The Advanced Player's Guide introduced a new concept for clerics—subdomains. In the upcoming Inner Sea World Guide, we introduce two new domains unique to Golarion—the Scalykind domain and the Void domain. Alas, there was no space to present the four subdomains that went along with those two new domains. So I thought to myself, why not throw those four subdomains up as a Golarion Day post?
But while I'm on the topic of domains and subdomains, there's something else I want to talk about—Pharasma. Turns out that nonevil goddesses of death sort of wreak havoc on the domain system—especially if they're as stringently anti-undead as Pharasma is. Because pro-undead spells always seem to sneak onto domain spell lists when you start talking about death and souls and stuff. It's easy enough to simply not prepare domain spells that create undead, but it still feels kind of disappointing to me that Pharasmins "miss out" on some domain spell options. For those of you who want a more Pharasma-friendly version of the Death domain and the Souls subdomain... behold!
Pharasma-Friendly Death Domain 3rd-level domain spell: Replace animate dead with speak with dead. 6th-level domain spell: Replace create undead with antilife shell. 8th-level domain spell: Replace create greater undead with symbol of death.
Pharasma-Friendly Souls Subdomain 3rd-level domain spell: Replace animate dead with speak with dead.
And that gives me an excuse to show off this cool picture of Pharasma doing her thing in the Boneyard—the art itself is from Pathfinder Adventure Path #44's article about Pharasma.
Now, that all taken care of, we can move along to the original purpose of this post—subdomains for the Scalykind and the Void domains. I'm not going to reprint those two domains here. You have to check out The Inner Sea World Guide for that. But as for the four subdomains associated with them, here you go!
Replacement Power: It Came From Beyond. Once per day when you cast a summoning spell, any one creature you summon is more powerful than normal. The creature gains the advanced creature simple template. If you summon more than one creature with a spell, only one of the summoned creatures gains the advanced creature simple template. A summoned creature that gains the advanced creature simple template in this manner looks unusually deformed or hideous. This ability only works on spells you cast as a cleric—it does not work on spellcasting ability gained from any other spellcasting classes you might have. This ability replaces the Guarded Mind ability of the Void domain.
Replacement Domain Spells: 2nd—summon monster II, 5th—summon monster V, 7th—insanity.
Replacement Power: Dragonbreath. At 4th level, you may use a breath weapon once per day as a standard action. When you gain this ability, choose acid, cold, fire, or electricity—this determines what kind of damage your breath weapon inflicts. Once you make this choice, you cannot change it later. Your breath weapon fills a 15-foot cone, and inflicts 3d6 points of damage—this damage increases by +1d6 every even number level you gain beyond 4th level. A creature hit by your dragonbreath attack can make a Reflex save (DC 10 + half your cleric level + your Constitution modifier) to take half damage. At 9th level, you can use this ability two times per day, and at 14th level you can use it 3 times a day. This ability replaces the serpent companion ability of the Scalykind domain.
Replacement Domain Spells: 3rd—draconic reservoir (Advanced Player's Guide 217), 4th—dragon's breath (Advanced Player's Guide 217), 6th—form of the dragon I.
Replacement Power: The Stars Are Right. If you prepare your cleric spells while the stars are visible to you, you may spontaneously cast any of your Stars subdomain domain spells by swapping out a spell of an equal spell level. Any Stars subdomain spells that you cast while the stars are visible to you heal you of damage equal to the spell's level as you cast the spell. This ability replaces the part the veil ability of the Void domain.
Replacement Domain Spells: 2nd—hypnotic pattern, 7th—sunbeam, 9th—meteor swarm.
Replacement Power: Dinosaur Companion. At 4th level, you gain the service of an animal companion. Your effective druid level for this animal companion is equal to your cleric level –2. You may choose any dinosaur as your companion. This ability replaces the serpent companion ability of the Scalykind domain.
Replacement Domain Spells: 4th—summon nature's ally IV (deinonychus or pteranodon only), 5th—beast shape III, 7th—summon nature's ally VII (brachiosaurus or tyrannosaurus only).
Of course, there's still one other burning question about subdomains. The APG revealed what subdomains the core 20 deities granted, but said nothing about the subdomains the non-core deities grant access to! That, unfortunately, is a giant scary list and this blog post is already long enough—I'll see if I can't get that list ready for next Thursday, though! (As a free preview, though, and because it became a hot topic on one thread out there in the Paizo wilds: Besmara grants the following subdomains: Deception, Oceans, Protean, Tactics, Thievery, and Storms.
Pharasma, a Carrion Crown preview art (of the Infinite Staircase no less!) by Carolina Eade, Non Undead Love Death Domain and Subdomains Galore ! Even a Besmara teaser!
Also, Carolina Eade needs to keep getting money to make Pathfinder art.
This is my favourite day!
I'm partial to naked Sundays myself.
So, is anyone ever going to take anything other than the Saurian subdomain? I mean Dinosaur companion!
This is exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping for in the Golarion Day posts. Things that fall through the cracks and don't quite fit anywhere else in the current product line, but still help to flesh out the setting and bridge the gap between setting background and rules implementation.
I am really digging the saurian subdomain. I am so making a cleric/primitive warrior next time I get to play.
First question: Is the Dragon Subdomain´s Dragonbreath supposed to stack with things like Draconic Bloodline or Half-Dragon HD for determining power/usages?
Second question: Is there a Dragon God in Golarion? Good or Evil or Neutral?
That Saurians Subdomain has 'James Jacob' written all over it.
There's mostly Apsu and Dahak. Tiamat is mentioned too, but Paizo can't use her in the form most gamers know (5-headed dragon) because that's Wizards' IP.
My prediction is that all of James' future characters will be Clerics with the Saurian sub-domain.
The new subdomains are now added (and linkified) to d20pfsrd.com on the Domains page.
This just in, JJ part Genie-kin. Hears plaintative mooing on threads and grants our hearts desires.
Domicile friendly pet requested by humble supplicant.
Film at 11 if granted.
1) Nope; the dragonbreath ability is its own thing. If you gain breath weapons from other sources, those are seperate from this power; you can still use those other powers normally, but they aren't affected by this domain's subdomain at all. If you DO have breath weapons from other sources, the dragonbreath subdomain ability just gives you another breath weapon, essentially.
2) There are two. Apsu is the LG god of glory, good dragons, leadership and peace. Dahak is the CE god of destruction, evil dragons, greed, and treachery. Both are detailed in Inner Sea World Guide (which is part of the reason why I needed a Scalykind domain, and why I chose Dragon as one of its subdomains).
3) That's up to Hyrum.
Ha! I'd be more likely to do that via a druid with the saurian shaman archetype (yup; that's a bonus spoiler for Ultimate Magic) than a cleric with a saurian subdomain. Because if I'm gonna play a cleric, 99% of the time it'd be a cleric of Desna or Sarenrae.
That error has already been flagged to Ross for a correction at some point today (once a blog post is up, they don't let us downstairs folks touch them, so I can't fix it down here...).
Made my day there James! It is time for my character to create his own Jurrassic Park!
We're working on getting this PFS legal. It won't happen today but will most likely happen when we update the Additional Resources page again.
Sorry about that ... and thanks for correcting me.
In Sumerian Myth Tiamat is a Chaos Monster and is a primordial being of Salt Water, the Goddess of the Ocean, who gave birth to merpeople, scorpion men, dragons and serpents. She Opposed Apsu when he decided to kill the other younger gods in the pantheon and warned the strongest of Tiamat and Apsu's children Ea who puts a spell on Apsu and kills him.
Apsu is a Primordial being of Fresh Water, and father of the Gods.
So Tiamat could have a water elemental form, and in the Enûma Elish (Sumerian Myth) her physical description includes a tail, a thigh, "lower parts" (which shake together), a belly, an udder, ribs, a neck, a head, a skull, eyes, nostrils, a mouth, and lips. She has insides (possibly "entrails"), a heart, arteries, and blood, so she could have a Dragon ? Form.
This would be a great way for us do a Tiamat.
Paizo have said that they don't want to do much with Tiamat as the five headed image is Wizards IP, but is too iconic to be ignored.
DETAILS you coy cell biologist you.
Faerie dragon demigod? now you have my interest.
Tons of stuff never makes it to print, removed during the editorial process because of word limits, or because it just didn't fit for one reason or another. -Lots- of stuff got cut from that particular book, and that might have been a victim, or Sean may have cut it out, laughed with evil laughter and then danced around the office while sticking pins in a tiny butterfly winged, gold and emerald scaled voodoo doll of Amberyllearion the Scintillating Dart and Biting Tongue.
why wasn't he just made BLOG exclusive then????
perhaps Demi-Gods there are themselves ´stuck´ on the 2nd World, and exist as beings within the normal state of affairs (although very powerful), unlike on Golarion where the Gods don´t seem to manifest in the flesh very often.
Rules Question: For Inquisitors and Paladins with Domains, do the higher level Domain Spells (beyond spell levels their Casting Advancement gains access to) count as on their spell-list or whatever, for purposes of using spell completion/trigger items? They would still need ability score to cast that spell level and the requisite Caster Level, of course. Or is UMD the only way?
In any case... on to the rules question!
Higher level spells beyond what a class would normally be able to access do NOT count as being on their spell list, because their spell list doesn't go above 4th level (for paladins) or 6th level (for inquisitors). If they wanted to do a spell trigger/spell completion item that's above that limit, they'd have to use Use Magic Device.
why wasn't he just made BLOG exclusive then???
Because at the time that's not how we rolled with the blog.
I wasn't the actual developer for "The Great Beyond," but as I hinted in the previous post, there's already a lot of other deity-type entities in the First World to choose from. They were introduced in Pathfinder #36, and will be in the upcoming Inner Sea World Guide.
Also, not every race needs their own special deities.
To be clear, I wasn`t thinking of a `Faery Dragon Demi-God` in the sense of being the Diety FOR normal Faery Dragons, but simply as a Demi-God who happened to be a Faery Dragon, so to speak.
If you wanted to include a critter like him, you could also consider using him as a herald/proxy/planar servitor of Apsu, or just a powerful faerie dragon with some class levels who happened to visit Apsu's domain from time to time as part of his planar travels. All sorts of ways.
Even though he's not a part of the published lore, if folks were at all interested at some point I might give him a writeup and post it online somewhere (on LJ or on laughingfiend.com if I ever get that finished).
Speaking of Saurian sub-domain, it says "your effective druid level for this animal companion is equal to your cleric level–2.".
I was just interested (as was Quandary) in seeing some background and fluff/flavour for Amberyllearion the Scintillating Dart and Biting Tongue. Who likes apple pies no doubt.
This counts as a request right? And let us know here if you do please!
Since your selection of animal companions is limited, there's a slight increase in power as opposed to the Animal domain which is NOT limited.
Ummm... This neat and all, but what is Void's normal domain powers and spells? If I remember right, the description in the Gods book isn't up to date with the current PF domain description.
I'm not going to reprint those two domains here. You have to check out The Inner Sea World Guide for that. But as for the four subdomains associated with them, here you go!
A question for all of the replacement powers: Are these abilities Spell-Like (Sp), Supernatural (Su), or Extraordinary (Ex) respectively?
As far as I can tell this never happened. I assume that there's no intention of making it PFS legal then?