By the Inferior Science of our Enemies: Gramarie Mark II

[Milo v3]

They only started recently, with Thethird's posting of Constructivity. At the moment, the only disciplines with them are Constructivity, Travelemetry and Divinentropy.

I only provide one because of the Warmaker's ability to take principles marked as [Military Science]. There's no official version of them to go off of at the moment (at least, none that I am aware of), so I followed thethird's example and created one of each level (although his have higher rank requirements than mine do). When Kellus gets back, he may opt to only provide a single Military Science principle per Discipline, or he may opt to provide ten.

Ok, I was just wondering how many [Organic Science] principles I need to make.

EDIT: If its for an entire species, some may hire a warmaker that knows TVLM 173 to modify their house's Gateway, that way a password can be required to travel there.

Passwords wouldn't be required for most housing buildings, as they are basically all skyscrapers with every two or three floors having several houses.

EDIT: Umm... Getting close to 50 here.... Hope Kellus gets back soon...

[qazzquimby]

It's only because the Silver Transformer takes HP from creatures to create ebbs, whereas your ability bypasses the middle man.

I'd considered ths silver transformer as being somewhat similar to the Warmaker's Grist for the Mill, turning flesh and blood into ebbs, even if it was only a withering effect, and no chunks went missing..

Glad I could help, but I disagree with the second sentence. If you must add someone else to the top of the page, put Arcanist there

Arcanist should be at the top of every page, but you go up there too.

The problem with using them initially is that the principle becomes a part of the material. Granted, either way you spin it there's going to be a disconnect between reality and the game either way, and your solution errs to the player's benefit.

Cancel that actually, while I was rewriting, most confusion can be avoided by always choosing target at the time of the spontaneous preparation. That means you probably want a subspace full of metal cubes with you.

If you bar attack actions, you must then define what an "attack action" is, which either makes your ability more wordy than it needs to be, or leaves exploitable loopholes. There's also the break in the action economy that this ability provides, far before any other class can do anything remotely similar. This is why I was suggesting the bonus Swift action with limits, that you could then spend ebbs on to allow a "longer" action to be taken - note that my suggestion doesn't sacrifice your previous turn to do this, it's just "always on".

You're probably right, but I'm going to work with it a little longer to see if I can make anything playable. Your action buying system is definitely better designed, but I think that cat and mousey combat of being vulnerable while you plan several turns in advanced, either to see the time wasted as the situation changes, or to suddenly turn the tides, sounds very fun to play. If I can make it work, I would like to. Perhaps if you are only allowed to move and deploy spontaneous principles? That cuts down creativity, but should fix things I think.

If the idea is to recharge in Radiomantic areas, then you should explicitly state as such, because as written there are several undead varieties you could use to keep getting ebbs from.

And done.

As far as immunity to their own blast, I still personally feel the ebb cost is too low, but that's just because of the level you gain it at.

Ebb cost is now 10/5ft of radius. Also there's a Fort save.


The problem with that is that you don't have much in the way of the ability to power the death machines - your class features are mostly in the "spend x, get y" category, not to mention the relatively low rate at which you can transfer ebbs. 10 ebbs per round at level 20 is ok, but it's not going to do much to help the death machine.

I'd suggest you start at that rate, but allow them to transfer more as they increase in levels. As far as spacing it out, give them the next rate when they unlock the next tier of gramarie (Ex: Upgrade to 1 ebb per level at 7th, and 2 ebbs per level at 15th). That way you don't break your early-game transfer rates, but it gets meaningful later on.

Good idea, done.

Also, remember that a lot of Gramaric items are given a hard-cap on ebbs. Why not let your class raise the cap a little bit, so that they can get a bit more "bang for their buck" out of each machine? +1 for every four levels (so +5 at the end) isn't terribly powerful, but it proves that they are more efficient at using ebbs than the other wannabees...

Added. I really like that one.

[Fako]

EDIT: Umm... Getting close to 50 here.... Hope Kellus gets back soon...

I've been worried about that as well, especially with the increased traffic this thread is receiving. I personally vote that we jump ship to a new thread around page 45, posting links to completed projects here to make them easier to find once Kellus does return. Assuming it takes a page or so for people to fully migrate, that would give roughly 80 posts for links only.

Also, it would let me maintain the index on the first post... it's "out of date" status bugs the crap out of me...

Cancel that actually, while I was rewriting, most confusion can be avoided by always choosing target at the time of the spontaneous preparation. That means you probably want a subspace full of metal cubes with you.

Your decision either way, but I agree that it will be less confusing. Honestly, with how few they get per day you might be able to let them get away with picking them "on the fly" instead of having to prepare them, as long as there's an ebb cost associated (the idea being that you combine power, ingenuity, and training to force rapid creation), but condensing 30+ minutes to less than 6 seconds is probably stretching it too far...

You're probably right, but I'm going to work with it a little longer to see if I can make anything playable. Your action buying system is definitely better designed, but I think that cat and mousey combat of being vulnerable while you plan several turns in advanced, either to see the time wasted as the situation changes, or to suddenly turn the tides, sounds very fun to play. If I can make it work, I would like to. Perhaps if you are only allowed to move and deploy spontaneous principles? That cuts down creativity, but should fix things I think.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with, but I sadly do not see this as a plausible concept. I want to be proven wrong here, but memories of Starcraft: The Board Game keep creeping up on me...

And because I can, repost of Travelemetry. The principles themselves are finished (minus tweaking), but it still needs 1 Discovery, a Feat, Eldritch Animas, Arts of War, and a Prestige Class...

Oh, and I caved on what to name the magic map.

Travelemetry
“I know a shortcut”

Spoiler

Show

For the world to work, things need to move from one place to another. This fundamental truth led to the creation of roads, trade routes, even magical portals between lands, all with the express purpose of linking two locations. However, roads and trade routes are slow, and even wizards agree that it wouldn't be a good idea to have magical portals everywhere. This is where Travelemetry, the scientific study of linking two or more locations, comes into play.

Travelemetry typically utilizes tools to survey the land, such as compasses, maps, quadrants and spyglasses. Other useful supplies include hammers and saws, as they can aid in building a doorway. Any piece of equipment like this counts as masterwork and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Knowledge (The Planes) check made to prepare a Travelemetric principle. There are stories about The Marauder's Map, a magical self-adjusting map that outlines the location and status every Gateway created on all the planes.

Key Skill: Knowledge (The Planes)



TVLM 101: Intro to Travelemetry
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: Spatial Reference
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle converts an area into a Travelemetric Gateway, warping and softening the planar structure to be more readily able to join to another of its kind. On its own it doesn't appear to do anything at all, but its power comes when it is linked.

Each time you prepare this principle you warp up to 20 square feet of empty vertical space, laid out however you like. All squares must be connected, and you do not have to use all of them if the area you need is smaller than 20 square feet.

A Gateway is intangible, and may be passed through from either side without restriction or damage while it is unlinked. It is immovable, unless you anchor it to a frame of some kind. If anchored to a frame the Gateway will move with the frame, and will change orientation to match.

As part of preparing this principle, you make a Knowledge (The Planes) check. Again, this doesn't do much until linked, but expanding, linking or severing the link on Gateways require that you meet or exceed the result of this check. You can modify a Gateway into treating you as its creator by meeting or exceeding the original Knowledge (The Planes) check used to create it.

Preparing this principle a second time on a Gateway allows you to link it to an unlinked Gateway on the same plane that you know the exact location of. This Gateway must be the exact same size and shape as the one you are linking to it. You do not need to be the creator of the other Gateway for this to work, but you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on this check if you are the creator of both Gateways. You gain an additional +2 on the check to link Gateways if both of them are anchored to frames, as the manipulation is easier to stabilize with a proper anchor at both ends.

Linking Gateways stretches the planar structure between the two, creating a tunnel between them for easy traversal. Each Gateway gains a discernible front and back, chosen by you at the time of linking. The back of each Gateway is opaque, and creatures may pass through the Gateway from the back without penalty. However, the front of the Gateway looks (and is) the entrance to a tunnel, allowing easy travel between the two. While not instantaneous, travelling between Gateways reduces the time it would normally take to travel to the other location by a percentage equal to 1/5th the sum of the Knowledge (The Planes) checks used to construct the linked Gateways, to a maximum reduction of 80% (any further would cause instability in the planar fabric). (Ex: Gate A has a 32, Gate B has a 45. Linking from Gate A to B would require a 32+ on the check, and provide a 15% reduction in travel time. Assuming it would normally take three months to travel from A to B, using the Gateways cuts roughly two weeks off of the travel time.)

The tunnel created is not an extraplanar space, and time progresses normally for all creatures within the tunnel. Any differences between the two Gateways, such as temperature or air pressure are adjusted gradually over the length of the tunnel.

Should you prepare this principle again on an already Linked Gateway, you can choose to sever the connection that has been established between it and its partner. Severing a link is slightly more difficult than creating one, and as such you must beat the creation DC + 5, as if the principle had been locked against tampering. However, you are still provided the same bonuses as when linking Gateways, if they apply.

Should one of the Gateways be closed or destroyed, the planar material rapidly snaps back in place. All creatures currently within the tunnel are instantly ejected from the remaining open side, and take 1d6 damage for every hour of travel they had left before reaching that end of the tunnel. Once empty, the other Gateway automatically severs its connection as well.



TVLM 142: Flow of Traffic [Specialist]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 4 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle allows you to modify the movement of planar material between Gateways. Normally, the planar fabric is static between them, but by adding a bit of repulsion or attraction to one side, you can make travel in one direction much quicker. Make a Knowledge (The Planes) check as part of preparing this principle, and add double that result to the checks that were used to link the Gateways together to determine the travel time reduction in the direction you specify. However, travel in the other direction becomes more difficult, and is instead increased by that amount.



TVLM 173: Security Protocols [Military Science]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: TVLM 101
Target: Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle modifies the requirements that must be met to link to the affected Gateway. As with TVLM 101, you must make a Knowledge (The Planes) check that meets or exceeds the one used to construct the door in order to apply the changes, but you may add any or all of the following restrictions to the Gateway you are working on:

• Linking to the Gateway has a special requirement, such as speaking a pass phrase or etching a set of matching runes into the frames of both Gateways.
• The Gateway can only accept a specific number of travellers within a given time frame (it keeps a separate tally for each direction travelled, and any travellers in excess may wait in the tunnel).
• The Gateway can only link with other Gateways that have been modified with TVLM 173.
• Linking to the Gateway can only be performed by the Gateway's creator.

If the Gateway is linked to another Gateway that does not meet the requirements you specify, that link is severed as part of preparing this principle. The changes you make to the gate are permanent, and may only be altered or removed by another application of this principle.



TVLM 212: Temporal Acceleration
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle allows you to compensate for planar instability with puissance. After applying this principle to a Gateway it can receive ebbs, with every ebb reducing the travel time by one day as all material between the linked Gateways is accelerated toward the opposite Gateway. You can reach near 100% efficiency by supplying ebbs, although travel between the Gateways will always take at least one round. You may only power one of the linked Gateways at a time. Attempting to power both causes the tunnel between them to fall apart, severing the connection between the Gateways.

However, powering a Gateway in this matter comes with one major drawback: the Gateways can only handle shuttling travellers in one direction whilst powered. Anything within the tunnel when the Gateway is powered must succeed at a Strength check (DC = 10 + ebbs supplied) each round to avoid being picked up by the flowing planar material and flung toward (and eventually through) the unpowered Gateway. Attempting to enter the unpowered Gateway requires a successful Strength check at the same DC to be able to cross the threshold. Creatures that successfully save against the effect must make an additional Strength Check (DC = 15 + ebbs supplied) to be able to move against the current, with a failure indicating a wasted action.



TVLM 226: Casual Causality [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateways
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle allows you to use the common factors of the Gateways to your advantage, effectively using each commonality to pull the Gateways closer together. By making a Knowledge (The Planes) check that meets or exceeds the checks used to create both of the linked Gateways, you can reduce the travel time by 5% for each exact match that the Gateways share, and by 1% for items that are similar, but not exact. These common factors include things such as the Gateway size, frame material (if any), average temperature, air pressure, position in the seasonal cycle, and composition of the area surrounding the gate. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of factors, and other ones may apply, given the situation.

No matter how many common factors you match, use of this principle can never increase the total efficiency of the tunnel past the normal maximum of 80%. You also may not apply factors that aren't truly there (such as frame material when neither Gateway has a frame). Should you prepare this principle a second time on a Gateway, the new application replaces the prior one. Oddly, this may cause an increase in travel time, should common factors that were found in the original preparation no longer apply.



TVLM 245: Into Enemy Territory [Military Science]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 4 ranks
Target: Unlinked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle allows you unprecedented options in moving troops, as it allows you to connect a Gateway to an area of world that has not been properly prepared. This works like the linking option in TVLM 101, but does not require a second Gateway to function.

However, this is not without its drawbacks. First, the connection between the locations is unstable, and only lasts for a number of hours equal to 1/4th the Knowledge (The Planes) check used to prepare this principle. Second, when the tunnel collapses it also utterly destroys the Gateway this principle was prepared on, including any frame it was anchored to.



TVLM 301: To Infinity and Beyond
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 15 ranks
Target: Unlinked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle works like the linking option in TVLM 101, but it allows you to link Gateways that are on different planes. The exact distances between planes (and time it will take to travel between them) are heavily dependent on the local cosmic structure, and as such hard numbers cannot be listed here. Consult with your local overdeity* to determine distances.
*Commonly referred to as a "Dungeon Master", although using the term Overdeity may have him or her move the planes closer on your behalf.



TVLM 326: A Perfect Union [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: TVLM 226, Knowledge (The Planes) 15 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This principle works like TVLM 226, but you gain a 10% reduction for exact matches, and a 5% reduction for things that are close, but not exact. Furthermore, this principle allows a maximum reduction of 100% on linked Gateways. Should you be able to manage this, the tunnel disappears, instead showing the area you would find at the exit of the tunnel. Travel between them becomes instantaneous, and for all intents and purposes the squares bordering each Gateway are considered to be adjacent to each other, in addition to being adjacent to the squares on the back side of the Gateway.



TVLM 392: Burning Bridges [Military Science]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: TVLM 101, Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks
Target: Linked Travelemetric Gateway
Preparation Time: 5 minutes

This principle works similar to the link severing option in TVLM 101, but it allows you to ensure that the closing connection has disastrous consequences on the other end. Instead of the planar fabric simply snapping back into place, it explodes outward from the open Gateway, causing a catastrophic explosion in the area as the planar fabric desperately tries to form back to its original shape, with an older connection between Gateways causing a more brilliant collapse. Consult the following table to determine the area:
{table=head]

Time Connected

|Area Affected|Maximum Area

Up to 1 Hour

|1 ft per hour*|2 ft x Check**

1 Hour to 1 Day

|5 ft per hour*|10 ft x Check**

1 Day to 1 Month

|50 ft per hour*|100 ft x Check**

1 Month to 1 Year

|1000 ft per hour*|2000 ft x Check**

1 Year +

|1 mile per hour*|5 miles x Check**[/table]
*:Hour = Hour of travel between locations when travelling at 30ft per round, not including reductions provided by the tunnel.
**:Check = The Knowledge (The Planes) check made to sever the connection between the Gateways

No matter the size, the explosion damage is the same: 1d6 per point of the Knowledge (The Planes) check you made as part of preparing this principle. The damage dealt is purely divine in nature, and as such bypasses all hardness, resistances, damage reduction and regenerative qualities. Creatures within the epicenter (inner 10% of the explosion) take full damage, all others can make a Reflex save (DC = 5 + 5 per TVLM principle you know) for half.

The Gateway that this principle is prepared on is destroyed during the process, and it goes without saying that the target Gateway does not survive the blast. Also, the planar fabric affected by the explosion becomes tough and rigid, making it impossible to create a Travelemetric Gateway in that location for the next 50 years.

Discoveries:
All Things Great and Small: You can link Gateways of different sizes. The tunnel between the Gateways will have a noticeable slope to any sides that differ between the two Gateways. If a creature is too large to fit through one of the Gateways, they will be able to realize this fact with a DC 10 Intelligence check, made passively once a day while travelling.
Automatic Cutoff: You must know the Chevrons and Power Down discovery to learn this Discovery. Through a special application of TVLM 101 you can cause Gateways with addresses to sever their connections if the tunnel between remains empty for 10 rounds. This is done simultaneously from both sides.
Chevrons: Rather than linking gates with TVLM 101, you may now assign addresses to them. You may create or sever a link between Gateways with addresses as a logical decision, calculating travel time as normal. If a Gateway has been prepared with TVLM 212, you may channel puissance to further decrease travel time, as normal.
Conversational Causality: You must know TVLM 226 to learn this Discovery. Gateways you link automatically tighten the planar fabric of the tunnel between them, as if you had applied TVLM 226. Also, all connections you make gain a 5% increase in efficiency, though you still may not surpass the limit of 80%
Further Refinement: When using a principle on a Gateway, you may replace the original Knowledge (The Planes) DC with any new check made for the principle being applied, increasing the efficiency and security of the Gateway.
Power Down: You may disable or reinstate connections between linked Gateways as a standard action, or as a logical decision if the Gateway is connected to a Heuristic Circuit. You must be the creator of both Gateways to use this ability, and the tunnel between them must be unoccupied. This does not sever the connection completely, so a disabled gate can only be linked to its original target upon reinstatement, and you must reinstate the connection before attempting to sever it using TVLM 101.
Stretched Circuitry: You must know TVLM 212 and HEUR 101 to learn this Discovery. If a Gateway is part of a Heuristic Circuit, you may extend that Circuit to include any Gateway that it is linked to. This daisy-chained setup does not extend the actual bubble to the linked Gateway, but you may treat it as being part of the Circuit for all purposes, including transferring ebbs and making logical decisions. You cannot extend the Circuit to include a Gateway that is already connected to another Circuit.

EDIT: Is it bad if I just realized that TVLM 326 and Power Down allow a Gramarist to rebuild the Monsters, Inc factory? Also, reduced the time taken by Power Down to be a standard action / logical decision to help realize this dream...

EDIT MARK II: Changed wording of TVLM 301, exchanging one joke for another.

[Milo v3]

I've been worried about that as well, especially with the increased traffic this thread is receiving. I personally vote that we jump ship to a new thread around page 45, posting links to completed projects here to make them easier to find once Kellus does return. Assuming it takes a page or so for people to fully migrate, that would give roughly 80 posts for links only.

Also, it would let me maintain the index on the first post... it's "out of date" status bugs the crap out of me...

Yeah that could easily work. Just don't let me be one of the people migrating cannon material over, might try and sneak some homebrew in as cannon *Shifty eyes*

SNIP

Could u please put that the walking distance of planar travel is just a suggestion or something and that different campaign settings could have different distances?

Also, some principles:

Spoiler

Show

ALCH 146: Life is Chemical [Organic Science]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: ALCH 101
Target: One living creature taking up no more than 8 cubic ft. and weighing no more than 5,000 lb.
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle alters the fundamental properties which make up a creatures body. As part of this principle, you make a Diplomacy skill check to convince the atomic spirits of the living material to rearrange themselves to your liking. At the end of the preparation, you can apply one of the following changes to the creature. Any creature can only have one modification to a given statistic at a time (for example, a Cora can't have its skin hardened twice).

• Durability: The maximum age of the target are increased or decreased by your Diplomacy result (minimum 1).
• Hardness: The damage reduction of the target is increased or decreased by one tenth of your Diplomacy result (minimum 0).
• Heat Range: The temperature range the target can survive in may be moved up or down by one half of your Diplomacy result.
• Sturdiness: The target gains a bonus or penalty to resist trip and bull rush attempts equal one fifth of your Diplomacy result.

ALCH 290: Metallic Incorporation [Organic Science]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: ALCH 286
Target: One living creature taking up no more than 8 cubic ft. and weighing no more than 5,000 lb.
Preparation Time: 2 Hours

This principle works like ALCH 286, except that persuades a target creatures exterior or skeletal atomic structure to change into that of a planetary metal. This increases the DC by +5 for exterior and +10 for skeletal, and grants the subject different effects dependent on the metal chosen and location. With additional uses of this principle, the metallic traits of creature can be converted into another planetary metal or back to natural flesh (DC 20).

Exterior Traits

Skeletal Traits

I'm sure the balance is horribly horribly wrong with them

EDIT MARK II: Changed wording of TVLM 301, exchanging one joke for another.

Yay, FH is properly compatible with it (and technically already cannon since it talks about it in the races entry).

[Fako]

Yeah that could easily work. Just don't let me be one of the people migrating cannon material over, might try and sneak some homebrew in as cannon *Shifty eyes*

I'd be happy to maintain the first post, and I'd keep the "homebrewed homebrew" separate from the "canon homebrew"

Also, we don't necessarily need to "migrate" the canon material, due to the fact it's already well-ordered. First post is index of "official" material, second post is index of "material Kellus hasn't agreed belongs as official yet". Simple That, and if someone simply did all the copy/pasting work to put the homebrew gramarie into a similar structure, it would (at best) hinder the original creator of said gramarie homebrew from being able to modify and/or complete their work, unless the person moving was also the creator.

Could u please put that the walking distance of planar travel is just a suggestion or something and that different campaign settings could have different distances?

Swapped out one joke for another. I'm hoping this one is more agreeable...

ALCH 146: Life is Chemical [Organic Science]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: ALCH 101
Target: One living creature taking up no more than 8 cubic ft. and weighing no more than 5,000 lb.
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle alters the fundamental properties which make up a creatures body. As part of this principle, you make a Diplomacy skill check to convince the atomic spirits of the living material to rearrange themselves to your liking. At the end of the preparation, you can apply one of the following changes to the creature. Any creature can only have one modification to a given statistic at a time (for example, a Cora can't have its skin hardened twice).

• Durability: The maximum age of the target are increased or decreased by your Diplomacy result (minimum 1).
• Hardness: The damage reduction of the target is increased or decreased by one tenth of your Diplomacy result (minimum 0).
• Heat Range: The temperature range the target can survive can be moved up or down by one half of your Diplomacy result.
• I NEED TO THINK OF ANOTHER ONE: BLANK! BLANK I SAY!

Fourth: Sturdiness: The creature gains a bonus to resist trip and bull rush attempts equal to 1/5th your Diplomacy result or 1/2 their hit dice, whichever is lower.

ALCH 290: Metallic Incorporation [Organic Science]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: ALCH 286
Target: One living creature taking up no more than 8 cubic ft. and weighing no more than 5,000 lb.
Preparation Time: 2 Hours

This principle works like ALCH 286, except that persuades a target creatures exterior or skeletal atomic structure to change into that of a planetary metal. This increases the DC by +5 for exterior and +10 for skeletal, and grants the subject different effects dependent on the metal chosen and location. With additional uses of this principle, the metallic traits of creature can be converted into another planetary metal or back to natural flesh (DC 20).

Exterior Traits

Skeletal Traits

Well, you certainly hate Gold, Lead and Mercury... you're right about the balance being off on this one though... But hey, the first is solid!

Yay, FH is properly compatible with it (and technically already cannon since it talks about it in the races entry).

Races... entry?

Also:

canon: Accepted as genuine.
cannon: A weapon for firing heavy things at enemies.

Are you planning on killing a deity by hog tying them, throwing them into a set of Gateways linking planes and closing a side?

[Milo v3]

Also, we don't necessarily need to "migrate" the canon material, due to the fact it's already well-ordered. First post is index of "official" material, second post is index of "material Kellus hasn't agreed belongs as official yet". Simple That, and if someone simply did all the copy/pasting work to put the homebrew gramarie into a similar structure, it would (at best) hinder the original creator of said gramarie homebrew from being able to modify and/or complete their work, unless the person moving was also the creator.

Yet again my inability to figure out the obvious answer has afflicted me *Facepalm*

Swapped out one joke for another. I'm hoping this one is more agreeable...

Ego boosts are always agreeable

Fourth: Sturdiness: The creature gains a bonus to resist trip and bull rush attempts equal to 1/5th your Diplomacy result or 1/2 their hit dice, whichever is lower.

Added, and slightly reworded.

Well, you certainly hate Gold, Lead and Mercury...

Poison is poisonous I see no reason to make it not so. Mercury also has the issue of you know... not normally being solid... Which would be bad for your skin and bones (though I did purposely go overboard with the DC and ability drain, more placeholders till I can figure out what to put them as).

Gold. Gold's actually a pretty useless material... Couldn't think of anything for it really...

EDIT:

Races... entry?

Gramarie Races (See Cora Society for specific mentions of your discipline).

Also:

canon: Accepted as genuine.
cannon: A weapon for firing heavy things at enemies.

Are you planning on killing a deity by hog tying them, throwing them into a set of Gateways linking planes and closing a side?

What? Never... *Hides Gateways under carpent*

[Rolep]

Also, sorry that all my comments are negative. Hopefully you see it as constructive criticism. I'm not being incredibly helpful, because I don't have any solutions to the problems I mention (yet).

I'm fine with negative criticism; I know that puissancy still needs a lot of work.

I'm not sure how much I like the Generator. There are already many ways to generate ebbs, and I generally prefer the more difficult ways, that require more complex setup, such as some of the generators that can be made with arcanodynamics. I don't know if it's inherently bad, but I'd prefer ebb generation to be a challenge, and the generator ebb-eddy is too easy.

TBH, I thought the same thing, but I posted it anyway in case someone could see a good use for it. I'll change/remove it in my next update.

I'm not sure, but other than interacting with your ebb-eddies, I think ebb extraction was alreayd possible with heureticism.

The extractor was designed for use with my other ebb-eddies. I dislike how it only interacts with the other components, just like how I dislike that the arm can only be used destructively, and I'm working on fixing this in my next update.

What is the point of the absorber? Couldn't ebbs be routed to the components normally?

Like the arm, this was supposed ot be a destructive ebb-eddy, and like the arm, I'm still working on finding a constructive use for it.

The Stabilizer is interesting. I was thinking earlier of different machines needing different kinds of energy, to make wiring things together more involved. What is your plan with flow?

Originally, flows were just multi-use ebbs. I have been thinking about other types of ebbs as well (I want to properly flesh out the idea of potential ebbs). The idea of certain types of ebbs powering certain machines seems overcomplicated and difficult to justify, IMHO.

As a general thing, try to add completely new applications when possible, and try to a avoid making existing applications easier. Hopefully that makes sense.

The idea is that this is all about playing with ebbs. Other disciplines create, tranfer or use them, but puissancy is all about making them do interesting things.

Also, I've changed Principle 1 into an ebb-eddy, since I think that ebb-eddies are going to be the format of this principle (once I've got a decent name for them).

EDIT: I've consolidated my messy, unusable, awful cesspool of ideas into a couple of usable principles. I'm quite busy today, but I will try to write them up and post them so that you can see something better than a bunch of disconnected, useless garbage.

[Grek]

Hello, everyone! As my forum handle indicates, I'm Grek. You may recognize me from the credits post in this thread. If not, I'm a regular poster in the tgdmb thread about Gramarie.

I'm posting here to point you all toward the series of Same Game Tests I did for the Grammarist, as seen on page 2 and 3 of the tgdmb thread linked to above. For those not aware, the Same Game Test is a "tiering" method used on tgdmb to evaluate which characters can reasonably be expected to play together in the same campaign. It works by pitting a level X character against a representative selection of CR X challenges and then noting down what fraction of those challenges the character wins/loses/ties against. If all the characters in a party have around the same fraction of wins to losses at a given level, it's usually safe to assume that you can have that party adventure together without one character overshadowing another mechanically. Note that getting a high or a low score doesn't matter, as long as all the characters in the party also have a high or a low score. The general result is that most Grammarist builds end up around 60% on the SGT, putting them on par with a flask rogue, a spiked chain fighter or a not-very-optimized wizard. Select builds (Geoccultist) are much lower than this at low level, while other (Arcanodynamistic & Heuristicist) get too strong at high level.

Page 3 also has a partial list of exploits/balance issues that my testing found, with proposed fixes. I'll repost them here for Kellus's benefit:
Problem: Orichalcum is not a good method for storing ebbs compared to acid batteries.
Solution: Change the ebb storage capacity to 21440 ebbs/ft^3, making 1 ebb = 1 ounce of metal.

Problem: Bacc level ELDK engines are too slow for their weight and require discoveries to outpace horses.
Solution: Change the base Push on ELDK 101 to 150, allowing the Push:Bulk ratio to exceed 2.

Problem: Bacc level Geoccultism doesn't do anything interesting. Soil manipulation is a lame power.
Solution: Move Crystal and Platinum into GEOC 101 and GEOC 117 to do something else entirely.

Problem: HEUR 302 lets you make self-reproducing circuits with all the principles. This is too strong.
Solution: HEUR 302 can no longer be used with heuristicism principles or principles only known through blueprints.

Problem: The Ruby Ruination Discovery is too strong. 1000d6 fire damage out to 5000' is too much for level 8.
Solution: Reduce the range to 5' per 100 ebbs, OR make the damage a flat amount OR institute a HD requirement.

Problem: Planes with weird time traits break the action economy. YGGD 371 lets you have unrestricted access to these.
Solution: Remove this ability from YGGD 371 and make it do something else instead.

Later on, I'll post a few blueprints for things I'm honestly shocked nobody here in the thread has come up with before. To include: acid batteries, the short circuit generator, a variety of flying machines and the death cage.

[sirpercival]

Welcome to here, and awesome! With Kellus absent so long, we've continued debating things in this massive thread, and have been homebrewing more stuff for the system, enough to have its own compendium. Take a look at some of the stuff there, and give feedback if you're willing. Hopefully Kellus will return soon and start approving/editing some of it, so that it can be made official (like he did with Amechra's platinum transformers and my 2 PrCs).

And, come check out my nascent irc channel, #Gramarie on irc.rizon.net. If you want to drop that info in the tgdmb thread, that would rule. (I'm not on that site, otherwise I'd do it myself.)

[qazzquimby]

Edit: at Milo's principles: Just pointing out we had a request for admantine skeletons. Maybe make any material possible with some formula with its hardness and hitpoints (paper people) or essentially let people take warforged material feats.

Originally, flows were just multi-use ebbs. I have been thinking about other types of ebbs as well (I want to properly flesh out the idea of potential ebbs). The idea of certain types of ebbs powering certain machines seems overcomplicated and difficult to justify, IMHO.

Not so much different kinds of ebbs as different kinds of materials. For instance with Eldikinetic engines you can not only have circuits moving ebbs around, but pipes transporting blood, and acorns, from your corresponding blood and acorn factories. That is fun. That promotes really interesting problem solving (where am I going to get all that blood? ) That's what I meant.

EDIT: I've consolidated my messy, unusable, awful cesspool of ideas into a couple of usable principles. I'm quite busy today, but I will try to write them up and post them so that you can see something better than a bunch of disconnected, useless garbage.

Now you stop that! You have taken on a difficult project, and naturally things aren't flying together quickly. All I've been able to do is tell you what I don't like, I haven't been able to suggest anything better, so i'ts not that you're doing a bad job, but that the job is hard. I'll help you work on it if you want. I'll edit this with ideas when I've got any.

IDEAEDIT:

The main idea right now is adding components to circuitry, which is hard because heuristic circuits basically do whatever you want. If heuristic circuits behaved like electronic circuits, there would be lots of room for ebb-eddies, but with things the way they are, there's nothing really you can't already do. If someone knows heureticism better than I and there are gaps, we could fill those, but I don't think it could make a whole discipline.

With that in mind, I'll be trying to think of other ways puissence can be used. All I've got right now is refining puissence, like your flow idea. It's important that the different kinds of modified puissence are not straight up better, but are situational, and better in some situations.

Maybe:

Turning ebbs (perhaps in a liquidy form like caloric) that provide twice as much power, but move at only 5ft per round.

Turning ebbs into a beam of light, that can be picked up by a receiver or supplied directly to a machine so it can travel long distances, with a some small ebbs lose per 5ft (possibly already possible with arcanodynamics, but I don't think so).


Actually a better idea might be to just list upsides and downsides and see how they mix and match. I've only got one more anyway

Downsides: too many ebbs at once will overload circuits, effectively destroying them.


I'll update this post with any ideas people come up with. If we don't get a lot more content, this idea may not be enough for a discipline either.

[Grek]

My initial impression is that most of the new principles are in desperate need of editing. The grammar makes me wince and it is not always clear what the author is trying to say. A second glance at the two that are actually finished reveals the following:

Transvolution is unplayable as written. The trait determination roll is undefined and, even if it were well defined, it requires a spreadsheet and more IRL time to adjudicate than it does IG time to use. I feel like it definitely has good potential, but the discipline needs major edits before I would feel comfortable allowing it in a game.

I recommend the following changes:
1. Have each Principle swap given trait between two creatures rather than creating a new, third creature with a blend of parent's traits.
2. Change the effect more like Imachination, where each Principle gives you one thing you can use it on (Mind, Type, Natural Attacks, Movement Modes, Senses, etc.)

So, for example, you could put your brain in the body of an ape and the ape's brain in your own body or graft the bear's claws onto your hands while giving the bear human hands in place of claws.

Psychomantics is interesting, but suffers from numerous mechanical issues, the most glaring of which is that it gives bonuses to skills based on ebbs spent. This results in a variant on the Omniscificer where you build a transformer to get ebbs to pump your UMD check up to build a bigger transformer to get more ebbs to pump your UMD check up higher... and so on and so forth until Godhood.

There are also a bunch of nomenclature issues: A device that receives instructions should not be referred to as a transmitter; something that doesn't let you make a suggestion (as per the spell) should not be referred to as a Suggestion; and saying that PSYM 101 "converts a creature's frontal lobe" is just weird when Subliminal Advice lets you produce the same results without access to the brain at all.

My advice there (beyond changing the specific effects to not scale with ebbs) is to replace the frontal lobe/transmitter/Suggestion nomenclature with the term psychomantic conditioning. A creature has conditioning to relate a given Cause to a given Effect. If the phrase Psychomantic Transmitter appeals to you, make "Transmitter" be a Cause that activates whenever you point a special device at a creature.

[qazzquimby]

Giving such much control over what traits are carried over would basically jump you up to doctorate principles immediately. A transvolutionist would be a xenoalchemist without limits, and every party member would be effectively gestalted with the evolutionist. Your suggestion is actually a higher level ability of the prestige class I'm making, although in the prestige class the effect only works if you are one of the donors.

I agree the generation has to be sped up though. Using my spreadsheet makes things much less painful, but it's not a lot of fun till you see the finished product.


You should read Hortistruction. It's not technically finished because it doesn't have enough discoveries, but its more or less complete.

Does anyone know if a creature's brain is a viable xenoalchemical graft? Not to give some sort of stat bonus, but to transfer over mental scores, mental abilities, personality and memories.

[Rolep]

Not so much different kinds of ebbs as different kinds of materials. For instance with Eldikinetic engines you can not only have circuits moving ebbs around, but pipes transporting blood, and acorns, from your corresponding blood and acorn factories. That is fun. That promotes really interesting problem solving (where am I going to get all that blood? ) That's what I meant.

It's a good idea but not puissancy. I'll leave it for you to make your own discipline out of.

Now you stop that! You have taken on a difficult project, and naturally things aren't flying together quickly. All I've been able to do is tell you what I don't like, I haven't been able to suggest anything better, so i'ts not that you're doing a bad job, but that the job is hard. I'll help you work on it if you want. I'll edit this with ideas when I've got any.

I'd love your help! But seriously, my ideas were a disconnected jumble with little application. I've managed to condesne it all into pretty much a single principle, which I'm writing up right now.

With that in mind, I'll be trying to think of other ways puissence can be used. All I've got right now is refining puissence, like your flow idea. It's important that the different kinds of modified puissence are not straight up better, but are situational, and better in some situations.

Maybe:

Turning ebbs (perhaps in a liquidy form like caloric) that provide twice as much power, but move at only 5ft per round.

Turning ebbs into a beam of light, that can be picked up by a receiver or supplied directly to a machine so it can travel long distances, with a some small ebbs lose per 5ft (possibly already possible with arcanodynamics, but I don't think so).


Actually a better idea might be to just list upsides and downsides and see how they mix and match. I've only got one more anyway

Downsides: too many ebbs at once will overload circuits, effectively destroying them.

I quite like this idea, but I'll leave it to stew in my head for a while while I write up the single principle that derives from my previous stuff, to see if it is at all possible to salvage it, before I move on.

[thethird]

qazz the closest thing is the second head 5 level graft.

[Rolep]

OK scratch my earlier statement I can't get very far with my prevous idea. I'll look into the different types of ebbs. I have a transformer-style idea for the actual conversion process, but tiredness is getting to me as far as actual ebb types goes. I'll post more tomorrow.

[Grek]

Giving such much control over what traits are carried over would basically jump you up to doctorate principles immediately. A transvolutionist would be a xenoalchemist without limits, and every party member would be effectively gestalted with the evolutionist. Your suggestion is actually a higher level ability of the prestige class I'm making, although in the prestige class the effect only works if you are one of the donors.

Not necessarily, I think. The Baccalaureate Principles could just let you do select senses and natural attacks, for example. Those are on par with some of the less impressive 1st level gafts, but doesn't give you access to the really exciting ones like detect magic eyes. Magisterial could give select movement modes and a change in Type to one of several options. Doctorate would have the crazy out-there stuff like brain swapping and gaining subtypes/magical abilities.

As for Hortistruction, it has two big (non-typo) issues that I can see:
1. Agrotecture is created by the cubic foot, but creates produce by the square foot. Since there's no requirement that agrotecture to be a cube, you can create paper-thin sheets agrotecture in order to produce unreasonable amounts of fruit.
2. When you're not destroying the economy, it doesn't do anything exciting. Bacc level gets you as much food and metal as you like, but isn't otherwise useful. Later principles let you power the agrotecture in new ways, or grow it faster, but there's no point to it all, since you have more than enough fruit already and HORT doesn't do anything but make fruit.

[qazzquimby]

OK scratch my earlier statement I can't get very far with my prevous idea. I'll look into the different types of ebbs. I have a transformer-style idea for the actual conversion process, but tiredness is getting to me as far as actual ebb types goes. I'll post more tomorrow.

Alright. Don't get discouraged please. We'll either come up with something that works, or hopefully have a good time coming up with something that's broken.

As for Hortistruction, it has two big (non-typo) issues that I can see:
1. Agrotecture is created by the cubic foot, but creates produce by the square foot. Since there's no requirement that agrotecture to be a cube, you can create paper-thin sheets agrotecture in order to produce unreasonable amounts of fruit.
2. When you're not destroying the economy, it doesn't do anything exciting. Bacc level gets you as much food and metal as you like, but isn't otherwise useful. Later principles let you power the agrotecture in new ways, or grow it faster, but there's no point to it all, since you have more than enough fruit already and HORT doesn't do anything but make fruit.

I had more or less the same problems with it. Do you have any ideas for Hortistruction? I was thinking if I picked it up I might focus on using it as a building material, to create living factories, but I can't think of anything I could do that isn't already taken by the chrome pole (see Chrononaut).

[Rolep]

Alright. Don't get discouraged please. We'll either come up with something that works, or hopefully have a good time coming up with something that's broken.

Don't get me wrong here; I'm really enjoying this, and I'm not discouraged. It's just that my ideas had little application, were overcomplex and didn't go anywhere. You line of thought just seems more profitable.

[Arcanist]

Psychomantics is interesting, but suffers from numerous mechanical issues, the most glaring of which is that it gives bonuses to skills based on ebbs spent. This results in a variant on the Omniscificer where you build a transformer to get ebbs to pump your UMD check up to build a bigger transformer to get more ebbs to pump your UMD check up higher... and so on and so forth until Godhood.

You obviously don't understand how difficult low level ebb production is and how much time you lose simply producing an effective "animal farm" using Biollurgy, Arcanodynamics, Heuristicism and Psychomantics. Unfortunately using the Omnificer as an example is slightly inaccurate because the Omnificer deals with infinity, whereas, even with the greatest ebb production methods, a Psychomantic Transmitter can only go so high. Regardless, if your goals with Psychomantics are to simply use it to uber-buff your skill checks, than your ambitions would be best served from producing E.I. and Biollurgical Chassis to simply supercharge Aid another your bonuses.

It should be worth noting that when using massive networks to provide bonuses to an entire network you can only have so many people connected to the network before ebb production because infeasible (It should be worth noting that after 6 people become connected to a Network, the ebb cost for powering a Transmitter becomes 720 ebbs, per round), which, even at Magisterial principles is still difficult to sustain and even then the bonuses only persist so long as the Network remains.

There are also a bunch of nomenclature issues: A device that receives instructions should not be referred to as a transmitter; something that doesn't let you make a suggestion (as per the spell) should not be referred to as a Suggestion; and saying that PSYM 101 "converts a creature's frontal lobe" is just weird when Subliminal Advice lets you produce the same results without access to the brain at all.

This is a fluff problem, meaning I can respond as such:

Spoiler

Show

The thing about converting an entire section of the brain (most notably, the sections that deal with intelligence in humans; In case you didn't notice that) is that you are reprogramming the person to be more susceptible. Creatures are already susceptible to hypnotic suggestion, even without this modification, however it's effects wear off, as opposed to a permanent suggestion.

My advice there (beyond changing the specific effects to not scale with ebbs) is to replace the frontal lobe/transmitter/Suggestion nomenclature with the term psychomantic conditioning. A creature has conditioning to relate a given Cause to a given Effect. If the phrase Psychomantic Transmitter appeals to you, make "Transmitter" be a Cause that activates whenever you point a special device at a creature.

I do like that you are using the term "nomenclature" to for Gramarie.

Note: I'm updating the Gramarie compendium to include the new content that was created and/or updated recently.

Welcome to here, and awesome! With Kellus absent so long, we've continued debating things in this massive thread, and have been homebrewing more stuff for the system, enough to have its own compendium. Take a look at some of the stuff there, and give feedback if you're willing. Hopefully Kellus will return soon and start approving/editing some of it, so that it can be made official (like he did with Amechra's platinum transformers and my 2 PrCs).

And, come check out my nascent irc channel, #Gramarie on irc.rizon.net. If you want to drop that info in the tgdmb thread, that would rule. (I'm not on that site, otherwise I'd do it myself.)

We have an IRC? How come I was alerted to this?

[Grek]

If you're having trouble translating big skill checks into ebbs (or getting big piles of ebbs in general), I have some blueprints for you:

Spoiler: Blueprint: Short Circuit Generator

Show

Name: Short Circuit Generator
Principles: HEUR 101, ARCD 101.
Optional Principles: None.
Discoveries: None.
Optional Discoveries: None.
Prestige Classes: None.
Optional Prestige Classes: None.
Feats: Equivalent Circuits.
Optional Feats: None.
Items: 6 cubic feet of wood. Paint.
Optional Items: Nails and a frame.
Theories: None.
Optional Theories: None.
Construction & Operation:
Obtain six 1' cubes of wood, with two painted red, two painted blue and two painted green. Arrange the cubes into three stacks of two and then arrange these stacks into an equilateral triangle 2' on the side. Prepare the bottom 3 cubes as Wood Inputs and the top three as Wood Outputs.

Using the Red Input as a spatial reference, create a Short Circuit (as per Equivalent Circuits) with only the Red and Blue Outputs as the targets. Configure this Circuit to send all ebbs received from the Red Output to the Blue Output and vis versa. Using the Blue Input as a spatial reference, create a shaped Standard Circuit (one made without Equivalent Circuits) that connects the Green Output, Green Input and an initial power source of at least 32 ebbs to any device(s) you wish to power using the Short Circuit Generator.

The Inputs should then be configured as follows:
-The Red Input's net should overlap with the Short Circuit and nothing else. Its UMD check should be as high as possible.
-The Blue Input's net should overlap with the Short Circuit, the Standard Circuit and nothing else. Its UMD check should be as high as possible.
-The Green Input's net should overlap with the Short Circuit and nothing else. Its UMD check should be 17% of the UMD check on the Red and Blue inputs.

Once all of this is set up, flip the switches in the following order: Red Input, Blue Input, Red Output, Blue Output, Initial Power Source, Green Output. Assuming you've done everything right, the initial power source will transfer 32 ebbs into the Standard Circuit and be interrupted by the Blue Input. The Blue input will transfer 31 ebbs to the Blue Output, which will transfer 30 ebbs to the Short Circuit, which will attempt to transfer 33 ebbs to the Red Output only to be interrupted by the Blue Input again. This cycle repeats until the Blue Input has transformed as many ebbs as it can that round, at which point the Red Input takes over the cycle. This repeats itself until the total number of ebbs being transformed reaches a upper bound based on the transformation limit of the two Inputs.

Once this upper bound is reached, you may safely draw a number of ebbs equal to 2 less than 21% of the UMD check on the Red/Blue Inputs without disrupting the functionality of the generator. To do so, flip the switch on the Green Input. The power generated will be transferred to the standard circuit and be available for other uses.

Spoiler: Blueprint: 100 Ebb Acid Battery

Show

Name: 100 Ebb Acid Battery
Principles: ARCD 230.
Optional Principles: None.
Discoveries: None.
Optional Discoveries: None.
Prestige Classes: None.
Optional Prestige Classes: None.
Feats: None.
Optional Feats: None.
Items: 720lbs of tin. An acid-proof container containing 100 pints of water.
Optional Items: None.
Theories: None.
Optional Theories: None.
Construction & Operation:
Create a Tin Input and a Tin Output. Place both next to the container of water. In order to charge the battery, feed ebbs into the Tin Output, converting the water into acid. To drain the battery, deactivate the Tin Output and activate the Tin Input. This will convert the acid back into water, generating ebbs.

Special: To create a battery of a different size, use a larger or smaller container of water.

[thethird]

Due to a long critique by Fako (thanks Fako) to constructivity on the irc (thanks Sirpercival) I'm modifying several things from the constructivity disciplines it won't still be finished, because I will still need to finish the doctorate level principles but I hope it gives a better sense of direction and hopefully balance.

Constructivity

Spoiler

Show

Elemental planes are pure. Their undiluted essence is a direct manifestation of the environment and power. For a long time practitioners of the spellcasting arts have tried to gather this strength sapping the vitality of the elementals and tying it to their whim. This originally arcane rituals have been tuned by the power of science into a fine art. Expanding the binding not only to the elemental beings but to the true constituents of the elemental plane.

Constructivity involves the binding of elements into materials allowing the intrepid grammarist to access the potential of the connected plane and use it to feed other grammaric contraptions. Constructivity involves the fine tuning and maintenance of the elemental hearts. Any masterwork tool specialized in auscultating the heart or a masterwork tuning fork provides a +2 circumstance bonus to perform checks made in relationship with constructive hearts. The Diausculpason is the proverbial tuning fork employed in the creation of the heart of the inner planes and according to legend with it new elemental planes could be created.

Key Skill: Perform (keyboard instruments)

CONT 101: Intro to Constructivity
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: at least 1 solid cubic foot of iron, copper, tin, or mercury
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle transforms a raw material into a constructive heart. The target material depends on the elemental to tie; iron hosts fire, mercury traps water, tin holds earth, and copper captures air. As part of this principle, you make a Perform skill check to ensure that the elemental can inhabit the material and keep pumping energy. As long as 3/4 of the constructive heart is surrounded by the element of its associated plane (fire; earth; air; or water) it can produce ebbs. The elemental inside the heart produces energy by consuming material of its constructive heart, in doing so this material is turned into the essence of the plane to which the elemental is native, and then lost in the environment without any appreciable effect. A constructive heart requires 1 lb of associated material per day in order to keep functioning.

{table=head]planetary metal|element
iron|fire
mercury|water
tin|earth
copper|air[/table]

A small elemental provides a number of ebbs depending on the result of the Perform (keyboard instruments) check.

{table=head]Perform check|ebbs per minute
15 or below|1
16-25|1
26-30|2
31-35|3
36 or higher|5[/table]

A Heart generates ebbs once every minute (i.e. ten rounds), and can only provide up to half of the ebbs it generates in a single round. You may adjust how many ebbs are drawn from a heart as a logical decision. Once its ebbs reach 0 the heart cannot have ebbs drawn from it until the next time it generates ebbs. Any ebbs remaining from the last time it generated ebbs are lost when it refreshes.

CONT 123: Backwards compatibility [Specialist]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: Perform (keyboard instruments) 4
Target: 1 constructive heart
Preparation Time: 1 hour

You know how to update and retune the constructive hearts that you have created in the past so the elementals inside them have room to grow and become more potent.

Upon gaining this principle you can replace the perform check of a conductive heart with a new perform check. If you were not the original creator of said conductive heart you suffer a -5 penalty on the check but are otherwise unimpeded. After tuning it in this way you are considered the creator, and thus can apply this principle again to improve the heart without the penalty.

Once you gain access 202 you can also use this ability to improve the elemental inside making it grow in size.

CONT 188: Battery Bateria [Military Science]
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: Perform (keyboard instruments) 4
Target: 1 constructive heart
Preparation Time: 30 min

All the soft hearts are drummed out in military school. Sometimes you need a flare an outburst of energy even if it breaks your heart. After preparing this principle the time of the conductive heart is counted. It won't last more than one hour per skill rank in perform that you posses. At any point during that time though you can increase its potency doubling the ebbs produced per minute at the cost of reducing its life span to minutes instead of hours unless it was already less. For example if you have 5 ranks in Perform (keyboard instruments), and you prepare this principle in a conductive heart that produces 1 ebb a minute that conductive heart will last for 5 hours more. You can then decide to double the amount of ebbs produced by the heart to 2, in doing so you reduce the lifespan of the heart to 5 minutes.

Once you have access to magisterial principles you are able to gather more power from the heart per burst, allowing you to pull up to the heart's maximum ebb's produced in a single round, assuming the heart has the appropriate amount of ebbs in it.

CONT 202: Work It Harder
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: CONT 101, Perform (keyboard instruments) 8
Target: 1 solid piece of planetary metal (volume and type varies; see below)
Preparation Time: 1 hour
A small elemental won't do anymore! Your heart is so large it can host a bigger guests. Check the table below to know what different sized elementals you can bind, the volume of material they take and the ebbs generated per minute depending on the skill check result.

{table=head]Perform ranks|elemental size|volume required|volume per day|{colsp=5}

Ebbs per minute

{colsp=3}|

Perform Check

|15 or below|16-25|26-30|31-35|36 or higher
0|small|1 cubic foot|1 cubic foot|1|1|2|3|5
5|medium|2 cubic foot|2 cubic foot|1|2|3|5|8
10|large|3 cubic foot|3 cubic foot|2|3|5|8|13[/table]

Once you access doctorate principles you can go way beyond!

{table=head]Perform ranks|elemental size|volume required|volume per day|{colsp=5}

Ebbs per minute

{colsp=3}|

Perform Check

|15 or below|16-25|26-30|31-35|36 or higher
0|small|1 cubic foot|1 cubic foot|1|1|2|3|5
5|medium|2 cubic foot|2 cubic foot|1|2|3|5|8
10|large|3 cubic foot|3 cubic foot|2|3|5|8|13
15|huge|5 cubic foot|4 cubic foot|3|5|8|13|21
20|greater|7 cubic foot|5 cubic foot|5|8|13|21|34
25|elder|11 cubic foot|6 cubic foot|8|13|21|34|55[/table]

CONT 266: Connect the dots [specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: CONT 101, Perform (keyboard instruments) 8
Target: 1 solid piece of planetary metal (volume and type varies; see below)
Preparation Time: 1 hour

You learn to connect the dots between the different elemental planes gaining access to new heartful compositions. You can now bind elementals from the Paraelemental planes. That is:

{table=head]Connected Planes|Plane name|Associated element (or elements)
Air / Water|Ice|Ice & Snow
Water / Earth|Ooze|Mud, Sludge & Goo
Earth / Fire|Magma|Magma (& Lava)
Fire / Air|Smoke|Smoke[/table]

Binding an elemental from a paraelemental plane has its complications, the material required needs to be a solid mass composed of the two associated planetary metals and the skill ranks required to bind them is 3 points higher (for example binding a large paraelemental requires 13 ranks in perform (keyboard instruments)). There is a benefit though a paraelemental somehow is better at generating energy and they always generate 25% more ebbs (rounded down; minimum 1) per minute that they would generate otherwise. As with other conductive hearts 3/4 of its surface need to be in contact with the associated elements. And it consumes a quantity of metal depending on the size of the elemental, this is split half and half between the two metals that compose it (rounding up to the closest cubic foot).

CONT 276: Food for thought [Military Science]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: CONT 101, Perform (keyboard instruments) 8
Target: 1 constructive heart
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Sometimes you need to improvise sometimes you need a quick and tried energy source and well... it's war isn't it? You can modify a heart to accept life as a material, in a similar way to using the grist of the mill, you can choose to feed it creatures. In this way a constructive heart consumes 1 HD per cubic foot of material it would normally consume, for this to be possible the donor of the HD needs to be in contact with the constructive heart for the whole time. The HDs can come from a dead creature, provided it has deceased within the last week. If the creature is alive, when it's last HD is drained it will not raise as a wight nor as any other creature, at least in the material plane, it's soul is taken into the elemental plane linked to the heart, and a limited wish, wish, miracle, true resurrection or similar effect is necessary to restore the deceased.

CONT 303: Ex Machina
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three CONT principles, Perform (keyboard instruments) 15
Target: 1 solid piece of ascended planetary metal
Preparation Time: 1 hour
All your attempts at binding elementals together has given you a great insight in how the elements interact with the world. You can now attempt to create constructive hearts out of the ascended planetary metal that would normally be associated to it. For example you can create a phlogiston constructive heart and it will be able to host fire elementals as if it was an iron heart. The ascended metal is much more attractive to the elemental than other similar metals, and thus your perform (keyboard instruments) is counted as 5 ranks higher to determine the element that you can bind and the ebbs generated per minute, but not for any other purpose. In addition the heart produces 25% more ebbs (rounded down; minimum 1). If you have access to CONT 266 you can bind paraelementals, provided you use both ascended metals, i.e. either all the metals in a constructive heart are ascended or none of they are. The increase from this principle and from binding a paraelemental stack, making the heart produce 50% more ebbs (rounded down; minimum 1).

CONT 330: Schwanengesang [specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three CONT principles, Perform (keyboard instruments) 15
Target: 1 constructive heart that you have created (or tuned per CONT 123)
Preparation Time: 1 hour
Understanding the finest connections of the constructive hearts with the elemental planes you can let the elemental in the constructive hearts play the song for themselves. Doing this brings the elemental plane closer, drawing upon the essence used to hinge it together and materializing it in wherever plane you happen to be.
While you apply this principle the constructive heart to which you are applying it won't produce ebbs. Once the principle is finished the constructive heart will be destroyed unless it was made of an ascended planetary metal, if it was made of an ascended planetary metal it will consume a volume of material as if 24 hours had passed; if this volume takes it below a sustainable volume it will also be destroyed.
While this principle takes place the constructive heart releases the elemental essence that normally powers it into the atmosphere. The amount depends on the size of the elemental, and it is equivalent to the metal that it would normally consume on a day, but only half of it is dissipated (rounded down; minimum 0).
The following substances can be created by this process: (Currently working on this)

Discoveries

Spoiler

Show

Constructivity Discoveries

• Key improvisation: Keyboards are cool but swords are cooler, and sometimes playing a harmonica is just what you need... You can use any perform skill instead of perform (keyboard) for anything related to constructivity.
  
• Highways and Stairways: The Energy planes are almost as interesting as the elemental planes, and you have a hunch that there must be Elementals there somewhere. You can now bind positive and negative energy elementals to gold and lead respectively. For the conductive heart to beat and produce ebbs it needs to be subject to either positive (if a gold heart) or negative (if a lead heart) energy effects.
  
  {table=head]planetary metal|element
  gold|positive
  lead|negative[/table]
  
  If you have access to CONT 266 you can also bind quasielementals from the quasielemental planes. They do not produce more ebbs but produce them faster! It takes 20% less time to produce its normal amount of ebbs (minimum 1 round).
  
  {table=head]Connected Planes|Plane name|Associated element (or elements)
  Air / Positive|Lightning|Electricity
  Air / Negative|Vacuum|Vacuum
  Water / Positive|Steam|Steam
  Water / Negative|Salt|Salt
  Earth / Positive|Mineral|Minerals (& Jewels)
  Earth / Negative|Dust|Dust
  Fire / Positive|Radiance|Light
  Fire / Negative|Ash|Ash[/table]
  
• Platinum shackles: Platinum is kind of hard, elementals don't bind well to it, but it is good on absorbing ebbs. You can add platinum shackles to your Constructive Hearts. The shackle needs to occupy 50% of the volume of the Constructive Heart (this is additional volume) and can hold up to 500% the amount of ebbs that the heart would generate in a minute.
  
• Resonant concerto: You can tie hearts together, to do so you need hearts of different sizes. Each heart can be tied to one heart of its size, or a number of smaller hearts depending on the size difference. For this purpose 2 small hearts equal 1 medium, 2 medium equal 1 large, 2 large equal 1 huge, etc. Any ebbs generated per minute (and round) is calculated from the sum of the different hearts, but moving the ebbs around only takes a logical action (and not a logical action per heart as it would otherwise take).
  
• Elementary my dear Elemental: You must have at least 12 HD to select this discovery. You know how to tap into the elementary elemental elements of the elements that form the elementary elements. You can now sustain your constructive hearts with energy effects depending on the elemntal tied to the constructive heart.
  
  {table=head]Element|Energy
  Fire|Fire
  Earth|Acid
  Water|Cold
  Air|Lightning[/table]
  
  If you have access to elementals that are formed by more than one element your elementary knowledge of elemental elements still apply and as along as the Constructive Heart is subject to the effect of both elementary element energies it keeps beating.
  
• Plug it, play it: You must have at least 16 HD to select this discovery. You can create constructive hearts that will never run out of juice, but they are less efficient. You can create a constructive heart of any size and material that you would normally be able to produce, this constructive heart does not need to consume material, to produce ebbs but it only produces 75% of the ebbs that it would normally produce (rounded down; minimum 0). At any point you can choose to have it consume material and produce ebbs at the normal rate.
  
• Dense Density Dens: You must have at least 16 HD you can reduce the size of your hearts by 50% this reduces their ebb generation by 25%.

Feats

Constructive Cardio [Gramarie]
Prerequisite: CONT 101, Perform (Keyboard Instruments) 4 ranks
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Perform (Keyboard Instruments) checks. In addition you can make ebbs flow into your heart to keep yourself going whenever lesser beings would need sleep or rest. You can replace a full night sleep (or trance, or whatever you do instead of sleeping) with 10 ebbs, you must still rest for 8 hours before preparing spells.
Special: Taking this feat means you cannot take Skill Focus (Perform (Keyboard Instruments)), and you cannot take this feat if you already possess said Skill Focus.

Theories

The Silver Standard Theory
Grade: Theory
Prerequisite: Specialization in constructivity, must know six CONT principles
Preparation Time: 6 hours
Sometimes you need to improvise sometimes you need a quick and tried energy source and well... shadows are everywhere and they are almost their element on itself aren't they? You can bind shadow elementals into silver. What sets apart the shadow conductive heart from other conductive hearts is that it is much more versatile, it can act as any other conductive heart (i.e. it can work when 3/4 of it are surrounded by mud as Ooze conductive heart; or when 3/4 are surrounded by vacuum as a Vacuum conductive heart) it can even mix and match parameters (1 face might be covered by light while the two others might be submerged in magma). Unfortunately though it is not truly connected to those planes, it is only connected to the plane of shadow, it doesn't gain the benefits it would gain from being a paraelemental plane (increased ebb production) or from being a quasielemental plane (less refresh time) and CONT 330 doesn't work on shadow hearts.

The Quasi Para Theoric Theory
Grade: Theory
Prerequisite: Specialization in constructivity, must know six CONT principles, Highways and Stairways discovery
Preparation Time: 6 hours
If there exist quasielemental planes and paraelemental planes wouldn't there be quasiparaelemental planes there? Somewhere? You gain access to quasiparaelemental planes, to create them you need to expend one third of each associated material.

{table=head]Elements|Name
Fire, Earth, Positive|Obsidian
Fire, Earth, Negative|Pumice
Fire, Air, Positive|Spark
Fire, Air, Negative |Fumes
Water, Earth, Positive|Clay
Water, Earth, Negative|Silt
Water, Air, Positive|Crystal
Water, Air, Negative|Frost[/table]

This constructive hearts have the recharge rate of the quasielemental planes but they give the extra ebbs of the paraelemental planes. They also gives access to the following materials when using CONT 330:

Queen of Hearts

I lack a good Doctorate military principle.

[Arcanist]

If you're having trouble translating big skill checks into ebbs (or getting big piles of ebbs in general), I have some blueprints for you:

Spoiler: Blueprint: Short Circuit Generator

Show

Name: Short Circuit Generator
Principles: HEUR 101, ARCD 101.
Optional Principles: None.
Discoveries: None.
Optional Discoveries: None.
Prestige Classes: None.
Optional Prestige Classes: None.
Feats: Equivalent Circuits.
Optional Feats: None.
Items: 6 cubic feet of wood. Paint.
Optional Items: Nails and a frame.
Theories: None.
Optional Theories: None.
Construction & Operation:
Obtain six 1' cubes of wood, with two painted red, two painted blue and two painted green. Arrange the cubes into three stacks of two and then arrange these stacks into an equilateral triangle 2' on the side. Prepare the bottom 3 cubes as Wood Inputs and the top three as Wood Outputs.

Using the Red Input as a spatial reference, create a Short Circuit (as per Equivalent Circuits) with only the Red and Blue Outputs as the targets. Configure this Circuit to send all ebbs received from the Red Output to the Blue Output and vis versa. Using the Blue Input as a spatial reference, create a shaped Standard Circuit (one made without Equivalent Circuits) that connects the Green Output, Green Input and an initial power source of at least 20 ebbs to any device(s) you wish to power using the Short Circuit Generator.

The Inputs should then be configured as follows:
-The Red Input's net should overlap with the Short Circuit and nothing else. Its UMD check should be as high as possible.
-The Blue Input's net should overlap with the Short Circuit, the Standard Circuit and nothing else. Its UMD check should be as high as possible.
-The Green Input's net should overlap with the Short Circuit and nothing else. Its UMD check should be 28.5% of the UMD check on the Red and Blue inputs.

Once all of this is set up, flip the switches in the following order: Red Input, Blue Input, Red Output, Blue Output, Initial Power Source, Green Output. Assuming you've done everything right, the initial power source will transfer 20 ebbs into the Standard Circuit and be interupted by the Blue Input. The Blue input will transfer 19 ebbs to the Blue Output, which will transfer 18 ebbs to the Short Circuit, which will attempt to transfer 21 ebbs to the Red Output only to be interupted by the Blue Input again. This cycle repeats until the Blue Input has transformed as many ebbs as it can that round, at which point the Red Input takes over the cycle. This repeats itself until the total number of ebbs being transformed reaches a upper bound based on the transformation limit of the two Inputs.

Once this upper bound is reached, you may safely draw a number of ebbs equal to 2 less than 40% of the UMD check on the Red/Blue Inputs without disrupting the functionality of the generator. To do so, flip the switch on the Green Input. The power generated will be transferred to the standard circuit and be available for other uses.

Spoiler: Blueprint: 100 Ebb Acid Battery

Show

Name: 100 Ebb Acid Battery
Principles: ARCD 230.
Optional Principles: None.
Discoveries: None.
Optional Discoveries: None.
Prestige Classes: None.
Optional Prestige Classes: None.
Feats: None.
Optional Feats: None.
Items: 720lbs of tin. An acid-proof container containing 100 pints of water.
Optional Items: None.
Theories: None.
Optional Theories: None.
Construction & Operation:
Create a Tin Input and a Tin Output. Place both next to the container of water. In order to charge the battery, feed ebbs into the Tin Output, converting the water into acid. To drain the battery, deactivate the Tin Output and activate the Tin Input. This will convert the acid back into water, generating ebbs.

Special: To create a battery of a different size, use a larger or smaller container of water.

Holy damn, that is impressive. You are still bound by the limits of an ebb increase, with this design (at 2nd level) being (assuming for an 18 to your Charisma, max ranks in Use Magic Device and rolling an average of 10 would give you, a 19; Having said that, you CAN actually increase the bonus infinitely by performing infinite maintenance on the generator using the Placebo effect to boost your scores as high as necessary).

I see your point and will consider a method to change it around a bit more. I will note that your battery is a little inconvenient in terms of portability.

[Grek]

I will note that your battery is a little inconvenient in terms of portability.

This is what semispaces are for. You can put the power-generating end of the Acid Battery and a 350 pint container of acid inside a single basic semispace, to be removed whenever you need to generate power. For power generation, store a Short Circuit Generator, the acid-generating end of the Acid Battery and a 50 pint container inside a second semispace with a tube leading out of it for refilling. If needed, additional semispaces can be used to store even more acid/water for even more power on the go.

[qazzquimby]

This is a fluff problem, meaning I can respond as such:

I love Arcanist.




I lay on the floor for an hour writing ideas for Puissemancy (which I renamed in my head to Puissematics) on little sticky notes, so I've hopefully made some progress.

Also, as will become obvious and possibly frustrating, I couldn't think of a good name for anything. Help please.

Each principle makes a Puissematic transformer. Most of these apply a trait to the ebbs they receive, and then output them again.

Generated ebbs initially have no traits.

[needs nameA]
A [needs nameA] transforms ebbs into hypercaloric acid, a dangerous sludge with some of the properties of caloric. Hypercaloric acid contains exactly 10 ebbs per pint, and deals 1d6 acid damage on contact. The sludge is can be pumped through pipes, but moves only about 5ft per round, or one tenth the speed liquid would normally move. Gramaric machines or circuits can draw power normally from hypercaloric acid, and the sludge dissipates as it is used.

So tempted to make this out of tin, but apparently everyone hates planetary metals.

I'm not sure about this. I would rather people had to set up batteries like the one's Grek posted. Plus its pointless as an acid generator because you can just have a tin arcanodynami transformer hooked up to a hose. Unless people like it, I'm going to say no.

[needs nameB]
A [needs nameB] creates delayed ebbs. The number of rounds delay can be chosen initially, but can be changed each round with a skill check (whatever the key skill is) or in a pattern by a heuristical circuit. These ebbs can be moved normally and supplied to machines, but only apply the benefits of charge after their delay is used. Ebbs can only be delayed once.

That could possibly be worded better. Imagine for example you have a steady ebb input, going through a [needs nameB] connected to a hueristcal circuit on a timer. The delay starts on 5, then decreases by 1 each round, then restarts. The ebbs are then routed into, say, an ice transformer, shooting a sudden wave of fire five times larger than it would normally be. Ebbs can only be delayed once so that you can't make a battery out of repeated delays.
Also this is basically the loop ebb-eddy, so credit to Rolep.

[needs nameC]
A [needs nameC] releases ebbs from a circuit, sending them airborne (or waterborne). Ebbs arc visibly through the air until to the target to which they are most drawn (the target with the greatest puissematic pull/5ft). Gramaric machines generate puissematic pull equal to the number of additional ebbs they can receive above their current amount. If they can receive any number
ebbs, their puissematic pull is 20.

Every creature generates an amount of pussiematic pull according to the following chart:
{table=head]Reserve Total|Puissematic pull
Empty|80.
1 to 1/2 Full|40
1/2 Full to Full - 1|20
Full|10
Full + 1 or higher|5
1.5 * Full or higher|3
1.75 * Full or higher|1
2 * Full or higher|None. The creature has exploded.
[/table]

When routing ebbs, all puissematic pull is effectively divided by one fifth of its distance in feet (the number of 5ft squares) away from the [needs nameC].

[needs nameD]
A [needs nameD] puts ebbs into a dormant state, in which they are still active, but cannot provide charge. Ebbs in this state are called ghost ebbs, or dormant ebbs. You decide! Ghost ebbs can be routed normally, but instead of supply charge, the device stores the ghost ebbs. A device can store up to the skill check in ebbs. When the device receives a signal (I don't know how yet), all of the ebbs leave their dormant state, and supply power.

It's like a little battery for everything! Dispite disliking hypercaloric acid, I like this one. You can make simple flashlights that run for a while without needing to carry a generator or large battery. With the flashlight I mention, you make the ebbs both dormant and delayed, so upon activating the ebbs, they release a small amount of charge every round.

[needs nameE]
A [needs nameE] reverses an ebbs polarity, turning it into an anti-ebb (an ebb with the negative trait). Anti-ebbs supply power normally, but explode on contact with positive ebbs. This destroys one ebb per anti-ebb, and destroys the anti-ebb in the process. The explosion deals 1d6 damage per positive ebb destroyed, within a 10ft radius of the battery or creature, or within a 5ft radius of every square containing the circuit. Ebbs are considered to be in contact when they are part of the same circuit, or stored in the same battery or reserve. Creatures or batteries containing anti-ebbs are attracted to those containing ebbs. This generates a push force on the creature or object equal to (the number of ebbs x the number of anti ebbs) / the number number of 5ft squares separating the two, towards the other object or creature.

[needs nameF]
A [needs nameF] increases the charge on each ebb. Effectively, this increases the number of ebbs, using two ebbs to create three charged ebbs, and supplying 1.5x as much power overall. Charged ebbs are extremely efficient, but can easily overheat components. If any heuristic circuit or gramarical machine receives more than your skill check / 5 ebbs per round, it shorts out, and cannot be used again before being repaired with a skill check of the appropriate discipline against a DC of the number of charged ebbs that were in the machine when it shorted.

[Arcanist]

This is what semispaces are for. You can put the power-generating end of the Acid Battery and a 350 pint container of acid inside a single basic semispace, to be removed whenever you need to generate power. For power generation, store a Short Circuit Generator, the acid-generating end of the Acid Battery and a 50 pint container inside a second semispace with a tube leading out of it for refilling. If needed, additional semispaces can be used to store even more acid/water for even more power on the go.

I believe that you've already maximized the amount of space for a semi-space that you can access at such a level. Assuming that you are a specialist Arcanodynamic(ist), you cannot access YGGD 241 without aid or bumming a feat on it.

[Grek]

I'm not sure about this. I would rather people had to set up batteries like the one's Grek posted. Plus its pointless as an acid generator because you can just have a tin arcanodynamic transformer hooked up to a hose. Unless people like it, I'm going to say no.

If you don't like acid and tubes, how about the exciting world of fiberoptics? Grammarie is currently lacking a method for transmitting ebbs in a ray without massive inefficiencies, so having a device that create a ray of ebbs would be quite useful. Especially if you can reflect them off mirrors to change the direction and navigate obstacles. You can combine this with the other principles (and avoid confusion from having two disciplines that both make transformers) by making the other principles create Puissematic Refractors. The refractors can be made from glass, crystal, water, acid, ice and other reflective/refractive substances instead of planetary metals.

I believe that you've already maximized the amount of space for a semi-space that you can access at such a level. Assuming that you are a specialist Arcanodynamic(ist), you cannot access YGGD 241 without aid or bumming a feat on it.

The maximum size for a single semispace using only YGGD 101 is 2ft. by 2ft. by 2ft, for a total volume of 8 cubic feet. A transformer (be it input or output) takes up 1 cubic foot, as does a 50* pint container. You can (and likely will) make many separate semispaces to store many different things.

*Technically one cubic foot is equal to 59.84 pints, but you need to leave some room for the container itself.

[qazzquimby]

If you don't like acid and tubes, how about the exciting world of fiberoptics? Grammarie is currently lacking a method for transmitting ebbs in a ray without massive inefficiencies, so having a device that create a ray of ebbs would be quite useful. Especially if you can reflect them off mirrors to change the direction and navigate obstacles.

Oh wow. I actually remember that was one of my initial ideas. I somehow forgot that while writing things up on stickies.

You can combine this with the other principles (and avoid confusion from having two disciplines that both make transformers) by making the other principles create Puissematic Refractors. The refractors can be made from glass, crystal, water, acid, ice and other reflective/refractive substances instead of planetary metals.

Oh I like that. We'll see what Rolep thinks.

[Arcanist]

The maximum size for a single semispace using only YGGD 101 is 2ft. by 2ft. by 2ft, for a total volume of 8 cubic feet. A transformer (be it input or output) takes up 1 cubic foot, as does a 50* pint container. You can (and likely will) make many separate semispaces to store many different things.

*Technically one cubic foot is equal to 59.84 pints, but you need to leave some room for the container itself.

Oh wow, what the hell was I thinking. I even checked YGGD 101 before even commenting that and my brain must have saw the 2^3 feet and thought "Oh, that is 2 feet" >_>

On the IRC the idea was passed around that removing the bonuses to the Transmitters would be more balancing than having them be boostable and instead have similar transmitters apply accumulative bonuses to each other across a Network (meaning that Networks will have to be placed into non-specialist disciplines as well). What are your thoughts on this?

[Grek]

Assuming it works the way I think it does (the bonus goes up by +1 or +2 for every extra person in the Network, but maintaining a Network costs n! ebbs/round), then yes. That would be much, much more balanced. The factorial cost on every +1 means that you will quickly hit a cap at around 6 people in any given network.

[qazzquimby]

The Transevolutionist

"The physiology, the chemical rhythm of the creature may also be made to undergo an enduring modification, of which vaccination and other methods of inoculation with living or dead matter are examples that will, no doubt, be familiar to you."

-The Island of Dr. Moreau

Spoiler

Show

Requirements:
Gramarie: Any two TRNV principles
Skills: 10 ranks in Control Shape
Special: Mutation class feature
Specialization: Specialized in Transvolution

Hit Die: d8
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

The transevolutionist's class skills are Appraise (Int), Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Concentration (Con), Control Shape (Con), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (local) (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), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis) and Use Magic Device (Cha).

{table=head]Level|Bab|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Principles
1|0|0|0|0|Mutations, Effective mutator level, Dominant genes|1
2|1|0|0|0|Mutations, Anatomical mastery, Theft of Form|1
3|1|1|1|1|Mutations, Magisterial principles|1
4|2|1|1|1|Mutations, Anatomical mastery|2
5|2|1|1|1|Mutations, Immediate assimilation|2
6|3|2|2|2|Mutations, Anatomical mastery, Evolved hybrid|3
7|3|2|2|2|Mutations, Doctorate principles|3
8|4|2|2|2|Mutations, Anatomical mastery|4
9|4|3|3|3|Mutations, Hastened fusion|4
10|5|4|4|4|Mutations, Anatomical mastery|5
[/table]

Weapon and Armor Proficiences: As a Transevolutionsist, you gain no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Mutation: As the evolutionist ability

Effective Mutator Level: Every level the Transevolutionist gains one effective mutator level when determining eligibility for prerequisites.

Principles of Gramarie: You continue to advance your study of gramarie. At 1st level, and every odd level after, you learn a new principle of gramarie that you qualify for. Beginning at 3rd level, you may select Magisterial-level principles; 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. At all times, your choice of specialty dictates which individual principles are available for you to learn.

Dominant genes: When acting as a donor, you may choose whether your mutations are carried over to the hybrid or not.

Theft of Form:When acting as a donor, you may choose a number of features or traits up to twice your class level. You may choose whether these traits are carried over to the hybrid or not.

Hastened Fusion: When acting as a donor, the preparation time for all TRNV principles is divided by 10 x class level. Every six seconds of duration is considered to be one full round action.

Evolved Hybrid: Whenever you create a hybrid, you can give that hybrid one mutation that they qualify for per two class levels. These mutations cannot be carried over through hybridization.

Anatomical mastery: Transvolution discovery at lvl 2 and every 2 levels after

Immediate Assimilation: Upon killing a creature, you can immediately use any Transvolution principle you know, with yourself and the creature acting as donors.