Crafter Level ; Crafting Proficiency Rank ; Crafting Feat
Formula Price
Tools You have an appropriate set of tools and, in many cases, a workshop; Crafting Materials You must supply raw materials worth
Extra Requirements
DEVIANT ABILITIES
RULE
The frost struck in the time it took him to look. No waving fingers, no incantation, no circle of ancient runes hanging in the air. Just ice covering everything he laid eyes on, his breath hanging white in the summer afternoon as chills wracked his body.
Rarity: Rare
Though Golarion contains classically trained spellcasters, descendants of magical creatures, and entire species who can invoke ancestral patrons for supernatural aid, there are always some who gain unique and unstable powers in strange or unorthodox ways. GMs can use the rules here to grant these so-called deviant abilities to their players and incorporate them into their games. A deviant ability can be the result of exposure to exotic energies, a boon from a powerful entity, cutting-edge scientific experimentation, or any other process that makes sense for your story.
Acquiring a Deviant Ability
There are two main ways to approach deviant abilities in your game: as an intentional and persistent part of a player’s character that is intrinsic to them and grows throughout their career, or as a more turbulent and transient power they gain as part of an ongoing campaign, intended to be acquired at a certain point in the story and to eventually burn out or fade away when that chapter of the story is told.
BACKGROUND DEVIANT ABILITIES
A background deviant ability is a core part of a character’s concept—a character may simply have been born with the power to light things on fire by whistling, or they may have gained it as part of whatever incident set them down the road to adventure.
When using background deviant abilities, the player should get to decide what type of deviation they want and build their power. As the player grows, they should be able to improve their deviant ability, whether through special training, seeking out objects of power, or self-improvement, represented as taking additional deviant ability feats.
If everyone in your party wishes to make deviant abilities a part of their character, or for a setting where these abilities are more common, consider using a variant similar to the free archetype variant rule (described on page 194 of the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide) to grant each character an extra class feat at 2nd level and every even-numbered level thereafter that they can use only to take deviant feats. In most cases, they can gain every possible deviant ability feat by 16th level in this fashion, so there’s no need to grant extra feats after that.
CAMPAIGN DEVIANT ABILITIES
A campaign deviant ability comes about as part of the story of your campaign. The party may find themselves with strangely expanded senses after taking shelter beneath an ancient monolith, or they might drink from a spring of pure magic in a grove and find themselves able to command the elements. As the GM, you should decide the specifics of the deviant abilities yourself, matching them to the event and themes of your campaign. The players might not discover the full capabilities or quirks of their new abilities immediately. Consider waiting for a dramatic moment to reveal that a player has gained a deviant ability, perhaps letting them unleash an unexpected blast of lightning right when they need it the most.
Because a campaign deviant ability is normally only present for a level or maybe two, you usually don’t have to worry about advancing the ability or adjusting campaign rewards to take stock of your PCs’ additional powers. Rather, simply keep in mind that the players might have an extra source of damage or utility ability up their sleeve while they are in a given town or dungeon. Be clear with your players that their newly acquired abilities are temporary; for instance, it might be that the powers the players gained from the ancient monolith will fade once their journey takes them too far. If a player enjoys their deviant ability and wants to keep it even after the moment in the campaign has passed, work with them to develop a story that fits their character—maybe they take a piece of the monolith with them, letting them keep their powers.
In this case, you can give them the opportunity to retrain some of their existing feats into deviant ability feats or let them take those feats again in the future.
Building a Deviant Ability
Decide what deviant ability you want to build, and what event led to the deviant ability or awoke it. Each ability comprises a main classification—grouping energy projection or enhanced physiology together—with an attendant backlash effect that can occur when the unstable power is pushed too far, and finally, one or more strange quirks (page 103) that personalize the deviant ability further.
If building a background deviant ability, take a feat from the classification that best matches the power you want— these ability classifications determine the general theme of your ability, as well as what type of backlash can happen if your ability runs rampant. For instance, if your power is to breathe blasts of electricity, you could take the Storming Breath feat from the dragon classification, which covers energy manipulation. Once you have gained a feat in a given classification, you can take only feats from that classification, as well as universal deviant ability feats. If you are playing with campaign deviant abilities, simply grant your player the abilities that best fit the story, ignoring the split between classifications if needed.