Hey Pathfinder Gamers,

We took a bit of a hiatus for a number of personal reasons, but we’re back and bringing the good. With this in mind, we are presenting to you the wyrwood race. This is a race of constructs carved from wood yet fully sentient. They were originally created as a servant race for wizards long ago, but choose to rise up against their masters and fought for their freedom. Now they have earned their place as a heroic race, as worthy as humans, dwarves and catfolk.

Below we present their racial traits so you can play them in your game. Thank you for reading all about them

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, Paizo.com, and the OpenGamingStore (formerly d20PFSRD).

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Subscription. Purchasing the subscription gets you Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids, Advanced Skinwalkers, Advanced Lizardfolk, Advanced Samsarans Advanced Elans, Advanced Merfolk, Advanced Wyvarans, Advanced Changelings, Advanced Catfolk, Advanced Tengu, and Advanced Favored Class Options as well as Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods and 1 more race as soon as it is finished plus the upcoming Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium when it is finished. Download today at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore (formerly d20PFSRD), and Paizo.com.

Wyrwood Racial Traits

+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma: Wyrwoods are quick on their feet and are highly intelligent, but they are not gifted conversationalists.
No Constitution Score: Wyrwoods have no Constitution score. Any DCs or other statistics that rely on a Constitution score treat a wyrwood as having a score of 10 (no bonus or penalty). Wyrwoods start with 10 bonus hit points.
Construct: Wyrwoods are constructs.
Small: Wyrwoods are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty on their combat maneuver checks and to Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Normal Speed: Wyrwoods have a base speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Wyrwoods can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Low-Light Vision: Wyrwoods can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Construct Immunities: Wyrwoods are immune to all mind-affecting effects, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, and nonlethal damage. Wyrwoods are also immune to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless). Wyrwoods do not breathe, eat, or sleep, unless they want to gain some beneficial effect from one of these activities. A wyrwood can drink a potion to benefit from the effect and can sleep to regain spells, but neither of these activities is required to survive or stay in good health.
Construct Healing: Wyrwoods cannot heal damage on their own, nor can they be healed by spells of the healing subschool such as cure light wounds, but they can be healed through spells such as make whole.
Construct Life and Death: Wyrwoods do not risk death due to massive damage, but they are immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. Also, wyrwoods cannot be raised or resurrected.
Languages: Wyrwoods begin play speaking Common. Wyrwoods with a high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aquan, Auran, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Ignan, and Terran.

For Boys and Girls Wishing to Be Real Golems

Animated through eldritch magic, wyrwoods are playable intelligent constructs. Having won their freedom from repressive arcane creators, these crafted people grow in power as all the other heroic races and are free to choose their own destiny. Play this magically-constructed race and prove you are made from sterner stuff than flesh and bone!

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods is the essential guide for playing a wyrwood character. This 23-page supplement features:

• Racial Traits to play a wyrwood, 5 alternate racial traits, and 3 new character traits to customize your character for this unique play experience
• 9 New Character Class Options, including the golembreaker rogue archetype, the verdant bulwark tactician archetype, 2 new rogue talents, a new alchemist discovery, a new oracle mystery, and a new bloodline for bloodragers and sorcerers
• 5 New Feats, including one that will allow you to create more of your kind
• 4 New Magic Items and 7 New Spells and Psionic Powers
• 2 New Philosophies, which range from esoteric to genocidal
• Details on wyrwood adventurers, as well as suggestions on how to incorporate this race into your world

Be Heroic With This Advanced Race Today!

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, Paizo.com, and the OpenGamingStore (formerly d20PFSRD).

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Subscription. Purchasing the subscription gets you Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids, Advanced Skinwalkers, Advanced Lizardfolk, Advanced Samsarans Advanced Elans, Advanced Merfolk, Advanced Wyvarans, Advanced Changelings, Advanced Catfolk, Advanced Tengu, and Advanced Favored Class Options as well as Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods and 1 more race as soon as it is finished plus the upcoming Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium when it is finished. Download today at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore (formerly d20PFSRD), and Paizo.com.

Being constructs themselves, wyrwoods excel at know construct vulnerabilities of their kind far better than other races and they should have a serious advantage at taking down other constructs. So it only makes sense that wyrwoods have a rogue archetype that is better at attacking golems than others. This was the thinking at lead to the golembreaker archetype, and we present that archetype to you below.

This is but one of the many archetypes in this book. Inside you will also find the verdant bulwark, a tactician archetype that is all about defending the party with a shield where you get to throw your shield and it comes back to you (yes we did base it on a comic book super heroic). We also included a new oracle mystery and sorcerer bloodline. Plus there are new rogue talents, alchemist discoveries, and more. This is jam packed with options wyrwood specific options for you to enjoy this race.

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, Paizo.com, and the OpenGamingStore (formerly d20PFSRD).

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Subscription. Purchasing the subscription gets you Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids, Advanced Skinwalkers, Advanced Lizardfolk, Advanced Samsarans Advanced Elans, Advanced Merfolk, Advanced Wyvarans, Advanced Changelings, Advanced Catfolk, Advanced Tengu, and Advanced Favored Class Options as well as Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods and 1 more race as soon as it is finished plus the upcoming Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium when it is finished. Download today at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore (formerly d20PFSRD), and Paizo.com.

Golembreaker

Constructed as they are, wyrwoods have a natural understanding of what it takes to dismantle other creatures made through artifice. This knowledge is of special importance to a number of wyrwoods, commonly called golembreakers, who specialize in the infiltration and exploration of abandoned arcane sanctums, tombs, and other ruins with the aim of recovering arcane lore and magical artifacts. Vital as arcana is to the continuation of the wyrwood race, golembreakers often hold places of honor in wyrwood societies, and among other races they are known as reliable treasure hunters.
Associated Class: rogue
Associated Race: wyrwood
Replaced Abilities: evasion, uncanny dodge, improved uncanny dodge
Modified Abilities: sneak attack
Sneak Attack: A golembreaker’s training focuses on the elimination of threats commonly found in places laced with arcane magic. When they make a sneak attack against a construct, undead, or a creature with the elemental or incorporeal subtype (see disruptive strikes below) they use d8s to roll sneak attack damage instead of d6s. For sneak attacks against all other types of creatures, they use d4s instead of d6s. The golembreaker’s sneak attack ability otherwise functions as normal.
Arcane Sight (Sp): Beginning at 2nd level, a golembreaker can tap into the arcane energies that fuel their creation.They can use detect magic and identify at will as spell-like abilities, using their level as their caster level.
Disruptive Strikes (Su): When a golembreaker reaches 4th level, they understand how to disrupt the supernatural energy that breathes life into even ephemeral creatures, allowing them to deal critical hits and precision damage (including sneak attack damage) to creatures with the elemental or incorporeal subtypes.
Critical Sneak (Ex): Beginning at 8th level, whenever a golembreaker scores a critical hit against a construct or undead creature, or a creature with the elemental or incorporeal subtype, the attack is also a sneak attack. If the golembreaker is also flanking the target or the target is otherwise denied its Dexterity bonus to AC against the attack, they use d10s to roll the sneak attack damage instead of d8s.
Rogue Talents: The following rogue talents complement the golembreaker archetype: esoteric scholar (UC), magical attack, major magic, minor magic, trap spotter.
Advanced Rogue Talents: The following advanced rogue talents complement the golembreaker archetype: dismantling attack, dispelling attack, familiar (UC), slippery mind, thoughtful reexamining (APG).

All week long we are showing off what is inside the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods. Monday we shared the racial stats. Yesterday we shared the golembreaker archetype. Today we want to take a look at healing a wyrwoods.

One of the hardest problems with it comes to construct characters is healing them. This is why you see more half-construct races like Androids. But a full on construct race cannot be healed by cure light wounds. You need the make whole spell, a 2nd level spell that can be cast by only 6 of the 38 classes published by Paizo (not counting archetypes). Compare that to the 14 classes that can cast cure light wounds and you quickly see that that number is extremely limiting. So we came up with 4 spells that solve that problem. These are the effect repair spells. They are based on the cure wounds spells but are not as effective when compared to both the equivalent cure wounds and make whole spell. What they do have going for them is that they can be cast by a much wider range of spellcasting classes. In total 15 classes can cast them. The number is higher than cure light wounds because there is no logical reason to keep arcanists/sorcerers/wizards off the list. We hope you like these spells.

Effect Light Repairs

School transmutation; Level alchemist/investigator 1, arcanist/sorcerer/wizard 1, bard/skald 1, cleric/oracle/warpriest 1, druid/hunter 1, shaman 1, summoner/unchained summoner 1, witch 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Target one construct
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless, object); Spell Resistance no
By laying your hand upon a creature with the construct type, you repair 1d6 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +5). This spell neither heals nor harms living creatures nor undead.

Effect Moderate Repairs

School transmutation; Level alchemist/investigator 2, arcanist/sorcerer/wizard 2, bard/skald 2, cleric/oracle/warpriest 2, druid/hunter 2, shaman 2, summoner/unchained summoner 2, witch 3
This spell functions like effect light repairs, except that it repairs 2d6 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +10).

Effect Serious Repairs

School transmutation; Level alchemist/investigator 3, arcanist/sorcerer/wizard 3, bard/skald 3, cleric/oracle/warpriest 3, druid/hunter 4, shaman 3, summoner/unchained summoner 3, witch 4
This spell functions like effect light repairs, except that it repairs 3d6 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +15).

Effect Critical Repairs

School transmutation; Level alchemist/investigator 4, arcanist/sorcerer/wizard 4, bard/skald 4, cleric/oracle/warpriest 4, druid/hunter 5, shaman 4, summoner/unchained summoner 4, witch 5
This spell functions like effect light repairs, except that it repairs 4d6 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +20).

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, Paizo.com, and the OpenGamingStore (formerly d20PFSRD).

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Subscription. Purchasing the subscription gets you Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids, Advanced Skinwalkers, Advanced Lizardfolk, Advanced Samsarans Advanced Elans, Advanced Merfolk, Advanced Wyvarans, Advanced Changelings, Advanced Catfolk, Advanced Tengu, and Advanced Favored Class Options as well as Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods and 1 more race as soon as it is finished plus the upcoming Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium when it is finished. Download today at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore (formerly d20PFSRD), and Paizo.com.

Today is my last Monday as an unmarried man. Thursday, April 21st, my wonderful fiancee will become “The Wonderful Mrs McCoy.” We are thrilled and busy as all heck.

As a present to all of you Pathfinder and 5e fans, we put all of our PDFs over at Paizo on sale all week. Get everything at 50% off. This is in addition to your other current sale for our Traveller products over at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow and the OpenGamingStore. So head over to your favorite site and grab these deals today.

Magic Surrounds Us, It Penetrates Us, It Binds Us All Together

The ultimate blend of sorcerer and wizard, the arcanist weaves eldritch power and bends the world to her will. Her unique class abilities, her exploits, alter magic in ways no other caster can muster. Tap into these new exploits, and your character will harness power she has never touched before.

Book of Magic: 10 Arcanist Exploits is the essential guide for arcanist players. This 5-page supplement features::

• 5 new arcanist exploits allowing her to unleash the power of a priest, better defend against a school of magic, add spells to her spell list from another class, recall any spell from her spell book, and more
• 5 new greater arcanist exploits by which she may prepare spells that her enemies cast at her, prevent her enemies from escaping into other dimensions, utilize domain spells, and more

Let the Power Flow Through You with the Book of Magic!

Download Book of Magic: 10 Arcanist Exploits for your Pathfinder Roleplaying Game at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore and Paizo.com

Earlier this week, we released the Book of Magic: 10 Arcanist Exploits for Pathfinder. Today we are sharing with you two of those exploits.

First up, we have School Defense (Ex). This is for great for an arcanist that finds himself in a campaign featuring an enemy favoring a particular school of magic. In a horror campaign, necromancy would be an excellent choice. Meanwhile in a game where revolution is a major theme, choosing enchantment is a wise idea. No matter what, School Defense is a solid choice.

School Defense (Ex): The arcanist chooses one school of magic—her intense study grants her special insight into that school’s effects. She gains a +1 insight bonus on dispel checks and saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities of the chosen school. This bonus increases by +1 for every 5 levels the arcanist possesses (up to a maximum of +5 at 20th level).

Next up we have Unfettered. I like this one since it can give an arcanist a way to really differentiate themselves from other arcane casters. The arcanist can cast any of the cure spells if she wanted to help with healing, or she could cast enthrall if she wanted to be more bard-like.

Unfettered (Su): The arcanist selects one spell from a spell list other than the sorcerer/wizard list and adds it to her spellbook and spell list at one level higher than its original level.

Download Book of Magic: 10 Arcanist Exploits for your Pathfinder Roleplaying Game at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore and Paizo.com

Artwork by JEShields

I wasn’t planning on writing another Starfinder post at this point, but honestly, the news lately have been … rather eventful … and not all that great. So I figured I’d give everyone a bit of a break for a few moments while you read about about a group of bad guys your character can thwart.

So if I wrote a Starfinder setting, what kind of setting would I write. I talked previously about how there will be an evil undead faction that helped defeat the good the various good planet nations. Today, I am going to share with you another faction that the good planets. But if the last group are your dalek’s that want to exterminate all life, how is this group different. The best way to reference them is with Joss Whedon’s Dr Horrible Sing-Along-Blog: The Evil League of Evil. While obviously this will not be their final name, its flavor is something you will undoubtedly recognize in some theoretical future version. These are everything from leaders of street gangs to CEOs to interstellar corporations that own people’s souls (literally) to evil repressive tyrants. So yes, these are your space nazis, those that make deals with demons, baby eaters and so forth that you can kill without feeling bad about.

This group has no single racial identity. They range from humans, elves, dwarves, androids, orcs, hobgoblins, seedlings, to all the alien races, a sentient horse, and many kinds of intelligent monsters. Their soul unifying desire is power. Whether that power is used to make them a ungodly amounts of money, satisfy their demonic patron, to create their army of automata that follow their every whim, or just have lots of people to whom they can cause pain without repercussions. This group is by far the least unified and frequently succumbs to its own infighting, since one warlord want something a rival CEO has and will stop its war effort just to claim the object of that desire.

This works great in a game because unlike the never-ending tide of undead, these can be small groups of bad guys that you fight that can have little to no effect on your resistance efforts. So if you take out Evil Mike of Mike’s ArcanoSpaceRaiders (for example), Glenstar Corp, who’s territory border’s Evil Mike’s, won’t retaliate right away since you solved a problem for them. Or even better for them, if you do not liberate the whole of his territory right away, Glenstar can capture it, increasing their stature. You may have just made an ally. A very evil ally, but an ally nonetheless.

Its that time of year again! The Christmas in July Sale at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow will be starting on 21st of June (tomorrow!!!) and running through the 29th. JBE will have quite a bit on sale for Pathfinder this year. If you wanted anything of ours, this is the best time to pick it up. Here are a few of the highlights:

• All of the Deadly Delve Adventures like To Claw the Surface, Quests of the Sands, and Reign of Ruin
• All of the Book of Beasts like the dark foes in Monsters of the Shadow Plane and high level monsters in Legendary Foes
• The Book of Heroic Races Compendium
• and much more; find it all right here.

Add everything you want to your Wishlist at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow today so you don’t miss a deal.

Its the last full day of the Christmas in July Sale. Now is the best time to grab many of our PDFs while they are 25% off. That is just about every single PDF we have. Be it a Pathfinder book on settling a wilderness rules like the Book of the River Nations, monster books like Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane, adventures like the Deadly Delves: Reign of Ruin, or player races like Book of Heroic Races Compendium.

Or if you are want Traveller, get the d66 Compendium and the D66 Compendium 2, vehicles like the Foreven Worlds: Vehicles of the Frontier, careers like Player Careers Pack 1, monsters like the Creatures of Distant Worlds Compendium, or  fighters like Mech Tech ‘n’ bot: Fighters and Small Ships.

Players and Game Masters of Fifth Edition can get adventures Deadly Delves: Rescue from Tyrakven and Along Came a Spider and the races in Book of Heroic Races: Player Races 1 at a great discount right now.

13th Age GMs will enjoy getting 25% off of Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Great Druid, or an adventure like Deadly Delves: Reign of Ruin, or NPCs like Age of Icons: 100 Lich Queen Agents.

Don’t forget everything else we have on sale right now on the Christmas in July Sale going on right now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow.

As some of you have been asking lately, where’s Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen? The short answer is that it is coming. I know it is kind of a cop out, but it is the best answer I have at the moment. I am currently finishing up the last 2 archetypes now (a wilder surge and a shaman spirit. Wordcount wise it is 3/4 of the way finished. I still have to finish up the introduction fiction, the In Your Campaign section, and the final NPCs.

I am really satisfied with the way it is turning out. Matt Medeiros wrote a psionic power that give the race a nice Aquaman feel. Sasha Hall wrote some very nice spells and magic items. My wife kept peppering me with ideas for Creature from the Black Lagoon inspiration. It really is coming together nicely.

While I am always working on several projects at once, only one project at a time gets priority and that is where Gillmen stands right now: priority. So it should not be too much longer. Before Halloween, unless things go really unexpected.

Last night, I ran across a thread on the Paizo boards asking for more witch hexes. The posters were asking (among other things) for more helpful hexes, hexes that were more Rowling and Pratchett and less Brothers Grimm, but most strikingly to me, themed hexes, a hex that in some way ties into to their patron.

Well, I didn’t sleep much last night and a number of them. I could go crazy and write a whole host of them, but I really am trying to stay focused on Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen and finish that up. So instead, I am going to post some here on my blog whenever I finish up a group of three hexes for a patron.

So today’s hexes center around the Shadow patron. Long time fans of my work know that I love the plane of shadows. So a few shadow hexes was hardly difficult for me to come up with, especially considering the ideas in the thread. And with my editors’ approval, I present to you three new witch hexes.

Shadow

Each of these hexes is only available to witches with the Shadow patron.

Shadow Scout (Su): The witch touches a willing creature, tearing it apart from its shadow. The touched creature can control its shadow for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier, allowing it to scout ahead. The shadow has a fly speed equal to the the creature’s base land speed (with good maneuverability), has skills equal to the creature’s skills (with a +4 bonus to Stealth checks in dim light and a –4 penalty to such checks in bright light), has an Armor Class equal to the touched creature’s touch AC, is incorporeal, and can see just as the touched creature, but it cannot attack, speak, hear, cast spells, or otherwise interact with the environment. Meanwhile, the touched creature is unconscious until the shadow’s return. If either the touched creature or the creature’s shadow takes any damage or the shadow fails to make it back to the touched creature before the duration expires, the touched creature instantly wakes up without a shadow, suffering 1 negative level. At the next sun rise, this negative level disappears and the creature’s shadow reappears attached to the creature; the negative level cannot be removed any earlier. A shadow that returns to the creature before the duration expires suffers no negative effects. Whether the shadow returns to the creature or not, the creature remembers all the shadow saw. A creature without a shadow cannot be targeted by this hex.

Shadow Trip (Su): The witch momentarily takes control of a creature’s shadow, using it to trip the creature. The witch attempts a trip combat maneuver against a creature within 30 feet, using her witch class level as her base attack bonus and her Intelligence modifier instead of her Strength modifier to determine her combat maneuver bonus.

Major Hex: Cold Shadows (Su): The witch can choose a living creature within 30 feet. It takes 1d6 points of Strength damage + 1 per 2 witch levels (to a maximum of 1d6+10). A successful Fortitude save reduces this damage by half. Once a creature has been targeted by the cold shadows hex, it cannot be targeted by it again for 24 hours.

For more witch spells, download Book of Magic: Signature Spells 2 at DriveThruRPG, RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore or at Paizo.com.

From Advanced Skinwalkers being inspired by lycanthropes and stores of native american shapeshifters to Advanced Androids being inspired by science fiction characters like Data, Ash, Bishop, the Terminator, the skin jobs from Bladerunner and Vision, all our options in the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Series draw from a myriad of sources. Advanced Gillmen is no different in this respect.

While I am still working on it, I thought I would share with you some of those sources of inspiration:

• Cthulhu Mythos. How many times have we heard about people walking out of the sea having the “Innsmouth look” to them? Well, we want to make sure that these guys are solidly in keeping with that.
• Advanced Race Guide. There is precious little in the ARG about the gillmen race. What there is is the race’s origin: they were created by the aboleths. So we are sticking to that story. More over, this origin had a sizable hand in shaping gillmen culture. This has a strong influence on the way they are today.
• Creature from the Black Lagoon. Both my wife’s love for this classic monster movie and Erik Mona citing this as a reason for making this race is enough reason for me to pay serious attention. You will find racial options in this book to make this classic character
• Aquaman. I have to mention the whale in the lake. Without a doubt, we made sure to include some Aquaman love in here. Being able to call sea creatures to aid you in your fight against evil is something that only the most worthy can do (and Player Characters are always worthy).
• Hellboy. Abraham Sapien is an aquatic man-like creature that enjoys a good book, if someone can turn the pages for him. We made sure to include some fun bits inspired by this story.

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen will be the final part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Subscription, aside from the Advanced Compendium. Purchasing the subscription gets you Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods, Advanced Androids, Advanced Skinwalkers, Advanced Lizardfolk, Advanced Samsarans Advanced Elans, Advanced Merfolk, Advanced Wyvarans, Advanced Changelings, Advanced Catfolk, Advanced Tengu, and Advanced Favored Class Options as well as Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen as soon as they are finished plus the upcoming Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium when completed. Download today at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore, and Paizo.com.

Last week we started a series of witch hexes based on the patrons. We started off with the Shadow patron. We continue the series this week with the Elements patron.

Elements

Each of these hexes is only available to witches with the Elements patron.

Engulfing Hexflame (Su): The witch chooses a creature within 30 feet and the creature is engulfed in protective but harmless blue, green, and red flames for 1 round. While on fire, the creature gains either fire resistance 10 or cold resistance 10, per the witch’s choice at the time of using this hex. The duration of this hex can be extended with the cackle hex. At 8th level and 16th level, the duration of this hex is extended by 1 round. Once a creature has benefited from the engulfing hexflame hex, it cannot benefit from it again for 24 hours. A creature engulfed in the fire suffers a –10 penalty to all Stealth checks. The flames are always visible, even if the creature is invisible.

Whispers on the Wind (Su): The witch whispers a short message to a creature within 120 feet. Only the target of this hex hears the message. The target creature can immediately reply with a short message. At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, the witch can choose another creature who can hear and reply to the message.

Major Hex: Change Element (Su): The witch can alter the type of damage done by a spell she casts. When she casts a spell that deals energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, or fire only), she can have it deal another type of energy damage instead, so long as she has another spell prepared of 1st-level or higher which inflicts the desired energy type. For example, the witch can cast a lightning bolt that deals fire damage if she also has burning hands prepared, but after casting lightning bolt, she could not then cast a burning hands that deals electricity damage unless she has another appropriate spell prepared.

Try a witch with words of power! Download Book of Magic: Energy Words revisted at DriveThruRPG, RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore or at Paizo.com.

Two weeks ago, I noticed a thread on the Paizo forums about how witches need more love. Since then I have been doing a weekly series, giving people more witch hexes, themed to their individual patron. So far we have given hexes to witches with the Shadow and Elements patrons. Today we take a look at the Light patron.

Light

Channelling Light (Su): The witch raises her hand and unleashes a fragment of her patron’s light. All undead creatures within 10 feet of the witch take 1d6 points of damage. A Will save halves this damage. This damage increases by 1d6 at 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter. An undead creature affected by channelling light cannot be affected by this hex again for 24 hours. If the witch can also channel positive energy, she adds her channel energy dice to the damage dealt by this hex.

Light of Truth (Su): The witch touches a creature and the creature is bathed in light. The touched creature must succeed on a Will save every time she attempts to tell a lie as if under a zone of truth spell. This effect lasts for 1 hour, and the witch can use this hex a number of times per day equal to her class level.

Major Hex: Burning Light (Su): The witch points at a creature she can see and a ball of light burns the creature’s eyes. The creature is blinded. A creature with the light sensitivity or light blindness ability also takes 1d4 temporary negative levels. A successful Fortitude (object) save reduces the duration of the blindness to 1 round, and the creature does not suffer negative levels. A creature that is immune to blindness cannot be affected by this hex. A creature affected by burning light cannot be affected by this hex again for 24 hours.

Grab some excellent fire-based spells witch spells for your game. Download Book of Magic: Insurgency of Summer at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, Paizo.com and the OpenGamingStore.

Just a quick update on Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen: the text is finished and back from the editors and is in layout. There is a snag though. Next weekend, I am going to TravellerCon and won’t have time to work on it then. I have to prepare for the convention so this weekend looks fuzzy. The weekend after the convention, I have a personal commitment and will not be able to work on it that weekend either. So it could be the end of October before Advanced Gillmen gets released.

I am going to try to finish it this weekend, but if it turns out that I cannot do the quality job on it that I expect of myself, I would rather hold it back and take the time necessary to do and give people quality over quick.

To tide you over until then, I will be releasing previews of what is inside starting later today.

We hope you are as excited about Advanced Gillmen as we are.

Continuing our series of witch hexes themed for specific patrons, we bring you hexes from the Agility patron. But before we do, I want to ask you a question: should we name the patrons? Should we give these patrons names and descriptions as to what their goals are? Give them some personality and what not? Make them as detailed as deities? Talk about how what makes a coven of this kind of patron is different from another patron? Would you like it if we did that? Leave a comment below or post your answer on our facebook page, twitter, google+, or the Paizo thread that start this whole series.

Quick reminder, you can find our previous patron hexes here: elements, light, and shadow. And now, on with the hexes.

Agility Hexes

Borrow Speed (Su): The witch touches two willing creatures, reducing one creature’s speed by 10 feet for the next round and increasing the other’s speed by 10 feet for one round.

Leg Lock (Su): The target creature’s legs lock together, reducing the creature’s speed to 5 feet for 1 round. This hex can be extended with the cackle hex.

Major Hex: Swift Step (Su): The witch teleports a short distance. As a move action, the witch can teleport up to 30 feet + 5 feet for every 2 levels the witch possesses beyond 10th (to a maximum of 55 feet at 20th level). A witch can bring along a willing creature she touches by reducing her teleportation distance by half.

Download Book of Magic: Signature Spells 1 today at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD or at Paizo.com.

As we’re nearing Halloween, I thought I would theme the hexes with a more spooky feel for a few weeks. First let me just remind you of all our previous set of patron witch hexes: agility, elements, light, and shadow. And now, here are our hexes of death.

Death Hexes

Fear of Death (Su): The witch stares into the eyes of a creature within 30 feet and the creature sees visions of death. If the creature fails a Will save, it is shaken for a number of rounds equal to the witch’s Intelligence modifier. At 5th level, a creature that fails the Will save is frightened instead. The creature and the witch must be able to see each other. Any creature that is immune to blindness is also immune to this ability. A creature affected by the fear of death hex cannot be affected by it again for 24 hours.

Steal Life (Su): The witch touches a living creature and deals 1d8 points of negative energy damage + 1 per witch level (to a maximum of 10). The witch gains a number of temporary hit points equal to the amount of damage dealt. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour. A creature targeted by this hex cannot be targeted by this hex again for 24 hours.

Major Hex: Drain Life (Su): The witch spits a curse at a creature within 30 feet and the creature begins to feel its life draining away. If the creature fails a Fortitude save, it suffers 1 temporary negative level. The creature must attempt another Fortitude save on the following round or take an additional temporary negative level. This continues until the creature succeeds 1 Fortitude save, a number of Fortitude saves equal to the witch’s Intelligence modifier have been failed, or the creature has a number of temporary negative levels equal to its HD (at which point the creature dies). A creature affected by the drain life hex cannot be affected by this hex again for 24 hours.

Download Deadly Delves: Along Came a Spider today for a spooky Halloween themed adventure at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD or at Paizo.com.

​Continuing our series of witch hexes that you can only take with a certain patron, we focus this week on the Trickery patron. These witches are special. While they are still full spellcasters, they have an element of the “sneaky bastard” as my wife calls, giving them a rogue-like flare. Trust in useless objects is a favorite of mine. So few abilities lower a creature’s armor class that it really makes this hex a must have. 

The inspiration for covered in horrors comes from the movie Young Sherlock Holmes. It may be a bad movie, but I’ve drawn so many ideas from it, it deserves credit where credit is due. In the movie, the cult makes people hallucinate that something terrible has covered their bodies and the only way if getting rid of it is to take such drastic action that you do not realize you are harming yourself. Here, this is just such an effort. 

Remember to check out out patrons on death, agility, elements, light, and shadow.

Trickery Hexes

Confusing Friends and Foes (Su): The witch curses a creature to have trouble telling friends from enemies. The creature must attempt a Will save each round for a number of rounds equal to the witch’s Intelligence modifier. On a failed save, the creature believes those it normally considers its allies to be its enemies and those normally its enemies to be its friends. The duration of this hex can be extended with the cackle hex.

Trust in Useless Objects (Su): The witch touches a creature’s armor or shield. The creature wearing the armor or holding the shield reduces the bonus the object grants to the creature’s Armor Class by a number of points equal to the witch’s level (to a minimum bonus of 0). This reduction in Armor Class bonus lasts for a number of rounds equal to the witch’s Intelligence modifier. This hex can be extended with the cackle hex.

Major Hex: Covered in Horrors (Su): The witch makes a creature within 30 feet believe itself to be covered in snakes, spiders, or something else equally terrifying. A creature that fails a Will save is overcome with fear and is paralyzed for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier. If the creature fails the save, it must attempt a second save. If the second save fails, the creature can move just enough to attack itself, believing it is attacking the horrors covering its body, dealing its melee attack damage upon itself. Each round, the creature may attempt new saving throws to end the effect. The duration of this hex may be extended with the cackle hex. Once a creature has been targeted by the covered in horrors hex, it cannot be targeted by it again for 24 hours.

Know what advanced race makes a surprisingly good witch: androids. Their Dex and Int bonus are what witches rely on heavily, without costing them hit points like elves do. And their nanite surge is great when using a hex that requires a touch attack. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, Paizo.com, and d20PFSRD.

First off, let me apologize for Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen taking so long. A long list of random and not-so-random delays came up in the creation of this forcing its delay again and again. But it is done now and is available for download for the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Series subscribers and will be available for individual download soon. 

So to start off this week of previews, first we answer the question of “What is a gillman?” Well the easy answer is that they are humans under the sea, but that is far to simplistic. This race is far more complex than a mere human with gills that can swim good. We drew inspiration from a number of sources chiefly the classic monster movie series Creature from the Black Lagoon and the ever popular writings of H. P. Lovecraft. The Creature was suppose to be the missing link between humans and their water-dwelling ancestors.Lovecraft wrote about the people of Innsmouth having a specific “look” about them that is both disquieting to look at and allows them to breathe underwater. Combine those two sources of inspiration with the few lines of text from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Race Guide about how they were once humans modified to be able to survive underwater and be their servants, you have a solid base to build from. 

Gillmen Racial Traits

+2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, –2 Wisdom: Gillmen are vigorous and beautiful, but ages of domination by the aboleths has made them weak-willed.

Medium: Gillmen are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Aquatic: Gillmen are humanoids with the aquatic subtype.

Normal Speed: Gillmen have a base speed of 30 feet on land. As aquatic creatures, they also have a swim speed of 30 feet, can move in water without making Swim checks, and always treat Swim as a class skill.

Amphibious: Gillmen have the aquatic subtype, but can breathe both water and air.

Enchantment Resistance: Gillmen gain a +2 racial saving throw bonus against non-aboleth enchantment spells and effects, but take a –2 penalty on such saving throws against aboleth sources.

Water Dependent: A gillman’s body requires constant submersion in fresh or salt water. Gillmen who spend more than 1 day without fully submerging themselves in salt water risk internal organ failure, painful cracking of the skin, and death within 4d6 hours.

Languages: Gillmen begin play speaking Common and Aboleth. Gillmen with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following languages: Aklo, Aquan, Draconic, and Elven.

Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen for Pathfinder at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, Paizo.com, and the OpenGamingStore.

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Subscription. Purchasing the subscription gets you Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods, Advanced Androids, Advanced Skinwalkers, Advanced Lizardfolk, Advanced Samsarans Advanced Elans, Advanced Merfolk, Advanced Wyvarans, Advanced Changelings, Advanced Catfolk, Advanced Tengu, and Advanced Favored Class Options as well as Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen plus the upcoming Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium when it is finished. Download today at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore, and Paizo.com.