Monthly Archives: March 2022
Adapting the Bilocation Spell for PF1
I got a request through my Patreon to adapt the Sf spell bilocation to Pathfinder 1st edition. Since asking for specific content is one of the perks of being a Patron, here’s that project!
Mostly, this is about rewriting things to match Pathfinder 1e’s rules and terminology, but there are a few other concerns we must consider.
While there’s nothing wrong with bilocation as a Pathfinder 1st edition spell name (“clone” has been in the game for several editions over many decades), it still feels more scifi than fantasy. Since this spell conjures something that looks like you, I’m going to go with “mirror self” as a spell name for now. that can change later with no real rule implications.
When looking at what level spell to make this, I think we want it to enter the game at about the same time as bilocation, which means this should be an 8th level spell. That restricts this to full spellcasters, and I’m okay with that. I don’t think we need a magus to have this, for example–they can do enough as it is. (It’d be possible to make a version we kept as a 6th level spell, but it would have to be even more limited).
That raises the question of what spell lists we DO want to put this on. Sorcerer/wizard is a given. I don’t see it as a cleric or druid spell–and, honestly, it might be too powerful in their hands given how good they are at both spells and non-spell actions. By the same logic, I wouldn’t give it to shamans. But I can easily see letting witches and psychics have it. Witches will make the best use of it, since they’ll be able to use two hexes or one hex and one spell each round, but at high levels witches often lack the pure spell power of wizards of psychics, so I’m okay with that.
Besides, it seems creepy and witchlike to split into two people who can walk around and hold a conversation from two locations.
Mirror Self
School conjuration (creation); Level Psychic 8, Sorcerer/Wizard 8, Witch 8
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a hand mirror)
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 round/level (D)
This spell creates an identical copy of you in an adjacent space, along with everything you wear and carry other than artifacts and other creatures. (If you carry an artifact or a creature, you decide which body retains it.) You exist in two places at once until the spell ends. Once the copy is created, it can travel an unlimited distance away from you. Your duplicate acts just after you do each round—it doesn’t have a separate initiative count. One of you can use a full round’s worth of actions, and the other can take only a standard or a move action.
Between the two of you, you can cast no more than the numbers of spells per round you could if not under the mirror self spell (normally one spell per round, unless you have a special ability that allows you to cast more than one spell when you have no duplicate, such as the Quicken Spell metamagic feat). This applies to spell-like abilities and spells cast from wands, scrolls, potions, and other magic items.
You and your duplicate share sensory information, so if one of you is aware of or knows something, both of you do. The duplicate is another creature for most purposes, with the following exceptions.
You and the duplicate use the same statistics and share resources, including one pool of consumable items (including ammo, such as arrows), daily-use abilities (including from items) spell slots/prepared spells, and Hit Points. If your duplicate casts a spell, your spell is expended, and if your duplicate uses a consumable item, that item is no longer available to you. Similarly, if an item one of you carries is permanently lost or destroyed, that item is lost or destroyed for both.
Attacks, spells, and effects affect the two bodies as though they were one person, taking the worst effect applicable. For example, if both bodies are in the same fireball, you attempt the saving throw only once and take the damage only once. If you fail the saving throw against hold person, both bodies are paralyzed, and if one body is diseased or poisoned, both are. Both bodies count as one creature for spell effects, and they can’t be chosen more than once for such effects. Any magical effect on you has its duration halved while you’re using mirror self. For example, the aforementioned hold person loses 2 rounds of duration each round it paralyzes you and your duplicate. Similarly, if you cast shield on yourself, your duplicate is also affected, and the spell has a duration of 5 rounds per level. An effect that has its duration shortened in this way lasts a minimum of 1 round.
In addition, if you attempt a Knowledge skill check, you roll only one check. Similarly, if you and your duplicate are in the same area, you roll only one Perception check to determine what you’re both aware of, although you receive a +2 bonus to this check as if your duplicate aided you on it.
When this spell ends, you decide which body remains and which disappears. Any enduring effects continue to affect you.
That’s potent, but unlikely to have a greater impact than other 8th level spells.
I went ahead and created a lesser mirror self spell that’s 6th level and available to more classes (including bard and magus), and posted it on my Patreon as an exclusive thank-you to my Patrons for their ongoing support! Joining my Patreon gets you access to hundreds of posts of content for numerous game systems, as well as the exclusive content I haven’t posted anywhere else.
Converting the Witchwarper to PF1: Infinite Worlds
It has been suggested by some folks (including members of my Patron, who have a heavy influence on what I do for blog posts), that I should make a Pathfinder 1st edition version of the Sf “witchwarper” class. (Which will join the envoy, mystic, and solarian classes I have rewritten for PF1) So, let’s work on that.
Before I tackle any other questions, i want to make a run at the witchwarper’s core ability, infinite worlds. I may tweak this later, but for now a revision based on Pathfinder damage standards and rules terminology seems like a great start.
Infinite Worlds (Su) – 1st Level
As a standard action, you can create a bubble of altered reality, projecting elements of parallel existences into your current universe. You expend a witchwarper spell slot of 1st level or higher to create an environmental effect, such as summoning fog or thick vines from other realities, which lasts for a number of rounds equal to your class level unless specified otherwise. Alternatively, you can create an instantaneous effect, such a flash of fire from an explosion that occurred in a parallel universe. The particular effects depend on the level of the spell slot expended.
All effects created by infinite worlds use the following rules unless they say otherwise. They have a range of 100 feet + 10 feet per witchwarper level and affect a 10-foot-radius spread. If you create multiple effects with one use of infinite worlds, they all originate at the same point. If an effect calls for a saving throw, the DC is equal to 10 + the spell level expended to create the effect + your Charisma modifier. You can define the cause and appearance of infinite worlds however you wish (subject to GM approval), but the effects themselves are only quasi-real and have no effects beyond the game mechanics listed as options for this ability.
You can instead create multiple, milder effects in place of a single, more powerful effect. When you do this, you select two effects available to any version of this ability created by expending a lower-level spell slot than that you actually expend. For calculations based on spell level, use the level of the spell slot you expend.
For example, a 10th-level witchwarper could expend a 3rd‑level spell slot and select either a 3rd-level effect or any two abilities normally created by expending 1st- or 2nd-level spells. If you expend a spell slot 2 levels higher than the highest-level slot required for the effects you create, you can create 3 different effects. If you use a spell slot 3 levels higher, you can create four effects.
The environmental and instantaneous effects you can create by sacrificing a witchwarper spell slot of a given level are as follows:
1st (Environmental): You cause the affected area to become difficult terrain. This might mean that stone flooring becomes rough and uneven, a waterway is choked by roots and seaweed, or the air is flooded with floating strands of web-like filaments. You can affect a single movement type (normal movement, burrow, climb, fly, or swim) or any combination of those movement types. When you create difficult terrain in this way, it is considered magically altered terrain for the purposes of other effects.
1st (Instantaneous): You cause a bright flash of light to fill the area. Each creature within the area must succeed at a Fortitude saves or be dazzled for 1 round per witchwarper level. If a creature rolls a natural 1 on its saving throw (meaning the d20 shows a “1”), it is also blinded for 1 round.
2nd (Environmental): You cause a hazard that deals damage each round equal to the level of the spell slot expended, with a successful Fortitude save reducing the damage by half. A creature attempts this save when it first takes damage from this effect, and its result applies for the duration of the effect. You select the damage type each time you use this ability (acid, bludgeoning, cold, electricity, fire, piercing, slashing, or sonic).
2nd (Instantaneous): You cause a destabilizing event, such as a brief earthquake, a split-second reversal of gravity, or a blast of icy wind. Each creature within the area must succeed at a Reflex save or be knocked prone. If a creature rolls a natural 1 on its saving throw, it is also moved 5 feet per level of the spell slot expended in a direction of your choice.
3rd (Environmental): You cause the area to grant concealment against one sense—vision, scent, sound, or vibration.
3rd (Instantaneous): You cause a disorienting event, such as bursts of flashing colors and loud sounds, or rain falling upward in spirals. Each creature within the area must succeed at a Will save or take a -2 penalty to attack rolls for a number of rounds equal to the level of the spell expended. If a creature rolls a natural 1 on its saving throw, it is also staggered for 1 round.
4th (Environmental): You create a barrier, the entirety of which must be within the range and area of infinite worlds’ environmental effects. The barrier is a number of 5-foot cubes no greater than double the level of the spell slot expended. The cubes must each connect along one side with at least one other cube, have hardness equal to double the level of the spell slot expended, and each have HP equal to 5 × the level of spell expended. Barriers you could summon might include stone walls, slabs of ice, and so forth.
4th (Instantaneous): You create a burst of damage affecting everything in the area. You select the type of damage each time you use this ability (acid, bludgeoning, cold, electricity, fire, piercing, slashing, or sonic), and it deals 1d8 damage per level of the spell expended (Reflex half).
5th (Environmental): You make the air thicker or thinner, or fill it with toxic vapors. Each creature breathing the air must succeed at a Fortitude save or be sickened as long as it remains in the area. A creature attempts a single save when it is first exposed to the infinite worlds, which determines for the duration of the ability whether breathing within the area sickens that creature.
5th (Instantaneous): You attempt to entangle all targets within the area. You might fill the area with chains, viscous glue, or quick-hardening cement. Each target must succeed at a Reflex save or be entangled and anchored in place for a number of rounds equal to the level of the spell slot expended. Creatures that enter the area after you use this ability are not entangled.
6th (Environmental): You reduce the hardness of objects within the area by 50% (Fortitude negates), or increase their hardness by 10 (to a maximum of double their normal hardness).
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ShadowFinder Bestiary Teaser: Soul Lamprey
As work on ShadowFinder continues, I will occasionally preview things that will be in its Bestiary section. Many of these will be creatures from the ShadowBlast, but others will fill in the “normal” niches a typical modern adventure/scifi/fantasy/surreal/horror game might need.
For each of these, I plan to show some art, talk a bit about why I’m putting it in the ShadowFinder Core Book, and enough info a GM could create a version of the monster at any CR, using the standard Starfinder creature creation rules. In the final entries for these in the Core Book there will be at least one full stat block, but I do also want to give enough info on special abilities and role in an adventure that a GM can reliably make versions at different CRs as they need them.
So, let’s start with the soul lamprey.
Soul lampreys are creatures apparently native to the Shadowblast (though like anything in the Shadowblast, they might originally be from somewhere else and just trapped in that dim demiplane). They are driven by an insatiable hunger to consume the determination and drive of sapient beings, as well as the flesh of any sentient creature they can eat while it still lives.
The idea behind the soul lamprey is to get some of the player-dread that creatures that inflicted level drains and negative levels did in older ttRPGs… without the bookkeeping, refiguring, and literal inability to keep playing the character usefully in the same adventure that those rules often inflicted on players. Instead, soul lampreys eat Resolve Points.
To build a soul lamprey, you use a combatant stat array, a single bite melee attack that deals piercing damage, and give it these special abilities and adjustments:
Slow But Tough: A soul lamprey has EAC and KAC 2 lower than normal for the combatant array at its level, but also has 25% more Hit Points.
Devour Determination (Su): When a soul lamprey damages a target with tis bite, the target must make both a Fortitude and Will save. If it makes both saves, there is no additional affect. If the target fails 1 save, it loses 1 Resolve Point. If it fails both saves, is drained of 1d4 Resolve Points (+1d4 for every 4 full levels of the lamprey’s CR). Drained RP do not recover normally. Instead, each time the character regains their daily abilities, they reroll the Fort and Will saves, regaining 1 RP for each save they succeed at each day. If they make both saves, they regain an addition 1d4 RP (+1d4 for ever 4 character levels they have).
The soul lampry gains these Resolve Points, and can use them normally and to fuel its special abilities. While a soul lamprey has RP, any creature missing RP from a soul lamprey drain is flat-footed and off-target to the soul lamprey.
Digest Determination (Su): When a wounded soul lamprey devours determination, it can choose to expend any number of the RP it absorbs to heal itself as part of the attack. For each RP expended, it regains 1d8 HP + 1/2 its CR. It may only do this when it absorbs new RP.
Target Sense (Su): As part of any action it takes, a soul lamprey can expend 1 RP to gain blindsight (telepathy) with a range of 5 feet per CR of the lamprey. This only detects creatures missing RP drained by a soul lamprey. The ability lasts for 10 minutes per CR of the soul lamprey.
Trap Blind (Ex): A soul lamprey is vulnerable to attacks from things that lack their own determination. This includes traps, mindless creatures, and mechanic’s drones. Such attacks gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls and save DCs, and deal double damage, against soul lampreys.
Shudder Step (Su): When a creature damages a soul lamprey with a ranged attack, the soul lamprey can follow the trace of psychic energy carried by the decision to attack it back to its point of origin, teleporting to be adjacent to the attacker (or as close as possible if there is no safe space adjacent to the attacker). This does not take an action, but does expend 1 Resolve Point.
Want to get news about ShadowFinder as it develops? Send an email to shadowfinderlist@gmail.com and ask to sign up, so we can send you notifications for this project and its tie-ins!
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ShadowFinder Gazetteer: Elseward
ShadowFinder continues to work towards release. Some of the material I am drawing on for parts of the worldbuilding in this play mode are heavily inspired by things that helped me through some dark times in my life. Elseward is one of those.
Elseward
Some of the areas in the demiplane known as the Shadowblast that are very close to the Material Plane. These regions, called Shallows, appear to be tightly bound to some mortal concepts or emotions and follow special rules compared to the rest of the Shadowblast. There exist natives of the Material Plane who are survivors of severe trauma and depression that can access a Shallows section of the Shadowblast known as Elseward – a violent, vicious realm that mixes dense noir city and surreal untamed jungle with no apparent rhyme or reason – usually without even knowing it. Projecting themselves partially into the Shallows, these Elsewarders exist in both their native Material Planes and the Elseward Shallow. They see and experience things other folk around them in the Material world do not, often mistaking Elseward events for daydreams. Some Elsewarders even develop special powers with the Shallows, creating a ethereal ShadowSelf that exists within Elseward even when the Elsewarders are not connected to it. Elsewarders then experience their ShadowSelf lives through dreams and reveries.
In a few cases, Elsewarders manage to heal and slowly disconnect from the Shallow, perhaps leaving their ShadowSelf behind, perhaps integrating it into themselves and departing from Elseward entirely. But more often, they eventually begin to draw bits of that Shallow region out into the Material Plane, beginning with minor Shadowblastoi creatures crossing over and growing in number, complexity, and power as time goes on. Such a traveller from Elseward into the Material Plane is known as a Drawesle, and its behavior is often dictated by the fears and nightmares of the Elsewarder that drew it through the Shallow.
It’s common for Drawesles to destroy their related Elsewarder, ending their link to the Material world and sending them back to the Shadowblast. Elsewarders with extreme will or some eldritch power source sometimes instead begin to spread their vision of the Elseward into their own world, and in rare cases even forge links between the Elseward and Material world denizens to whom they have strong (not necessarily positive) emotional connections. These advanced situations can result in small groups or even tightly-linked communities existing in both their own realities and the Elseward at once, appearing to experience ongoing shared dreams and hallucinations.
Some Elsewarders continue to hop back-and-forth for decades, with more and more links to the Shadowblast connecting to them as time passes. When the Elsewarder is secure, supported, and dealing with their trauma well, incidents are mostly just deep dreams and odd noises in dark corners, and easily dismissed by them and others as a wandering mind’s intrusive thoughts. When exposed to new trauma or under high stress, these well-worn links can actually anchor parts of Elseward to the Material world, generally in abandoned, remote, or chaotic, badly monitored locations. This leads to Drawesles building a Material Plane power base, seeking to torment the Elsewarder and those close to them to further strengthen the link.
In these cases, outside intervention is often needed to save the Elsewarder and those near them from their literal personal demons. This may be done by seeking out and ending the Drawesles’ base of operations on the Material world, or it may require a trip into Elseward to cut off the intrusion from the source. Of course, destroying a trauma-induced monstrosity preying on an Elsewarder doesn’t end the Elsewarder’s underlying issues. But it can help give them space to do the work needed to heal themselves, and give reassurance that their trials are very, very real.
DEEP ELSEWARDER [QUIRKY]
At one time, you were tightly linked to the Elseward, or some other section of the Shallows in the Shadowblast, and you have developed special powers that only function there.
Benefit: For each character level, you can select one tier of enigma power, one bonus feat for which you meet the prerequisites, or one level of spellcasting from a specific spellcaster class list (gaining spells known, spells per day, and a caster level equal to your levels of spellcasting selected with this feat). These are separate from your normal feats and (if you have them) enigma powers and spells. Abilities gained through this feat only function in Beachheads and Shallows of the Shadowblast.
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Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Laugh Out Loud Emoji and ROFL
Today we continue to convert to Starfinder all the Pathfinder 1st edition spells that don’t already exist (or have a clear replacement) in that game. You can find an index of the spells that have been converted to-date here. We’re working out way through all of PF1’s symbol spells and have reached symbol of laughter. In PF1 this symbol works off hideous laughter, a spell that doesn’t exist in Starfinder. So, just for consistency, it makes sense to create both spells at the same time for our project. While we are at it, we might as well create some more separation between our laughter spell and hold person, which are remarkably similar in the PF1 versions. IF we can, it’s also worth trying to make sure the spell isn’t overpowering, but still has some utility even against creatures that succeed at their save against it.
Laugh Out Loud Emoji
Class technomancer 3
School enchantment [compulsion, mind-affecting]
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw Will partial (see text); Spell Resistance yes
This functions as mirror emoji, except as noted above and as follows. Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that is commonly associated with humor or laughing. When triggered, affected creatures are overcome with laughter. The effect lasts as long as they remain within the area, and for 1d4 rounds after they leave. If a creature succeeds at their initial save against this effect and leave the area, they are not affected again if they re-enter the area. Creatures that fail their save are affected each time they enter the area.
Creatures who succeed at a saving throw and have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining laugh loudly, making Stealth checks against auditory senses impossible and the base DC of a Perception check to hear them is 0. They can expend 1 Resolve Point to ignore these conditions for 1d4 rounds.
Both creatures that succeed at a saving throw but do not still have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining, and creatures that fail at a saving throw and do have both SP and HP remaining, are affected as above and additionally are unable to communicate normally (though they can try to work information into their laughter as a move action, which acts as a Bluff check to pass secret messages) or use language-dependent and sense-dependent abilities. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore all these restrictions (except for the inability to use Stealth) for 1d4 rounds.
Creatures that fail a saving throw and do not have both SP and HP left are affected as above, and staggered. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore the staggered condition from this spell for 1 round.
Detect magic allows you to identify a laugh out loud emoji with a DC 17 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.
Magic traps such as laugh out loud emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a laugh out loud emoji (which may trigger it), a character must use the lowest of their Engineering or Mysticism skill (based on the skill’s total bonus) to disarm it. The DC in each case is 23.
ROFL – Roll On Floor Laughing
Class technomancer 1
School enchantment [compulsion, mind-affecting]
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range medium (100 feet +10 feet/level)
Target one creature
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will partial (see text); Spell Resistance yes
This spell causes the target to burst into uncontrollable gales of laughter. When initially affected the target falls prone (though it can stand normally afterwards), and for the duration of the spell it is staggered and laughing so loudly that making Stealth checks against auditory senses impossible and the base DC of a Perception check to hear them is 0. At the end of each turn the target can make a new Will save (at the same DC) to end the staggered effect.
Creatures that succeed at their initial save against this spell snort and chuckle involuntarily, but without the extreme effects described above. They are off-target, and take a -5 penalty to all Stealth checks against auditory senses. At the end of each turn the target can make a new Will save (at the same DC) to negate the spell entirely.
Because humor can be difficult to translate easily, even with magic, if a target could not be targeted by a language-dependent effect from you, has an Int bonus of -3 or less, or is of a different creature type, it gains a +4 bonus to saving throws to end or reduce this spell’s ongoing effects (but not its initial saving throw).
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Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Confusion Emoji
Continuing this week’s theme, here are more glyphs, runes, and symbols for the project to convert to Starfinder all the Pathfinder 1st edition spells that don’t already exist (or have a clear replacement) in that game. You can find an index of the spells that have been converted to-date here. We’ve made it to symbol of insanity… and, again, I don’t like it.
My issue with symbol of insanity is less that it it’s a bad thematic fit for technomancers (though it might make more sense for empaths, and at least as much for mystics and witchwarpers), as that I dislike how the PF1 spell it is based on (insanity) uses terminology for real-world mental health to game effects that have nothing to do with real-world mental health issues. However, since the insanity spell causes you to suffer confusion, and we have a confusion effect in Starfinder, I can just make this the confusion emoji, and get the same idea without the terminology I don’t want to use.
Confusion Emoji
Class technomancer 6
School enchantment [compulsion, mind-affecting]
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw Will partial (see text); Spell Resistance yes
This functions as mirror emoji, except as noted above and as follows. Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that is commonly associated with altered states of mind, bemusement, confusion, of having one’s “mind blown.”. When triggered, affected creatures are overcome with waves of confusion. The effect lasts as long as they remain within the area, and for 1d4 rounds after they leave. If a creature succeeds at their initial save against this effect and leave the area, they are not affected again if they re-enter the area. Creatures that fail their save are affected each time they enter the area.
Creatures who succeed at a saving throw and have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining are flat-footed and off-target. They can expend 1 Resolve Point to ignore these condition for 1d4 rounds.
Both creatures that succeed at a saving throw but do not still have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining, and creatures that fail at a saving throw and do have both SP and HP remaining, are staggered, flat-footed and off-target. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore the staggered condition, and merely be flat-footed and off-target for 1d4 rounds.
Creatures that fail a saving throw and do not have both SP and HP left are confused. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore the confusion for 1 round and instead be staggered, flat-footed, and off-target.
Detect magic allows you to identify a confusion emoji with a DC 21 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.
Magic traps such as confusion emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a confusion emoji (which may trigger it), a character must use the lowest of their Engineering or Mysticism skill (based on the skill’s total bonus) to disarm it. The DC in each case is 34.
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Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Repair Emoji
Continuing this week’s theme, here are more glyphs, runes, and symbols for the project to convert to Starfinder all the Pathfinder 1st edition spells that don’t already exist (or have a clear replacement) in that game. You can find an index of the spells that have been converted to-date here. We’ve made it to symbol of healing… and I don’t like it.
For symbol of healing, what I don’t like is that the healing concept doesn’t work well with how I am positioning emoji spells to be aimed solely as technomancer options. Now there’s no hand-and-fast rule that technomancers can’t heal, but it does radically depart from the core concept of the class. I could just change my vision of how emoji spells work, giving this one (and maybe a few others) to mystics (who have more healing options in their spell lists). But instead, I’m going to revise the concept of “healing” into “repair,” to give technomancers options to restore HP to devices beyond mending and make whole.
Repair Emoji
Class technomancer 3
School necromancy
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw Fortitude negates (harmless); Spell Resistance no
This functions as mirror emoji, except as noted above and as follows. Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that indicates an item commonly associated with repair, construction, or engineering. When triggered, affected objects and constructs in the area have HP restored to them. A creature or object can only gain HP from the same repair emoji once per day, and it affects each construct in the area when it is triggered, or when the object or construct first enters the area of the spell’s active rune.
Affected constructs and objects are affected as by the make whole spell. If the target is a construct with Resolve Points that is also missing Stamina Points, it can expend 1 Resolve Point to regain missing SP equal to the HP healed by the make whole effect.
Detect magic allows you to identify a repair emoji with a DC 17 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.
Magic traps such as repair emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a repair emoji (which may trigger it), a character must use the lowest of their Engineering or Mysticism skill (based on the skill’s total bonus) to disarm it. The DC in each case is 23.
PATREON!
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Converting PF1 spells to Starfinder: Exsanguination Emoji and Fear Emoji
Yep, more glyphs, runes, and symbols for the project to convert to Starfinder all the Pathfinder 1st edition spells that don’t already exist (or have a clear replacement) in that game. You can find an index of the spells that have been converted to-date here.
Since I have a baseline on how emoji-sells-adapted-from-symbol-spells-that-don’t-work-off-HP work in mirror emoji, I can now go back and adapt the rest of the spells of that line. Which brings us emoji adaptations of symbol of exsanguination, and then symbol of fear.
With the option in Starfinder for a broader range of damage in bleed effects, I decided to go ahead and male a 3rd level version of exsanguination emoji, rather than 2nd level.
Exsanguination Emoji
Class technomancer 3
School necromancy
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw Fortitude partial (see text); Spell Resistance yes
This functions as mirror emoji, except as noted above and as follows. Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that indicates an item commonly associated with stabbing, bleeding, or bloodletting. When triggered, affected creatures in the area gain the bleeding condition. They continue to bleed for as long as they remain within the area, and if the bleeding is stopped it begins again if they end a turn within the rune’s area. Once outside the area the bleed condition can be stopped with a successful DC 15 Medicine check as a standard action, or through the application of any ability that restores Hit Points., and the creature can make a new Fortitude save to end the bleed at the beginning of each turn. Even if a creature’s bleed effect ended while they are outside the rune’s area, returning to the area causes them to bleed again.
Creatures who succeed at a saving throw and have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining bleed for 1d6/round. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore this condition for 1d4 rounds while within the rune’s area, or permanently if they leave the area during this time.
Both creatures that succeed at a saving throw but do not still have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining, and creatures that fail at a saving throw and do have both SP and HP remaining, bleed for 2d6/round. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore this condition for 1 round while within the rune’s area, or permanently if they leave the area during this time.
Creatures that fail a saving throw and do not have both SP and HP left bleed for 3d6/round. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they only bleed 1d6/round for 1d4 rounds.
Detect magic allows you to identify an exsanguination emoji with a DC 17 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.
Magic traps such as exsanguination emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find an exsanguination emoji (which may trigger it), a character must use the lowest of their Engineering or Mysticism skill (based on the skill’s total bonus) to disarm it. The DC in each case is 23.
Fear Emoji
Class technomancer 4
School enchantment [emotion, fear, mind-affecting]
Casting Time 10 minutes
Range 0 ft.; see text
Effect one rune
Duration see text
Saving Throw Fortitude partial (see text); Spell Resistance yes
This functions as mirror emoji, except as noted above and as follows. Each viewer of the rune perceives it slightly differently, with the rune taking the visible form of a simple symbol that is commonly associated with fear, shock, or panic. When triggered, affected creatures in the area gain a fear effect. The fear effect lasts as long as they remain within the area, and for 1d4 rounds after they leave. If a creature succeeds at their initial save against this effect and leave the area, they are not affected again if they re-enter the area. Creatures that fail their save are affected each time they enter the area.
Creatures who succeed at a saving throw and have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining are shaken. They can expend 1 Resolve Point to ignore this condition for 1d4 rounds.
Both creatures that succeed at a saving throw but do not still have both Stamina Points and Hit Points remaining, and creatures that fail at a saving throw and do have both SP and HP remaining, are frightened. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore this condition for 1d4 rounds during which time they are merely shaken.
Creatures that fail a saving throw and do not have both SP and HP left are panicked. If they expend a Resolve Point at the beginning of their turn, they can ignore the panic for 1 round and merely be shaken.
Detect magic allows you to identify afear emoji with a DC 18 Mysticism check. Of course, if the symbol is set to be triggered by reading it, this will trigger the symbol.
Magic traps such as fear emoji are hard to detect and disable. While any character can use Perception to find a fear emoji (which may trigger it), a character must use the lowest of their Engineering or Mysticism skill (based on the skill’s total bonus) to disarm it. The DC in each case is 25.
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Owen K.C. Stephens 