City of Seven Seraphs and The Nexus

Wednesday, August 9, 2017



First and foremost, I'd like to make sure anyone reading this who's a fan of the Pathfinder RPG is aware of the City of Seven Seraphs Kickstarter that went live this morning. If you were a fan of Planescape, Spelljammer, or even the old Weatherlight MtG novels, there are a lot of goodies in this book for you that open up planar adventures and otherworldly venues for your Pathfinder games.

I'm one of the writers contributing to this project, and my contribution is the new Nexus base class, a planar-themed veilweaving class that can take on the powers and even the physical forms of various outsiders like angels, devils, and genies. Building on the rules and system I originally wrote for Akashic Mysteries, the Nexus is a brand new class featuring tons of new veils that will also support the original akashic classes, the Daevic, Guru, and Vizier. Here's a sneak peek at the art for our iconic Nexus





The Nexus includes some updated rules for veilweaving, and is totally playable even if you don't have the original Akashic Mysteries book. I've also made some changes in how veils are organized and presented; the basic layout for individual veils is the same, but in Akashic Mysteries the veils were presented alphabetically, and by slot. This made it easy to make sure you knew where to find a veil and could look specifically for one that would go into an open slot, but it also meant that there's a little bit of familiarity required in creating a really top-end veil set where you're not just getting lots of cool abilities, but each veil is also pumping up the other veils you have equipped in new and interesting ways. The Nexus' veils are each presented in a themed set of 10, with the veils naturally synergizing with each other and providing you a powerful set of thematically aligned abilities. Want to play a sentai angel who transforms from an elf into a powerful warrior of the Heavens? We've got you covered. Want to play a canny magic-user who draws powerful abilities from multiple planes of existence, meshing devilish defenses with a genie's elemental magic? You can do that too. Our iconic presented above is using a mix of elemental veils and options and angelic veils from the Angelic Armaments set. In fact, here's two of those veils for any Akashic Mysteries fans who can't wait until the Kickstarter is completed to start playing with the new options:

Angelic Wings
Descriptors: Good
Class: Daevic, Nexus, Vizier
Slot: Shoulders
Saving Throw: none
Brilliant white wings of gleaming energy sprout from your shoulders and settle around you like a fine cloak.
Shaping this beautiful veil gives you a pair of wings that  allow you to glide. You can make a DC 15 Fly check to fall safely from any height without taking falling damage, as if using feather fall. When falling safely, you may make an additional DC 15 Fly check to glide, moving 5 feet laterally for every 10 feet you fall.
Essence: When you have a least 1 point of essence invested in this veil you gain a fly speed of 10 ft. with clumsy maneuverability. For each additional point of essence invested in this veil your fly speed increases by 10 ft. and your maneuverability increases by 1 step.
Chakra Bind (Shoulders): [D10, N10, V10] Binding this veil to your Shoulders chakra fills your wings with potent protective capabilities. Whenever you are reduced to 25% or less of your maximum hit point total while this veil is active, you gain the benefits of a sanctuary spell that lasts until your hit point total is raised above 25%. Attacking another creature while this effect is active suppresses this benefit for 1 round. In addition, whenever an ally within your line of sight is reduced to 25% or less of their maximum hit point total, you may teleport directly to a square adjacent to them as an immediate action. As long as you are adjacent to an ally whose current hit points are 25% or less of their maximum hit point total, they do not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving out of enemies threatened spaces.


Shaitan’s Earthen Armor
Descriptors: Earth
Class: Daevic, Nexus, Vizier
Slot: Chest
Saving Throw: none
Gleaming plates of polished stone surround your flesh, protecting you from harm.
Shaping this veil covers you in plates of solid stone molded into shape by akashic energy that increase your natural armor bonus by +1 and grant you DR 2/bludgeoning or piercing.
Essence: For each point of essence invested in this veil your natural armor bonus increases by an additional +1 and the granted damage reduction increases by 1.
Chakra Bind (Chest): [D19, N18, V18] Binding this veil to your Chest chakra causes the earthen armor protecting you to fuse to your skin and encase your entire body, granting you an enhancement bonus to Strength and Constitution equal to 1 + 1 per point of essence invested and making you immune to critical hits. In addition, you gain the earth glide universal monster ability, allowing you to pass through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except worked stone and metal as easily as a fish swims through water. If protected against fire damage, you can even glide through lava. You glide at your full base land speed. While gliding, you breathe stone as if it were air (you do not need to hold your breath).

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the amazing team of writers and designers working on this book as well. The City of Seven Seraphs is a fully developed Planar Metropolis for the Pathfinder RPG available in full-color Hardcover and PDF that includes contributions from Colin McComb, Clinton Boomer, Savannah Broadway, Robert Brookes, Liz Courts, Robert N Emerson, Scott Gladstein, Sasha Hall, Ehn Jolly, Ron Lundeen, Jessica Redekop, David Ross, Michael Sayre,Todd Stewart, and George Loki Williams, with stretch goals from Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Press, Jason Sonia of Storm Bunny Studios, Jason Eric Nelson of Legendary Games, and Jeremy Smith of Dreamscarred Press. In addition to being an amazing sourcebook full of fun and interesting crunch and fluff that should make it appealing for any player or GM, the art in this book is already seriously amazing. In addition to the iconic Nexus shown above, the book includes dozens of pieces of high-quality art like this veilweaving sobek aegis who combines psionics and akashic magic: