Pei Zin Practitioner (Oracle Archetype)
In the Golarion setting, Pei Zin is an alchemical art from Tian Xia, its name translating to “The Process”. It is based around reagents derived mostly from herbs and other plant life, finding useful properties in the natural world, and is known for its particularly potent alchemical remedies.
Today’s archetype focuses on the divinely inspired few that can take Pei Zin to its fullest potential, blending in divine magic with herbal remedies, pushing them beyond the limits of biochemistry.
These Pei Zin Practitioners (or Divine Herbalists if you prefer the d20pfsrd setting-neutral name) are true masters of alchemical remedies, acupuncture, and the use of pressure points in healing, and when those don’t suffice, their spells can more than pick up the slack.
Masters of herbal alchemy, these mystics can craft most any alchemical item from herbal components, and can identify even magical potions by hints of their herbal origin.
Though they already possess healing magics, the healing arts of these oracles are diverse, and with a touch, a quick jab to a pressure point, or a quickly applied alchemical remedy (aided by divine magic of course) these healers can restore lost vitality with a few quick touches.
Furthermore, when doing so, they can use those techniques to even alleviate various debilitating conditions as well, though they must use their skill in herbal medicine alongside their healing arts to do so. The more skilled they are, the more harmful the conditions they can cure, but failure means risking making their would-be patient sick.
So basically what we have here is an oracle with massive buffs to herbalism profession roles, the equivalent of lay on hands, and an equivalent to mercies, but instead of learning specific conditions to cure, they make dice rolls to see if they can cure them, with each class of malady having its own DC. If you’re looking for an extra-heal-y oracle that makes heavy use of herbalism for alchemy, more traditional herbal arts, and even the herbalism rules from Ultimate Wilderness, this archetype is for you. I recommend a build that focuses on support, buffs, and nature-based control.
It’s important to note that since they replace wisdom with charisma for herbalism skill rolls, that the stereotype of the patient, soft-spoken healer type need not necessarily apply here. Certainly many with a public following might cultivate that persona, but they might be of the “I know more about healing than you do, now shut up, take your medicine, and if I see you getting up to go fight before your healed I’ll put you back in that bed before you can say ‘pinch of thyme’.”
The daughter of the mayor has been cursed with unnatural sleep, and the town is too remote to have ready access to the expensive healing magic required to save her. However, they say a master herbalist of divine power lives in the forest to the south, but it is a forbidden place full of spirits and monsters.
Blessed by the favor of the Green Goddess, Shou discovered wellsprings of healing magic and alchemy, brewing healing from plants overlooked by his contemporaries, but over time, he has also seen how his divine power can be used to punish the wicked, and the pacifistic vanara has developed reservations about the true nature of his blessing.
The Brass Garden is a place of metal, glass, but also greenery, as the combination of greenhouse and great mansion is a mighty temple of The Great Brewer, and the personal home of Artori, one of his most favored servants. The gardens are tended not only by mortal devotees, but also by the clockwork servitors that act as lab assistants on occasion in the temples mission of delving into the mysteries of nature, alchemy, arcane magic, and the divine.












