Monthly Archives: April 2020
Tiered Incorporeality and Invisibility for GammaFinder and FreedomFinder (Starfinder-compatible)
It’s a double-sized weekday post with TWO tiered powers, appropriate for use as tiered mutations for GammaFinder, or Power Sets for FreedomFinder) both Starfinder-compatible setting hacks).
Incorporeality (Sp)
Tier 1: You can expend 1 Resolve Point to become incorporeal (as the Universal Creature Rule) as a full action once per day. You can be incorporeal for a maximum of 5 rounds, and must take a move action to dismiss it prior to this. This acts as a spell with a spell level equal to 1/3 your character level.
Tier 2: You can now become incorporeal as a standard action, and end it as part of any other action.
Tier 3: You regain the ability to use this power after you expend Resolve Points to regain Stamina Points following a 10-minute rest.
Tier 4: Your ability to become incorporeal is now a supernatural ability (as a result, using it no longer provokes attacks of opportunity).
Tier 5: When you are incorporeal you can now move a single unattended object of up to light bulk with you.
Tier 6: When incorporeal, you can now attack and affect corporeal objects, thought your attacks do only half damage. You can only make one attack each round.
Tier 7: You can now make a normal number of attacks while incorporeal, but still only do half damage. You can now become incorporeal by expending 1 Resolve Point an unlimited number of times.
Tier 8: When you become incorporeal, you can now also make incorporeal an adjacent willing ally (or grabbed helpless creature, or held unattended object, or grappled active foe) and cause them to be incorporeal as well. This takes one free hand. You cannot move to a location where a creature or object you have made incorporeal would be damaged if it became incorporeal while it is with you, and if you stop touching it for any reason the creature or object ceases to be incorporeal.
Tier 9: You now gain the ability to use your land speed to move in any direction while incorporeal, even if there’s no ground there to move on.
Tier 10: You can now become incorporeal without expending a Resolve Point. Once you have done so, you cannot use this power without expending a RP again until after you expend Resolve Points to regain Stamina Points following a 10-minute rest.
Invisibility (Sp)
Tier 1: You can become invisible as a full action once per day, as the invisibility spell, with a maximum duration of 5 rounds.
Tier 2: You regain the ability to use this power after you expend Resolve Points to regain Stamina Points following a 10-minute rest.
Tier 3: You can now become invisible as a standard action, with a maximum duration equal to 1 round/level.
Tier 4: You can now make a Stealth check as a move action, even when you have no concealment or cover. This Stealth check lasts 1 round, take a -5 penalty, and if you make an attack roll when you have neither concealment nor cover the Stealth immediately ends.
Tier 5: Your invisibility is now treated as a supernatural ability (as a result, using it no longer provokes attacks of opportunity).
Tier 6: You can now also become invisible by expending a Resolve Point to do so.
Tier 7: If you make an attack while invisible, you can now expend a Resolve Point for it to not end your invisibility.
Tier 8: When you are invisible, you can now touch an adjacent willing ally (or grab a helpless creature or unattended object, or grapple an active foe) and cause them to be invisible as well. This takes one free hand. If you make an attack roll as part of this, you must expend a Resolve Point for it to not end your invisibility.
Tier 9: Your invisibility now lasts 1 minute/level. You can now extend your invisibility (as with Tier 8) to one creature per hand you use.
Tier 10: Your invisibility now lasts 10 minutes/level. Making an attack without expending a Resolve Point does not end the invisibility, but instead reduces its duration by 10 minutes. If this would reduce the duration to less than 0, it instead lasts 1 more round.
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Thanks, everyone.
On Creatives During A Pandemic
Hey, creative person.
Yes, you.
I get it. You have deadlines, and responsibilities, and bills, and people counting on you. People tell you to be kind to yourself, to take a break, to ease up… and you can’t.
I understand. I promise.
Only you can know what can be back-burnered, and what can’t. I won’t pretend to be able to give you advice on that front.
I also want to assure you, the trouble you are having now focusing on things? The lack of spoons, or inspiration, or concentration?
That’s the new normal. I can’t say we are ALL dealing with it. Maybe there are some folks who aren’t having trouble right now. But I haven’t talked to any creative that isn’t.
There’s an additional cognitive load on all of us. Worry, planning, concern, frustration, fear… those things take a toll. that toll comes directly from your brain.
The brain you use to be creative.
So, while I can’t tell you to take a break, or take it easy (because I don’t know if you are in a place where you CAN do that), I do want to encourage you to remember things are not normal.
Whatever you would do if you had something dragging down — illness, technical problems, jury duty, whatever?
Global pandemic qualifies for the same measures.
And everyone gets that.
FreedomFinder, a Super and Heroic Setting Hack for Starfinder.
FreedomFinder
In the not-too-distant future, the rapid advances of technology and societal change outstrip the capacity of the law and government officials to keep up. As alien species contact humanity (and begin to move in to once-all-human living spaces), terraforming makes the Moon, Mars, Venus, Titan, Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, Enceladus, and even the dwarf planet Ceres viable living spaces, FTL travel breaks causality, genetic engineering make superhuman abilities commonplace, and quantum engineering and psionic frequency adjustments (both sometimes called “magic”) allow reality itself to be manipulated, the legislatures and courts of the Sol System governments cannot keep up as they are choked with questions ranging from if telepathy is covered as free speech or is considered unlawful search and seizure to the legality of trying someone for a crime committed by a version of themselves from a slightly different reality.
As is always the case, as societal protections and institutions prove inadequate to protect people, gangs, thugs, immoral organizations (from corporations to insincere religions to secret societies) and a dozen brands of organized crime move in to fill the void, profiting on human need and misery in the process. Justice becomes rare. Even essential freedoms are at risk of being lost and forgotten.
The heroes of this new era, the FreedomFinders, don’t intend to allow that.
FreedomFinder is a setting hack for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, designed to use that games’ rules (with a few additions and changes, the “hack” part). It also draws extensively on the rules for tiered mutations for GammaFinder.
(all art by Jacob Blackmon)
ARMOR
There is no assumption that character wear armor in FreedomFinder. Without armor, you get a bonus to EAC equal to your level, and a bonus to KAC equal to your level +2.
If you are proficient with heavy armor, you get an additional +1 bonus to EAC and KAC, and if you are proficient with powered armor, you get an *additional* +1 bonus to EAC and KAC.
You can wear armor—light armor gives +1 to KAC, with a max Dex of +5 and an armor check penalty of -1, while heavy armor gives +2 to EAC and KAC, with an armor check of -3 and a -5 ft. speed adjustment.
You can also have armor be something you pick up with the Geared power set. In that case you get all its functions EXCEPT its EAC and KAC boost, which are limited to those of light and heavy armor above.
You can gain and use armor upgrades with the Geared power set without depending on actually having any armor upgrade slots. They are simply high-tech devices (HTDs). There is a maximum of how many HTDs you can use at once, equal to one, plus one for every kind of armor you are proficient with, +1/3 character levels.
CLASSES
You can be an envoy, mechanic, operative, or solider at no cost. You can also choose to be any other class, but doing so costs your “B” Power Set (see below), Thus a starting envoy FreedomFinder PC has an A and B beginning power set, while a starting technomancer only gets an A Power Set. At 2nd level, both would receive their C power set.
You gain all the normal class features of your class, though you may choose to swap some out for Power Sets using various Alternate Class Features (see Power Sets, below).
POWER SETS
Every character in FreedomFinder has Power Sets, which are special abilities you possess that place you apart from even the extraordinary members of your species and class. You gain two or three power sets (referred to as sets A, B, and C), depending on your class (see above). Each power set gives you one GammaFinder mutation tier or FreedomFinder Power Set tier at specific character levels, as noted below.
Power Set Tiers by Character Level
1 Power set A tier 1, power set B tier 1
2 Power set C tier 1
3 Power set A tier 2, power set B tier 2
4 Power set C tier 2
5 Power set A tier 3, power set B tier 3
6 Power set C tier 3
7 Power set A tier 4, power set B tier 4
8 Power set C tier 4
9 Power set A tier 5, power set B tier 5
10 Power set C tier 5
11 Power set A tier 6, power set B tier 6
12 Power set C tier 6
13 Power set A tier 7, power set B tier 7
14 Power set C tier 7
15 Power set A tier 8, power set B tier 8
16 Power set C tier 8
17 Power set A tier 9, power set B tier 9
18 Power set C tier 9
19 Power set A tier 10, power set B tier 10
20 Power set C tier 10
EQUIPMENT
You can have any minor, noncombat gear based on real-world items that would normally be light or negligible bulk and 5 credits or less, such as cell phones, flashlights, and so on. You are also considered to have any toolkit you need to use your skills without penalty, as well as a basic medkit if you have ranks in Medicine, but toolkits that grant bonuses must be gained through the geared power set (see below).
You otherwise don’t receive any equipment as “loot,” and this game ignores wealth by level. However, you can take the Geared Power Set for FreedomFinder characters who depend on their equipment to be effective.
GEARED POWER SET
You have access to devices and items others don’t. You may have inherited such items, have them provided to you by some organization that supports you (or that you work for), or have created them yourself.
If one of your items is lost or destroyed, you can replace it within 30 days, though the GM may require you to undertake an adventure to do so.
If an item uses batteries, ammunition, or other minor forms of charges, it refills every day that you have access to your normal supplies and civilization.
It an item is a 1-shot (such as a grenade or serum), it is restored (normally by acquiring a new one from the same source as the original) once every 30 days. Alternatively, you can have a 1-shot item be restored every day by treating it as having an item level 5 levels higher than it’s normal item level for purposes of when the Geared Power Set can access it. For example, if you take a item level 1 grenade as a piece of equipment it is restored every 30 days. But if you treat it as an item level 6 piece of equipment for purposes of the Geared Power Set, you can use the grenade once per day.
The Geared Power Set has three subsets, all of which follow the basic Geared rules. These are Geared (basic), Geared (specialized), and Geared (focused). You may take each of these Geared Power Sets as a separate Power Set if you wish to have a lot of equipment beyond comm units and mundane things.
Geared, Basic
Tier 1-10: You gain a number of items equal to your tier. The highest level of these has a maximum item level equal to (double your tier) -2, the next-highest a max of (double your tier) -4, and so on.
Geared, Specialized
Tier 1-10: You have two items , each with a maximum item level equal to your double your tier.
Geared, Focused
Tier 1-10: You have a single item, with a maximum item level equal to your 2 + double your tier. Thus at Tier 3, you can have a single (2 + [3 x 2]) 8th level item. Each time you gain a character level, you may change what this item is. If it has a minor form of recharge, it’s capacity is double the norm for an item of its type.
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Thanks, everyone.
More Junk Spells (for GammaFinder and Starfinder)
Inspired by the hazardous junk rules I designed for GammaFinder, and loving the idea of a Starfinder-compatible junkamancer, I’ve begun looking at what else can be done with junk spells. I especially wanted a 0-level junk spell, and a junk spell that doesn’t focus on AC, attacks, or creating a ‘bot.
(art by santoelia)
JUNK GIZMO [Technomancer 0]
School conjuration (creation)
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range touch
Range touch
Target at least 1 bulk of inert electronic equipment; see text
Duration 1 hour/level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You turn a pile of technological junk into a minor technological item. You must target inert, nonworking electronic equipment of at least 1 bulk. Valid targets include a large broken computer system, nonworking or unconnected computer or robot parts, a destroyed robot or another such trashed mechanical system, or any related electronic components or combination of the above, as long as the junk is found in sufficient quantity.
You can create any minor piece of equipment with a real-world equivalent (alarm clock, camera, digital keys for vehicles you own, timer, watch, and so on) that a GM would allow you to buy at a typical settlement as an item level 0 piece of equipment with a cost of 5 credits or less and light bulk. See the Technological Items section of the Equipment chapter of the core rulebook for notes on the vast array of technological devices beyond the number that could possibly be presented in any real-world book that can potentially be purchased with GM approval.
The item is clearly worthless junk, and always looks like it is just about to break down, but can be used by anyone. You can only have 1 junk gizmo active at a time, and casting the spell again causes any previously created junk gizmo to cease functioning. If using the hazardous junk rules, this spell is not powerful enough to create objects from hazardous junk.
JUNK HUD [Technomancer 1]
School conjuration (creation)
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range touch
Range touch
Target at least 1 bulk of inert electronic equipment; see text
Duration 10 min./level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You turn a pile of technological junk into a Heads Up Display (HUD) that collates information and gives it to the HUD’s wearer. You must target inert, nonworking electronic equipment of at least 1 bulk. Valid targets include a large broken computer system, nonworking or unconnected computer or robot parts, a destroyed robot or another such trashed mechanical system, or any related electronic components or combination of the above, as long as the junk is found in sufficient quantity.
You can cause the HUD to be created on yourself or an adjacent willing or unconscious ally. This grants the wearer additional combat awareness. As a result, the character cannot be flanked. Additionally the DC to successfully trick attack the target is increased by 5. If using the hazardous junk rules, this counts as junk armor for interactions with those rules.
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Thanks, everyone.
Hazardous Junk, for GammaFinder and Starfinder
In the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, junk has eldritch potential.
There are a slew of spells designed to make things out of junk, at least briefly. These include:
Technomancer 1 junk armor, junksword I
Technomancer 2 junksword II, vigilant junkbot
Technomancer 3 handy junkbot, healing junkbot, junksword III
Technomancer 4 junksword IV
Technomancer 5 junksword V
Technomancer 6 battle junkbot, junksword V
But those spells are all designed to just use NORMAL junk. And in GammaFinder in particular (and to a lesser extend other Starfinder settings), junk may be different. It may be… hazardous. And surely, that makes spells created with it different, right?
(art by Argus)
Hazardous Junk
Hazardous junk cannot be safely kept for longer than 24 hours. After that time you either get rid of it, or make a Fortitude save with a DC of 10 + 3d20. On a failed save, you move 1 step down the affliction track of a randomly-determined ability score. You make a new save each day at the same DC to see if you move back up that track, but if you keep the hazardous junk, you also must keep saving against it.
Hazardous junk is thus normally only used by junkamancers if there happens to be some nearby when they cast a spell. These are the three most common types of hazardous junk.
Biohazard Junk: When you cast a junk spell on biohazard junk, you must make a caster level check (DC 10 + triple the level of spell +1d10 based on level of biohazard). If you succeed, the biological material in the junk absorbs some of the magic, and the spell’s duration is doubled. If you fail, the biological meterial eats away at the magic, and the spell’s duration is halved.
Chemical Hazard Junk: If you successfully damage an adjacent creature made of or protected by this junk (such as someone with junk armor, or any form of junkbot), you must make a Fortitude save (same DC as a spell of that level cast by the creator of the junkspell) or take 1 point of acid damage per 2 levels of the junk spell (minimum 1 point of damage).
If you are made of or protected by such junk, you take 1 point of untyped damage a round.
Radiation Hazard Junk: The first time you successfully damage an adjacent creature made of or protected by this junk (such as someone with junk armor, or any form of junkbot), you are exposed to low-level radiation which bypasses any armor protection you have.
If you hold or wear any such junk, you are exposed to low-level raditation, bypassing any armor protection, at the end of the spell’s duration (even if you drop or remove the junk before that).
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Thanks, everyone.
Mutant Magic, for GammaFinder (Starfinder-compatible)
Obviously if GammaFinder has mutant abilities & tiered mutations, and magic, the two will power sources will collide.
The cybersorcerers of the Omega Invasion were the first to unleash suppress mutation spells, which are also believed to have been the key of the negation cuffs they used to capture powerful mutants, though it has spread far beyond their control since the invasion. The DNArcana spell was discovered by genetic sorcerers in the city of Beta, before its destruction, and though not common among most spellcasters is a staple of the Augmented Arcanist Alliance.
(art by grandfailure)
DNARCANA [Mystic 2–6], [Technomancer 2–6], [Witchwarper 2-6]
School transmutation (polymorph)
Casting Time 1 round
Range touch
Target one willing creature touched
Duration 1 round/ 2 levels (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
You augment the power of the target’s tiered mutation, increasing its power by one tier. You must expend 1 Resolve Point to cast the spell, and the willing target must expend 1 Resolve Point for the spell to affect it.
Level 2: You can increase an existing tier 1 or tier 2 mutation by 1 tier.
Level 3: You can increase an existing tier 3 or tier 4 mutation by 1 tier.
Level 4: You can increase an existing tier 5 or tier 6 mutation by 1 tier.
Level 5: You can increase an existing tier 7 or tier 8 mutation by 1 tier.
Level 6: You can increase an existing tier 9 mutation by 1 tier. Alternatively, you can grant a creature one mutant ability or tier 1 mutant power.
SUPPRESS MUTATION [Mystic 3], [Witchwarper 3]
School abjuration
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets one creature
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
You temporarily suppress the mutant abilities (including tiered mutation s) of a creature. Attempt a dispel check (1d20 + your caster level) with a DC equal to 11 + the target’s level. If you succeed, the target must make a Will saving throw. If it fails, all its mutant powers and tiered mutations stop functioning, and all bonuses, effects, and abilities granted by the mutations end.
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I now depend on my Patreon for more of my income and support than I ever expected to. If you find any value in my blog posts or videos, I could use help with the Patreon. If you can spare a few bucks a month, it’s a huge help. If not, even just sharing and linking to my blogs, videos, and the Patreon itself is a huge help that just takes a moment of your time.
Thanks, everyone.
Short Fiction: “Carry a Torch Song ” (Sorcerers & Speakeasies)
CARRY A TORCH SONG
(A Sorcerers & Speakeasies short story)
Felspethe moved silently from her office to the interior balcony overlooking the main room, her form concealed in the dark shadows the balcony’s drapes cast from the stage lights hanging just under it. It was a good crowd, tonight. Mostly human, as you’d expect on a Saturday night at an upscale place like the Annwyn Avalon, but with a smattering of feybloods, dworrowfolk, sidhe, and one small block of uroks. She saw with approval that Tam-Tam, the night’s floor manager, was lounging in apparent boredom between the uroks and the nearest humans. It was unlikely anyone would dare bare iron in her club, but it was better if Tam-Tam could calm tensions before they got anywhere near that far if someone had too much to drink.
Or smoke. Or snort.
Her Court was similarly alert, if lazily so. Their dull yellow beaks and dark feathers were nearly invisible in the rafters, up at her balcony’s level, though from time to time a rook or jackdaw would flutter from one beam to another, and sometimes a patron would look up. The larger crows and ravens were much quieter, content to sit in spots picked out before she opened her doors. If they took wing tonight, it would be at her command alone.
One of the largest ravens, nearly three feet from tip of razor-sharp beak to end of it’s tailfeathers, was sitting on the railing of her balcony. It had ignored her when she walked out, but turned it’s head now to regard her with one shiny black eye.
Felspethe smiles. “What catches your attention tonight, Valgrn?”
The corvid’s voice was quiet and deep, very much at odds with its appearance.
“Captain Auburn is back.”
Felspethe raised a long, delicate eyebrow, and scanned the room more carefully. To her annoyance, she couldn’t spot the brazen-headed police agent who should have stood out like a pumpkin in a potato patch.
“Where?” She kept her voice calm — no reason to ruffle the Court.
Valgrn tilted his head and leaned, jutting his beak forward. “There. Standing by the maquette.”
Felspethe’s eyes jumped back to a point they had just slid over, a small roped-off alcove which featured a terracotta statue of a lithe elven figure in clothes a century out of fashion, its face a near match for Felspethe’s own. And sure enough, there was Captain Urielle Auburn, in the smart pinstripe suit that functioned as her uniform nowadays. And, as always, her enruned rifle Killfire was neatly slung over her back, in a well-maintained but obviously military shoulder sheath. The captain’s eyes were boring a whole across the club, though Felspethe didn’t bother to see what she was looking at yet.
Flespethe’s heart fluttered a little, which was almost as annoying as not being able to spot Auburn on her own. She wanted to be annoyed about the rifle, but couldn’t generate any heat behind the feeling. The Annwyn Avalon forbade weapons, but she knew perfectly well a quarter of her patrons concealed some derringer or stiletto. And Auburn could likely flash a badge, or a note from the mayor, and insist on bringing Killfire in anyway.
But most police would have brought something more subtle. It was just so like Urielle to insist on being obvious about it. A smile crept onto the corner of Felspethe’s lips, and it took conscious effort to suppress it.
“Do we know why she’s here?”
Again, Valgrn pointed with his beak, the line of his gesture crossing the steely gaze of Captain Auburn at the location of one of her VIP tables, where a circle of patrons in suits that each cost more than her monthly payroll sat and laughed loudly. The largest of the group was Beula “Breakbone” Jotkin, an ogreblooded uruk famous for being able to punch through brick. No one in the club would want to trade blows with the big enforcer… except Auburn, of course.
But the greater threat was a small man sitting next to Breakbone, and almost certainly paying for her meal. Pleasantly plump, balding and gray-haired, Fodrick Freeburner was the unquestioned head of the Weefolk Beneficent Society… known on the streets as the Halfling Mob. He was an almost cherublike figure, with sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks, who played “Little Father Christmas” in the city’s Yule parade every year.
He was also, Felspethe knew, a merciless criminal mastermind, and a potent necromancer.
She found her mouth suddenly quite dry. If Auburn was here for Freeburner…
“What can you see in the farther branches, my knight?”
As she stroked Valgrn’s feathers, his eyes went from glossy to flat black, as he looked beyond where she could see.
His voice was barely a whisper. “Captain Auburn hunts a killer. She believes it to be Aussker Crackkettle, a minor numbers-runner for Freeburner. Freeburner has kept Crackkettle hidden. She is here to remind him she has gone to war. True war. And that if she does so again, it will not go well for him.”
“And here, tonight?” Felspethe held her breath.
“Captain Auburn will begin no war in your lands. But if Freeburner senses advantage, he may unleash Breakbone upon the captain.”
Valgrn’s eyes regained their normal gleam.
“It is unlikely Freeburner would risk it. But not impossible.”
Felspethe knew the future was too shadowy to ever be sure of anything, and Valgrn had certainly earned her trust with his predictions. But she needed to push the chance of a street war breaking out here, tonight, well into the “impossible” category. And to do that, she needed to make Freeburner wonder if she and her Court would side with him, or Urielle, should blood be spilled. But at the same time, she had to do so in such a way he didn’t perceive it as a threat. She couldn’t operate without his tacit approval.
But she also could not allow Auburn to fight alone. Not again.
“The Captain’s unit in the War, the Stormguard. What was their color song?”
Vagrn’s beak could not smile. Yet, the humor was clear on his face.
“March of Cambreadth. Shall I signal the stage chief to ready for you to perform?”
Felspethe allowed the smile this time. “Indeed. One song, to honor the war hero among us. No one could blame me for that, could they?”
She glanced down again, and was startled to see Urielle looking up at her. She should be invisible here in her balcony, but their eyes locked. Urielle nodded once. And… was that a hint of a smile of her own ?”
Felspethe’s heart pounded but she kept enough composure to simply nod in return, and let her smile bloom to its full glory. Urielle’s eyes widened briefly, and then she looked away quickly.
Felspethe felt the emotions that fueled her mortal form more than food, air, or lifeblood boiling within her. Rather than fight them down, she began to let them coil, where she could access them as needed. This song, this one rare song from the owner of the Annwyn Avalon, would be enough to make anyone considering crossing her pause.
And if it didn’t? Well, Felspethe was sure Urilee Auburn and Killfire would not let her and her court fight alone.
PATREON
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Mutations as Alternate Class Features (for Starfinder)
One of the interesting things about designing things in blog-sized pieces is seeing how gamers respond to various concepts as they are being developed. In the case of GammaFinder (and it’s conceptually but not-yet-existent cousin, FreedomFinder) there has been a huge surge of interest in mutant abilities and tiered mutations, and ways characters can get them.
(art by David Edwards)
I had developed options for gaining mutations with alternate racial traits, a theme, an archetype, a feat, and as alternate class features for a single class (soldier). Given how well all of that has been received, I’m adding rules for alternate class features to gain mutations for all the official Starfinder classes, and compiling all the other options to-date in one post (and adding one new archetype), to make it easy for folks to look at these rules all in one place.
(My Patreon backers also got a post today compiling all the mutant abilities and tiered mutations I have released to-date. There’s no new rules in that post, just all the info in one place, but it that appeals to you, go become a Patron!)
MUTIE THEME (+1 to any)
Yup, you’re a mutie.
Theme Knowledge (1st)
Your brain focuses on something a little differently than other people. Select one skill to gain as a class skill or (if you already have it as a class skill at 1st level) gain a +1 racial bonus to.
In addition, you gain an ability adjustment of +1 to one ability score of your choice at character creation.
Mutation (6th, 12th)
Your mutant abilities grow and evolve. Select a mutation from the Mutant Abilities list, below.
Mutant Heartiness (18th)
Your mutant physiology allows you to recover more easily than those with standard genomes. Twice per day you can recover Stamina Points after a 10-minute rest without expending a Resolve Point to do so. This does reset any abilities that normally reset after you expend a Resolve Point to recover Stamina Points after a rest.
(art by warmtail)
ALTERNATE RACIAL TRAITS: MUTANTS
You are a mutated version of your base species. You gain one Mutant Ability for which you meet the prerequisites. Your mutation replaces the following racial feature, based on your species, as noted below:
Core Species – Android (upgrade slot), Human (bonus feat), Kasatha (natural grace), Lashunta (lashunta magic), Shirren (communalism), Vesk (armor savant), Ysoki (moxie)
Legacy Species – Dwarf (traditional enemy), Elf (elven magic), Gnome (gnome magic), Half-Elf (adaptability), Half-Orc (orc ferocity), Halfling (sure-footed)
Other Species– Astrazoan (rapid revival), Bantrid (balanced), Borai (resist energy drain), Ghoran (past-life knowledge), Haan (slow fall), Hobgoblin (battle hardened), Kalo (cold resistance), Maraquoi (blindsense), Nuar (maze mind), Orc (fierce survivalist), Pahtra (wary), Skittermander (grappler), Strix (nightborn), Uplfted Bear (limited telepathy).
ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURES
BIOHACKER ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURE: Evolution
Evolution: Whether in an effort to evolve yourself intentionally, or in reaction to exposure to the materials you use to biohack, you gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your biohacker level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of a theorem. You make this decisions each time you gain the theorem class feature.
ENVOY ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURE: Genetic Progress
Genetic Progress: You discover a latent tendency within yourself that can be brought to full expression, allowing you to gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your envoy level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of an envoy improvisation or expertise talent. You make this decision each time you gain one of those class features.
MECHANIC ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURE: Genetic Engineering
Genetic Engineering: You engineer your own gene sequence, perhaps intentionally, perhaps in a bid to prevent some ailment from striking you down, and gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your mechanic level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of a mechanic’s trick. You make this decisions each time you gain the mechanic’s trick class feature.
MYSTIC ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURE: Altered State
Altered State: Your connection to the universe allows you to become something more, and you gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your mystic level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of a connection power gained from your connection. You make this decisions each time you gain a new connection power.
OPERATIVE ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURE: Genetic Quirk
Genetic Quirk: You have always been a little different, so it is no shock to you when you gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your operative level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of an operative exploit. You make this decisions each time you gain the operative exploit class feature.
SOLARIAN ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURE: Cosmic Mutation
Cosmic Mutation: Channeling the power of cosmic radiation, you gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your solarian level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of a theorem. You make this decision each time you gain the theorem class feature.
SOLDIER: Mutant Power, Combat Mutation
New Gear Boost
Mutant Power: You gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your soldier level. You cannot select this gear boost more than once.
Alternate Class Feature; Combat Mutation
Combat Mutation: Maybe you have been exposed to one to many leaky plasma cannons power cores, maybe you have spent too much time in radiation-blasted battlefields, but you gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your soldier level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of combat feat. You make this decision each time you gain the combat feat class feature.
(art by grandfailure)
TECHNOMANCER ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURE: Gene-Hack
Gene-Hack: Perhaps you meant to warp your genetic code by turning your eldritch powers inward, perhaps it was an accident, but you gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your technomancer level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of a magic hack. You make this decision each time you gain the magic hack class feature.
VANGUARD ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURE: Genetic Discipline
Genetic Discipline: Entropy controls all things, including the errors in DNA that lead to mutation. Using this knowledge, you gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your vanguard level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of a vanguard discipline. You make this decision each time you gain the vanguard discipline class feature.
WITCHWARPER ALTERNATE CLASS FEATURE: Alternate DNA
Alternate DNA: IN the infinite number of alternate realities, there are infinite variations of you, each with different combinations of DNA. You duplicate one of the variations in an alternate version of yourself, and gain a mutant ability. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your witchwarper level.
You may select this alternate class feature in place of a paradigm shift. You make this decision each time you gain the paradigm shift class feature.
(art by warmtail)
MUTAMORPH (Archetype)
Your body, exposed to the strange energies of the GammaFinder World, has morphed.
Mutation (2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th, 12)
At these levels you may choose a mutant ability (see below) as an archetype ability, or take your class’s normal class feature instead. Each time you take a mutant ability, you may also replace one mutant ability gained at an earlier level from the archetype or the mutie theme with a new mutation (losing the old mutant ability).
POWERED MUTATION (Archetype)
You have a single, growing, focused mutant power.
Mutation (2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th, 12th)
Select on tiered mutation. You gain one tier of this mutation at every even class level. This replaces your normal class features at the levels listed above. You cannot gain tiers in this tiered mutation from any other source.
NEW FEAT: MUTANT
MUTANT
You do not fall within the most common genetic baseline for your species.
Benefit: Select one Mutant Ability for which you meet the prerequisites. You gain this mutant ability.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times, but not more than once per 3 levels. If you use this to increase a tiered mutant ability, it cannot grant a tier higher than half your character level.
Elasticity, a Tiered Mutation for GammaFinder and Freedom Finder (Starfinder-compatible)
We’re still doing tiered mutations, designed for both the GammaFinder and a more comic-book themed theoretical “FreedomFinder” setting (which so far only exists as a thought experiment and a single set of soldier options).
Since it’s Friday, I decided to get casual and do a weirder power. So the next dual-purpose power to get the tiered mutation treatment is… Elasticity.
(art by higyou)
Elasticity
Your body is malleable, flexible, and stretchy. You gain elasticity points, which you can assign to various abilities as you mold and shape your body. Once assigned your elasticity points (and the powers they give you) remain until you are stunned, knocked unconscious, or killed. Any power or attack you make using elasticity points immediately ends if you reassign those points. You can change your elasticity points as part of any other action, but can only do so once per round. You cannot affect the same aspect of yourself with multiple elasticity point powers (you cannot assign both 1 elasticity point to be one size larger and 2 to be two sized larger, for example).
Tier 1: You reduce any damage you take that is not energy damage, or piercing or slashing damage, by 5 points per tier of elasticity. This includes kinetic damage from nonweapon sources, such as falling or crush attacks.
You have 1 elasticity point.
You can assign 1 elasticity point to gain the compression UCR.
You can assign 1 elasticity point to increase your size category by 1 step (maximum of colossal).
Tier 2: You now have 2 elasticity points.
You can assign 2 elasticity point to gain 1 extra arm using the multiarmed UCR. This represents stretching out some loop of your body to serve as a spare limb. The carrying capacity of this limb is separate from your normal carrying capacity, and is calculated as if it has a Strength equal to your tier +10.
You can now assign 2 elasticity points to increase your reach by +5 feet. When you use any elasticity power to increase your reach, you gain a circumstance bonus to Athletics checks to climb equal to your tier.
Tier 3: You now have 3 elasticity points.
You can now assign 2 elasticity points to increase your size category by 2 steps (maximum of colossal).
Tier 4: You now have 4 elasticity points.
You can now assign 4 elasticity points to increase your reach by +10 feet.
You can assign 2 elasticity points to gain the amorphous UCR.
Tier 5: You now gain a bonus to attack rolls to maintain (but not initiate) a grapple equal to your tier.
You can now assign 1 elasticity point to increase your land speed by an amount equal to your current reach.
You can now assign 2 elasticity points to increase your size category by 3 steps (maximum of colossal).
You can now assign 4 elasticity points to turn yourself into a glider wing, gaining 20 feet extraordinary flight with poor maneuverability.
You can now assign 4 elasticity points to gain the ability to make trample attacks, using the trample UCR. Your trample attacks do your unarmed damage.
Tier 6: You now have 5 elasticity points.
You can now assign 2 elasticity points to gain the ability to make attach attacks, using the attach UCR.
You can now assign 2 elasticity points to gain up to 4 limbs using the multiarmed UCR.
Tier 7: You now have 5 elasticity points.
You can now assign 4 elasticity points to increase your reach by +15 feet.
Tier 8: You can now assign 2 elasticity points to increase your size category by 4 steps (maximum of colossal).
You can now assign 4 elasticity points to increase your reach by +20 feet.
Tier 9: You now have 6 elasticity points.
You can now assign 4 elasticity points to increase your reach by +25 feet.
Tier 10: You can now assign 2 elasticity points to gain the ability to make swallow whole attacks with your unarmed attacks, using the swallow whole UCR. Your swallow whole attack deals your unarmed damage each round to those swallowed. You can swallow 1 creature up to 1 size larger than your current size, two your size, and double the number for every size smaller the targets are.
WANT MORE GAMMAFINDER?! OR FREEDOMFINDER?
I now depend on my Patreon for more of my income and support than I ever expected to. If you find any value in my blog posts or videos, I could use help with the Patreon. If you can spare a few bucks a month, it’s a huge help. If not, even just sharing and linking to my blogs, videos, and the Patreon itself is a huge help that just takes a moment of your time.
Thanks, everyone.
ESP, a Tiered Mutation for GammaFinder and Freedom Finder (Starfinder-compatible)
We’re still doing tiered mutations, designed for both the GammaFinder and a more comic-book themed theoretical “FreedomFinder” setting (which so far only exists as a thought experiment and a single set of soldier options).
So the next dual-purpose power to get the tiered mutation treatment is ESP.
(art by roman3d)
ESP
You can see a world of pure mental energy, allowing to you send and receive thoughts, and manipulate the pure energy f the mind in various ways. This Extra Sensory Percpetion causes some to call you an “ESPer.” This perception eventually allows you to cast your thoughts into the formless space of the ethereal plane, though doing so is not without risks.
Tier 1: You gain your choice of limited telepathy or telepathic message at will. You gain one of the following 1st-level spells of your choice 1/day (select one): akashic download, detect thoughts, mind link, or share memory.
Tier 2: You can cast mind thrust as a 1st-level spell at will, but it does only 1d4 damage (Will negates). You can now once per day cast any of the tier 1 1st-level spells.
Tier 3: You can cast mind thrust as a 1st-level spell at will, but it does only 1d4 damage (Will save half).
You can now make ESPer checks to see creatures not native to the ethereal plane that are on the ethereal plane, and magic efforts to scry on you. This is a special Sense Motive check, and the DC to spot such things is 15 + 1.5x the level or caster level of the effect that made the target ethereal or allowed it to scry. When you perceive such things, they are within your line of sight and line of effect for your ESPer powers.
Tier 4: You can cast mind thrust as a 1st-level spell at will, but it does only 1d6 damage (Will save half). Each day you can cast one of the following 2nd-level spells once: ego whip, hold person, mind thrust (2nd-level spell), paranoia.
Tier 5: You can cast mind thrust as a 1st-level spell at will, but it does only 1d8 damage (Will save half).
You can now attempt Ethereal Projection once per day. This acts as clairvoyance/clairaudience, but you can move the point of the invisible sensor and your mind travels with it. You can see things that could be spotted with an ESPer check as well as things on your own plane. You can be spotted by any creature with any form of telepathy as if they used an ESPer check. If spotted, they can make mind-affecting attacks against you as if you were at the location of your sensor.
For the duration of the Ethereal Projection, you cannot perceive anything using your normal senses, and cannot take any actions using your body. Your body is considered helpless.
Tier 6: You can cast mind thrust as a 1st-level spell at will, but it does only 1d10 damage (Will save half). Each day you can cast one of the following 3rd-level spells once: charm monster, intellect fortress, mind thrust (3rd-level spell), suggestion.
Tier 7: You can cast mind thrust as a 1st-level spell at will.
Now when you attempt Ethereal Projection, if a creature perceives you and attacks you with a mind-affecting effect, you can use your own mind-affecting effects against it as if you were at the location of your sensor.
Tier 8: You can cast mind thrust as a 2nd-level spell at will. Each day you can cast one of the following 4th-level spells once: confusion, mind probe, mind thrust (4th-level spell), telepathic bond.
Tier 9:You can cast mind thrust as a 3rd-level spell at will.
Now when you attempt Ethereal projection, your body is not helpless. You can perceive through it and take actions, though you must split your actions between using your sensor and having your body act.
Tier 10: You can cast mind thrust as a 4th-level spell at will. Each day you can cast one of the following 5th-level spells once: dominate person, mind thrust (5th-level spell), modify memory, telepathy.
WANT MORE GAMMAFINDER?! OR FREEDOMFINDER?
I now depend on my Patreon for more of my income and support than I ever expected to. If you find any value in my blog posts or videos, I could use help with the Patreon. If you can spare a few bucks a month, it’s a huge help. If not, even just sharing and linking to my blogs, videos, and the Patreon itself is a huge help that just takes a moment of your time.
Thanks, everyone.
Owen K.C. Stephens 