Tome of Veils: Week One (Patreon)

The following veils were co-written by Anthony Cappel, writer of the Rajah and Kheshig!

Barrier of Blood

Descriptors: None

Class: Daevic, Guru, Huay, Kheshig, Promethean, Radiant, Volur

Slot: Blood, Body

Saving Throw: None

When your blood is drawn it takes on a mind of its own, briefly animating to drive away further strikes against you.

Whenever you take lethal hit point damage, your blood leaks from your wounds and animates to form a brief barrier to protect you from further harm. You gain temporary hit points equal to half of any lethal hit point damage you take (rounded down, minimum 1) up to a maximum of 1/2 your maximum hit points for 1 round, gained after the damage is taken.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil the duration of any temporary hit points granted by it increases by 1 round, and the number of temporary hit points you gain when taking lethal damage increases by 2 (the temporary hit point maximum still applies).

Chakra Bind (Blood): Binding this veil to your Blood chakra allows you to draw your barrier of blood back into your body. At the beginning of any turn in which you have temporary hit points granted by this veil, you can choose to remove those temporary hit points to recover any equal amount of hit points. This healing does not cure nonlethal damage.

Chakra Bind (Body): Binding this veil to your Body chakra grants you the benefits of this veil’s Blood bind.

Hope

Descriptors: None

Class: All

Slot: Body

Saving Throw: None

Hope itself shrouds you with its golden glow, allowing you to continue when all seems lost.

Shaping this veil imbues you with the powers of hope itself. Whenever you roll a natural 1 on a d20 roll for an attack roll or saving throw, you do not automatically miss the attack or fail the save on a natural 1.

Additionally, whenever you fail a saving throw or miss an attack, you may roll a second d20 and take the higher result. This ability costs no actions, but may only be used once every hour. While this limit is in effect, you may instead burn a number of points of essence equal to 1/4 your level (rounded down, minimum 1) to use this ability.

Essence: Investing essence in this veil amplifies the powers of hope that augment you; whenever you roll a saving throw or attack roll and the result of the d20 is less than 1 + the number of points of essence invested in this veil, you may instead treat that roll as if you rolled 1 + the essence invested in this veil. A die roll modified in this way cannot be a critical threat.

Chakra Bind (Body): Binding this veil to your Body chakra allows hope itself to surge through you, allowing you to succeed when times are most dire. When you make an attack roll or saving throw, you can choose the result of the die rather than rolling it. If this makes your attack a critical threat, you must roll the confirmation normally. This ability may only be used once per hour. While this limit is in effect, you may instead burn a number of points of essence equal to 1/2 your level (rounded down) to use this ability. This limit is separate to the limit of this veil’s base effect, allowing you to use each ability once each hour.

Contemplation

Descriptors: None

Class: Guru, Helmsman, Huay, Promethean, Radiant, Stormbound, Vizier

Slot: Headband

Saving Throw: None

An aura of calming energy surrounds your brow, allowing you to patiently store your energy through meditation.

Shaping this veil allows you to patiently store your bodily potential to later unleash it when it is needed. As a full round action you can enter a state of contemplative meditation, storing your potential for later use. Until you take another action, until you roll for initiative, or until the beginning of your next turn, you gain an insight bonus to your AC and saving throws equal to your veilweaving modifier (minimum +1) and any damage you take is halved (rounded down, minimum 1).

At the start of your next turn, this energy is unleashed; during that turn you gain an additional move and standard action. You cannot enter meditation again during this round.

If you were meditating before rolling initiative, the energy is harmlessly unleashed upon rolling initiative and you gain no additional actions.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the insight bonus to AC and saving throws while meditating is increased by +1, and you may take a 5-foot step per point of essence invested in this veil each round you meditate.

Chakra Bind (Headband): Binding this veil to your Headband chakra allows you to further heighten the powers of your contemplative meditation. At the start of your next turn after meditating, you can choose to meditate for an additional round as a full-round action to compound your stored energy rather than release it. If you do so, at the beginning of your subsequent turn the compounded energy is released; granting you two additional standard and move actions instead of only one of each.

Ira’s Shadowed Bindings

Descriptors: None

Class: Daevic, Eclipse, Nexus, Promethean, Vizier

Slot: Feet, Wrists, Belt

Saving Throw: See text

Thief, assassin, shadow. Whatever nefarious deeds Ira got up to, she accomplished with speed and subtlety.

While this veil is shaped, you gain a +2 insight bonus to Stealth checks. You suffer no penalty to Stealth checks when moving at full speed, and may utilize Stealth while running or charging.

Essence: Each point of essence invested in this veil increases the insight bonus to stealth checks by +2.

Chakra Bind (Feet): Binding this veil to your Feet chakra allows you to move silently. You can choose to make no sound when moving or fighting, allowing you to bypass tremorsense or other forms of sound-based senses. You may also choose to make no noise when landing after a fall. If one of your abilities requires making sound, such as a verbal component for a spell you cast, you must still produce sound for that ability.

Chakra Bind (Wrists): Binding this veil to your Wrist chakra allows you to infuse your strikes with silencing magic. You may choose to treat any weapons or natural weapons you wield as if they were under the effects of the quieting weapons spell, using this veil’s saving throw DC in place of the spell’s saving throw DC. If a creature succeeds on a saving throw against this ability, it is immune to it for 24 hours.

Chakra Bind (Belt): Binding this veil to your Belt chakra grants you the benefits of both the Feet and Wrists binds, and allows you to use Stealth even while being observed if you are within at least 10 feet of an area of dim light or another other source of concealment. Only sources of concealment that could actually conceal you count for this ability; an ally providing concealment only to themselves does not count.

Priming Touch

Descriptors: Fire, Force

Class: Guru, Helmsman, Nexus, Radiant, Volur, Vizier

Slot: Hand

Saving Throw: Reflex, see text

With a touch, you can prime an object with explosive power, detonating it at any time.

As a standard action, you can touch a creature, an object, or an object you are holding and prime it with explosive power. If used against an unwilling creature or an object held or worn by an unwilling creature, you must make a melee touch attack against that creature to prime it or the object it is holding or wearing. You must have a free hand to prime a creature or object unless you are infusing an object you are holding. You may only have a single creature or object primed at a time, and if this veil is suppressed or unshaped any ongoing infusions end. A primed target may not know they have been primed unless they identify the effects of this veil, however a primed target does give off a faint aura of evocation when viewed using detect magic. A successful Knowledge (arcana) check with a DC equal to the DC to identify this veil can reveal the effects of a primed explosion when such an aura is viewed.

As a free action, even outside of your turn, you can cause the primed creature or object to explode. This explosion deals 1d6 points of damage to the primed creature or object and every other creature within 5 feet of it. Half of this damage is fire, and half is force. The primed creature or object receives no saving throw to avoid this damage, but all other affected creatures in range may make a Reflex saving throw to halve the damage. If you prime a piece of ammunition or a thrown weapon, you can cause it to detonate in its target's space whether or not the attack misses.

Essence: Each point of essence invested in this veil increases the damage caused by the veil’s explosions by 1d6. For every 2 points of essence invested in this veil, you may increase the range of explosions by 5 feet when you detonate them, and you may prime an additional creature or object at a time. If you remove essence from this veil and have more primed creatures or objects than your new maximum, you must choose which creatures or objects to remove your infusion from or to detonate.

Chakra Bind (Hands): Binding this veil to your Hand chakra allows you greater control over your explosions, allowing you to protect yourself and the primed creature or object and allowing you to set conditions for your primed targets to automatically detonate. You no longer take damage from your explosions unless you wish to. Whenever you detonate a target, you can choose for the primed creature or object to take no damage from the explosion as well.

Additionally, when you prime a target you can set a condition in which the target will automatically explode; This condition must be a single short coherent sentence which you must confirm with your GM. You do not have to alert your target to the condition of the explosion unless you wish to. Some examples are as follows:

“Explode when this [creature/object] touches a creature.”

“Explode when the [creature/object] is more than 50 feet away from me.”

“Explode when this [creature/object] is exposed to light.”

If you can perceive the primed target when a condition would automatically trigger, you can choose to not have the target explode if you wish, delaying the explosion until you choose to stop doing so. You know when one of your primed targets automatically detonates, waking you if you are asleep. If this veil is invested with 2 or more essence and you are capable of taking mental actions you may also choose to adjust the explosion size, otherwise it explodes at its maximum possible size.

Book and Quill of the Akashic Record

Descriptors: Enhanced (dagger), Enhanced (light shield)

Class: Guru, Kheshig, Nexus, Radiant, Soulforge, Vizier

Slot: Hands

Saving Throw: See text

A steel chained lariat wraps around the veilweaver’s hand. From this chain hangs two charms that depict a book and a quill.

Shaping this veil allows you to conjure a book and quill directly from the akashic record. These objects do not necessarily have to be a book and quill, they take the shape of a writing implement you are most comfortable using, and a book-like object you would write in using that implement (you could conjure a fountain pen, if you know of them, or a chisel and slate).

The quill conjured by this veil can be wielded a dagger, and can produce its own ink when writing in whichever color you can imagine, the color of which can be changed as a swift action. A thrown quill dissipates after the attack is resolved.

The book produced by this veil can be wielded as a light shield and contains an infinite amount of pages. Anything you write in the book is retained between shapings of this veil. You may tear a page from the book to permanently remove something you wrote, which causes the page to disintegrate upon being removed. This book also reacts to your will, turning to whichever page you like upon being opened.

The book created by this veil can also be used to draw information directly from the akashic record in a very limited way; whenever you would make a Knowledge check, you may spend a full-round action to flip through the pages of the book to receive a +2 insight bonus to that check. This also applies to Research checks, if using the Research rules.

The book and quill produced by this veil are enhanced as separate items.

Essence: Each point of essence invested into this veil the bonus granted by the knowledge checks utilizing the book increases by +1, and you gain a +2 insight bonus to damage rolls made using the quill. For every 2 points of essence invested, you gain a +1 insight bonus to attack rolls made using the quill.

Chakra Bind (Hands): Binding this veil to your Hands slot imbues the ink produced by the quill with wondrous properties when used in combat. You may cause your quill to produce one of the following types of ink, which modifies its damage as per the type of ink chosen:

• Neon Green: The quill deals acid damage instead of piercing damage. The quill’s attacks deal full damage to objects and ignore an amount of hardness equal to your veilweaving level + your veilweaving modifier.
• Cobalt Blue: The quill deals cold damage instead of piercing damage. Creatures struck by the quill must make a Fortitude save or have their movement speed halved until the end of their next turn.
• Brilliant Yellow: The quill deals electricity damage instead of piercing damage. You gain a +4 bonus to attack rolls using the quill against creatures made of metal, wielding a metal weapon, or wearing metal armor.
• Crimson Red: The quill deals fire damage instead of piercing damage. Creatures struck by the quill must make a Reflex save or be lit ablaze, taking a number of points of fire damage each round equal to your veilweaving modifier + 1d4 per point of essence invested in the veil at the beginning of each of their turns. At the end of each of their turns, or as a standard action by attempting to douse the flames, they make a new Reflex save to end this effect.
• Royal Purple - The quill deals force damage instead of piercing damage, and is treated as if it had the ghost touch property.
• Abyssal Black - The quill is treated as an Evil-aligned weapon for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction, and for other effects affected by being struck by an Evil-aligned weapon (such as stopping regeneration). Good-aligned creatures struck by the quill must make a Fortitude save or become sickened for rounds equal to your veilweaving modifier.
• Celestial White -  The quill is treated as a Good-aligned weapon for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction, and for other effects affected by being struck by an Evil-aligned weapon (such as stopping regeneration). Evil-aligned creatures struck by the quill must make a Fortitude save or become sickened for rounds equal to your veilweaving modifier.
• Platinum Grey - The quill deals sonic damage instead of piercing. Creatures struck by the quill must make a Fortitude save or become deafened until the end of their next turn.

Hound of War

Descriptors: Creation

Class: Huay, Stormbound, Volur

Slot: Feet, Head

Saving Throw: None

Your very essence is given form in the shape of a loyal hunting companion.

As a standard action, you may burn a number of points of essence up to half your veilweaving level (rounded up, minimum 1) to use astral construct as a psi-like ability with a manifester level equal to twice the number of points of essence burned. You may only have a single astral construct created using this veil at a time. This astral construct does not have a duration; it instead persists until one of the follow events transpires: it is destroyed, you recover any of the essence burned as part of its creation, you choose to dismiss it as a standard action, you rest to reshape your veils, or this veil is suppressed or unshaped.

The astral construct created by this veil has the following properties in addition to an astral constructs base statistics:

• The astral construct is quadrupedal, doubling its carrying capacity and granting it a +4 bonus to its CMD against the trip maneuver.
• The astral construct gains a +10 bonus to its base movement speed.
• The astral construct’s slam attack becomes a bite attack with the same damage die.
• If the astral construct gains a second slam attack, that second slam attack is instead replaced by two primary claw natural attacks that deal damage based on their size, as per the following: Large 1d6, Huge 1d8

Essence: Each point of essence invested into this veil grants an additional menu A option to the astral construct created by this veil. Two Menu-A options can be combined into a menu B option, and two menu B options can be combined into a menu C option. These options are still limited by the astral construct’s level. If essence invested in this veil is burned as part of the construct’s creation, it still gains these benefits.

Chakra Bind (Feet): Binding this veil to your Feet chakra makes your astral construct particularly adept at taking down your foes. Your astral construct’s bite attack gains the trip universal monster ability.

Chakra Bind (Head): Binding this veil to your Head chakra imbues your astral construct with a natural ability to track your foes. It gains the scent special feature, and can pinpoint the space of any creature it can smell without needing to spend an action or make a Perception check. Additionally, whenever the astral construct strikes a creature with its bite attack, it is outlined in flame as per the faerie fire spell until the end of the astral construct’s next turn.

Brooch of the Guardian

Descriptors: Teleportation

Class: Daevic, Guru, Helmsman, Kheshig, Nexus, Promethean, Stormbound, Vizier

Slot: Wrists, Neck, Body

This simple brooch of burnished steel seems to glow with an inner radiance, it's comforting weight always pulling you to those in need.

Shaping this veil allows you to mark a number of creatures as your wards, and allows you to come to their aid in their time of need. Once per turn as a free action, choose a number of creatures equal to your veilweaving modifier plus one (minimum two) other than yourself to mark as your ward. These creatures remain your ward until you use this ability again, or until this veil is unshaped.

While your wards are in Close range (25 feet + 5 feet per 2 veilweaver levels) of you, any time one of your wards would take damage they may request your aid. Requesting aid is a free mental action that can be taken at any time. If multiple creatures request your aid against a single source of damage, such as an area of effect, you may respond to each request for aid individually.

You may respond to aid in one of the following two ways as a free action, even outside of your turn:

• You may take up to 25% of the damage the ward suffers in their place, plus a number of additional points of damage up to to twice the number of points of essence invested in this veil. If this would result in a fractional amount of damage, the damage you take is rounded up, and the damage your ward takes is rounded down. You must have line of effect to your ward to use this ability, but you do not need to be able to perceive them.
• By taking 1 point of essence burn you may teleport to a space adjacent to the ward of your ward’s choice and erect an akashic barrier around them, granting them a number of temporary hit point equal to your veilweaving modifier (minimum 1) plus three times the number of points of essence invested in this veil. These temporary hit points apply before the damage is dealt, and persist for 1 minute.

Essence: Investing essence in this veil increases the effects of the aid you provide your wards, as presented above.

Chakra Bind (Wrists): Binding this veil to your Wrists chakra extends the range at which you can provide aid to your wards to Medium range (100 feet + 10 feet per veilweaver level).

Chakra Bind (Neck): Binding this veil to your Neck chakra extends the range at which you can provide aid to your wards to Long range (400 feet + 40 feet per veilweaver level). Additionally, when taking damage in a ward's place you may choose to take up to 50% of the damage they suffer, plus a number of additional points of damage up to twice the number of points of essence invested in this veil.

Chakra Bind (Body): Binding this veil to your Body chakra allows you to come to your ward's aid at any range, as long as they are on the same plane as you. Additionally, when taking damage in a ward’s place you may choose to take up to 100% of the damage they suffered.