Grab Like a Boss on Drivethru!

Like a Boss: A Book of Boss Encounters is a GREAT book featuring high-level monsters and encounters that Samurai Sheepdog put out to help the immense designer, editor, and publisher Owen K. C. Stephens with his medical expenses.

I owe Owen (pun intended) the opportunity to publish my very first pieces as a Pathfinder writer, so you can bet I wanted to contribute to this (and Kevin Glusing made me the surprise of completing my monster with a cohort that has my surname as a name, too… you will see). It is a Best Silver Seller at the moment but it needs to grow, so go grab it!

Tomorrow I will put exclusive content on my Patreon to complement my monster, so go see that too! Thank you all!

New Exit: The Book of Many Things, Decidedly Laughable Collection and Thank You To My Patrons!

Hey! The April's Fool Day has come and passed and Samurai Sheepdog has published The Book of Many Things: Decidedly Laughable Collection, featuring many fun options for characters: among these, the Culinarian class, sporting many delicious spell-recipes written ALSO by me!
To celebrate, tomorrow I will publish something related to the class for patrons only on my Patreon page. It will not be disclosed to blog readers, so if you want to see it, please consider donating!
Also, this is the day of the month when I publicly thank my patrons who donate $3 or more! So many, many thanks to Zabor and Cecil Maye! Friends, you make me feel important!

The Book of Many Things- Print Edition Kickstarter (back this, I am writing for it)

Do you remember my contributes to Samurai Sheepdog's The Book of Many Things? Well, guess what, there's a Kickstarter campaign going on to have the first two volumes of the book (and maybe the third one too) in print. Kevin Glusing made me the honor of being one of the authors chosen to write stuff for the stretch goals (we already reached six or seven extra pieces).
My first idea is a Sailor Saturn archetype for one of the classes in the book. If you want more... go pledge!

A 2E Priest in Pathfinder: What's Best? (Part 2: Druids and [Kobold] Shamans)

What characteristics should have a druid to become a 2E priest how I see it?
Let's continue our discussion where I left it last time. The druid has an obvious vantage over the cleric -she's an agent of a specific philosophy, with restrictions on weapon and armor use- and an obvious disadvantage- she lacks many important cleric spells. Plus, we want a way to get free from the wild shape power. And an aura would't be a bad thing at all.
Let's examine some archetypes of druids without an animal companion. Ancient Guardian is almost perfect: the domain choice is the right one for a pacifist priest, and her calm emotions power made my heart leap when I read it. Patience of Nature is also beautiful. Unfortunately, this druid does have wild shape, and the existing archetypes replacing wild shape don't stack with it.
Halcyon Druid is also beautiful, and it does replace wild shape. Peacekeeper? Great! Resist Fiendish Influence? Amazing! It's that bonded mask thing that ruins it a bit, making it too campaign-bonded- and I wouldn't have minded adding cleric spells to her list instead of wizard spells.
Then there are the Nature Priest and the Restorer. Both have something I like, and both have too little to be what I would need. However, I bet you knew I was going to talk about these archetypes, since I fused them together in my Nature Sage here, didn't you?
When we search outside of Paizo, the first thing to come to my mind is Kobold Quarterly #15, with the Nature's Orders article. The Purist druid archetype does a good work replacing wild shape with channel energy. Unfortunately, channel energy was just one of the things I was trying to make facultative for the cleric! Plus, the Purist doesn't alter the druid's spell list.
Another issue of the same magazine, #21, had a class that is still today one of my 3PP favourites, and later earned a book all for itself- The Shaman (before Paizo sent out a class of their own with this name). The Kobold Press Shaman is a spontaneous druid with a spirit guide similar to an animal companion, a series of totem secrets similar to oracle revelations, and some healing witch hexes. I even wrote some official archetypes for it! But, well... I talk about it here only because it expands the fan of options for divine characters, and because I like it so much. It's not versatile enough to serve my purpose.
Then there's (again) the Dùlra from The Book of Many Things! Do I like it? Heck if I like it! I asked for that class to be written, and Faerie Friend is a simply adorable power. I wrote the Brown Friar archetype for the class, and the Faerie Pact alternate class option to give other divine characters some of her abilities. It even has an aura! The only thing is... that even with my modifications, the dùlra spell list still includes too many distructive spells. It would still need some tinkering (maybe one day...)
Do you know what druid would be a perfect priest?! The Spirit Mender from Spheres of Power! But I guess I'd better dedicate an entire new post of this series to spherecasting, since it's a whole different system of magic...

New Exits: Imaginary Friends and... Many (Other) Things

Two things of mine went out in the last days of November! The new update of Samurai Sheepdog's Book of Many Things includes my Bloodranger (renamed Blue Moon Ranger), greater raiju, and Monsterskewerer (renamed Greater Beast Spear), in addition to the Faerie Pact, all of which were previously presented in other posts of this blog. Ad Maiora!
The other one is not officially a thing written by me... officially, at least. :D Rather, it's the first published work for my two little boys in the gaming industry! Flaming Crab Games' Imaginary Friends tooks inspiration by nine real children's inventions and drawings to create an all-new type of companion creature, available also to adult characters. Read it and enjoy the critters created by our kids, written down by us parents (with every possible accuracy) and enriched with their own pictures!

Ranger Archetype: The Bloodranger

Samurai Sheepdog's Book of Many Things has seen its October update. This should be the last one before going to Book 2. I like this project, as you know, and not only because there's some stuff written by me inside- and more could be in next book.
Like this archetype, for example. Do you know Ushio & Tora? It's one of my favorite manga. I know that "Bloodranger" is a funny name, but I like it!

Bloodranger

Sometimes, the ones most fit to keep monsters away from wildlands and settlements are the ones descended from their same blood. The bloodranger hunts and watches often against his own kin, or tries to be a mediator between different species and cultures.

Blood Enemy (Su): At 1st level, a bloodranger chooses a bloodrager’s bloodline. He gains a favored enemy linked to his bloodline, as per the following table. He doesn’t gain other favored enemies, but his bonuses against his blood enemy increase as normal as he increases in level. This ability modifies the ranger’s first favored enemy.

Bloodline	Blood Enemy
Aberrant	Aberrations
Abyssal	Outsiders (good or lawful)
Aquatic	Aquatic animals, humanoids, or monstrous humanoids
Arcane	Spellcasters
Black Blood	Aberrations or undead
Celestial	Outsiders (evil)
Destined	Humanoids (same race as the bloodranger) or magical beasts
Draconic	Dragons
Elemental	Outsiders (same or opposite subtype)
Fey	Fey
Infernal	Outsiders (chaotic or good)
Kyton	Outsiders (chaotic or good)
Naga	Humanoids (humans or reptilians)
Shadow	Outsiders (evil or good)
Shapechanger	Aberrations or shapechangers
Undead	Undead

Fast Movement (Ex): At 2nd level, the bloodranger gains the bloodrager’s fast movement ability. This ability replaces the first combat style feat.

Bloodrage (Su): At 3rd level, the bloodranger gains the ability to enter a bloodrage. His bloodrager level is considered equal to his ranger level -2. This ability replaces the first favored terrain.

Spell Casting: Starting at 4th level, a bloodranger casts divine spells drawn from the ranger spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a bloodranger must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell’s level. The DC for a saving throw against a bloodranger’s spell is 10 + the spell’s level + his Wisdom modifier. A bloodranger can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is the same as a bloodrager of the same level. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score.
A bloodranger’s selection of spells is limited. He has the same number of spells known as a bloodrager of the same level, and can choose new spells to replace old ones at 8th level and every 3 class levels after that, just as a bloodrager does. See the bloodrager for more information on swapping spells known.
In addition, the bloodranger adds his bloodline spells to his list of spells known at 7th, 10th, 13th, and 16th level. This modifies the ranger’s spells ability and replaces the second favored enemy.

Bloodcasting (Su): At 4th level, the bloodranger gains the ability to cast spells even while bloodraging. He can also cast these spells defensively and can make concentration checks for these spells while bloodraging. While bloodraging, he can cast and concentrate on only his bloodranger spells (see below); spells from other classes cannot be cast during this state.

Bloodline Powers: At 5th level, the bloodranger begins to gain his bloodline’s powers. He gains powers as a bloodrager of his ranger level -4, but uses them at his real level. This replaces all the remaining favored enemies, combat style feats and favored terrains, plus hide in plain sight.

Blood Companion (Su): At 10th level, while the bloodranger is raging and his animal companion is within 30 feet from him, he grants the companion the 1st-level bonuses on attack and damage granted by his first bloodline power (if any) and all immunities and resistances he gains from bloodline powers. Furthermore, whenever the bloodrager is affected by a spell or spell-like ability with the range of personal while his animal companion is within 30 feet from him, the companion also gains the benefit of that spell. This ability replaces camouflage.

Let this guy take a Greater Raiju (next on this blog) as his monster companion, and let the party begin! (Ushio has definitely the Destined bloodline, by the way).

Alternate Class Feature: Faerie Pact

Some of you could know that I collaborated to Kevin Glusing's Book of Many Things. I love that work and more things of mine will try to enter in its future updates... included this one, an alternate class feature for divine spellcasters based on one of my favored classes in the book, the dùlra.
A dùlra is a hybrid of cleric and druid, a faerie/nature priest whose most splendid feature is her Faerie Friend, granting her diverse and eldritch powers. With this rule, every priestly character (and not only priests) can benefit of the dùlra's fairy gift.

Faerie Pact (Alternate Class Feature)
Any character with access to cleric domains can replace one domain with access to one dùlra faerie friend. The character's dùlra level for the purpose of her faerie friend's granted power is equal to her level in the class granting the replaced domain. An oracle can give up her 1st- and 11th-level revelations to gain this feature; a shaman can replace her wandering spirit ability to gain it at 4th level.

Oh- and if you're curious, why don't you grab the book? It's pay what you want!

Edit: As requested by the book's author, I include here an example faerie friend- my favorite one, the Unicorn.

Unicorn: At 1st level, a dúlra with this faerie friend gains an aura of calm animals that extends out 5 feet. This functions as the spell and can be activated or suppressed as a swift action. The DC to save against this effect is 10 + 1/2 the dúlra’s level + her Wisdom modifier. A creature that saves against her aura’s effect is immune to the dúlra’s aura for 24 hours. As a standard action, the dúlra can end her aura’s effect until the next time she regains spells. If she does, she heals herself and each of her allies within the aura for 1d6 hit points per 2 levels. At 4th level, the aura also counts as a calm emotions effect and extends out by 5 feet, +5 ft. every 4 levels thereafter, to a maximum of 30 feet at 20th level.