#tar zombie

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Mortal Herald (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)

(art by wmikaelart on DeviantArt)

It is one thing to believe you are loved by your god, and it is another thing entirely to be chosen as their representative, to enact their will.

In the paradigm set by Pathfinder and indeed D&D, gods have plenty of servants. From the mortal divine spellcasters that they empower with their magic to do as they see fit to the actual outsiders that actually get to meet them and carry out direct orders from them.

And then there are the heralds, beings that, while not necessarily the strongest entities that a particular god has in their service, they are certainly among the most unique and distinctly qualified to act as the voice of their deity. Some aren’t even outsiders, though they do have plenty of divine power infused in them.

Indeed, sometimes, for whatever reason, a mortal gets to be a herald to a divinity. Before her own ascension via the Starstone, Iomedae, for example, served as the herald of Aroden, and even now, Iomedae’s own herald is currently former Queen Galfrey of Mendev.

And with that in mind, we come to todays subject, the Mortal Herald archetype, representing a character that has, through fate or good fortune, become such a devout follower of their deity that they’ve been considered worthy of serving as one of the foremost of their servants.

Admittedly, such a role might be less of a reward and more the culmination of remote grooming on the part of the deity, depending on the divinity in question. Either way, in the eyes of their deity these beings have been judged worthy and been given a tiny portion of their divine power in a way that not even proper clerics or oracles can match.

This archetype steps into a peculiar niche as well, because it’s technically not a mythic destiny archetype, but it can be used as one. It has some feats that can only be taken if the character is also using the mythic rules, but still has plenty to offer those that it does not.

Needless to say, however, this is an archetype that no character can just casually take because the player is interested in playing with it. It definitely requires at least some discussion with the GM about if they are willing to take that direction with the character and the campaign.

The base dedication of this archetype establishes the character as a herald, binding them to their deity’s holy or unholy aspect as well as their anathema, not to mention giving them a subtle aura that others can sense if not recognize. They also gain a reserve of strong healing magic to heal themselves with, even saving them from falling unconscious if needed.

Some deities gift their heralds with power over their domains, allowing them to choose two different magical abilities from the basic or advanced options of these domains each day.

Even the most benevolent deity can be fearsome in the right circumstances, and some heralds tap into that, able to strike fear into others and even deepen the fear that others feel.

Deities are often said to be everywhere all at once, and truly mythic heralds can emulate that by teleporting next to their allies. By expending mythic power they can extend this reach much further, and the act of doing so comes with a pulse of power that can leave foes stunned.

Those with a combatative bent can empower their weapon into an implement of their god’s wrath, transforming the damage to raw spiritual harm greater than what the weapon could achieve in it’s natural state.

Whether it be by wings or from raw uplifting power, some heralds develop the ability to fly.

The divine protection sported by some heralds expends beyond their person and proves especially potent, warding themselves and allies against attack, especially spirit damage, and even punishing those that touch them with hostile intent.

A word of chastisement from these beings can literally cause the spirit of foes to wither, though it only works on those that actually fear the herald.

Going further, a herald can declare a foe anathema, isolating them by making even their allies hesitant to aid them, as well as marking them as vulnerable to spiritual power.

Those that can fly by any means can drop from the sky with a tremendous physical and spiritual impact, blasting back foes.

Following through, those with the gift of the herald’s weapon can cause a successful wound with such a weapon to flare with spiritual power, in the mystical equivalent of a sword slash that takes a moment for blood to spray forth.

When those capable of a flash of omnipresence vanish away, powerful individuals can drag some of the spirit of foes daring to try to restrain them with them, wounding their vital essence as they vanish.

When warding allies, some learn to fill the aura with vital energy, helping their friends absorb damage.

Like a trumpet archon delivering a message that brings hope to the righteous and despair to the wicked, some heralds can infuse a spell they cast with a pulse of power, healing nearby allied witnesses and harming foes.

Truly mythic heralds of gods of subtlety and stealth sometimes are empowered to be hidden from all, allowing them to begin a combat invisible to foes, or even for longer periods than a combat with a bit of mythic power.

No power is permitted hold sway over a deity’s herald, and as such many are blessed with the power to help overcome such mental effects.

A herald is often willing to sacrifice much to serve their deity, and this is sometimes literal as some can sacrifice their own life essence to fuel spells instead of magical energy.

Some can enter a stance that gives them an aura of deific poise and grace, which allows them to strike and cast from anywhere within it and hampers foes standing inside. The more they focus on it, the larger this sphere of influence becomes.

Some heralds are perpetually followed by an aura of blessing or bane, depending on the nature of their deity.

The petty illusions of mortals mean nothing to gods, and some heralds are blessed with this insight as well, seeing the true nature of things.

Many recognize that while gods are not truly all-knowing, they are pretty close to omniscience. Some truly mythic mortal heralds can borrow a bit of that insight to know the resistances and weaknesses of foes at a glance.

Flying up into the sky, some heralds can raise their weapon and unleash a flare of raw light and glory, blinging foes and overwhelming them with spirit-sapping awe.

Spoken assurances to allies from the lips of some heralds are as good as guiding their actions directly by hand, improving their accuracy in combat.

Further punishing the enemies of the faith, a spellcaster herald can mark a foe harmed by their magic for follow-up attacks, letting allies deal devastating blows to such a marked foe to finish them.

Raw vital energy lingers in those some heralds save from death, giving fast healing to those brought from unconsciousness or death for a short time.

Others, however, would rather save foes from falling in the first place, and have a knack for interposing themselves to take a surprising amount of damage for allies without falling.

With a touch, some heralds can bless an item to bolster the traits of the wearer based on what attributes the deity favors.

Powerful heralds can invoke a truly potent form of healing that erases wounds and soothes the mind and body.

Some heralds at their zenith are given permission to enter and invite others into the private realm of their deity, though care must be taken to prevent allies from being overwhelmed or harmed by the realms of some deities.

Truly mythic heralds at their zenith can invoke a measure of true omnipotence, empowering their attack to ignore all protections and resistances, or even trigger a vulnerability.

Others demonstrate hitting foes hard by striking them such that they briefly pass through the deity’s realm, overwhelming their spirit and senses from the raw intensity of such unprotected exposure.

Some can become as avatars of their deity, assuming a magical transformation for that purpose.

Others would rather protect the hearts and minds of others, blessing them with the same mental protection their deity offers.

Finally, some deities grant their heralds true immortality. Certainly their bodies can be slain with extreme effort, but age cannot touch them, and their spirit remains an honored guest in their realm until they are needed again, reconstituting into the mortal plane with a new body. Of course, if their current quest was incomplete, this period of rest may be short indeed.

This archetype can be quite potent, offering a lot of divine power to characters. Better yet, it has feats for all sorts of characters, from those that prefer physical combat to spellcasters and the like, plus some flashy tricks that any can use!

Mortal heralds are rare indeed, and it is interesting that this archetype counts as a pseudo mythic destiny, as it is clearly related to but distinct from the likes of being a godling, instead being powered by another deity rather than your own burgeoning power of the divine.

The primeval lands of Kocha have many threats not seen in other lands. Such is the case when a village is attacked by a plodding mammoth tar zombie. None were expecting, however, to be saved by the divine herald of the Moon Guardian, who has sent them to find the source of the blight that brought forth the horrible undead beast.

On the dry plains of Umbaku, a war is being fought over the very soul of the kholo, with one side being headed by the herald of the Dark Mother, and the other by the herald of the newly-ascended Wise Hunter deity, both laying claim to the hyena folk in their own way.

While exploring the manor of his famed painter uncle, a young debutante and his party of friends discover that he has the ability to use the paintings to enter demiplanes, seeming entire worlds based on the painting themselves. Furthermore, while within them, he discovers he has strange divine powers, though what the truth behind that is not yet known.

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Time Mage (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)

(art by JamesRyman on DeviantArt)

Of all the various forces in the universe, time is perhaps the hardest thing for mortals to wrap their heads around. All events, including thinking, occur within time, and while we in the modern day know that the exact flow of time can be distorted by gravity, the idea of truly manipulating time, let alone “travelling” through it, rest firmly in the realm of science fiction and fantasy.

And yet, the idea of someone who has mastered time, whether it be the classic visitor travelling back and forth through time, often in a vehicle, or strange magicians or scientists that manipulate time itself and how it affects themselves and others, is still something that persists in fiction to this day.

However, unless a game centers around it, true mastery of time is beyond most any mage, and for good reasons. On a Doylist level, introducing time travel into plots that are specifically not about time travel is a recipe for headaches no matter what model of causality your game runs on. On the Watsonian level, the Dimension of Time is typically beyond even the gods save for minor meddling on a small scale, either literally impossible for them or generally agreed on that the fallout is beyond even what gods of destruction would want.

Which is why with campaigns involving time travel, it is usually limited to special one of a kind artifacts or rituals, not something that any sufficiently high-level maniac can just whip out in a fight.

However, while true time travel is not something anyone can just do or learn, there are still chronomancers, who seek that level of understanding and learn all sorts of tricks for manipulating time in small ways.

This archetype is definitely a nod to the chronomancer wizard from First Edition, but no longer tied to that one class. Such mages might be arcane or occult casters learning the secrets of the cosmos, primal casters invoking time as a natural force, or even divine casters calling upon the favor of a deity of time, or some variation of all that and more.

Also, as a fun aside, a lot of the flavor of the time mage in Second Edition is that causality is warped for them, so a decent amount of the feats for the archetype are knowledge they learned in the future when they become fully fledged time wizards turning infant dragons into very very old dragons, but rather than learn that knowledge in the chronological order, they retroactively learn it from their future selves, grandfather paradox-ing their own knowledge base so very nicely.

As we’ll soon see, this archetype has a lot of fun time abilities, some inspired by the abilities of the old chronomancer, and others inspired by spells they might have used in the previous edition, so let’s get right to it!

So the base dedication of the archetype teaches them a few basic magical abilities, namely the ability to distort the causality of an injury, giving them a little delay before the wound actually opens up after they’ve been stabbed. Additionally, they learn a basic cantrip that gives them total awareness of linear time, able to tell the time as well as the exact time it will take for major predictable events to occur, such as when the sun will rise of the time till the next astrological conjunction. It even gives them minor benefits in combat by letting them time their attacks to better ensure success.

Most also become aware of the presence of temporal anomalies, such as when creatures are affected by hasting or slowing magic (beyond, you know, looking at them and seeing them move weird), but this also covers non-spell phenomena, letting them sense when time is getting messed with by something, but not necessarily by what or how. As a cool bonus, they’re able to maintain awareness whenever someone else uses a time stop, allowing them to see exactly what their foe is doing during those lost seconds to better react to it.

They also can learn other focus spells, namely how to trap a foe briefly in stasis, or glimpse into branches of time seeing where they move in the near future, and avoiding paths that lead to danger.

While the path of the time mage is open to all, not all spells that manipulate time are part of every tradition, so some learn to circumvent that, learning alternate versions of those spells that function within their tradition, letting them hasten and slow, as well as weaponize time against their foes directly or by locking them into a course of action that can be planned around.

Drawing upon the vast infinite sea of alternate possibilities, some of these chronomancers do not summon random other creatures, but rather themselves from alternate timelines where they were that sort of creature, having subtle physical and behavioral clues as to the connection between summoner and summon, as well as having similar skillsets to each other.

Timing is everything, and some of these mages learn to cast a spell into the future by a few seconds, causing it to manifest slightly later when it would be more beneficial.

Those of a more precognitive bent learn to read the future, seeing incoming disaster exclusively so that they may plan around them.

It should come as no shock that many also learn how to hasten their own spellcasting.

With a 10-minute ritual, they can also read the skeins of fate to try and predict the outcome of an endeavor and how to either prevent or enhance it, gaining a clue on how to proceed.

All things are temporary, and some time mages use that truth to their advantage to alleviate harmful effects by accelerating their own personal timestream, letting them run their course in moments.

Reflecting the Temporal Divergence spell from 1st edition but without spending a spell slot, these mystics can look into two diverging timestreams where they cast different spells, see which one would be more effective, and choose that path, though the energy of both spells is expended in the process.

They also learn how to echo their spells, casting them twice, though in their case this process is more akin to merging the timelines where they cast the spell once individually together.

This is a fun archetype, granting a few useful focus spells as well as adding potentially a lot of time spells to the character’s spell list choices depending on their base class. (occult casters won’t need that, but divine and primal might.) There’s also some fun utility abilities that could be good for strategic plays, but don’t feel obligated to take them if they don’t work with your build. The utility feats that grant guidance on how to proceed are a fun take on divination utility, so that’s fun as well.

Like I said before, the flavor for this archetype says that causality is fluid for time mages, which can mean they react to new things like they’ve already seen it happen, or might offhandedly comment on things that haven’t happened yet. Obviously that can cause problems if the players assume that their compatriot is always accurate with their eccentric aside, or at least accurate at a time when being inaccurate can derail the plot. So a GM and player should make sure everyone knows that sometimes the time mage recalls things from possible timelines, rather than the current one, though it can be fun if the GM decides to surreptitiously feed an occasional vague nugget for the mage’s player to sprinkle in, though obviously do this with someone who’s a good roleplayer and will use that info to enhance the story rather than metagame it.

A commotion occurs in the party’s hometown when a stranger arrives claiming that he is from uncountable years hence, where kings are replaced by merchant tyrants and people sail the stars in shining silver ships. He seems addled, but there’s no denying that his mastery of time magic is impressive. Could he have really mastered time travel, and what did he come here to do?

The Druid Circle of the Long River are perhaps some of the foremost experts on the nature of time outside of arcane academia, but most of their lore is kept orally. With that in mind, Kobben Longfellow, a young halfling chronomancer, has come to the order to offer to transcribe their knowledge, but reaching them is not without danger.

Preserved and blackened by the foul substance and the oozes within, tar zombies are nothing new to the locals of the region, a simple threat to call local adventurers on when one manages to pull itself free of the pits. However, recent tales speak of a strange specimen that follows trails of already-laid footprints, it’s feet sucking up the tar drippings as it walks backwards.

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Hellknight Signifer (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)

(art by JasonTN on DeviantArt)

And so we come to the end of the Hellknight archetypes for Second Edition, and we’re ending with the Hellknight Signifer, the magical arm of the various orders!

Just as spikey but not usually as heavily armored, signifers come from every magical tradition. From the priests of tyrannical gods, to arcanists that wish to back up their magic with authority and vice versa, to say nothing of primal and occult mages that do much the same. After all, anyone could become embroiled in the awful philosophies of the various hellknight orders, not just those of martial skill and might.

Signifers are also known for their distinctive helms, which lack eye slits while leaving the mouth open for vocal components. Contrary to some misunderstandings, however, signifers are not blinded by their helms, for each one is enchanted to let the wearer see through it.

Much like the Hellknight from two weeks ago, signifers are meant to go together with the Hellknight Armiger archetype, complete with the ability to take the dedication for this archetype without taking the customary two additional feats with armiger before doing so.

As a result, signifers get most of their iconic hellknight-y abilities from their armiger training, but learn some distinctive abilities from making the graduation into proper hellknight.

The dedication feat for this archetype represents them gaining their signature masked helm, which makes them more intimidating and harder to read.

Having an enchanted mask without eye holes has it’s advantages, since the magical senses that replace your sight provide a filter against gaze attacks, making it harder for them to affect the signifier while they cast their magic.

Drawing from their pool of focus, some of these dark mages learn to enhance the senses of their helm for a brief moment, letting them pierce illusions.

Some empower the masks to simultaneously function in darkness while providing a filter for sudden bright lights, effectively granting them darkvision while also reducing the effects of being dazzled.

Usually mages are not known for heavy armor, but some signifers train to be just as good with it as other hellknights.

This archetype is pretty much all about the benefits of having an eyeless mask on top of whatever you picked from the armiger and your base class. As such, it does feel somewhat underwhelming, but overall it still is a fun option overall, especially when you think about what actual class you wish to play. Magus feels like a natural choice, letting you take both these abilities and the more combat-focused armiger options as well, though other classes work too.

The Hellknight philosophy states that if the people will not willingly submit to the rule of law and authority out of a desire to better themselves, then it must be made to submit out of fear of punishment. With that charming ethos in play, it’s easy to imagine the sort of spellcasters that would flock to them, those that view power as a tool of authority, desiring control of themselves and of others.

The knight-mages of the Iron Order are well-equipped and prepared for taking on and destroying deviant and rebel mages, demonstrating the superiority of magic approved by their authority. However, the contingent sent to apprehend the necromancer Gloaz were not prepared for the army of tar-encrusted zombies in his laboratory.

Desperate for a place where he belongs and seeking respect, the Hellknights were a tempting prospect for Kovacc, a half-orc sorcerer ostracized not just for his blood but also his volatile magic. However, with what they ask for him to do as a signifier, he is beginning to have his doubts.

The Order of the Waves does employ mages, but surprisingly the most useful for their nautical activities, primal mages like druids and certain sorcerers and witches, are few and far between, even with their recruiters pushing the idea of their order reflecting the laws of nature.

[cthulhucoffee]

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