#drop dead studios

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Pathfinder: Wizard's Academy ~ Drop Dead Studios (2016)

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Third-Partystravaganza 5: Artisan (Base Class; Drop Dead Gaming)

Magic items have always been a big part of any fantasy setting. I’ve already spoken a bit on how to make discovering that useful magic item feel special (Back in my roleplay ramblings about combat styles!), but today, we’re going to focus on those that create said items.

Most any caster of spells can create magic items, and heck, even some non-magical crafters can get in on the fun, creating magic items by raw skill alone, albeit within a much narrower field of focus.

Back in past editions of the world’s oldest roleplaying game, there was a class built specifically for the creation of magic items: the Artificer, who channeled the majority of their magical talent into creating such items.

Of course, the artificer was not open content, so it only makes the jump to pathfinder by way of conversion. However, Drop Dead Gaming has given us another option in the form of their artisan class from a supplement of the same name. While it’s clearly not the same class, it shares enough in common with the artificer to make it pretty clear that this is DDG’s attempt to recreate the class using a more pathfinder-appropriate design scheme. What remains the same is how their abilities revolve around their creations.

 Master crafters, these artisans may not be able to cast spells, but their myriad knowledge of how such spells are used in crafting allows them to apply that knowledge to crafting. So long as they are skilled enough to “know” the spell, they can create such items without worrying about the process being more difficult.

Drawing upon a similar pool of arcane power to a magus, artisans can apply enhancements to combat-related equipment, albeit in a less specialized way, boosting and granting various enchantments not only to weapons, but also armor and shields. Furthermore, they can do this to the equipment of allies from a distance to aid them.

As one might expect, part of their training is devoted to learning as many different crafting feats as possible, drawing from an ever-expanding list, even including ones from outside the core rules.

What really sets artificers apart, however, is their ability to draw upon a magical reserve when crafting items, effectively trading raw magical essence in exchange for expensive material components normally required to help bind magic to the item. Of course they can’t replace all of the item’s cost with this essence, but it helps. Also, this pool does not regularly regenerate, but instead returns even fuller and deeper whenever they reach a new threshold of understanding. They do, however, also learn to disenchant items later, consuming the magic within to restore some of their essence.

Though their myriad of techniques only grows in depth and diversity with time, everyone has to start somewhere, and often has a favored material they like to work with, creating items faster from said materials, and gaining a myriad of abilities associated with each, such as protection powers for clothiers, mastery over traps and constructs with clockmakers, altering the properties and shape of metal with metallurgists and blacksmiths, and so on.

They also have access to a wide array of abilities that they can pick and choose from, ranging from adding new magical properties they can apply to objects, calling objects to their hand, gaining mastery over clockwork constructs to the point of making clockwork versions of other types of said animated creatures, and mastery over various other types of magic items.

It is common for these mystical craftsfolk to create homunculus familiars, often incorporating elements of their preferred craft into their design.

Regardless of whether they learn to craft more complex constructs, these artisans to learn how to create basic animated objects, and can even improve them, often building mobile frames or simple clockworks which they bring to life.

Storing so many items can be a hassle, so these crafters learn to hide away items in an astral cache they can summon to themselves. Later on, they can even summon individual items from it without bringing the rest.

Even staves bow to the will of these mystics, using their mastery to determine their power even though they are not true casters, and using their reserves of enchantment to power the spells.

Occasionally an enchantment would work better on another item, and these mystics have learned to move and even trade out enchantments from one source to the other.

Near the zenith of their power, these crafters perfect a magnum opus, a true minor artifact that they have been working at for a long time. What’s more, that breakthrough has opened up the secrets of artifact creation to them without mythic power, though doing so requires exceptional methods, forging said items in places of primal power, or collecting ingredients that cannot be found in any shop.

The most powerful artisans learn one final technique that enhances their powers, which varies by the individual. Some further master the speed and cost-efficiency of their creations, others can generate massive amounts of raw materials, enchant their own bodies, master wielding multiple wands or magic staves, or becoming a living spell battery, picking and choosing spells to utilize.

Interested in reliving the fun of the 3.5 artificer? Want a mystical craftsperson capable of using nearly all magic items, not to mention making them for a fraction of the cost in gold? This may be the class for you. There’s as many ways to build these as there are magic items. Perhaps you want a pseudo-caster with a wand for every situation, or maybe a botanist-brewer with potions and elixers galore, as well a plant monsters via the Grow Plant Creature, or an armored mystic whose weapon and armor enchantments are constantly changing to match the situation? The fact that the majority of their abilities rely on the resources of their essence pool and gold makes them a very money-focused class, of course, and that can be abused by them finding excuses to take extra downtime just to make money selling items. So keep that in mind.

 This seems to me like a very primal form of exploring magic, able to craft items with any spell, regardless of source, given they are powerful enough to know the crafting lore associated with each spell level. However, they themselves are no casters. So the question is, which came first, the artificer, or the mage? I lean towards the latter, for while artificers defy most casting, they are still reliant on so many things associated with spells. Perhaps in your setting it is different?

  One of the technological capitols of the world, Trodiet is famous for not only its mass-produced machines, but also its “artisan machine” line, amazing robots that combine arcane lore of old with the best science can offer. Each one is hand-crafted by one woman: Disiera Ardelay, the brilliant inventor. Though a gift to mortal science, there are many, from envious rivals to anti-science activists, who would see her dead.

 The Grove of Alkenor, named after the cerynitis that died defending it, it tended to by a lone druid and artisan who never reveals their name, instead spending all their time brewing potions and growing plant guardians from the local flora, all to protect the sacred place from interlopers, and to fund the local circle and its activities.

 Some of the most famous artifacts of the age were all crafted by a single person, the so-called Skysmith, whose identity has faded from history, but their impact remains. When a party member inherits The Skysmith’s Journal, they can embark on a quest to uncover their greatest creations, all while others greedily seek them for their own ends.

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Pathfinder: Woodfaring Adventures ~ Drop Dead Studios (2018)

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Pathfinder: Andrus - The City of Men ~ Drop Dead Studios (2018)

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Pathfinder: Spheres of Power ~ Drop Dead Studios (2014)

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Pathfinder: The Player's Guide to Skybourne ~ Drop Dead Studios (2016)

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The Luchador Base Class (PF2) (Priority Review)

The Luchador Base Class (PF2) (Priority Review)

The Luchador Base Class (PF2)

The luchador base class in its PF2e-iteration clocks in at 19 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 14 pages so let’s take a look!

  This review was moved up in my reviewing queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreon supporters.

  So, the luchador gets 10 + Constitution modifier Hit…

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The Bear Sphere

The Bear Sphere

This expansion for Spheres of Power clocks in at 18 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC,1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 13 pages, so let’s take a look!

  Okay, so first things first: Do you love potentially groan-inducing puns as much as I do? Then that alone will make this supplement worthwhile. The introduction does indeed set the tone…

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