There are one or two other races that I would have liked to have seen in there, but they're not 3rd party, and will most likely be in Paizo's next month. But this book is definitely a must for those who do third party races just to be different, and don't want to be stuck with just the standard +1 hp or +1 skill rank.

1) Is meant as a way to flesh out a character's background better, or give them people who can perform certain functions for them (sell potions, upgrade weapons and armor, etc), or are these meant to be people who backstab them or betray them and end up becoming a campaign's villain?
2) Define "NPCs players won't forget".
3) Are they potential damsels in distress?

- Mark Gedak

Already pumped for the next release. :)

I know Stefen and myself are pretty tied up right now but it is still a great idea.

Let's start with yours first: Kech and Ogrillon (!).

Third Party:
Adamant Entertainment's Tome of Secrets had a good start, but would have liked to have seen more from them. Especially bonuses for their own classes. When I buy the Rook later, I'm hoping to see alternate class features, or at least a racial alternate feature for it besides the standard +1 hp or +1 skill rank.
Half-Ogre (!), Ratkin, Saurian (!).

Alluria Publishing did a good job with their Compendium book, and even had feats and racial prestige classes, but no racial bonuses for classes for any of the 25 races they did.
Anumas (all 11 of them), Entobian, Oakling (!), Kval (!), Mahrog (although since they're basically humans you could go with that, but that'd be like giving a half-elf the elf abilities) (!), Mogogol, Obitu (!), Relluk, Squole (!), and Taddol (!).

Ones I really hope Paizo do: Oread (!), Changeling, Ifrit (!), Orc (!), Svirfneblin (!), Merfolk and Undine.

Which 8 races would you like more options for?

Hmmm, I wonder if Sam Hing would like to do Monstrous Races 3. I'll see about that once he has his first project done for us.

We appreciate it. Monsters Unleashed V.3 should be out this week.

- Mark

What do you think? Am I close? The reasoning behind this was the need for a Fort save of +5 by level 4. That means two classes that have a strong fortitude save at level 1. That gives you barbarian, fighter, anti-paladin, cleric, ranger, druid, monk, cavalier, gunslinger, inquisitor, and magus. And those are just the licensed ones from Paizo. There's still all of those 3rd party published ones like you guys, and there's definitely a half-ogre base race in the 3rd party Tome of Secrets by Adamant Entertainment.

Barbarian was my first thought, but they're only able to wear medium armor. Not that a level of fighter wouldn't take care of that, but they'd still lose an ability here and there for wearing the heavy armor of dragonplate. So, anti-paladin was the next idea. Especially given his wanton of chaos, and needing to be a little charismatic for his Leadership feat. The strong Will progression would help the Fiery Discorporation ability come off every once and a while. Inquisitors get more skill points, and actually have Knowledge (arcana) as class skill, but I don't know that that'd be all that important.

Any chance you guys could give me a leg up on how to design this guy for my party to take on?

I can't seem to find it anywhere, but could you define "keen vision" and "the acute stare of the hunter"? Looking over the aspect spells, I'm guessing +3 Perception (not competence because that's what the eagle eyes give) and Intimidate? Maybe insight bonus? Or is it that you gain the range increment bonus?

Fleshtearers are exotic one-handed weapons of demonic design. As medium weapons they deal 1d8 points of damage plus 1 bleed. They would weigh 5 lbs. and deal slashing damage.
They are not items commonly up for sale as they have a superior quality to them (bleed damage) so I would probably price them in around 225 gp.

Looking back at the text, I need to include these and add the bleed damage when I work on this product to combine the three Legendary Races into a print book. You can consider this post official errata for PDG.

- Fix Me (to list errors)
- Requests (to suggest sources)
- Sources (to list all the books on this site)

Anyway, thanks for hearing me out, Mark. Keep up the good work!

- Mark

bold text
Of Sages and Sorcerers (Children of the Grave, LLC)
Mindcraft (Alea Publishing Group)
Feudal Lords 3.5 (Alea Publishing Group)
Primal Codex (Netherland Games)
Bulldogs! Psionics (Galileo Games)
anything else for the original d20 Bulldogs! game
OGL Frontline: Arcane Duelist (Mob United Media)
pretty much any d20 publication by Silven Publishing
bold text

Just some food for thought. Thanks!

The groups I'm always playing in either do everything to break a game, or try to get the most out of their money so that they can actually be effective. No player I know would settle for a +4 weapon at 20th level unless they had Greater Magic Weapon +5 on it from a cleric that persisted it for 48 hours, or at least extended it for 36.

It'd still be nice if there was a way to build a legendary weapon or armor from the ground up, and give it your own backstory for your own homebrew world. Especially if absolutely none of the items work for your world as is. Right now none of them work in my world, and I'm trying to homebrew the phoenix axe to work for a half-god warrior that's a descendant of a lightning god (see: Thor).

Each encounter features a monster from the Forgotten Foes monster book, a Pathfinder comp

My intention with legendary weapons was for them to be useful at all levels. So that is why each weapon offers a range of abilities (typically maxing out at a +4 level with additional abilities). I'm not sure if I would let someone upgrade a legendary weapon because that defeats the purpose of self-leveling in the first place (and puts additional restrictions like added cost and crafting requirements). This has not come up in my campaign in the years that we have been using legendary weapon but your mileage will vary.

There is probably not a great reason to not allow your PCs to spend resources to upgrade the enhancement bonus or weapon properties. If you did allow that I would say that the +3 keen flaming battle axe at 10th could be a +5 at 20th if you felt it didn't unbalance your game.

- Mark

Being able to see a formula, and make your own custom items, would be really awesome to see. To add to it, maybe you don't want what an item has, and want to switch it out for something else. Seeing a table to know what you could switch it out for would be great too. Maybe instead of Wall of Flame, you'd like to make it a +4 axe. Can you do that in exchange for that spell 3/day? Don't know without the proper materials. How about transformation? We know that an optional rule is that you can have the weapon become jealous and give you penalties if you use something else, but you're going to want to use something that does bludgeoning against something strong against slashing. Maybe an ability that allows you to transform your hammer into a handaxe into a short bow? You wouldn't have a need to switch out weapons if that first weapon could do everything.

Finally, I don't see it on the weapon pdfs (correct me if I'm wrong) where it says whether or not you pay additionally for a weapon to be upgraded. For instance, at 20th level, you have a +4 weapon (eg +3 flaming greataxe). What if I want to make that a +5 flaming burst greataxe? How much does that cost me? If I get it done early, and it's a +3 keen flaming burst greataxe at only level 10, does it become a +5 greataxe when I hit level 20?

It'd be like a Pathfinder version of the D&D Weapons of Legacy book, which I know a number of people enjoyed. The nice thing about this version, however, is there doesn't seem to be any sort of penalties, other than maybe a weapon becoming jealous if you use another weapon.

Additionally, I've updated the look of the site, added this blog link to the front page and hope to work on reorganizing the DM Sketchpad and starting it up again in July.

- Mark

I may sign up to start posting OGC to the site for my favorite slumbering setting: Dragonmech by goodman games.

Thanks for all of you hard work!

-Chuck Smith
Brooklyn Gamer Dad

• Rise of the Runelords #6 - Spires of Xin-Shalast
• Ultimate NPCS
• Ultimate Equipment Guide V.2
• The Renegade Cleric's Tome
• Encyclopedia Arcane: Tomes and Libraries

More to come as John and I continue to make more content available through our partners.

New Review
API Worldwide: Europe by Third Eye Games is a 90-page campaign supplement for the Apocalypse Prevention Inc. system. It retails for $9.99 at Rpgnow and is probably available at other vendors as well. While the cover indicates that this is a European sourcebook, there is not enough space to cover all the European countries in detail and instead provides good detail on the London home base of API and an overview of European sites that fall within their jurisdiction.

The book covers England in detail as well as provides background on many of the larger European countries as well as they current mystical or political entanglements as well as important locations. Two items from this section that I particularly liked were the mystical location known as the Hall of Dreams located in Budapest and the Bridez of Dracula, a folk rock group of Taylari who are touring Romania. There are a lot of adventure hooks scattered throughout this first section of the book.

This book expands the API’s involvement with other groups. It provides details on the history and formation of API, their interaction and acceptance of demon agents, and provides statistics on four major players in the API organization including it leader Jonathon Nisbett. In addition to the API they provide details on other organizations that either support the API like the magic-based Rosicrucians, hinder the API like the Inner Cabinet (selfish in all ways) or the Knights of Solomon (with an opposing view of what salvation means). There are also a couple of couple of organizations that could conceivably fill either role depending on the circumstance and I think I like those ones the best as they will provide greater ambiguity in what the heroes should or should not be doing that is so necessary for increasing the tension in the game.

For those looking for crunchy bits there are new pieces of equipment, oath magic, magic items and a handful of classical monsters as well as the new primary races of Chirons (centaurs), Fauns, Hidden Folk (possessing elves), and Morgaines (soul-eating outsiders which can perceive the intricacies of fate). The product ends with a module for agents to undertake from the London office. Now I should be very clear that I like that Third Eye Games included an adventure. In a world where fewer and few rpg modules are being created it is nice to see a small adventure included with this sourcebook. The thing that strikes me as strange about the included module is that it is not very Euro-centric. It doesn’t include any of the new power groups or any of the new primary races and the majority of it takes place in an alternate adventure. It seems to me that you’d want the adventure to include many elements from the sourcebook. That said there is nothing innately wrong about the module and it could serve wells as a 2nd or 3rd API Europe adventure. I think as a 1st mission it may have too dire of straights for new players.

There a couple of editing gaffs here or there like the common (page XXX). But they are few and far between. Overall, API Worldwide: Europe looks to be a very solid book for GMs looking to set their adventures in Europe or work out of the London branch.

New OGC Source

• Ultimate Equipment Guide V.2

I've uploaded the content pulled for me by Chris Sakkas from the sixth volume in the first adventure path, the Rise of the Runelords

According to The Escapist it is Read an Rpg in public week. I'm going to take a variety of books with me throughout the week. Today will be Dread. In the casual reading front I hope to pour through 4 Wind Fantasy Gaming's Dog Book and API: Europe by Third Eye Games.

The problem with actually aging a creatures that get more powerful as they age such as dragons, if I was a dragon I would be hunting one down and using it as my personal power up.

Also having to wait for a greater restoration is a bastard on a template that does not require players to have anywhee near access.

Plus there is the problem of different aging rates.

I think a better mechanic if it was a curse that gave the appearance of age and pushed up to the mentality categories of aging that way the effect would be the same across the board. But that's just my opinion

On the subject of aging, I think it is possible to put aging effects back into the game in fact some effects are already there. The following material is Open Game Content

Variant: Lifestealer Ghost (CR base creature +2)

The ghost in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game has the following special ability:

Corrupting Touch (Su): All ghosts gain this incorporeal touch attack. By passing part of its incorporeal body through a foe's body as a standard action, the ghost inflicts a number of d6s equal to its CR in damage. This damage is not negative energy—it manifests in the form of physical wounds and aches from supernatural aging. Creatures immune to magical aging are immune to this damage, but otherwise the damage bypasses all forms of damage reduction. A Fortitude save halves the damage inflicted.

This ability although described as an aging effect deals hit point damage. A variant that does actual aging damage instead is listed below.

Life-draining Touch (Su) All ghosts gain this incorporeal touch attack. By passing part of its incorporeal body through a foe’s body as a standard action, the ghost inflicts 1d6 years of aging per two Hit Dice. This is a negative energy effect that transfers the life from living into the ghost on a year by year basis. If a ghost drains enough years of life from a victim to push them past the maximum age for their character, that victim is destroyed and crumbles to dust.

If a ghost gains enough years of time to revert them to a time when they were alive again they will manifest a new living form an be given a second chance at life. This life is fleeting though as the reborn ghost will age 1 year for every day of its new life until it dies of old age and becomes a ghost again. If a ghost is killed while in reborn form they will not reform as a ghost.

Characters aged but not killed by a ghost’s life-draining touch can have the aging effects removed by a greater restoration spell.

Human settlements plagued by the presence of ghosts, quickly become ghost towns as the inhabitants are quickly killed or flee. Elven cities are often plagued by ghosts as these creature sense the great life energy that is bottled within their graceful forms. It is not surprising that the 1st Order of Ghosthunters was founded among the elven people.

You would have thought with a week off I would have nothing but time to keep the DM Sketchpad up to date but here it is February 20th and I’m writing the entry for February 14th. Oh well. I got a request from a DM Sketchpad reader to look at updating some legacy concepts that have failed to be updated. Here is a couple of new magic items. The following magic items are Open Game Content.

Items of a Different Age

Player characters live lives that burn brightly but are ultimately short. Though it is possible for characters to age through middle age, old age, and finally venerable age, it is not a likely occurrence. In ages past, powerful magic powers or undead creatures used to sap away a character’s vitality and force them into early retirement. Now although magic and undead that cause aging effects are very rare, there are still people who are interested in preserving their lives in non-necromantic means. As such, the following magic items are available for purchase from chronomancers.

Elixir of Longevity
Aura moderate chronomancy; CL 9th
Slot —; Price 1,500 gp; Weight —
[Description]
A character drinking this liquid does not age for a period of 1 year. They do not become any younger but they do not become any older either. After a year the character will continue to age normally unless another elixir is drank.
[Construction]
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, slow death’s approach; Cost 750 gp

Portrait of Eternal Youth
Aura strong chronomancy; CL 13th
Slot —; Price 80, 000 gp; Weight 4 lbs.
[Description]
In an exquisite paduak frame is held a beautiful portrait of the owner. The portrait is a perfect representation of the character when it is first crafted. Once painted, the image of the owner will age, while the owner does not. The portrait image will get older and older while the owner remains the same age. In order to maintain the magical bound between owner and the painting, once a year, the owner must kill an innocent and use their blood to repaint the frame. If the painting is destroyed the owner immediately ages a number of years equal to the time the painting aged.
[Construction]
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, temporal schism; Cost 40,000 gp

Continuing on detailing the members of the Freedom Brigade today we look at Fenris. The following material is Open Game Content. Some artwork by Louis Porter, Jr. Designs.

Freedom Brigade: Fenris

Fenris was found by the Freedom Brigade in a derelict spaceship – The Phoenix. Fenris was found in a life support pod, with no memory of his past life. The crew of the Phoenix was missing though signs of bloodshed and weapon fire decorate the ruined ship. Fenris was investigated but without any memory of hard evidence of wrongdoing he faced no charges. Having no memory of his past life, he applied to the Freedom Brigade to use his natural talents to help search for The Phoenix’s crew. He served as a probationary member for many years before formally being accepted into Search and Rescue Team.

Fenris is a tortured hero, he feels responsible for the missing crew of The Phoenix, even though he has no memory of his time on board. What Fenris doesn’t know is that he had no life before he was discovered on the Phoenix. The Arcarin Counsel genetically engineered Fenris to be a sleeper agent from within the Freedom Brigade. He is an active member who is trusted by many in the Brigade. When the time is right the Arcarin Counsel will trigger their agent and destroy the Brigade from within.

The Terran Insterstellar Marine Force is the toughest branch of the Unified Earth Military Command. In their storied 200 year history as the infantry arm of the Terran Expeditionary Fleet, the Leathernecks had battled the feral xenomorphs of Rigil Kentaurus, stormed the asteroid fortresses of the Void Pirates and eradicated an uprising of the savage native Vrish who threatened the Pleiades Colony. But they had never faced a foe like the Fyr'Toll

Background: It is the year 2268 and mankind is locked in a bitter war of extermination with the Fyr`Toll, a frightening, inhuman blend of man and machine. Their first attacks came without warning and decimated the most powerful nations on Earth. The United States of Africa, the Indian Conglomerate, the Pan-American League and the Asian Coalition all lie in ruins.

Earth refused to surrender and after a desperate first year of conflict, managed to match the Fyr`Toll’s technological advantages through a series of daring boarding actions, capturing and reverse engineering enemy vessels. Once parity was achieved however, the war seemed to drag on indefinitely and has just entered its 25th year.

On a deep-space survey mission thought to be far away from the front lines, the player characters served on the UASS Johannesburg, searching out resources vital to the war effort. It is then they run across a Fyr`Toll survey ship, the Kra`Tep. After a brief, vicious firefight, both vessels crash on an uncharted planet below.

Two enemies, stranded on one planet on the edge of space. Neither able to overcome the planet’s natural magnetic field to call for help and watching as a fast-growing jungle constantly threatens to overrun their ruined vessels, as predators kill their crew one by one.

After several firefights, their numbers dwindling, the captain of the Kra`Tep meets with the senior surviving officer of the Johannesburg and suggests the two sides join forces to get free of the deadly planet. When the pact is announced, approximately 25% of the humans and Fyr`Toll strike out on their own, unable to overcome the hatred each feels for the other.

These attack each other, the opposing side and even their fellows, all in an attempt to “convince” them that cooperation with their worst enemy is pointless at best, dangerous at worst.

A game of exploration: This is the campaign of “stranded on a different star”. A hostile alien world must be explored and possibly tamed, at first for simple survival but eventually with the monumental task of pooling resources for a return voyage.

A game of character interaction: But the planet isn’t the only challenge players in the game will face. Can they manage to hold their unstable coalition together and overcome the hatred bred by decades of war? Can they bring their dissidents back into the fold?

A game of discovery: And even when the planet has been explored, there are mysteries left to solve. What about the planet hinders technology? What secrets wait to be discovered in alien ruins? And how closely will each side honor their agreements? If a powerful alien weapon is discovered, will its secrets be shared or will the discovering side try to hide it for return to their side in the war above.

A game of community: Stranded on a Distant Star will be financed by the “ransom” system, where gamers interested in the game will finance it and guide its direction.

If the $1,500 donation threshold is achieved, patrons will gain access to a special discussion group, where they will see advance drafts of the game and comment on its direction. The game will be designed by veteran OGL designer Charles Rice and its mechanics will be 100% OGL, though the setting will remain the property of Vigilance Press/Charles Rice.

Once the game is completed, the game will be made available for free on RPGNow in PDF form. All contributors will be credited in the final PDF copy.

Contributors of $20 or more will receive a POD-print copy of the game.

About the author: Charles Rice is an Ennie-nominated writer with over 100 credits. His books currently in print include: Modern20, Supers20, Darwin’s World (True20 Edition) and the Two Worlds RPG, included in the collectors edition of the Two Worlds X-Box 360 game.

Go Here to Chip In!

Regards,
Walt

Wow! I really thought I would get to do more members of the Freedom Brigade last month. Oh well, her is the next member of the intergalactic peace-keeping force known as the Freedom Brigade. The following material is Open Game Content. Some artwork provided by Louis Porter, Jr. Designs.

Freedom Brigade: Flextor

Fontaine Aristis developed elasticity power and enhanced strength due to a high school science project that got completely out of hand. Obviously, he should have paid a more careful nerd to do his homework for him. Regardless, when the project on string theory oscillations within a 4-dimensional matrix exploded, the resulting cascade of subphotonic energy transformed his physical form aging him to adulthood, enhancing his strength and agility and transforming his molecules into a super-stretchy colloidal form.

Using his family’s fortune he was able to cover-up the accident and buy a heroic persona. He is generally disliked by members of the Freedom Brigade who come to heroics from a more idealist or guardian background but the press seems to like him and his bigger than life personality has won over many of the Brigade’s detractors. If any hero has galaxy star appeal it is Flextor. He get the job done, while making sure the vidcams always catch his good side.

4C Stats

I’ve only included 4C stats for Flextor. If you want stats for Rpgobject’s Supers²⁰ drop me a comment below and let me know. – Mark

It seems to me that I haven’t written any organizations for the Grand OGL Wiki. If we just in the way, way back machine to the year of 2002 Bastion Press came out with a unique book called Guildcraft. Within this tome there were many organizations as well as a template for building organizations such as the ones featured within the book. Even more awesome-y (wow, that word clearly abuses the English language), there are random tables to help generate new organizations. Let’s roll one up and see what we get. The following organization is Open Game Content

Rolling some dice

Okay I’ve rolled: 17 (Sharing), 1 (Belief/Code), 3 (Application), 17 (550 members), 2 (Single large settlement), 11 (Grade by Merit), 2 (Access to Skills, Feats or Spells).

The Inward Eye Institute
The IEI was established in 821 CE after the War of Giants lead to the destruction of the Library of Tyranophus. Disciples of Omalous felt the loss of world knowledge as shockwave through their faith. Since that time they have undertaken pilgrimages to gather and make copies of important works of literature, history, magic and science. Since its inception the IEI has grown to include learned men and woman of all faiths and professions.

Purpose
The Inward Eye Institute is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of knowledge. Its members work tirelessly to make copies of seminal works, locate lost manuscripts and translate ancient manuscripts, tomb markings and other pictographs.

Membership
All members of the Inward Eye Institute believe in the power of the written word to change the world. They are convinced that through the study of recorded knowledge, the mistakes that lead to the War of Giants can be avoided and that society can move toward a more enlightened way. The Institute draws members from Omalous’s folk as well as experts, scholars, bards, wizards, sorcerers and pscionists.

Joining the Inward Eye Institute
Members who wish to join the Institute must apply to one of the Institutes office. There is a small fee of 5 sp for administrative costs and all members are granted an IEI Card which allows them to access the stored materials at the IEI branches for personal enlightenment and even borrow items for a period of one week. All IEI cardholders are taught how to write and are expected to help maintain the Institute once a month or to travel to obtain new information for the IEI.

Size and Scope
The Inward Eye Institute is based in the city of Lorautic on the Eastern Sea. The Institute operates three repositories of knowledge in this large city and serves over 550 IEI cardholders. At any one time up to a 100 IEI research group members are scouring the known world for new knowledge to add to the repository. With the success of the IEI in the city of Lorautic, the leadership of the IEI is looking to expand to two or three more cities. Since the library of Tyranophus was destroyed in the War of Giants, the leadership recognize that storing all the knowledge in one city is folly.

Guild Structure and Advancement
The Inward Eye Institute consists of three grades of IEI member: cardholder, knowledge seeker, knowledge creator. Advancement is based entirely on merit and how much new knowledge a person brings to the IEI. As a person rises in the ranks of the IEI they are allowed to study from the more obscure tomes or restricted sources gaining new insights into areas of study they may have not considered possible. The IEI is governed by a six member board of knowledge creators that are elected to a 7 year term.

Benefits

• Access to IEI Library Resources Having access to library resources allows users to make Diplomacy checks to gather information in 1 hour when working in an IEI repository.
• Access to Skills Membership in the IEI allows Knowledge skills, Linguistics and Profession (scribe) to be considered class skills as the IEI membership will provide training in these skills.
• +1 Knowledge Exposure to some of the world greatest knowledge, history and literate adds a +1 circumstance bonus to all Knowledge skills in which the character possesses ranks.
• Bonus Spells At any level that a character can learn a new spell or psionic power they may learn a spell or power of lower level from another class’s spell or power list.
• +2 Knowledge You continued exposure to esoteric knowledge increases the circumstance bonus gained to +2.
• Access to Feats Members at the knowledge creator can take feats in Comprehend Writing, Cultured, Inspiration, Librarian, Philologist, Prolific Writer, Voracious Reader or Write Manual. These are not free feats but do become available for selection through normal advancement. These feats can be found here

Inward Eye Institute Advancement Table