Patreon Drop: Scoundrels and Paradoxes

Hey there Patrons! I got a small drop of four new veils for you this week, since I decided I wanted to hold back a bit more stuff for a drop next week or the week after to give me a bit more time for a larger, more cohesive and thematic release!

Deadshot’s Baleful Gaze

Descriptors: Divination, Variant

Classes: Daevic, Eclipse, Guru, Kheshig, Nexus, Promethean, Vizier

Slots: Head

Save: None

A tattered wide brimmed hat rests upon your head, its brown leather stained from years of dust and heavy wear. The brim, right above your dominant eye, is slitted; looking through it focuses your gaze on the weakest spots of your foes.

This veil is a variant of the Wiles of the Assassin veil.

Shaping this veil allows you to focus the baleful gaze of the deadshot on your foes, revealing weaknesses to you that you can exploit. At the beginning of your turn, you can gaze upon the weaknesses of a single creature you can see as a free action. Until the beginning of your next turn, you can exploit that weakness. Gazing upon the weakness of a creature in this way is a divination effect; creatures immune to divinations are immune to the effects of this veil. 

Firstly, you learn the state of health of a target you gaze upon the weaknesses of, as per the following:

• Normal: Has at least 90% of full normal hit points, free of disease.

• Fair: 30% to 90% of full normal hit points remaining.

• Poor: Less than 30% of full normal hit points remaining, afflicted with a disease, or suffering from a debilitating injury.

• Weak: 0 or fewer hit points remaining, afflicted with a disease that has reduced an ability score to 5 or less, or crippled.

Secondly, the first time you successfully hit and deal damage to a target you are gazing upon the weakness of each round, you deal an additional 1 point of precision damage. This damage is not multiplied on a critical hit. 

Finally, as a special attack action you can make a deadshot strike against a target you are gazing upon the weakness of and not yet dealt to precision damage to this round. If you hit, the precision damage dealt by this veil increases to 2. If you miss, you lose the ability to deal precision damage using this veil this round as if you had hit.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the precision damage dealt by the veil’s effects increases by +1, or +2 for your deadshot strike.

Chakra Bind (Head): Binding this veil to your Head chakra further hones your gaze, allowing you to exploit weaknesses in even more debilitating and deadly ways. Whenever you use your deadshot strike, you gain the benefits of the Vital Strike feat for that special attack action (even if you do not meet the feat’s prerequisites), and the additional precision damage you deal from using your deadshot strike is multiplied by the Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, and Greater Vital Strike feats (1 + 1 per essence additional damage for Vital Strike, 2 + 2 per essence for Improved, 3 + 3 per essence for Greater).

If your base attack bonus is 11 or higher, you gain the benefits of Improved Vital Strike when making your deadshot strike. If your base attack bonus is 16 or higher, you gain the benefits of Greater Vital Strike when making your deadshot strike.

If your game is using the called shot optional rules, you can use your deadshot strike as a standard action to make a called shot. Since this isn’t an attack action, it doesn’t gain the benefits of Vital Strike or any of your other abilities that affect or modify an attack action. This called shot otherwise follows the above rules for a deadshot strike and the rules for making a called shot. 

Paradox Diadem

Descriptors: Cold, Fire

Classes: Guru, Huay, Nexus, Promethean, Radiant, Stormbound, Vizier, Volur

Slots: Head, Headband

Save: Fortitude (half), Reflex (half), see text

This intricate filigree bronze diadem is icy cold to the touch and is fitted with numerous dull blue sapphires. As you use it to harvest heat it grows uncomfortably warm to the touch, and the sapphires begin to take on a brilliant red hue.

Shaping this veil allows you to draw the heat from an area, rapidly chilling it, only to use that stored heat to later unleash a blazing inferno.

As a standard action, you can violently draw the warmth from a 20-foot cone, or expel heat in a 20-foot long 15-foot wide line. Creatures in this area take 1d6 points of damage. This is cold damage and a Fortitude save to half if you draw warmth from the area, or fire damage and a Reflex save to half if you expel heat. 

When you draw warmth, you gain 1 mote of stored heat. When you expel heat, you gain 1 mote of building cold. You cannot have motes of both stored heat and building cold at once; if you would gain one mote when you have any number of the opposite motes stored, you either do not gain that mote, or you may choose to lose all of your opposite stored motes as part of gaining it. These motes otherwise persist until you leave combat, and then 1 mote of your choice is lost at the end of each of your turns thereafter. The veil can only hold a maximum of 1 stored mote.

You may spend a mote of building cold when you draw the warmth from an area using this veil to flash-freeze liquids in the area; if you do so, the dice of cold damage dealt by the ability increase to 1d10, you do not gain a mote of stored heat, nonmagical unattended fires within the area are extinguished, and the surfaces of unattended liquids in this area or adjacent to the spaces of this area freeze for 1 round; if a liquid surface is frozen, creatures swimming in it at the time it is frozen are either forced below the frozen surface, or forced onto the top of it (they choose which as the area is affected). This frozen surface is strong enough to support creatures standing on it. 

You may spend a mote of stored heat when you expel heat in an area to expel that heat as a blazing inferno; if you do so, the dice of fire damage damage dealt by the ability increase to 1d10, you do not gain a mote of building cold, non-magical ice in the area is melted (including liquids frozen by this veil), and unattended flammable objects and terrain in the area catch fire for 1 round, or until extinguished (whichever happens first). These flames deal 1d6 points of fire damage to the burning object and any creature holding the object or standing on the object (such as burning wooden floors) at the beginning of your turn; a Reflex save halves the damage creatures, but not the objects, suffer. These fires are otherwise considered mundane and nonmagical and can be extinguished like a mundane fire with a DC to do so equal to this veil’s save DC.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the damage dealt by the veil’s special ability increases by 1d6, the length of the veil’s cone increases by 5 feet, the length of the veil’s line increases by 10 feet, and the duration that liquids remain frozen and objects remaining burning from the veil’s effects increase by 1 round. For every odd point invested, the maximum number of motes the veil can store increases by 1. For every two points invested, the damage dealt by the ongoing fires created by the veil’s blazing inferno increases by +1d6.

Chakra Bind (Head): Binding this veil to your Head chakra causes the cold you draw or the heat you unleash to infuse the affected area with cold or heat. Whenever you use the abilities of this veil, the areas affected are infused with cold, if you draw heat from the area, or infused with fire, if you unleash an inferno in the area, until the end of your next turn. 

The effects of infused cold and heat are the following:

• Infused Cold: Whenever you draw heat from the infused area, any creatures affected that are also in the infused area take +2 additional cold damage per damage die. If you spent a mote of building cold, on a failed Fortitude save they are also entangled by frozen ice for 1 round + 1 round per odd point of essence invested in the veil. If the creature fails their save by 10 or more, any liquids on their person are frozen as well for the duration, as if they were unattended (frozen potions cannot be consumed while they are frozen, and liquids flash-frozen by this ability do not negatively affect their containers). The ice entangling them is considered nonmagical; it can be broken, is vulnerable to fire damage, has a hardness of 0, and has hit points equal to 3x your veilweaving level.

• Infused Heat: Whenever you expel heat into the infused area, any creatures affected that are also in the infused area take +2 additional fire damage per damage die. If you spent a mote of stored heat, on a failed Reflex save they also catch fire for 1 round + 1 round per odd point of essence invested in the veil. If the creature fails their save by 10 or more, any exposed flammable items on their person catch fire, as if they were unattended. At the beginning of each of your turns while the creature remains burning, they suffer fire damage as if holding or standing on an object lit on fire using this veil, if they are also holding or standing on a burning object, the total damage dealt increases to 1d6 + 1d6 per point of essence invested in the veil. The fires affecting them are otherwise considered mundane and nonmagical, and can be extinguished as per normal flames.

Chakra Bind (Headband): Binding this veil to your Headband chakra grants you all the benefits of the veil’s Head bind and unlocks the true paradoxical potential of the veil's ability to manipulate temperature. You can now gain motes even if you have motes of the opposite type stored. The maximum mote capacity of the veil is shared by both types of your stored motes (for example; if you have 1 of each type of mote stored, you would have 2 motes stored towards the veil’s capacity). Whenever you expend a mote to empower your veil’s abilities, those abilities now give an appropriate mote rather than giving no motes (empowered draw heat gives a mote of stored heat, empowered expel heat gives a mote of building cold).

Whenever you use either ability of this veil, the affected area is infused with both heat and cold until the end of your next turn. Additionally, whenever you deal cold or fire damage using this veil (including the fires started by the veil), that damage uses the lesser of the creature’s resistances and immunities to cold and fire damage (if a creature is immune to cold but not fire, they would not be considered immune to the cold damage dealt by this veil). Your inferno you unleash using this veil no longer melts surfaces frozen or objects by this veil or creatures entangled by the veil’s ice unless you choose for it to do so, and drawing heat from an area no longer extinguishes flames produced by this veil that are burning creatures or objects unless you choose for it to do so.

Shadowthief’s Grasp

Descriptors: Negative Energy, Shadow

Classes: Nexus, Promethean, Vizier

Slots: Hands, Shoulders

Save: Fortitude (see text)

Loathsome darkness linger around you, granting you the ability to reach out and tear the shadows from other creatures.

Shaping this veil grants you the ability to grasp a target’s shadow and tear it from their very spirit, animating it as an undead creature under your control. As a standard action, you can make a melee touch attack against a creature within your reach. On a successful hit, they take 1d6 negative energy damage and must make a Fortitude save or have a portion of their shadow stolen by you. Creatures without a shadow are immune to this ability; creatures healed by negative energy are instead sickened for 1 round on a successful attack rather than suffering damage, and creatures with a shadow who would normally be immune to Fortitude saves are not immune to this effect.

If you successfully steal a portion of a creature's shadow, they suffer a -1 penalty to Fortitude saving throws for 1 minute. This effect stacks with itself, to a maximum of a -4 penalty, and each successful application resets the duration of all applications to 1 minute. If a creature is reduced to 0 hit points while suffering from this penalty, or if the penalty reaches -4, you steal their shadow, animating it as a shadow under your control in an adjacent space to you. While this shadow is animated, the penalty to Fortitude saving throws imposed by this veil does not expire when its duration ends, only when the shadow is destroyed. Shadows you create using this veil act immediately after you in the turn order.

Unlike a normal shadow, this shadow has a number of hit points equal to your veilweaving modifier + 4 per veilweaving level, does not have the create spawn ability, and its touch attack deals 1d6 points of negative energy damage instead of Strength damage. Creatures who are healed by negative energy damage are instead sickened for 1 round on a successful attack from the shadow. This shadow persists for 10 minutes, after which it is destroyed and the shadow you stole is returned to the creature it was stolen from (or their corpse, if they are dead). It is also destroyed if this veil is unshaped or suppressed, or if the shadow ends its turn outside of line of effect from you or further than Medium range (100 feet + 10 feet per veilweaving level) of you.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the ability of this veil deals 1d6 additional points of negative energy damage, the shadows created by this veil deal 1 additional negative energy damage with their touch attacks, and the shadows gain a +1 insight bonus to their AC, saving throws, and attack rolls.

Chakra Bind (Hands): Binding this veil to your Hands chakra allows you to draw from the shadows of multiple creatures in an area. As a standard action, you can attempt to steal from the shadows of all creatures in a 15-foot cone. They suffer damage and are forced to make a Fortitude saving throw as per the base effects of this veil, but if they succeed on this saving throw the damage is negated (and so is the sickened condition, if they would be healed by negative energy).

For every two points of essence invested in this veil, you may increase the size of this cone by 5 feet.

Chakra Bind (Shoulders): Binding this veil to your Shoulders chakra grants you all the benefits of the veil’s Hands bind, and allows you to further grasp on to a single shadow you steal, further tying it to your soul. When you animate a shadow using this veil, you can choose to tighten your hold on it; this shadow gains an additional 2 hit points per veilweaving level, and is not destroyed after 10 minutes (it is still destroyed if it leaves range or line of effect, or if the veil is unshaped or suppressed). If you tighten your hold on a new shadow, you loosen your hold on the first; reducing its current and maximum hit points by 2 per veilweaving level, and destroying it if it had already persisted for 10 or more minutes.

While tightening your hold on a shadow its ability to drain a creature’s life force is further improved; its touch attack instead deals 1d6 negative energy damage, plus 1d6 per point of essence invested in this veil, and a creature struck by the shadow’s touch attack must succeed on a Fortitude save or have a portion of its shadow stolen by you, as per the base effects of this veil. If your shadow’s touch attack causes you to create another shadow, it does not act until after your next turn.

Sleeves of Balanced Life and Death

Descriptors: Healing, Negative Energy, Positive Energy

Classes: Guru, Huay, Nexus, Radiant, Stormbound, Vizier

Slots: Hands, Belt

Save: Will (see text)

Voluminous sleeves of strange metallic fibers weave themselves around your arms, bands of the fibers expanding to crisscross and support themselves around your core. The sleeve that wraps your right arm is silvery and shines with a faint inner radiance, the one around your left is dark and tarnished, seemingly consuming and dimming that light that surrounds it.

Shaping this veil allows you to harness and drain both negative and positive energy from nearby creatures. As a standard action, you can drain either positive or negative energy from creatures within a 15-foot radius of you. Affected creatures, other than yourself, must make a Will save or become sickened for a number of rounds equal to 2 + the number of points of essence invested in this veil and suffer 1d6 points of akashic damage plus 1d6 per point of essence invested in this veil as their vital energy is drained from them. A successful Will save halves this damage and reduces the duration of the sickened condition to 1 round. The types of creatures affected are based on the type of energy you drain:

• Negative Energy: Creatures healed by negative energy.

• Positive Energy: Creatures healed by positive energy.

If at least one affected creature fails their saving throw, this veil stores the drained energy in the form of a mote; a mote of positive energy if you drain positive energy, or a mote of negative energy if you drain negative energy. This veil can store a maximum combined total of 1 mote, and the veil’s stored motes are lost after 1 minute, when you roll initiative, or if this veil is unshaped or suppressed.

When you use the abilities of this veil, you can choose to expend a stored mote of the same type of energy you choose to reverse the veil’s effect, unleashing energy instead of draining it. When you do so, you choose whether that energy heals creatures or harms creatures:

• Harm: Your unleashed energy harms the affected creatures, as per below, dealing 2d6 points of damage, plus 2d6 per point of essence invested in this veil, with a Will saving throw to half.

  • Negative: Creatures damaged by negative energy are affected, other than you, and the damage dealt is negative energy damage.

  • Positive: Creatures damaged by positive energy are affected, other than you, and the damage dealt is positive energy damage.

• Heal: Your unleashed energy heals the affected creatures, as per below, restoring 1d6 hit points plus 1d6 per point of essence invested in the veil. An individual creature can only be healed using this veil a number of times per day equal to 1 + your veilweaving modifier. If any of your allies are warded from the effects of this veil, such as by using Selective Veils, you can choose to not affect any number of those allies with this ability. You can always choose not to affect yourself.

  • Negative: Creatures healed by negative energy are affected, including you if you are healed by negative energy.

  • Positive: Creatures healed by positive energy are affected, including you if you are healed by positive energy.

Essence: Investing essence in this veil improves its effects, as described above. For every two points invested, the maximum number of motes that can be stored within the veil increases by 1. If you remove essence from this veil and it would cause you to have more stored motes than the veil’s new lowered maximum, any excess stored motes are immediately lost.

Chakra Bind (Hands): Binding this veil to your Hands chakra grants you greater insights into the nature of life and death, allowing you convert energy stored within the veil to that of another type. You may spend two motes of one energy type as if it were one mote of the other; two motes of stored positive energy can be expended as if it were one mote of negative energy, and vice versa.

Chakra Bind (Belt): Binding this veil to your Belt chakra grants you all the benefits of the veil’s Wrists bind, and allows you to channel both positive and negative energy simultaneously. You may increase the action cost to activate this veil’s ability to a full-round action to choose both negative and positive energy. You choose whether to spend stored motes of energy individually for each type, and if you do so for both types you may choose for each type whether the unleashed energy heals or harms. An individual creature can be affected by both energies, but only makes a single Will save to determine the effects of both abilities if both require a saving throw. The effects otherwise behave exactly as described per this veil’s base ability for each energy type.

If you choose to drain both types of energy from the area, you gain a mote of stored energy for each type of energy you successfully drain, up to the veil’s maximum.

OGL

15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Open Game License v 1.0 © 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

System Reference Document. © 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors: Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Patreon Drop: Scoundrels and Paradoxes © 2025 Studio M—, Authors Hal Kennette.

Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.