Dreamscarred Press Introduces: Akashic Mysteries

[PsyBomb]

I would be careful reducing the daevic's essence capacity boost. Some veils would really suffer. Gorget of the wyrm is already suspect on a daevic, reducing it a step would hurt badly.

Depends on how he works the "Half of what's in your Passion Bond goes to your Passion Veils." If it's a full stack, then you could get up to 7 investment into it (4 in Veil, 4 in Passion, one extra for Expanded Capacity). Don't have the document in front of me, so I don't know which Passion (if any) includes Gorget.

EDIT: Currently, it is in Wrath.

[Ssalarn]

Still working on the Daevic and reorganizing and clarifying the subsystem rules and terminology, but the following changes should now be visible in the documents linked in the OP:

Changelog-

Curiass of Confidence updated with duration and additional information.
Akasha-Infused Spells updated to make the “choose 1 school of magic” portion syn up better with the actual ability.
Instance of “Incarna” removed from Gamla racial description.
Sobek-khaliq simplified to Sobek.
Suqur-kha simplified to Suqur.
Size entry added to Suqur racial stats.
Snakehandler’s Gauntlet’s provide DR/Alignment instead of DR/ Magic.
Language updates to Guru to avoid confusing terminology. (Instances of chakra that refer to it as a type of energy have been replaced with Essence).
The guru’s ability to restore a use of stunning fist by taking Essence burn is now useable 1/day + 1 additional use at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter.
Notation made to Dark Lord’s Ring of Essence Binding to clarify size increase effect.
Essence Bond removed from Vizier abilities and replaced with standard chakra binds.
Crafting time reduction removed from Path of the Crafter initial ability.
Path of the Crafter now grants the following ability: “Any time an ally within 30 feet of the crafter activates a magic item to cast a spell, they may treat the caster level of the spell as 1 higher than normal, or increase the DC of the activated spell by +1.”
Path of the Seer now grants the following ability: “All allies within 60 feet of the Vizier find their movement buoyed by akashic energy, and gains an enhancement bonus of +5 feet to their base speed. This bonus increases by an additional 5 feet at 9th and 17th level.”

[stack]

The additional bonus to the vizier feels small compared to what was taken off. I don't know that it matters from a power/balance perspective, but it is a downgrade.

I'm more familiar with the craft path, didn't check seer yet.

[Ssalarn]

The additional bonus to the vizier feels small compared to what was taken off. I don't know that it matters from a power/balance perspective, but it is a downgrade.

I'm more familiar with the craft path, didn't check seer yet.

The previous abilities all stacked onto Essence invested in associated Veils, so there was this component where you had to actually have a veil shaped there, you had to have Essence invested, you had to have a bonded item, etc. Theoretically you were one sunder attempt away from not only losing your veil (temporarily), but also losing whatever situational bonus was associated with it. The new auras aren't tied to your veils in any way so they can't be taken away from you, and the new binds can't be taken away if someone strips you naked and leaves you in a ditch, so there's a little bit of give and take.

That being said, it is a bit of a downgrade, but it's one that shaves off the fiddly bits that people weren't entirely convinced were helpful anyways. I'm open to making further changes here, whether that be expanding the auras, boosting the scaling, or what have you. I'm letting feedback come in before I make any further changes to the Vizier's core chassis.

Note: I can't access the playtest docs right now, but my brain is telling me that I may have forgotten to include an (Su) descriptor on the auras. Note that if it isn't in the playtest docs, it should be, and I'll get it fixed first thing when I get home this evening before working on wrapping up the Daevic changes (which, believe me, I know are way overdue).

[stack]

Perhaps letting the bonus scale with invested essence? Not sure really. I don't disagree with the change, but my character will miss the speed boost when flying on his swarm of phantasmal insects.

[stack]

Since you mentioned wanting to use essence apart from veils, I thought of a prestige class (well two; originally it was one but it kind of split as I thought about it more). PF prestige classes are often a bit of an afterthought, I suppose the ideas could be applied to some classes archetypes.

The basic concept is one class that focuses on channeling essence in a raw, primitive form into one's own body, granting bonuses and using essence burn heavily as a limiting factor. The other would focus on investing essence into a weapon, granting bonuses and abilities similar to how a magus/paladin w weapon bond/etc can enhance their weapons as needed.

(Not full classes, just brainstorm outlines.)

Spoiler: Immortal Warrior

Show

Full BAB
Either good fort or good fort/will
Entry requirements probably just 5 BAB and an essence pool (easily achieved by grabbing a single feat, 1-level dip, or taking an akashic race
5 levels seems long enough. Grants 1 essence/level. Diehard might be a thematic bonus feat to toss in, for use with the capstone.

Depending on how many abilities are written for it you can either grant the abilities in order or from a menu, though the 5th level should probably stay the same. Ideas for abilities would be taking essence burn to grant THP, reroll saves, force opponents to reroll attacks, delay the onset of conditions (no, I'm not blinded this round!). Capstone would be taking essence burn to stay alive when below the death threshold. Probably have to take additional burn each time you take damage after passing the threshold or else make the cost increase each round since otherwise a vizier with a large essence pool could be kind of broken.

Spoiler: Essence Blade

Show

Full BAB
Either good fort or good fort/will
Entry requirements probably just 5 BAB and an essence pool (easily achieved by grabbing a single feat, 1-level dip, or taking an akashic race
5 levels seems long enough. Grants 1 essence/level.

Concept here is simple enough; pick abilities off a menu to enhance a bonded weapon using essence. Maneuver bonuses, attack/damage, weapon properties, reduced misfire, and fun ones like making ammo out of essence for archers/gunslinger, maneuver recovery via essence burn for the PoW types, attack rerolls, etc.

Anyway, those are just the brainstorm ideas. I can try to put something more thorough together if it interests you. Feel free to pilfer anything that strikes your fancy. I can especially see immortal warrior abilities working for a paladin or barbarian archetype, essence blade for a gunslinger/fighter/marksman.

[Ssalarn]

@Stack

Some of those ideas definitely mirror some things I was already looking at. I've been playing around with a prestige class that converts damage into Essence burn that synergizes with some of your Immortal Warrior ideas, so that's cool.

Right now the focus is more on veilweavers for the first book, and we'll start expanding the Essence system into non veil-based abilities more in a theoretical 2nd book.

That being said, it is a pain in the hindquarters trying to write up an entire project while juggling real life and everything else, and the other writer on the project basically is doing fluff and feats only. The first batch of feats and some of the taglines for classes and feats were contributed by my good buddy K. Jered Mayer, but he really doesn't have the time or expertise to help with the heavy lifting, so if we get to a book two, I'm probably going to tap a couple people to be contributors and help flesh out the project, in addition to looking at some cross-company goodness like a supplement Alexander Agunas ( I may have misspelled that) and I are in talks about to combine the Occultist, his Pathfinder Binder update, with the akashic subsystem.
So it's good to hear your guys' ideas and you never know what idea might actually be your stealth job interview. I got a foot in the door with DSP thanks to contributions and insights I gave on the Path of War project, and even just since this project has started there's been one or two people whom I've put in touch with Andreas or other publishers who might be interested in their talents.

[PsyBomb]

Beginning a more thorough read of the Vizier update, and my friend from the playtest who played the Vizier was greatly saddened by the loss of the Hand Bind ability. Being able to give the melee team +3 to attacks for the round was nice. Asks if the third Path is going to be a geomancer-style terrain basis, with differing powers depending on the area you are in.

[stack]

An idea for another path would be direct debuffing, though that may be too witch-like. Maybe a Gish one as well? We have focuses on gear and on allies, so on the environment, enemies, and self make thematic sense. Or split mind and body into two paths.

[Ssalarn]

Beginning a more thorough read of the Vizier update, and my friend from the playtest who played the Vizier was greatly saddened by the loss of the Hand Bind ability. Being able to give the melee team +3 to attacks for the round was nice. Asks if the third Path is going to be a geomancer-style terrain basis, with differing powers depending on the area you are in.

What if we dropped the movement speed increase from the Seer and replaced it with an insight bonus to attack rolls for all affected allies? That works a little bit more into the battlefield coordinator design of the path, and at later levels he can still share Coward's Boots or another veil to boost their movement.

[stack]

That would seem to fit with the theme nicely.

[Anlashok]

Daevic update - We're expanding the Daevic Possession class feature to include some standardized defenses for all Daevic's, and changing the way the Passions work so that they're simpler, more straightforward packets of abilities.

Are the updates posted somewhere else? I just downloaded the daevic again and it was the same document as before.

[PsyBomb]

What if we dropped the movement speed increase from the Seer and replaced it with an insight bonus to attack rolls for all affected allies? That works a little bit more into the battlefield coordinator design of the path, and at later levels he can still share Coward's Boots or another veil to boost their movement.

Been meaning to ask about that, actually. When does Foresee Conflict come online? Right now the only specified levels on that path are for when you get new Teamwork Feats. Also for Foresee Conflict, how often can the emulated Veil change? Say I have Coward's Boots and and Polar Snowshoes bound, and my Akashic Warrior buddy starts off with the speed boost. Once he gets into melee, though, he doesn't need the speed boost, and wants to swap to Polar Snowshoes for some damage. Can he, and if so what kind of action would it take?

Other than that, what you said is awesome. It has much better synergy with your abilities as battlefield support.

[Shinken]

The guru's Crack the Shell is scarily effective against other veilshapers. Is this intended?

[PsyBomb]

Loving the new version of Snakehandler's Gauntlets. Although the DR requirement isn't hard, it isn't common either. Running around at level 4 with what amounts to DR 3/- and 15 quick-recovering temporary HP makes my Guru significantly more dangerous than he appears... And the poison blade ability does evil things to those not immune.

[Ssalarn]

The guru's Crack the Shell is scarily effective against other veilshapers. Is this intended?

Yeah, we don't really have world-specific fluff released yet, but pretty much all of these pieces have their place in my own little akashic landscape, and basically the scariest thing a veilweaver should ever see is a pissed off Sineater coming his way.

Gurus are kind of the "police" of the akashic builds, much like the most annoying thing a Wizard or Sorcerer can have to deal with is an Abjurer with Improved Counterspell, or a monk built by someone with a high degree of system mastery.

Viziers have bigger, flashier powers, Daevics hit harder and last longer, but the Guru is the guy who takes away your toys.

[malonkey1]

This has probably been suggested, but I'd quite like to see a Path of War archetype/class/Discipline (probably a prestige class) that offered martial menuvers devoted to manipulating Akashic energy.

[PsyBomb]

So, to spark conversation...

We know the base stats of the first three races, plus hints of alternate-package guys. We also know the theory behind #4, though not the mechanic . What could the mechanics be for a Half-Daeva, and what could #5 be?

Also in the process of generating ideas for the Sorceror Akashic Bloodline, but a great deal of that has to wait until we start looking at the Akashic Spells.

[Shinken]

Yeah, we don't really have world-specific fluff released yet, but pretty much all of these pieces have their place in my own little akashic landscape, and basically the scariest thing a veilweaver should ever see is a pissed off Sineater coming his way.

Gurus are kind of the "police" of the akashic builds, much like the most annoying thing a Wizard or Sorcerer can have to deal with is an Abjurer with Improved Counterspell, or a monk built by someone with a high degree of system mastery.

Viziers have bigger, flashier powers, Daevics hit harder and last longer, but the Guru is the guy who takes away your toys.

That sounds pretty cool.
Have you considered making any connection between the genie races (suli, sylph, undine, ifrit, oread) and akasha? I think some kind of alternate racial trait would be very cool. Say, suli that lack a connection to elements, but have a connection to akasha - it could be as simple as giving them untyped (or force?) elemental assault damage and/or 1 essentia.

[PsyBomb]

Starting to toy around with the Enforcer feat on my Guru. This gets evil quick, even at level 5 I average 21+ subdual per strike (literal minimum is 11 on the character I'm testing this with). This basically means a free-action Shaken status that lasts the entire combat, since with even the one rank I am pretty sure I'll make the Intimidaate eventually.

[Shinken]

Small nitpick: Desire daevic gets "+1 competence bonus per point of Essence invested in their bond to attack rolls against any foe they have succeeded on a Steal or Feint maneuver against within the last hour", but feint it not really a comnat maneuver, it's a special action in combat (such as withdraw or refocus).

Also, I think Dirty Trick is as thematically appropriate as feint is, maybe it could be included. Don't really like it working within the hour, since it mentions specifically Steal/feint and does not work with Sleight of Hand/Bluff. Maybe it could be expanded to include any kind of deception in the last hour (which would include Bluff and Sleight of Hand) or limited by encounter, which would make steal/feint make a lot more sense.

Also, how does the Improved Feint tree stack with the desire daevic ability (if at all)?

Oh, another thing - it takes forever for a daevic to get melee attack = feint, but they could get it earlier with the Improved Two Weapon feint feat. I imagine that taking it will end up being quite popular, specially since it doesn't even list Two Weapon Feint as a requirement. Maybe the daevic ability could be gained earlier and/or there could be an advantage for those that have taken the Improved Two Weapon feint when they reach that point in their careers?

On a final note, I don't think the mind rape subtext behind suggestion and geas (specially the text for the 20th level ability) fit a neutral good alignment, described as common for desire daevics.

[PsyBomb]

Just to ask, in order to have a basis for theoretical character creation:

Do you have any plans for Akashic items? Specifically, ports of the Soulbound weapon/armor enchantment line (especially if you make it able to count as your base +1, but I wouldn't blame you for not doing so) and the Incarnum Focus items. This is actually very important for both mid and high-end optimization stress testing, since that one point can save you a feat or put you over a die-break or critical range increment.

[Shinken]

Also, can we expect ways to make veils invisible (even if they are inert while invisible)? They are very conspicuous...

[Thealtruistorc]

As an Incarnum fan, I must say I love the vizier. It offers a lot of crafting options as well as shaping and control options and overall has a lot of what I like in a class. I assume these will be compatible with 3.5's veilweavers.

[PsyBomb]

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As an Incarnum fan, I must say I love the vizier. It offers a lot of crafting options as well as shaping and control options and overall has a lot of what I like in a class. I assume these will be compatible with 3.5's veilweavers.

This system is only kinda compatable with 3.5 Incarnum. It is based on a couple of very different assumptions (for example, Chakra Binds do not lock out the slot) along with wildly different basic class roles.

That said, I've already started working up a Totemist home brew to bring it to this variation of the system.

[Ssalarn]

Just to ask, in order to have a basis for theoretical character creation:

Do you have any plans for Akashic items? Specifically, ports of the Soulbound weapon/armor enchantment line (especially if you make it able to count as your base +1, but I wouldn't blame you for not doing so) and the Incarnum Focus items. This is actually very important for both mid and high-end optimization stress testing, since that one point can save you a feat or put you over a die-break or critical range increment.

There won't be any direct ports of previous Incarnum items, however there are several unique Akashic items in the works.

There's a couple of different weapon and armor enhancements I'm looking at getting out to you guys, I'm just at the fine balancing stage of making sure the enhancements are meaningful without being too strong or just doing something that's already available.

The daeva-spawn have +2 Con, and then a floating +2 that's determine by their Passion affinity (Wrath = STR, Desire = DEX, Dominion = CHA). I'm sure the first thing someone is going to say is "Really? Desire isn't CHA?", and currently I'm looking at that as DEX being the key stat that ties into a lot of the Desire ideas (you expect someone with a Desire daeva influencing their biology to be.... wriggly, one way or another), while Dominion is more force of personality oriented in theme. That being said, the reason the race isn't out is exactly because I'm still looking at other ways to put them together where each offshoot is unique without one being barred from getting something appropriate because someone else already got it.

I'm really sorry for the big break in between updates on this one guys, I'm just trying to get what I owe you and what so many of you have been waiting for finished and out for final review while keeping the other pieces moving, and I've been spending too much time on prepping pieces I can't release until the core stuff is finished. A big part of that is that I don't have as much access to my primary writing tools during the day as I used to, which is putting me seriously behind schedule, and I hate chiming in when I don't have new stuff for you guys, especially the releases for the two big items, the Daevic rewrite and the newly reorganized and (hopefully) better clarified rules. Part of that is the "pre-testing" phase. Normally when I do something I try to let my home group play with it first, then I clean up issues they notice, then I let the local PFS and game store groups get at it, then it gets some developer peer review before going live with you guys.

I.... I may reconsider how I do that, just to get stuff out to you guys a little faster. It's possible that I could be leveraging your expertise a little more efficiently than I have been to date.

[Ssalarn]

Have you considered making any connection between the genie races (suli, sylph, undine, ifrit, oread) and akasha? ***.

Short answer:
Yes.

Long answer:

All of the core races are getting some materials to give them ready access to the system, and a selection of thematically appropriate races from the ARG and UP are getting some goodies as well. This includes the elemental races, I've got some stuff cooking for variant vishkanya, forgeborn and ophiduan are both on the list for some akashic makeovers, and I'm open to requests for other races that you think should really get some akashic love. I can't make promises about will make it in to the final run other than the ones I've mentioned, but even if it isn't in the initial release, you never know what might show up down the line.

Also, can we expect ways to make veils invisible (even if they are inert while invisible)? They are very conspicuous...

That my friend, is an excellent question that I had not thought of, and which no one else had really brought up before now.

So I'll put it to you guys in the community:

Which of the following would be your preferred method for dealing with "disguising" veils:

Veilweavers have an "active" and "inactive" mode. Veils are only detectable via detect magic or similar means while the veilweaver inactive and cannot be sundered (though can still be affected by dispel or disjunction effects), but their abilities are suppressed until you spend a swift action to activate them. Deactivating them requires another swift action.

Veils are always on, but we provide a feat that allows you to disguise them as normal clothing.

Veils are always on, but we provide a magic item that allows you to disguise them as normal clothing. We potentially have greater versions of this item that also give your veils a nondetection ability, requiring true seeing or a more powerful effect to actually see and identify them.

This has probably been suggested, but I'd quite like to see a Path of War archetype/class/Discipline (probably a prestige class) that offered martial menuvers devoted to manipulating Akashic energy.

We've already got one PoW class archetype available that will be part of the final document, and Jeremy and Andreas have both given the go-ahead for a full akashic discipline with supporting organization.

Chris and I have been chatting about the best way to do the discipline and organization, and currently I don't know whose book that's going to end up in, but I'll give you more info as we start diving into that piece of things.

[Shinken]

Short answer:
Yes.

Long answer:

All of the core races are getting some materials to give them ready access to the system, and a selection of thematically appropriate races from the ARG and UP are getting some goodies as well. This includes the elemental races, I've got some stuff cooking for variant vishkanya, forgeborn and ophiduan are both on the list for some akashic makeovers, and I'm open to requests for other races that you think should really get some akashic love. I can't make promises about will make it in to the final run other than the ones I've mentioned, but even if it isn't in the initial release, you never know what might show up down the line.

That sounds really cool. Also, I had some questions about the daevic. Aside from all that I've said before, I'm a bit worried by the daevic fluff. It feels too much like pact magic, which I understand is not really a concern for DSP since it's not one of their products, but I think it could be avoided completely if instead of "daevic" we head "devas". Their investment in a passion is so huge that they become akashic embodiments of that devotion. Also, I'm having a hard time justifying why they are so well trained in combat - maybe that could be addressed as well?

That my friend, is an excellent question that I had not thought of, and which no one else had really brought up before now.

So I'll put it to you guys in the community:

Which of the following would be your preferred method for dealing with "disguising" veils:

Veilweavers have an "active" and "inactive" mode. Veils are only detectable via detect magic or similar means while the veilweaver inactive and cannot be sundered (though can still be affected by dispel or disjunction effects), but their abilities are suppressed until you spend a swift action to activate them. Deactivating them requires another swift action.

Veils are always on, but we provide a feat that allows you to disguise them as normal clothing.

Veils are always on, but we provide a magic item that allows you to disguise them as normal clothing. We potentially have greater versions of this item that also give your veils a nondetection ability, requiring true seeing or a more powerful effect to actually see and identify them.

I like the idea of active/inactive mode.

We've already got one PoW class archetype available that will be part of the final document, and Jeremy and Andreas have both given the go-ahead for a full akashic discipline with supporting organization.

Oh, that's really really cool.

[malonkey1]

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This system is only kinda compatable with 3.5 Incarnum. It is based on a couple of very different assumptions (for example, Chakra Binds do not lock out the slot) along with wildly different basic class roles.

That said, I've already started working up a Totemist home brew to bring it to this variation of the system.

Funny thing, I actually that not too long ago (links are in the signature). I should take a look at the Akashic Mysteries stuff and see if I can make my writeup more compatible.

[PsyBomb]

Funny thing, I actually that not too long ago (links are in the signature). I should take a look at the Akashic Mysteries stuff and see if I can make my writeup more compatible.

I was doing the same thing, actually, until I found out about Ssalarn writing this one. Maybe we should collaborate some time, but this isn't the place. PM me if you are interested, I got through the base classes, Soulmelds, most of the feats, and a couple PrCs

On topic: I always houseruled that a Soulmeld with nothing invested that has not been used in 3 rounds fades out of sight (but are still detectable as being there to Detect Magic and the like). Active/Passive modes might work better, but I'll need to playtest it a bit.