She Blinded Me with Science! (Magitek That Doesn't Make Me Cry Myself To Sleep)

[QuidEst]

Note: I'm afraid the phlogiston-dropping system for making a bomb does not work as set up for a few reasons.
A) Red filters require a temperature /difference/. The first time you pass the phlogiston through the filter, there is a difference. As soon as it is on the other side, there's no longer a difference.
B) I think passing phlogiston through a red filter of any sort would break it. It's losing 77% of its heat very quickly(1000°C to 20°C = 1273K to 293K), and that's going to put a lot of stress on the phlogiston. Eventually, you'll end up with small pieces, maybe even dust. In any case, you're going to lower the terminal velocity a lot.

There is a solution to this. Put the phlogiston in a filter box and just let it sit there. The filter will absorb energy at a rate of (1000-20)/10 = 98 ebbs/round. That's 1,411,200 ebbs per day, and 515,088,000 per year.
487,773 mile fireball (enough to reach the moon) with 1,802,808,000 average damage.

It seems like this is actually much easier set up than a system with moving parts, since it's just a box.

Now, lets say you want to speed things up. Ruby filters also absorb 1 ebb / 6 fire damage. You're generating 1d6 per ebb, which is only 3.5 fire damage. If, however, you take several ruby filters, they'll all be caught in the bast. Ignoring the possibility of filter slivers, we'll just make six, one for each side. (We'll set our phlogiston on a yellow filter, since filters are the only thing that will withstand the blast.)
We also don't want to kill ourselves in the blast, so we'll create a ruby filter box around the whole thing. Detonate the interior box with a few cold spells. All seven filters absorb the energy. Now detonate the first of the new filters. Five filters absorb that. The next one is absorbed by four, and so on, until you're just left with the external box. Assuming you started the previous one-year system…

515,088,000 ebbIn * (3.5 ebbOut / 6 ebbIn) * 2^7 = 38,459,904,000 ebbs.
That's now a blast radius of 36,420,363.6 miles (a third of the way to the sun) for an average of 134,609,664,000 fire damage. Despite Shadowright granting immunity to fire damage, I would still recommend being off-plane when it goes off.

Bubbles can be shaped. And each ice-in is only 1 cu ft. The 5 ft radius of the phlogiston fire aura is 5^3*pi*(4/3)=523.599 cu ft

Bubbles can be shaped already, but you don't get to use the volume how you choose. If you spent enough time for a 5ft. radius bubble, you can make any shape you want for the bubble, provided it fits entirely within the 5ft. radius bubble that you could make. So you can only restrict it on a particular direction, not extend it.

Personally, I would leave out the prestige classes when playing. Shadowright can destroy the planet with a piece of phlogiston and a cold spell at level 9. Dreamason can get a loyal exotic intelligence that can eat people's dreams to gain class levels at level 11, allowing them to bootstrap their party's power up to level 20 in six weeks. (This assumes they are in a city where they can find a hundred people within a 500 ft. radius sleeping for eight hours, and leaves a few extra days to account for successful saves.) Pretty tame by comparison to Shadowright, of course. XP

On that note… what's the XP gain for annihilating a planet? Should get you to the "just under two levels" max easily enough.

[Morcleon]

You can always make a bubble smaller than maximum.

[Amechra]

I would think the Phlogiston "retains" its heat, since it's property is that it is constantly at that temperature.

Plus, there aren't any rules for heat shock in D&D.

But, oh well, back to the drawing board to build a more unambiguously functional one...

[QuidEst]

I would think the Phlogiston "retains" its heat, since it's property is that it is constantly at that temperature.

Plus, there aren't any rules for heat shock in D&D.

But, oh well, back to the drawing board to build a more unambiguously functional one...

Well, filter properties won't let it keep its heat. So it would just be unable to pass through? Or its treated like anything that keeps its heat (eg. a person), and the filter doesn't absorb any energy.

Anyways, it's not a problem! I included how to make it work in my description. You don't have to pass it through the filter at all. So long as it stays on either the inside or the outside, the filter continues to absorb the heat. Much easier than moving it around.

[sirpercival]

It would be really useful to have a table of volume conversions for the different materials (how many coins make up 1 cubic foot, for example), and how much the raw materials cost.

[Morcleon]

Well, filter properties won't let it keep its heat. So it would just be unable to pass through? Or its treated like anything that keeps its heat (eg. a person), and the filter doesn't absorb any energy.

Anyways, it's not a problem! I included how to make it work in my description. You don't have to pass it through the filter at all. So long as it stays on either the inside or the outside, the filter continues to absorb the heat. Much easier than moving it around.

Phlogiston itself is not heat. It's metal. Thus it would pass through. The filter would absorb energy, as phlogiston isn't heated itself, it only gives off heat.

[Omnicrat]

Well, filter properties won't let it keep its heat. So it would just be unable to pass through? Or its treated like anything that keeps its heat (eg. a person), and the filter doesn't absorb any energy.

Anyways, it's not a problem! I included how to make it work in my description. You don't have to pass it through the filter at all. So long as it stays on either the inside or the outside, the filter continues to absorb the heat. Much easier than moving it around.

I would assume the second.

[Omnicrat]

It would be really useful to have a table of volume conversions for the different materials (how many coins make up 1 cubic foot, for example), and how much the raw materials cost.

Still working on it. Doing other stuff too. Again, if anyone knows a source for mithril and/or adamintine priced by the pound, it would really drop the guesswork by a lot.

[Amechra]

As far as I think it would work, Phlogiston would move through the filter, losing it's heat, and then immediately would reheat.

And heat stress doesn't exist in D&D; stop trying to kill catgirls, damn it!

And, well, the wording of the red filter seems to imply that it wouldn't get ebbs from just being inside the aura...

[Goldfly]

Still working on it. Doing other stuff too. Again, if anyone knows a source for mithril and/or adamintine priced by the pound, it would really drop the guesswork by a lot.

Well the SRD says +500/lb. for miscellaneous mithral items. And, from what I understand, 1 lb. of iron costs 1 sp. Therefore, it should be roughly 500 gp for a pound of Mithral?

[Omnicrat]

Well the SRD says +500/lb. for miscellaneous mithral items. And, from what I understand, 1 lb. of iron costs 1 sp. Therefore, it should be roughly 500 gp for a pound of Mithral?

I was looking for something a bit more specific, but that is what I've been guessing, yes.

[Necroticplague]

Well the SRD says +500/lb. for miscellaneous mithral items. And, from what I understand, 1 lb. of iron costs 1 sp. Therefore, it should be roughly 500 gp for a pound of Mithral?

Although, keeping in mind that one of the main points of mithral is that it's less dense than iron (half as much, to be exact), so if buying by volume instead of by weight than you only need half as much.

[Goldfly]

That is true. Math time, now that it's no longer 3 AM!

1 pound of iron = 1/2 pound of Mithral. Something made of Mithral is roughly 500 gp more expensive than an equivalent item made of iron. Therefore, a 1 pound block of Mithral should cost 1000 gp 2 sp. HOWEVER, under the Craft skill:

Pay one-third of the item’s price for the cost of raw materials.

Thus, we need to divide the price by 3. 1000.2/3= 333.4. Therefore, according to my math, 1 pound of raw Mithral should cost 333 gp, 4 sp.

[QuidEst]

As far as I think it would work, Phlogiston would move through the filter, losing it's heat, and then immediately would reheat.

And heat stress doesn't exist in D&D; stop trying to kill catgirls, damn it!

Well, in real life you tend not to get unbounded growth. Black holes are about the closest thing we've got, and that's not even unbounded. So I'm just looking to see what would prevent you from getting this unlimited planet-burning growth. If we ignore any catgirl-killing heat stress (which is reasonable, this is a world in which your terminal velocity is determined by falling damage instead of your shape and mass), it still doesn't work.

Reason:

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.

We start with side A and B of the filter. Phlogiston starts on side A, which means side A is 1000°C. The filter keeps side B at 20°C. We pass the phlogiston through the filter, which absorbs the difference. Side A is still pretty close to 1000°C, though, unless I'm missing something from D&D that says it goes right back to room temperature. The phlogiston heats side B up to 1000°C. When we pass the phlogiston through again, there's no difference in temperature, and you don't absorb any energy.

I can think of two ways to solve this.
One: We've got a way to maintain a temperature. Get an Ice transformer and maintain the temperature on one side. It would need to be lined up just right so that it's only one side, but you get the added benefit of generating lots of usable energy.
Two: Do it like they make generators real world. Use the phlogiston to boil water and raise the water vapor to 1000°C. Run it through an orange filter (loose gasses) pipe past your ruby filter, which turns it back into water by absorbing all the energy. The water goes through a blue filter pipe, through an orange filter (to make sure the gasses don't go the other way, and into the phlogiston's area of heating. The whole thing will run forever, since neither orange nor blue filters will ever leak.

And, well, the wording of the red filter seems to imply that it wouldn't get ebbs from just being inside the aura...

You're right. I missed that it was only from things passing through the filter. Thanks for point that out! That does make abuse of it harder.

[Amechra]

The thing is, due to the thing looping, there is technically only one side...
And you could always consider the fact that the phlogiston will be inside it's own aura of heat, thus keeping it at that temperature (it passes through the barrier, and then nigh-instantaneously heats back to 1000 degrees.)

[QuidEst]

The thing is, due to the thing looping, there is technically only one side...
And you could always consider the fact that the phlogiston will be inside it's own aura of heat, thus keeping it at that temperature (it passes through the barrier, and then nigh-instantaneously heats back to 1000 degrees.)

That's exactly the problem. If there is only one side, then there is only one temperature. A ruby filter requires a temperature difference across it, otherwise it doesn't absorb any energy. Normally, something that passes through gets cooled down, so the other side of the filter doesn't heat up to match. But phlogiston heats up right away. Now both sides (which, if you loop, are the same side) have the same temperature. Your filter doesn't get charged.

[Amechra]

Ah, that makes sense.

Now, back to the drawing board...

Also, out of curiosity, can you cast metamagic-altered spells using a silver generator? Because if so, I've got a method that causes the amount of energy that thing produces to increase by at least 1 ebb with each pass (maximized CL 8 Fireball produces 8 ebbs, and takes 7 to produce. You could have a pair of generators, each bleeding off the necessary amount of ebbs...)

So, it would go: maximized CL 10 Fireball into an Ice In generator, producing 10 ebbs; 7 of those would be used to produce another fireball, which is then cast into the silver net, producing 10 more ebbs...

Get a place to store the 3 extra ebbs so that you can feed them back in (get 3 running in tandem, taking turns using the extra 3 ebbs to produce another fireball; the amount of ebbs produced by the set increases by 3 each round...)

[radmelon]

Couldn't you just use multiple filters to make it have more than one side? You'd still have to siphon heat out, but it fixes that one problem.

[Amechra]

That's an idea...

Just have a 2' long fall before it loops, split into 2 1' cube sections; then have a pair of ice inputs that flash on whenever the Phlogiston is not in their section, cooling that section to 20 degrees, and prepping it for the phlogiston's re-entry...

We can always link a couple EI together using the Dreamason PrC, letting each one make up to 1600 decisions in a round...

Because we are going to need something like 1200 logical decisions for each section of the set-up...

The good thing about the altered set-up is that you can super-charge this thing in steps; blow up the filter inside the subspace, and then blow up the one on the outside.

[QuidEst]

Now, back to the drawing board...

Well, the steam thing does what you want without too much trouble.

So, it would go: maximized CL 10 Fireball into an Ice In generator, producing 10 ebbs; 7 of those would be used to produce another fireball, which is then cast into the silver net, producing 10 more ebbs...

While that sounds like free energy, unfortunately the leftover energy when you cast a spell can't be used- it's just released as bolts of magical energy. I think. I didn't actually check again. If you /can/ split the energy between a spell and something else, that's a great way to keep up 3 ebbs/round at night when goldIn doesn't work.

Just have a 2' long fall before it loops, split into 2 1' cube sections; then have a pair of ice inputs that flash on whenever the Phlogiston is not in their section, cooling that section to 20 degrees, and prepping it for the phlogiston's re-entry...

We can always link a couple EI together using the Dreamason PrC, letting each one make up to 1600 decisions in a round...

That's yet another major Doctorate involved. You just leave an ice transformer on /all/ the time in one section. You only charge up half as fast, but it's really simple, and thus harder to stop.

[Morcleon]

While that sounds like free energy, unfortunately the leftover energy when you cast a spell can't be used- it's just released as bolts of magical energy. I think. I didn't actually check again. If you /can/ split the energy between a spell and something else, that's a great way to keep up 3 ebbs/round at night when goldIn doesn't work.

You can channel 7 of the ebbs into the silver, then 3 into something else.

GoldIns work perfectly if you just get a half-celestial to spam daylight everywhere.

[QuidEst]

You can channel 7 of the ebbs into the silver, then 3 into something else.

GoldIns work perfectly if you just get a half-celestial to spam daylight everywhere.

Oh, right! I forgot about that. Although it's actually going to be 7 ebbs into the silver, then 2 into something else, because you need a woodOut to actually transfer ebbs, and that loses you one. It's still free, though.

True, but I can think of more effective uses of a half-celestial.

[Amechra]

Well, no-one said your making one of the strongest possible explosives by yourself...

Also, that's why you, say, have a bunch of silver outputs working together to loop the energy.

[davethebrave]

This is amazing stuff, truly amazing. I've built an entire campaign around a filthy, dirty, oppressed medieval setting with the first of their analogues to Christine de Pizan, Anne Askew, Marguerite de Navarre, Thomas Hobbes, Bernardino Telesio, William Gilbert, Roger Bacon, etc. (in particular I'm making the first gramarist in the world's history a raptoran version of Robert Grosseteste) with the young people of the various races (so far the "core" races of the main continent include the MoI races, raptorans from RotW, the two Sandstorm races and an adaptation of the Dragonlance Campaign Setting's tinker gnomes, which is the closest we've gotten to a PHB race thus far) just starting to become their generation's Bathsua Makins and John Lockes and Francis Bacons. Very low magitek in only a few nations, most mid level (and the rare high level) gramarists being in service of the various states of the world. Gonna play through a campaign that upgrades the world to widespread low magitek along with a lot of protofeminist/protoliberal intrigues that the players will be able to embed themselves within alongside the scientific and gramarie revolutions and their various knock-on effects.

I absolutely adore the crunch, the flavour, everything about this. Major, major kudos. I signed up for the boards after a long time lurkin' just because of this thread.

[QuidEst]

Well, no-one said your making one of the strongest possible explosives by yourself...

Also, that's why you, say, have a bunch of silver outputs working together to loop the energy.

Well, you can make it by yourself if you can get your hands on the phlogiston. No need to involve another person to program the EIs, which are themselves sentient and may develop their own motives.

Yep! That'd be a pretty hazardous area, what with the dozens of maximized fireballs going off every round.

[Hanuman]

I want to start merging the Ozodrin and the Gramarie, or at-least their concepts as they are my current two favorites. I like the complex and interactive aspect of the gramarie and I like the adaptation and freedom of the Ozodrin.
I've been playing around with an organ feature to allow a lot of the Evolutionist stuff (another great class, by Draken) and the Gramarie to be integrated.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153536

Instead of studying and theorizing the Ozodrin could do this naturally, and blossom other principles from a state of warping space inside and outside of herself and at the same time being a living mixture between all of the disciplines and more.

The ozodrin at starting level is mutable flesh, she can transform her body which would be more like biollurgy, at the same time she hides her form with a worldly guise, a cross between Imachination and Yggdratecture (bending space to create an illusion, sorta? Not a lot of fluff.).

Transforming one's body is interesting because it plays with both biollurgical shaping as it does Alchemical transformations of bio-chemical conversion, enter the Alchemetricist.

At second level the ozodrin gains her Primary stomach, a semi-plane the ozodrin merges with, enter the Yggdratect!

The ozodrin can later move with limbs that aren't there (a possible avenue for eldrikinetics not explored), she may teleport using her semi-plane, and tons of other stuff.

How can more cool options of the gramarie be added to this monstrosity?

[Kellus]

The Masínist

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“Before we are citizens, we are children, and it is as children that we come to understand freedom and authority, liberty and duty. I have done my duty. I have bowed to authority. And now I can set aside those burdens for a little while and see what happens.”


Image credit Bluefley of deviantart.com

The sidhe courts have existed for millenia, static and unchanging as the cycle of the seasons or the balance of night and day. For what seems like an eternity, this was enough, the raw power of nature holding the growth and expansion of the mortal races in an eternal stalemate. Recently, however, this careful balance has smashed to pieces as the short-lived races have discovered and industrialized the principles of gramarie in just a few short generations. For the first time in ever, the courts of the fae have found themselves becoming obsolete. Quaint. An old-fashioned bedtime story told to frighten and amuse children they once might have stolen and eaten.

To combat this most unexpected of threats, the kings and queens of the fae desperately turned to the very evil which is pushing them into the dank and hidden places of the world: gramarie itself. In recent years it's become fashionable for the nobility of the fae to employ gramaric experts, to industrialize their own courts before they are pushed into the cloying depths of obscurity and myth. These engineers, known as masínists, are combining the ancient arts of the fae with the mechanisations of gramarie, merging the very Old with the very very new.

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I'm sorry in advance for using, in different places, the terms faerie, fairy, fey, and fae. Faerie refers to either a denizen of the fae realm or the realm itself. Fae refer to the kind of creature as a whole. Fey refers to the actual game term for the these creatures' type. Fairy is only used when refering to somebody else's work who prefers that spelling, in deference to their wishes. Similarly, 'court' is capitalized when it's referring to a specific court, but not when using the noun just by itself. Confused yet? Good

Requirements: To become a masínist you must meet all of the following requirements.
Feats: Versatile Performer^CAdv
Gramarie: Any two IMCH principles
Skills: Bluff 10 ranks, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) 4 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 4 ranks, Perform (any musical) 8 ranks
Special: Bardic music class feature, must make contact with a representative from the Faerie court you want to join
Specialization: Must be specialized in Imachination

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

Class Skills: The masínist'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), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Masínist
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |

Principles

|

Songs of the Sidhe

1st|+0|+0|+2|+2|Fate in Faerie, songs of the sidhe|

+0

|

The Unquiet Grave

2nd|+1|+0|+3|+3|Endless possibilities, feysong +1|

+1

|

Riddles Wisely Expounded

3rd|+2|+1|+3|+3|Court favour, steam-powered songs|

+2

|

The Gentlemen

4th|+3|+1|+4|+4|Endless possibilities|

+3

|

The Fairy Reel

5th|+3|+1|+4|+4|Music in the machine|

+3

|

Moon-Lover

6th|+4|+2|+5|+5|Endless possibilities, feysong +2|

+4

|

Tam Lin

7th|+5|+2|+5|+5|Iron ring, magic smoke|

+5

|

The Last of the Giants

8th|+6|+2|+6|+6|Endless possibilities|

+6

|

Stern Embrace

9th|+6|+3|+6|+6|Noble standing, one heartbeat|

+6

|

Apocalypse Pie

10th|+7|+3|+7|+7|Endless possibilities, feysong +3, the machine stops|

+7

|

Moonless Fear

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the masínist.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a vassal of Faerie, you gain nominal training in some typical court weapons. You gain proficiency with the rapier, the elven thinblade, the lance, and medium armour. You gain no proficiency in shields of any kind.

Fate in Faerie (Ex): Masínists are indentured engineers to a Faerie court, and thus you need a patron. At 1st level (actually prior to that, since you need to make contact with them before taking levels in this class), choose a court to pledge your allegiance to. Many courts have alignment restrictions and expect certain behaviours, so choose carefully. Some of your class features change based on your court selection. Six courts are described here: the Day Court, the Night Court, the Seelie Court, the Summer Court, the Unseelie Court, and the Winter Court. Some courts may not be available based on your campaign setting. Check with your DM to see which courts are usable in your setting, or to see if other courts are potential choices; these courts are descibed only as examples and to pull appropriate powers from.

• The Day Court: The Court of the Day about as close as they get to being pleasant. It's all about chivalry, honour, and glory, and is a quasi-medieval court where the royalty lives in splendour. They have a court of actual noble fae who protect the King and Queen, and are the embodiment of freedom and sportsmanship. Many Day faeries are wild beasts in their true form, but it's fashionable for them to assume human-ish seemings. The Day King is Gwyn ap Nudd, who leads the Wyld Hunt against the mortal races. The Day Queen is Gloriana, the embodiment of moral virtue. To become a servant of Day, you cannot be evil.
• The Night Court: The spookiest of all the courts, the Court of Night is pretty nasty. Like, really nasty. Night fae are spectres, who have no true form of their own. They flit from body to body, and need to possess mortal forms in order to interact with the real world. To sustain themselves, they slowly murder their victims, draining their blood and other vitals to fuel their magick. The Night King is Raja Jinn Peri, who takes only the bodies of powerful predator animals, like tigers, and sustains himself on the blood of virgin mortal girls. The Night Queen is Rangda, who is incredibly ugly and withered. To become a servant of Night, you cannot be good.
• The Seelie Court: The most well-known court, the Court of the Seelie is both mischievous and well-meaning. It's basically the juvenile delinquent of the courts; where the others maybe want to end the world or hunt actual people for sport, the Seelie fae are happy just to turn people into donkeys for a while. They're a pretty fun court if you're okay with being pantsed every now and then. The Seelie King is Oberon, who takes very little seriously. The Seelie Queen is Titania, who constantly cleans up her husband's messes. To become a servant of the Seelie, you cannot be square.
• The Summer Court: The most laid-back court, the Court of Summer is pretty chill. They basically sit around having parties, revels, and orgies all day. Summer fae have it pretty good in that they're basically immortal, and have no real biological needs, so they're free to engage in pleasure-seeking. The indulge all sorts of sensory stimuli; it's very hard to shock these people. The Summer King is Iblees, a hedonistic pleasure king. The Summer Queen is Lilith, a tempting seductress who lures mortals into a mind-numbing lifetime of sensory pleasure as she slowly feeds on their anitu. To become a servant of Summer, you cannot be lawful.
• The Unseelie Court: The Unseelie court struggles a little bit with it's identity. It mostly bases itself as being diametrically opposed to the Seelie court, which basically means aligning themselves against the ephemereal concept of fun. They spend most of their time punishing mortals for their perceived transgressions and quashing any kinds of enjoyment the races of men might get out of life. The Unseelie King is Lamorak, a fallen servant from on high who now enforces the arbitrary codes of the Unseelie. The Unseelie Queen is known only as the Queen of Air and Darkness, the true power behind the throne; she pursues her complex and unknown agenda in secret against the other Courts. To become a servant of the Unseelie, you cannot be funky.
• The Winter Court: If Summer is indolent, the Court of Winter is anything but. It's as cold and unforgiving as its season, and the Winter fae have no time for slackers. It's a brutal aristocracy where they basically just want to kill everything. Nothing personal, it's just sort of what they do. The Winter King is Finvarra, a philandering consort king. The Winter Queen is Nicnevin, a harsh queen as cold as ice. To become a servant of Winter, you cannot be chaotic.

After selecting a fate in Faerie, you gain a new component to your alignment based on your selection: either Day, Night, Seelie, Summer, Unseelie, or Winter. Any fey creature can tell this component of your alignment just by perceiving you, as if they were using a detect effect with a caster level of their Hit Dice. This can be concealed or disguised like any alignment component. Your Faerie allegiance also grants you a deeper insight into the half-truths and insinuations of the fae; you gain a bonus on Bluff checks equal to half your class level, and can yourself discern a fey creature's Court alignment by sight as well.

Songs of the Sidhe (Su): As a servant of the Faerie Courts, a musical talent is absolutely required, even of their engineers and technology experts. You continue to advance your bardic music ability; you add your Intelligence modifier and your class level to your effective bard level to determine how often you can use your bardic music ability. As you level up, you learn various fae ballads which can be used with this ability. These ballads work just like normal bardic music abilities, but must be used with an instrument which produces music (or by singing).

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• At first level, you learn the ballad known as The Unquiet Grave. When you play this song, all undead able to hear you perform who have fewer Hit Dice than you have ranks in the relevant Perform check become susceptible to further bardic music abilities and illusions, as the music stirs something long-buried in them. If one of these abilities would then induce a condition which they would normally be immune to, such as fear or fascination, they are susceptible to it anyway.
  
  "Cold blows the wind to my true love, and gently drops the rain
  I never had but one sweetheart, and in greenwood she lies slain"

• At second level, you learn the ballad known as Riddles Wisely Expounded. As part of this performance, you make an Intelligence check; all intelligent creatures able to hear you play must make an opposed Intelligence check. Failure indicates that they become obsessed with a riddle contained in the song, and are treated as flat-footed against all attacks until they spend a full-round action deep in thought. However, every minute they must make another Intelligence check or come down with the condition again; they can only be rid of it for good by succeeding on an Intelligence check, if you tell them the answer, or by spending an hour looking up the answer in a location with access to plenty of literary resources, such as a library. This is a mind-affecting ability.
  
  "'Now you have had your will,’ quoth she
  'I pray, sir knight, will you marry me?'
  The young brave knight to her replyed,
  'Thy suit, fair maid, shall not be denied,
  If thou can answer me these questions three'
  This very day will I marry thee.'"

• At third level, you learn the ballad known as The Gentlemen. The song steals the voices of all who hear it, and stores them in a focus of a sealed wooden box. You can thereafter speak in any voice you've collected by touching the box, as if with the kenku mimicry racial feature. Voices remain in the box for one day per rank you have in the Perform skill you used, or until the box is opened or broken. Victims are silenced until they retrieve their voice. The song can be maintained for as long as you like, and you can also release a single voice from the box as a move action while touching it. A loud scream within earshot of the box shatters it. Victims are allowed a Will save against a DC of your Perform check result to avoid the effect.
  
  "Can't call to mom.
  Can't say a word.
  You're gonna die screaming
  but you won't be heard."

• At fourth level, you learn the ballad known as The Fairy Reel. Anyone who hears the music must make a Will save against a DC of your Perform check or full under its thrall. Allies can be alerted prior about the nature of the music, to avoid its effects. This is a magical compulsion which draws the hearts and souls of those who hear it. Half of their souls are pulled to the music, while half can resist. At least half of their movement every round must be spent moving directly towards the source of the music (if they choose to take a move action, charge action, run action, to teleport, and so on). This means they cannot finish their turn further away from the music source than when they started. This is a mind-affecting ability.
  
  "I watch with envious eyes and mind,
  the single–souled, who dare not feel
  The wind that blows beyond the moon,
  who do not hear the Fairy Reel."

• At fifth level, you learn the ballad known as Moon-Lover. Playing this ballad creates a glow as if reflected from the moon itself, bathing everything within earshot and line of sight in soft moonlight. This has several effects on anyone who can hear the music. If they have the rage ability, they can activate it for free, without spending a daily use of it. Creatures who are under an illusion must make a Will saving throw (DC equal to your Perform check) or have the illusion become transparent, including becoming visible if they were invisible previously. Similarly, anyone looking at an imachinary illusion with a visual component gets an immediate chance for a fundamental disconnect, but only one such free attempt if they fail the check. Finally, lycanthropes are forced into their bestial form if they fail a Will save (same DC).
  
  "I have a compact to commune
  A monthly midnight with the Moon;
  Into its face I stare and stare,
  And find sweet understanding there."

• At sixth level, you learn the ballad known as Tam Lin. This ballad invokes the shifting and tricky nature of the fae, and their capricious nature. Those who listen to at least ten minutes of the song find themselves bound to complete some service for your Court. This works like a lesser geas, except there is no limit on the ability score penalties; they continue accruing until the subject dies. The geas must be to complete a task which would benefit the interests of your patron Court. Victims can avoid this effect by making a Will save against a DC of your Perform check.
  
  "The Queen of Faeries caught me,
  And took me to herself,
  And ever since, in yon green hill,
  With her I'm bound to dwell."

• At seventh level, you learn the ballad known as The Last of the Giants. This ballad calls to mind the solitude, loneliness, and quiet strength of the mountain fae as they are pressed from their historic role into the margins of history to make way for progress. All of your allies (including you) who can hear the music gain several benefits. They become acclimatized to low pressure conditions, and have no problems with oxygen deprivation at high altitudes. They gain the powerful build ability of the half-giants, as well as the rock throwing and rock catching abilities of the giant. They can treat their powerful build increase as counting towards the Large size required to use these abilities. Finally, everyone affected has their carrying capacity before reaching each load category doubled.
  
  "They hunt me with dogs in the daylight,
  They hunt me with torches by night.
  For these men who are small can never stand tall,
  Whilst giants still walk in the light."

• At eigth level, you learn the ballad known as Stern Embrace. Playing this song calls upon the fae of battle and war to excite the spirit of martial talent in the field. Battles have been fought since uncounted time in Faerie, and the fae know the art of war better than any mortal. Anyone who can hear you playing can initiate a second boost every round from a martial discipline, and can change their stance as a free action. Anyone who dies while listening to your unearthly music leaves their soul forfeit to the capricious fae; they cannot be returned to life by any magic short of a wish or similar effect.
  
  "My lady’s eyes are watching me as I prepare for war.
  She stands upon the battlefield, like so many times before.
  The battle cries, a comrade dies, and falls to her embrace,
  And in her arms she takes him now, unto his resting place."

• At ninth level, you learn the ballad known as Apocalypse Pie. This is the song of the end of the world that has been sung by fae heralds since it all began. It starts by bringing an end to things in the immediate vicinity. Anyone who can hear you playing must make a Will save against a DC of your Perform check or have all transient conditions (such as could be ended by Iron Heart Surge– have fun with that) currently affecting them end. This does not target broader effects, such as from standing in an ongoing field. However, it does bring an end to activated abilities which they are sustaining with concentration or a similar method. You personally take 1d6 points of unmitigatable damage from entropic backlash for every condition or ability ended. If an object is playing this instead, the object takes the appropriate amount of damage, cutting through all hardness.
  
  "Best to eat when it's raw,
  lest it take you in it's maw.
  Laced with pain, filled with hurts.
  The world ending is just desserts."

• At tenth level, you learn the ballad known as Moonless Fear. This song bridges the gap between worlds, and is one of the methods the fae use to step into the mortal realm. Whenever you play it under moonlight, you can open a portal between Planes. This works like a gate effect (travel version only), but only between the Material Plane and the Plane that holds your patron court. The unearthly music places a compulsion on those who hear it to travel through the gate; this is treated as a suggestion, although it applies even if the travel would obviously be harmful to the creature. It's also not language-dependant, although it is still a mind-affecting ability. Creatures under this compulsion do not know that they have been pushed in this way. Targets affected are allowed a Will save to resist, against a DC of your Perform check.
  
  "Most fae are sly and subtle folk
  Who step as soft as chimney smoke
  Some go among your kind enshaedn
  Glamoured as a pack mule laden
  Or wearing gowns to fit a queen
  We know enough to not be seen"

Endless Possibilities (Ex): As a servant of the Faerie Courts, you can glean some insight into the inner workings and infinite potential of fae glamours. At 2nd level and every two levels thereafter, you learn a special discovery about imachination from the following list:

• Combinatory Illusions: You can choose a new function for your illusions: combinatory. Combinatory illusions can be either static, adaptive, or programmed, but they can also be controlled with logical decisions if they are tied into a heuristical circuit. Normally they work based on their simple function, but when being manipulated they instead (obviously) act as if they were an illusion with the 'controlled' function. If whoever controls the circuit stops making decisions for the illusion, it reverts to its base behaviour.
• Extra-Real Images: Whoever said that specialization is for insects clearly didn't know what he was talking about; you double down on your illusionary homework, and are treated for the purposes of picking future illusions and for some DCs as if you knew one more IMCH principle than you actually do.
• Hard to Believe: You can choose to make an illusion outlandish, in which case it's somewhat more obvious that it's absurd (+4 to checks to disbelieve it). On the other hand, if someone falls for it, it's an even more powerful assault on their senses; they take a -2 penalty on saving throws against any fake condition it would cause, and if it ever deals damage to them, the nonlethal damage is increased by +2d6.
• Intricate Manufacturing: It's sort of like with lasers and water jets except a little more abstract. You can create illusions very carefully crafted down to the smallest detail, known as intricate illusions. An intricate illusion can only target one sense, but it's so well-built that people take a -4 penalty on any kind of check to notice the illusory nature of it. An intricate illusion takes twice as long to prepare.
• Lurid Lure: You learn a new form for your illusions: luring. This places the veil of an illusion over an area, but doesn't actually change anything about it. Anyone who fails to penetrate the illusion becomes convinced that the object or area in question is in fact disguised using an illusion. Only by testing its 'realness' for themselves are they allowed a chance at a saving skill check.
• Off the Edge of the Map: Here there be monsters! To choose this discovery, you need to have encountered a monster who has a sense that doesn't actually have a sensory component illusion for it. You can spend two days developing a new illusion sensory component tailor-made to foil that sense. With your DM, pick a skill which would normally be used in the routine use of the sense you are targetting. For example, if the sense you're targetting is the dweomersight of the balhannoth, you might choose Spellcraft as the skill normally used in the function of that sense. The sensory component you create can create any kind of sensory input normally associated with the sense you have chosen. You can pick this discovery multiple times; each time, you must have encountered a creature with a new sense that you want to foil.
• Supersensory: Illusions with just one sense are like ice cream sundaes with only one topping: depressing and filled with tears. Your illusions are way more exciting: you can make supersensory illusions, which get a free bonus sensory component you know, without having to spend any extra time adding it.

Feysong (Su): The songs of the fae are not the same as the songs of mortal men and women. Inside every chord, every lyric, there is ulterior motive, deception, and glamour waiting to ensnare the unexpecting. Starting at 2nd level, you can substitute a Bluff check for any Perform check you would normally make to use a bardic music ability or a fae ballad, although you still need to play the instrument or sing. When you use this ability in conjunction with the inspire courage ability, the bonus granted by the music increases by +1. The bonus increases by an additional +1 every four levels thereafter. You cannot use this ability while under the influence of a zone of truth or similar effect.

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.

Court Favour (Su): You have friends in high (or at least weird) places. As a member in good standing of your Court, you gain at 3rd level a mandate from the nobility to keep on keeping on. This manifests itself visibly in your illusions:

• Day: The Day Court rewards its faithful masínists with a touch of faerie glamour, also known as a seeming. You can prepare any imachination principle as an immediate action, so long as the illusion is only over your own body, fixed to you as a a spatial reference, and only has a visual component.
• Night: Terror is the ally of the Night, and this makes itself manifest in your illusions. Instead of a normal function for an imachinary illusion you set up, you can choose for it to be a nightmare. This kind of illusion morphs itself boggart-like into the worst fear of anyone who looks at it. This makes it harder to see through the illusion thanks to the sheer terror of it (the viewer takes a -2 penalty on checks to see through the illusion), and anyone who believes the illusion is overcome with fear. This is a mind-affecting, fear-based ability, and is often used to discover what the subject's worst fear actually is; psychotherapists have found it a useful tool. The illusion tends to choke when multiple people view it simultaneously– for every additional person observing the illusion simultaneously, each person gains a cumulative +2 bonus on checks to see through it, and every additional person who encounters it while people are still within sensory range of the illusion provokes a chance for a fundamental disconnect in everyone viewing it as the illusion frantically tries to compensate.
• Seelie: Seelie fae are masters of trickery and subterfuge, and they've taught you a few of their tricks. You can prepare any IMCH principle as a standard action as long as it replicates a trap of some kind, but it only lasts for one hour. You can also create the illusion of gold in this time, but it's similarly short-lived; this is called faerie gold, and is infamous among mortals.
• Summer: The sensual experiences of the Summer Court insidiously find their way into your illusions. Any illusion can now have an emotional component to it, which provokes a set response in those who experience it. You can choose from inciting confusion, fear, happiness, rage, or sadness in those who experience the illusion. The only defense against this emotional manipulation is to discover the true nature of the illusion. These are all mind-affecting abilities, and have an effective caster level equal to your Hit Dice.
• Unseelie: Your illusions are less imaginative expressions and more like crushing the will of those who view them beneath the iron authority of the Unseelie. You can tailor-make an imachinary illusion for a single target if you have at least four components related to them: something of the head, something of the thread, something of the body, and something of the dead (it almost rhymes!). If the target later comes into contact with the illusion and does not realize its true nature, they are subject to a dominate person effect to submit to your will. If they are successfully dominated, they must be brought into contact with the illusion whenever the domination is to be renewed, potentially allowing a new chance to recognize the illusory nature of it. The effect has a caster level equal to your Hit Dice when you prepare it. This is a mind-affecting compulsion effect. The first time the subject is brought into contact with it, they are allowed a saving throw to resist the effect as well, against a DC of 10 + 5 for every IMCH principle you know.
• Winter: You immediately get access to the thermal illusions of IMCH 334, but only to make things seem colder than they actually are, even if you don't meet the prerequisites for it. Whenever you prepare an imachinary illusion that includes a cold thermal component, it has extra kick to it; anyone viewing or otherwise experiencing it is too busy freaking out about how cold it is to pay as close attention as they otherwise might; viewers who are unprotected from the elements take a -4 penalty on checks to notice the true nature of the illusion. Your cold illusions can also cause viewers to experience actual distress depending on the temperature bracket, just as if they were in real cold weather. You can create illusions that include temperatures down to the point of 'extreme cold' (below -29 degrees Centigrade).

Steam-Powered Songs (Su): Whenever you create an IMCH illusion with an auditory component, you can weave faerie music into it. You spend a daily use of your bardic music during the preparation, and select one bardic music ability or fae ballad that you know. The illusion is treated as if it is maintaining the music as its auditory illusion, which means that anyone who hasn't seen discerned its true nature is subject to the musical effect. An illusion can only maintain a musical ability for a number of rounds equal to its Bluff check (one chorus), but you can recharge it as a standard action by touching any part of the illusion and spending another use of bardic music. The effective Perform check for the music ability is equal to the Bluff check made to prepare the illusion.

Music in the Machine (Ex): Your knowledge of gramarie and faerie workings advances apace. At this point your illusions are so powerful that they can sustain their own music without your help. You can choose to permanently invest a use of bardic music into an imachinary auditory illusion, in which case it can be powered for a full chorus with a number of ebbs of puissance equal to half the Bluff check. If the illusion is ever dismantled or destroyed, you regain the invested bardic music charge. Decisions about exact details of the musical ability, if there are any, are handled as logical decisions inside of the illusion.

Iron Ring (Ex): As you graduate from being an apprentice and become a doctor of magical engineering, your Court traditionally bequeaths you a ring of cold iron representing your bond to them. Unlike most iron, this ring is perfectly safe for fae of your Court to touch, although the same cannot be said of other fae. The ring represents the boundaries between truth and untruth, itself representing the divide between mortal and fae. By holding the ring and chanting a fae phrase, you can invoke a zone of truth effect around you with a caster level of your Hit Dice. Alternatively, you can invoke a zone of lies, which works the same way, except creatures under its influence are allowed to tell nothing but lies and falsehoods.

The Iron Ring also holds in it faerie magic sufficient to invest in one auditory illusion with your music in the machine class feature. You can recall the charge from the illusion as a free action at any time.

Magic Smoke (Su): At 7the level, you discover a special fae technique to put a little magic into technology. Whenever you link an imachinary illusion into a heuristical circuit, you can imbue it with magic smoke. The caster level of all of the effects the circuit uses is increased by +2, and the DC of any effects linked to the circuit is similarly increased. 1 ebb of puissance is also somehow generated by the circuit every round, which can be distributed like all energy input. This effect vanishes if anyone other than you alters the programming of the circuit or takes it apart to see what's generating the extra power.

Noble Standing (Su): Continued association with the fae has its rewards as well as its perils. If you're willing to swear a small oath at 9th level, you gain a special boon from your Court:

• Day: The Day Court requires that you honour your commitments and keep to the letter of your word, even if you mislead your audience about your true intentions. This habit of speaking in half-truths and open-ended statements has made the Day Court famous in mortal tales. As a reward for your service, you are invited to join the Wyld Hunt. You gain the ability to polymorph at will into any animal with Hit Dice less than or equal to your own, and gain DR 5/cold iron while in this state; however, your hit point pool is not changed when transforming. This grants you the Shapechanger subtype. You can plane shift at will between the Plane of your Court and the Material Plane. The polymorph effect has a caster level equal to your Hit Dice.
• Night: The Court of the Night requires that you bring tribute to Raja Jinn Peri in the form of mortal blood. For a monthly tribute of one living mortal girl, you gain the benefits of their favour. You can assume a gaseous form (no set duration) whenever you like, and while in gaseous form can possess beings as if with a magic jar effect at will. You share bodies with your victim instead of forcing them out, but can impose your will with an opposed Will saving throw, in which case you control the movements of the body. If the body you are in dies, you can leave the corpse in your gaseous form. Both of these abilities have a caster level equal to your Hit Dice, and the possession offers a saving throw against a DC of 10 + 1/2 your Hit Dice + your Charisma modifier.
• Seelie: The Seelie fae demand that you devote yourself to mischief and pranks; their ways seem childish and crude to many mortals, but there is a deeper agenda they pursue. You are not allowed to speak the truth as you see it when you are a servant of the Seelie. As a reward, you are under a permanent prestidigitation effect, and can use it to greater effect than normal for your pranks: the weight, volume, and duration limits of all effects caused by this ability multiply by 100. You can also replicate actual objects with it, as if with a major creation effect. Objects created like this expire at midnight. This ability has a caster level equal to your Hit Dice.
• Summer: The Summer Court knows well how to reward its faithful servants. They require that you give up all structured artifacts of society, including taxes, citizenship, marriage, and so on. You are similarly not allowed to acknowledge the authority of any mortal governing body. As a reward, you can summon at will a servant from the Summer Court to assist you; this is a succubus or incubus (succubus shapeshifted into a male form), bound to your will for as long as you like. The servant is advanced to be cohort-worthy for you (a CR of your ECL -2). This is a conjuration effect with a caster level equal to your Hit Dice, but no set duration. If your companion is killed, you can summon another whenever you like as a standard action, but you can only have one at a time.
• Unseelie: Darkness and authority are your ally as a subject of the Unseelie. You must pledge to submit to their authority, essentially allowing yourself to be dominated indefinitely by the Queen of Air and Darkness. In reward, you yourself can turn darkness to your will; you can create a deeper darkness effect at will, and can see in darkness of any kind, even magical darkness, with perfect colour. You gain a +20 bonus on Intimidate and Diplomacy checks made while in shadowy illumination or darker conditions, and in such conditions people start 1 step closer to helpful towards you.
• Winter: To touch the heart of Winter is to touch death itself. A true servant of Winter needs no protection or shelter from the elements, and as a vassal of the Court you are required to give up passing beyond mortal thresholds. In return, you are granted the power to reach beyond death: if you die, you can choose to come back as a ghost with your memories and thoughts intact. Everywhere you travel, you bring winter with you, as if with a control weather effect causing extreme snowfall and cold weather conditions. The winter front generally catches up with you about a day after you arrive in any location, and continues to follow you as a ghost.

One Heartbeat (Su): Music is your lifeblood, and it flows through your machines. Every circuit which contains an illusion that is invested with one of your musical abilities (as with your music in the machine class feature) is now considered linked as one circuit.

The Machine Stops (Su): Gramarie is amazing and awesome, but sometimes the old ways are the best ways. At 10th level you discover what the fae have been searching for so frantically: a secret weapon in the war of technology. This is a special technique which can be activated by burning three daily uses of bardic music. It produces an effect similar to an antimagic field centred around you, but instead of disrupting magic this disrupts modern technology. All gramarie in the area, even extraordinary gramarie, is suppressed, while normal magic and supernatural abilities are unhindered. The effect lasts for 10 minutes, and has a caster level equal to your Hit Dice. Circuits which are imbued with your music (as through the one heartbeat class feature) are unaffected by this ability, as their faerie magic sustains them.

[Kellus]

Bleargh, back on the horse, that class took far more time to make than I was hoping. I'm truly sorry for stopping updates during classes, I just found myself far busier than I expected.

Anyway! Thank you all for your continued interest in the project, and I hope that in the next few months I can show that I deserve it! There's a lot of exciting things coming for gramarie, including the last prestige class originally planned, a second Yggdratecture prestige class (because it's just that cool), a couple hybrid classes which blend disciplines together, epic 400-level principles, gramarie equipment and artifacts of gramarie, a novel solution to the problem of feats, and a 9th discipline! As you can see, just because I haven't had time to work on this doesn't mean I've stopped thinking about it!

I'm gonna go back a little ways with comment-answering. If I miss yours, please just post it again, I'd be happy to respond to it!

I want to start merging the Ozodrin and the Gramarie, or at-least their concepts as they are my current two favorites. I like the complex and interactive aspect of the gramarie and I like the adaptation and freedom of the Ozodrin.

I really really really love the ozodrin, but I actually don't have anything planned for it right now! If you've got ideas, I'd love to chat with you about them– shoot me a PM and maybe we can collaborate on it, if you'd like a hand. Otherwise, I'd love to see what you come up with!

This is amazing stuff, truly amazing. I've built an entire campaign around a filthy, dirty, oppressed medieval setting with the first of their analogues to Christine de Pizan, Anne Askew, Marguerite de Navarre, Thomas Hobbes, Bernardino Telesio, William Gilbert, Roger Bacon, etc. (in particular I'm making the first gramarist in the world's history a raptoran version of Robert Grosseteste) with the young people of the various races (so far the "core" races of the main continent include the MoI races, raptorans from RotW, the two Sandstorm races and an adaptation of the Dragonlance Campaign Setting's tinker gnomes, which is the closest we've gotten to a PHB race thus far) just starting to become their generation's Bathsua Makins and John Lockes and Francis Bacons. Very low magitek in only a few nations, most mid level (and the rare high level) gramarists being in service of the various states of the world. Gonna play through a campaign that upgrades the world to widespread low magitek along with a lot of protofeminist/protoliberal intrigues that the players will be able to embed themselves within alongside the scientific and gramarie revolutions and their various knock-on effects.

I absolutely adore the crunch, the flavour, everything about this. Major, major kudos. I signed up for the boards after a long time lurkin' just because of this thread.

Thank you so much! I'm glad that you like it, and that campaign sounds absolutely killer!

Also, out of curiosity, can you cast metamagic-altered spells using a silver generator?

Yeah, you can store a metamagic-altered spell in the transformer instead of a regular spell, since metamagic is supposed to be balanced against the spell level loss (ha. ha.)

It would be really useful to have a table of volume conversions for the different materials (how many coins make up 1 cubic foot, for example), and how much the raw materials cost.

I'm sorry, I was working on something like this, I'll see if I can finish it up after checking references!

(amazing bomb stuff)

Holy crap, I can't believe I missed putting a cap on that. That being said, I really really love the idea of phlogiston and filter-based weapons of mass destruction, so call it a happy accident? That's super-cool, but I'm not entirely sure I want it to be on the scale of destroying-the-planet power. I think I'll put a cap on it, but a high cap, like 1,000d6. Deal?

(interesting stuff about XP costs)

Okay, that's a really good question. I generally hate XP costs in general and try to pretend they don't exist for the most part, but you raise an excellent point about items charging other items. I think that the solution I will implement is that the imprinting can only be done if there is someone to take the XP from. You could build a machine to extract the XP from someone in order to use to imprint the new item, but the XP still has to come from somewhere. Excellent catch, guys!

[Amechra]

Deal with the cap; also, I'm going to be running a game using this this coming semester, so I have to ask...

Do you have any ideas for a replacement for Silver Inputs/Outputs? We aren't going to have spellcasters, so, well, what do you think would be a good replacement?

I was thinking health, but that one gets iffy...

[tallonRook]

Kellus, I made a beautiful sound when I saw you had updated. I've never posted on this thread before, but I've been stalking it from the very beginning. Gramarie has inspired three of my campaigns, one of which I'm currently running, and I'm also super excited for it to have epic options... So, thank you for having created it.
On a more practical note, is there a maximum level that an EI can attain through turning ebbs to XP from the dreammason features? I've been using the creator of the dreamcatcher's caster level, but I figured it would be best to get an official decision.