Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

[Falcon777]

This is an interesting counterpart to the aerial mage. While the latter is clearly all about speed and fighting in the air, this class is all about freedom, aerial or land based. The fact that you can still acquire an apotheosis that keeps your character from aging is pretty cool, as a lot of prestige classes in this tome do not grant that. Also, the chassis seems decent, hit die that are decently strong, 3/4 bab, good reflex and will saves: in my opinion it all matches the fluff of the class, not too strong, not too weak.

When it comes to the abilities of the class, the aerial mage is probably stronger in offence and defence. However, this class has it's role with the support it can give to other people in the party.

All in all, I'd say it's an interesting prestige class.

[Dragonus45]

Ohhhh i love that class. Really if i wasn't already so focused on heading into aerial mage i would totally consider this for my flight based champion in snow fires thread.

[jamieth]

The fact that you can still acquire an apotheosis that keeps your character from aging is pretty cool, as a lot of prestige classes in this tome do not grant that.

But of course! This class was in part inspired by Peter Pan, after all, so eternal youth was a no-brainer (The other inspirations, by the way, were Air Gear ending and two songs mashed up into the fluff quote )

When it comes to the abilities of the class, the aerial mage is probably stronger in offence and defence. However, this class has it's role with the support it can give to other people in the party.

All in all, I'd say it's an interesting prestige class.

One thing it definitely lacks, by the way, is Freedom of Movement; I just couldn't find a place to stick it in. It doesn't feel right in the Ride the Wild Wind line, cause it's all about helping others (speaking of it, this line should probably be renamed...), and the only place left free outside of it is the 6th level ability, and Freedom of Movement at level 6 seems OP, considering Paizo treats it as a proper capstone in it's own right. Of course, I could go with a lesser version than "all the time", but Evokers aren't really known for their per-day abilities, usually. Hm, I'd give it as an Apopheosis ability, but according to SRD creatures with Air subtype ought to have innate fly speeds and, most often, Perfect maneuverability...

Ohhhh i love that class. Really if i wasn't already so focused on heading into aerial mage i would totally consider this for my flight based champion in snow fires thread.

Thanks!

Now, if anyone has the idea what abilities to put into the Ride the Wide Wind line... I was thinking about incorporealness, but Champions already have it from their Weightless cartridge boost. Now, the ability to grant incorporeal state to others can work - how would you save someone from an airtight prison cell, after all? - but then it is either available to Champions only (and the Wind Dancer is easily enterable by Empaths, and, in PF, even by Stargazers), or have an ability you can use on others, but not yourself... need to think of it.
Also I was thinking about refluffing the Firekeepers's bonfire resurrection for level 9, but then the Wind Dancer don't havre a bonfire analogue :-)

[Snowfire]

Also I was thinking about refluffing the Firekeepers's bonfire resurrection for level 9, but then the Wind Dancer don't have a bonfire analogue :-)

My advice would be to build it out of Ride the Wide Wind line, or something similar. Fluff as something along the lines of at that point the line between Wind and Dancer beginning to blur, such that if they are slain they can make a check (probably slightly higher, but hey) and then escape from the clutches of death via a resurrection effect.

Oh, and I really like the class

[sreservoir]

Requirements
To become a wind dancer, you must fulfill the following criteria.
Skills: Escape Artist 8 ranks
Special: Must be able to manifest a Weightless Costume

[/SPOILER]

spare tag here

Class Skill List: Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge [Geography] (Int), Knowledge [Nature] (Int), Knowledge [The Planes] (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Magical Device (Cha)
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Escape Artist (Dex), perhaps, at least?

Bright Sky Apopheosys(Su): The barrier between the wind dancer and the capricious flow she channels has all but dissolved. Where others might have been consumed by the force and fury of the ancient flame, she has tamed it, and tempered the eternal pyre into a weapon unlike any other. At 10th level, a wind dancer forevermore becomes a Native Outsider with the Air subtype and an Augmented subtype pertaining to her previous type. She gains a fly speed equal to her base speed with Perfect maneuverability. She still may boost her speed by investing motes into her Weighless costume effect. Further, she can no longer be aged by any means mundane or magical, and will never die of old age.

apotheosis, perhaps?

also, the "ancient flame" and the "eternal pyre".

incidentally, what are wind stance and lightning stance supposed to be?

One thing it definitely lacks, by the way, is Freedom of Movement; I just couldn't find a place to stick it in. It doesn't feel right in the Ride the Wild Wind line, cause it's all about helping others (speaking of it, this line should probably be renamed...), and the only place left free outside of it is the 6th level ability, and Freedom of Movement at level 6 seems OP, considering Paizo treats it as a proper capstone in it's own right. Of course, I could go with a lesser version than "all the time", but Evokers aren't really known for their per-day abilities, usually. Hm, I'd give it as an Apopheosis ability, but according to SRD creatures with Air subtype ought to have innate fly speeds and, most often, Perfect maneuverability...

it really isn't. at 11th, you're basically expected to be able to produce a freedom of movement anyway. possibly self-only, or possibly a per encounter limitation (say, 1/encounter, lasts until end of encounter, with uses scaling up)?

since the apotheosis obsoletes weightless to the point where its only use is investing 12m to double flight speed, it might be worth fiddling with it; perhaps:

She gains a fly speed equal to her highest base speed with Perfect maneuverability. For every 3m invested in the Weightless costume effect, this fly speed increases by half her highest base speed. (This fly speed is otherwise unaffected by the Weightless costume effect.)

... hm, maybe not; even if so, the numbers probably need adjustment.

Now, if anyone has the idea what abilities to put into the Ride the Wide Wind line... I was thinking about incorporealness, but Champions already have it from their Weightless cartridge boost. Now, the ability to grant incorporeal state to others can work - how would you save someone from an airtight prison cell, after all? - but then it is either available to Champions only (and the Wind Dancer is easily enterable by Empaths, and, in PF, even by Stargazers), or have an ability you can use on others, but not yourself... need to think of it.
Also I was thinking about refluffing the Firekeepers's bonfire resurrection for level 9, but then the Wind Dancer don't havre a bonfire analogue :-)

it's an analogue to the firekeeper, eh? wind walk, perhaps? at 5th level, perhaps, then shuffle the other abilities around a bit; there's no bonfire for a resurrection, sure, but surely the soul can escape a death as a wind would escape ... how does a wind get caught in the first place, let along escape.

--

here's an idea, possibly a terrible idea, I haven't though this through that much: a phantom steed-esque effect, but not especially horse-shaped and not necessarily ridable (well, I guess you could take "ride the wild wind" super-literally), so really nothing like a phantom steed at all. when you're around, it stays around you; if you go away, it can wander off, but you always know their general direction and distance from you. then you can have ride the wild wind effect which key off having a "wild wind" thing around.

[jamieth]

spare tag here

Escape Artist (Dex), perhaps, at least?

apotheosis, perhaps?

also, the "ancient flame" and the "eternal pyre".

Oops, fixed.

incidentally, what are wind stance and lightning stance supposed to be?

They're from Pathfinder; linked to SRD.

it really isn't. at 11th, you're basically expected to be able to produce a freedom of movement anyway. possibly self-only, or possibly a per encounter limitation (say, 1/encounter, lasts until end of encounter, with uses scaling up)?

since the apotheosis obsoletes weightless to the point where its only use is investing 12m to double flight speed, it might be worth fiddling with it; perhaps:

She gains a fly speed equal to her highest base speed with Perfect maneuverability. For every 3m invested in the Weightless costume effect, this fly speed increases by half her highest base speed. (This fly speed is otherwise unaffected by the Weightless costume effect.)

... hm, maybe not; even if so, the numbers probably need adjustment.

Hm... I'll probably remove it altogether, and slot the Freedom in. It's just TOO perfect for this class not to have it; as for the Air type limitations, well, the Dancer is only a swift action away from meeting them anyway.

it's an analogue to the firekeeper, eh? wind walk, perhaps? at 5th level, perhaps, then shuffle the other abilities around a bit; there's no bonfire for a resurrection, sure, but surely the soul can escape a death as a wind would escape ... how does a wind get caught in the first place, let along escape.

Added the resurrection effect; I liked it in the first place. Also, set the weaker version of Weightless Cartridge Boost on level 7; that way, Champions can still feel special, but any Wind Dancer can pass through walls if needed.

[sreservoir]

move improved evasion to 6, put it in the table, and that fills out your table.

[jamieth]

move improved evasion to 6, put it in the table, and that fills out your table.

Thanks, done!

[sreservoir]

Free a a Wind (Su):

no, no, free all the wind!

[jamieth]

no, no, free all the wind!

Now, that's simply brilliant!

update: Okay, I thought that the Tome of Radiance, despite all its awesomenes, currently somewhat lacks in the department of Tomeness, and decided to fix it. Current progress: up to post 5 on page 1.

Still, comment please on the general layout/readability. The current version is located here.

Also, I'd love if someone could handle building some iconic characters for ToR; I'm seriously considering commissioning an originat artwork for the cover, and would like to tell the artist a bit more about who she is supposed to draw

[jamieth]

Update: Tome of Radiance now includes all the stuff contained on and linked from the first page. Get the new version here.

[sreservoir]

Now, that's simply brilliant!

I, uh, wasn't exactly serious (and I think you know that), but. uh. okay.

update: Okay, I thought that the Tome of Radiance, despite all its awesomenes, currently somewhat lacks in the department of Tomeness, and decided to fix it. Current progress: up to post 5 on page 1.

Still, comment please on the general layout/readability. The current version is located here.

Also, I'd love if someone could handle building some iconic characters for ToR; I'm seriously considering commissioning an originat artwork for the cover, and would like to tell the artist a bit more about who she is supposed to draw

I'm obligated to complain about wapuro typography right ;)

(the spacing is kind of off, indentation is wonky — mixing indentation and vertical spacing for paragraphing doesn't really work that well, and it's done inconsistently; the text flow not infrequently puts long spaces in a paragraph and yet still ends with a single dangling word; the margins don't seem to alternate (and are extremely thin), and tables extend off the text area (which makes the apparent margins look even smaller); the dashes are mostly hyphens, and the headings have terrible kerning; and, perhaps most importantly of all, columns hang — sometimes there'll just be a left column on the page, or otherwise there'll be two columns but one takes up all the vertical space, the other ... doesn't come even close.

and yet it's the totally unreadable sort of pdf, which makes it possibly worse. uncanny valley for my typographical sense, perhaps?

(there are also stylistic choices I'm not too fond of (sans-serif text, for example, the heading font, coloured headings), but those are a lot more opinion-dependent.))

(I can't stand poor typography in things that are trying to look like books :P — it probably is an uncanny-valley sort of effect.)

[Falcon777]

Update: Tome of Radiance now includes all the stuff contained on and linked from the first page. Get the new version here.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to do that. It's pretty cool of you to do so. If I may be so bold: MOAR PICTURES PLEASE! lol. Sreservoir probably has a lot of good things to say about fixing it up, and it'd be nice if the pdf included all of the tome and not just the classes and illuminations.

Other than that, yeah, cool stuff.

[Qwertystop]

Um... maybe I missed this in the discussion about what Augmented means, but is there a reason Champions aren't Outsider (Augmented X) at their capstones?

[sreservoir]

Um... maybe I missed this in the discussion about what Augmented means, but is there a reason Champions aren't Outsider (Augmented X) at their capstones?

I'd think it's an oversight, and probably because champion was first to be written and that passage hasn't been changed since then; and that they probably should be.

(it hardly matters in most cases, of course, but still.)

[jamieth]

I'm obligated to complain about wapuro typography right ;)

(stuff)

(I can't stand poor typography in things that are trying to look like books :P — it probably is an uncanny-valley sort of effect.)

Uh. Harsh but fair, I suppose :-) Thanks for input. I'll look at what I can do to fix it - I'm no pro, though...
The mix of indents and vertical spacing was blatantly copied from Ultimate Magic/Combat, as the only reference I had while working on that stuff (been doing it at work, without access to my full pdf library), but I agree it looks wonky.

As for hanging columns - I honestly have no idea why it does that. I'll try to handle it...

The rest, well, most can be fixed pretty quickly... I hope. I'll start working on a new version in a day or two, somewhat exhausted right now.

@Falcon: Well, ideally I'd like to keep the final version copyright-clean, but then again... if it is for private use only, I guess there's no harm in scavenging a 'net for some art, I guess :-) would do.

[zhdarkstar]

Feel free to add my Radiant Senshi PrC to the pdf if you'd like. I gave her a couple tweaks tonight, including an expansion to 10 levels to adjust balance issues.

EDIT: Also, would a stance device be affected by Superior Unarmed Strike or other means of increasing unarmed damage die?

[jamieth]

@zhdarkstar: would do, eventually; I'm planning to go throught the thread adding stuff that didn't got on the front page anyway.

@sreservoir: since you obviously have more experience in that, what would be the reasonable margins for the A4 page? Also, I found the way to fix hanging comumns, it seems... still need some rest. Would get back to it after I finished rewatching Sailor Moon season 2)

[jamieth]

@zhdarkstar: would do, eventually; I'm planning to go throught the thread adding stuff that didn't got on the front page anyway. Though, I need to think about how to handle the PrCs that reference other Homebrew... maybe a sidebar with link to the relevant threads?

@sreservoir: since you obviously have more experience in that, what would be the reasonable margins for the A4 page? Also, I found the way to fix hanging comumns, it seems... still need some rest. Would get back to it after I finished rewatching Sailor Moon season 2)

[vasharanpaladin]

EDIT: Also, would a stance device be affected by Superior Unarmed Strike or other means of increasing unarmed damage die?

It should do, once you get to a level where SUS is bringing your damage past 1d6? Just keeping in mind that SUS would only apply when you've got your Stance active, I'd allow it...

[NineThePuma]

Can an individual form multiple soulbonds?

[Draken]

Can an individual form multiple soulbonds?

Just asked Selinia and she said that only one soulbond is allowed at a time. Although it isn't sufficiently clear.

In light of this. I am going to make a Harem PrC for soulbonds and post it as soon as possible.

[NineThePuma]

There goes my plan to make the entire party take craft soulbond so we could do the youg justice telepathy thing.

[Dragonus45]

There goes my plan to make the entire party take craft soulbond so we could do the youg justice telepathy thing.

You could perhaps do a special feat group soulbond, but only allow a person to use the latter feats in the chain with one other teammate.

[zhdarkstar]

There goes my plan to make the entire party take craft soulbond so we could do the youg justice telepathy thing.

If you don't mind mixing a hearty dose of Sentai into the group dynamic, Radiant Senshi has an ability option to allow for limited group soulbonding:

Soulbond of Justice [Radiant]
Requirements: Craft Soulbond, Team Player
Benefit: You may create a Soulbond with a number of partners equal to your Illusion-using stat modifier. This allows you to benefit from multiple Soulbonds simultaneously. Each of your partners benefits from their Soulbond with you; however, your partners do not gain the benefit of each other unless they also have Soulbond of Justice.

This ability was inspired by the classic scene where Sailor Moon is channeling her friends against Queen Beryl at the end of the first season.

[Falcon777]

So...I was looking at the illumination section again and I saw something that made me curious: the eruption shape of a blast illumination. Does that shape mean that the evoker takes damage as well? Because if so....it's not nearly as good as I used to think.

[jamieth]

Hm... from the SRD, the only analogue I could find on a cursory check was an Energy Burst psionic power, and it specifically states that manifester is unaffected. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the intention, but need clarification...

[NineThePuma]

I feel like there was a Force Push option for blasts but can't find it. Was I imagining things?

EDIT:

Oh, it was a Foundation, not a Secondary.

[Falcon777]

Sure, it seems to make sense that the blast wouldn't affect the evoker, but it doesn't say so, and while I'm not seeking conflict concerning the matter, I was afraid it might happen elsewhere. Therefore I brought the matter up.

[jamieth]

Hm, a question of my own: when a Prestige Class progresses Empath's persona capacity, does it also grants access to higher Persona tiers? For example, can an Empath 5/Firekeeper 6 (who has personas known as a 10th level Empath) select a Greater aspect?

Also, Listener to Light's description states that it progresses "access to illuminations, as well as Evoker Level". Does that include Persona Capacity? Personas Known? Innate Illuminations?

Also, something I noticed while working on the pdf - the way PrCs treat costume elements is wildly inconsistent. So far, the two main options seem to be "Enchanced Weaving" (PrC grants additional Costume Effects on its own) and "Remembered Weaving" (PrC levels stack with the base class to determine number of Cotume Effects), and in the latter case, it is sometimes unclear whether that means all PrC levels, or only those that progress EL. And then some PrCs progress Costume Effects "As Empath" or "As Champion"- - again, does it stack with actual Empath or Champion levels? I mean, for my games, I can houserule it, of course, or call a GM's decision, but for the Tome of Radiance pdf, I'd love some sort of official ruling.

(note: I'm fine with two templates for Costume Effects progression, themselves. they just need to be more consistent.