mercoledì 27 febbraio 2019

The Gatherer Mage (Conjuration-focused Incanter)

Happy birthday to my friend and patron Zabor! My gift for him is a build of himself for Spheres of Power that reflects his passion for card games!
I like making things for my patrons. You will see other dedicated stuff soon!
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The Gatherer Mage (Conjuration-Focused Incanter)
Human incanter 1
N Medium humanoid (human)
Init +2; Senses Perception +1

Defense
AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10 (+1 Dex)
hp 8 (1d6+2)
Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +3
Defensive Abilities master of mysteries 4 rounds/day

Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee quarterstaff +1 (1d6+1)
Ranged light crossbow +1 (1d8+1)

Magic
Caster Level 1 (2  with Conjuration); MSB +1; MSD 12; Concentration +4
Tradition Cartomancy (Extended Casting, Focus Casting [a deck of cards], Skilled Casting [Profession/fortuneteller], Limited Divination [sense] [Divination], Mythogogy [Fate], Neutrality [Fate]), Terrain Casting; CAM Int
Spell Points 5
Conjuration Sphere- DC 14; Duration Concentration, 1 min/level; Range adjacent; Talents Aligned Creature*, Draconic Creature*, Extra Companion, Planar Creature* (celestial), Spell Conduit, Summoning; Drawbacks none
- Summon
- Aligned Creature
- Draconic Creature
- Extra Companion
- Planar Creature
- Spell Conduit
- Summoning
Divination Sphere - DC 13; Duration Sense (1 Hour); Range Medium (110 ft); Talents Prescience; Drawbacks Limited Divination (sense)
- Sense (Prescience, Read Magic)

Statistics
Str 12, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 17, Wis 13, Cha 10
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 12
Traits Harrow Born, Student of Philosophy
Feats Extra Magic Talent*, Sphere Focus (Conjuration)
Skills Bluff +1/+4, Knowledge (arcana) +7, Knowledge (planes) +7, Profession (fortuneteller) +5, Sense Motive +2, Spellcraft +7
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal
SQ incanter specializations (master of mysteries, sphere specialization [Conjuration]), summoner’s charm +1
Gear arcanist’s kit, light crossbow with 20 bolts, potion of protection, quarterstaff, 7 gp.

Special Abilities

Conjuration Sphere You have made contracts with outsiders, calling them to your side when you are in need.

Conjuration: Summon As a standard action, you may spend a spell point to summon a creature you have made a contract with (called a companion) causing it to appear in an adjacent square, ready to act on your following turn. You must concentrate to maintain the companion’s presence, but may always spend an additional spell point to allow the summoned creature to remain for 1 minute per caster level without concentration.
Companions can take many forms; a caster could contract with sympathetic angels or demons, elemental spirits, or primordial beings only given form after the contract is made. Thus, a companion could have the form of a knight in armor, a demonic dog, a flying anthropomorphic cat, or indeed virtually any other form. You cannot choose a companion with the exact same appearance as another creature.
When you gain the Conjuration sphere, you automatically gain a single companion of your choice. If a companion is conjured multiple times during a day, they do not regain hit points or other resources spent. If a companion is reduced to 0 hp, they instantly disappear and cannot be summoned until the following day.
A companion only recovers hp and resources (unless restored through the Heal skill or magical means) when the caster rests to recover spell points. A companion may be dismissed as a free action.
Companions may not carry equipment or items back and forth when summoned and so cannot be used to store items in their home plane or bring items to the caster’s plane. The exception to this rule is equipment gained through Conjuration talents.
Whenever you gain a companion, they immediately gain 1 (form) talent of your choice. Whenever you select a (form) talent as a magic talent, apply its effects to only a single companion. You may select (form) talents multiple times, but no more than once per companion, unless the talent says otherwise.

Conjuration: Aligned Creature (form) Your companion is connected to great forces of alignment, such as angels, devils, or other extraplaners. Choose one end of the alignment spectrum your companion possesses (good, evil, lawful, chaotic). Your companion becomes connected to that alignment, and may smite a target of its opposed alignment once per day, as the Paladin class feature. Your companion may smite its opposed alignment an additional time per day for every 7 Hit Dice possessed.

Conjuration: Draconic Creature (form) Your companion is draconic in nature. It gains a breath weapon which it may use once per 1d4 rounds. You must decide when this talent is gained whether your companion will breath a 30 ft cone or a 60 ft line and whether it deals fire, cold, acid, or electricity damage. It deals 1d8 damage per 2 Hit Dice (minimum: 1d8), and creatures may make Reflex saves (DC 10 + 1/2 Hit Dice + Constitution modifier) for half damage.

Conjuration: Extra Companion You gain an additional companion. Whenever you summon a companion, you must select only one of your companions, although you may have multiple companions summoned at once. You may select this talent multiple times. Each time it is selected, gain another companion.

Conjuration: Planar Creature (type) Your Conjuration companion is strongly tied to the alignment planes. Choose one of the following alignment groups. Your companion gains two of the options listed under than alignment group. Taking this talent a second time grants the remaining two options under that alignment.
Celestial
DR 2/evil (increasing by +1 per 5 Hit Dice)
Energy resistance (acid, cold, electricity) equal to 1/2 Hit Dice
+1 saves vs. disease (increasing by +1 per 5 Hit Dice)
Attacks count as good for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Conjuration: Spell Conduit Your companions can deliver touch spells and sphere abilities for you. If you and one of your companions are in contact at the time you cast a touch spell or sphere ability requiring a melee touch attack, you can designate your companion as the “toucher.” You may touch a companion within your natural reach as a free action during your turn to initiate this contact; your companion may do the same during its turn. The companion can then deliver the touch spell or ability just as you would. As usual, if you cast another spell or sphere ability before the touch is delivered, the touch spell or ability dissipates.
You may take this talent a multiple times. If taken twice, the companion may be anywhere within close range of you when you cast the touch spell or ability and may also deliver ranged touch attacks, using its attack modifiers and serving as the effect’s point of origin. Each additional time this talent is taken, increase the range at which this ability functions by one step, to a maximum of long range.

Conjuration: Summoning
Prerequisites: Conjuration sphere, 1st caster level or higher.
You may summon beings from other planes and bring them into your own. Summoning a creature in this manner takes 10 minutes of focused casting and costs 2 spell points. Summoning takes one of two forms: allies and hostiles. If you summon a servant of an extraplanar being with which you have a strong connection (i.e., a cleric summoning a servant of its god) they are considered an ally. All other creatures are considered hostiles, regardless of their disposition towards the caster. GMs have the final say in whether or not a character is capable of summoning allies.
To summon a target, you must choose a location within Close range for them to appear, and the kind of creature to be summoned must be known and stated. If you wish to summon a specific individual, you must use that individual’s proper name. You may summon multiple creatures with one use of this ability (up to 3 at once) but the combined Hit Dice of all summoned creatures cannot exceed your caster level.
Hostiles: If a hostile creature is unwilling to be summoned, it is allowed a Will saving throw to resist. If the saving throw succeeds, the creature is not summoned. If the saving throw fails, the creature is immediately summoned (Spell Resistance does not keep it from being called).
When a hostile creature is summoned, it is rooted to a specific location within range (you can decide how much space to give it, up to a 30 ft radius). It cannot leave this area until an agreement with you has been reached. It can escape this location by successfully pitting its Spell Resistance against your magic skill check, by teleportation or dimensional travel, or with a successful Charisma check pitted against a DC of your MSD + your Charisma modifier. It can try each method once per day. If it breaks loose, it can do as it pleases including fleeing, returning to its home plane, or attacking you.
If the creature does not break free of its prison, you can keep it bound for as long as you dare. You can attempt to compel the creature to perform a service by describing the service and perhaps offering some sort of reward. You make a Charisma check opposed by the creature’s Charisma check. The check is assigned a bonus of +0 to +6 based on the nature of the service and the reward. If the creature wins the opposed check, it refuses service. New offers, bribes, and the like can be made or the old ones re-offered every 24 hours. This process can be repeated until the creature promises to serve, until it breaks free, or until you decide to dismiss it (a free action so long as it remains trapped). Impossible demands or unreasonable commands are never agreed to. If you ever roll a natural 1 on the Charisma check, the creature breaks free of the spell’s effect and can escape or attack you.
Once the requested service is completed, the creature need only to inform you to be instantly sent back whence it came. The creature might later seek revenge. If you assign some open-ended task that the creature cannot complete through its own actions, the effect remains for a maximum of 1 day per caster level, and the creature gains an immediate chance to break free (with the same chance to resist as when it was trapped). Note that a clever recipient can subvert some instructions.
Allies: Allies are never hostile and do not resist, although additional payment is always expected for their services.
Payment can take a variety of forms, from donating gold or magic items to an allied temple, to a gift given directly to the creature, to a quest on your part that matches the creature’s alignment and goals. Regardless, this payment must be made before the creature agrees to perform any services. The bargaining takes at least 1 round, so any actions by the creature begin in the round after it arrives.
A task taking up to 1 minute per caster level requires a payment of 100 gp per HD of the creature summoned. For a task taking up to 1 hour per caster level, the creature requires a payment of 500 gp per HD. A long-term task, one requiring up to 1 day per caster level, requires a payment of 1,000 gp per HD. A nonhazardous task requires only half the indicated payment, while an especially hazardous task might require a greater gift.
Few if any creatures will accept a task that seems suicidal (unlike a companion from the Conjuration sphere that simply returns to its home plane when reduced to 0 hp, a summoned creature actually dies when it is killed). However, at the GM’s discretion, if the task is strongly aligned with the creature’s ethos, it may halve or even waive the payment.
If an agreement cannot be reached, the ally returns to their home plane immediately. If you are not willing to give the requested payment, but attempt to press the target into service anyway, treat the creature as hostile. Pressing a creature in this way may have a detrimental effect on any future attempts to summon an allied outsider.
At the end of its task, or when the bargained duration expires, a summoned ally returns to its home plane (after reporting back to you, if appropriate and possible).

Divination Sphere You can predict the future and gain information not available to the usual 5 senses.

Limited Divination Choose either sense or divine. You cannot use this ability, nor take talents which augment this ability.

Divination: Sense As a standard action, you may grant yourself paranormal senses for 1 hour/level. When you gain the Divination sphere, you gain the following sense.

Divination: Read Magic (Sense) You may spend a spell point to gain a sense that allows you to decipher all magical writings, such as those found in books, scrolls, on weapons, or in other places intelligible to you. This does not invoke the magic contained in the writing, although it may do so in the case of a cursed or trapped scroll. Furthermore, once you have read a magical inscription through this ability, you are thereafter able to read that particular writing even without this sense. You can read at the rate of one page (250 words) per minute. You can identify glyphs, runes, and symbol spells with a Spellcraft check (DC 10 + 1/2 caster level).

Divination: Prescience (sense) You may spend a spell point to gain a special sense granting a +1 insight bonus to attack and combat maneuver rolls. This bonus increases by +1 every 5 caster levels. In addition, you may dismiss this sense before making an attack or combat maneuver to instead gain an insight bonus of 10 + 1/2 your caster level to the roll as a free action.

Extended Casting Your magic takes longer to use than normal. When using an ability gained from a sphere or talent, increase the casting time by one step: swift actions become move actions, move actions become standard actions, standard actions become full-round actions, full-round actions take 1 full round to complete, and 1-round actions take 1 minute to compete. This drawback counts as 2 drawbacks when determining the number of spell points gained.

Focus Casting Your magic requires you to use an item such as a wand, holy symbol, ring, or staff to create magic. Using magic without your focus requires you to make a concentration check (DC 20 + 1/2 the caster level) to produce the desired effect. Failure means time (and any spell points) are spent, but no effect happens. If a focus is lost, stolen, or broken, the caster must create a new focus by securing the necessary item and spending 8 hours bonding with it. At the GM’s discretion, however, another caster’s focus may be used instead.

Master of Mysteries (2 specialization points) The incanter has training in the deep mysteries in magic, and his influence can be felt by all spell casters. As a standard action, he may tune himself to the environment, so that all magic flows through him. He must spend a standard action every round to maintain the attunement, and he can only be attuned for a maximum number of rounds per day equal to his class level + his casting ability modifier. These rounds do not need to be consecutive.
When any enemy caster uses a sphere ability or casts a spell or spell-like ability, they must overcome the incanter’s influence if any part of their line of effect comes within 60 ft. of him. If they succeed on a magical skill check against his magical skill defense, then their spell acts normally. If they fail, there are consequences.
At 1st level, a failed magical skill check causes the spell to be weakened. The caster level of the spell is lowered by the amount the check was failed by. If this reduces the caster level to 0 or less, the spell is countered.

Skilled Casting You must create your magic through singing, drawing, or some other activity. Your magic is tied to a particular Perform, Profession, or Craft skill (although with GM permission another skill may be substituted). You must succeed at a skill check to use any sphere ability. The DC of this skill check is 15 + the ability’s caster level. For every 2 points by which this skill check falls short of this DC, the ability manifests at -1 caster level. If this reduces the ability to a caster level below 0, the manifested ability fails and any spell points used are lost.
A caster with Skilled Casting must be able to perform their skill to use their magic, which is similar to but not the same as possessing other drawbacks. For example, a caster who must draw to create magic must have at least one hand free, although unless he also possesses Somatic Casting he may do so while wearing heavy armor without a chance of arcane spell failure. Likewise, a caster who uses music to create magic must be able to speak, but unless he also possesses Verbal Casting he can do so quietly and not break stealth.

Sphere Specialization (3 specialization points) You specialize in a sphere of your choice. When specializing in a sphere, you gain that sphere as a bonus sphere (or a magic talent belonging to that sphere if you already possess the base sphere) and gain a +1 bonus to your caster level with that sphere.
In addition, you also gain a series of abilities associated with that sphere, as detailed below.

Sphere Specialization: Conjuration
Summoner’s Charm (Su): Whenever you summon a companion from the conjuration sphere and maintain its presence through concentration, the companion remains for a number of rounds after you cease concentrating equal to ½ your incanter level (minimum 1) before disappearing. At 20th level, you may maintain one companion’s presence permanently, without concentration or needing to spend spell points. Only one companion may be maintained in this fashion at a time. You may designate another companion as permanent at any time, but doing so causes the previously-designated permanent companion to disappear.
Unstable Bonds (Su): At 1st level, your touch can disrupt the bonds that hold an extraplanar creature (whether summoned or called) on this plane. As a melee touch attack, you can cause a summoned or called creature to become shaken and staggered for a number of rounds equal to ½ your incanter level (minimum 1). You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your casting ability modifier.

Warrior Angel Companion
N biped Medium outsider (Warrior Companion)
Init +1; Senses Perception +0
Defense
AC +13, touch +11, flat-footed +12 (+1 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 11 (1d10+1)
Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +2
DR 2/evil
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk greatsword +6 (2d6+3, 19-20)
Ranged mwk chakram +3 (1d8+3)
Special Attacks smite evil 1/day (+0 to hit, +1/+2 damage)
Statistics
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 15
Feats Weapon Focus (greatsword)
Skills Knowledge (Planes) +3
SQ Aligned Creature, Battle Creature (x2), energy resistance, Planar Creature (celestial), Spell Conduit

Conjuration: Battle Creature (form) Your companion is learned in the ways of war. It gains proficiency with all simple weapons and when summoned, appears with up to 2 weapons it is proficient with (masterwork, but of unremarkable composition). These weapons gain a +1 enhancement bonus for every 3 Hit Dice possessed to a maximum of +5. A companion may gain this form talent twice. If gained a second time, it gains proficiency with all martial weapons and treats its Hit Dice as fighter levels when meeting the prerequisites for feats.

Sage Dragon Companion
N quadruped Medium outsider
Init +2; Senses Perception +0
Defense
AC +14, touch +12, flat-footed +12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural)
hp 11 (1d10+1)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +0
DR 2/evil
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee bite +4 (1d6+2)
Special Attacks breath weapon once per 1d4 rounds (30 ft cone, 1d8 fire, DC 11)
Statistics
Str 14, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 15
Feats Weapon Focus (bite)
Skills Knowledge (Planes) +3
SQ Draconic Creature, Spell Conduit

Build
The Gatherer Mage is built with a 20-point buy and 105 gp starting wealth. Favored Class Bonus is +⅙th of a bonus magic talent. If using a lower point buy, you can lower everything but Intelligence and Wisdom, that are also your most important attributes if using a higher point buy (or rolling really well). Intelligence is your casting statistic and affects the save DCs of all your magic and martial talents and your spell pool; Wisdom bolsters your Will saves. Charisma is also useful for long, extenuating bargainings with outsiders and other monster types.

How To Play a Gatherer Mage
You are an arbiter, a planar expert and researcher, and a fanatic about monsters and their characteristics. You know everything about ecology, special attacks and abilities, and environment of monsters, and try your best to recreate them in your conjuration companions. Fame, wealth, love, and squabbles between good and evil or law and chaos interest you less than increasing quantity, quality, and variety of your “deck”.

Future Abilities
Magic Talents Aligned Creature* (2nd), Alter Size, Animal Form*, Bestial*, Destruction sphere, Devil, Divine, Electric Blast, Enhancement sphere, Explosive Companion*, Extra Companion (x3*), Fate sphere (Mythogogy, Neutrality), Fire Blast, Force Blast, Frost Blast, Foreshadow, Greater Altered Size, Greater Summoning, Hanged Man, Harden, Justice, Lovers, Magical Companion, Mass Summon, Natural Enhancement, Physical Enhancement, Planar Creature (2nd), Powerful Companion, Protection sphere, Spell Ward, Spell-Warding Companion, Troop Companion*, Strength*, Temperance*
Feats Cantrips, Evolved Summoned Monster, Exceptional Ally, Harrowed, Harrowed Summoning, Linked Equipment, Magical Aptitude, Mind Over Manners, Weapon Focus (quarterstaff)
Skills Spellcraft, Knowledge (all), Diplomacy, and Profession (fortuneteller) are the most important skills for a Gatherer Mage.