Chronologist
First Post
Below is the legacy weapon a player in my group designed and sent to me. Comments/suggestions would be welcome.
Veritas was once the right eye of an archivist who battled against the forces of dark magic and paid the final price. By taking Veritas’ legacy upon yourself, you gain the ability to learn the weaknesses of your enemies, grant this knowledge to your allies, and manipulate the minds of those around you.
History
Ren Tenivek was a scholarly archivist who joined a band of adventurers bent on eradicating the local infestations of demons and undead monsters. During a particularly bloody battle Ren failed to prepare properly and his left eye was gouged out by a chain devil. However, he emerged victorious, his faith and magical aptitude making his eye blaze alight. (DC 18, Blinded by Ignorance). As Ren fought more unnatural creatures, he learned more about them – far more than he had ever learned in the church. To pass this on, he wrote a series, Combating the Unnatural, with four books – Breaking Bones, Fighting like Hell, Slicing Spirits, and Conquering Nature,guides that have become staples for well-informed adventurers (DC 25, Scholarly Pursuits). On a solo journey to complete the last chapter of his book, Surviving Insanity, the aging Ren went into a den of particularly vicious Grell. Though the monsters were no threat, an Elder Beholder lay in wait at the end of the cavern, and Ren’s eye finally met its match (DC 31, Eye to Eye)
Non-Legacy Statistics: Veritas is a murky white glass eye that radiates faint divination. When held or “equipped”, the eye allows the wielder to see magic, as the spell Dweomer Sight (basically Detect Magic).
Omen: Veritas matches itself to look the opposite color of its wielder’s eye (brown becomes blue, green become red, yellow becomes purple). When Dread Sight is used, The iris expands until it covers the whole eye and the pupil becomes almost cat-like. The eye also leaves wisps of energy of the same color what flow behind you.
Requirements: 8 ranks in any 3 of the following 4 knowledge skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, Nature, Religion. Any non-Chaotic alignment.
Least Ritual: 1500 gp, must cut out your right eye and replace it with Veritas. This causes a permanent loss of 4 hit points, a -1 on ranged attack rolls, and a -4 to Spot checks. In return there is a reduction to the normal penalty to attack rolls by 1, the later hit point loss by 4, and the reflex save penalty by 1.
Lesser Ritual: 12500 gp, add a chapter to any of the 4 completed volumes of Fighting the Unnatural, detailing your personal experiences with the monsters you have faced and the tactics you used to defeat them. The chapter must detail at least 5 new creatures of that type, their abilities, weaknesses, tactics, and how to prepare and deal with them. All in all, it should be about 40 pages long. No, you don’t have to write it all in real life, just outline it.
Greater Ritual: 40500 gp, defeat a beholder with challenge rating of your level or higher alone, or finish writing Surviving Insanity, which must be over 200 pages long and have detailed descriptions on how to combat and prepare for at least 25 varieties of aberrations, whose challenge ratings must reach from first to 15th level, at the very least.
Level Atk bonus Saves Hit points
Dread Sight: When revealed as a full-round action, you can enter a state of preternatural awareness. During this time, you can make knowledge checks to identify the abilities of a magical beast (Arcana), aberration (Dungeoneering), undead (Religion), outsider or elemental (Planes).
With a DC 20 knowledge check you gain one of the Dread Sight benefits you know, as well as learning about one of the monster’s strengths or vulnerabilities. For every 5 above that, you not only learn another strength or weakness, you also gain another Dread Sight power. You can’t choose the same power more times than ½ your successes, rounded up.
Offense – You notice when and where the creature falters, making it easy to find an opening. +1 to hit and +1 damage
Defense – You watch his patterns of attack and when he uses his powers, making it easier to anticipate them. +1 to saving throws and AC
Aptitude – You read the flows of magic and life force coming in and out of the target, giving you insight into its traits. +1 to caster level and +2 to opposed skill checks
Vital Point – You find a weak spot in its body that will cripple it. +1d6 damage and +4 to confirm critical hits
Spell Breaker – You see the treads of magic flowing through the creature, and realize how to suppress them. On a hit, suppress a magical effect or ability of the target for 1 round (DC 10 + ½ level + Int modifier to resist). Taking this more than once increases the duration by 1 round each time.
Resilience – You’ve figured out the weak spots in his attacks, allowing you to avoid the brunt of the attack. You gain DR 2/- and Resist (fire, acid, lightning, or cold) 5. The Resistance stacks, but you can choose a different one each time.
Critical Point - You’ve found the weakest part of your enemy, letting you slip past its defenses and damage vital organs or fracture bone structures. Bypass 3 points of damage reduction and deal 1 ability damage on each hit, ability chosen when you activate Dread Sight. You can choose different abilities for the ability damage, and you have to specify what KIND of damage reduction you are bypassing (ie. Cold iron and magic, or adamantine).
Power Theft – You’ve mastered the ability to disrupt your opponent’s magic; now, you can make it your own for a time. You can steal a supernatural ability for the duration of your Dread Sight on a DC 10 + ½ level + Int modifier check. If you know the specific ability you can attempt to steal that, otherwise, you steal a random supernatural ability.
Dread Sight can be turned on for a number of rounds equal to ½ your level plus your intelligence modifier. You can end it prematurely. When it ends you become fatigued. You recover from the fatigue in 10 minutes, from the exhaustion in 1 hour, and from the unconsciousness in 8 hours as long as it was caused by Dread Sight. In addition, at the end of your use you take non-lethal damage equal the duration of your use.
Share Insight: At 6th level the user of Veritas can share his insight with his allies. As a standard action you can grant your allies the same bonuses you have from Veritas. This ability lasts one round. At 9th level the duration increases to 2 rounds, and at 12th you can activate it as a move action. At 15th level the duration increases to three rounds, and at 18th level you can activate it as a swift action.
Visions: At 7th level you have learned how to use Dread Sight to see beyond your own senses. If you prepare spells, you can prepare an additional Divination spell each day of 2nd level. If you spontaneously cast spells or use spell-like abilities, you can cast an additional 2nd level spell each day as long as it is a divination spell. At 10th level you gain a 3rd level spell, at 13th you get a 4th level spell, at 16th you get a 5th level spell, and at 19th you get a 6th level spell. If you can’t cast spells you can choose a single divination spell of 2nd level and cast it once per day as a supernatural ability. However, each time you cast them you take non-lethal damage equal to twice the spell level.
Veritas was once the right eye of an archivist who battled against the forces of dark magic and paid the final price. By taking Veritas’ legacy upon yourself, you gain the ability to learn the weaknesses of your enemies, grant this knowledge to your allies, and manipulate the minds of those around you.
History
Ren Tenivek was a scholarly archivist who joined a band of adventurers bent on eradicating the local infestations of demons and undead monsters. During a particularly bloody battle Ren failed to prepare properly and his left eye was gouged out by a chain devil. However, he emerged victorious, his faith and magical aptitude making his eye blaze alight. (DC 18, Blinded by Ignorance). As Ren fought more unnatural creatures, he learned more about them – far more than he had ever learned in the church. To pass this on, he wrote a series, Combating the Unnatural, with four books – Breaking Bones, Fighting like Hell, Slicing Spirits, and Conquering Nature,guides that have become staples for well-informed adventurers (DC 25, Scholarly Pursuits). On a solo journey to complete the last chapter of his book, Surviving Insanity, the aging Ren went into a den of particularly vicious Grell. Though the monsters were no threat, an Elder Beholder lay in wait at the end of the cavern, and Ren’s eye finally met its match (DC 31, Eye to Eye)
Non-Legacy Statistics: Veritas is a murky white glass eye that radiates faint divination. When held or “equipped”, the eye allows the wielder to see magic, as the spell Dweomer Sight (basically Detect Magic).
Omen: Veritas matches itself to look the opposite color of its wielder’s eye (brown becomes blue, green become red, yellow becomes purple). When Dread Sight is used, The iris expands until it covers the whole eye and the pupil becomes almost cat-like. The eye also leaves wisps of energy of the same color what flow behind you.
Requirements: 8 ranks in any 3 of the following 4 knowledge skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, Nature, Religion. Any non-Chaotic alignment.
Least Ritual: 1500 gp, must cut out your right eye and replace it with Veritas. This causes a permanent loss of 4 hit points, a -1 on ranged attack rolls, and a -4 to Spot checks. In return there is a reduction to the normal penalty to attack rolls by 1, the later hit point loss by 4, and the reflex save penalty by 1.
Lesser Ritual: 12500 gp, add a chapter to any of the 4 completed volumes of Fighting the Unnatural, detailing your personal experiences with the monsters you have faced and the tactics you used to defeat them. The chapter must detail at least 5 new creatures of that type, their abilities, weaknesses, tactics, and how to prepare and deal with them. All in all, it should be about 40 pages long. No, you don’t have to write it all in real life, just outline it.
Greater Ritual: 40500 gp, defeat a beholder with challenge rating of your level or higher alone, or finish writing Surviving Insanity, which must be over 200 pages long and have detailed descriptions on how to combat and prepare for at least 25 varieties of aberrations, whose challenge ratings must reach from first to 15th level, at the very least.
Level Atk bonus Saves Hit points
Dread Sight: When revealed as a full-round action, you can enter a state of preternatural awareness. During this time, you can make knowledge checks to identify the abilities of a magical beast (Arcana), aberration (Dungeoneering), undead (Religion), outsider or elemental (Planes).
With a DC 20 knowledge check you gain one of the Dread Sight benefits you know, as well as learning about one of the monster’s strengths or vulnerabilities. For every 5 above that, you not only learn another strength or weakness, you also gain another Dread Sight power. You can’t choose the same power more times than ½ your successes, rounded up.
Offense – You notice when and where the creature falters, making it easy to find an opening. +1 to hit and +1 damage
Defense – You watch his patterns of attack and when he uses his powers, making it easier to anticipate them. +1 to saving throws and AC
Aptitude – You read the flows of magic and life force coming in and out of the target, giving you insight into its traits. +1 to caster level and +2 to opposed skill checks
Vital Point – You find a weak spot in its body that will cripple it. +1d6 damage and +4 to confirm critical hits
Spell Breaker – You see the treads of magic flowing through the creature, and realize how to suppress them. On a hit, suppress a magical effect or ability of the target for 1 round (DC 10 + ½ level + Int modifier to resist). Taking this more than once increases the duration by 1 round each time.
Resilience – You’ve figured out the weak spots in his attacks, allowing you to avoid the brunt of the attack. You gain DR 2/- and Resist (fire, acid, lightning, or cold) 5. The Resistance stacks, but you can choose a different one each time.
Critical Point - You’ve found the weakest part of your enemy, letting you slip past its defenses and damage vital organs or fracture bone structures. Bypass 3 points of damage reduction and deal 1 ability damage on each hit, ability chosen when you activate Dread Sight. You can choose different abilities for the ability damage, and you have to specify what KIND of damage reduction you are bypassing (ie. Cold iron and magic, or adamantine).
Power Theft – You’ve mastered the ability to disrupt your opponent’s magic; now, you can make it your own for a time. You can steal a supernatural ability for the duration of your Dread Sight on a DC 10 + ½ level + Int modifier check. If you know the specific ability you can attempt to steal that, otherwise, you steal a random supernatural ability.
Dread Sight can be turned on for a number of rounds equal to ½ your level plus your intelligence modifier. You can end it prematurely. When it ends you become fatigued. You recover from the fatigue in 10 minutes, from the exhaustion in 1 hour, and from the unconsciousness in 8 hours as long as it was caused by Dread Sight. In addition, at the end of your use you take non-lethal damage equal the duration of your use.
Share Insight: At 6th level the user of Veritas can share his insight with his allies. As a standard action you can grant your allies the same bonuses you have from Veritas. This ability lasts one round. At 9th level the duration increases to 2 rounds, and at 12th you can activate it as a move action. At 15th level the duration increases to three rounds, and at 18th level you can activate it as a swift action.
Visions: At 7th level you have learned how to use Dread Sight to see beyond your own senses. If you prepare spells, you can prepare an additional Divination spell each day of 2nd level. If you spontaneously cast spells or use spell-like abilities, you can cast an additional 2nd level spell each day as long as it is a divination spell. At 10th level you gain a 3rd level spell, at 13th you get a 4th level spell, at 16th you get a 5th level spell, and at 19th you get a 6th level spell. If you can’t cast spells you can choose a single divination spell of 2nd level and cast it once per day as a supernatural ability. However, each time you cast them you take non-lethal damage equal to twice the spell level.
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