Finding the Path: Artifacts of Great Power

While Pathfinder has a lot of guides to creating customised magic items, from mixing and matching weapon special abilities, to the rules for building intelligent items, sometimes you want something that just doesn't have any rules similar to what you actually want. And as cool as the Janus Trident and the Angelheart Vial are, they are not the first things that spring to mind when thinking about artifacts from Magic: the Gathering.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Finding the Path: Zendikar's Origins

Zendikar is one of Magic's oldest planes, with the first Eldrazi invasion taking place just over a thousand years before the birth of Urza on the plane of Dominaria (an event generally used as year 0 in Magic chronology). However, Zendikar's great age is retroactive, as the plane was first referred to in The Purifying Fire, a novel only published in 2009.

While we know how far back the history goes, we know relatively little about that history. We know that the first Eldrazi invasion took place 6000 years before the present day. The Eldrazi are a mysterious extraplanar race, based partly on HP Lovecraft's Cthulu, that devour entire planes of existence by consuming the mana in the land, leaving behind nothing but lifeless wastes. The most dangerous of them are the three Eldrazi titans - the all-consuming Ulamog, the reality-warping Kozilek and the nigh-invincible time-bending Emrakul.

Finding the Path: Priceless Treasures

Magic: the Gathering has always had powerful items known as artifacts. The MtG world of Zendikar, being partly based on D&D, was supposed to be full of very dangerous locations filled with amazing treasures and items of great power. It even used the tagline "Deadly Perils, Priceless Treasures".

Which meant that, if I was running a campaign on Zendikar, there had to be some really cool, powerful treasures for people.

The first magical item I made as a cool reward was the Trident of Ula, a +1 guided trident, meaning it had a +1 bonus to attack and damage, and used the wielder's wisdom modifier instead of the usual strength modifier. It is somewhat unclear whether guided property is a legitimate Pathfinder rule or not, but, hey, I am the GM, and I can do whatever I want. Yes, it is a rather powerful and expensive weapon to give a low-level character, and generally, giving that to a single character can easily make them outclass the rest of the party, which is bad, as every player should get moments to shine. However, I was giving it to Dhamiran's merfolk cleric, Ler Mimir, who was not really supposed to be stabbing things in close combat. He had to pick his moments, and either use it to counter a charging enemy, or as a way to finish off an enemy already wounded by the other party members. It would be difficult for him to outclass the damage-dealers, and the party seemed to enjoy his trident-stabbing shenanigans anyway. Here is the trident I made:

Janus Trident
Aura: moderate evocation and necromancy
Caster Level: 10th
Slot: Wielded
Price: 18000gp
Description
Few know the truth of the connection between the gods Ula and Ulamog, and virtually none have heard whispers of how Ula takes the dark weapons of Ulamog, and bends them towards the light. The Janus Trident is a +1 conductive guided trident made of gleaming white coral and pink pearl that is inscribed with a faintly glowing symbol of Ula. As a standard action, the wielder can transform it into a +1 vicious guided trident made of chalky grey coral and black pearl inscribed with the symbol of Ulamog. The trident can be transformed back again as a standard action.

Well...that's not quite what I said it was. I may not have been completely honest with my players about some of their items. See, one of the major villains of the campaign, Lucrecia, has been planting cursed items in the path of the heroes, in order to gain an advantage if she is forced to fight them directly. This has included a ring that can bring the wearers fears to life, a hammer that casts daylight at inopportune moments, and the Janus Trident - originally a Trident of Ulamog under an illusion that made it appear to belong to Ula. But something (or Someone) has subverted Lucrecia's plans, and the illusion has somehow become reality.

Though the Janus Trident was something I planned out beforehand, the second item was something I had to throw together quickly when it became apparent that (with Dhamiran temporaily absent for a few weeks due to work) the group needed more healing than a few potions could provide. Originally I planned to give the party a wand of mass cure wounds, however, it turns out that such a thing does not actually exist, due to it being an item that is far too powerful to allow. The only thing that would be able to duplicate such power would be some sort of artifact. Enter one of my favourite cards from Zendikar: the Angelheart Vial.

Initially, the vial, which I had to quickly invent in a couple of days, was just a 10-charge wand of mass cure light wounds. (I limited it to 10 because, it really is an immensely powerful ability for low level characters.) The archangel Iona would appear and gave it to Sir Eleassar without explanation. However, I decided I could do better than that. Due to the fact that Sir Elessar was suffering from rolling really bad will saves against fear, and ended running away from enemies quite a lot, which was bad cause he was supposed to be the groups tank, I decided to make something that boosted his will save, gave me a panic button to press if he still failed, gave the group an extra way to deal with the upcoming enemy ghosts, and tied into his characters backstory, allowing his superiors in the Order of the Reliquary to go 'Well done on obtaining a powerful relic, here, you are promoted to knight-captain.'

I trawled through Ultimate Equipment for the rules about building intelligent items, and constructed a pretty powerful artifact with some powerful abilities and a really cool backstory. Sadly, none of my players have yet tried to work out what exactly the angelheart vial is, and why she seems to be able to cast spells of her own accord. The party has also consistently stymied my attempts to reveal this, by ensuring that Elessar never meets anyone who would recognise what she is, meaning her true nature has remained a secret. So then, here, for the first time, are the full stats and backstory of Numa's Heart:

Numa's Heart
Purpose: To defend the interests of Numa.
Aura: Strong Abjuration
Caster Level: 11th
Slot: Stone
Price: 25000gp
Stats
Alignment: neutral good
Ego: 11
Senses: 30ft
Intelligence 13, Wisdom 14, Charisma 11.
Communication: empathy (Common, Celestial)
Description 
The archangel Numa was slain by Emrakul during the fall of the city of Nal-Kashel, but her diamond heart was recovered by Linvala, and Iona fashioned it into the most powerful angelheart vial ever made. Despite her power, Numa's Heart was kept secretly in the Sky-Ruins of Emeria during the second Eldrazi War. For reasons known only to herself, Iona gifted the vial to Sir Elessar of the Reliquary to aide him and his companions in their battle with a demonic barghest. Unlike most intelligent items, Numa's Heart is secretive, and prefers to conceal her true nature, demanding very little of her wearer, only using her spells and voicing her opinion in dire circumstances. Numa's Heart grants the wearer a +1 sacred bonus to their Will save and functions as a wand of mass cure light wounds with 10 charges. She can be used as an abjuration implement by occultists and knights of the Reliquary. In addition, Numa's Heart can cast spells of her own accord.

Spells
11th level divine caster:
3/day - remove fear
1/day - spirit-bound blade
at will - call spirit (purpose only)

Finding the Path: Storm, Fire and Shadow

Paizo recently announced that the next 'season' of the Pathfinder Society will be called the Year of the Stolen Storm, and will feature many trips to the various elemental planes (air, water, fire and earth). The geniekin races linked to each plane will also be playable character races. This gives me the perfect opportunity to do a blog post full of pictures by my favourite freelance artist, Jesper Ejsing.

But what exactly are planes in Pathfinder, and how do they work? It is fairly complicated, so let us start at the beginning.

A djinni of the Air Plane. Illustration by Jesper Ejsing.

What we would define as reality - the world around us, and the material objects that exist or live in it - is called the Material Plane in Pathfinder. You could say that the Material Plane is in the middle, and the other planes are found around or above it - but not in a directional sense, as you can't point and say 'that way to the fire plane'. You can usually only travel to the other planes using magic.

But even that is a simplification. The Material Plane is only one half of the 'middle'. The other half is a place called the Shadow Plane, a sort of darkened reflection of the Material Plane, sharing it's geography, but with muted colours and sounds, different nations and cities, and populated with a worryingly large number of undead things. This makes sense, as the Shadow Plane is actually powered by a small plane called the Negative Energy Plane which sits at it's centre, and is the source of unlife. Conversely, the Positive Energy Plane is the source of life, and is in the centre of the Material Plane - though, again, these are figurative rather than physical centres.

Sometime in the past, a number of humans found themselves trapped on the shadow plane. After generations of exposure to the planes unusual umbra, they have changed to the point that they are now a separate race to humanity - known as the fetchlings, their skin and hair are various tones of grey, and their pigment-less irises are pale yellow.

A marid of the Water Plane. Illustration by Jesper Ejsing.

The Material and Shadow Planes are connected together by a third plane - the Ethereal Plane - which is not really a full plane, as it overlays the other two and has no geography as such. In Pathfinder, the Ethereal Plane is the place your mind goes while you are asleep, and dreaming people reshape the plane around them subconsciously.  Spellcasters also make use of the plane - spells like blink, for example, can partially shift the caster into the Ethereal Plane, causing weapons to pass harmlessly through their form. Alternately, it's overlapping nature can be used as a means to travel between the Material and Shadow Planes.

Around this core of Material-Ethereal-Shadow are the four elemental planes - Air, Earth, Water and Fire. Each of these planes have unique geography - the air plane is composed entirely of sky with no true land - unique inhabitants, and even entire civilisations. The most well known elemental inhabitants are the outsiders known as genies. There are four kinds - one on each plane.

Air is home to the djinn, the most well known of the four, and the only kind that are good-aligned. Djinn famously have the ability to grant wishes to those of the Material plane. Like many other outsiders, djinn have mixed with humans, giving rise to an elf-like geniekin race called the sylph, lithe and clever but carefree humanoids, with an affinity for air magic, and a penchant for spying and eavesdropping, which they do not out of maliciousness, but from sheer curiosity about everything.

An efreeti of the Fire Plane. Illustration by Jesper Ejsing.

Fire is home to the evil efreet, also known for wish-granting, though wishes granted by them often have a way of going awry, leading to the famous phrase 'be careful what you wish for'. Their humanoid descendants, the ifrit, are often mistaken for tieflings, as they often have horns, fiery hair or black-scaled skin on their arms. They tend to be passionate about everything, and fiercely independent.

Unlike djinn and efreet, realtively little is known about the marid of the Water Plane, or the shaitan of the Earth Plane. They are generally neutral, not taking sides in the battle between good and evil. They also have humanoid descendents - the undine, who look very similar to the legged merfolk of Magic: the Gathering, and the stubborn and stony oread who, it is said, only get along well with the dwarves.

All the planes I have mentioned so far make up what is called the Inner Sphere - there are actually another nine planes termed the Outer Sphere, which is where things like angels and archons come into the narrative. But I have gone on long enough. I will just mention that the planes have been a slight problem in adapting Pathfinder to Magic, as the term 'plane' has a very different meaning in Magic. It's not quite as easy as just saying 'there are no ethereal or elemental planes', as a lot of mechanics make reference to these planes - including the spell blink making you shift rapidly between the Ethereal and Material Planes, and the large group of beings called outsiders that are very tied to the planar mechanics. It is something I am still working on moving across.

A shaitan of the Earth Plane. Illustration by Jesper Ejsing.