[mastercraft] New Paths: Riddick, Night & the Bat

[Mister Andersen]

People might find it odd that a path all about Richard B Riddick leaves out the eyeshine stuff, but when you look at it, that augmentation actually came fairly late into things and just enhanced his already formidable levels of scary badass

Fear not -- or maybe you should -- because the Path of Night is there for those looking to become one with the dark.

And then there's the Path of the Bat, for those who realise that criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot


Path of Riddick
This path is for those seeking physical mastery of inner truth

Riddick I: You gain the Iron Will feat.
Riddick II: Each time you fail an Athletics or Tactics check and don't suffer an error, you still succeed as long as the check DC (or your opponent's check result) is equal to or less than 20 + your levels in all class granting you steps along Paths. If several grades of success are possible, you achieve only the lowest possible positive result.
Riddick III: You gain the Assassin's Cold read 1/session ability.
Riddick IV: You may cast Divine Power and Haste each 1/scene, and your caster level is increased by your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
Riddick V: You gain the Captain's Take Measure ability.


Path of Night
This path is for those seeking the essence of that which humanity dreads.

Night I: You gain the Elemental Heritage (Darkness) feat.
Night II: Each time you fail an Intimidate or Sneak check and don't suffer an error, you still succeed as long as the check DC (or your opponent's check result) is equal to or less than 20 + your levels in all class granting you steps along Paths. If several grades of success are possible, you achieve only the lowest possible positive result.
Night III: In dim, faint or no ambient light, add your Step to your Wisdom when determining your listening, scent & visual range increments.
Night IV: You gain the dread quality, and in dim, faint or no ambient lighting you gain the horror type.
Night V: You gain a stance.
     Terror of the Night (Stance): With a successful attack, you may frighten an opponent for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier instead of inflicting damage (minimum 1 round). However, you automatically fail all saves vs. flash damage. You leave this stance any time you are in an area with more than than dim ambient light.


Path of the Bat
This is a path for someone looking to direct their sense of loss and anger in a meaningful direction

Bat I: You gain the Rage Basics feat.
Bat II: Each time you fail an Acrobatics or Intimidate check and don't suffer an error, you still succeed as long as the check DC (or your opponent's check result) is equal to or less than 20 + your levels in all class granting you steps along Paths. If several grades of success are possible, you achieve only the lowest possible positive result.
Bat III: You may cast Scare II and Wit I each 1/scene, and your caster level is increased by your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
Bat IV: You may spend an Action Die as a free action to lose or gain the horror type until the end of the scene. Further, you may ignore any attempt to turn you a number of times per session equal to your step.
Bat V: You gain ability the Scout's Master Tracker ability.

[Desertpuma]

Very nicely done, Mr.A! I like these a lot and will be incorporating them into my home game. I might have to come up with an alt name for Riddick though.

[Mister Andersen]

Path of Dark Athena?
Path of the Predator?

[Desertpuma]

Or something comparable for my game world. I might just make it only available to a select group of warrior-priests. Path of The Body?

[Mister Andersen]

Well, thematically the path is about mastering yourself in order to understand and thus master others.

Iron Will & Flawless Athletics is a really nice way of reflecting the ability to just break through the Wall and go harder, faster, stronger with an automatic Push check the side effects of which you can ignore (Riddick makes a number of set-piece push checks in both films and isn't particularly affected by them).

Flawless Tactics is the beginning of a fundamental understanding others as they relate to you. Riddick pretty much outmoves everyone (I can think of 3 activated Sense Motive errors just off the top of my head)

Cold Read again isn't about understanding people as people, its about divining means by which to exploit and weaken them (and again, he gets into everyone's head but a good example is working out Johns' morphine addiction).

Divine Power and Haste come back to the mastery of the self and the ability to translate that outwards, to hit faster and harder than less focused individuals (Pretty much every combat scene)

Take Measure ties back to both the Flawless Tactics ability and is a logical progression from Cold Read (the scene where Riddick works out the blind spot totally works as the GC giving his player a clue as to how to survive following a successful check during the encounter in the cargo module)

[Agent 333]

I didn't know Riddick had a first name.

[Mister Andersen]

Not only does he have a name, but Richard B Riddick wasn't even the first one the character was given. Originally she was going to be called Taras Krieg

[Morgenstern]

Should probably swap the order of Riddick III and IV. Having a 2/11/19 ability at step III is going to cause problems (And even at step IV I think I could crash it).

The high number of casting times (equal to starting action dice) also has me extremely leery. Bringing those back to step III will let the normal rules apply.

Flawless at Step 2 is interesting. So far I see no conflicts within the RAW, though some alternate path/feat ideas crash hard.

[Morgenstern]

Possible changes:

Night III: In dim, faint or no ambient light, add your Step to your Wisdom when determining your listening, scent & visual range increments.

Night V: You gain a stance.
     Terror of the Night (Stance): With a successful attack, you may frighten an opponent for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier instead of inflicting damage (minimum 1 round). However, you automatically fail all saves vs. flash damage. You leave this stance any time you are in an area with more than than dim ambient light.

[Mister Andersen]

Should probably swap the order of Riddick III and IV. Having a 2/11/19 ability at step III is going to cause problems (And even at step IV I think I could crash it).

I see what you mean, but that's a direct lift from Path of Secrets III, which is why I felt comfortable putting it there

The high number of casting times (equal to starting action dice) also has me extremely leery. Bringing those back to step III will let the normal rules apply

What about 1/scene, caster level boosted by charisma mod?

Flawless at Step 2 is interesting. So far I see no conflicts within the RAW, though some alternate path/feat ideas crash hard.

Oh? As I see it based on the book, you can have an A @ II, a B or C @ III, a D or E @ IV, and an F @ V

[Mister Andersen]

Possible changes:

Night III: In dim, faint or no ambient light, add your Step to your Wisdom when determining your listening, scent & visual range increments.

Night V: You gain a stance.
     Terror of the Night (Stance): With a successful attack, you may frighten an opponent for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier instead of inflicting damage (minimum 1 round). However, you automatically fail all saves vs. flash damage. You leave this stance any time you are in an area with more than than dim ambient light.

Yeah, they work nicely.

[Sletchman]

This is a good example of why I love the Priest.  Conceptually, they can do everything.  I also really dig the Path of Night.

[Mister Andersen]

This is a good example of why I love the Priest.  Conceptually, they can do everything.  I also really dig the Path of Night.

I don't know about everything, but certainly anything is within their ambit. I also changed unnerving to dread, which I think plays better to the idea of a victim lashing out blindly and hopelessly in the dark and failing to connect thanks to the Defence boost you get and they don't

[Morgenstern]

I see what you mean, but that's a direct lift from Path of Secrets III, which is why I felt comfortable putting it there

*re-examines* Hmm. Ok. You can get away with it for cold read because it's use-based. Many other 2/11/19s will crash as step III's though .

What about 1/scene, caster level boosted by charisma mod?

That sounds like a much safer variation from the norm. Script it and lets have a look.

Flawless at Step 2 is interesting. So far I see no conflicts within the RAW, though some alternate path/feat ideas crash hard.

Oh? As I see it based on the book, you can have an A @ II, a B or C @ III, a D or E @ IV, and an F @ V

Sure, but you know that just being classified as an A, B, or C isn't the full extent of what has to be checked to make sure it functions . In this case the crash would be caused by having NO levels in the class that gave you this ability, if you are using homebrew rules that allow paths to be followed through feats beyond the first step already made possible by Blessed. You'd just be stuck at DC 20, which is clearly not the intent. It's more a footnote that this path won't work with those kinds of structures.

[Mister Andersen]

What about 1/scene, caster level boosted by charisma mod?

That sounds like a much safer variation from the norm. Script it and lets have a look.

Already up

Oh? As I see it based on the book, you can have an A @ II, a B or C @ III, a D or E @ IV, and an F @ V

Sure, but you know that just being classified as an A, B, or C isn't the full extent of what has to be checked to make sure it functions . In this case the crash would be caused by having NO levels in the class that gave you this ability, if you are using homebrew rules that allow paths to be followed through feats beyond the first step already made possible by Blessed. You'd just be stuck at DC 20, which is clearly not the intent. It's more a footnote that this path won't work with those kinds of structures.

Ah. Well, if I was running it that way -- via campaign quality, no doubt -- I'd key them to working off the higher of priest class or half career level (rounded up)