By the Inferior Science of our Enemies: Gramarie Mark II

[Kellus]

The Shadowright

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"And for those of you who are watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green."


Image credit DolphyDolphiana of deviantart.com

Secrets by their nature lie outside normal knowledge, and as long as secrets exist there will be those who seek only to uncover them. Everything in the world has a reflection, and just as light reflects upon a mirror, so does truth cast a reflection of falsehood. All reflections ultimately wind up in the realm of shadows, the hidden places that sit aside our world. Those who seek secrets from this desolate place often find more than they bargained for– shadowrights are some of those who go looking for reflected truths, and discover more truth than they could possibly handle. These gramarists learn secrets about the colours of the world which reshape the way they see it. For weal or woe, nothing can hide from a shadowright's black gaze...

Requirements: To become a shadowright you must meet all of the following requirements.
Gramarie: Any two KALD principles
Skills: Knowledge (nature) 8 ranks, Spot 10 ranks
Special: Must be exposed to the Plane of Shadow at some point
Specialization: Must be specialized in Kaleidomantics

Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Class Skills: The shadowright's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Shadowright
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |

Priciples

|

Mystery Level

|

Shadowsight

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Mysteries, shadowsight|

+0

|

1st

|

Midnight

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Colour of magic, shadow seal (red)|

+1

|

1st

|

Catoptric

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Shadow seal (yellow)|

+2

|

2nd

|

Ranging

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Colour of magic, shadow seal (blue)|

+3

|

3rd

|

Connected

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Shadow seal (orange)|

+3

|

3rd

|

Thermal

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Colour of magic, shadow seal (green)|

+4

|

4th

|

Fluid

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Shadow seal (indigo)|

+5

|

5th

|

Primal

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6|Colour of magic, shadow seal (violet)|

+6

|

5th

|

Penetrating

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6|Shadow seal (black)|

+6

|

6th

|

Frequent

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Colour of magic, shadow seal (white), shadowrong|

+7

|

7th

|

Intimate

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the shadowright.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a shadowright, you gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At 2nd level, and again whenever indicated on the class table, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. At 7th level you gain access to Doctorate-level principles, and can refer to yourself as a doctor of any discipline you attain that level of knowledge in.

Mysteries: As a shadowright you are privy to many secrets of darkness that others might never know even exist. You learn mysteries of shadowcasting; you have a caster level equal to your Hit Dice for these mysteries. At midnight, dawn, midday, and dusk, you can realign your shadow's spirit, granting you different mysteries. You can be aligned to a number of mysteries at a time equal to your Charisma modifier; these mysteries can be used at will. Your maximum mystery level is shown on your class table. The save DC against your mysteries is equal to 10 + your class level + your Charisma modifier. Mysteries are described futher in Tome of Magic. Additional mysteries can be found in the Descent of Shadows project.

Shadowsight (Ex): A shadowright's distinguishing feature are her eyes of blackest night, which see into dark corners of the Plane of Shadows which mortal creatures cannot penetrate. You have a bonus on Spot checks of half your class level, and as you advance you gain many strange and useful augments to your sight:

• Midnight: At 1st level, you gain eyes of midnight, which render you colourblind. This is not just normal red/green colourblindness, either; a shadowright sees only in shades of grey. Your eyes become a deep and opaque black.
• Catoptric: At 2nd level, you gain catoptric vision. All of the Plane of Shadow is but a reflection, and now your gaze penetrates such images. Your eyes now see through reflections; mirrors are transparent for you, and your sight is permanently polarized. This eliminates bright light reflected off of shiny surfaces.
• Ranging: At 3rd level, you gain ranging vision. Your vision becomes something wild and alive, and returns to you. Your eyes can now measure distances. Whenever you look at a surface, object, or creature, you can tell at a glance the distance between you.
• Connected: At 4th level, you gain connected vision. The Plane of Shadow has many ties to the material realm, and your eyes now see the connections between seemingly disparate things. Your eyes can now see gramaric circuits as a shadow floating in space, as well as the connections that join its components.
• Thermal: At 5th level, you gain thermal vision. There exists no hot or cold on the Plane of Shadows, only light and dark. You can tell the temperature of anything you look at, out to a distance of 60ft. This thermal sight penetrates objects and surfaces, and allows you to distinguish living creatures inside of the area whose internal temperature is different from the ambient temperature.
• Fluid: At 6th level, you gain fluid vision. Shadows are fluid, variable things that are dynamic and ever-changing. You can tell the composition of any fluid (liquid or gas) that you look at.
• Primal: At 7th level, you gain primal vision. The Plane of Shadow is a thing alive, and a piece of it resides inside of every animate thing. You can pinpoint animate creatures within 120ft. of your sight, whether they are alive, undead, or constructs.
• Penetrating: At 8th level, you gain penetrating vision. Darkness allows us to tell day from night, and now your vision allows you to tell the real from the nonreal. You automatically get a chance for a fundamental disconnect whenever you look at an illusion with a visual sensory component. You only get one such free attempt per illusion.
• Frequent: At 9th level, you gain frequent vision. Just as fast as the speed of light is the speed of the darkness that it casts. With your sight moving at such speeds, how can mortal barriers obstruct you? As a free action, you can turn this ability on or off; while active, you can see through obstacles within 120ft. of you. You can choose how many layers to penetrate inside of the area of effect. Lead is the only thing that blocks your vision; however, while this ability is active, you give off radiation like a radiomantic metal with the same volume as your body (and can explode like one).
• Intimate: At 10th level, your sight ascends to its highest form, and you gain intimate vision. All places are one when they are bathed in shadow. Any location you look at is now treated as being "familiar" to you for the purposes of scrying, teleporation, and other such effects, no matter the distance separating you.

Colour of Magic (Ex): Magic has many colours, and only you can see all of its shades. At 2nd level and every two levels thereafter, you learn a special discovery about kaleidomantics.

Shadow Seal (Su): All colours are but pale imitations of black. Shadow is the purest expression of the colour of the cosmos, and you learn various ways to harness its might. At 2nd level, you learn to seal a colour of magic; this is an area effect that extends around you to a radius of 50ft. Inside of the area, all colour of that type disappears. Prismatic effects and kaleidomantic filters which are composed of that colour might collapse. You can make an immediate Hit Die check (against the caster level of a prismatic effect) or an opposed Spot check (against the Spot check of such a filter) to collapse the coloured effect. You can only try to collapse a given effect once per day, when it first enters your seal area.

You activate or deactivate this ability as a free action, and every time you turn it on you select which colour you want to seal. You gain various benefits from sealing a colour, as its power is locked away inside of you. At 2nd level, you can only seal the colour red. However, as you advance in level, you learn to seal additional colours.

• Red: At 2nd level you learn to seal the colour red. This grants you immunity to any effect that would change your temperature unless you wish to accept it. You gain fire and cold immunity while sealing the colour.
• Yellow: At 3rd level you learn to seal the colour yellow. This seal grants you the equivalent of a constant stoneskin effect (caster level equal to your Hit Dice), but only against stone and metal weaponry or objects.
• Blue: At 4th level you learn to seal the colour blue. This seal grants you immunity to the effects of pressure and dehydration effects.
• Orange: At 5th level you learn to seal the colour orange. This seal relieves you from the need to breathe. This grants you immunity to drowning and inhaled dangers.
• Green: At 6th level you learn to seal the colour green. This seal grants you immunity to poisons.
• Indigo: At 7th level you learn to seal the colour indigo. This seal grants you immunity to the corrosive effects of acids and bases; this works like acid immunity.
• Violet: At 8th level you learn to seal the colour violet. This seal grants you immunity to positive and negative energy effects unless you wish to accept them.
• Black: At 9th level you learn to seal the colour black. This seal provides you with a constant nondetection effect, and immunity to sonic damage as well as damaging effects which specify blinding or searing light.
• White: At 10th level you learn to seal the colour white. This seal provides you with immunity to radiomantic effects, including radiomantic negative levels and radiomantic hellfire damage.

Shadowrong (Ex): At 10th level, you learn the super-duper secret 10th kaleidomantic filter! Knowing this ability allows you to construct white filters; add the following choice to your list of filter colours:

• White: A white filter excludes radiomantics. It works like lead for the exclusion of radiomantic negative levels and radiomantic hellfire damage. As an interesting side effect, it also blocks detecting effects which are specifically blocked by lead. A white filter is vulnerable to darkness. It collapses if the entire filter is enclosed in an area of total darkness.

[Kellus]

The Stellar Cartographer

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"What wouldn't I give now for a never-changing map of the ever-constant ineffable? To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.""


Image credit MJWilliam of deviantart.com

The fear and wonder of the unknown has been the great driving force across all of history; pushing us to expand, to seek, to explore. The insatiable curiosity about what might be over the next hill, or across the next river, or beyond the horizon. Today, however, many believe that the mortal races have explored all of the dark corners, that we have nothing left to discover. Many, in fact, think of gramarie as the perfect expression of mortals conquering the ineffable world of the mystical and secret. There remain some, though, who recognize that there is always another secret, another hidden place to discover and explore, who long for that incredible feeling of bringing to light the secret places of the world. Gramarists who subscribe to this belief may join the ranks of the stellar cartographers, magical mapmakers who seek to push the boundaries of mortal knowledge beyond all reasonable limits, to find, to explore, and to chart higher and more secret realms. The calling attracts both the recklessly brave and also the idealistic dreamers in equal measure — to become a pioneering legend one cannot be afraid or what lies beyond the edges of the map; and a part of them must secretly desire never to return.

Requirements: To become a stellar cartographer you must meet all of the following requirements.
Feats: Diligent, Scribe Scroll
Gramarie: Any two GEOC principles
Skills: Decipher Script 6 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 6 ranks, Survival 10 ranks
Spellcasting: Must be able to prepare divine spells from a prayerbook
Specialization: Must be specialized in Geoccultism

Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Class Skills: The stellar cartographer's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Stellar Cartographer
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special |

Divine Spellcasting

|

Principles

1st|+0|+0|+0|+2|Atlas above, mapmaking|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+0

2nd|+1|+0|+0|+3|Basic projections, cartographeme, dark knowledge +1/day|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+1

3rd|+1|+1|+1|+3|Magical maps, mapitek|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+2

4th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Cartographeme|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+3

5th|+2|+1|+1|+4|Advanced projections, left-hand rule|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+3

6th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Cartographeme, dark knowledge +2/day|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+4

7th|+3|+2|+2|+5|Dynamic maps, maurauder's maps|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+5

8th|+4|+2|+2|+6|Cartographeme|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+6

9th|+4|+3|+3|+6|Astral projections, globetrotter|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+6

10th|+5|+3|+3|+7|Atlas below, cartographeme, dark knowledge +3/day|

+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

|

+7

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the stellar cartographer.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a stellar cartographer, you gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Atlas Above: Once you join the illustrious ranks of the stellar cartographers, you can transform your prayerbook into an atlas. Your atlas works exactly like a prayerbook, except that it follows a few special rules. You continue to learn two new spells for free every level, but you may now select these spells from the druid and ranger spell lists as well as the cleric spell list. When preparing your spells every day, you can make a Mapmaking check (see below) to update your atlas with a perfect map of the area around you. This has a DC of 20, and creates a magical map which shows major landmarks, terrain, and elevations with a radius in miles equal to the Mapmaking check. The map comes into being on a new page of your atlas, and never disappears unless it's forcibly ripped out of your atlas. You can only create one magical map per day this way.

As long as you have your atlas, you can use it as a reference to gain a bonus to your Survival checks of half your class level, as it always provides the perfect reference for you no matter where you are.

Mapmaking (Ex): Stellar cartographers know a special skill that they can apply to create magical maps of their terrain. Starting at 1st level, you can make special Mapmaking checks whenever you would normally be required to perform any of the following tasks: reading a map, scribing a map, deciphering runes, researching an area's history, or creating a magical map in your atlas. Mapmaking checks are made using the highest of your ranks in any of Survival, Decipher Scipt, or Knowledge (geography), and apply the highest bonus modifiers of each type that you have on any of these individual skills.

Spellcasting: You continue to progress your divine spellcasting. At every class level, you gain a new caster level and spells per day as if you had advanced one level in a previous prepared divine spellcasting class which requires a prayerbook that you have levels in. This does not provide you with any other benefits of gaining a level in that class, including hit dice, skill points, class features, and so on.

Basic Projections (Su): Starting at 2nd level, your magical maps show you special geoccult secrets. Your magical maps prepared with your atlas above class feature now show all geoccult biomes in the area, as well as their borders. If your Mapmaking check has a result of at least 30, it also shows active terrain features, and if it has a result of at least 40, it also shows the location of the geoccult pole. Your projections do not penetrate illusions of any kind, however.

Cartographeme: At 2nd level, and every two levels thereafter, you learn a trade secret about gramaric mapmaking which allows you to extend your geoccult mastery. Every time you gain this class feature, you learn a special discovery you qualify for from geoccultism.

Dark Knowledge: If you have the dark knowledge class feature, you gain an additional daily use of it at your 2nd, 6th, and 10th class levels. If you do not already have this feature, you gain no additional benefit.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At 2nd level, and again whenever indicated on the class table, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. At 7th level you gain access to Doctorate-level principles, and can refer to yourself as a doctor of any discipline you attain that level of knowledge in.

Magical Maps (Su): You can use your facility with maps of all kinds to aid in your spellcasting as well! Beginning at 3rd level, whenever you cast a divine spell with an area effect, you can use one of your magical maps to project the spell. You must be inside of the mapped area, in which case you can spend a full-round action to place the area effect anywhere inside the mapped zone that you like, disregarding all range limitations. You cannot use this ability with any spell with a target instead of an area.

Mapitek (Su): There's magic in your maps, and starting at 3rd level you can get it out again, too! If you have a magical map in your atlas which shows one of your geoccult poles, you can rip the map out and burn it in order to provide additional power to your pole. This provides an immediate number of effective pounds of fuel to your pole equal to the Mapmaking check of the map, and if you like you can also immediately specify a logical decision for the pole, such as a new terrain feature or a weather condition. This can only be done at most once per day per pole.

Advanced Projections (Su): Beginning at 5th level, your projections improve; magical maps you make with your atlas above class feature now show active spell effects in the area, and they are constantly updated. They also show the location and colour of any kaleidomantic filters, as well as the boundaries of any heuristical circuits in the areas. Anyone controlling a circuit in the area can resist having their circuit mapped (as well as their filters, if the filter is tied into a circuit) by making an opposed Autohypnosis check against the Mapmaking check.

Left-Hand Rule (Ex): At 5th level, you learn an ancient secret used by mapmaking adventurers for generations to get out of mazes. You gain the natural cunning ability of a minotaur, which means that you can never become lost. You also gain immunity to maze effects.

Dynamic Maps (Su): Beginning at 7th level, you can filch others' maps for yourself. By making a Mapmaking check of DC 60, you can add a single map of any size into your atlas with ten minutes of work, after which time it is considered for all intents and purposes a magical map which you yourself drew with your atlas above class feature. You can only add one additional magical map this way every day.

Marauder's Maps (Su): Also at 7th level, your maps become increasingly tricksy; magical maps in your atlas now show all people (labelled of course) inside of the mapped area. Strangely, no matter how dense the population is, anyone reading your map has no trouble discerning individual names on the map. Only given names and family names are shown, not truenames or nicknames or titles of any kind. People important to the plot are allowed a reflexive Hide check in order to avoid being mapped, although if they fail the check they are unaware that they were mapped at all.

Astral Projections (Su): At 9th level, your maps become strangely multifaceted, able to pierce even the most powerful of illusions and deceptions. Magical maps prepared with your atlas above class feature now apply their Mapmaking result against any imachinary illusions in the area; if the result beats the illusion's skill check, then the illusion is not only penetrated on the map, but the illusion is also described in detail, including the boundaries and sense targets. Your maps also can penetrate bizarchitecture created with a platinum geoccult pole; if the Mapmaking result exceeds the pole's skill check, then when you look at the map from a slightly different angle you can see the alternate biome layout instead.

Globetrotter (Ex): Stellar cartographers of the highest order know secret techniques to quickly return to anywhere they've charted. By ripping a magical map out of your atlas and burning it as a standard action, you can transport yourself and one vessel you are currently on (of no larger than Colossal+ size) along with anything and anyone else on board, to a specified appropriate location on the map.

Atlas Below: At 10th level, your secret knowledge of hidden places has grown beyond what any would consider possible, transcending even Planar boundaries. Whenever you draw a magical map with your atlas above class feature, you can choose to halve your Mapmaking result in order to have the map be drawn of the surrounding area on any coterminous Plane of your choice instead.

[Kellus]

The Transcholar

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"And in the bloodlit dark behind his eyes, silver phosphenes boiled in from the edge of space, hypnagogic images jerking past like a film compiled of random frames. Symbols, figures, faces, a blurred, fragmented mandala of visual information."


Image credit xeena-dragonkizz of deviantart.com

The Transcholar studies gramarie with a very specific goal in mind: that of transcending the normal, physical world to become a creature of pure gramarie.

Requirements: To become a transcholar you must meet all of the following requirements.
Gramarie: Any three HEUR or IMCH principles
Skills: Autohypnosis 13 ranks, Bluff 13 ranks
Specialization: Must be specialized in heuristicism or imachination

Hit Die: d4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifer

Class Skills: A transcholar's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Open Lock (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

The Transcholar
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Principles

1st|+0|+2|+0|+2|Applied focus, convergence (controller)|

+0

2nd|+1|+3|+0|+3|Convergence (sustainer), minor virtuality|

+1

3rd|+1|+3|+1|+3|Convergence (farseer), tangibility|

+2

4th|+2|+4|+1|+4|Convergence (thinker), doctorate principles|

+3

5th|+2|+4|+1|+4|Transcendance|

+4

[/table]

All of the following are class features of the transcholar.

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: As a transcholar, you gain no additional weapon or armour proficiencies.

Applied Focus: As a transcholar, your training depends heavily on a blend of techniques between heuristicism and imachinery. Upon entering this class, you count as a specialist in both disciplines, and can select specialist and doctorate-level principles from either discipline. However, the foundations of your education require a very specific skill set. You must learn all of the following principles at the earliest opportunity: ARCD101, BIOY101, ELDK101, HEUR101, HEUR245, HEUR328, IMCH101, IMCH295, YGGD101. If you already know all of these principles which are available for you to select, you may select other principles as normal.

Convergence (Su): A transcholar's studies bring you closer to your ultimate goal: to sublimate your essence into a being of pure gramarie. To do so, you must learn new applications of your gramaric principles in ways that affect and replace the needs of your physical body.

• At 1st level, you begin altering your principles to affect your essence, starting with your Heuristicism principles. You can include yourself as an element in a gramaric circuit that you prepare; if you do so, you can make logical decisions at any control point within the circuit with only mental actions, without having to be at the actual location of the control point.
• At 2nd level, you make the first physical changes to your body via a modified preparation of BIOY101, and become able to subsist on puissance alone. As long as you receive a number of ebbs of puissance per hour equal to your HD, you no longer need to eat or drink. If you receive twice that much, you no longer need sleep, and if you receive three times, you no longer breathe.
• At 3rd level, your facility with Imachination principles improves, granting you the ability to create illusions in your mind of events which occur elsewhere. Whenever you are an element of a gramaric circuit, you can treat all bubbles connected to the circuit as scry sensors, as per the scrying spell (giving you information up to a 10-foot radius distance from the edge of the bubble). Any creature with Int 12 or higher that views such a bubble can make a DC 20 Intelligence check as normal to realize that the bubble is a scry sensor.
• At 4th level, you come even closer to your ideal, using gramaric circuits to aid your thought processes. Whenever you are an element of a gramaric circuit, you can use the result of the circuit's Autohypnosis check in place of any mental skill check you make, though no more than once per round. In addition, you can make a number of logical decisions in the circuit per round equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At each level other than 1st, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. At 4th level you gain access to Doctorate-level principles, and can refer to yourself as a doctor of any discipline you attain that level of knowledge in.

Minor Virtuality (Su): Your experiments in becoming a virtual creature, one made entirely of gramarie, have paid dividends. Beginning at 2nd level, once per day per class level you can become incorporeal as a standard action, remaining so for up to 1 minute. During this time, your body fades into an immaterial form of altered imachinery that retains your basic likeness. While this ability is active, you acquire the incorporeal subtype. You gain a fly speed equal to your land speed (perfect maneuverability), as well as a deflection bonus to armor class equal to your natural armor bonus, if any (instead of the normal deflection bonus granted to incorporeal creatures). You can use your equipment normally, deriving benefits from items that enhance your capabilities, including armor and weapons; however, all your equipment remains material even when you are incorporeal (but see Tangibility, below).

While using this ability, you often appear almost like a ghost wearing items of the material world. This doesn’t make your equipment more susceptible to attack (the normal rules for attended objects apply), but it does make it impossible for you to enter or pass through solid objects while wearing solid equipment. If you drop your material equipment, you can pass through solid objects at will as normal for an incorporeal creature. If you become corporeal again (such as through an act of will or from the duration of this ability running out) in an occupied square, you are shunted to the nearest empty square, taking 1d6 damage for every 10 feet of movement.

Tangibility (Su): Upon reaching 3rd level, you learn to transform your equipment into gramarie, for a short time. Whenever you use your minor virtuality ability, you can virtualize your equipment as well, rendering it incorporeal with you. The number of pieces of equipment you can virtualize is equal to twice your Transcholar class level. This has no effect on the equipment’s function, but now when you are incorporeal, you can enter or pass through solid objects while wearing nothing other than the designated equipment. Once designated, the equipment automatically changes to incorporeal when you shed your body, and it returns to corporeality when you do.

Transcendance (Ex): At 5th level, you have achieved your goal, and transformed into a being of pure gramarie. You build an Essence Vault, a gramaric construction which maintains your existence, and leave behind the physical world forever.

To build your Essence Vault, first you prepare a semi-space via YGGD101, which is fixed to a location in space. Inside, you place a Simple Orthogonal Engine prepared with ELDK101; a WoodOut transformer prepared with ARCD101; an Additive Controlled illusion of yourself, targeting all available senses, prepared with IMCH295 and IMCH101 (and IMCH388 if you know it); and a gramaric circuit (via HEUR101) connecting them all, controlled by an Exotic Intelligence prepared using HEUR328. Finally, you place your own body and equipment within the semi-space, as an element of the circuit, close the semi-space from the inside, and use a modified version of BIOY101 to transcend the physical world.

Once you transcend, your own mentality replaces the Exotic Intelligence. You keep your mental ability scores, but lose your physical scores. Like a normal Exotic Intelligence, you can take 10 on all mental skill checks, and can make up to 100 logical decisions within your Essence Vault circuit per round. You have telepathy and mindsight within your Essence Vault's bubble (both inside and out).

Your Essence Vault has a bubble which extends outward in realspace from the location of your closed semi-space, to a radius based on your normal size (5 feet if you are Medium or smaller, 10 feet if you are Large, 15 feet if you are Huge, etc.). Your Convergence (farseer) ability applies within this bubble, and extends to the normal range of your vision (rather than being limited to 10 feet beyond the edge of the bubble). The only visual manifestation of your existence is the illusion of yourself within the bubble. This illusion functions exactly as if you were incorporeal at all times, as per your Minor Virtuality ability, except that all equipment you have on your physical body inside the space is incorporeal with you. If you used IMCH388 in the preparation of your illusion, you can spend uses of your Minor Virtuality ability to instead become fully corporeal for 1 minute.

Unlike other semi-spaces, you can move the location of your Essence Vault (and its associated bubble) with the integrated Simple Orthogonal Engine. It moves with a fly speed equal to your land speed, with perfect maneuverability. Your physical body becomes the fuel source for the circuit, and you need no outside source of puissance to run your engine or the other principles which make up your Vault. If you know HEUR302, you can prepare principles that you know in the physical world, as normal for a gramarist.

Your mind is forever divorced from your body, and can never return to it. However, you may change your equipment by opening your Essence Vault (a very dangerous proposition, since you can be destroyed or crippled if elements of your circuit are removed or destroyed) and adding or removing items from your body.

If your circuit is destroyed, or if your former body within it is destroyed (removing the power source), you die; if resurrected, you return to your original state (pre-transcendance), but can transcend again by building a new Essence Vault.

[Kellus]

Miscellaneous Topics

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

Blueprints

A blueprint is a schematic describing exactly how to prepare a principle to the unenlightened. Creating a blueprint requires a gramarist who knows the principle to spend eight times the normal preparation time. She also needs to have appropriate materials of course, including paper or parchment and some sort of writing implement, and usually engineering tools such as a compass and straight-edge.

Any principle can be scribed into a blueprint, but a principle with the [Specialist] tag can only be read by another gramarist specialized in the same discipline. A principle can be prepared from a blueprint by anyone with an understanding of gramarie at least one tier lower than the level of the blueprint itself:

{table=head]Tier of Blueprint|Minimum Tier of Reader
Baccalaureate|Untrained
Magisterial|Baccalaureate
Doctorate|Magisterial[/table]

Reading the blueprint and preparing the scribed principle requires a key skill check as normal, but it must also meet a certain benchmark. This is DC 20 for a Baccalaureate principle, DC 40 for a a Magisterial principle, and DC 60 for a Doctorate principle. Preparing a principle from a blueprint takes twice the normal amount of time. Upon successful completion of using the blueprint, it can only ever be used thereafter to improve upon the original principle from it; it cannot be used for a separate activation. However, anyone reading from the blueprint can use it to modify or improve the original work, as normal.

Blueprints generally cost the normal rate based on the time it takes for them to be scribed (that is, about eight times the cost of simply hiring a gramarist to prepare the principle in the first place).

Bubbles

Many principles create or affect bubbles of radius 5ft. A gramarist can create bigger bubbles by preparing principles multiple times like any principle, but there are certain benchmarks that must be met to create a larger bubble:

{table=head]Bubble Radius|Minimum No. of Preparations
5ft.|1
10ft.|8
15ft.|27
20ft.|64
25ft.|125[/table]

And so on in that fashion. A bubble can actually take any shape you like that would fit into the bubble of the appropriate size, but you still need to prepare the principle enough times to create that volume of effect. Essentially, you can always choose to have the bubble fill less than the full volume of the bubble if you like.

Stacking Gramarie Classes

If you gain levels in two base classes that provide principles, odds are they have different lists of disciplines that you can choose from. In general, whenever you gain a principle from a base class, you need to follow the rules of that class in which discipline it can come from. However, if you're a specialist in a discipline, you can always take principles from that discipline no matter what. When you enter a prestige class that grants principles, you can choose from any discipline that you've ever had access to. Finally, when you achieve magisterial or doctorate-level principles, that means you can take that grade of principle in any class you pursue.

Confused yet? Awesome

DMing with Gramarie
How to gramarie (and you can too!)

Games that involve gramarie are very very different from games that do not. The entire point of the system is to allow interaction by players into the technology level and culture of the world that you've constructed. The important thing to understand are the ramifications of the different levels of power that gramarie allows.

In general, there are three levels to gramarie. The first is what I call "low-impact magitek". This is the setting that comes from having only Baccalaureate-level principles around, it's what's in E6, and in general it's what you'll find in default low-magic campaign settings where few people even make it to 7th level. The tech level of this kind of setting is pretty close to normal D&D, and is similar to what you might find in Eberron, for instance. Some of the interesting things that you can probably expect in a low-impact magitek setting are rudimentary automobiles, materials that are stronger and more durable than you'd find in most settings, and some interesting construction techniques that leverage kaleidomantic and arcanodynamic abilities to build stuff that would be hard to build in the real world. Yggdratectural semi-spaces allow for things like portable cover for armies and excellent food and supply storage, which makes warfare much more plausible than a setting where half the population eats dirt for a living. In general, there are some interesting technologies available at this point, but they aren't necessarily widespread, and anything complicated requires a skilled psychic technician to operate (heuristical circuits still need Autohypnosis checks to operate at this point). If that's a tech level that you feel comfortable with, feel free to keep it nailed there for your entire campaign. There's not much impact from higher level technologies if the PCs are the only ones with it, since the abilities and techniques can't be leveraged for society as a whole. This approach is also pretty good for an introduction to gramarie, and to explore if it's something you want to go more in-depth into.

The second level of tech is probably my personal favourite, which I call "magitek renaissance". It comes online at 7th level with magisterial principles. In a magitek renaissance you've really got technology blossoming. This level allows rayguns, airships, giant robots, cannons, submarines, and a lot of other really cool stuff. This is where the applications start to open up, and more importantly, they become accesible to an untrained citizenry. It's like the difference between having the internet in universities and government, and putting it into the hands of the people. With control points and programming now available in circuits, anyone can use gramarie, or it can even basically run itself. In general, this level of technology is great for exploration and having fun with the ideas and world-building gramarie makes possible. I'd recommend it for any kind of magical empire or high-magic society. A great approach for a group that wants to have a little more fun and invent crazy stuff.

The final level of tech is pretty extreme; I call it "doomsday magitek". This is a post-scarcity, post-everything setting. It's pretty nuts, but then, it only exists when the population is 14th level and higher, so yeah. Anything you can imagine is pretty much possible here, from building artificial intelligences to manage a demiplane, to flying island fortresses that jump between Planes and bring their citizenry with them in giant alternate-dimension prisons that they use to power their nuclear weapons. I reserve this level of tech for PCs that make it to that point and want to have some high-level fun, or for extraplanar societies that are explicitly supposed to be lightyears more advanced than the Material Plane. This is seriously crazy-town, and is just incredible as a toolkit for a clever DM. This is the stuff that you can use to actually show how the magical empire operates, while still having the rules to allow PCs to interact with it. This is why you're here.

Now, a super-important point to make here which I touched on in the renaissance section is that the level of the PCs is not the same as the tech level of the setting. Any particular player character is limited by both his particular field of study (remember that a lot of the coolest tricks are Specialist only) and his time that he can invest. As a DM you're totally in control of how much time the PCs have to invent, practice, and explore the options that this system allows. Just because a player character has doctorate level principles doesn't mean your setting will implode, because there's only so much that one PC working on his own can do with this system. Massive societal changes require groups of high-level gramarists working together to get huge stuff accomplished.

Basically, there are a lot of possibilities with this system, but that's not a bad thing. It's sort of an equalizer between the DM and the players. Players have access to abilities which can cause permanent, visible changes in the world, but the DM has all of the same tools to construct a setting around. However you use it, just remember to have fun!

Pricing Gramarie

This is a really interesting topic. How do you price something made out of gramarie? The answer depends very much on the technology level of your setting, and the gramarie-tech that's already out there. That being said, when you get right down to it, gramarist is a job. It happens to be a very well-paying job, but then, so is manufacturing walls of iron as a wizard or binding efreeti in your spare time. Gramarists have to make a living somehow; the primary resource for a gramarist, as you may have noticed, is time. They can make a lot of really awesome stuff, but it takes some time, and in some cases that amount of time is ludicrously large. The only stuff that they will be able to churn out in fast production cycles are small-scale personal equipment, like rayguns and jetpacks. Large-scale engineering projects are going to require massive investments of time, large teams of gramarists working together, or preferably both.

When you buy something made of gramarie, you're essentially buying a set of principles that have been prepared on your behalf, and you're buying the raw materials. Every principle that has been used has a value of anywhere from 1 to 9. Every principle starts at a value of 0 for price. Principles that have been prepared multiple times are treated as separate principles for pricing.

{table=head]Factor|Value
Baccalaureate Principle|+1
Magisterial Principle|+3
Doctorate Principle|+5
Baccalaureate Tech-Level Setting|+2
Magisterial Tech-Level Setting|+1
Doctorate Tech-Level Setting|+0
[Specialist] Principle|+2[/table]

Once you establish the value of each principle that went into the thing you're buying, check this chart for the price of purchasing it:

{table=head]Value|Price
1|3 gp
2|9 gp
3|27 gp
4|81 gp
5|243 gp
6|729 gp
7|2,187 gp
8|6,561 gp
9|19,683 gp[/table]

Now, this means that in most settings, gramarists (even at 1st level) can make a pretty decent wage. If you're going to include gramarie at those levels, you're going to have to get used to that reality. Gramarists do awesome stuff for the setting, and they get rewarded for it. If you have an aversion to this kind of economic power, feel free to place things like tariffs on gramarie profits, taboos against comissioning it, political reasons they can't sell their work, and so on. But seriously, making money is not as big of a deal as most people feel like it is, because any adventurer can make money if they decide to start up a business or farm for a hundred years or something. Please consider allowing people to make money in your game and buy stuff with it that people actually do buy with money, like land, property, people, and bling.

Really Really Big Stuff

Some of the stuff that gramarists make is big. Really, really big. Colossal just doesn't cut it when you're talking about actually making flying islands. Here's an expansion of the size category rules which clarifies some of the numbers about size categories beyond Colossal. I realize that this is just delaying the problem, since you might need bigger stuff, but it's a pretty good start. If in doubt about some of the qualities of things this size, continue normal mathematical progressions for all size qualities as you move beyond Colossal.

Space and Height of Really Really Big Stuff
{table=head]Size Category|Space Limit|Height Limit
Colossal+ [Enormous]|1,600 sqft. (64 squares)|128ft.
Colossal++ [Immense]|2,500 sqft. (100 squares)|256ft.
Colossal+++ [Behemothic]|4,900 sqft. (196 squares)|512ft.
Colossal++++ [Cavernous]|10,000 sqft. (400 squares)|1,024ft.
Colossal+++++ [Mountainous]|19,600 sqft. (784 squares)|2,048ft.
Colossal++++++ [Vast]|36,100 sqft. (1,444 squares)|4,096ft.[/table]

Glossary

There is a lot of terminology that goes together with gramarie. I've tried to make the new key words and phrases as self-explanatory, consistent, and easy to follow as I can, but if you're curious what a particular term means, check this reference guide!

Alchemetry: A discipline of gramarie that deals with altering material statistics. Fantasy analogue to materials engineering.
Ambient Temperature: The average temperature in degrees Centigrade of the environment, not any particular object in it. More than half of the area must be this temperature for it to be the ambient temperature.
Arcanodynamics: A discipline of gramarie that deals with converting energy from one form to another. Fantasy analogue to energy engineering.
Ascended Metal: A planetary metal can be ascended with ALCH 364, which gives it some kind of supernatural property.
Biollurgy: A discipline of gramarie that deals with creating life and shaping it. Fantasy analogue to biomedical engineering.
Biostructure: A gross building material that shares traits with both objects and creatures.
Blueprint: A written reference of a principle. Allows a layman to use the principle.
Bubble: A spherical shape commonly used by gramarie.
Bulk: A rating that provides an estimate of how bulky something is. Based off of size and density.
Chassis: A mass of biostructure given life.
Circuit: A heuristical bubble that connects various things together into a control system.
Controller (Kaleidomantics): The person controlling the motion of a kaleidomantic filter.
Control Point: A location built into a circuit where anyone can make logical decisions for the circuit.
Eldrikinetics: A discipline of gramarie that deals with motion and engines. Two main focuses are ballistics and transport. Fantasy analogue to mechanical engineering.
Energy Damage: There are five kinds of energy damage in D&D: acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic.
Engine: A machine you build with eldrikinetics which transforms fuel or puissance into motion of some kind.
Ferrous: Ferrous metals are in this document defined as any kind of metal which either is a magnet or reacts to a magnet.
Filter: A 2D shape of light that separates out some agent based on its colour.
Flux: An yggdratectural field where some weird physics effect occurs.
Form (Imachination): The way an illusion interacts with what it's covering. This can be adding, changing, or removing the sensory information already present.
Function (Imachination): The way an illusion interacts with the rest of the world through its behaviour.
Fundamental Disconnect: Happens when an illusion presents information which is logically impossible. Offers a chance to disbelieve the illusion.
Geoccultism: A discipline of gramarie that deals with the environment and ecology. Fantasy analogue to environmental engineering.
Gramarie: Fantasy equivalent of science and technology which provides a different way to interact with magic.
Gramarist: Someone who uses gramarie, or more specifically a character class that teaches principles of gramarie.
Heuristicism: A discipline of gramarie that deals with control and programming. Fantasy analogue to computer engineering.
Imachination: A discipline of gramarie that deals with senses and false information. Fantasy analogue to social engineering.
Inside: The term inside describes what space an object is on. In Yggdratecture it means that that object is more than 50% on one side of a portal or another, and the effect it produces takes place on the space it's inside.
Kaleidomantics: A discipline of gramarie that deals with light and filtration. Fantasy analogue to civil engineering.
Key Skill: Every discipline has a key skill which is used when you prepare a principle from it. Gramarists can substitute Knowledge (architecture and engineering) checks for a key skill check at a penalty.
Logical Decision: Any kind of decision which changes the way a principle or component works. Logical decisions can also be changed in a circuit.
Planetary Metal: There are eight metals that are very important to gramarie, and are based on the alchemical planetary beliefs from real life. They are copper, gold, iron, lead, mercury, platinum, silver, and tin.
Portal: The entryway to an extradimensional space or other plane.
Principle: The gramarie equivalent of spells. Principles come in three grades: Baccalaureate, Magisterial, and Doctorate. Some principles are marked with the [Specialist] tag, and can only be learned by a specialist in that discipline.
Puissance: Puissance is a generic form of magical energy. Think of it like the electricity that drives magic. Puissance is measured in ebbs (eb).
Push: A kind of imparted momentum granted by an engine. It creates a speed for the target for one round.
Radiomantic: A metal which gives off arcane decay continually. Very dangerous and hard to handle.
Semi-Space: A small extradimensional space created by yggdratecture.
Sense Output: The sensory component given off by an illusion. Keyed to a particular sense.
Sensory Mismatch: Happens when two senses don't agree about what's they're sensing. Offers a chance to disbelieve an illusion.
Spatial Reference: A point in space designated as a reference point to the location and orientation of some effect. Can be fixed in space, or attached to a creature or object. Moving a reference moves the effect.
Spectroconstruction: The way that a gramarist gets mundane construction and labour accomplished on his own. References possibly the most ambiguous magic item ever, sorry about that.
Transformer: An arcanodynamic transformer is a chunk of metal which either absorbs energy or emits energy. By sticking two of them together you can convert energy from one form to another.
Trigger/Response: A combination of a specific set of circumstances or requirements to be met, and the decision that a circuit will make in such an event.
Two-Part Engine: An abstraction created when you have a powered simple orthogonal and an ascending or descending engine. You can treat the vessel as if it had a fly or swim speed for ease of gameplay.
Yggdratecture: A discipline of gramarie dealing with extradimensional spaces, planes, and magnetism. Fantasy analogue to structural engineering.

To-Do

• Aerostatistician base class
• Final 400-level theories
• Saboteur base class
• Military Science principles
• More feats
• Discoveries to play around with the new principles
• Convert the transcholar from minmax to this format
• Do something about pricing
• Artifacts

[Kellus]

Just gonna give myself this one, I always run out of space later on

Credits

Nothing awesome is ever done alone, and this is no exception (as for whether it's awesome, I'll leave that for you to decide...). Great contributions from Amechra (platinum poles), sirpercival (ayuscientist and transcholar!), Grek from tgdmb (great ideas for some new 100-level principles!), and my brother (crystal poles!) have all made it in here! There's a ton left to do, and a million ideas — I'm continuing to be surprised by the awesome stuff people come up with! So don't be intimidated by the massive wall of text, and dive right in!

PS: I'm in MechE, so sometimes I do this thing where I disappear for several months at a time. Don't worry, I promise I'm probably not dead, and when I get back I'll be working on this. Stay awesome, awesome people!

[Morcleon]

Yay, new thread!

You know what would be really useful? A table of contents on the first post.

Also, could you perhaps spoiler the feats and discoveries? It would make scrolling through a lot easier.

I'll comment more about changes later... I'm sleepy, and typing on my iPod. xD

[Amechra]

Sweetness!

I'm loving the new 100-level stuff, as well as the Crystal biome.

The new YGGD 100-level allows for mistake-less teleportation at level 1, as well as a bunch of other really neat tricks.

The new Silver is actually something I was looking at writing at some point, so I guess great minds think alike.

I'm waiting with baited breath for the new base classes (and principles; don't think I missed the [Military Science] buried in the rewritten Grammarist!)

On a different topic, I just noticed that a lonely Grammarist with way too much time on their hands could create (at least what appears to be) a full-on person with Imachination alone.

It would be a Programmed Adaptive Additive Illusion with the Auditory, Gustatory, Mental, Olfactory, Tactile, Thermal, Vibratory, and Visual components, with the Off The Edge Of the Map Discovery keyed to Lifesense (Vitasensory Component?).

While an EI combined with the Combinatory Illusions discovery would be far superior in many ways, a sophisticated enough set of triggers could certainly give an Illusion a complicated enough set of behaviors to simulate a real person.

Sure, unless you took Supersensory, it would take 5 hours per preparation; considering the cubic increase in bubble size, it probably isn't worth it, unless you are designing a fake girlfriend attached to an amulet you are wearing to show those fools at the Grammarie Convention that you CAN get a date, thank you very much.

Oh, and I just noticed: tie a Programmed Adaptive Differential Illusion with the Auditory component. The illusion normally duplicates what the subject is saying perfectly, but when they swear, it replaces the sound with a loud BEEP.

Congrats, you can censor the guy!

The same principle works to create a crude universal translation "device" (a really, really complicated set of instructions), and can be combined with the Controlled Illusion discovery, a friendly EI, an extra visual component, and HEUR 159 to create a refined one.

Just have the EI share your senses, and have it translate any words coming out of your mouth... in your voice. It can also act as an "earpiece", modifying the sound coming in your ears to translate for you.

The Visual aspect just lets it translate text that you are "reading"; wear glasses, with the Visual aspect modifying the image coming through the glass.

Dear god, I just introduced augmented reality to grammarie, didn't I?

[TravelLog]

As always, glorious! I'd love to see a PrC for Binders that let's you bind principles or some new vestiges based around each of the disciplines.

[Milo v3]

Yes. With the addition of Discoveries for the base class, my Grim Wight class now can be as good as only a Graughtsmen used to be. Techically abit better actually, since the Grim Wight can get every Biollurgical Discovery.

[Demented Dragon]

So I was looking through to see what had changed since the last iteration of the thread and while it's not new, I noticed that the Masinist who go Unseelie get +20 Diplomacy in shadowy illumination or darker. Does that apply to preparing Alchemetry principles too?

Also must say sad to see that arcanodynamic transformers can't cast spells anymore(unless we're talking really long term by using a platinum transformer to cast Miracle), but probably for the better to stop infinite loops.

[Qwertystop]

What were the changes?

Also, wow. A whole page before any actual comments. I don't think that's been done by anything yet - maybe Ozodrin, if it gets to need a new thread and stuff gets collated at the beginning.

[RFLS]

Holy cow, this is really awesome. Three more base classes to look forward to =D

Are the discoveries that specify "10th class level" meant to be able to be picked up by 10th level Grammarists?

Also, hate to be that guy, but in the BIOL 101 anima, you say "not explicitly." I think you mean "explicitly not" based on context. Same problem in the silver-in transformer.

Uh...because I'm a bad person, I also have to point out that the wording in eldritch blast is still the same as it was when the artificer used eldritch wick (first sentence).

[Necroticplague]

What were the changes?

Also, wow. A whole page before any actual comments. I don't think that's been done by anything yet - maybe Ozodrin, if it gets to need a new thread and stuff gets collated at the beginning.

-feats added
-each principle now has another 100 level principle.
-room for more classes was made
-GEOY got another type of terrain (caverns, using crystal)
-Two new really complicated transformers (wind powered and spin powered)
-10% more of kellus's signature semi-sarcasm added in

Speaking of the spin transformer, for the In, how does that interact with objects that were stationary when you set it up? Are they simply unable to move unless they beat the balance DC? What about being moved against your will(bull rushed in a direction you're not moving, or affected by TK) or running out of terrain? Could you use the bubble created by it to walk on air by having your direction not change when you walk off a cliff?

Also, funny though just occured, the new ALCH112 combined with Ingenious Engineer could make a pretty good living as an assassin. Just wait until they're about to take a drink, then BAM:suddenly, their beer is now acid.In which case, the 30-second duration is actually a bonus, because it means the evidence will dispose of itself long before anything resembling an autopsy can be done. Sure, the stomach is pretty acid-resistant, but the same cannot be said of the larynx, pharynx, esophagus, or mouth.So even if they survive the initial assault, they have to deal with likely being left mute.And possibly unable to breath properly.

EDIT: And in a similar strand of thought, Ingenious Engineer as a whole actually makes using Grammary in combat more practical (heck, that's pretty much it's main purpose far as I can see). However, the rules aren't really built to accommodate this. A system of DCs should be implemented so that we would know, say, what an enemy could do to stop you from turning their armor into phlogiston. Previously it never would have mattered because everything required a half hour at the shortest, so if you had the time to prepare, they were already helpless, or unconcious, so they wouldn't get a save.

[Draconas1]

Yes! New Grammarie Stuff!
Comments below.

Nice reference to how pink is an optical illusion in The Color out of Space.(for those who don't know, pink is actually red-violet, but we can't see that due to red and violet being on opposite ends of the visible spectrum, so our brains made up a new color for it. Presumably the feat forces you to see red and violet at the same time or something.)
Also, with Blacksmithing for Biologists, I can finally make that environment suit! (inhale carbon dioxide the wearer makes, turn it into oxygen for the wearer to breathe).
And now that you can double specialize, I can finally get full ranks in both Biollurgy and either Alchemetry or Geoccultism. It's hard to decide though, because Biollurgy/Alchemety lets me go "Attack, my insanely tough pretties!", while Biollurgy/Geoccultism adds "I reject your ecology and substitute my own." to pure Geccultism's "I reject your geography and substitute my own."

Now for questions.
For genetic grammarie, are Alchemetric modifications also inherited, is that already done, or what? Also, can you apply alchemetric, arcanodynamic, and eldrikinetic modifications to chassi, or do you have to apply them all before you animate them?
Can an ascended metal still be made into an engine, transformer, or geoccultic of it's nonascended form? And if so, does an orichalcum input tranformer store ebbes if it's not hooked up to and output, and can an orichalcum pole store ebbs to pay for things?
And can you add the whole thing about decibels that you talked about into the crystal transformer to help people when they want to calculate things? Here is your post about it.
And is there ever going to be a way to become immune to the effects of your own grammarie and/or grant immunity? Because geoccultism and silver inputs are really indiscriminate.

[Moonwolf727]

This will forever irritate me unless I ask, no matter how stupid I sound for asking.

Why does ELDK101 mention that a simple orthoganol engine is an 8 cubic foot block? The target for that principle is clearly one cubic foot of material. This simple and utterly trivial thing has annoyed me for the entirety of my reading this wonderful work of art that we call gramarie. Please someone explain

[Morcleon]

This will forever irritate me unless I ask, no matter how stupid I sound for asking.

Why does ELDK101 mention that a simple orthoganol engine is an 8 cubic foot block? The target for that principle is clearly one cubic foot of material. This simple and utterly trivial thing has annoyed me for the entirety of my reading this wonderful work of art that we call gramarie. Please someone explain

Because the original ELDK 101 had a target of 8 cu ft. It's probably a typo.

[Moonwolf727]

Because the original ELDK 101 had a target of 8 cu ft. It's probably a typo.

That is a frustratingly satisfying answer and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't at least a little annoyed with how simple it is.

Thanks for the clarification.

[Mithril Leaf]

I'll be exceptionally disappointed if ALCH 400 doesn't have the minimum coolness of a philosopher's stone. I'll be exceptionally conflicted if it is way cooler, because that means that being a Contractor is now a conflict of interest. Damn you and your equally awesome choices Kellus!

[Arcanist]

It's noon (where I am) so popping out the wine would be entirely reasonable right?

[Omnicrat]

BIOY 191: Blacksmithing for Biologists: The anima causes the target's flesh to rebel against them; they must make a Fort save or take a penalty on further Fortitude saves for the next 5 rounds. Their fast healing and regeneration is similarly reduced, although their regeneration cannot be reduced below 1 in this way. Multiple applications of this anima do not stack.

What is the penalty? It says they take a penalty, but doesn't give a value.

IMCH 101: Intro to Imachination: The anima dulls the senses and leaves the subject easy pickings for a clever illusion. They only take nonlethal damage, they take a penalty on Spot, Listen, and Survival checks equal to your Cha modifier, and if they don't succeed on a Will save, they don't even realize they were hit. The penalty to sense checks lasts for 5 rounds.

Do multiple uses stack?

IMCH 388: Glamourous Gramarie: The anima makes the target believe they have died (Will negates). They must already be inside of an illusion which can reinforce the belief in order for this to be effective.

And they they think they are dead forever?

KALD 107: Unearthly Colours: The anima carries the effects of a heavy burden; it applies an instantaneous load of 100 lb per caster level to whatever it hits. This is enough to overrun a target at a distance, using a Charisma check instead of a Strength check. Of course, you do not provoke an attack of opportunity specifically for this. This blast is also solid to every kind of filter, potentially overloading it.

Does the weight go away ever?

YGGD 198: Unsettling Geometry I: The anima allows your blast to wrap around obstacles; at any point in the shot the blast can disappear into a rift, and come out again from any point that you can see, oriented in a new direction. In 'real' space it can only cover its listed distance.

Can you use this to flank an opponent with yourself?

Thats all I was able to read through for now. I'll finish later. This is great!

[Mithril Leaf]

Wow, I only just realized that a level 2 KALD specialist can make a perfect vacuum with a bit of pure and strong material. Just some orange filters filters in a cube box without a top, overlay some yellow filter sleeves just outside that box, fill it with something heavy, pure, and solid, then slide another orange sleeve set to something movable on top of the box, inside the heavy object. Slide the object out, and tada! A nice pure vacuum.

[themourningstar]

I literally printed the entire old Minmax thread last weekend to read over. And now this. Doh. :l

Someone consolidate this so I can print it and read it pseudo book style :D

[Arcanist]

Oh this is just delicious... At 11th level the entire game changes to the point where a single Gramarist can make just about anything they would need.

A Factory-Factory might still be possible with this type of construction, it just requires a more natural source of Gold. Maybe a Gramarist (HEUR/ALCH) 11 / Millwight 9 (Should probably change it so that it says that you "add your X class levels to your Gramarist level to determine which principles you can access") can do it, by setting up multiple factories to perform different actions (1 for creating BIOY slaves to do all the heavy lifting, 1 for creating Gold, 1 for turning the Gold into Transformers, 1 for eventually super-charging the Transformers into Arc Reactor quality Transformers, and then finalizing the process by setting it up all over again!).

Hell, you can even set up a Wireless control point to deactivate the EI if it gets too uppity

EDIT: Does light and heat transit through a Semi-space? Or is it one or the other? or neither?

[Mithril Leaf]

It seems as though a simple miracle machine is still the best renewable way to generate large quantities of raw iron. Incidentally, there doesn't seem to be a caster level given for the miracle generated by a platinum transformer.

EDIT: Perhaps half the UMD check?

[Kellus]

Just replying to things that need to be corrected or rules questions; thanks for the kind words, everyone. <3

You know what would be really useful? A table of contents on the first post.

I can do that!

So I was looking through to see what had changed since the last iteration of the thread and while it's not new, I noticed that the Masinist who go Unseelie get +20 Diplomacy in shadowy illumination or darker. Does that apply to preparing Alchemetry principles too?

Yes!

What were the changes?

• Massively revised gramarist class
• A new principle in every discipline, and some of them have been reorganized and altered.
• The prime mover prestige class received a step up

Are the discoveries that specify "10th class level" meant to be able to be picked up by 10th level Grammarists?

Rewritten, thank you. These restrictions are now based on Hit Dice.

Also, hate to be that guy, but in the BIOL 101 anima, you say "not explicitly." I think you mean "explicitly not" based on context. Same problem in the silver-in transformer.

Uh...because I'm a bad person, I also have to point out that the wording in eldritch blast is still the same as it was when the artificer used eldritch wick (first sentence).

Both fixed, thank you. I actually thought the first sentence was okay, but I rewrote it so that it flows better I hope?

Speaking of the spin transformer, for the In, how does that interact with objects that were stationary when you set it up? Are they simply unable to move unless they beat the balance DC? What about being moved against your will(bull rushed in a direction you're not moving, or affected by TK) or running out of terrain? Could you use the bubble created by it to walk on air by having your direction not change when you walk off a cliff?

Good questions! You can be pushed in different directions, because that doesn't entail you turning; you can be translated without rotation. Similarly, not being able to change your angular momentum doesn't mean that you can't be acted on by a force, it just means that you remain in the same relative orientation while it does work on you (so with the cliff example, if you stepped off the cliff you would be pulled downwards, but you wouldn't start spinning or tumbling through the air until you left the area of effect). Note that this suppression doesn't apply to small-scale things like bending your knee; this is an unfortunate game abstraction because rotation isn't really a thing in the rules.

As for stationary objects, you cannot start them spinning inside of the area. I will edit this clause in to remove confusion.

EDIT: And in a similar strand of thought, Ingenious Engineer as a whole actually makes using Grammary in combat more practical (heck, that's pretty much it's main purpose far as I can see). However, the rules aren't really built to accommodate this. A system of DCs should be implemented so that we would know, say, what an enemy could do to stop you from turning their armor into phlogiston. Previously it never would have mattered because everything required a half hour at the shortest, so if you had the time to prepare, they were already helpless, or unconcious, so they wouldn't get a save.

This is a very good point. The main problem is that some high level principles are incredibly dangerous with this. I'm going to think about this problem, but I think a good work-around is to restrict the feat to only affecting 100-level principles. So I'm perfectly fine with beer-to-acid assassinations, but not so fine with "YOUR ARMOUR IS FIRE NO SAVE"

For genetic grammarie, are Alchemetric modifications also inherited, is that already done, or what? Also, can you apply alchemetric, arcanodynamic, and eldrikinetic modifications to chassi, or do you have to apply them all before you animate them?

They are not inherited, but I believe that one of the Biollurgy discoveries changes this so that any gramarie principles carried by the chassis become inherited. I seem to remember some sort of clever exploit people came up with this to create a species to use as a powerplant.

Can an ascended metal still be made into an engine, transformer, or geoccultic of it's nonascended form? And if so, does an orichalcum input tranformer store ebbes if it's not hooked up to and output, and can an orichalcum pole store ebbs to pay for things?

Explicitly yes, the ascended metals are just like the original metals except with additional features. An orichalcum input transformer could indeed be set up like a platinum transformer, and store puissance inside of itself instead of exporting it.

And can you add the whole thing about decibels that you talked about into the crystal transformer to help people when they want to calculate things? Here is your post about it.

I'm not sure this is necessary, it's the sort of thing that can be worked out with a little thought and research into sound level.

And is there ever going to be a way to become immune to the effects of your own grammarie and/or grant immunity? Because geoccultism and silver inputs are really indiscriminate.

Maybe, but probably not. Actual phenomena in science don't discriminate between the person that is nominally 'controlling' it and everyone else. Part of the challenge is to exploit these things to your advantage by being clever. Blanket immunity would take so much of the challenge out of it

Why does ELDK101 mention that a simple orthoganol engine is an 8 cubic foot block? The target for that principle is clearly one cubic foot of material. This simple and utterly trivial thing has annoyed me for the entirety of my reading this wonderful work of art that we call gramarie. Please someone explain

This is a holdover error, now fixed. Thanks!

What is the penalty? It says they take a penalty, but doesn't give a value.

Equal to your Cha modifier, this will be edited in.

Do multiple uses stack?

No, I'll edit this in.

And they they think they are dead forever?

They'll act as if they were dead, and believe it, until the illusion is broken or they are given any reason to believe they're not dead.

Does the weight go away ever?

Key word being instantaneous; it can overload the weight instantly, but the load doesn't remain afterwards.

Can you use this to flank an opponent with yourself?

Yes! Shoot 'em in the back!

Wow, I only just realized that a level 2 KALD specialist can make a perfect vacuum with a bit of pure and strong material. Just some orange filters filters in a cube box without a top, overlay some yellow filter sleeves just outside that box, fill it with something heavy, pure, and solid, then slide another orange sleeve set to something movable on top of the box, inside the heavy object. Slide the object out, and tada! A nice pure vacuum.

Ahaha, I'll be honest, the entire gramarie project started with Kaleidomantics, and Kaleidomantics started with me trying to figure out how to build a vacuum airship in D&D. So this idea right here is basically the birth of gramarie.

A Factory-Factory might still be possible with this type of construction, it just requires a more natural source of Gold. Maybe a Gramarist (HEUR/ALCH) 11 / Millwight 9 (Should probably change it so that it says that you "add your X class levels to your Gramarist level to determine which principles you can access") can do it, by setting up multiple factories to perform different actions (1 for creating BIOY slaves to do all the heavy lifting, 1 for creating Gold, 1 for turning the Gold into Transformers, 1 for eventually super-charging the Transformers into Arc Reactor quality Transformers, and then finalizing the process by setting it up all over again!).

I will fix that issue for the dual prestige classes on when advanced principles come online.

EDIT: Does light and heat transit through a Semi-space? Or is it one or the other? or neither?

Yes, absolutely.

It seems as though a simple miracle machine is still the best renewable way to generate large quantities of raw iron. Incidentally, there doesn't seem to be a caster level given for the miracle generated by a platinum transformer.

I will put something in there!

[RFLS]

So, something I've been wondering about for a while, and something that a lot of groups have discussions about, is the prices of the various materials for things. Are there any plans to include a table of prices based on volumes and weights?

[Kellus]

So, something I've been wondering about for a while, and something that a lot of groups have discussions about, is the prices of the various materials for things. Are there any plans to include a table of prices based on volumes and weights?

Le sigh... Yes, probably. The problem that I've had here is that it's incredibly campaign setting specific, basically the same problem I've had with all kinds of pricing for gramarie. The bottom line is that there isn't one easy answer; it's something DM's need to figure out as part of their world-building.

PS: Also added (updated) an introduction to this thread, I'll put up a linked table of contents when I get off work tonight!

[EdroGrimshell]

Le sigh... Yes, probably. The problem that I've had here is that it's incredibly campaign setting specific, basically the same problem I've had with all kinds of pricing for gramarie. The bottom line is that there isn't one easy answer; it's something DM's need to figure out as part of their world-building.

PS: Also added (updated) an introduction to this thread, I'll put up a linked table of contents when I get off work tonight!

An example of this would be Dark Sun, post apocalyptic world with very few resources and limited metal reserves. Metal would be prohibitively expensive in that kind of setting.

[Hanuman]

I don't think that's been done by anything yet - maybe Ozodrin, if it gets to need a new thread and stuff gets collated at the beginning.

I'm working on re-writing it, there's a LOT of balance reworking to be done so it's slow.

Kellus, your absolutely awe-inspiring speed of creation continues to surprise, you seem to work harder and faster than anyone else I've ever seen.

Honestly we should start using Djinn's LoL mumble for brainstorming

[Arcanist]

An example of this would be Dark Sun, post apocalyptic world with very few resources and limited metal reserves. Metal would be prohibitively expensive in that kind of setting.

I'm working on a campaign setting that uses inspiration from the Fallout series, some Spelljammer and Dark Sun

For currency they use Mitheral (Copper), Star Metal (Silver), Adamantine (Gold) and Platinum (Platinum). The reasoning behind using Platinum is that at the level you are being able to make it, it would be ridiculous to actually use it as currency