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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide

Game Master's Trove

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This chapter includes options that are targeted towards GMs more than players. While players are sure to find fun and excitement in the artifacts, archetypes, boons, and other options presented here, these options all require some degree of GM planning and execution and should not simply be assumed to be available to players joining a new game.

The Artifacts section of this chapter expands the artifacts first presented in the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide, with new options expanding the level, theme, and functions available for such items. Artifacts are almost universally powerful and rare. They should be introduced into an adventure as part of a major plot point, either as a reward for the completion of an epic quest or as a tool to help the players complete such an endeavor.

The Archetype Artifacts section presents a new type of archetype, one accessed via bonding with a magical artifact that can grow with the character. Granting archetype artifacts as options in a campaign using the free archetype variant rules is the assumed function of these options, but having a character's very identity be subsumed by an artifact they have bonded to presents its own interesting and unique roleplaying opportunities.

Blighted Boons introduces a new type of consumable, unique to this section. Blighted boons are consumables that can grant great power, but at a terrible price. These items are intended to be the core of a major story the PCs play through. They often put a countdown on the character who uses them, driving that person to use the power to complete a quest and purge the item from their bodies before it consumes them utterly, resulting in their death and destruction. These can be great tools for telling stories of heroes who accept a dreadful doom in exchange for the power to right some horrible wrong or can help add urgency to a campaign where the timeline might not otherwise demand much of the PCs.

Intelligent and Cursed Items expand the options for intelligent and cursed items first introduced in the Gamemastery Guide. These items can be used as allies, foils, or even nemeses of the PCs, or simply as fun and quirky story hooks that add texture and flavor to the campaign world.

Relics are another Gamemastery Guide expansion, vastly expanding the aspects, gifts, and seeds already available. This section also introduces a new type of relic configuration in the form of item sets. Rather than a single relic whose power grows with the character, item sets are collections of themed items that players can seek out, increasing the power and functionality of the collective ensemble with each added item. Not only can these item sets serve as a fun way to emphasize the flavor of a given character, they can also help you decide what kind of treasure you might want to include in your encounters.

Stories and Power

Many of the items presented in this section offer great power to the character who uses them, often at a price. The price for this power is a tool that you, as the Game Master, can use to create dramatic tension and high stakes in your stories. Artifacts, boons, and cursed or intelligent items should always be used to advance the stories you tell in your campaigns and create deeper connections between the players and the setting. Work with your players to discuss ways that these rare and potent items might help tell an exciting and otherwise impossible story.

Archetype Artifacts

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Archetype artifacts are powerful items that grant access to archetype feats linked to the artifact. Once an archetype artifact is invested, it can't be removed or uninvested by normal means. Gaining possession of an archetype artifact and investing it gives you access to its related archetype feats in the same way that taking the dedication feat for a standard archetype allows you to choose its feats whenever you gain a class feat. A character can invest only one archetype artifact at a time. Attempting to invest an additional archetype artifact fails as the first artifact's claim over you outweighs the second's; no benefits are granted, the second artifact is not invested, and you are aware of the failure. If the artifact is destroyed, the bonded character also loses access to any of its granted feats and must immediately retrain all feats granted by the archetype artifact for new feats that they qualify for.

Archetype artifacts are intended to be used in conjunction with the free archetype variant rules originally presented in the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide. However, some stories might work better without this variant; for instance, if a character wants to play an otherwise-ordinary baker or stable hand who stumbles upon an artifact that becomes their main source of power, rather than an apprentice wizard who bonds to one for greater power. Since players must have possession of the archetype artifact to take its feats, you should ensure that they come across it before they would gain their first free archetype feat (typically meaning they should acquire the artifact just before they reach 2nd level.) Generally, archetype artifacts should not be given to players unless all the players at the table have access to either their own archetype artifact or another archetype gained via the free archetype variant.

Blighted Boons

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Magical manifestations of unusual power, blighted boons resemble consumables in that a creature can take in the manifestation to gain its effects. However, these manifestations contain powers not meant for mortals. Once someone partakes, they begin a slide toward disaster as the power eats away at their body, mind, or both. Death is a blessing compared to the fates awaiting those who consume some blighted boons.

Using Blighted Boons

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When someone finds a blighted boon, they discover its manifestation. Manifestations can seem innocuous, such as a potion in a bottle. Other manifestations are grander displays, such as crystallized flame. Some blighted boons have a storied history, so anyone who knows the legends knows the risks. Other blighted boons are more obscure, functioning like hazardous treasure.

Blighted boons can elevate your campaign in multiple ways. A creature might partake of a blighted boon without understanding the ramifications of doing so. Other beings might seek out a blighted boon for its gift, often to use the imparted might in a dire situation that merits taking the risks. Some blighted boons present their effects to potential users in visions or by other means. For such boons, no one can consume them without understanding, at least partly, what they're doing. In any case, a blighted boon offers great, temporary power at a cost, requiring daring undertakings to undo the long-term effects before it's too late.

Partaking

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Someone who partakes of a blighted boon unwillingly can attempt a saving throw to resist the effect. The save DC equals 10 + the partaker's level. Those who willingly consume the boon can't attempt a save. A creature that fails the save or doesn't attempt one moves to the blighted boon's stage 1.

When a blighted boon imparts its initial effect on a partaker, the boon's manifestation disappears. Any pieces that remain contain none of the boon's power.

Those who roll a success or critical success at the save resist the boon. Such a partaker gains no further effect. In some cases, a blighted boon remanifests after this refusal, giving others the opportunity to partake of its power. Blighted boons that have this power say so in their descriptions. Others are used up, as with a consumable magic item.

Progression

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A blighted boon grows in potency within the user's body, progressing in stages. While in any stage from a blighted boon, the partaker is temporarily immune to other versions of the same blighted boon. Unless the boon's description says otherwise, the effects of each stage combine, often growing stronger over time.

Intervals

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Blighted boon stages advance in intervals, amounts of time shown in parentheses for each stage. Once a stage's interval passes, the partaker can attempt a saving throw against the blighted boon. The save DC equals 10 + the partaker's level + the blighted boon's current stage + the number of previous successful saving throws. On a failure, the partaker advances to the next stage. Success means the boon remains at its current stage for the same interval. The partaker can't reduce a blighted boon's stage. To do that, the blight must be subjected to successful purging.

Saving Throws

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If an effect a partaker creates with a blighted boon requires the target to attempt a saving throw, the DC equals the character's class DC or the DC you assign to an NPC or monster. If the partaker must attempt a save against the blighted boon, unless stated otherwise (such as in the Intervals section), the DC equals 10 + the partaker's level + the blighted boon's current stage.

Death

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Most blighted boons affect those who die under the boon's effects in special, unusual ways, as noted in a boon's description. Also, every blighted boon destroys a user who uses the boon's power too long. This doom varies in form.

Purging

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A blighted boon is difficult to get rid of, and the Purging section of each boon entry details the only way to do so. If a partaker satisfies the Purging conditions, all the blighted boon's effects end. For other effects that suppress or dispel magic, treat a blighted boon as an artifact.

Set Relics

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Some permanent magic items are strongly attuned to one another, forming a relic seed called a set relic or item set. Such items fit a theme, empowering a specific type of character. A set relic grants gifts and benefits based on its items working and growing more powerful in concert.

Set Relics in the Campaign

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Set relics are more powerful than typical relic seeds, but they also make acquiring treasure more exciting. To balance things, ensure each character has access to a set relic suited to their abilities. Also, consider what it takes for characters to acquire this considerable power. Seeking the items or materials to craft them should lead to specific quests and challenges, or even whole adventures. Strongly consider adjusting treasure to account for these valuable items.

Starting a Set Relic

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A character starts a set relic when they acquire one item from the set, usually the lowest-level item. (You can allow characters to start the set with a different item.) This starting item has a minor gift and two aspects, as with other relics. The set then works as a single relic regarding its aspects and relic level.

Utilizing a Set Relic

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A user must carry or wear items comprising a set relic to gain their benefits as part of the set. Any item the set relic's wielder fails to wear or carry, as well as any item stowed in an extradimensional space, doesn't count toward the gifts and item-number features the set relic can grant. The character must also invest any item that has the invested trait, or that item doesn't count for the power of the set relic. Consequently, if a user loses an item that's part of the set relic, any benefits that item brought to the set relic disappear until the item is recovered, invested if necessary, and carried or worn again.

Advancing a Set Relic

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Each part of a set relic that a character collects further empowers the relic's gifts and provides additional features.

Gifts: A set relic grants you gifts based on the number of items properly utilized as part of the set relic, as well as a minimum level, which the wielder's level must equal or exceed. This progression matches that detailed on the Gamemastery Guide's Table 2–22: Relic Gifts in terms of number of gifts, minimum level, gift type, and gp equivalent. Each known set relic (see the sets presented below) shows a number before listing a gift. This number corresponds with the number of gifts on Table 2–22, as well as the number of items in the set relic that must be properly utilized to access the indicated gift.

Collective Features: A set relic also grants its user features, boosting to the relic's gifts, based on the number of items properly utilized in the relic. Such features are cumulative. Once a character has four items from a set, for instance, that wielder gains the features for having two, three, and four items. Each known set relic lists the number of items and the feature linked with properly utilizing that number of items as part of the set relic.

Smaller Sets: For set relics that have fewer than five items, the relic can still permit the wielder to access gifts that are more powerful. One of the items in the set must be of or higher than the minimum level given for the gift on Table 2–22 for the relic to grant the gift. Meeting this requirement might involve the wielder improving an existing item to the appropriate level or finding a new item of a suitable level.

Improving Set Items: The items in a set relic need not remain static. They can be improved, according to rules for items of their type, with runes and to higher-level versions. If a set relic lists a specific advanced form of an item, you must possess that form of the item and properly utilize it to gain its benefits as part of the set relic.

Known Set Relics

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Several set relics are known to exist. You can adjust them with items tailored to your players' characters or create custom sets, using the benefits described here as a guideline. Set relics in this section use aspects found in this book or the Gamemastery Guide.