Pathfinder Adventure Path Conversions

[Addax]

I wish I could find the book for inspiration but I recall from D&D 3.5 some optional rules where a party of characters could all take a ritual feat that bound a spirit to the group and all the party members could call on a collective pool of benefits that the spirit provided. Some examples would be a pool of vitality or wounds say 5-10 per member that any member of the group could dip into when wounded as a free action. Another spirit could be shadow based granting a bonus to members for sneaking about.

Going farther with this idea, you could have a ghost of a dead mage bound to the group, granting a pool of spell points and spells to cast with them to whomever chooses to use them.

Or treat it as a magic item that lets them transfer some of their own personal resources, ie life force, taking on another's illness or fatigue or a spell effect like blindness.

Or make it a simple cursed item with any or none of the above options: if one of the group dies, they all die.

Sky's the limit with this sort of stuff!

 

[Antilles]

That's a bit beefy (and complicated) for what's supposed to be a fairly minor and common magic item. I'm thinking something a relatively minor benefit to begin with, and every couple of levels if every member spent 10-15 Reputation each they'd get another, slightly beefier benefit.

Hmmm.... how about the Stand Together origin benefit at first (tweaked so it's adjacent party members instead of of your Species), then the next three levels is the Wolf Pack chain? Possibly culminating in the Class Enhancement benefit, or maybe some other capstone. It's not supposed to be easy being evil, so I'm planning on running at Menace III and IV, and I'm thinking a little boost might be in order.

[Addax]

I like it. Simple, easily managed by you and the PC's. Wolf Pack chain gives a savage boost their combat while Stand Together gives them a defensive boost when they are up against a proverbial (or literal) wall. Granted this emphasis on teamwork only works in combat situations so as long as the players don't go all Machiavelli on each other it should be great for putting an emphasis on them working together.

[Addax]

After they get wolf pack mastery it really gives them a Greco-Roman phalanx style of fighting. Standing side by side and exploiting their enemies weaknesses while watching each others back. Very thematic.

[Antilles]

Thanks, I'll have a bit of a think on what the capstone ability should be, but the rest seems solid.

[Psion]

Here's a conversion of the pathfinder moon beast. I replaced shadow evocation with a "shadow blast" ability, a stress damage attack. Stylistically, I assume it makes the characters see their flesh melting away in their mind's eye (like the scene from the Dune movie.)

I was a little wasteful/generous with the abilities, but I don't award xp from creature xp in my games (though it still counts for coins calculations.) You could trim some of its redundant abilities.

It has no tough like most of my creature conversions, but the near immunity to crits and sneak attack damage should give it some staying power.

Moon Beast (Large Horror Ooze Flyer/Walker — 246 XP): Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 18; SZ L (2×2, Reach 2); Spd 50 ft. flight, 50 ft. ground; Init VII; Atk V; Def IV; Resilience VII; Health IV; Comp VII; Skills: Athletics VII, Intimidate IX, Notice VIII, Resolve VIII, Sneak IX, Spellcasting X; Spells: Air Walk-4, Call From Beyond III-5, Charm Person IV*-6, Counter Magic I-3, Detect Emotion-2, Disguise Self-2, Illusionry Image III-5, Insanity I-3, Mirror Images-2, Plane Shift-6; Qualities: blindsight, condition immunity (blinded), contagion immunity, damage defiance (animal, blunt), damage immunity (cold), damage reduction 6, feat (Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Martial Arts-Cha, Mobility Basics, Mobility Mastery), monsterous defense I, rend, telepathic, unnerving.
Attacks/Weapons: Claw I × 2, Tentacle slap I × 4 (grab), Wisdom Drain (draining, attribute III: linked to attack rend), invigorating drain (draining, life III: linked to attack rend), Shadow Evocation (damage III: cone 40ft range; damage type: stress)
Treasure: 1C, 1G, 1L, 1M

[Antilles]

I'm gonna revisit the spell book issue, hopefully for the last time. I've pretty much settled on each book giving its own version of the Spell Library feat, with 10 spells pre-picked according to the theme of the book. I find myself waffling a bit on the fine-tuning, though.

Should it count as a mage's pouch, or just be a normal book? How often can they change the 'active' spells (once a day, short/long downtime)? Do they have to Ready the spellbook to use it, have it on their person, or just read from it once a day? Eventually they'll get the opportunity to gather several different spellbooks, should there be a limit to how many can be 'active' at the same time?