Who can incite the noblest paladins to acts of brutality just as easily as break their hearts? A witch of course. Witches come in a myriad of types, from seductive spies to conniving hags, from insane hermits to helpful hedge mages. What all witches have in common is their use of hexes and familiars, as well as their trust in their strange and alien patrons. (See the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player’s Guide and The Witch’s Brew for more details on the witch class.)

Familiars

A witch’s familiar is a most trusted companion—teacher of the ways of magic and faithful guard. Following are seven new familiars that witches and wizards may choose at 1st level…

New magic items for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game that you take directly from your foes’ corpses.
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Fetishes are easily introduced to a campaign: characters simply make Knowledge (nature or religion) checks (DC 20) after combat against eligible creatures. This provides a way to grant treasure for creatures that normally have only incidental treasure or none at all. Of course, with characters sporting bits and pieces of various creatures, NPCs will judge them based on their own experience. In savage societies, characters wearing fetishes enjoy a +2 bonus to Diplomacy while in more civilized areas they suffer a −4 penalty to Diplomacy checks but gain a +2 bonus to Intimidate checks. In civilized lands, characters bearing trophies of humanoids automatically fail Diplomacy checks against those of that race but gain an additional +2 bonus to Intimidate checks against them…

New magic items for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game that you take directly from your foes’ corpses.

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As the cheetah studied its prey—an oblivious antelope grazing no more than 50 ft. away—it paid no attention to its own stalker, the young orc warrior Grim-Eye. Only after bringing the frightened animal down did the winded cat realize its predicament, readying itself for another battle.

Defeating the cheetah, Grim-Eye took great care in removing its rear paw as his elders had taught him. He carried his trophy, as well as the dead antelope, back to his tribe, who ate well that night. In return for his successful hunt, the tribal shaman bestowed upon Grim-Eye a measure of the cheetah’s power.

Many savage humanoids believe beasts and other humanoids have inherent power. When they slay a creature, they can take its power for themselves in the form of a fetish—a trophy from the kill. In civilized societies, people frown on individuals who adorn themselves with teeth, tusks, and feathers; they actively persecute those who obviously wear gruesome trophies from humanoid races…

This article presents a direct adaption for 3.5 Edition/Pathfinder Roleplaying Game of the new article in Kobold Quarterly #14 introducing a new type of magic for 4th Edition that arises from the accumulation of treasure.  That monster’s treasure hoard is now just as deadly as it is precious! Check out the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly to learn more about this amazing new take on magic and gold. [Part 1]

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Environmental Effects

Long exposure to the reality-bending effects of precious metals warps the lands around a hoard.  The simplest way to model these environmental effects is with a generalized system of planar traits.  Choose one or more of the hoard owner’s important characteristics—alignment, subtype, or the like—and make the nearby region predisposed to creatures of the same type…

This article presents a direct adaption for 3.5 Edition/Pathfinder Roleplaying Game of the new article in Kobold Quarterly #14 introducing a new type of magic for 4th Edition that arises from the accumulation of treasure.  That monster’s treasure hoard is now just as deadly as it is precious! Check out the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly to learn more about this amazing new take on magic and gold.

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Precious metals embody the distilled perfection of the natural elements.  Hoard magic practitioners magically resonate with this perfection, extending their will through large quantities of precious metals to mold nearby reality.  Hoard magic provides a new way to make lairs more memorable and encounters more dynamic.  It explains the strange allure of piles of coins and expensive regalia to both greedy dragons and selfless kings.

Rules for using hoard magic in 4th Edition appear in the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly.  This web enhancement explores hoard magic using the 3.5 Edition/Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.  Briefly, it helps GMs choose a power level and then create both large-scale environmental effects and combat-focused powers…