Dreamscarred Press Presents: Akashic Mysteries, Thread 2

[Ssalarn]

The Akashic Mysteries playtest is now officially closed! Our final version is available to subscribers on DriveThruRPG, Paizo, and directly through DSP's website. We're currently looking for any feedback on layout glitches, spelling or grammar errors, or similar issues in the .pdf release before we go to print. Thank you to everyone who participated in this long-running playtest!

[Ssalarn]

I also wanted to note this separately from the OP; I'm leaving for my wedding and honeymoon and will be out through pretty much the rest of April. Please still feel free to leave comments, playtest feedback, etc. in my absence and I'll answer when I return. Psybomb is one of my premier playtesters and the author of several guides for the released classes, so he may be able to answer basic rules questions. Stack is a contributor, most notably of the Swarm Master archetype, so any updates or insight he gives on that or relate subjects should be respected as direct designer feedback. Lord_Gareth will be the Dreamscarred Press representative in my absence and can handle anything related to the project that needs to be directly addressed by someone from DSP and can't wait until my return.

Thanks everyone!

***Edit***

For some reason it said February instead of April when I originally said when I'd be gone, then it tried to turn my corrected April back to February. Computers are weird.

[PsyBomb]

Posting early to add this note: Anyone who needs a basic run-down of any of the classes can find the link to my guides down in my signature. All of them are within the context of their own class, however, and several of the Veils have much greater (or deeply diminished) value outside of them (for example, when taken by the Shape Veil feat on a non-Veilweaving class). Any questions or requests for advice, I will answer ASAP. I look at this thread daily at least, so if a question isn't answered immediately by someone you can rest assured I'll get around to it soon.

Much of what I say is going to be backed by RAI straight from Ssalarn, for every comment you see here I've probably asked him three questions to that effect.

Finally, I welcome any constructive comments and criticisms, whether here of in my guides. More voices can only improve the final product, and I want anyone picking up a Veilweaver for the first time to be one read away from rocking out with the best of them.

[Lord_Gareth]

I am here! Let us populate this thread with questions and feedback.

[Powerdork]

So the fluff describes veilweaving as old "arcane magic" and I'm wondering if I can allow it in my Third Dawn game. Any insight?

[Mithril Leaf]

Posting early to add this note: Anyone who needs a basic run-down of any of the classes can find the link to my guides down in my signature. All of them are within the context of their own class, however, and several of the Veils have much greater (or deeply diminished) value outside of them (for example, when taken by the Shape Veil feat on a non-Veilweaving class). Any questions or requests for advice, I will answer ASAP. I look at this thread daily at least, so if a question isn't answered immediately by someone you can rest assured I'll get around to it soon.

Much of what I say is going to be backed by RAI straight from Ssalarn, for every comment you see here I've probably asked him three questions to that effect.

Finally, I welcome any constructive comments and criticisms, whether here of in my guides. More voices can only improve the final product, and I want anyone picking up a Veilweaver for the first time to be one read away from rocking out with the best of them.

On that note, the recent FAQ about size increases broke my old damage builds. I'm feeling a natural attack build coming up.

[Kaidinah]

So the fluff describes veilweaving as old "arcane magic" and I'm wondering if I can allow it in my Third Dawn game. Any insight?

I also have this question. Third Dawn looks very interesting to me.

[stack]

So the fluff describes veilweaving as old "arcane magic" and I'm wondering if I can allow it in my Third Dawn game. Any insight?

Third Dawn is the psionics only setting, correct? It would simply be a matter of fluff, if you want to use it. Psionics, magic, akasha, they are largely mechanical terms, in the game world a commoner wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I don't see any barrier to refluffing Akashic energy as being channeled from within, fluffing it as psionic in nature.

I've given some thought to psionic veils and think they will work well, while we are on the subject. Augments similar to the Sleeping Goddess discipline or the zealot's class features seem to integrate well.

[Powerdork]

Third Dawn is the psionics only setting, correct? It would simply be a matter of fluff, if you want to use it. Psionics, magic, akasha, they are largely mechanical terms, in the game world a commoner wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I don't see any barrier to refluffing Akashic energy as being channeled from within, fluffing it as psionic in nature.

Unfortunately, the group I'm running it for isn't so hot on refluffing. I'd love to encourage them to use akashic material, but I feel it might leave a bad taste in their mouths.

[Lord_Gareth]

In Third Dawn, akashic power is psionic in nature and inspired by the Flowshaper of Ksaren. Rename Essence to Flow, and the overall ability is known as Flowshaping. It is not otherwise changed.

[Deadkitten]

Binding Essence: Some feats and veils will require you to bind, rather than invest, essence into them. When essence is bound into a receptacle, it cannot be recovered or reassigned to another receptacle until 24 hours have passed, or the next time the user shapes their veils for the day, whichever comes first. If the receptacle is sundered or disjoined, the user immediately takes essence burn equal to the total essence invested in the veil. Once the burn has recovered, they can reinvest the essence normally

Treewalker [Akashic]You can run up trees and other living vertical surfaces as though they were solid ground.
Prerequisites: Con 15 or veilweaver level 1, ability to bind veils to your Feet slot.
Benefit: You gain the ability to bind your essence to trees, plants, and other non-sentient living things, allowing you to move up and down the surfaces of these as though you had a climb speed equal to your base land speed.You gain 1 point of essence.

This seems to say that once you use this feat, you cannot regain the essence until24 hours later.
Perhaps it needs to say invest instead of bind?

[Deadkitten]

Also, I would LOVE a feat that granted like maybe a 1/day use of the Viziers veilshifting just so I have an option sometimes when something unexpected is encountered by the Guru or Daevic.

[Kaidinah]

In Third Dawn, akashic power is psionic in nature and inspired by the Flowshaper of Ksaren. Rename Essence to Flow, and the overall ability is known as Flowshaping. It is not otherwise changed.

Sweet. Very good to know.

[Ssalarn]

This seems to say that once you use this feat, you cannot regain the essence until24 hours later.
Perhaps it needs to say invest instead of bind?

Both bind and invest are actually bad terms here; "briefly fuse" or something to that effect would be better since Treewalker doesn't require any invested essence at all for its function.

Also, Gareth explained Akasha's relation to Third Dawn perfectly.

Anyways, Florida's great, Universal Studios is a blast, and my fiancee' just finished spending an inordinate amount of money on perfume, so I've gotta dip.

Later guys!

[stack]

Get out of here, go have fun with real people! We'll try not to burn anything down while you are away.

[Mithril Leaf]

Get out of here, go have fun with real people! We'll try not to burn anything down while you are away.

I make no such promises personally.

[Biapolis]

Salutations. So, I am likely to be throwing together a Swarm Master for a game (sadly, the game won't be going on much longer, likely only one more session, but wanted to try Akashic stuff at least once before we switch to testing a friend's homebrew system/setting). Anyways, was wondering if there was a plan to change the Swarm Master in the document any time soon? I know there was a lot of talk about it some time ago, but most of it seems to have not been added to the document yet. As shown there, they still have powerpoints with little to do with them, no native way to increase the essence capacity of pestilence cloak, and a fairly squishy swarm at 10hp per essence. If there aren't any plans to update the document (particularly over the weekend), are there any changes that would be suggested that are likely to be made? I understand that Ssalarn is off on vacation, so no pressure. :]

[stack]

I sent some revisions in awhile back, but I think the document update was pending some other stuff, like Ssalarn having time. When I am not on my phone I will try to remember to send over my proposed changes, if you like.

[Biapolis]

I sent some revisions in awhile back, but I think the document update was pending some other stuff, like Ssalarn having time. When I am not on my phone I will try to remember to send over my proposed changes, if you like.

That would be helpful, thanks. :]

[soulsabre345]

Question about Crusader's Shield. If a Vizier grabs it through shape veil, and he shares it through path of the seer, do the allies affected use their meldshaper level or the Vizier's to determine the shield's hardness and HP? It seems to imply it should given you use the Vizier's saves on shared veils, but it doesn't seem to be explicitly mentioned.

Also, I think I know the answer to this already, but it's worth asking regardless. If you take shape veil to get a veil from the list of a different veilweaving class, it just gets added to the known veil list for that class correct? It doesn't give you anything further beyond that. (As in if you can normally have 4 veils active, taking shape veil doesn't let you have 4 active veils + the veil from shape veil.)

[Milo v3]

How good of a healer can a low to mid-level guru be?

[PsyBomb]

How good of a healer can a low to mid-level guru be?

Mediocre, I guess? They don't actually have too terribly much in the way of direct healing, just access to the Martyr's Toga and Immaculate Touch veils. You can clear some debuffs depending on your Philosophy as well. If you want to heal using Akasha, though, Guru makes a good dip for a Cleric in order to enable a couple of channeling feats.

[Milo v3]

Mediocre, I guess? They don't actually have too terribly much in the way of direct healing, just access to the Martyr's Toga and Immaculate Touch veils. You can clear some debuffs depending on your Philosophy as well. If you want to heal using Akasha, though, Guru makes a good dip for a Cleric in order to enable a couple of channeling feats.

Hmm... abit disappointing but understandable. I was going akasin for philosophy, since it gets removing blindness/deafness and raise dead. I'm not really interested in any of the akashic channeling feats, since none of them have anything to do with improving healing.

[Ssalarn]

Question about Crusader's Shield. If a Vizier grabs it through shape veil, and he shares it through path of the seer, do the allies affected use their meldshaper level or the Vizier's to determine the shield's hardness and HP? It seems to imply it should given you use the Vizier's saves on shared veils, but it doesn't seem to be explicitly mentioned.

Also, I think I know the answer to this already, but it's worth asking regardless. If you take shape veil to get a veil from the list of a different veilweaving class, it just gets added to the known veil list for that class correct? It doesn't give you anything further beyond that. (As in if you can normally have 4 veils active, taking shape veil doesn't let you have 4 active veils + the veil from shape veil.)

Allies of Vizier sharing Crusader's Shield would use the Vizier's veilweaving level to determine hardness and hp.

Yes, Shape Veil for someone who's already a veilweaver just adds the veil to their list.

[Vhaidara]

I've decided I'm going to try a veilweaver for paybombs new game. Probably guru. Also, subbing to the thread.

Also, have fun Ssalarn. Best of luck to you and to your fiancee.

[stack]

Psybomb has a new game? Why was I not informed?

[Vhaidara]

Psybomb has a new game? Why was I not informed?

Spawned out of GitP as Gods. I think he's still taking for now.

[PsyBomb]

Spawned out of GitP as Gods. I think he's still taking for now.

Indeed I am, right now at 2.5 apps in.

But back to the topic, shall we?

[Milo v3]

Is there any chance of their being a feat that will let you add in additional weapons to a philosophy? It seems like they're flavourful but abit restrictive, especially with only one having unarmed.

Edit: What's the range for the Akasin's luminosity ray?

[stack]

Is there any chance of their being a feat that will let you add in additional weapons to a philosophy? It seems like they're flavourful but abit restrictive, especially with only one having unarmed.

Edit: What's the range for the Akasin's luminosity ray?

Philosophy weapons and additions to them were discussed around here. I do not believe we have seen the final result of the discussion though.