CultivatorSource Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 114PFS Note 0
Cultivators are seekers of immortality who practice occult disciplines to refine their qi. By gathering and purifying vast quantities of qi and enriching their bodies' qi with energies from the Universe and Creation's Forge, these warriors pursue—or “cultivate”—immortality and gain mastery over life and death. Many cultivators seek to become ageless immortals with awe-inspiring mystical powers known as xian and potentially even ascend to divinity as minor officials of the Tian pantheon. More unorthodox cultivators instead mingle qi with the Void and the Netherworld's dark energies.
While humanoid cultivators are the norm, it isn't unheard of for animals, trees, rocks, or even household objects to cultivate their qi and become powerful yaoguai (page 82). The mountains of Shanguang, Shenmen, and Zi Ha are famed sites for cultivators, as are the bamboo groves of Songbai and the verdant heart of the Valashmai Jungle. All types of cultivators are watched over carefully by Tian Xia's imperial dragons, for cultivators go against Heaven's will in seeking to transcend their ontology and destiny. There is little place for the timid among cultivators, as they seek to stand among the most powerful beings of both earth and Heaven. As a result, their personalities tend to be extreme, possessed of otherworldly benevolence, hellish wrath, or unmoving poise.
The intense effort and discipline required to reach the peaks of cultivation weed out most aspirants before they can even truly begin, and the tribulations that most cultivators attract winnows the rest. While calamity drives many to cultivate, rumors persist that gods and dragons alike test and punish cultivation's path with yet more hardship and woe. For every cultivator who eventually attains immortality, a thousand more aspirants meet their ends in the cruelest fates.
Cultivators are rare, even within Tian Xia.
Rare Archetype Dedication Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 114Archetype Cultivator
Through an esoteric, often exacting, regimen of meditation, diet, and exercise, you’ve learned to transform your body’s inner workings into a crucible of planar and spiritual energies. These austerities allow you to refine your body’s vitality into qi, the foundation of all cultivation.
You become an expert in
Occultism. In addition, you gain the
adapt self domain spell as a
focus spell. It costs 1
Focus Point to cast a focus spell, and you start with a focus pool of 1 Focus Point. You refill your focus pool during your daily preparations, and you can regain 1 Focus Point by spending 10 minutes using the
Refocus activity meditating to refine essence into qi, which circulates and refills your focus pool. Your cultivator focus spells are occult spells. You’re trained in spell attack modifier and spell DC. Your key spellcasting attribute for these spells is Wisdom.
Cultivator focus spells are treated as qi spells for prerequisites, counting the number of qi spells you possess and their effects, such as a
jiang-shi’s Drain Qi.
Archetype Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 114Archetype Cultivator
You breathe, allowing your golden core to release qi into the meridians governing your lower body, and break into a burst of speed that could shame arrows in flight. You gain the a
thletic rush domain spell as a focus spell.
Archetype Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 114Archetype Cultivator
Your qi, dancing ever diligently toward cultivation, eludes the grasp of the world’s muck and mire. When you cast your
adapt self or
athletic rush focus spells, you ignore
difficult terrain until the end of your next turn.
Archetype Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 114Archetype Cultivator
Through your disciplined condensations and circulations of qi, you’ve caught a fleeting glimpse of cultivation’s promise, and your health has handsomely profited along the way. You gain the
Breath Control,
Diehard, and
Fast Recovery feats. You must meet the prerequisites for these feats as normal. For each of these feats you already have, you can instead gain a different feat from the following list:
Canny Acumen,
Fleet, and
Toughness.
Archetype Healing Vitality Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 114Archetype CultivatorFrequency once per hour
Trigger You
Cast a focus spell.
Your roots of qi stand firm, shaking off pains and aches like the returning flowers and leaves shed during winter’s snow. You regain Hit Points equal to your level plus the maximum number of
Focus Points in your focus pool.
Archetype Occult Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 114Archetype Cultivator
Attuned to all arrangements of qi, you gain
lifesense as an
imprecise sense with a range of 30 feet. You can also sense the presence of precious materials in the same range, which cultivators refer to as “cultivation materials.”
When you participate in rituals, you can substitute all or part of the ritual’s cost with an equivalent value of precious materials. This applies only to costs in valuable substances like diamonds, not to rituals that require specific items to function; the GM makes the call if it’s unclear.
Archetype Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 114Archetype Cultivator
Deviating from the orthodox path, you tread an inauspicious descent littered with flowers of death; this heretical choice will, in time, earn you the enmity and fear of more traditional cultivators. You become
sanctified with the
unholy trait. You also learn the
call spirit and
commune rituals, which can be used to contact only
undead or entities from the Void or the
Netherworld.
When you cast a ritual, you can reduce the number of secondary casters by 1 as you direct decaying fragments of your own soul, felled by your proximity to death, to assist with the ritual. When you do, you must fulfill any requirements for the secondary caster, and you attempt the secondary check normally performed by that secondary caster. You can’t replace a secondary caster who’s the target of the spell (as in the
atone ritual).
Archetype Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 115Archetype Cultivator
At this stage of cultivation, your body is as much spirit as flesh. While still fettered to the physical realm, your form flourishes without needing conventional food or drink, and your natural healing now rivals that brought by scalpel and suture.
You become
sanctified with the
holy trait. When you perform the
Subsist downtime activity, you can use
Occultism for the skill check (instead of the skills normally associated with your environment). If you do so, this activity gains the
vitality trait as you subsist on ambient qi within your environment’s dew-laden air and create shelter from solidified emanations of qi.
Additionally, when you
Refocus, you can also
Treat Wounds at the same time. If you do so, you can use Occultism for checks to Treat Wounds and disregard the need for a
healer’s kit; this activity gains the vitality trait as you circulate healing qi through your own body or transfuse your ally with healing qi.
Archetype Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 115Archetype Cultivator
Tian Xia’s shining cities belie its empires’ long shadow of death, darkened by thousands of years of suffering and injustice. You pursue immortality not through tuft-hunting with Heaven’s dragons or their imperial brats; yours is the power to crack its corrupt wheel, for you can now release the ghost gates to expedite the dead’s revenge at being cheated of their fates.
You cease aging and, regardless of your actual existential state, now register as an
undead to effects that can detect undead (such as
lifesense or spiritsense). In addition, you learn
create undead rituals for
gashadokuro,
jiangshi, and
shui gui. On a success with one of these rituals, you gain the effects of a critical success instead.
Archetype Source Tian Xia Character Guide pg. 115Archetype Cultivator
Your cultivation bearing glorious fruit, you behold Heaven’s will. Returning from your vision of the Holy Mountain, you become an immortal with mystic potency over the terrestrial realms of wind and water.
You cease aging and, regardless of your actual existential state, now register as a living being to effects that can detect living creatures (such as
lifesense or spiritsense).
In addition, you learn the
control weather and
plant growth rituals. You can use
Occultism instead of
Nature for these rituals. On a success with one of these rituals, you gain the effects of a critical success instead.