Akasha Expanded: Storms of Autumn (Patreon)

New Stormbound Archetype: Herald of Autumn

To the creatures of the fey realms the seasons are said to have once been ancient, primordial beings that warred over the realms. Some are blessed by these powers, and are referred to by the fey as their heralds. The heralds of autumn are one such group; mystical wielders of creeping decay that carry autumn in their wake.

Autumn’s Weave (Su): The herald of autumn gains access to a unique veil shot: the Storm slot. The herald of autumn gains an additional veil each day that must be used to shape a Storm veil. Unlike a normal stormbound, a herald of autumn may freely invest their essence to or from their storm veils.

The encompassing decay of autumn storms imbues the herald of autumn’s soul, allowing them to call upon unique and devastating autumnal storms from beyond the mortal realms. Whenever the herald of autumn shapes a Storm veil with the Cold, Electricity or Fire descriptors, they can choose to shape that veil with the Acid descriptor instead. Any cold, electricity, or fire damage dealt by this veil instead deals acid damage.

This replaces the stormbound’s stormweaving class feature.

Lesser Weatherproofing (Su): The herald of autumn’s weatherproofing does not grant the benefits of the endure elements spell.

This modifies the stormbound’s weatherproofing class feature.

Creeping Decay (Su): The herald of autumn’s very presence brings about decay and rot. Plants within Close range (25 feet + 5 feet per two levels) of the herald of autumn begin to rot and slowly die, and wounds do not heal. All creatures within the area cannot recover hit points naturally. If a creature in the area is affected by magical healing, they must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 the herald of autumn’s class level + their veilweaving modifier) to receive that healing. If they fail, the effects of the magical healing are lost. If the supernatural healing was fast healing or regeneration and they fail this saving throw, they lose the benefits of their fast healing or regeneration for 1 minute. Extraordinary fast healing or regeneration simply has no effect while they are within the area.

Plants within the area are diminished, becoming less entangled and bushy. For plant creatures, they gain the sickened condition for as long as they are in the area of this ability.

The herald of autumn and creatures they have affected with their weatherproofing ability are immune to these effects.

Non-creature plants within the area shrink and wilt, no longer causing areas to become difficult terrain. This ability may also remove concealment or cover granted by plants in the area, and reduce or remove damage caused by moving through an area of plantlife. The trunk of a tree would still provide cover, but a bush wouldn’t, thorn bushes wouldn’t cause damage from moving through them, and thick undergrowth wouldn’t be treated as difficult terrain, as examples. This ability also temporarily suppresses any spells or effects that enhance plants that enter this area that are of an effective spell level equal to or lower than half the herald of autumn’s class level, rounded up. For effects produced by a veil, they are counted as having a spell level equal to the essence invested in the veil. If a suppressed ability affects an area, only the overlapping areas between this ability and the effect are suppressed.

The herald of autumn can choose to activate or deactivate their creeping decay as a move action.

Festering Powers: If the herald of autumn gains a storm power that can be invested as if it were a storm veil, they may instead invest essence in it as if it were a normal essence receptacle. In addition, if they select a storm power which deals cold, electricity, or fire damage, when they select the storm power they can choose for it to deal acid damage instead.

This modifies the stormbound’s storm powers class feature.

Shifting Autumn (Su): The herald of autumn’s command over autumn’s storms allows them to easily and effortlessly shift their storms into a new shape. At 2nd level, when the herald of autumn rolls initiative, or at the beginning of each of their turns, they can choose to take 2 points of essence burn to unshape a single shaped Storm veil, and immediately shape a new one in its place. If the Storm veil they unshape was bound to their Storm chakra, the new storm veil they shape in its place is also bound. If the unshaped storm veil and the newly shaped storm veil both have one of the following properties the herald of autumn can use this ability without taking essence burn: the Acid descriptor, Death descriptor, Disease descriptor, Fear descriptor, or Poison descriptor. The two veils do not need to match for this ability: the herald of autumn can replace a Poison descriptor storm with an Acid descriptor storm without suffering essence burn, or vice versa. If the herald of autumn changes a storm’s descriptor to Acid using their autumn’s weave ability, it counts as an Acid descriptor storm for this ability.

This replaces the stormbound’s shifting storms class feature.

Autumn’s Corruption (Su): At 6th level, the herald of autumn’s connection to their storms is enhanced when they shape storms that debilitate their foes or the environment, rather than those tied strictly to the elements. Whenever the herald of autumn shapes a storm veil with the Death, Disease, Fear or Poison descriptors, those storms can affect creatures who would normally be immune to death effects, diseases, and poisons. If one of those storms would cause a condition, negative levels, or ability damage or drain, it ignores immunity to those effects as well.

At 12th level, this ability applies to all of the herald of autumn’s shaped veils with the Death, Disease, Fear, or Poison descriptors, rather than only their storm veils. They also treat every veil with the Death, Disease, Fear, or Poison descriptor as if it were a veil on the stormbound veil list. This however does not grant them the ability to shape veils of esoteric chakras, such as Blood or Ring slot veils, even if they are added to their veil list using this ability.

At 18th level, whenever the herald of autumn affects one of their enemies with a harmful effect from a Death, Disease, Fear, or Poison descriptor veil that lasts for 1 or more minutes, its duration doesn’t expire as long as that enemy remains within the area of the herald of autumn’s storm veil.

Herald’s Essence (Ex): At 11th level, the herald of autumn’s internal pool of essence begins to swell with the primordial wellsprings of autumn, granting them an additional point of essence. They gain an additional point of essence at 12th level, and every level thereafter.

This replaces the stormbound’s twinveil storm class feature.

Festering Decay (Su): At 12th level, the range of the herald of autumn’s creeping decay ability increases to Medium range (100 feet + 10 feet per class level). Whenever a creature takes damage while being affected by the herald of autumn’s creeping decay ability, their wounds begin to rot and fester and can only be healed by magical healing, even after they leave the area of this ability.

Plants within this area are further diminished by decay as well. Any non-creature non-magical plant that spends a minute within the area of the creeping decay has their growth and food production halved for the following year.

Whenever the herald of autumn activates their creeping decay, they can choose whether they wish it to extend to Close or Medium range.

This replaces the stormbound’s improved stormweaving class feature.

Rotting Decay (Su): At 18th level, the range of the herald of autumn’s creeping decay ability increases to Long range (400 feet + 40 feet per class level). Festering wounds caused by the herald of autumn’s creeping decay begin to rot, causing them to resist being healed even by magic. Creatures must make a Fortitude save to have these wounds healed by magic, even while outside of the area of creeping decay.

Plants within the area of creeping decay begin to slowly rot as well. Any non-creature non-magical plant that spends 24 hours within the area of creeping decay dies.

Avatar of Autumn: At 20th level, the primordial forces of autumn infuse the herald fully with its power, transforming them into its avatar. The herald of autumn’s type changes to fey, they gain low-light vision (or doubles the range of their low-light vision if they already possessed it), and immunity to acid damage. With their body fully sustained by the powers of autumn they no longer age, need to eat or drink, or need to breathe. If the herald of autumn is slain their body and equipment discorporeates into rot and decay and they are revived during the zenith of the next naturally occuring autumnal storm on the planet they died (or plane they died, if the plane they died on has no distinct planets). They are revived at full hit points with all of their equipment, and may immediately shape their veils as if they had rested for 8 hours. If autumn storms do not exist on the planet or plane in which they died, or if the planet or plane they died on has no natural weather, the herald of autumn cannot be revived with this ability. For the purposes of this ability, an autumn storm is any storm that occurs during the autumn season, or any storm which includes acid or toxins (such as acid rain, or an ash storm).

This replaces the stormbound’s avatar of the elderstorm class feature.

New Storm Veils

The Corrosion

Descriptors: Acid

Class: Stormbound

Slot: Storm

Saving Throw: None

Corrosive rain falls within your storm, weakening defenses and eroding the world.

When at least 1 point of essence is invested in this veil, acid-tinged rain begins to fall within the area of your storm. Creatures, objects, and veils inside the area of your storm have their damage reduction and hardness reduced by 2 (to a minimum of 0). Creatures who would automatically succeed on saving throws against this veil are unaffected by this ability (such as creatures affected by a stormbound’s weatherproofing class feature), as are any items they are carrying or veils they have shaped. This ability has no effect on creatures immune to acid damage. Creatures, objects, and veils that leave the area of your storm have their damage reduction and hardness return to normal.

Additionally, at the end of each of your turns all creatures in the area of the storm take 2 points of acid damage.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil beyond the first, the reduction in damage reduction and hardness caused by the veil increases by 1, and creatures who end their turn inside the storm take an additional 2 points of acid damage.

Chakra Bind (Storm): Binding this veil to your Storm chakra further increases the concentration of the acid that falls within the rain, compounding its detrimental effects.

Unattended objects within the storm at the end of your turn take acid damage from this storm, and do not halve the acid damage they take from the storm.

Additionally, at the end of your turn any creature, object, or veil inside the area of your storm has their damage reduction and hardness reduced by an additional 1, to a minimum of 0. This effect stacks with the base effect of this veil and with itself. The immunity clause of this veil’s base effect applies to this effect as well. If a creature leaves the area of the storm, this penalty persists for an additional minute. This duration is refreshed if they enter the area of your storm again. When 3 essence is invested in this veil, and for every 2 additional essence invested beyond 3, this stacking penalty worsens by an additional 1 (a reduction of 2 per round in the storm for 3 essence, 3 per round for 5, etc).

The Fallout

Descriptors: Poison

Class: Stormbound

Slot: Storm

Saving Throw: Fortitude (see text)

Your storm is an invisible killer, the very air suffused with a poison that drains the life from living beings.

When you have at least 1 point of essence invested in this veil the area of your storm becomes suffused with deadly radiation. The effects of this storm are invisible, only able to be detected by abilities that allow a creature to detect magical effects or poisons.

Creatures who end their turn in the area of the storm must make a Fortitude saving throw. If they fail, they take 1 point of Constitution damage. After one day has passed, they must make another Fortitude saving throw or suffer 1 point of Strength damage. They continue to suffer this effect each day until they pass two consecutive daily saving throws. This is a poison effect, and can be removed with effects that neutralize or treat poison.

These effects do not stack with themselves; if a creature fails additional saving throws for ending their turn within the area of the storm, they do not take additional Constitution damage unless it would be greater than their current Constitution damage inflicted by the storm, in which case they take Constitution damage equal to the difference between the two. For example: if they have suffered 1 point of Constitution damage from the storm and an additional failed save would inflict 3 Constitution damage, they only suffer an additional 2 damage.

Essence: For every 2 points of essence invested beyond the first, the Constitution and Strength damage dealt by this storm increases based on the following progression: 1 -> 1d3 -> 1d4 -> 2d3 -> 2d4 -> 3d3 -> 3d4.

Chakra Bind (Storm): Binding this veil to your Storm chakra allows you to channel the radiation of the storm into a single target, immediately worsening their radiation sickness.

As a standard action, you can suffuse a single creature within the area of your storm with radiation. That creature immediately suffers from the effects of this storm, as if they had ended their turn in its area. If the creature was already suffering the effects of radiation from this storm and they fail their saving throw, their radiation sickness worsens. If they would not be dealt Constitution damage from this ability, they take 1 point of Constitution damage. They also immediately suffer Strength damage as if 24 hours had passed.

The Infestation

Descriptors: Disease

Class: Stormbound

Slot: Storm

Saving Throw: Fortitude negates

Spores burst from the ground around you, taking root in the flesh of your foes before rapidly blossoming into mushrooms.

As a standard action, you can create a 5-foot radius burst of spores within the area of your storm. Creatures in this area must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw to avoid these spores taking root in their flesh. This fungal infection persists for as long as they remain within the storm, and then for 1 minute afterwards. While infected, creatures suffer a -2 penalty to their AC. Whenever a creature infected by this fungus takes bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage the fungus bursts within them, ending the infection and inflicting 1d6 points of bleed damage. If an infected creature is already suffering from bleed damage, the fungus does not burst when they take damage.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the bleed damage a creature suffers when their fungal infection bursts is increased by 1d6. For every 2 points of essence invested, you may increase the radius of the burst of spores by 5 feet, and the AC penalty an infected creature suffers worsens by -1.

Chakra Bind (Storm): Binding this veil to your Storm chakra causes the fungus to infect the creature's nervous system and mind. Creatures who fail their saving throw against this veil suffer a penalty to their Wisdom score equal to the essence invested in this veil (to a minimum of 1) for as long as they are infected by the fungal infection. When the fungal infection bursts, they suffer a -1 penalty to their Dexterity score equal to the essence invested in this veil (to a minimum of 1) for as long as they are suffering bleed damage from this veil. These penalties do not stack with themselves.

The Putrefaction

Descriptors: Disease

Class: Stormbound

Slot: Storm

Saving Throw: Fortitude half

Flecks of rot and decaying plants drift upon a faint breeze within the area of your storm, gathering at your call to bring blight upon your foes.

As a standard action, you can cause a burst of decay to envelope a single creature within the area of your storm. That creature must make a Fortitude saving throw. If they fail, they suffer 1d6 points of damage, and suffer a -1 penalty to their Strength score (to a minimum of 1). A creature who succeeds on this saving throw takes half damage and doesn’t suffer a Strength penalty. This Strength penalty doesn’t stack with itself. The damage from this ability is due to a rapid putrefaction of flesh, bypassing all damage reduction and resistances, but a creature immune to disease is immune to this effect. If they receive a bonus on saving throws against disease, they gain those bonuses on saving throws against this veil.

Corporeal undead are not immune to this effect, even if they would normally be immune to disease. They take twice as much damage from this veil, but if they are immune to disease they don’t suffer the Strength penalty on a failed saving throw.

The Strength penalty from this veil persists for as long as the creature remains in the storm. Each turn the creature ends outside of the area of the storm the penalty is reduced by 1.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil creatures take an additional 1d6 points of damage, and suffer an additional -1 penalty to their Strength.

Chakra Bind (Storm): Binding this veil to your Storm chakra causes the rot and decay of the storm to infest objects and creatures within the storm’s area. As a full-round action you can cause the pervasive rot to infest every creature within the storm’s area. Each creature must make a Fortitude saving throw against the effects of this veil, but the damage is reduced to 1d3 points of damage + an additional 1d3 per point of essence invested, and the Strength penalty is halved (rounded up, minimum -1 penalty).