Expanded Veils - December 2020 (Patreon)

This expansion includes six new winter-themed veils for the classes of Akashic Mysteries, Akashic Trinity, and The Stormbound!

Winter’s Coat

Descriptors: Cold, Polymorph

Class: Daevic, Eclipse, Guru, Nexus, Radiant, Stormbound, Vizier

Slot: Shoulders

Saving Throw: None

A billowing hooded long coat shapes itself to perfectly fit your form. The exterior of the veil is coated in a thin layer of frost, but it's plush fur interior is warm to the touch.

Shaping this veil protects you from cold climates, and allows you to channel the powers of winter to transform yourself into a cloud of snowflakes propelled by a gust of wintry wind. You gain cold resistance 5 (or an increase to your existing cold resistance by 5), and you and your equipment suffer no harm from being in a cold environment, allowing you to exist comfortably in conditions between -50 and 32 Fahrenheit without having to make Fortitude saves.

Additionally, as a move action, you can transform into a cloud of snowflakes and move up to 20 feet. During this movement you are considered to be flying with a maneuverability of perfect, but your movement must remain within 5 feet of a solid or liquid surface at all times, otherwise you begin to fall. During this movement you gain an insight bonus to your AC against attacks of opportunity equal to your veilweaving modifier, you can move through foes, and you can move through obstructions and openings that are at least half an inch in size, such as an unguarded keyhole, a large crack under a door, or a large crack in a wall. If you enter such an opening and can’t fully traverse the obstacle during this movement, you are shunted back through the opening to the nearest square to where you entered and take 1d6 points of damage per 5 feet you were shunted back. This damage cannot be reduced.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, your resistance to cold damage increases by 5, the minimum temperature you can endure increases by -5 degrees Fahrenheit, the distance you can move while transformed into a cloud of snowflakes increases by 10 feet, and the insight AC bonus against attacks of opportunity while transformed increases by +1.

Chakra Bind (Shoulders): Binding this veil to your Shoulders chakra improves your mobility while transformed into snowflakes, and lets you reactively transform to avoid harm. While transformed into a cloud of snowflakes, you no longer need to remain within 5 feet of a solid or liquid surface.

Additionally, when you are targeted by an ability, attack, combat maneuver, or effect that targets your AC, CMD or causes you to make a Reflex saving throw, you can take 1 point of essence burn as an immediate action to transform into a cloud of snowflakes. You gain an insight bonus to your AC, CMD, and Reflex saving throw against the triggering ability equal to this veil’s insight bonus granted to AC against attacks of opportunity. This ability can be used after seeing the result of the attack or combat maneuver attack roll against you, or after seeing the results of your Reflex saving throw, allowing you to potentially negate or reduce the triggering abilities effectiveness. You must choose to use this ability before any of the triggering ability’s other effects are determined, such as damage rolls or rolls for other randomly determined effects.

After the triggering ability is resolved, you may then move up to half the distance normally allowed by this veil (rounded down to the nearest 5 foot increment). This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity from the creature who triggered this movement, but does against other creatures. This movement can be performed even if the triggering effect would cause you to be unable to move (such as if it knocked you unconscious, or caused a status effect that would make you unable to move).

You may also use this ability as an immediate action if you start to fall, allowing you to move up to half the distance normally allowed by this veil. This movement provokes attacks of opportunity. If this movement brings you within 5 feet of a surface in which you could climb, you can make a climb check to grab on when this movement ends. If you end this movement within 5 feet of the ground or a liquid surface, you can land on your feet after taking this movement and take no falling damage. If you continue falling after this movement, the distance you have fallen is determined based on when you ended the movement.

Voice of Winter

Descriptors: None

Class: Daevic, Guru, Nexus, Radiant, Stormbound, Vizier

Slot: Neck

Saving Throw: None

Ice forms around your throat as an intricate filigree choker, tinging your voice with the ability to command ice and snow to your whims.

Shaping this veil allows you to invest your essence into ice and snow, imbuing it with intelligence and forcing it to follow your commands. As a standard action, you can touch 20 pounds of ice, snow, or water and invest it with at least 1 point of essence, causing it to animate under your control as a snow servant. You can have any number of active snow servants, but each has an essence capacity equal to the essence capacity of this veil.

When creating the snow servant, you choose its appearance and shape and whether it is an aerial, aquatic, or terrestrial servant. Snow servants are Tiny constructs that have hit points equal to your veilweaving modifier, a base movement speed of 20 feet, 20 Dexterity, and an Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma of —. They do not receive any size bonuses or penalties based on being a Tiny creature, and have a reach of 5 feet. These servants cannot speak, but understand all of your languages. The servants Strength score and additional forms of movement are based on its type:

Aerial: Strength of 2, and a fly speed of 20 feet (clumsy).

Aquatic: Strength of 6, and a swim speed of 20 feet.

Terrestrial: Strength of 6, and a climb speed of 20 feet.

Snow servants cannot attack, perform combat maneuvers, wear armor or magic items, or wield shields or weapons. They instead follow your commands and perform tasks. In combat, your servants can be commanded to aid yourself or your allies with the aid another action, treating their base attack bonus as 0 for their attack roll for this ability.

Snow servants can perform only one task at a time, but they repeat the same task over and over again if told to do so as long as you remain within Medium range (100 feet + 10 per veilweaver level) of it. A snow servant can be given a task as a free action on your turn. In combat, your snow servants act immediately after your initiative in any order you wish.

They can open only normal doors, drawers, lids, and the like. They can carry your belongings, based on their Strength score when determining their carrying capacity. They can trigger traps and other devices, but they can exert only 20 pounds of force, which is not enough to activate certain pressure plates and other devices. They can’t perform any task that requires a skill check with a DC higher than 10 or that requires a check using a skill that can’t be used untrained. Snow servants can aid you with skill checks that require physical labor, assuming the servant is capable of doing so (a servant with a climb speed could help you climb, a servant with a swim speed could help you swim, and so on).

Removing any amount of essence from the snow servant, or if this veil is suppressed, disjointed, or unshaped, immediately destroys the snow servant and the ice, snow, or water it was formed from, causing you to regain all essence invested in it. If the snow servant is destroyed through any other method, the essence invested in the snow servant is instead burned. If your essence capacity in this veil is reduced while you have active snow servants with more invested essence than the veils new cap, those snow servants are destroyed and the essence is burned.

Essence: For every 2 points of essence invested in this veil, your servants grant a +1 insight bonus to the attack roll, armor class, skill check, or saving throw they successfully aid using aid another.

Unlike normal veils, you may also invest essence in the snow servants you create using this veil. When investing essence in a snow servant, you must choose the number of points of essence it is to be invested with as you create it.

Each point of essence in a snow servant beyond the first increases the snow spirit's Strength by 2 (an aerial snow servant does not gain this increase), grants it +5 maximum hit points, and grants it a +1 bonus to its CMD and natural armor, and increases all of its modes of movement by 5 feet.

For every 2 points invested in the servant, you can choose to increase its size by one category. This increase in size gives it a +4 bonus to its Strength, and a -2 penalty to its Dexterity. The servant does not gain any other benefits or penalties from its size (such as size bonuses or increased reach). If you choose not to increase its size, its Dexterity instead increases by +2 for each size category you choose not to increase.

Creating a snow servant of sizes larger than tiny requires twice as much ice, snow, or water per size category and increases its weight and the maximum force it can apply to that same amount: 20 pounds for Tiny, 40 pounds for Small, 80 pounds for Medium, 160 pounds for Large, 320 pounds for Huge, and 640 pounds for Gargantuan.

Chakra Bind (Neck): Binding this veil to your Neck chakra imbues your snow servant with a spark of intelligence. Snow servants you create have Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores equal to your own respective scores, minus 9 (to a minimum score of 1). For each point of essence invested in the snow spirit beyond the first, this penalty decreases by 1. These snow servants cannot benefit from any effects that would increase or decrease their mental ability scores, but do benefit or suffer retroactively from effects that would affect yours. The snow servants gain the ability to speak, using your known languages.

The snow servants share your personality and goals and continue to follow your commands and requests, and are not truly sentient creatures. You no longer need to remain within Medium range of your snow servants for them to keep performing tasks you have assigned them, and they can now perform complicated tasks that require complex thought using their new mental ability scores, no longer restricting them to tasks that require skill checks that can be made untrained with a DC of 10 or lower.

The snow servants gain your skill ranks and class skills, but use their own ability scores and do not benefit from any of your other abilities when determining their total bonuses to the skill. They can use masterwork and magical tools to enhance their skills, but they possess no slots for wearable magic items. Snow servants can only have a maximum number of ranks in any skill equal to 2 x the number of points of essence invested in the servant. For example, if you have 6 ranks in Craft (Weapons), a servant invested with only 2 points of invested essence would only benefit from 4 of those skill ranks. If you had invested 3 or more essence, they would benefit from your full 6 ranks in the skill instead.

Additionally, as a full-round action you can take full control of one of your snow servants as long as they are within 10 miles of you per point of essence invested in the snow servant. While directly controlling the servant you use their senses, can speak through them, and use skills using their bodies. During this time, you cannot perform actions using your own body, and you can't see, hear, or taste using your own body, but you can feel physical sensations and utilize any other special senses you may possess (such as blindsight or tremorsense). You can return your senses to your own body and relinquish control of the snow servant as a free action on your turn, or as an immediate action outside of your turn.

Mai’yr’s Icy Glare

Descriptors: Cold

Class: Eclipse, Guru, Nexus, Radiant, Stormbound, Vizier

Slot: Head

Saving Throw: Will (see text), Fort (see text)

The irises of your eyes flare with brilliant azure essence before slowly cooling to a cold steel blue.

Shaping this veil causes your eye color to change to a cold steel blue, enhancing your sight and allowing you to see through fog, ice, rain, and snow. As you invest essence in this veil your eyes begin to shift into brighter and more saturated hues the more essence that is invested.

You gain the ability to ignore the penalties to your sight-based Perception checks and the reduction in visibility imposed by non-magical fog, rain, and snow. Against their magical variations, you can ignore the visual impairment imposed by effects that have a spell level less than or equal to the number of points of essence invested in this veil. If those effects are created by a veil, you must have an equal or greater number of points of invested essence compared to the veil creating the effects. If those effects are created by neither a spell nor veil, the effect's effective spell level is treated as equal to half the creature's caster level with the ability, or half their hit dice (rounded down), when determining the number of points of invested essence required to ignore the effect.

Additionally, you gain the ability to see through accumulated ice and snow as if it were translucent glass. For every inch of snow or ice, you suffer a -1 penalty to Perception checks made to perceive what lies beyond it or inside of it.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil you gain a +1 insight bonus to Perception checks.

Chakra Bind (Head): Binding this veil to your Head chakra imbues your gaze with chilling magic, freezing either the bodies or the minds of your foes. You gain a gaze attack with a range of 30 feet that functions in one of two ways which you can switch between at the beginning of each of your turns. This gaze can otherwise be activated or deactivated as a standard action which doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity, and requires purely mental components. Activating or deactivating your gaze has no visible or audible effect.

Steely Gaze: Your steely gaze causes creatures' minds to subtly slow when interacting with you, making them much easier to manipulate. Enemies who fail their Will save against this gaze attack are much easier to influence, granting you a +1 insight bonus to the next Bluff, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, or Intimidate check made against them within the next hour. This bonus increases by +1 per point of essence invested in this veil. This is a mind-affecting effect. Unlike other mind-affecting effects, a creature does not realize it is being affected whether it passes or fails a saving throw against this ability unless they are immune to mind-affecting effects. You always know when a creature has succeeded or failed against this ability, and if they are immune to it. If a creature fails this saving throw, they do not make another save against it until an hour passes or until after you make a Bluff, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, or Intimidate check against them, whichever happens first. If a creature succeeds on three consecutive saving throws against this gaze attack, they become immune to the effects of your steely gaze for 24 hours.

Freezing Gaze: Your gaze causes creatures to freeze in their tracks. Enemies who fail their Fortitude save against this gaze have their movement speed reduced by 5 feet + 5 feet per 2 points of essence invested in this veil until the beginning of their next turn (to a minimum of 0 feet), and take 2 points of cold damage per point of essence invested in this veil. This reduction in movement speed does not stack with other effects, or itself. If a creature succeeds on three consecutive saving throws against this gaze attack, they become immune to the effects of your freezing gaze for 24 hours.

Halo of Polaris

Descriptors: Cold, Enhance [50 Shuriken]

Class: Daevic, Eclipse, Guru, Nexus, Stormbound

Slot: Hands, Headband

Saving Throw: None

Intertwining halos of frozen stars wind their way around you in a lazy orbit. At your call, they find their way to your hands to be used as a deadly weapon.

Shaping this veil allows you to draw polar stars from the halo that surrounds you and wield them as weapons. These polar stars function as shuriken, save that they deal entirely cold damage instead of piercing damage and add your veilweaving modifier to their damage rolls in place of your Strength modifier. Whenever you would make a full-attack only using these polar stars, you can choose to take 1 point of essence burn to make two additional attacks with your polar stars at your full base attack bonus. If you do so, all your attack rolls during the full-attack suffer a -2 penalty to their attack rolls. Beginning at 6 base attack bonus, you may take an extra point of essence burn and a further -2 penalty on attack rolls to make an additional two shuriken attacks at your base attack bonus -5. You can do this again when your base attack bonus reaches 11 and 16, with the additional attacks made at base attack bonus -10 and -15 respectively.

In addition, the shifting halo of stars produced by this veil allows you to always know the direction of true north, and allows you to navigate by the stars even during the day or during overcast weather, granting you a +1 insight bonus to Survival checks to do so.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the insight bonus to survival checks made to navigate by the stars increases by +1, and you gain a +1 insight bonus to damage rolls with your polar stars. For every 3 points of essence invested in this veil, you reduce the total penalty to attack rolls imposed by this veil by 1. For example: if you have 6 essence invested in this veil and spend 2 essence burn to make 4 additional shuriken attacks at a -4 penalty, that total penalty would be reduced to -2.

Chakra Bind (Hands): Binding this veil to your Hands chakra allows you to wield the veil’s polar stars as an impressive flurry of frigid cold. Whenever you take the attack action using a polar star, you can choose to make an additional attack with a polar star using your off hand at your full base attack bonus. Doing so imposes a -2 penalty to both attacks. Only the first attack of this attack action counts as an attack made using the attack action for feats and abilities, such as Vital Strike.

In addition, you gain the benefits of the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, but only with your polar stars. At 6th level, this improves to the Improved Two-Weapon Fighting feat, and at 11th level to the Greater Two-Weapon Fighting feat.

Chakra Bind (Headband): Binding this veil to your Headband chakra allows you to wield the veil’s polar stars through the powers of your akasha alone. You no longer need a free hand to make attacks with polar stars, and you use your veilweaving modifier in place of your Dexterity modifier when making attack rolls using them.

In addition, you threaten squares within 10 feet of you with your polar stars, and do not provoke attacks of opportunity when making a ranged attack of opportunity with your polar stars. You gain a number of additional attacks of opportunity equal to your veilweaving modifier each round, but they can only be used with your polar stars.

Breeches of the Pale Rider

Descriptors: Cold, Summoning

Class: Daevic, Eclipse, Guru, Nexus, Stormbound

Slot: Feet, Belt

Saving Throw: Reflex (see text)

Freezing akasha shapes itself around you, forming a matching set of tight-fitting boots, breeches and belt formed of pale-grey akashic leather.

Shaping this veil grants you a +2 insight bonus to Ride checks and the ability to summon a pale steed that functions as a horse animal companion as a druid of your veilweaver level as a standard action. This horse cannot be given an animal companion archetype. The pale steed appears emaciated and thin with pale skin and hair, and when summoned comes already wearing a set of reins and a saddle. When invested with essence, frost begins to coat the pale steed and a frigid mist begins to billow outwards from its hoofsteps. This does not affect the pale steed in any way, but grants onlookers a +5 circumstance bonus on Knowledge (arcana) checks to identify it as an akashic effect. If the pale steed is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points, it cannot be summoned again until you reshape your veils for the day (though you still retain the veils bonus to Ride checks).

Unlike a normal horse animal companion, the pale steed cannot make attack rolls and does not have any natural attacks. It also has immunity to cold damage, and can briefly freeze water upon which it walks, allowing it to walk upon water as if it were solid ground. It can also ignore difficult terrain imposed by ice and snow, and doesn’t need to make acrobatics checks to walk on slippery or uneven terrain caused by ice or snow.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the insight bonus to Ride checks increases by 1 and the pale steed’s base movement speed increases by 5 feet.

Chakra Bind (Feet): Binding this veil to your feet chakra causes the ground and water walked upon by your pale steed to remain frozen after it steps off of it. Whenever the pale steed moves into or out of a space on the ground or while walking on water, that space freezes over until the beginning of your next turn. For every 2 points of essence invested in this veil, the duration of this effect increases by 1 round.

Creatures other than the pale steed must move at half speed while attempting to move into or out of these spaces by attempting a Reflex saving throw. Failure means their movement ends and they don’t leave their current space. Failure by 5 or more means their movement ends and they fall prone. Creatures who have a magical ability that allows them to climb or walk normally on slick or icy surfaces can ignore these restrictions, as do creatures who are flying over these spaces. Creatures can 5-foot step into or out of these spaces as normal.

Chakra Bind (Belt): Binding this veil to your Belt chakra allows your pale steed to freeze the air itself with its hoofsteps. The pale steed can tread on air as if it were solid ground, moving upwards or downwards as if they were walking up or down a hill. The maximum upward or downward angle possible is 45 degrees, at a rate equal to half the pale steed’s normal speed.

Additionally, when walking on the air the pale steed can begin to travel at incredible speeds. After spending a minute travelling in a straight line while walking on the air, its base land speed increases by 50 feet + 50 feet per point of essence invested in this veil. The pale steed must move up to its full speed at least once each round during this minute to trigger this ability. If the steed fails to move up to its speed in any round, it loses the bonuses provided by this ability at the beginning of its next turn.

While moving at such extreme speeds, turning, ascending, and descending become more difficult. The pale steed can only turn at a maximum of 45 degrees with each square it moves while moving at these incredible speeds. When turning, the squares of movement required for those movements are quadrupled. When descending or ascending, the squares of movement required for those movements are doubled. For example, if the steed wants to turn 180 degrees, it would need to move 20 feet and spend 80 feet of movement. If the steed wishes to ascend or descend 10 feet, it would cost them 40 feet of movement.

Bands of Binding Ice

Descriptors: Cold, Mind-Affecting

Class: Nexus, Radiant, Stormbound, Vizier

Slot: Wrists, Body

Saving Throw: Reflex (see text), Fortitude (see text)

Cool silvery akasha wraps itself in runed bands around your arms, wrists, and body, granting you powers of binding ice.

Shaping this veil allows you to conjure walls of ice to hamper your foes. As a standard action, you conjure a wall of ice within Medium range (100 ft. + 10 ft./veilweaver level. This wall has a total length of up to 10 feet, a height of 5 feet, and is 1 foot thick. The entire length of this wall must be within the range of this ability. A vertical wall only needs to be anchored on a floor, while a horizontal or slanting wall must be anchored on two opposite sides. You cannot conjure an ice wall in an area occupied by any objects or creatures, and its surface must be a single smooth, unbroken plane. Your ice wall can slightly alter its height and length to fit snugly along smoothed walls and ceilings. Climbing over the smooth and slippery surface of this wall is nearly impossible without magical assistance (such as the spider climb spell), and imposes a +5 increase to the DC of Acrobatics checks made to balance upon or hop up on it. When placed horizontally, such as if it is used as a bridge or floor, creatures make an Acrobatics check to walk upon it as if it were uneven ground with a DC of 5. A slanted ice wall is nearly impossible to walk on without magical assistance.

Any creature who is adjacent to the wall as it is created may attempt to disrupt its creation if they have successfully identified the effects of the veil with a Knowledge (arcana) check, or if they have been informed of the effects by someone who has. A creature can make this Knowledge check as you activate this ability, but before the wall is created. Disrupting the wall requires an adjacent creature to make a Reflex saving throw as an immediate action. A successful save causes this ability to automatically fail.

Each 5-foot square of wall has 3 hit points per veilweaving level, and an AC and CMD of 10 + your veilweaving modifier. If a creature attempts to break a 5-foot square of this wall using sudden force rather than an attack or a sunder attempt, the DC of the Strength check is 15 + your veilweaving level. When a square of the wall is broken, a sheet of freezing air remains in the square. Any creature who enters this square, or ends their turn within the square, takes a number of points of cold damage equal to your veilweaving modifier, with no save. A creature can only suffer this damage once per turn. This sheet of freezing air continues to support the wall as if it were made of solid ice.

Fire can melt your ice walls, dealing full damage to the wall (instead of the normal half damage dealt to objects), and ignores any hardness the wall may have. Melting a square of the ice wall does not produce a sheet of freezing air. If this destroyed square would cause the wall to not be properly supported, such as if it completely severs a horizontal or slanting wall only supported on two opposite sides, the entire wall immediately crumbles and is dispelled.

You may only have a single ice wall created using this veil at a single time, but it has no set duration. Attempting to create a second wall destroys the first. You can choose to dismiss your created ice wall as a standard action, and it is automatically dispelled if you invest essence to or from this veil while a wall is conjured, or if the veil is suppressed, disjointed, or unshaped.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the maximum length of your wall increases by 10 feet, your wall’s AC, CMD and hardness increases by 1, and the cold damage dealt by moving through a section of broken wall increases by 1d6. For every 3 points of essence invested in this veil, the maximum height of your wall increases by 5 feet. Each 5-foot increase to height counts as a separate 5-foot square for the purposes of breaking through the wall.

Chakra Bind (Wrists): Binding this veil to your Wrists chakra allows you to direct the magics of this veil to imprison a creature in an icy stasis. As a standard action you can attempt to conjure a prison of ice around a single creature within 30 feet, dealing 1d8 cold damage + 1d8 cold damage per point of essence invested in this veil to the target. A successful Fortitude save halves this damage. If the creature fails this save, it is entombed by ice and is paralyzed and unconscious, and does not need to eat, drink or breathe while the ice lasts. For every 24 hours spent imprisoned by the ice, the creature only ages as if a single hour has passed and may make a new Fortitude saving throw to break free of the prison.The imprisoned creature can sense the flow of time while imprisoned, but has no other senses available to them.

This icy prison has 20 hit points, and the same AC, CMD, Hardness, and break DC of the ice walls created by this veil. It is also affected by fire damage in the same way. Destroying the prison frees the creature, which is staggered for 1d4 rounds after being released. Whether or not the creature’s initial saving throw against this ability is successful, they become immune to the effects of this ability for 24 hours. Unshaping this veil does not end the effects of this icy imprisonment. You can choose to end a creature’s imprisonment as a standard action if you are within 30 feet of them and have this veil shaped.

Chakra Bind (Body): Binding this veil to your Body chakra grants you all of the benefits of the Wrists bind, and also allows you to safely entomb yourself in an icy stasis. Entombing yourself requires a standard action, and places you in a state similar to the ice prison created by this veil’s Wrist bind. You are paralyzed, but remain conscious and can perceive your surroundings. You do not need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe while entombed. For every 24 hours spent entombed in ice, you only perceive time and age as if a single hour had passed. Time imprisoned in ice counts at the normal rate for the purposes of resting to recover your hit points and damaged ability scores, for preparing spells, for shaping new veils, and for any other abilities that require rest. You can choose to end your icy entombment at any time as a free action on your turn, or as an immediate action outside of your turn. When you are freed from your entombment, you are not staggered. This ability otherwise has the same HP, AC, CMD, Hardness, and Break DC of the ice prison created by this veil.