Jon Brazer Enterprises

Pathfinder: The Elemental Witch

Last week we started a series of witch hexes based on the patrons. We started off with the Shadow patron. We continue the series this week with the Elements patron.

Elements

Each of these hexes is only available to witches with the Elements patron.

Engulfing Hexflame (Su): The witch chooses a creature within 30 feet and the creature is engulfed in protective but harmless blue, green, and red flames for 1 round. While on fire, the creature gains either fire resistance 10 or cold resistance 10, per the witch’s choice at the time of using this hex. The duration of this hex can be extended with the cackle hex. At 8th level and 16th level, the duration of this hex is extended by 1 round. Once a creature has benefited from the engulfing hexflame hex, it cannot benefit from it again for 24 hours. A creature engulfed in the fire suffers a –10 penalty to all Stealth checks. The flames are always visible, even if the creature is invisible.

Whispers on the Wind (Su): The witch whispers a short message to a creature within 120 feet. Only the target of this hex hears the message. The target creature can immediately reply with a short message. At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, the witch can choose another creature who can hear and reply to the message.

Major Hex: Change Element (Su): The witch can alter the type of damage done by a spell she casts. When she casts a spell that deals energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, or fire only), she can have it deal another type of energy damage instead, so long as she has another spell prepared of 1st-level or higher which inflicts the desired energy type. For example, the witch can cast a lightning bolt that deals fire damage if she also has burning hands prepared, but after casting lightning bolt, she could not then cast a burning hands that deals electricity damage unless she has another appropriate spell prepared.

Try a witch with words of power! Download Book of Magic: Energy Words revisted at DriveThruRPG, RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore or at Paizo.com.

Pathfinder: Gillmen Inspiration

From Advanced Skinwalkers being inspired by lycanthropes and stores of native american shapeshifters to Advanced Androids being inspired by science fiction characters like Data, Ash, Bishop, the Terminator, the skin jobs from Bladerunner and Vision, all our options in the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Series draw from a myriad of sources. Advanced Gillmen is no different in this respect.

While I am still working on it, I thought I would share with you some of those sources of inspiration:

Cthulhu Mythos. How many times have we heard about people walking out of the sea having the “Innsmouth look” to them? Well, we want to make sure that these guys are solidly in keeping with that.
Advanced Race Guide. There is precious little in the ARG about the gillmen race. What there is is the race’s origin: they were created by the aboleths. So we are sticking to that story. More over, this origin had a sizable hand in shaping gillmen culture. This has a strong influence on the way they are today.
Creature from the Black Lagoon. Both my wife’s love for this classic monster movie and Erik Mona citing this as a reason for making this race is enough reason for me to pay serious attention. You will find racial options in this book to make this classic character
Aquaman. I have to mention the whale in the lake. Without a doubt, we made sure to include some Aquaman love in here. Being able to call sea creatures to aid you in your fight against evil is something that only the most worthy can do (and Player Characters are always worthy).
Hellboy. Abraham Sapien is an aquatic man-like creature that enjoys a good book, if someone can turn the pages for him. We made sure to include some fun bits inspired by this story.

Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.

Pathfinder: Hexes of Shadow

Last night, I ran across a thread on the Paizo boards asking for more witch hexes. The posters were asking (among other things) for more helpful hexes, hexes that were more Rowling and Pratchett and less Brothers Grimm, but most strikingly to me, themed hexes, a hex that in some way ties into to their patron.

Well, I didn’t sleep much last night and a number of them. I could go crazy and write a whole host of them, but I really am trying to stay focused on Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen and finish that up. So instead, I am going to post some here on my blog whenever I finish up a group of three hexes for a patron.

So today’s hexes center around the Shadow patron. Long time fans of my work know that I love the plane of shadows. So a few shadow hexes was hardly difficult for me to come up with, especially considering the ideas in the thread. And with my editors’ approval, I present to you three new witch hexes.

Shadow

Each of these hexes is only available to witches with the Shadow patron.

Shadow Scout (Su): The witch touches a willing creature, tearing it apart from its shadow. The touched creature can control its shadow for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier, allowing it to scout ahead. The shadow has a fly speed equal to the the creature’s base land speed (with good maneuverability), has skills equal to the creature’s skills (with a +4 bonus to Stealth checks in dim light and a –4 penalty to such checks in bright light), has an Armor Class equal to the touched creature’s touch AC, is incorporeal, and can see just as the touched creature, but it cannot attack, speak, hear, cast spells, or otherwise interact with the environment. Meanwhile, the touched creature is unconscious until the shadow’s return. If either the touched creature or the creature’s shadow takes any damage or the shadow fails to make it back to the touched creature before the duration expires, the touched creature instantly wakes up without a shadow, suffering 1 negative level. At the next sun rise, this negative level disappears and the creature’s shadow reappears attached to the creature; the negative level cannot be removed any earlier. A shadow that returns to the creature before the duration expires suffers no negative effects. Whether the shadow returns to the creature or not, the creature remembers all the shadow saw. A creature without a shadow cannot be targeted by this hex.

Shadow Trip (Su): The witch momentarily takes control of a creature’s shadow, using it to trip the creature. The witch attempts a trip combat maneuver against a creature within 30 feet, using her witch class level as her base attack bonus and her Intelligence modifier instead of her Strength modifier to determine her combat maneuver bonus.

Major Hex: Cold Shadows (Su): The witch can choose a living creature within 30 feet. It takes 1d6 points of Strength damage + 1 per 2 witch levels (to a maximum of 1d6+10). A successful Fortitude save reduces this damage by half. Once a creature has been targeted by the cold shadows hex, it cannot be targeted by it again for 24 hours.

For more witch spells, download Book of Magic: Signature Spells 2 at DriveThruRPG, RPGNow, the OpenGamingStore or at Paizo.com.

Pathfinder: Where’s Gillmen?

As some of you have been asking lately, where’s Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Gillmen? The short answer is that it is coming. I know it is kind of a cop out, but it is the best answer I have at the moment. I am currently finishing up the last 2 archetypes now (a wilder surge and a shaman spirit. Wordcount wise it is 3/4 of the way finished. I still have to finish up the introduction fiction, the In Your Campaign section, and the final NPCs.

I am really satisfied with the way it is turning out. Matt Medeiros wrote a psionic power that give the race a nice Aquaman feel. Sasha Hall wrote some very nice spells and magic items. My wife kept peppering me with ideas for Creature from the Black Lagoon inspiration. It really is coming together nicely.

While I am always working on several projects at once, only one project at a time gets priority and that is where Gillmen stands right now: priority. So it should not be too much longer. Before Halloween, unless things go really unexpected.

Foreven: Prepare for War with The Rose of Death

A Plague of Roses

When bacterial geneticist Dr. Rose is captured by a rebel group with murderous intent, it falls to your travellers to infiltrate their secret base and rescue her. Along the way, they must also intercept a weapons shipment bound for the rebels and deceive their contact within the organization. All the while, millions of lives hang in the balance. Can the travellers stop the Army of Unity before they carry out their nefarious plot and discover who is truly behind their actions?

This volume of Foreven Worlds launches the Prelude to War Adventure Path and includes:

The Rose of Death, a Traveller adventure for 4-5 characters, by Dale C. McCoy, Jr.
The history and gazetteer of Cornath, a planet of refugees who fled Imperium and Zhodani life and engineered an environmental disaster
Details on the military strength and organization of the Army of Unity, a rebel group with deadly ambitions
Four new Contacts, Allies, Rivals, and Enemies for your characters
Four new ships and a space station to flavor your game

Save the Doctor. Save the World!

Download the Traveller adventure Prelude to War: The Rose of Death to today from Jon Brazer Enterprises exclusively at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

Foreven: Heroes Wanted

Heroes Wanted
Chaos and dissent spread through the Foreven Sector like wildfire. Innocent (and sometimes not-so-innocent) lives are swept up in the wake of the conflict, and only your Travellers can protect them. But who is sowing these seeds of rebellion and violence? Someone must cut the strings before the puppet masters succeed at whatever dark machinations they are plotting. Are you up to the task?
The Prelude to War: Player’s Guide helps you to navigate the Foreven Worlds by giving you the tools you need, and includes:

Details on how each race and career can succeed in this campaign
A full map of the Alespron and Fessor Subsectors, where this campaign takes place
Skills package tailor-made for this campaign
In-character quotes to help you get in the mood for the campaign

What Destiny Lies in Your Hands?

Download the Prelude to War: Player’s Guide to help you make the perfect Traveller for this campaign from Jon Brazer Enterprises exclusively at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

Foreven: The Adventure Continues

We are really excited that The Rose of Death is coming out soon for the Prelude to War Adventure Path. So far this week, we shared with you the cover image as wallpaper for your computer, talked details about Ms Klein, and showed you the world map of Cornath. Today we like to talk about one more aspect of the adventure path. Namely the fact that this adventure is not designed to stand on its own. There is more namely the fact that this adventure is not designed to stand on its own. There is more after this adventure ends.

This adventure is actually the first in a four adventure campaign. The next adventure in the series begins several weeks after the first adventure ends. Here, the players leave the rough border region for a part of space in complete disarray and are called upon to get a number of people out of an active warzone, whether they want to be extracted or not.

The Travellers will be delving into this State of Chaos to save some very important individuals. The best part about it: it’s written by Martin J. Dougherty. That’s right, the Dark Avenger himself agreed to write an adventure for us. And I gotta say, it’s really great. How Great? I wish someone would run it for me.

This adventure and more are in the second volume in the Prelude to War Adventure Path. While you can run either module as stand alone adventures, they are designed to be run in order and you and you players will love it all the more if you do.

Download more awesome Traveller game material set in the Original Traveller Universe from Jon Brazer Enterprises exclusively at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

Foreven: More than an Adventure

All week long, we have been showing off what is inside the first volume in the Prelude to War Adventure Path: The Rose of Death. Monday we started with the cover, sharing it with you as wallpaper for your screens. Yesterday, we shared with you some details on how the adventure starts. Today we share with you some details about the various sections after the adventure of this volume.

The two most distinguishing aspects of an adventure path are a series of linked adventures that form a campaign and additional material with each adventure. This additional material serves many purposes. When your players decide to do something that is not covered by the adventure itself, you are not left with nothing. You have a basis to improvise an adventure. Similarly, you can plan your own adventures that take place in the same locations and have a basis from which to start. So if you do not want to run this specific adventure, you can base an adventure in that location (or simply move the planet to elsewhere in the OTU or anywhere in your own homebrew). Some articles will expand on the culture of a people or a planet. Other articles will detail ships or vehicles that are common to the region. Sometimes we will feature Contacts, Allies, Rivals, and Enemies (or C.A.R.E as we call it) that you can give to your players during chargen that are designed to be integrate well with the adventure path. Each volume of the adventure path the articles will change up but will be relevant to the campaign.

For this volume we have four articles: a gazetteer to the planet Cornath, details on the Army of Unity (the bad guys for this volume) with a full map of their asteroid space station, a C.A.R.E article, and a few ships found in the Cornathian Empire. As you can see in the picture above (click on it for a larger image), I’m going to talk about our gazetteer of Cornath. The players land in the starport of Cornath City, they don’t get to see much of the planet. However, that doesn’t mean that they won’t go off and do their own thing, as players are known to do. Nor does that mean that they won’t come back between adventures looking for work. Take New Zhodane for example. This region to the south of Cornath City is where a large number of Zhodani defectors settled. If a character ran away from the Zhodani Consulate looking for a better life, he will easily find him- or herself among friends here without being ruled by psionic mind-adjusters. Or if your players are looking for work where they get to shoot up something, look no further than the Northern Plains. This region is littered with farms that are having trouble with wild animals killing their livestock and destroying their crops. Players can hunt down packs of beasts and maybe discover another problem along the way. *evil GM grin*

One other thing I neglected to mention. Anything I write, I like to throw in little easter egg references to tv shows, movies, video games, and anything else I enjoy. My favorite reference for this volume is in the Cornath articles. Fans of the tv show Burn Notice will know the name Chuck Finley. A variation of that name makes its way onto Cornath. I just hope Bruce Campbell fans enjoy this as much as I do.

Download more awesome Traveller game material set in the Original Traveller Universe from Jon Brazer Enterprises exclusively at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

Foreven: Adventure Awaits

All week long, we are sharing with you some of what is inside The Rose of Death for the Prelude to War Adventure Path. Yesterday, we gave you a closeup look at the cover. Today, we are talking about the adventure itself.

First and foremost, this Foreven Worlds volume is an adventure. It is here in the first few pages of this volume that the players meet Juliet Klein. I say, the players meet her because your characters have already met her. They do not know her well, but that will change over the course of the adventure path.

So who exactly is Juliet Klein? First and foremost, Ms Klein is the person hiring the Travellers for a series of jobs throught the Foreven Sector. Where does she get these jobs? Well, she’s a member of the Imperial Secret Services. That’s right, Juliet Klein is a righ-ranking Imperial spy, and your characters are her assets. Why are you doing her spying for her instead of she doing the work? Like I said above, she’s paying you, but also she needs to maintain deniability. If these mission goes wrong, the Imperium does not want to start a war over this, and that is exactly what might happen if she were to be caught and her true identity discovered.

Your characters, on the other hand, are expendable. Or to put that another way, your characters are The Expendables. That’s right, one of your characters would very well be Stalone! Or Jet Li! Just saying.

Download more awesome Traveller game material set in the Original Traveller Universe from Jon Brazer Enterprises exclusively at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

Foreven: Download The Rose of Death Wallpaper

Now that Prelude to War: The Rose of Death is nearly completed, we want to share with you some of what is inside. So to start this week of previews off, lets start with the cover. This beautiful image created by Ian Stead is available to grace your computer or phone. Download it today and follow us the rest of the week for more previews.

Download more awesome Traveller game material set in the Original Traveller Universe from Jon Brazer Enterprises exclusively at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.