April Expanded: Veils (Patreon)

This is a guest article brought to you by our very own Kristal Moonhand, author of the Huay which you can pick up on DTRPG or Itch! 

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The following veils are made to be humorous, but still balanced compared to normal offerings. Whether looking for things to use on a joke one-shot, playing a character in a more light-hearted campaign, or just wanting to inject a bit of levity into a more serious setting, you’ll find what you need here. I’m a firm believer that gaming should be fun, and that characters in fantasy realms are no less likely to create humorous spells, veils, or magic items than people here on Earth. So go on, throw a pie in someone’s face, make it rain cats and dogs, or battle your foes with roshambo! Have fun and stay awesome!

The Brainstorm

Descriptors: none

Class: Stormbound

Slot: Storm

Saving Throw: Will (see text)

Mystic equations swirl around you in a maelstrom of pure thought.

When you have at least 1 point of essence invested in this veil, you tap into the knowledge of the Akashic Records, granting a +1 insight bonus to the caster level or manifester level of any spells, powers, spell-like abilities or psi-like abilities used within the area of your Storm. However, the raw power of akasha flowing directly into the mind is dangerous. Any creature who casts a spell or manifests a power takes 1d8 damage (Will save for half) as the overwhelming magic wracks their mind. This damage occurs after the spell is cast and does not incur a concentration check.

Essence: Each point of essence beyond the first increases the damage taken from casting or manifesting by 1d8. For each odd point of essence, the insight bonus to CL or ML increases by +1.

Chakra Bind (Storm): [S9] Binding this veil to your Storm chakra opens the conduit to the Akashic Records even wider, allowing you to tap into the forbidden sections of the records. As a standard action, you can place a doom mark on a creature. This doom mark lasts for 24 hours. A successful Will save prevents the doom mark and makes the target immune to this effect for 24 hours. Whenever a doom marked creature casts a spell or manifests a power within the area of the Storm, they must roll for spell failure, even if they are not an arcane caster. This effect imposes a 5% spell failure chance, plus 5% per point of essence. This stacks with any spell failure the creature may already have, such as through armor.

Whenever a doom marked creature dies within the Storm’s area, you may restore one prepared spell or spell slot of a level up to half their Hit Dice (rounded down) to one creature of your choice within the Storm’s area. Alternatively, you may restore a number of power points equal to the creature’s Hit Dice to one creature of your choice within the Storm’s area. If a doom marked creature has no spells, powers, spell-like abilities, or psi-like abilities, it counts as having half as many Hit Dice for the purpose of this effect. Creatures with half as many or less actual Hit Dice as the veilweaver killed under this effect restore nothing.

The Catastrophe

Descriptors: none

Class: Stormbound

Slot: Storm

Saving Throw: Reflex

Dark clouds gather and a yowling is heard from above.

When you have at least 1 point of essence invested in this veil, the sky above your Storm fills with thick black clouds, lowering the light level within the storm’s area by 1 step (to a minimum of darkness). This change in lighting is from physical obstruction and does not counter light spells. In addition, cats begin to rain down from the sky, scratching and biting at anything that moves. At the end of your turn, each creature within the area takes 1d3 slashing damage and must make a Reflex save to avoid tripping over one of the many cats running around.

Essence: Each point of essence beyond the first increases the slashing damage dealt by the Storm by 1d3.

Chakra Bind (Storm): [S9] Binding this veil to your Storm chakra causes a great growling sound to echo in the clouds as dogs begin to fall as well. The Storm now deals 1d3 each of bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage per point of essence as the dogs and cats fight anything and everything indiscriminately.

Confections of the Three Schmucks

Descriptors: Enhanced (pie)

Class: All except Rajah

Slot: Hands

Saving Throw: Will (see text)

Despite being shaped on the hands, this veil takes the form of a strange hairstyle. Depending on the weaver, it appears as either a bald pate, a mess of curls, or a smooth black bowl cut.

While this veil is shaped, the veilweaver can conjure up an endless supply of custard and whipped cream pies. Though delicious, the pies give no nutritional value.

The pies may be thrown as a weapon, dealing 1d6 + veilweaving modifier non-lethal bludgeoning damage. This non-lethal damage affects creatures normally immune to non-lethal damage. The pies have a range increment of 10 feet. Throwing a pie in melee does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the pies deal an additional 1d6 damage, and their range increment increases by 5 feet.

Chakra Bind (Hands): [D4, E3, G2, H2, L4/6, N2, R3, S4, V2] Binding this veil to your Hands chakra grants your pies the distance property. In addition, a foe struck by your pies must make a Will save. If they fail, they grab a pie of their own from nowhere and attempt to attack the nearest creature with it. If the creature has iterative attacks, they must make them all with pies. These pies have all of the properties of your own pies, including bind effects. If you have this veil bound and are struck by a pie with this effect, you are immune to the Will save.

Galactic Mentality

Descriptors: none

Class: All except Rajah

Slot: Head

Saving Throw: Will (see text)

This veil expands the user’s mind into infinite dimensions, lessening their perception of this world. A dragon might be a pigeon, if the mind goes far enough afield.

While this veil is shaped, you take a -2 penalty on Knowledge checks. You may take a standard action to identify a creature. If you fail by 5 or more when attempting to identify a creature with a Knowledge check, you may choose another creature of the same type and exchange one ability of the original creature for one of the chosen creature. The exchanged abilities must be of the same category (defense, offense, movement, senses, special abilities, spells, etc). Alternatively, you may exchange it for no ability, if the chosen creature has no similar ability (effectively removing the ability of the creature). This exchange lasts for 24 hours, during which the creature cannot be affected by this veil again. The creature receives a Will save to resist the effects of this veil. If they succeed, they are immune to the effects of this veil for 24 hours.

Abilities that may be exchanged are as follows:

• Vision/senses types
• Damage reduction
• Energy resistance
• Vulnerability
• Movement speeds
• Natural attacks
• Reach
• Individual spells, powers, spell-like abilities, or psi-like abilities
• Individual shaped veils
• Special abilities

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the penalty on Knowledge checks worsens by -2, and the DC to resist the effects of the veil increases by +1.

Chakra Bind (Head): Binding this veil to your Head chakra allows you to identify creatures with a swift action instead of a standard action. For every additional 5 by which you fail the Knowledge check, you may exchange one additional ability. All exchanged abilities must still come from the same creature. Additionally, you may also exchange a creature’s subtype, removing all abilities associated with their original subtype in favor of those of the new subtype.

Gravsling

Descriptors: Enhanced (sling)

Class: All except Rajah

Slot: Hands, Head

Saving Throw: Reflex (see text)

This veil forms the shape of a simple leather sling, but the stones it throws burn with akashic might.

The sling conjured by this veil holds the power of the heavens. It loads itself, requiring no actions to do so, and can create any mundane sling ammunition that costs 2 gp or less. When attacking a creature larger than you, the sling deals an additional +2 damage for each size category larger than you they are. For example, a Medium veilweaver would deal +2 damage to a Large creature, but +6 damage to a Gargantuan creature.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil beyond the first, the additional damage when attacking a larger creature increases by +2.

Chakra Bind (Hands): Binding this veil to your Hands chakra suffuses it with the burning light of the stars. As a standard action, you may make an attack that slings a shooting star at a creature. If the shooting star hits, it deals 2d6 damage per point of essence invested in this veil.

Chakra Bind (Head): Binding this veil to your Head chakra grants you all of the benefits of the Hands chakra, as well bestowing explosive power onto your shooting stars. Now when a creature is struck, the star detonates, dealing the same damage dealt to the target, minus additional damage for larger creatures, to all foes in range of the blast (Reflex for half). The blast has a radius of 5 feet away from the target per point of essence invested in this veil. Additional damage for larger creatures does not apply to this explosion.

The Quickening

Descriptors: Title

Class: Rajah

Slot: Head

Saving Throw: none

Who wants to live forever?

The entitled gains DR 2/-, blindsense equal to 15 feet, and their move speed increases by 5 feet. Unlike other titles, the quickening is not suppressed when it moves out of range of the veilweaver. However, it is suppressed if the entitled takes any hostile action while in an area sacred to them, the veilweaver, or the ancestors of either of them. The suppression ends if the entitled leaves the sacred area or if they cease their hostile action.

Essence: Each point of essence invested in this veil increases the entitled’s DR by +1 and their blindsense and move speed by +5 feet.

Chakra Bind (Head): The entitled becomes unaging and immortal, unable to be killed unless their head is severed from their neck (such as by a vorpal weapon, a called shot killing blow to the head, or a coup de grace attack). Additionally, their blindsense becomes blindsight. Whenever the entitled slays a creature, they gain a number of positive levels (see sidebar) equal to half of the slain creature’s level. However, a creature who succeeds in killing the entitled gains a number of positive levels equal to half the entitled’s level and becomes entitled with the quickening until they are slain. This does not count against the entitled’s nor the original veilweaver’s veil slots, and the newly entitled creature must invest their own essence into the veil.

Positive Levels

Positive levels work as negative levels, but the effects are reversed. For each positive level a creature has, it gains a cumulative +1 bonus on all ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and its CMD. In addition, the creature increases its current and total hit points by 5 for each positive level it possesses. The creature is also treated as one level higher for the purpose of level-dependent variables (such as spellcasting) for each positive level possessed. Spellcasters do not gain any prepared spells or slots as a result of positive levels. As well, they treat the creature’s veils as being invested with one more point of essence than normal, ignoring essence caps. These positive levels do not stack, only the highest amount applies. Positive levels decrease by one each round until none remain. If a creature ever has positive levels and negative levels at the same time, they negate and remove each other on a one-for-one basis.

Roshambo

Descriptors: Death

Class: All except Rajah

Slot: Hands, Headband

Saving Throw: Will (see text)

This is the original veil, tapping into the very source of all magic.

Shaping this veil grants you the ability to challenge creatures to an ancient magical duel that none may refuse, where the penalty for losing is death. As a standard action, you can challenge a creature within Close range (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) to a game of Roshambo, also known as “Rock, Paper, Scissors”. You may challenge them to a single game, or to a duel (see below). Each game deals 1 damage to the loser, plus 1 additional damage per veilweaver level. If the challenge is a duel, only the loser of the overall duel takes damage.

Essence: When a point of essence is invested in this veil, you may instigate a duel, which allows you to challenge the target to a “best two out of three” series of games. For each point of essence beyond this first one, you may increase the number of games needed to win the duel by one. This progresses to “best three out of five” with 2 points of essence, “best four out of seven” with 3 points of essence, etc.

Chakra Bind (Hands): Binding this veil to your Hands chakra expands the game to include the signs of Lizard and Wizard (see sidebar).

Chakra Bind (Headband): Binding this veil to your Headband chakra allows you and you alone access to the final, forbidden sign of Roshambo: Atomic Bomb. If you use this sign, your opponent is instantly killed unless they succeed at a Will save. If they succeed, they may explain how their sign actually defeats your sign (such as Scissors cutting the Atomic Bomb’s wiring) and the game continues as normal. Once you have used Atomic Bomb on a foe, you cannot use it on them again until 24 hours have passed. If your foe also has this veil shaped and bound to their Headband chakra, and they use Atomic Bomb at the same time you do, you are both killed with no save.

Sidebar: Roshambo

Though the rules of Roshambo are fairly well known, they will be printed here just in case, as well as including the expanded variant from the Hands bind effect.

Normal: Scissors cuts Paper covers Rock crushes Scissors.
Hands: Scissors cuts Paper covers Rock crushes Lizard poisons Wizard transmutes Scissors kills Lizard eats Paper befuddles Wizard disintegrates Rock crushes Scissors.

The Shitstorm

Descriptors: Poison

Class: Stormbound

Slot: Storm

Saving Throw: Fortitude

A foul wind blows and the sky turns a sickly green.

When you have at least 1 point of essence invested in this veil the area of your Storm is filled with disgusting brown solids falling from the cruel sky above. Any creature within the Storm at the end of your turn is subject to a vile akashic toxin.

Akashic Toxin

Type poison (contact); Save Fortitude DC (10 + 1/2 veilweaver level + veilweaving modifier)

Onset -; Frequency 1/round for 6 rounds

Effect Sickened; Cure 1 save

As a swift action, the veilweaver may change any number of the following attributes:

• Save Fortitude or Will
• Onset instantaneous, 1 round, 1 minute, or 10 minutes.
• Frequency 1/round for 6 rounds, 1/minute for 6 minutes, or 1/10 minutes for 1 hour.
• Effect Sickened, blinded, or 1 point of essence burn.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the save DC of the toxin increases by +1. For every 2 points of essence invested in this veil, the essence burn (if chosen) dealt by the akashic toxin increases by 1. For every 3 points of essence invested in this veil, the number of saves required to cure the toxin increases by 1

Chakra Bind (Storm): [S9] Binding this veil to your Storm chakra magnifies the strength of the toxin. It bypassess all poison immunity. You may also add the following effects to your choices when customizing the toxin

• 2 damage to an ability score of your choice or nauseated.

For every 2 points of essence invested in this veil, the ability damage (if chosen) increases by 1.

Special: This akashic toxin cannot deal ability damage that would equal or exceed an enemy’s ability score. If it would, the excess ability damage is instead applied to a different attribute of the veilweaver’s choosing, provided the ability damage would not equal or exceed that ability score. If there are no valid attributes for this redirection, this poison fails to do any more damage.

The Tweetstorm

Descriptors: Compulsion, mind-affecting, sonic

Class: Stormbound

Slot: Storm

Saving Throw: Will

A flock of ethereal blue birds appear, their cries revealing the innermost thoughts of all within the area.

When you have at least 1 point of essence invested in this veil the area of your Storm is filled with a flock of ethereal birds. The birds cannot attack, nor be attacked. At the end of your turn, their discordant calls deal 1d3 points of sonic damage to all creatures within the area. If they take damage, they must make a Will save or be confused, as the confusion spell. Damage from this veil does not cause a confused creature to automatically target you.

Essence: Each point of essence invested beyond the first increases the damage of the storm by 1d3.

Chakra Bind (Storm(=): Binding this veil to your Storm chakra causes the bird calls to take on a sinister, coordinated tone. As a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity, you can cause the bird storm to tweet as one, targeting every creature within the area with their aural attack. Each creature takes the sonic damage from your veil, and if they fail their Will save they take additional damage equal to your veilweaving modifier plus twice the number of points of essence invested in this veil and the confusion they suffer only has the “harm self” and “attack nearest creature” effects, with a 50% chance for either effect.