Check out the Wardens of the Wild: A lorebook of elves Kickstarter

Hello Flying Pincushion Fans,

You might see a few familiar names in the stretch goal for this fun project from TPK Games. Consider contributing for exciting expanded content. Brian Berg has kickstarter experience and a very solid reputation, a glimpse behind the scenes tells me you're not going to want to miss this one.

Sincerely,

Frank Gori

Co-founder

Flying Pincushion Games

New Mods for the Gungineer!

First of all, let me say that I'm genuinely humbled by the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gungineer alternate class. It was fun to make and I hope it will be equally fun for all of you to play. In response to the requests of two reviewers, I've decided to make a number of new mods for your gun freely available here on the blog. This is the first of two planned installments. Have a mod you wish existed? Talk to us over here or in the comments. Don't know what I'm talking about? Buy a copy of Into the Breach: Gunslinger at Paizo, d20PFSRD, or DriveThru.

Edit: I wasn't happy with the balance of harness mount or moderately self aware and flash-bang launcher was missing a pair of sentences. These have been edited since original publication.

1-Point Mods

Net Launcher (bottom rail): This launcher works as the net exotic weapon, except that the launcher propels it 20 feet and it always takes 4 rounds to refold and reload the net launcher.
Smoke Launcher (bottom rail): You may fire a small black bomb which erupts in opaque smoke as a standard action at a point designated within 30 feet. The smoke spread to fill a 10 foot radius area and obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature within 5 feet has concealment. Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker can't use sight to locate the target). The smoke persists for 1 minute but a moderate wind disperses the fog in 1 round. The gungineer may fire a number of smoke bombs per day equal to 1 + her Intelligence modifier. This modification may be selected if the named gun has the bomb launcher modification even though they occupy the same slot.

2-Point Mods

Bayonet Launcher (bottom rail): This modification can hold a single dagger. The dagger may be used in melee as though it is being currently wielded. In addition, you may launch it in place of a ranged attack with the named gun with a range of 30 feet. This works as a normal thrown weapon attack except that you add your dexterity bonus to damage instead of strength. Reloading the bayonet launcher is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity.
Taser (bottom rail): As a standard action, you may fire a sharp, pronged lead as a ranged touch attack with a range of 15 feet. On a successful hit, you deal d8 non-lethal electric damage. If the target takes any damage from the attack it is staggered until the end of your next turn. The leads must be carefully rewound inside the launcher, which takes a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

3-Point Mods

Flash-Bang Launcher (bottom rail): The gungineer may fire a bomb which detonates brightly as a ranged touch attack at a target within 30 feet. Creatures that are struck are blinded for 1 minute unless they succeed at a Fortitude save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the gungineer’s level + her Intelligence modifier). Creatures within 10 feet of the target are dazzled for 1 minute unless they, too, pass a fortitude save. This is a light effect. The gungineer may fire a number of flash-bangs per day equal to 1 + her Intelligence modifier. This modification may be selected if the named gun has the bomb launcher modification even though they occupy the same slot.
Harness Mount (grip): The named gun is mounted on your shoulder, attached to a harness worn over clothes and armor. You may fire your named weapon with one hand as the harness takes care of the rest. It also provides a +10 bonus to your Combat Maneuver Defense against attempts to disarm you of your named gun, though its position is somewhat vulnerable and sunder attempts against the named gun gain a +2 bonus on the CMB check. Removing and putting on the harness is a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity. Attacks with the named gun are now resolved against touch AC in the first and second range increments. This modification is only available for two-handed named guns.
Spiked Net (bottom rail): This launcher fires a net made of cruelly spiked steel chains. It works as the net launcher 1-point modification except that a target struck takes 2d6 piercing damage when struck and an additional d6 piercing damage for each round it is entangled. If the target escapes the net, the chains remain on the ground adjacent to the target taking up a 10 foot by 10 foot area which counts as being covered in caltrops.

4-Point Mods

Gravity Distortion Ray (bottom rail): This intricately fluted attachment alters the gravity experienced by a target as a standard action ranged touch attack with a range of 30 feet. The mod has a number of charges equal to the Gungineer’s Intelligence modifier. For 1 charge you may cause a struck creature to be staggered under his own increased mass for d6 rounds when the effect fades. For three charges, the target is pinned, finding it difficult to move under the extreme gravitational forces being exerted upon it. For five charges, you may force a creature 100 feet into the air before reversing the gravity again to pull them down. This deals 10d6 damage. flying creatures are not immune to the effect, nor do abilities such as the monk’s slow fall class feature or featherfall overcome the relentless pull of gravity. You must have the Magical Power modification to use this modification.
Saw Blade Launcher (barrel and chamber): Replacing the traditional barrel with a wide chute and the chamber with a stack of circular saw blades, yields a bizarre but deadly weapon. The named gun deals slashing damage and has a critical threat range of 19-20 and a critical modifier of x3. You must have the Steam Power or Alchemical Power modification to use this modification.

5-Point Mods

Moderately Self Aware (grip): A crystalline memory cortex is mounted atop the named gun and a number of grasping legs replace the grip. This makes the named gun an intelligent item with an Intelligence score of 10 and the Speech and Senses (60 ft.) abilities. Although it lacks a traditional grip, the legs constrict around your wrist allowing you to fire it as normal. You may also place it as a sentry. It cannot move on its own or reload itself but can shoot with an attack bonus of +5. It does not have a Dexterity score nor does it have any feats. If someone else attempts to hold the named gun without your permission, autonomous defenses activate, which may be a small shock, extruded spikes or something else, and the person holding it must succeed on a Reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the gungineer’s level + her Intelligence modifier) or drop the named gun immediately. The named guns sense also warns you of danger granting you uncanny dodge. If you already have uncanny dodge from another class, you automatically get improved uncanny dodge instead.
Thermodynamic Water Chamber (Chamber): This chamber forms metastable, high pressure bullets of ice that deal half cold and half piercing damage. Additionally, it has a number of charges equal to twice the gungineer’s Intelligence modifier. These charges are replenished once per day. For one charge, you may spray a multitude of icy filaments in a 30-foot cone as a standard action. Creatures caught in the cone take normal damage from the named gun and gain the entangled condition. A successful reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the gungineer’s level + her Intelligence modifier) negates the entangled condition but not the damage. For two charges, you can create a sheet of ice as the Ice Plane version of wall of ice using your gungineer level as your effective caster level. For three charges, you may fire a blast of super-heated steam in a 60- foot cone as a full round action. The steam deals 10d6 fire damage. The resulting cloud of steam remains for 3 rounds dealing 5d6 fire damage to anything inside, though it may be harmlessly dispersed by a strong wind. Although it deals fire damage, the steam cannot light objects on fire. For four charges and as a full-round action, you may encase a target within 30 feet in a solid block of ice with a successful ranged touch attack. The target takes 5d6 points of cold damage (Fortitude DC= 1/2 the gungineer’s level + her Intelligence modifier halves the damage). If the target fails its save, it is paralyzed and unconscious but does not need to eat or breathe while the ice lasts. The ice has 20 hit points; destroying the ice frees the creature, which is staggered for 1d4 rounds after being released.

Friday Review: Laying Waste by TPK Games, A Critical Hit to the Awesome Center of

Massing a huge 162 pages, Laying Waste is an enormous revamp of rules for critical hits in Pathfinder. The books starts with the new rules which essentially replace the confirmation roll and normal, boring damage multiplication with a severity roll and a host of potential effects based on the severity and damage type of your weapon.

All the possible crits have a save to reduce or eliminate the status effect. The save gets harder as your severity worsens as does, obviously, the effect. A light braining staggers for d2 rounds unless you make a DC20 Fortitude save. A moderate braining is staggered for d3 rounds and the severe version deals additional damage along with d3 rounds of the staggered condition. In each case, the DC gets harder by 5 as well. Even if your victim...er...target passes the save associated with the crit, they are still saddled with some bonus damage. The bonus damage varies from 2d6 with a x2 crit to 5d6 on a x5 weapon. This is a nice system that means a dagger to your kidney (or whatever strange organ drives your renal system) hurts just about as bad as a greatsword, which, while not necessarily going to make a simulationist happy, makes those that love variety in weapons ecstatic. Status effects caused by crits have conditions under which they can be healed. Rest or curative magic are generally there but in most cases you can also make a Heal check. Heal. It’s a skill. It’s between Handle Animal and Intimidate on your character sheet. You can be forgiven for not knowing it’s there; until now there hasn’t usually much reason to take it. I’m so pleased that this undervalued skill gets a real reason to exist in this ruleset.

After pages and pages of bashing, slicing, dicing, and otherwise mauling with criticals, comes ten or so pages of critical themed feats. There’s a lot of good stuff here like Sneaking Strike which causes opponents who take a crit from a rogue to become flat-footed until the end of the rogue’s next turn, a great way to get more sneak attacks in. There are achievement feats and mythic feats to be had here and a lot of neat things to do with combat maneuvers.

Then we have the archetypes. This is where I suffer from some disappointment. As the focus of this book is on critical hits, I can kind of understand why there aren’t archetypes for the sorcerer and wizard (although it seems like one that changed elemental damage into a physical damage type and did something with these rules is an easy fit) but not having a single archetype for the paladin, cleric, bard, druid, or any of the base classes means this whole section has limited value for me. What’s there is cool and chock full of flavor, though. The pressure point master is inspired and the scoundrel, mockingbird, disembowler, and urchin knight are great, too.

Next are the rules for fumbles, separated into melee, ranged, and natural attack fumbles. I’m a huge fan of these. In my group, some fights are just done by story and the dice are left to rest for a time. Inevitably, my players mix failure into their success and get thrown across a room, trip on a rug (which otherwise tied the room together), or simply stare dumbfounded at the unfolding horror of an elder god before the tentacular alarm clock wakes them up. But this never happens when we roll the dice. Misses are set aside and damage from the hits tabulated. The fumble rules give us the opportunity to force these situations into the dice rolling and enhance our stories. If I were an alchemist I’d take the vestigial arm discovery just to give this three thumbs up.

The remaining 30 or so pages are given over to appendices covering rules for called shots, armor as damage reduction, healing and scars, spells, magic weapon and armor abilities, a short bit of prose and a Laying Waste Iconic NPC.

I give this book 4.5 out of 5. The rules are pretty great. The fact that there’s an Android app for Laying Waste crits is great. the lack of variety in the archetypes section is an absolute travesty (figuratively speaking; literally speaking it’s more of a bummer).

Buy it on Paizo, d20PFSRD, or DriveThru.