Dreamscarred Press Introduces: Akashic Mysteries

[PsyBomb]

I suspect that what will end up happening is that I'll have a Guru archetype in this one following the basic ideas I went over earlier, and the Veda (or whatever) will probably get a complete re-imagining for the next book that allows me to do something completely different than I've done so far. It would be fairly appropriate since several of the classes lined up for the potential next book use Essence completely independently of veils.

One thing I thought about doing was a healing/support class that can invest Essence into allies providing various effects (like providing Fast Healing equal to the invested Essence, or a bonus to various saves, etc.), and whose trick for status removal would be to draw out a given status effect when Essence invested in an ally is reclaimed and make a boosted save against that effect. So, for example, you could invest Essence into an ally to give him Fast Healing 2, and then if he were blinded by a spell or effect, you could reclaim that Essence, drawing the blindness into yourself and making a new save against it with a +2 bonus. Or potentially even move that Essence into another ally, so that if you have a Wizard who fails a Fortitude save vs. disease the Veda could draw the disease out and give it to the party Paladin whose innate immunities would allow him to automatically save against the effect.

Thoughts?

Ok, that would be awesome. You start shifting status effects around your party like you're reallocating Essence, pulling the dangerous ones or SOS effects off of the guys who NEED to act and onto the guys who have the better saves for the purpose (or, perhaps, things like the Diadem of Pure Reflection that would have nasty recoil on the originator when they save).

The possibilities are ENDLESS. I'm just hoping they have a really solid Essence progression.

[stack]

A method to draw them out and put them into an enemy would be even better...

Just sayin'.

[PsyBomb]

A method to draw them out and put them into an enemy would be even better...

Just sayin'.

... this one got me thinking, BIG TIME. What if Ssalarn uses this opportunity to make the new class use an existing mechanic in a very new way? The Veda could use the Vitalist's Collective mechanic to define its allies, which would just incidentally enable the Network feats to have a new use (and there is one there that lets you force unwilling creatures into the Collective).

This will require more thought to check for balance and viability, but if the big guy doesn't go that route then I'll likely homebrew it :D

[Ssalarn]

Ooh, I'm liking the idea of an Akashic Collective.....
Hmmmm.....
Gonna have to play with some ideas for creating Essence networks....

[JusticeZero]

Like a Life Leech Miasmist sort've thing, then? That'd be nifty. The only idea i'd had was something about pushing veils onto other people, including veils to suppress conditions, possibly with an ability to harmfully revoke the veils afterward. Maybe a good mechanic, maybe not, but it would be a different class worth.

[PsyBomb]

Editing notes: Guru edition.

1) Eyes of the Hawkguard mislabeled as "Eyes of the Archer Lord" in the summary.
2) Stone Giant's Girdle missing Body bind in summary.
3) No listed range for Martyr's Toga, so at the moment you can Leadership 40 Gurus and have them siphon off your wounds from across planar boundaries.


more to come as I find them

[stack]

Hmm, putting essence into someone then carefully drawing it out to transfer status effects, then redirect and shove the essence into another in raw form, giving them the condition and maybe token damage from the overload (but giving them essence for a round or two, if they can use it, or maybe giving a generic option if they can't), then also being able to rip essence from a foe, leaving them with a condition (shaken, sickened, something of that nature, possibly escalating to nauseated and stunned as the amount of essence extracted increases) and granting you temporary essence (while depriving them of it). Could make a solid support/debuffer. Give a variety of ways to buff others with your essence, cover the various healing rolls, and debuff too.

[Ssalarn]

I'll just leave this here for you guys to look over while I work on the Guru:

Here's the initial pitch for a proposed sequel, Akashic Mysteries: Lords of Essence.

"I'd like to do three new classes who all explore akashic energy and Essence in a way that exists separately from veils and veilweaving, focusing more on investing Essence directly into their surroundings, their allies, or their enemies. We'd take the hints that the Guru gives about Essence having uses outside of powering veils and really open that up with some new classes: the Tatvaist who mixes his raw Essence into the 4 basic elements, allowing him to control earth, air, fire, or water as though it were a direct extension of himself; the Veda or Vedist who heals by investing Essence into allies and drawing out their afflictions when he reclaims it; and the Pharaoh, who uses brief bursts of akashic energy to create whips, spears, shields, and chariots he can use to counter spells, protect allies, and force others to obey him or suffer deleterious effects.

The Tatvaist is going to be something of a classic elementalist, selecting a primary element that he gains mastery of. Each element will also be associated with a series of Style feats, giving the Tatvaist unique combat options and a wider array of techniques for participating in challenging combats beyond just powering through resistances to his chosen element. Each element will have an array of scaling "tools" tied in to their associated element that they can empower and improve upon through Essence investment.

The Veda can invest Essence into his allies to give them things like Fast Healing, DR, and save bonuses equal to the amount of Essence invested, scaling up at later levels to include things like ability damage/drain resistance. If the ally fails a save against an effect, like blindness, the Veda can recover the Essence, drawing the affliction out of the ally and into himself, making a new save with a bonus equal to the recovered Essence. At later levels he'll expand this ability to the point where he can shift the recovered Essence into allies or even enemies, so that he could do things like take a disease that a wizard was just afflicted with and transfer it to the party Paladin whose immunity would instantly negate it, or even try to invest the Essence into an enemy along with the effect, twisting the Essence so that it provides a penalty to the save instead of a bonus.

The Pharaoh is purely conceptual at this point, but I have a really good idea of what I want to do with it. I want the Pharaoh to embody some ideas we've seen in psionics, Path of War, and Akashic Mysteries, blending them together into a class that just plays like pure awesome. The basic design layout would be this:
The core Pharaoh gains certain bonuses just for having an Essence pool (or maybe has a special internalized receptacle he can invest into), giving him things like natural armor, temp hp, bonuses to certain skills, etc. The Pharaoh also learns special "Akashic Maneuvers" that he can activate by taking Essence Burn; these may use the standard maneuver format already presented in Path of War, or they may end up being a more uniquely formatted type of ability. The key though, is that instead of them being expended when used, that Essence Burn function is going to make using your powers a bit more like a psion's power points, where you just know all of your abilities and you can choose to do twenty Disruption Spears to counter enemy spellcasting (draining your Essence pool and possibly losing some of your static bonuses as you do), or use a mix of your Akashic Maneuvers and keep some of your Essence in reserve to shore up your survivability.

We'll also look into expanding the work started with the akashic races with new racial archetypes, favored class bonuses, and alternate racial traits, and look at expanding to provide additional support for core races that didn't see as much love the first time around, like half-orcs and halflings."

[Psyren]

Tatvaist: Combat styles + Elements? I smell Bending
Vedist I'm on board with. I don't like the idea of a Collective though, that should really be the Vitalist's thing.
Pharaoh sounds like it should be a PrC - an Akasha/PoW theurge of some kind.

[JusticeZero]

Yeah, no reason why a Collective would be required to remove or move a status effect; Collectives are just a different form of targeting, like ranged touch, touch, etc.

[Ssalarn]

Tatvaist: Combat styles + Elements? I smell Bending
Vedist I'm on board with. I don't like the idea of a Collective though, that should really be the Vitalist's thing.
Pharaoh sounds like it should be a PrC - an Akasha/PoW theurge of some kind.

You know, the elementalist + martial arts things was something I'd been playing around with in homebrew before I ever even knew Avatar was a thing. It was something I thought was a super original idea for and eastern themed class to help it work around the limitations of being bound to a specific element. Still, if it draws in the airbender crowd and provides a fun play experience, I'm going to chalk that up as a win.

The Vedist (derived from Ayurveda), will probably not have Collective as a native class feature, but I think it'd be pretty hard to justify not having some archetypes or PrCs that blended elements of the Vedist and Vitalist.

Pharaoh, as I plan on doing him, is probably going to require too many deeply integrated parts to be a PrC, and while the various class elements will have a lot of inspiration from Path of War, I want him to do the things he does right out of the gate. There's a decent possibility that I'll be writing up an original discipline for him that initiators with an Essence pool can gain access to, but I haven't sat down and mapped enough of it out to say for sure yet.

Basically, if I were to describe the six classes in short synopses they'd be something like this:

Vizier - Cunning counselor and and canny magic user, master of veils.
Guru - Wise traveler and philosopher, specializes in non-lethal techniques.
Daevic - Charismatic host to a powerful akashic entity, beast on the battlefield.
Tatvaist - Master of his chosen element who draws martial inspiration from its properties.
Vedist - Canny healer who risks tainting his own life force to guard and restore his allies.
Pharaoh - A living god whose overflowing life energy is his greatest weapon.

[Prime32]

The Tatvaist is going to be something of a classic elementalist, selecting a primary element that he gains mastery of. Each element will also be associated with a series of Style feats, giving the Tatvaist unique combat options and a wider array of techniques for participating in challenging combats beyond just powering through resistances to his chosen element. Each element will have an array of scaling "tools" tied in to their associated element that they can empower and improve upon through Essence investment.

So could a Tatvaist walk up to a torch, stick his hands into it and bind the flames to his hands chakra (thereby extinguishing the torch and giving him fiery punches for the day)? If not, maybe an archetype that doesn't specialise in an element, but can "catch" any elemental attack aimed against him and turn them into pseudo-veils that temporarily attune him to that element?

The Pharaoh is purely conceptual at this point, but I have a really good idea of what I want to do with it. I want the Pharaoh to embody some ideas we've seen in psionics, Path of War, and Akashic Mysteries, blending them together into a class that just plays like pure awesome. The basic design layout would be this:
The core Pharaoh gains certain bonuses just for having an Essence pool (or maybe has a special internalized receptacle he can invest into), giving him things like natural armor, temp hp, bonuses to certain skills, etc. The Pharaoh also learns special "Akashic Maneuvers" that he can activate by taking Essence Burn; these may use the standard maneuver format already presented in Path of War, or they may end up being a more uniquely formatted type of ability. The key though, is that instead of them being expended when used, that Essence Burn function is going to make using your powers a bit more like a psion's power points, where you just know all of your abilities and you can choose to do twenty Disruption Spears to counter enemy spellcasting (draining your Essence pool and possibly losing some of your static bonuses as you do), or use a mix of your Akashic Maneuvers and keep some of your Essence in reserve to shore up your survivability.

I... don't like this. There are already spells/powers that involve attacks, swift-action spells that last 1 round, and immediate-action spells that work defensively. The only thing that separates these spells/powers from maneuvers is that the former draw on a limited pool of energy, while the latter are unlimited-use but require you to be in the right position to use them properly. A maneuver that's powered like a spell is just a spell.

I'd prefer some mechanic where you get bonus essence based on your current number of readied maneuvers, which goes down as you expend them (or, for something less prone to abuse, you count as having X more essence invested in that special internal receptacle, up to your normal limit). Basically you're powered up by maintaining your balance and tactical advantage. Maybe coupled with a powerful refresh mechanic that inflicts essence burn.
I mean, that or just go for the "more uniquely formatted" thing, but using actual manuevers would open up things like Martial Traditions for way more variety.

[JusticeZero]

The Vedist (derived from Ayurveda), will probably not have Collective as a native class feature, but I think it'd be pretty hard to justify not having some archetypes or PrCs that blended elements of the Vedist and Vitalist.

I'm sure that a lot of inspiration can move that way. The Collective is a targeting technique that I find distinguishes the Vitalist and Tactician though, and I don't think that it needs to be copied straight. I'd imagine something more like absorbing things into some sort of buffer or veil slots or whatever, and shoving them into something else, or alternately pushing veils onto others that can resist and cure conditions in those who receive them, then exploding those veils traitorously on enemies.

[Ssalarn]

I'd really prefer to set it up in such a way that we can create a couple disciplines for the Pharaoh and have one standardized set of rules that says "Here's how akashic maneuvers work". I like Essence burn as the primary function of activating akashic maneuvers, both because thematically it fits the idea of expending big surges of your Essence for a flashy yet costly effect, and because it can be easily transferred over to other classes, archetypes, PrCs, etc. A sobek Warlord who picks up a couple akashic maneuvers via feats should be able to look directly to the rules on akashic maneuvers and know how to use them, and it should function the same way for him as it does for the Pharaoh so players don't have to relearn how to use akashic maneuvers with every character.

The difference is that Essence is precious; these aren't power points, and though they renew, when you activate an akashic maneuver that's going to be a carefully considered choice because the cost isn't a mild ding to action economy, it's an incremental decrease in your total capabilities. A Wizard who burns through all his 9th level spells is still a 20 level caster whose base abilities and lower level spells have scaled accordingly; a veilweaver or other akashic user who burns all their Essence is back at square 1.

I also like the idea of the Pharaoh's abilities blurring the line between martial technique and spell; these are the characters that are supposed to be able to convey the impression that they are living deities and the source of their own incredible power.

Regardless, these guys are a still probably a month or more away from seeing any playtesting with a lot of other things lined up in front of them for attention, so it's good to hear what people are thinking of the ideas while they're still gestating.

So could a Tatvaist walk up to a torch, stick his hands into it and bind the flames to his hands chakra (thereby extinguishing the torch and giving him fiery punches for the day)? If not, maybe an archetype that doesn't specialise in an element, but can "catch" any elemental attack aimed against him and turn them into pseudo-veils that temporarily attune him to that element?

Being able to co-opt their chosen element out of their surroundings and turn it to their purposes would be a big part of the Tatvaist, yes. I think an option that allowed him to flow through different elements reactively adopting them as his chosen element is probably something more likely to see a PrC than an archetype, but I'll have a better idea once we get to playtesting the new classes. Gotta finish up the first batch!

[squiggit]

I want to play a Pharaoh already. Hurry up!

[PsyBomb]

Ssalarn, I think I might have a solution for the Pharaoh problem. Give them a unique Discipline, that is simple, but make those maneuvers mostly have as a special effect that they increase your Essence pool by one each WHILE READIED. The Pharaoh itself could have a low-progression personal pool, gain a couple (I'm thinking 4-ish) of free Shape Veil feats, and have that internal investment ability that gives them the bonuses you described earlier. I haven't read Path of War yet, but you could make the Pharaoh recovery method relatively quick, such that they could reasonably expect to use a given maneuver every other round (say, a Swift action to set one up, which becomes ready the next turn).

End result is that the Maneuvers end up costing you effective essence pool when expended, and recovering them has the real price of costing your ability to reallocate the next turn.

Anyway, back to the Guru! I'm through the Veils section of the guide, almost ready to put up the V0.5 link. The idea last time was to use it for power-level input before it went to PDF, Guru will be ready to show in time to actually do that for this one.

[stack]

I had expected to get time to build a few test characters to compare a wrath (natural attack focused) daevic to the aegis archetype to the aegis (aberrant) to see how they looked at a few different levels. Figured they where a good comparison for natural attack builds. Unfortunately the trip has not provided the voluminous time anticipated, so that will not be happening. Straight aegis vs archetype vs wrath (justice) would be good too. But not from me today.

The other three classes sound interesting, especially the elementalist one. I've been trying to help out on the channeling update on DSP's site, but it seems to be going slowly, this class may end up better serving what I would like to see anyhow. Cool.

[Ssalarn]

Chris and I were going over a few things for upcoming releases and I thought I'd pose a question to you: do you think the Pharaoh would scratch your itch for some Akashic/Initiator crossover action, or would you like a bit more? We're trying to determine whether this is something that could be it's own stand-alone supplement, or if it's better presented on a case by case basis as we work on our various projects moving forward. We're also discussing doing some alternate classes (like the Ninja or Samurai are to the Rogue and Cavalier) to incorporate the elements. What might you guys like to see from something like that?

[Shinken]

Chris and I were going over a few things for upcoming releases and I thought I'd pose a question to you: do you think the Pharaoh would scratch your itch for some Akashic/Initiator crossover action, or would you like a bit more? We're trying to determine whether this is something that could be it's own stand-alone supplement, or if it's better presented on a case by case basis as we work on our various projects moving forward. We're also discussing doing some alternate classes (like the Ninja or Samurai are to the Rogue and Cavalier) to incorporate the elements. What might you guys like to see from something like that?

Pharaoh sounds cool.

[stack]

So a Tatvaist would be doing things like investing essence to summon elementals (more summoning options for the system would be nice), or into the ground/air for difficult terrain, etc?

For fire, seems like you could take essence burn to blast, then extinguish fires to recover it. Make abilities that set enemies on fire more valuable.

[malonkey1]

So a Tatvaist would be doing things like investing essence to summon elementals (more summoning options for the system would be nice), or into the ground/air for difficult terrain, etc?

For fire, seems like you could take essence burn to blast, then extinguish fires to recover it. Make abilities that set enemies on fire more valuable.

That sounds pretty interesting.

What about a class that invests Essence into an ally to give temporary Eidolon evolutions? (Give the Fighter Pounce, give the Rogue Invisibility as an SLA, give the Necromancer's zombies Channel Resistance, etc.)

[stack]

That sounds pretty interesting.

What about a class that invests Essence into an ally to give temporary Eidolon evolutions? (Give the Fighter Pounce, give the Rogue Invisibility as an SLA, give the Necromancer's zombies Channel Resistance, etc.)

Ooh, I don't know where it would fit but I like it! There is already a summoner archetype though...and an aegis one too. Not sure if they will want to make multiple for a class. Buffing the entire party with essence...maybe a vizier archetype? I have thought a bard that invests essence to buff would be cool, evictions would be a stretch though.

[PsyBomb]

Guru guide V0.5 is up, at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

I hope it helps, both for testing and development. I'll be starting a few build stubs soon.

EDIT: Getting started on the Daevic guide as well, though you never did post the Desire abilities for us to review. Low priority at the moment, still focusing on Guru.

[PsyBomb]

Ok, it's been a while and I have a Daevic question.

A Daevic is forced to shape half their veils from the Passion list... but I'm assuming that they are able to shape Passion veils in their free slots. If they should choose to do so, do these extras also benefit from Essence invested in their Passion?

For example, Kali, a level-12 Wrath Daevic of Vengeance, shapes 3+3 veils per day. Her three Pasison Veils are Wrathful Claws, Sea Drake's Talons, and Armbands of the Irked Elephant. If she chooses to form the Horns of the Minotaur as well, would they also get their essence from the Passion bond, despite not being in one of the forced slots? As currently worded, it could be interpreted either way.

In addition, although Passion Veils are not eligible for Expanded Capacity, is the Passion itself eligible for it?

Just trying to find potential break-points.

As for the Guru, still going through DPR sims on various builds. Gamla Akasins are pretty nice, especially with a 2-level dip of AkWar. having 15-ft threat radius from level one is pretty sick, actually, and not something I've seen done outside of a whip.

[stack]

Wrath daevic, do the bonus attacks for both vengeance and justice apply to overruns? Overruns aren't mentioned in all instances. Might need some rewording.

Seems like bullrush will see more use anyhow, since few daevic's will have the feats to max both.

[Ssalarn]

Ok, it's been a while and I have a Daevic question.

A Daevic is forced to shape half their veils from the Passion list... but I'm assuming that they are able to shape Passion veils in their free slots. If they should choose to do so, do these extras also benefit from Essence invested in their Passion?

For example, Kali, a level-12 Wrath Daevic of Vengeance, shapes 3+3 veils per day. Her three Pasison Veils are Wrathful Claws, Sea Drake's Talons, and Armbands of the Irked Elephant. If she chooses to form the Horns of the Minotaur as well, would they also get their essence from the Passion bond, despite not being in one of the forced slots? As currently worded, it could be interpreted either way.

In addition, although Passion Veils are not eligible for Expanded Capacity, is the Passion itself eligible for it?

Just trying to find potential break-points.

As for the Guru, still going through DPR sims on various builds. Gamla Akasins are pretty nice, especially with a 2-level dip of AkWar. having 15-ft threat radius from level one is pretty sick, actually, and not something I've seen done outside of a whip.

Yes, Passion is eligible for expanded capacity. No, Passion Veils shaped as normal veils don't get the associated benefits. Desire coming soon, it's just been an absolutely brutal week and a half for me at the day job and I haven't had much time to sit down and do design work.

[Ssalarn]

Wrath daevic, do the bonus attacks for both vengeance and justice apply to overruns? Overruns aren't mentioned in all instances. Might need some rewording.

Seems like bullrush will see more use anyhow, since few daevic's will have the feats to max both.

Yes, this will be addressed in the next update.

[stack]

So currently dominion's bonus only applies if the shield is used as an off-hand attack, which strongly encourages light shields instead of taking a heavy shield and a light blade. Is this intentional?

[Ssalarn]

So currently dominion's bonus only applies if the shield is used as an off-hand attack, which strongly encourages light shields instead of taking a heavy shield and a light blade. Is this intentional?

Initially yeah, but I'll take another look at it when I sit down to get the updates finished and make sure I still feel like that's necessary. It was initially meant to give you a kind of freebie Shield Master effect.

[PsyBomb]

Thanks for clarifying those. It lets me ignore a couple of REALLY cheesy builds I was almost done with (12d4 energy at level 7 is still fun). Although, your comments here just had me looking at a sword-and-board WRATH Daevic (yes, really, though it's kinda wonky), which is just hilarious. Unlike previous classes, I already have four build stubs going on this one. The Passions really give a TON of variety to it!

Justice Striker, Vengeance Pounce, Justice Shield-charger, Tyranny Intimidater...

And trust me, I can understand brutal weeks. Glad to hear you're alright