Eldritch Akasha: Options of Flesh 3 (Patreon)

Archetypes

Weaver of Flesh (Promethean Archetype)

Dedicated to the art of shaping fleshwarp veils, these terrifying veilweavers obsess over reshaping their own bodies to suit their whims and desires.

Veilweaving: Rather than the normal number of veils shaped each day, a weaver of flesh gains the ability to shape 1 veil at 1st level, and gains the ability to shape an additional veil each day at 2nd level, 5th level, and every 2 levels thereafter.

This modifies the promethean’s veilweaving class feature and replaces their promethean obsession class feature. A weaver of flesh may still select archetypes that modify their veilweaving class feature that don’t alter their number of veils they can shape, such as the fleshbrand or fleshgiver archetypes, and may still select the obsessionist archetype to gain an obsession in place of their forbidden knowledge.

Shape Fleshwarp: At 1st level, when the weaver of flesh shapes their veils for the day they select a single veil with the [fleshwarp] descriptor they know. The weaver of flesh shapes the selected veil and it does not count against the number of veils they shape each day or the slot it is shaped in. If the weaver of flesh can bind veils to the slot the veil is shaped in, they may bind this veil as normal.

Hidden Fleshwarp (Ex): At 5th level, the weaver of flesh can suppress the effects of any [fleshwarp] veil they have 0 points of essence invested in. Veils suppressed in this way cannot be used, have their ongoing effects temporarily negated, and cannot be detected. The weaver of flesh can suppress or resume the functions of such a veil as a free mental action, even outside of their turn. If the weaver of flesh is rendered unconscious or reduced to 0 or fewer hit points, the effects of these suppressed veils are resumed.

Malleable Fleshwarp (Ex): At 11th level, by meditating for one minute the weaver of flesh can unshape a [fleshwarp] veil they have shaped and shape a new [fleshwarp] veil in its place. If they can bind the newly shaped veil to its chakra slot, they may bind it as part of this ability. If they reshape the veil they shaped using their shape fleshwarp class feature, it follows the same rules as that feature.

Intermingling Fleshwarp (Ex): At 17th level, whenever the weaver of flesh shapes a veil with the [fleshwarp] descriptor it does not count against the slot it is shaped in, allowing it to be shaped alongside other veils. If the weaver of flesh has the Twin Veil feat, they may retrain it for free when they gain this feature.

Ascendant Flesh (Ex): At 20th level, the weaver of flesh is fundamentally altered by the veils they shape. As long as they have at least one [fleshwarp] veil shaped, the weaver of flesh does not age and does not suffer the penalties from old age. They also gain a number of points of regeneration equal to the number of [fleshwarp] veils they have shaped. Veils that have been suppressed (but not suppressed by their hidden fleshwarp feature) do not grant the weaver of flesh regeneration. As long as the weaver of flesh has at least one [fleshwarp] veil shaped and not suppressed they cannot die from hit point damage.

Forbidden Knowledge

Sever the Skin (Su)

Reading that tome sent a shiver down your spine which quickly rippled across your skin, lifting it from your muscle and bone.

As a standard action, you can cause your skin to sever itself from your muscle and bones and become animated with your own mental power, as per the skinsend spell with no maximum duration. Unlike with the spell, your body is only reduced by an amount of hit points equal to half your current hit points (rounded down, minimum 1), and your skin is treated as having that many hit points. You cannot heal this damage until your skin rejoins your body (as per the spell).

Your body is not helpless while your consciousness is inhabiting it and can take actions as normal while it is, but your skin is helpless while doing so. While your consciousness is inhabiting your severed skin, your body is helpless.

While your consciousness is inside your skin, you can move your skin into your body’s space and rejoin it with your body as part of any movement which automatically transfers your consciousness back to your body.

Starting at 7th level, you can choose to sever portions of your skin rather than all of it. When you use this ability, you can choose to only reduce your current hit points by one quarter (rounded down, minimum 1) to sever only half of your skin; when doing so, your skin’s size is one size category smaller than your base size (minimum Fine). When taking actions using this skin, you use the size bonuses and penalties appropriate to the skin’s new size. You can sever your skin twice using this ability as well, if you wish, to a half your maximum hit points lost to create two smaller severed skins. Your consciousness may only possess one severed skin at a time, and switching your consciousness between yourself or your skin is a standard action.

Starting at 15th level, you can choose to sever an even smaller portion of your skin by reducing your current hit points by one eight (rounded down). When doing so, your skin is treated as two size categories smaller than your base size instead (minimum Fine). This otherwise functions as the 7th level advancement of this ability. You may sever your skin multiple times, up to a maximum number of hit points lost equal to half your maximum hit points.

Investing essence in this piece of forbidden knowledge improves your abilities and allows you to better utilize your severed skin. For each point of essence invested, your severed skin’s Strength score increases by 2 (to a maximum of your Strength score), and its damage reduction increases by 1.

You also gain the following benefits when essence is invested in this ability:

2 Essence: Your severed skin gains 1 point of fast healing. This fast healing cannot heal the severed skin to a total hit point value higher than the amount it was created with. For every 2 points of essence invested in this ability beyond 2, this fast healing increases by 1.

4 Essence: Your severed skin’s damage reduction improves to DR/magical piercing and slashing.

6 Essence: While this ability is invested with 6 or more points of essence, you may maintain your consciousness in both your severed skin and your body at the same time, and neither are helpless. You may divide your actions as you see fit between your body and skin as you see fit, and you may perceive reality through both your body and your skin at the same time. If you have multiple severed skins, your consciousness is divided among all of them. If this ability stops being invested with at least 6 points of essence while your skin is severed, you choose whether you wish to have your consciousness inhabit your skin or your body when the essence is removed.

Insectoid Limbs (Ex)

Chitinous legs pierce outwards from your back, twitching and thrashing before quieting as your muscles and nerves adjust to your new limbs.

You grow a pair of insectoid limbs from your back. These limbs grant you a +2 bonus to CMD against Trip and Bull Rush maneuvers, a +10 increase to your base movement speed, and allow you to treat your Strength score as 2 higher when determining your carrying capacity.

You can wrap these limbs around your torso to hide their presence using the Disguise skill, but while doing so you do not gain any of the benefits of this forbidden knowledge. At any time, you can unfurl these legs to regain these benefits, but in doing so you spoil your disguise.

For each point of essence invested in this veil, you gain an additional +1 bonus to CMD against Trip and Bull Rush maneuvers, and you treat your Strength as an additional 1 higher when determining your carrying capacity. For every 2 points of essence invested in this veil, you grow an additional two limbs, which grant additional benefits as per below:

2 essence: You may stand up from prone without provoking an attack of opportunity, and can crawl at half your base movement speed without provoking attacks of opportunity.

4 essence: You may stand up from prone as part of a move action without provoking attacks of opportunity by spending half of your movement for that action (rounded up). You must have at least half your movement left for that action to do so.

6 essence: You can crawl at your full base movement speed without provoking attacks of opportunity.

8+ essence: At 8 essence, and every 2 essence invested thereafter, your base speed increases by an additional 10 feet.

Veils

Arachnothorax

Descriptors: Fleshwarp

Class: Daevic, Huay, Promethean, Stormbound

Slot: Feet, Belt

Saving Throw: See text

Your hips and legs are encompassed by a thick chitin, before slowly growing and expanding into the body of a massive spider.

Shaping this veil causes your body from the waist down to turn into the body of a giant arachnid. You have 8 legs, a +6 bonus to CMD against trip, you are treated as a quadrupedal creature when determining your carrying capacity, and your base movement speed increases by 10 feet.

You gain a climb speed equal to half your base movement speed, and can climb without your hands needing to be free at no penalty. Instead of gaining a racial bonus to Climb checks from this speed, you instead gain a +2 insight bonus to Climb checks.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, your base movement speed increases by 5 feet and the insight bonus to Climb checks granted by this veil increases by +2.

Chakra Bind (Feet): Binding this veil to your Feet chakra causes the veil to further modify your arachnid body with a set of spinnerets which you can use to spin and shoot webs.

As a standard action, you can throw a web as a ranged weapon attack with a range of 10 feet, and a maximum of 5 range increments. A struck creature of your size or smaller is entangled and cannot move from their space while they are entangled by the webs. An entangled creature can escape with a successful Escape Artist check or burst the web with a Strength check. The Strength check has a DC equal to the saving throw DC of this veil, and the Escape Artist check’s DC is equal to that DC + 5. Both checks are standard actions. These webs can also be destroyed by damage; they have hardness equal to your veilweaving level, HP equal to twice your veilweaving modifier, and AC equal to 10 + twice the essence invested in this veil when the web was created + your veilweaving modifier. If you entangle a flying creature using this veil who uses wings to fly, they are not immobilized but begin to fall. You may only throw webs once per minute, but you may ignore this restriction by taking a point of essence burn as part of using the ability.

If you successfully maintain a grapple against a creature of your size or smaller, instead of the normal effects allowed to you by maintaining a grapple you may choose to entangle a creature using your webs, as per above. This counts against the once per minute restriction, and you may take a point of essence burn to ignore this restriction if you wish.

Additionally, you can spin a field of webs which you can use to entrap prey or protect an area. This process takes 10 minutes of work, and functions as the web spell with a range of touch, no maximum duration, and an effective caster level equal to your veilweaving level. This is an extraordinary effect. Unlike webs created by the spell, these webs are not particularly flammable, and you can choose to create a smaller area of webs if you wish. Each square of webs has hardness equal to your veilweaving modifier, and hit points equal to twice your veilweaving level. For each point of essence invested in this veil, the time you take to spin a field of webs is reduced by 1 minute, to a minimum of a full-round action.

You can freely move through or on webs without penalty, and you treat your climb speed as equal to your base movement speed while doing so.

Chakra Bind (Belt): Binding this veil to your Belt chakra grants you all the benefits of the Feet bind and causes your arachnid body to grow in size. Your size increases by one category and your base movement speed increases by 10 feet. This size increase only affects your arachnid-lower-half and your space; you do not increase your reach, and the size of your natural attacks and the weapons you may wield doesn’t increase. You benefit and suffer from the size bonuses and penalties for your new size, as normal (-1 attack and AC, +1 CMB and CMD, -2 Fly, -4 Stealth for a Large-sized creature), and are treated as your new size for the purposes of combat maneuvers, the size of creatures you can entangle using your webs, and your carrying capacity.

In addition, the size of the field of webs you can spin increases in radius by 10 feet. While you are touching webs, you can sense every other creature touching connected webs as per blindsight.

Chelicerae of Manipulation

Descriptors: Fleshwarp

Class: Daevic, Eclipse, Huay, Promethean

Slot: Head

Saving Throw: None

The flesh and bone of your jaw tears apart, reforming into a set of fangs and chelicerae that can manipulate objects and tear into your foes.

Shaping this veil modifies your mouth and jaw so that it can unfold into a set of chelicerae and fangs. You gain a primary bite natural attack that deals damage appropriate to your size (1d6 Medium, 1d4 Small), though this bite only deals bludgeoning and piercing damage.

You can also use these chelicerae to hold and manipulate objects as well as one of your hands, though you cannot use them to wield weapons or a shield. While holding an object with your chelicerae you cannot use your bite attack, though you can still speak.

When not using your chelicerae to hold an object or to make bite attacks, you can cause them to fold back into your jaw to disguise them. In this state, your jaw appears normal for a member of your species, though there are fine grooves in your flesh where your mouth and jaw segment. When folded in this way, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Disguise checks made to disguise this veil.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil you gain a +2 insight bonus to damage rolls made using this veil’s bite attacks, and the bonus to Disguise checks to disguise this veil increases by +1. For every even point invested, you gain a +1 insight bonus to attack rolls made using the veil’s bite attack.

Chakra Bind (Head): Binding this veil to your Head slot further improves the strength of your chelicerae, allowing you to grab hold of foes you bite. Whenever you successfully hit a creature with the veil’s bite attack, you can make a grapple attempt against them as a free action. This grapple does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and requires no free hands. You may maintain this grapple only using your chelicerae with no penalty, and when you are grappling a creature using your chelicerae you may only bite attacks using this veil against the grappled creature. For every even point of essence invested in this veil, you gain a +1 insight bonus to grapple checks made using your chelicerae, and to your CMD to defend your grapple using your chelicerae.

Consuming Commandment

Descriptors: Evil, Fleshwarp

Class: Eclipse, Promethean, Vizier

Slot: Wrists

Saving Throw: See text

Your flesh produces worms that share a portion of your intellect, able to burrow into a creature and devour it from within should that creature not follow your commandments.

Shaping this veil allows you to produce a worm from your flesh and embed it in a willing or helpless creature you can touch in a process that takes one full round. When you do so, you give that creature a spoken commandment; an action it cannot follow lest the worm placed inside it begin to consume the creature from the inside. A creature can only have a single worm produced by this veil embedded in it at a time, attempting to embed a second destroys the first.

Commandments can be as vague or as broad as you desire, but cannot be something inherently suicidal or that would immediately result in its death (such as “you cannot breathe” or “you are not allowed to move from your space”) and the creature must be physically capable of following the commandment, as per your GM’s discretion. A creature does not need to share a language with you or be able to understand the commandment; when a creature begins to take an action against your commandment, it begins to feel intense pain as the wormbegins to consume them, allowing them to change their mind and choose a different course of action if they wish. Commandments must be explicitly described upon the worm being embedded in the creature, and cannot have any vague components such as “you cannot attack my allies”. In that example, you would need to define the exact creatures the creature cannot attack.

Some examples of commandments are the following: “you cannot attack me, and the creatures I designate”, “you cannot approach me”, or “you cannot target me with your magical abilities”.

Any time the creature performs an action against your commandment, or each round if the actions they are performing take more than one round, they must make a Fortitude saving throw to resist the worm consuming them from within. Should they fail, they take 1d6 points of slashing damage. This damage ignores damage reduction and hardness.

Worms embedded in a creature persist until this veil is unshaped, until the worm is surgically removed, or until you will the worm to die as a free action. If this veil is suppressed, the worm’s effects are suppressed for the duration as well. Surgically removing the worm requires 1 minute of time and a Heal check with a DC equal to 10 + the saving throw DC of this veil. The worm attempts to resist this surgery, attempting to consume the creature it is embedded within each round the surgery progresses. A successful check removes and kills the worm, and failed check does not manage to remove the worm.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the damage dealt by the worm consuming the embedded creature increases by 1d6.

Chakra Bind (Wrists): Binding this veil to your Wrists chakra allows you to more rapidly embed worms in creatures, and allows you to embed worms in creatures who are hostile to you. Embedding a worm now only takes a standard action. Attempting to embed a worm in a hostile creature requires you to make a melee touch attack against that creature, and the creature receives a Fortitude saving throw to resist being embedded.

Maws of Devouring

Descriptors: Flehswarp

Class: Daevic, Eclipse, Huay, Promethean

Slot: Wrists, Belt

Saving Throw: None

Magic tears your body asunder, leaving a maw of gnashing fangs in place of much of your chest cavity.

Shaping this veil alters your body, causing your body to grow numerous mouths which allow you to consume items and store them within yourself. You can store any number of items that would fit within the volume of your chest and hips within your body. This is two cubic feet for a Medium creature. Each size category smaller than Medium halves this volume, and each size category larger than Medium quadruples this volume.

Items stored within your body cannot be targeted, are considered to be concealed, and are not affected by spells or effects that affect an area if you roll a natural 1 on your saving throws. Items held within your body only count as half their weight towards your carrying capacity, and you may draw an item from or store an item within your body as a swift or move action. You gain a +2 insight bonus to Sleight of Hand checks made to palm items drawn from your body. When you steal an item, you can store it inside your body as part of that action (if the item fits) and you gain the above bonus to Sleight of Hand checks to take the item unnoticed if you store it in your body as part of doing so. If this veil is suppressed or unshaped all of the items stored within it spill out into your space.

Essence: Unlike other veils, investing essence in this veil does not make it harder to disguise. This veil always receives a +5 circumstance bonus to Disguise checks to disguise it, even when invested with essence, and this bonus increases by an additional +2 per point of essence invested in this veil. Additionally, each point of essence invested in this veil increases the insight bonus to Sleight of Hand granted by this veil by +1.

Chakra Bind (Wrists): Binding this veil to your Wrists chakra allows you to more quickly consume and draw items using your body. The time it takes to do so is reduced to a free action, and you may do so even outside of your turn. You can also choose to ingest potions or other consumables stored within your body without needing to draw them and without provoking attacks of opportunity. Doing so takes the normal actions required to consume the item.

In addition, you no longer need a free hand to perform the steal maneuver, the maneuver does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and you may make a steal attempt in place of a melee attack. These bonuses only apply when using this veil to make a steal attempt, not when using a weapon (such as a whip) or another ability.

Chakra Bind (Belt): Binding this veil to your Belt chakra grants you all the benefits of the Wrists bind and allows your body to expand to consume more objects, and causes your body to grow a single massive maw which you can use to bite and consume creatures. The volume of items you can store is quadrupled, but while you are storing more than your base volume of cubic feet in material (two cubic feet if Medium) your body expands dramatically to contain the items, negating any bonuses to Disguise checks made to hide this veil.

Additionally, you gain a bite attack that deals damage equal to that of a creature one size category larger than you (1d8 Medium, 1d6 Small). This bite attack originates from your chest, and cannot be combined with other natural attacks that use your torso or shoulders (such as attacks made using wings). You can use this bite attack as a standard action to attempt to consume a creature of your size or smaller as part of the attack. If it hits, you may make a free grapple attempt against that creature that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. You gain a +1 insight bonus to this grapple check, increasing by +1 per point of essence invested in this veil. If you are successful, that creature is swallowed whole, as per the universal monster ability, save that you can swallow creatures up to your size. You gain the above bonus to grapple checks as a bonus to your CMD to prevent a creature from escaping this ability, and your interior gains a bonus to its natural armor equal to your veilweaving modifier + the number of points of essence invested in this veil that stacks with other sources of natural armor. Rather than dealing damage to you, a creature swallowed by this veil can attempt to sunder the veil. If this veil is suppressed or unshaped, the swallowed creature is ejected into a free space adjacent to you. While you have a creature of your size swallowed your speed is halved, and you suffer a -4 penalty to AC and Reflex saving throws.

Sonic Screech

Descriptors: Fleshwarp, Sonic

Class: Daevic, Eclipse, Huay, Promethean

Slot: Head, Neck

Saving Throw: Fortitude (see text)

Magic warps the muscles of your throat, allowing you to amplify your voice into a deafening screech of sonic energy.

Shaping this veil allows you to perform a sonic screech. This counts as a primary ranged natural attack that takes up your mouth, meaning it cannot be used in the same round as a bite natural attack. This sonic screech has a range of 60 feet, and struck creatures and objects take 1d4 points of sonic damage. Sonic damage dealt by this screech bypasses the hardness of crystal, glass, and stone objects. Creatures struck by this screech must make a Fortitude saving throw or become deafened for 1 round.

Additionally, this veil allows you to amplify the volume of your voice when not making a screech. You can speak in a booming voice that carries easily over great distances, lowering the DC of any check to hear what you have said by –15.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil the damage of your sonic screech increases by 1d4, and the deafness caused by failing a saving throw against it increases in duration by 1 round.

Chakra Bind (Head): Binding this veil to your Head chakra causes the veil to further warp your flesh, altering your ears and sensory organs to detect sound waves and further altering your throat to emit a subsonic hum.

You gain a form of echolocation that grants you blindsense out to 30 feet, and gain a +2 insight bonus to hearing-based Perception checks. For each point of essence invested in this veil, the range of this blindsense increases by 10 feet and the insight bonus increases by +1. This blindsense functions by detecting soundwaves that you produce and hear; it does not function if you cannot take actions, cannot speak, are deafened, or are in an area of silence or similar effect that negates sounds.

The soundwaves you produce using this ability are subsonic; they can only be detected by other creatures that use soundwaves to echolocate. You can also hear the soundwaves of other echolocating creatures using this veil.

Chakra Bind (Neck): Binding this veil to your Neck chakra further empowers your sonic screech and the volume of your voice.

The range of your sonic screech increases to 120 feet. Once per round when you make a sonic screech attack, you can choose to make that attack as a 120-foot long line. Make a single attack roll and compare the results of that attack to the AC of each creature in this line. If it meets or bypasses their AC, they take damage as if struck by the sonic screech. If this attack roll is a critical threat, roll a critical confirmation against each creature.

Additionally, you may choose to even further amplify your speaking voice, lowering the DC of any check to hear what you have said by -30.

Wolf’s Snout

Descriptors: Fleshwarp

Class: Daevic, Eclipse, Huay, Promethean, Stormbound

Slot: Head, Headband

Saving Throw: None

Your face elongates, taking on a shape reminiscent of a wolf’s and granting you a canine’s incredibly olfactory abilities.

Shaping this veil grants you the scent universal monster ability. Additionally, you gain a +2 insight bonus to scent-based Perception and Survival checks.

Additionally, the range at which you can detect opponents by smell is doubled (60 feet, 120 feet if your opponent is upwind, 30 feet if they are downwind), and the DC increase to track foes by smell only increases by 1 per each hour the trail is cold. If you possess a strong source of the target you wish to track’s smell (such as a piece of clothing they have worn, their blood, or perfume they are wearing) this is further reduced to 1 per every two hours the trail is cold.

Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil, the insight bonus granted by this veil increases by 1, and the range at which you can detect opponents by smell increases by 10 feet (20 upwind, 5 downwind).

Chakra Bind (Head): Binding this veil to your Head bind allows you to detect scents underwater, and allows you to use your scent to better target your foes.

You can detect creatures using scent underwater, and you can detect blood in water at ranges up to a mile, plus an additional 100 feet per point of essence invested in this veil.

Additionally, whenever you pinpoint a creature using scent-based Perception as a move action, you gain the ability to detect them, as per blindsense, for a number of rounds equal to your veilweaving modifier. During this time, you gain a +1 insight bonus to attack rolls made against them, increasing by an additional +1 per 2 points of essence invested in this veil.

Chakra Bind (Headband): Binding this veil to your Headband chakra grants you all the benefits of the Head bind and further improves your ability to detect and track creatures based on smell.

You can sense all creatures you can smell as per blindsense. When you use a move action to pinpoint a creature using scent, you instead detect them as per blindsight for the duration.

Additionally, the DC increase to track foes by smell is only increased by 1 per every two hours the trail is cold, or 1 per every four hours if you possess a strong source of the target’s smell.

New Veil Sets

Arachnid’s Silken Embrace

This veil set contains the following veils: Arachnothorax, Chelicerae of Manipulation, Insectocorpus, Lashing Spinnerets, Spiderweb Wrappings

Predator’s Mutations

This veil set contains the following veils: Eyes of Night, Pouncing Talons, Sonic Screech, Soundscape Perceptors, Wolf’s Snout

Regality of the Hive

This veil set contains the following veils: Buzzing Cloak, Consuming Commandment, Devouring Maggots, Insectocorpus, Prayer of the Mantis

The Serpentine Coils

This veil set contains the following veils: Coiling Grasp, Corrosive Phlegm, Eyes of Night, Marilith’s Aspect, Shedding Scales.