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A Look Inside Superior Synergy for the Pathfinder RPG

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Superior Synergy: Fantasy for the Pathfinder RPG

Written & Colors by Steven Trustrum
Illustration by David Hamilton

Copyright 2012 Misfit Studios. All Rights Reserved.


This content appears in Superior Synergy: Fantasy for the Pathfinder RPG. Get the PDF now for 50% off! You can also get it in print in black and white and color.


Craft Synergy

Introduced to the Pathfinder RPG in Superior Synergy: Fantasy, this section presents ways to add new mundane (non-magical) characteristics to armor, weapons, and goods if you have the right combination of feats and other game mechanics.

Here is an example.

Thin Pages

You may apply a special alchemical treatment to allow a book’s pages or a scroll to be thinner—and thus lighter—without losing any resilience or usefulness.

Prerequisites: Skill Focus (Craft: alchemy), Skill Focus (Craft: books), book or scroll

Craft (books) DC: +10

Cost: +25 gp

Failure: The pages are ruined.

A book can either contain twice as many pages without an increase in weight or contain the same amount of pages but weigh half as much. Scrolls weigh half normal.



Magic Synergy

Another new type of synergy, Magic Synergy is when two or more spells or magic effects interact with each other in some meaningful way.

The following is an example of Magic Synergy.

Frosted

Prerequisites: Cold damage spell or effect, any spell that exposes the subject to water

By simultaneously exposing a creature to water and cold that is sufficiently chilled to inflict damage (lethal or nonlethal), the subject is placed at risk of suffering additional ill–effects. The target must succeed at an additional Fortitude saving throw versus the cold damage effect’s DC or suffer 1d4 additional nonlethal cold damage per die of original cold damage and becomes staggered. The staggered condition ends when the subject recovers from the nonlethal damage. A subject that is already staggered becomes stunned instead.

Creatures without a Constitution score are immune to Frosted.

There are so many options here, which can be easily added, tweaked, or disallowed, that there’s really no way you can’t find a happy medium in terms of figuring out what parts of this book to allow and what not to.

— Shane O., OneBookShelf Review.

Skill Synergy

Present in previous editions of OGL fantasy game rules, the Pathfinder RPG dropped skill synergy because the game’s designers felt they were too imbalanced and replicated game effects already addressed by feats. In Superior Synergy: Fantasy for Pathfinder RPG, however, we take a new approach that really puts the “skill” into “skill synergy.”

Here is an example of how one skill can work in synergy with another. The following is a skill synergy entry for the Escape Artist skill, illustrating how Sleight of Hand compliments it in certain circumstances. A Sleight of Hand skill check is made before making an Escape Artist check for the situation described. The roll is made in secret by the Gamemaster (or rolled by the player in a way that they cannot see the results but the Gamemaster can) and the outcome applied. The reason for not letting the player see the result is that they cannot back out of the second skill check if the synergy skill’s check result was detrimental.

Sleight of Hand — Slip the Knot

You can maneuver and contort your hands in order to more easily slip bindings.

This Synergy Effect from Sleight of Hand only applies to Escape Artist checks to escape ropes or escape manacles or masterwork manacles.

DC: Primary Skill DC + 5

Action: 1 free action

Check Result

Synergy Effect

DC –15 or lower
–4 to the Escape Artist check and escaping requires triple the usual time
DC –10 to –14
–3 to the Escape Artist check and escaping requires double the usual time
DC –5 to –9
–2 to the Escape Artist check and escaping requires 50% more time
DC –1 to –4
–1 to the Escape Artist check
DC +0 to +4
+1 to the Escape Artist check
DC +5 to +9
+2 to the Escape Artist check and escaping only requires half the usual time (minimum of 1 move action)
DC +10 to +14
+3 to the Escape Artist check and escaping only requires half the usual time (minimum of 1 move action)
DC +15 to +19
+4 to the Escape Artist check and escaping only requires one–quarter the usual time (minimum of 1 move action)
DC +20 or more
+5 to the Escape Artist check and escaping only requires one–quarter the usual time (minimum of 1 move action)

 

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Book of Fiends. © 2003, Green Ronin Publishing; Authors: Aaron Loeb, Erik Mona, Chris Pramas, Robert J. Schwalb.
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Superior Synergy. ©2005 Misfit Studios. Author Steven Trustrum.
Superior Synergy: Fantasy PFRPG Edition. © 2012 Misfit Studios. Author Steven Trustrum.

Steven Trustrum has been writing in the RPG industry since the end of the '90s and publishing via Misfit Studios since 2003. Aside from writing and publishing role-playing game content, he ... dabbles ... in content and social media marketing.

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