first place.

Also, the lode-bearer is now up.

Eldan
2012-08-22, 05:57 PM
You know, this thread makes me want and try to rebuild famous pop culture technology. Can we build a gravity gun? It would have to involve some fairly delicate push and pull, and I'm not sure if I can make it portable, really.

Amechra
2012-08-22, 06:02 PM
Yay!

Nice reference, by the way (the enemy's gate is down indeed, Ender.)

Are you going to finish the bioengineering Principles before or after you complete more PrCs?

General Patton
2012-08-22, 06:04 PM
I was thinking, for Principles that allow you to interact with or alter them by making a Key Skill Check that meets or exceeds the current value, it should probably be the current value -5 in some places. This gives a Gramarist some leeway in altering his work, otherwise rolling too good makes further changes impossible. Some of the Heuristicism stuff inspired this when I considered that understanding pre-existing code is easier than writing it from scratch.

PairO'Dice Lost
2012-08-22, 06:10 PM
This gives a Gramarist some leeway in altering his work, otherwise rolling too good makes further changes impossible. Some of the Heuristicism stuff inspired this when I considered that understanding pre-existing code is easier than writing it from scratch.

I think the rules make perfect sense as-is. In the famous words of Brian Kernighan, "Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." :smallamused:

Kellus
2012-08-22, 06:13 PM
I was thinking, for Principles that allow you to interact with or alter them by making a Key Skill Check that meets or exceeds the current value, it should probably be the current value -5 in some places. This gives a Gramarist some leeway in altering his work, otherwise rolling too good makes further changes impossible. Some of the Heuristicism stuff inspired this when I considered that understanding pre-existing code is easier than writing it from scratch.

That's an interesting subject, but the main reason I don't want to go with that is so that you have some sort of defense against people messing with your code later on. After all, anyone with the principle can come in and make an Autohypnosis check to mess around with the triggers and responses.

Remember you can always choose to take a 1 on a skill check, so the easiest method I think would be to take artificial 1's on your skill check result until you're done working on it, at which point you can give it a higher skill check to defend against people messing around with it.

EDIT: Haha, and what Dice said. :smallamused:


Are you going to finish the bioengineering Principles before or after you complete more PrCs?

I dunno, haven't really thought that far ahead. But the last discipline will probably be finished either later today or tomorrow. The other prestige classes still need more polishing, so I guess I'll get stuff done when I get it done. Sorry for the delay, I just want as few corrections and errata later on as possible; the change log is long enough already :smalltongue:


You know, this thread makes me want and try to rebuild famous pop culture technology. Can we build a gravity gun? It would have to involve some fairly delicate push and pull, and I'm not sure if I can make it portable, really.

It might be possible. Make a portable semi-space with a gravity trait inside it that directs stuff out of the portal hole. Drop your mass in and use some kind of eldrikinetic mechanism to pull it to the back of the space, and then have a trigger to release it with the portal open. It comes flying out of the portal at terminal velocity. :smallsmile:

Although I'm sure there are a lot of ways you could go about it.

Eldan
2012-08-22, 06:23 PM
Yes, but the problem is that Half-life 2's gravity gun (the one I'm thinking of) can pick up objects and pull them towards the gun as well. So it would need some kind of way to switch between pushing and pulling...

Kellus
2012-08-22, 07:03 PM
Yes, but the problem is that Half-life 2's gravity gun (the one I'm thinking of) can pick up objects and pull them towards the gun as well. So it would need some kind of way to switch between pushing and pulling...

Sorry, I never played Half-Life. But it could still be possible:


Gravity: This kind of polarcane flux has different gravity than normal. Inside of the bubble, gravity moves in a different direction than normal. You can set the direction of gravity when you first prepare the principle, and it can also be changed by anyone touching the center of the flux or the object to which it is tethered as a standard action. If you prefer, you can lock the gravity when you first prepare the flux, so that it cannot be changed later. Otherwise, treat this like a reverse gravity effect, except with gravity pointing in the relevant direction. The Reflex save DC to grab something is equal to the Forgery check of the flux.

Stick in a trigger based on Heuristicism to switch the direction of the push or pull whenever you pull the trigger, and bob's your uncle. I would do it by having a shaped bubble flux into a column extending from the muzzle of the gun; normally it's standard gravity trait. Triggers on the gun flip it to pull or push. Point it at your mass, pull the thing to you and it falls into the semi-space that's attached to the gun and which has its portal in the muzzle.

In D&D you need 200ft. to reach terminal velocity; it falls to the back of the semi-space, and then you hit a button that causes two responses: the gravity in the space reverses and the gravity in the column-shaped flux reverses. It goes flying out the muzzle and down the column towards whatever it's pointed at.

Big decision: what range do you want on the gravity pull in the first place? I would say 30ft. is probably sufficient for most battlefields, so you want a bubble with radius 15ft. That's 27 preparations of YGGD 212. That means you need 170ft. of falling room inside of the semi-space. The longest spaces you can make at the 200-level are 16ft. long with 8 preparations of YGGD 241, so you need 11 of them connected with portals. That's 88 preparations of YGGD 241.

Some heuristical programming: you need 1 x HEUR 101 to set up a circuit covering the whole thing in the first place. 1 x HEUR 245 to create a control point where you can activate neutral mode, suction mode, or firing mode. Neutral mode has one trigger/response (setting the flux column to normal gravity). Suction mode and firing mode each have 12 trigger/responses. That's 25 preparations of HEUR 266.

So 141 200-level principles, and 1 100-level principle. Throw in 25 gp for the material to make the gun itself, and you should be good to go for a final selling price of 14,135 gp. It's a standard action to activate it, and the portal, all appearances to the contrary, can pull in things up to 2ft. by 2ft. How's that?

EDIT: Falling object (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#fallingObjects) damage rules are weird. But assuming that you can suck in something that weighs at least 200 lb, you're looking at a maximum damage of 21d6 damage against a target at least 30ft. away. Since it takes two rounds to use (one standard action for suction, one for firing) that's not too bad at the price. Pretty awesome for sneak attacks, I would think.

EDIT the 2nd: After considering the aforementioned falling object rules, you realistically want 1,370ft. of falling room for a 1-5 lb object to deal maximum damage. That would be 86 semi-spaces joined together.

27 x YGGD 212
688 x YGGD 241
1 x HEUR 101
1 x HEUR 245
175 x HEUR 266
25 gp materials

Total price: 89,135 gp.

So depending what sorts of projectiles you intend to use, from a 200lb iron block to a 2lb can of soup, your gravity gun is available with 200-level principles and costs somewhere between 14,000 and 90,000 gp. :smallsmile:

Morcleon
2012-08-22, 07:41 PM
1. The level 20 capstone states that "All of your principles are now extraordinary in nature". Does this effect the output effects of arcanodynamic transformers? i.e., nonmagical fire, lightning, etc...? What about the silver transformer?

2. What happens when you use an ablative tactile illusion? How does this effect observers?

3. What is the effect of Mach 4 on a projectile? What about higher Mach numbers? And what happens when you get, say a wood chip, up to the speed of light...? :smalltongue: (For reference purposes, this would require 491,737 ballistic engines.)

Qwertystop
2012-08-22, 07:43 PM
It says in the Usurp Space ability of the Lode-Bearer that your check must match the original check. This makes it impossible to usurp ownership of a semi-space made by someone vastly less skilled than yourself. It also gives you only a 1/20 chance of usurping the space if someone's skill is close to yours.

Personally, I would make it require a check that either matches the original or exceeds it by at least 15. That way, you can only usurp a space if either you manage to precisely imitate its creator or your skill is vastly greater than theirs.

Kellus
2012-08-22, 07:52 PM
It says in the Usurp Space ability of the Lode-Bearer that your check must match the original check. This makes it impossible to usurp ownership of a semi-space made by someone vastly less skilled than yourself. It also gives you only a 1/20 chance of usurping the space if someone's skill is close to yours.

Personally, I would make it require a check that either matches the original or exceeds it by at least 15. That way, you can only usurp a space if either you manage to precisely imitate its creator or your skill is vastly greater than theirs.

It's sort of a given that it means 'match or exceed', but you're right, I should have been more specific. Sorry about that, I'll change it. The intention was that the original skill check becomes the DC to take control of it.


1. The level 20 capstone states that "All of your principles are now extraordinary in nature". Does this effect the output effects of arcanodynamic transformers? i.e., nonmagical fire, lightning, etc...? What about the silver transformer?

2. What happens when you use an ablative tactile illusion? How does this effect observers?

3. What is the effect of Mach 4 on a projectile? What about higher Mach numbers? And what happens when you get, say a wood chip, up to the speed of light...? (For reference purposes, this would require 491,737 ballistic engines.)

Good questions!

1. What it means is that the transformers themselves are extraordinary. They don't stop working in an antimagic field. The fire and lightning outputs are always nonmagical; the only supernatural part of the whole process is the transformation of energy from one form to another! A silver transformer, on the other hand, explicitly generates a spell-like ability. This spell-like ability is still (Sp) at level 20.

2. Like any tactile illusion, it would make them think they feel something false. In this case, let's say that you set up an ablative tactile illusion on a table. If I touch it, I would feel like my hand is going through it, even though the table is actually supporting me entirely. This would be a very strong case for a sensory mismatch if I could still see the table.

On the other hand, use an ablative visual and tactile illusion, and I would think the space was entirely empty, except for some reason I can't keep moving. That's what would trigger a fundamental disconnect. Tactile illusions are weird. :smallsmile:

3. You generally can't have multiple Ballistic engines acting on the same object, since they need to be touching it and they release their energy in a burst instead of sustained motion. So the maximum speed of Mach 3 applies for most projectiles.

Qwertystop
2012-08-22, 08:23 PM
It's sort of a given that it means 'match or exceed', but you're right, I should have been more specific. Sorry about that, I'll change it. The intention was that the original skill check becomes the DC to take control of it.

I had thought it was an intentional decision, since there were other abilites in the same section that said "equal to or greater than". Also because, as I suggested, I thought it sort of made sense to have to exactly mimic someone else's ability in order to take over their stuff.

The Demented One
2012-08-22, 08:47 PM
This is a very cool system with some great ideas behind it. I think it could (and should!) serve as the basis for a totally stand-alone RPG, with a core system focused on the kind of scientific details this cares about instead of 5-foot steps and Attacks of Opportunity. I'd play it.

Amechra
2012-08-22, 09:05 PM
So would I; damn it, stop giving me more ideas for RPGs to write (I already have two in the works, one kinda based on Sliders, and the other based off of Wuxia Catholic Monks, set in the time of Three Popes, where you can totally have your Franciscan Friar flip out and punch the head off of a demon.)

Kellus
2012-08-22, 09:33 PM
This is a very cool system with some great ideas behind it. I think it could (and should!) serve as the basis for a totally stand-alone RPG, with a core system focused on the kind of scientific details this cares about instead of 5-foot steps and Attacks of Opportunity. I'd play it.

Thank you so much! That really means a lot, I'm a huge fan of your work! :smallsmile:

The decision to build it off 3.5 is integral to the system as a whole for a lot of reasons. First, and probably most importantly, Dungeons and Dragons is by far the most popular and lasting tabletop game there is. I'm not saying it's the best by any stretch, but it is integral to the hobby as a whole. D&D 3.5 is the closest that I believe the game is going to get for a long time to the kinds of games that this kind of system engenders. D&D4E is (in my opinion) a mess and a step backwards from the transparent world-building I like, and D&D Next seems to be even more in the realm of DM fiat. 3.5 isn't great at this sort of thing, but I appreciate that there are at all details about things like falling objects and material statistics and such that I feel can be explored in greater detail.

The second main reason to keep it as a D&D subsystem is that I believe that it opens up a lot of avenues for the DM, and not necessarily for the player. Players can mess around and build a few things, but first and foremost I see the entire system as a toolset for the DM to design a world that isn't made of arbitrarium in every way. I personally feel that's something that D&D could use.

Lastly, the entire system is built around the physics inherent to the D&D 3.x system. Each discipline revolves around the intersection between a facet (sometimes pretty obscure!) of the rules and actual science. That's why, for example, in arcanodynamics you can transform energy into acid, because in D&D 3.x there are actually five energy types, and acid is one of those. Even if it's totally nonsensical, in the logic of the game acid is a kind of energy, and that's how it's presented in these rules. The entire project is an effort to create a new science, which explores the mechanics built into the game system. While a new system would certainly be easier, it would take away from the fundamental premise of the project, which is to present the rules we all know in a different light.

And (maybe) most importantly, I want to get people thinking about these kinds of things. Even if they don't use these rules, or even anything like them, I want people thinking about the kinds of issues this ruleset brings up. I want more people thinking about how mechanics inform worldbuilding, and transparent settings, and how individual personal power drive the collective power of the zeitgeist. And I think the best way to do that is to present a totally new perspective on a game that was built around small-scale brawls and dungeon crawls.

While I think I could make a better game if I started from scratch, it would mean sacrificing every other major goal of the project, and I don't really want to do that. There are already games like that. This is something else.

General Patton
2012-08-22, 11:10 PM
Would it be possible to use Kaleidomantics, Heuristicism and Yggdratecture to make a dagger with a button that activates/deactivates a Black Filter surrounding the user and their victim? Have the Filter around a small object that is pulled out from a semi-space or demiplane?

Also, can't you use a bunch of Ablative Imachination effects positioned relative to yourself to enter permanent stealth mode? Better yet, stash this inside of a second dagger to go with the other one and you've got the ultimate two-weapon fighting, sneak attacking, rogue/assassin weapons.

Kellus
2012-08-22, 11:23 PM
Would it be possible to use Kaleidomantics, Heuristicism and Yggdratecture to make a dagger with a button that activates/deactivates a Black Filter surrounding the user and their victim? Have the Filter around a small object that is pulled out from a semi-space or demiplane?

Also, can't you use a bunch of Ablative Imachination effects positioned relative to yourself to enter permanent stealth mode? Better yet, stash this inside of a second dagger to go with the other one and you've got the ultimate two-weapon fighting, sneak attacking, rogue/assassin weapons.

Yes, to both. Filters can be fixed relative to objects, so storing the anchor in a semi-space or demiplane is an easy way to 'turn off' the filter when you don't want it. Although remember that you would have to build some sort of structure out of the filters to block any kind of sensing, such as a cube made of six black filters that stay in relative position to each other.

And yes, the whole point of ablative illusions is to remove the sensory output of things that are there. Just watch out for people that have abilities that penetrate illusions or extra senses that aren't accounted for in the illusion!

LordotheMorning
2012-08-23, 05:41 AM
I've been thinking about a number of concepts that might make this class clash with the overall mechanics of DND. I really, really, want to see this class safe for use without totally transforming the world and the game in which it is played, but there are two issues I can think of that would prevent that.

The first issue is a matter of exclusive benefits. There is very little that the Gramarist does that other classes cannot benefit just as much from. For example, I could spend 15 class levels to make a Violet barrier sword, or I could buy it from a passing Gramarist and be a Fighter instead. A fighter would make even better use of it than Gramarist himself. And even if there isn't that kind of availability for hiring Gramarists, I can encourage someone else to play a Gramarist in my party. All I really have to do is drop a few ranks into Knowledge (Engineering), and I could design a schematic and hire someone else to make it, all without taking a single class level. And really, who's going to buy a Brilliant Energy weapon when they can get a violet barrier for 1,000 gold? Of course, anything requiring more than a couple of hours would get difficult to afford, but I think it's a bit of an issue that a Gramarist's tech is just as useful to him as it is to anybody else. It's all well and good that I can make an awesome canon that shoots laser-discs at you, but it kind miffs me to know that anyone else can pick it up and use it just as well. I cannot use a Telflammar Shadowlord's Shadow Pounce ability, a Fighter's bonus feats, nor can I have a Wizard cast Mage Armor and other personal range spells on me, but all of my class features as a Gramarist can be used by them.

What if Gramarie relied on the supervision of a Gramarist in order to reach it's full potential? What about trouble-shooting, maintenance, and jury-rigging? What if Gramarie unsupervised were vulnerable to things like dispel magic? Therefore, without the presence of a dedicated gramarist, any magitech could have it's usefulness lessened.


The other issue is the notion of time as a limiting resource. I know the psychology DMs tend to operate by, and I can almost guarantee you that a character whose ability to create extremely powerful, potentially gamebreaking, devices is limited by time is going to find himself constantly struggling against time constraints, and inadvertently provoke a lot of rail-roading. That evil lich you were told to go defeat, who in another game might be content to fight in his lair, might simply start laying waste to towns if you don't get to him within an arbitrary amount of time.

If you need time to be immensely powerful, then time becomes the one thing the DM can't give you, which means you'll never have time for any side-questing or sandboxing unless the DM decides to ramp up the CR by a ridiculous amount or decides that he doesn't mind if you aren't challenged. Certain other characters can make good use of their time, such as those with crafting feats, but their true limiting factor has always been level. Here however, time becomes so crucial that it may even replace experience as the player's resource. I think you could make a good argument that a level 5 Gramarist with two weeks of prep-time could defeat a level 10 Gramarist with two days of prep-time. I really don't even know how I would fix this one. Any ideas?

jseah
2012-08-23, 07:13 AM
I've been thinking about a number of concepts that might make this class clash with the overall mechanics of DND. I really, really, want to see this class safe for use without totally transforming the world and the game in which it is played, but there are two issues I can think of that would prevent that.
<...> Of course, anything requiring more than a couple of hours would get difficult to afford, but I think it's a bit of an issue that a Gramarist's tech is just as useful to him as it is to anybody else. It's all well and good that I can make an awesome canon that shoots laser-discs at you, but it kind miffs me to know that anyone else can pick it up and use it just as well.
<...> Here however, time becomes so crucial that it may even replace experience as the player's resource.
You do realize this IS the entire purpose of this homebrew?

The very essence of magitech is totally contrary to standard fantasy magic.
Magic, as commonly conceived, is a personal power that only special people can use.
Magitech, being a technology, is an impersonal power that *anyone* can use.
It defeats the entire purpose to restrict magitech to the gramarists.

Secondly, by its very nature of impersonality, magitech will transform the entire setting. When one can make permanent effects that anyone can benefit from, one is only restricted by time. Then obviously, time becomes an important resource.

EDIT:
This also applies to and embodies the entire division of mystical magic and magitech in general.
One CANNOT have mystical magic in a world where magic operates outside of a character and impersonally (ie. doesn't matter who's doing what). If magic is independent of people and has permanent effects, magitech is what results.

EDIT2:
Likewise, aspiring wizards looking to leave a permanent mark on the setting or build a Tippyverse-lite, look to ways to impersonalize their magic and render it available to the common people.

The longbow was strictly superior to an early gun. But anyone could pick up a gun and use it, while the longbow archer took forever to train; so the gun won eventually.

Eldan
2012-08-23, 07:26 AM
The first one, however, is still a bit of a problem if this isn't to be an NPC class. It should offer an advantage over, say, taking Leadership and just having your personal Gramarist at home equipping you whenever you need it.

The prestige classes seem to help, there.

Amechra
2012-08-23, 04:38 PM
That's why, if I were to play with this, I would totally have it all be Gestalt, where everyone has to Gestalt with the Grammarist class.

Omnicrat
2012-08-23, 04:52 PM
That's why, if I were to play with this, I would totally have it all be Gestalt, where everyone has to Gestalt with the Grammarist class.

Funny you should say that, we're setting up one or two gestalt Gramarist games right now. It should be near the top of the player recruitment forum.

Amechra
2012-08-23, 04:54 PM
Don't have the time; I'm about to head off to college, so my free time will be severely proscribed.

Omnicrat
2012-08-23, 07:06 PM
Don't have the time; I'm about to head off to college, so my free time will be severely proscribed.

Ah, that's too bad. This is an excellent class and I can't wait to test it out.

Amechra
2012-08-23, 07:58 PM
The classes I'm taking will be excellent, too. :smallwink:

I'm kinda waiting for the Natural Philosophy Principles to be finished, so I can update my pantheon.

The Gods of Science each have perfect, complete access to a single Discipline; they automatically succeed on all key skill checks (treat this as a roll of 250 in any skill check), and can use their Principles through their Spectroconstruction ability (referred to as Eternity in an Eyeblink).

72,000 Preparations in 30 minutes? Fear the science!

Omnicrat
2012-08-23, 09:22 PM
Two questions.

1) Does a Gramarists eldrich blast stack with the other side of a gestalt that also has an eldrich blast, such as warlock?

2) Can Carmot foil be used as a means of preservation, or is there a certain required volume/mass?

Kellus
2012-08-24, 12:34 AM
Two questions.

1) Does a Gramarists eldrich blast stack with the other side of a gestalt that also has an eldrich blast, such as warlock?

2) Can Carmot foil be used as a means of preservation, or is there a certain required volume/mass?

1. Like any gestalt feature, whenever you receive the same ability on either side of a progression you only count the best progression.

2. By the rules, no. Any amount of carmot that an object touches will freeze the decay or rusting process in it. Similarly, it doesn't matter how much you drink, as long as you drink some carmot each day, you won't age. This has led to the distribution of Vitamin C, an immortality supplement popular on the Outer Planes.

Kellus
2012-08-24, 02:43 AM
Okay! Biollurgy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13732805#post13732915) is ready for you to make some monstrosities with! Or really creepy architecture. Whatever, really. :smallsmile:

Eldan
2012-08-24, 02:55 AM
I'm in love. With a piece of text.

radmelon
2012-08-24, 04:00 AM
Did you just give me a way to make custom creatures with any fluff I want and a wide variety of abilities? If you're not careful, people might end up stalking you. Or worshipping you. Or both.

Gnorman
2012-08-24, 04:09 AM
You broke my brain. In a good way.

Qwertystop
2012-08-24, 08:08 AM
I just realized: this class, contrary to the thread title, cannot actually blind people.

Morcleon
2012-08-24, 08:25 AM
I just realized: this class, contrary to the thread title, cannot actually blind people.

Black kaleidomantic filter centered on your target and focused inward? :smallbiggrin:

Amechra
2012-08-24, 08:28 AM
Thanks for Biollurgy; it will be... useful.

I assume your effective Xenoalchemist level is equal to your Grammarist level for the purpose of how powerful the "grafts" are?

Salbazier
2012-08-24, 08:45 AM
When I first see this my thought was something like "Amazing! Awesome! What I can with this.."

Then when I see the designs people come up with I thought "Kellus, I think you has broken the Outer Gates"

After seeing Biollurgy: "And you did it TWICE!"

Very nice work, Kellus. :smallbiggrin: Biollurgy is just... wow. Though right now my brain is still struggling and can't keep up with the thread and the new content yet. And I'm eagerly waiting for the Alchemetry specialist PrC.

Amechra
2012-08-24, 09:05 AM
Also, can Biollurgists modify someone else's body parts?

I want to be able to give the party Fighter an arm made of flesh and steel, damn it!

Additionally, can you place Level 0 Grafts on people with the higher level principles? So you could, for example, give these hideous masses of flesh and gristle your face, for example.

Omnicrat
2012-08-24, 09:38 AM
1. Like any gestalt feature, whenever you receive the same ability on either side of a progression you only count the best progression.

2. By the rules, no. Any amount of carmot that an object touches will freeze the decay or rusting process in it. Similarly, it doesn't matter how much you drink, as long as you drink some carmot each day, you won't age. This has led to the distribution of Vitamin C, an immortality supplement popular on the Outer Planes.

1) That's what I assumed, but people were debating it in the campaign thread.

2) Does one have to drink it? Because I was planing on making Carmot tablets for sale to nobles.

On a new note, 3) Did you ever address the person pointing out that your volume/weight restrictions being kinda heavy (well, literally light, but you get my meaning) on the weight side of things?

Kellus
2012-08-24, 11:20 AM
I'm in love. With a piece of text.

Haha, awesome! Glad you like it!


Did you just give me a way to make custom creatures with any fluff I want and a wide variety of abilities? If you're not careful, people might end up stalking you. Or worshipping you. Or both.

Yeah, basically. The beautiful part of it is that it's the xenoalchemy rules doing the heavy lifting for the monster abilities, since it's already a nice tiered list of level-appropriate monster speeds, senses, natural weapons, and abilities to hand out.


You broke my brain. In a good way.

Sorry, I'll clean that up.


I just realized: this class, contrary to the thread title, cannot actually blind people.

Imachination can make someone think they're blinded!


I assume your effective Xenoalchemist level is equal to your Grammarist level for the purpose of how powerful the "grafts" are?

Ooo, good point. I think actually I'm going to say that the Hit Dice of the chassis determines the strength of the grafts. That means that big monsters are inherently more powerful, and also that as they advance their grafts grow stronger as well. And for PC use as you level up your grafts become more powerful along with you.


When I first see this my thought was something like "Amazing! Awesome! What I can with this.."

Then when I see the designs people come up with I thought "Kellus, I think you has broken the Outer Gates"

After seeing Biollurgy: "And you did it TWICE!"

Very nice work, Kellus. Biollurgy is just... wow. Though right now my brain is still struggling and can't keep up with the thread and the new content yet. And I'm eagerly waiting for the Alchemetry specialist PrC.

Thanks! I'll try to get the arcanitect and the graughtsman done today.

EDIT: Sorry, you said alchemetry. I'll move the contractor in front of the arcanitect on the queue, then.


Also, can Biollurgists modify someone else's body parts?

Hrm... Interesting. What they can do is actually transform part of a living creature into biostructure, giving it object and metal-like characteristics. So you can turn the fighter's arm into biostructure for the benefits of the fast healing and hardness and other characteristics that the arm would receive. And you could also attach other masses of biostructure onto the arm. But you can't actually grow grafts on something already alive, that's the domain of actual xenoalchemy. This discipline is about forging entirely new monsters and lifeforms.


Additionally, can you place Level 0 Grafts on people with the higher level principles? So you could, for example, give these hideous masses of flesh and gristle your face, for example.

Oh, good call. A chassis can have unlimited one free 0-level graft, and they're partially mutated in offspring, so that children look similar but slightly different to their parents. Thank you for reminding me, I'll update that!

For those interested, I'm also making one other small change; biostructure, like any building material, should have its hit points measured by inch of thickness for when people actually try to break through it. It now has one Hit Die per inch of thickness at any given point. This still changes when you turn it into a chassis, though.


1) That's what I assumed, but people were debating it in the campaign thread.

I'm sorry, I'm not an expert on gestalt, but I believe that the relevant passage is:


Class features that two classes share (such as uncanny dodge) accrue at the rate of the faster class. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/gestaltCharacters.htm#classFeatures)


2) Does one have to drink it? Because I was planing on making Carmot tablets for sale to nobles.

No, any way you consume it is valid. But have you ever tried eating solid copper?


On a new note, 3) Did you ever address the person pointing out that your volume/weight restrictions being kinda heavy (well, literally light, but you get my meaning) on the weight side of things?

Nope, stuff is heavy. There's a whole discipline about creating extradimensional spaces that you can carry around with you!

Omnicrat
2012-08-24, 12:02 PM
Nope, stuff is heavy. There's a whole discipline about creating extradimensional spaces that you can carry around with you!

Ah, I'm sorry. I meant with regard to ALCH 101, not the bulk of objects Gramarie creates.

Omnicrat
2012-08-24, 02:00 PM
Is ALCH 286 supposed to not be able to produce platinum?

Also, is the iron not supposed under the table?

Kellus
2012-08-24, 02:14 PM
Is ALCH 286 supposed to not be able to produce platinum?

No, it doesn't. It specifically lists the metals that are valid choices, and ALCH 364 says the following:


In addition to the normal planetary metals, this principle can target an 8th metal: platinum. Platinum is an odd case, and while it can be ascended with this principle, it is not a valid choice for ALCH 286. For all other purposes, it is treated as a planetary metal.


Also, is the iron not supposed under the table?

Iron is generally assumed to be a default material due to its ubiquity in the game to begin with. I don't want to introduce any unusual rules for it, since nearly everything metal in the game is already made out of iron or an alloy of it.

Omnicrat
2012-08-24, 03:42 PM
You know that one cubic foot of platinum costs 665000 gp, right? I know it was really easy to get before, but now it seems much too prohibitive.

Silva Stormrage
2012-08-24, 03:55 PM
For BIOY 381 I have a question on the reproduction part. It states that the golems can reproduce by asexual budding but is there any limit on that? Could I make the creatures reproduce every .000001 seconds and just flood the plane with reproducing golems?

Also I couldn't find this on the graft page you linked but can you affix the same graft to a creature? In particular the suicide organ.

Still love the class :smallbiggrin:

Kellus
2012-08-24, 04:05 PM
For BIOY 381 I have a question on the reproduction part. It states that the golems can reproduce by asexual budding but is there any limit on that? Could I make the creatures bud every .000001 seconds and just flood the plane with reproducing golems?

Also I couldn't find this on the graft page you linked but can you affix the same graft to a creature? In particular the suicide organ.

Still love the class :smallbiggrin:

Good questions!

I guess that's a good call on the reproduction guidelines. It's incredibly open-ended so that people can make pretty much any kind of creature that they like, but I understand there's also room for abuse. I think what I'll do is put in a minimum gestation period based on size category; 1 month, with an additional four months for every size category above Tiny. That gives us mice with 1 month gestation, humans with 9 month gestation, and elephants with 17 month gestation. Not perfect (elephants are 22 and mice are about 20 days) but close enough to satisfy me. :smallsmile:

The other main point I'll put in is that the creature can't reproduce until reaching adulthood.

As for the doubling up on grafts, you are allowed to have multiple of the same graft if they occupy separate body slots normally, such as claws in more places than normal. Since these growth slots can count as any body slot, you can double up whatever you like. Nothing particularly unbalancing about having exceptionally powerful death throes, especially from a 4th level graft.

Glad you like it!


You know that one cubic foot of platinum costs 665000 gp, right?

Yes. It's expensive stuff. You can always transmute a smaller amount if you want. But at normal xenoalchemy rates, at Doctorate-level you can make about enough for that in 6 months to a year. As some people pointed out to me, orichalcum is pretty much the biggest gamebreaker in the entire system. :smallsmile:

Silva Stormrage
2012-08-24, 04:18 PM
Good questions!

I guess that's a good call on the reproduction guidelines. It's incredibly open-ended so that people can make pretty much any kind of creature that they like, but I understand there's also room for abuse. I think what I'll do is put in a minimum gestation period based on size category; 1 month, with an additional four months for every size category above Tiny. That gives us mice with 1 month gestation, humans with 9 month gestation, and elephants with 17 month gestation. Not perfect (elephants are 22 and mice are about 20 days) but close enough to satisfy me. :smallsmile:

The other main point I'll put in is that the creature can't reproduce until reaching adulthood.

As for the doubling up on grafts, you are allowed to have multiple of the same graft if they occupy separate body slots normally, such as claws in more places than normal. Since these growth slots can count as any body slot, you can double up whatever you like. Nothing particularly unbalancing about having exceptionally powerful death throes, especially from a 4th level graft.

Glad you like it!



Yes. It's expensive stuff. You can always transmute a smaller amount if you want. But at normal xenoalchemy rates, at Doctorate-level you can make about enough for that in 6 months to a year. As some people pointed out to me, orichalcum is pretty much the biggest gamebreaker in the entire system. :smallsmile:

Awesome, that seems like a good compromise and also another question. Are biollurgical chassis blocked by violet filters? It says that it blocks living and undead but constructs are let through... Since biollurgical chassis are a mix of both... it is somewhat hard to tell :smalltongue:

And yes orichalcum is really really broken IMO as it almost completely negates the purpose for other generators.

Kellus
2012-08-24, 04:29 PM
Awesome, that seems like a good compromise and also another question. Are biollurgical chassis blocked by violet filters? It says that it blocks living and undead but constructs are let through... Since biollurgical chassis are a mix of both... it is somewhat hard to tell :smalltongue:

Technically speaking biostructure is treated as both an 'object' and a 'creature' in game terms. Constructs (as in, the type) are the only creature type specifically allowed through a Violet filter. Since a chassis is an Aberration, it is blocked like any other living thing.

EDIT


And yes orichalcum is really really broken IMO as it almost completely negates the purpose for other generators.

Haha, yeah, some stuff you just don't realize until someone else points it out to you. I like the idea of having a battery in the system, but people were right when they said it was totally gamechanging. So now you can have it, but at at a prohibitive cost. :smallsmile:

Omnicrat
2012-08-24, 04:37 PM
When preparing a principle, can you choose to get a lower effective roll than you actually rolled other than a one?

Kellus
2012-08-24, 04:40 PM
When preparing a principle, can you choose to get a lower effective roll than you actually rolled other than a one?

This has never been officially addressed, but based on the precedent of being able to choose to fail things like saving throws, I feel that it's a safe assumption that a skill check represents the maximum potential that you can work to. You can always choose to work at a level below your best, and claim any result on a skill check lower than what you actually rolled.

Amechra
2012-08-24, 04:43 PM
So...

Out of curiosity, how many manipulator limbs does the basic chassis get? And what kinda magic item slots/body slots do they have?

I know you want to be open-ended, but you could design a creature with NI manipulators, and have it wield NI weapons...

Also, if you have a PrC that gives you more options for grafts, could you add them to the chassis? You know, so I could make it grow shadow limbs or whatever.

Also, a Grammarist//Xenoalchemist is pretty damn potent, what with free access to any damn graft of up to 4th level.

Silva Stormrage
2012-08-24, 04:48 PM
Technically speaking biostructure is treated as both an 'object' and a 'creature' in game terms. Constructs (as in, the type) are the only creature type specifically allowed through a Violet filter. Since a chassis is an Aberration, it is blocked like any other living thing.

EDIT



Haha, yeah, some stuff you just don't realize until someone else points it out to you. I like the idea of having a battery in the system, but people were right when they said it was totally gamechanging. So now you can have it, but at at a prohibitive cost. :smallsmile:


Kk that makes sense.

Oh and I didn't even notice the change to the Orichalcum :smallredface:.

Kellus
2012-08-24, 04:53 PM
So...

Out of curiosity, how many manipulator limbs does the basic chassis get? And what kinda magic item slots/body slots do they have?

Ah, good call! The default is two manipulator limbs as you might expect, and the regular allotment of body slots. But if you want to make something weird you can remove some body slots in favour of others at a rate of 2 sacrificed to 1 added. Extra limbs can be granted with a 4th level graft I believe. I'll edit that in there shortly, thank you. :smallsmile:


Also, if you have a PrC that gives you more options for grafts, could you add them to the chassis? You know, so I could make it grow shadow limbs or whatever.

Erm... Tough call. I'm going to go with no for that particular case, because the text of the class feature reads:


Starting at 5th level, whenever you attach a graft using shadow material harvested with your harvest shadow ability the graft works differently than normal.

The shadow explicitly needs to come from the harvest shadow class feature. Now, if you had (hypothetically) a prestige class that just taught you six new grafts to add to the list, they would be perfectly fine to add to your creations.


Also, a Grammarist//Xenoalchemist is pretty damn potent, what with free access to any damn graft of up to 4th level.

Yes, it would be pretty awesome, since you could grow the grafts you want and then cut it open to harvest them and put them on other people. That actually sounds like a killer character concept... :smallamused:

But it's actually not unbalanced, since the assumption going into xenoalchemy is that you'll be able to find the material you want to make the grafts you want. That's why people starting at higher levels can just claim any grafts they want from their past, since the grafts are reasonably balanced. Anyway, like anything in gramarie it takes hours to do any of that, and even longer to harvest and install grafts, so it's not like it's something you can do at the drop of a hat to slot out grafts. It's a useful trick, and has some neat applications, but it's not like it's gamebreaking or anything.

Silva Stormrage
2012-08-24, 05:42 PM
Hey more of a question with grafts than Magitek but I felt it relevant. Would you rule that a biollurgical chassis with the eye of antimagic graft would qualify for feats that a beholder can take to adjust its own antimagic eye?

Also can you adjust their feats they get from their first HD?

Kellus
2012-08-24, 05:49 PM
Hey more of a question with grafts than Magitek but I felt it relevant. Would you rule that a biollurgical chassis with the eye of antimagic graft would qualify for feats that a beholder can take to adjust its own antimagic eye?

This is the old Beholder Mage question, because most of those feats, like Focused Antimagic, have a prerequisite of "Beholder". Actually what a beholder is that makes it fundamentally different from any other creature (and thus eligible for the feat or prestige class) is never clearly explained, which is all the more problematic given that the Beholder Mage is one of the most ludicrously overpowered prestige classes ever written. There are a million arguments about it, but I would tend in this scenario towards saying that even a biollurgic chassis shaped exactly like a beholder and with the antimage eye graft still isn't actually a beholder for the purposes of the prerequisites.


Also can you adjust their feats they get from their first HD?

Yes, along with picking their initial skills. That's just part of assigning Hit Dice, like normal.

Omnicrat
2012-08-24, 06:15 PM
I keep forgetting to ask this, can spectroconstruction be used to make arms and armor? Or mine?

If it can be used for those things, do you need the appropriate craft or profession skill? Can I make a bunch of masterwork swords and armor for nothing but the cost of iron?

Kellus
2012-08-24, 06:25 PM
I keep forgetting to ask this, can spectroconstruction be used to make arms and armor? Or mine?

If it can be used for those things, do you need the appropriate craft or profession skill? Can I make a bunch of masterwork swords and armor for nothing but the cost of iron?


...magically construct buildings, mines, tunnels, ditches, or whatever...

While an argument could be made for the ambiguity of the term 'whatever', it's fairly clear that it's intended to be used for actual construction or engineering projects and not skilled craftsmanship. It's not a fabricate effect.

Omnicrat
2012-08-24, 06:42 PM
While an argument could be made for the ambiguity of the term 'whatever', it's fairly clear that it's intended to be used for actual construction or engineering projects and not skilled craftsmanship. It's not a fabricate effect.

I figured it wouldn't work for crafting, but man-hours required to build a tank being on the list made me question it.

So, even with the appropriate skills, I couldn't use spectroconstruction to make weapons and armor? Just making sure. (Honestly, I'm only asking this so that I can definitively say no [barring DM alteration] if this comes up in the campaign thread)

Also, can it only be used to create a mine, or can it do actual mining as well? I'm not sure that falls under of a construction or engineering project or not.

Amechra
2012-08-24, 09:07 PM
Could a single cu ft of Silver be used for both a transformer and an ascending engine?

Or would I need two distinct cu ft?

Kellus
2012-08-25, 02:00 AM
Could a single cu ft of Silver be used for both a transformer and an ascending engine?

Or would I need two distinct cu ft?

No, material can be used for multiple simultaneous purposes like that.


Also, can it only be used to create a mine, or can it do actual mining as well? I'm not sure that falls under of a construction or engineering project or not.

It's a very broad subject, and there's a million what-if's that you could bring up, but the easiest guideline is that it's 7,200 hours of unskilled labour. If it's something that 1st-level commoners could do, you can use spectroconstruction to do it.

Omnicrat
2012-08-25, 02:14 AM
It's a very broad subject, and there's a million what-if's that you could bring up, but the easiest guideline is that it's 7,200 hours of unskilled labour. If it's something that 1st-level commoners could do, you can use spectroconstruction to do it.

Alright. Sorry if I was bothering you with my many questions about a small aspect of this incredible class.

Kellus
2012-08-25, 02:29 AM
Alright. Sorry if I was bothering you with my many questions about a small aspect of this incredible class.

No problem, I'm glad that you like it, and I'm happy to answer any questions I can about the system. I mean, I wrote it, but I'm not going to claim to know everything you can do with it, not even close. :smalltongue:

For those interested, I've also been bouncing around some other ideas for player options today, and I wrote a first draft of a new base class suitable for adventures in a gramarie-enabled setting, the saboteur. The idea is that it's a skilled character who specializes in disassembling and mucking around with other people's gramarie. Assuming all goes well, it should be up in the next couple of days. Sorry for the delay on the rest of the prestige classes, but we'll get there! :smallsmile:

Salbazier
2012-08-25, 07:58 AM
Thanks! I'll try to get the arcanitect and the graughtsman done today.

EDIT: Sorry, you said alchemetry. I'll move the contractor in front of the arcanitect on the queue, then.



Great, Thanks! :smallsmile:


Oh, good call. A chassis can have unlimited one free 0-level graft, and they're partially mutated in offspring, so that children look similar but slightly different to their parents. Thank you for reminding me, I'll update that!

Oh, Thanks for this as well. And for teh body slot swapping too. Oh my, now I want to play as Biollurgical Biollurgist.

Nanoblack
2012-08-25, 12:55 PM
Out of curiosity, do the Artisan feat from the ECS have any interaction with Gramarie? It would be nice to have that 25% reduction in preparation time for principles, but it seems the terminology is distinct between the two.

Arkhaic
2012-08-25, 03:30 PM
If semi-spaces are tethered to, say, a mount's saddlebags, and there were people standing upright in the semi-spaces so that their upper bodies were sticking out, would the weight affect the mount? Would the people sticking out of the semi-spaces affect the bulk of a cart they are tethered to? What about semi-space armor?


Speaking of Yggdratectural exploits, what about semi-space armor? It wouldn't weigh anything at all, projectiles would usually end up in the semi-spaces, and it would provide virtual immunity to melee attacks.
Also, are semi-space portals transparent from behind? If they are, a character could be completely covered in semi-spaces and be nigh invulnerable.

Nanoblack
2012-08-25, 04:44 PM
If my opinion counts for much, I'd say that semi-spaces would follow similar rules to bags of holding in that it is destroyed if it gets punctured in any way. What that means for energy damage is still up in the air, however.

Silva Stormrage
2012-08-25, 04:49 PM
If my opinion counts for much, I'd say that semi-spaces would follow similar rules to bags of holding in that it is destroyed if it gets punctured in any way. What that means for energy damage is still up in the air, however.

Oh really? I figured they worked more like portable holes that couldn't be folded up.

Nanoblack
2012-08-25, 05:05 PM
You might be right, but then that means we could do the same thing with portable holes. Are there any rules for damaging extra-dimensional spaces other than what's listed for the bag of holding?

Silva Stormrage
2012-08-25, 05:11 PM
You might be right, but then that means we could do the same thing with portable holes. Are there any rules for damaging extra-dimensional spaces other than what's listed for the bag of holding?

Well I thought the portable hole is two dimensional so I don't know how you could break that. And no I don't think there are. There are rules about putting them in antimagic fields though in which case you can't access them anymore.


Question though. If you had a huge 40 by 40 by 40ft room filled with cursed lead and a smaller room with floor walls ceiling covered in quicksilver would the quicksilver room be affected by the anti magic?

Silva Stormrage
2012-08-25, 05:13 PM
You might be right, but then that means we could do the same thing with portable holes. Are there any rules for damaging extra-dimensional spaces other than what's listed for the bag of holding?

Well I thought the portable hole is two dimensional so I don't know how you could break that. And no I don't think there are. There are rules about putting them in antimagic fields though in which case you can't access them anymore.


Question though. If you had a huge 40 by 40 by 40ft room filled with cursed lead and a smaller room with floor walls ceiling covered in quicksilver would the quicksilver room be affected by the anti magic?

jseah
2012-08-25, 05:55 PM
Being a man of the Industrial age, I find biollurgy quite... lackluster.
- CEO, Gramarie Manufacturing, shortly before he was persuaded to purchase some specimens for his, ahem, personal use


A culture, specifically an Industrial Revolution-like era, enabled by Gramarie will probably look to biollurgy as a curiousity and definitely not worth granting equal rights. Especially since you can make them circuited and connected to the far more easily controllable Exotic Intelligence.

Bodyguards and brute force, perhaps, although essentially limitless summons through the use of the Silver transformer is likely to be more cost efficient.

The main point is that you can sculpt the thing quite easily, it can be of certain small sizes, you decide the appearance and you can give it mammalian reproduction...
That allows rather more... well, let's just say that describing those uses will probably violate forum policy quite badly. :smalleek:

And I can totally see a Gramarie-tech society using it that way. "Come on, we *make* the things, they're not people..."

Eldan
2012-08-25, 06:16 PM
Having read through Biollurgy again, I think you should perhaps add a guideline for how much material makes a creature of which size.

Also, my inner biochemist doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at seeing a creature that can breathe in nitrogen dioxide and exhale water vapor, and other such glorious madness.

General Patton
2012-08-25, 06:40 PM
Being a man of the Industrial age, I find biollurgy quite... lackluster.
- CEO, Gramarie Manufacturing, shortly before he was persuaded to purchase some specimens for his, ahem, personal use


A culture, specifically an Industrial Revolution-like era, enabled by Gramarie will probably look to biollurgy as a curiousity and definitely not worth granting equal rights. Especially since you can make them circuited and connected to the far more easily controllable Exotic Intelligence.

However, Exotic Intelligence only has Telepathy and Mindsight within the radius of the bubble. Circuited Biollurgical Chassis can provide your Exotic Intelligence with access to other senses. With the Level 1-4 Xenoalchemist Grafts you can add Lowlight Vision, Detect Magic, Scent, seeing through natural and magical darkness, Blindsense 30 ft, Blindsight 60 ft, ability to see incorporeal creatures and things on the Ethereal Plane as they overlap with the Material Plane, Telepathy 200 ft, Tremorsense 60 ft or True Seeing. Also, there's the Mental Relay Graft you can add on top of the Telepathy.

"A mental relay is an advanced graft which allows you to act as a go-between for other telepathic creatures. If you're in telepathic contact with an ally who can use mind-affecting abilities, they can use their abilities through your mind and senses, effectively using you as the source of the ability."

By automating the production of Circuited Biollurgical Chassis with Telepathy 200 ft, Mental Relay, and then filling out the other slots with a variety of other senses, your Exotic Intelligence can become excessively aware of everything within like a mile. You could pretty much imitate System Shock 2 and have Xerxes linked with The Many who possess a hive mind. And that's awesome.

jseah
2012-08-25, 06:42 PM
Also, my inner biochemist doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at seeing a creature that can breathe in nitrogen dioxide and exhale water vapor, and other such glorious madness.
Or worse still, inhaling hydrogen and excreting iron.

Fusion powered biology, now coming to your doorstep!

(all right, ok, oxygen is one of them steps to iron, you can breathe that then)


Oh, it would be a very VERY good idea not to kick the dog. If you want to, please tell me two weeks in advance so I can find a suitable replacement city to go to.
- Primus Biotechnica, rogue biollurgy specialist. Last recorded speech shortly before the Stellarator Event

EDIT: I think I'll definitely laugh. Probably on the MUHAHAHA evil-overlord style.

Eldan
2012-08-25, 06:45 PM
Hm. Make a creature of diminutive size and graft the telepathy 200 ft., another sense and mental relay on it.
Use it as a sling bullet to covertly use mind-affecting abilities on people.

Kellus
2012-08-25, 06:53 PM
Okay, some great questions about Yggdratecture! After thinking on it, I'm going to introduce three new clauses for semi-spaces:

1. Anything protruding from a semi-space applies its weight to the object or creature it's tethered to. Fixed semi-spaces can hold maximum weight like an immovable rod, very much like a kaleidomantic filter fixed in space.

2. A semi-space is destroyed when it sustains piercing or slashing damage total damage equal to the Forgery check. You can also repair it with further Forgery checks later on if it gets torn.

3. Someone can use a portal as cover (although you can't see through the back of it), but any attack or effect that misses them because of the cover strikes the space instead. Open portals also leave a semi-space vulnerable to area effects.

Thanks for the sharp reading and edge scenarios!


By automating the production of Circuited Biollurgical Chassis with Telepathy 200 ft, Mental Relay, and then filling out the other slots with a variety of other senses, your Exotic Intelligence can become excessively aware of everything within like a mile. You could pretty much imitate System Shock 2 and have Xerxes linked with The Many who possess a hive mind. And that's awesome.

Eeeeeeeheehee :smallsmile:


Having read through Biollurgy again, I think you should perhaps add a guideline for how much material makes a creature of which size.

There are already rules for volume and size categories here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/movementPositionAndDistance.htm) that describe size category based on height, length, and space. I don't think it needs too much more elaboration.


Also, my inner biochemist doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at seeing a creature that can breathe in nitrogen dioxide and exhale water vapor, and other such glorious madness.

Seems legit. :smallcool:


Well I thought the portable hole is two dimensional so I don't know how you could break that. And no I don't think there are. There are rules about putting them in antimagic fields though in which case you can't access them anymore.

All gramarie by default is supernatural in nature, so it stops working in an antimagic field. Until 20th level, of course.


Question though. If you had a huge 40 by 40 by 40ft room filled with cursed lead and a smaller room with floor walls ceiling covered in quicksilver would the quicksilver room be affected by the anti magic?

Similarly, if the quicksilver was made by a gramarist that doesn't have the class feature The Architect, the quicksilver stops working in the area of an antimagic field, since the time-quickening is a supernatural effect.

EDIT


And I can totally see a Gramarie-tech society using it that way.

Haha, I guess it would depend on the society. But using our society as a model, I think you're pretty much spot-on. :smalltongue:

jseah
2012-08-25, 07:29 PM
General Patton:
Aha, I am unfamiliar with xenoalchemy grafts and so was unaware of their many useful features.


Haha, I guess it would depend on the society. But using our society as a model, I think you're pretty much spot-on. :smalltongue:
At my risk.. Custom-made prostitute slaves... Bad enough. =|

Hint: small size. Even worse. =(
I don't think our current society will tolerate that. Not for very long at any rate.

A Gramarie-tech society freshly heading into a fantasy Renaissance-era world? If they are modeled off the actual steam Industrial Revolution, then yes they will tolerate it. Very much yes.


On another note:
Breathe water vapour, exhale nitrogen dioxide. Have native temperature be a hot 40-50*C. Put in hot and humid room.

Collect nitric acid runoff, top-up water, add potassium (from bat****, which is in apparently unlimited supply given how free wizards are with their fireballs, or certain rocks) and get potassium nitrate.
Or just neutralize with something else (let it chew on some metal, hint: magnesium is used in chlorophyll...; kaleidomantic filters will likely kill your nitrate and so cannot be used)

You have a Gramarie-tech version of the Haber process, producing freaking nitrate fertilizer. A Gramarie-tech society is WELL on their way to the Green Revolution, which is arguably just as important as the Industrial one.
Oh, and making gunpowder just got a whole hell of alot easier.

EDIT:
Oh, and the provision of ozone also allows from some rather interesting chemistry.

Amechra
2012-08-25, 08:09 PM
Quick question which was passed over in the fervor:

If I have a cubic foot of Silver, can it be both a Transformer and an Engine? Or would I have to have a separate cubic foot for each preparation.

Also, part of me wants to make Biollurgical Zerg; heck, it can already make Creep...

Also, how many cubic feet of iron do you think full plate is? We can't use the weight given in the table, since that is a measure of bulk, and if we go by that, it is literally only 1/9th of a cubic foot of Iron.

I want to make Iron Man armor, damn it!

Hmm... I just thought of something kinda cool; basically, you open up two semi-spaces, both 4'x4'x4', and line them up next to each-other so that it forms a 4'x8' opening; have them portal into each-other at an edge.

Then do the same elsewhere; connect each individual portal to a single portal on the other side.

There you go, if you are making a house where the hallways are 4'x8', you can extend your hallways by 8' increments; actually, use that to make nicely paneled hallways that should not fit in your studio apartment.

Hell, I just thought of something... You know, you could totally set up a semi-space inside of a portable hole, and use it to basically connect a bunch of portable holes together into a house.

The rooms might be a little small, but if you set up the normal opening as a window...

Dinner in Sharn, anyone? I mailed a Hole there yesterday. (there isn't a :Classy: smiley. WHY IS THERE NO CLASSY SMILEY)

By the way, I think that little quirk is completely fine; at least it leads to awesome architecture.

Silva Stormrage
2012-08-25, 08:12 PM
Sorry I was using the wrong example then, I was just using quicksilver because I was planning a fort and thats what it called for. But what happens if you have a 40ft by 40ft by 40ft room of cursed lead and then built a mini room inside that room with solid stone. Could you cast inside that stone room? Also assuming 20th level so that the grammarie is an (Ex) effect what would happen if you had a subspace entrance inside the cursed lead room. Would the interior of the subspace be affected by the antimagic?

Arkhaic
2012-08-25, 08:25 PM
Still on the subject of Yggdracatecture, what if the semi-space is weightless? Can you make a semi-space that takes up less space in less time? (2x2x1 in half an hour, 2x1x1 in 15 minutes, 1^3 in 7.5 minutes.)

Kellus
2012-08-25, 08:26 PM
Sorry I was using the wrong example then, I was just using quicksilver because I was planning a fort and thats what it called for. But what happens if you have a 40ft by 40ft by 40ft room of cursed lead and then built a mini room inside that room with solid stone. Could you cast inside that stone room? Also assuming 20th level so that the grammarie is an (Ex) effect what would happen if you had a subspace entrance inside the cursed lead room. Would the interior of the subspace be affected by the antimagic?

Ohhhh I see what you were saying. Yes, anything enclosed by the cursed lead is filled with the area of antimagic. The field permeates anything within the enclosure.

Assuming that you had 20th level, the actual portal would not disappear. I would say an open portal means that the interior semi-space is affected by the antimagic field, since YGGD 101 specifically states that semi-space interiors are affected by area effects. So you could keep the portal open in the animagic field at 20th level, but you couldn't cast a spell inside of it. If this seems kind of weird, it's because the rules were never meant to include extraordinary extradimensional spaces. :smallsmile:


Quick question which was passed over in the fervor:

If I have a cubic foot of Silver, can it be both a Transformer and an Engine? Or would I have to have a separate cubic foot for each preparation.

False! I answered that question in post #223!


No, material can be used for multiple simultaneous purposes like that.


Also, how many cubic feet of iron do you think full plate is? We can't use the weight given in the table, since that is a measure of bulk, and if we go by that, it is literally only 1/9th of a cubic foot of Iron.

Interesting question! The average Body Surface Area of a human is 1.73 m^2. That works out to 18.62 square feet. Assuming full plate is about on average... 1/4" thick? That's 0.021 feet thick, which means a total volume for the armor of about 0.39 cubic feet.

God, I wish the D&D rules were metric. :smallmad:

Haha, that's some awesome architecture, though. Once you get the ability to connect semi-spaces, you can really build some crazy stuff.

General Patton
2012-08-25, 08:26 PM
Eeeeeeeheehee :smallsmile:

So, all it would take is a source of puissance and materials and then an Abnormal Behaviour setup for Intro to Heuristicism, Exotic Intelligence, Intro to Biollurgy, Animate Construction, Artificial Reckoning and Erratic Mutations in order to have our expanding bubble of Mindsight/Telepathy linked to and controlling a growing population of Telepathically linked sensory organs on legs. If you include an Abnormal Behaviour for Nonlinear Waves to make Gold Input Transformers and give all of your critters the Nimbus of Light and Devil Eye Grafts, then intruders are running blind while you've got infinite puissance and can do a zergling rush light-nuke. Btw, can we get the ability to shut off Input Transformers as a logical decision?

Kellus
2012-08-25, 08:30 PM
Btw, can we get the ability to shut off Input Transformers as a logical decision?

I've actually thought about that question a lot ever since someone first asked on page... 2? And I think the answer is yes. You could just do it anyway with roundabout methods like magnetically pulling them apart or something, and that's too much hassle to be worth it. I don't think it would really have ludicrous consequences, so I'm going to add it in there.

Also, that's like the most terrifying scenario for a planar invasion by someone's science experiment run amok ever.

Milo v3
2012-08-25, 08:30 PM
I've just made a Class which uses these Principles and the Grafts. Here is a link. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253826) Though I think I may have gone a little overboard...

Kellus
2012-08-25, 08:42 PM
Still on the subject of Yggdracatecture, what if the semi-space is weightless?

A semi-space is weightless in the sense that it doesn't weigh anything in the Plane that it's tethered to. But if you have, say, a broom which is half in the space and half sticking out, holding that broom-end feels like holding half a broom. The part on the home Plane still has weight, and something needs to hold it up.


Can you make a semi-space that takes up less space in less time? (2x2x1 in half an hour, 2x1x1 in 15 minutes, 1^3 in 7.5 minutes.)

No, but you can make semi-spaces that take up less space in the same amount of time if you like! :smalltongue:


I've just made a Class which uses these Principles and the Grafts. Here is a link. Though I think I may have gone a little overboard...

I'd be happy to take a look at it, I'll post my thoughts in your thread.

General Patton
2012-08-25, 08:52 PM
Also, that's like the most terrifying scenario for a planar invasion by someone's science experiment run amok ever.

Now that my AI can engulf everything in the light-eating bubbles and turn off only the ones necessary for the max number of light rays on a single target, yes, yes it is. Add Crystal Input Transformers to nullify most forms of Blindsense/sight and the Antimagic Eye Graft and no one will ever make it to the center without permission.

Amechra
2012-08-25, 09:02 PM
Kellus, why is there no ability to make "computer" viruses?

I protest!

Also, I might need to make an Understanding that allows Biollurgy to design diseases...

Or just fill up a Heuristic net with BIO 101, and have it convert every material that comes within reach of it...

Alright, so Biollurgical material retains its old properties... if you were to combine, say, Iron BM and Silver BM, would each bit keep its old properties? Or would the entire thing be converted into one or the other?

Because I kinda want to make a suit of armor by blending materials; you know, 'cause Full Plate is about a third of a pound of Iron...

Why? Iron Man (you just need to use the right materials, and you can make armor that let's you fly, shoot things out of your hands, and generate ebbs...)