Author Topic: [PF] Kitsune Star Gems  (Read 940 times)

Offline Power

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[PF] Kitsune Star Gems
« on: December 10, 2022, 04:12:16 PM »
Guys, it's time to talk about a fun and PFS legal crazy item dating all the way back to the Advanced Race Guide, the Kitsune Star Gem:
Quote
KITSUNE STAR GEM
Price 750 gp (1st), 3,000 gp (2nd), 6,750 gp (3rd); Slot none; CL 1st (1st), 3rd (2nd), or 5th (3rd); Weight -; Aura faint transmutation
Source Advanced Race Guide pg. 193

This magical jewel glows like faerie fire, shedding light as a candle. It acts as pearl of power, except it only allows a kitsune to recover a spent use of a spell-like ability of the appropriate spell level.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Cost 375 gp (1st), 1,500 gp (2nd), or 3,375 gp (3rd)
Craft Wondrous Item, creator must be a kitsune
:twitch Okay, so it's an extra-cheap Pearl of Power for SLAs of 1st to 3rd level. Notice that it does not require this to be a racial SLA or a SLA from racial feats. Any SLA is fine, so long as it is between 1st to 3rd level. Moreover, you are only 1 DC25 UMD check away from counting as a Kitsune for the purposes of activating a magic item (see here), so the racial prerequisite is a nonissue. :lol

Now, according to a June 2011 FAQ, unique SLAs granted by spellcasting classes have spell levels equal to the highest level spell a character of that class would've been able to cast at the level when they first gain that SLA (for example, 1st level Sorcerer bloodline SLAs, which you can get through Eldritch Heritage, are 1st level spells, as are 1st level Cleric domain SLAs, which you can get through Believer's Boon). So, clearly we need to have a proper thread dedicated to hashing out the silliness possible with this spell.

Some classic stunts with this include playing an Aasimar with the Heavenly Radiance feat where you can recharge your Daylight spell-like ability and expend its use to get a Sunbeam or something, but there's no real impetus to do that, especially as you will have enough daily uses by the time you can use it to make Sunbeam anyway. You can similarly use it with the Shadow's Embrace feat to make the Shadowdancer's Shadow Illusion (a Silent Image SLA) give the benefits of Darkness instead for a cheap way to get more Darkness castings, but that's not too impressive either.

One of the more basic uses of this is to get a single use of Divine Favor (Student of Sulunai, Minor Miracle, Pantheistic Blessing, Faith Singer Bard) and give yourself extra daily uses. Similarly, Haagenti's 1st Sentinel boon from Fiendish Obedience (can also be obtained with Damned Soldier instead of the PrC, giving you the SLA at 12, and there aren't even any alignment prereqs, which is extra fun because Haagenti masquerades as a rather helpful inventor so you can work a story for a non-evil worshiper quite easily) gives 2/day Alchemical Allocation as a SLA, which is extremely useful and easily worth getting more daily uses out of with 2nd-level Kitsune Star Gems.

When it comes to spells, pretty much every 1st level spell can be obtained as a spell-like ability by using the Minor Spell Expertise or Spell Hex feats. The Spell Hex feat has it better as it can be used to copy spells with expensive material and focus components, has a far superior DC, and can be combined with hex-boosting options, like feats and rods, providing you stunts like the Split Hex feat to target two enemies with 1 casting and the Rod of Potent Hexes to double its damage dealt. There is even the ludicrously expensive Rod of Abrupt Hexes (a plain Lesser Metamagic Rod of Quicken Spell is less than half the price of that) for a way to obtain swift action hexing.

For SLAs of 2nd or 3rd level, the Major Spell Expertise feat also works (but if you have 9th level spells, probably stunting around with Kitsune Star Gems is not where it's at for improving your character power) and the Exalted prestige class obtains an entire domain as spell-like abilities (as does the Faith Singer Bard, but only up to 5th level). The various Obedience boons can also be used to get various SLAs of 1st to 3rd level, which means that the various Obedience prestige classes can get a fair bit better for a lot of deities by using Kitsune Star Gems to boost SLA uses. By the way, remember that unless an exception is specifically detailed, a SLA will use charisma-based DCs, even if you are not a cha-based caster.

Since this is a SLA focused build, it is worth keeping in mind ways to make your SLAs do more for you. The following feats will let you apply metamagics to SLAs in limited fashion:
These are regarded as Monster feats (as is the Ability Focus feat that gives +2 to DC) by way of a rather dubious FAQ retcon which didn't like the new feats added in Pathfinder RPG Bestiary and insisted they were only for monsters despite the Bestiary throwing Craft Construct in the middle of those feats and never making any caveat that some of these feats are not available for player usage, and later the Horror Adventures book was used to cement the retcon FAQratta as if it were always the rule. Regardless, players can still take them "with GM permission" even according to Horror Adventures, so it rather sounds like a raging case of someone not liking what options the Bestiary added and trying to ban/undo it with yet another dubious "clarification" so as to effectively obtain an errata without writing one. I think it was actually primarily one of those many Monk-hating FAQrattas earlier in PF's run, back when Jason Bulmahn (and Sean K Reynolds) were going on about how they don't like Monks and haven't figured out the Monk's role yet but did know they weren't supposed to be good damage dealers (ie. Monks, a dedicated mundane combat class, should be a waste of space because their bonus feats, three good saves, and wis to AC are so amazing, but meanwhile they had no problem with Paladins getting giant saves, self-healing, giant damage-dealing buffs, and more, so basically this was about class favoritism, not any form of balance) so that Monks could be banned from taking Improved Natural Attack to enhance their unarmed strike or Ability Focus to enhance their Stunning Fist (which are largely considered must-have feats for the class), along with FAQratta nerfing (followed by fullblown errata) brass knuckles, cestus, gauntlets, etc. from functioning like unarmed strikes (as their text indicates) every single time so that Monks couldn't use them to obtain enchanted fists without AoMF. Didn't stop yet another such item, handwraps, from being printed in 2018 though, but that was after they had finally largely stopped trying to keep Monks from being useful, and they still PFS banned that one.

Aside from the above, it is also possible to get SLAs off with weapon attacks by using the Conductive and Spell Storing weapon properties. When it comes to SLAs you might take advantage of that way, 1st level Sorcerer bloodline powers are an easy pick, and if you are using them incessantly with Conductive and Spell Storing weapons the appeal of carrying a bunch of 1st level Kitsune Star Gems to give you massive amounts of uses is pretty straightforward.

Anyway, made a dedicated thread, so by all means feel free to weigh in and post some ideas.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2023, 03:31:24 AM by Power »

Offline Theaitetos

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Re: [PF] Kitsune Star Gems
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2023, 07:55:23 AM »
Oracles with the Dragon mystery can take the Dragon Magic revelation, which gives them any sorc/wiz spell (2 levels lower than their highest spell) as an SLA.

A Wizard can rightly point out that the magic object gained from his Arcane Bond class feature at 1st level is a unique SLA, and that a 1st-level Kitsune Star Gem should then be able to replenish its use, even if he used it to cast a 9th-level spell with it.

Offline Power

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Re: [PF] Kitsune Star Gems
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2023, 02:53:12 AM »
Using Dragon Magic is pretty useful but usually you'd sooner save that for a higher-level spell with a significant component cost to waive by casting it as a SLA. A basic example is the 18th level Oracle with Dragon Magic for free 2/day Limited Wish or Simulacrum. Then there's just getting a potent higher-level spell with it like Dominate Person. You can still use it with 3rd level or lower spells with component costs to get more value out of this, of course.

Arcane Bond is a spell-like ability but it's unclear whether the ability to use it once per day to cast a spell is the spell-like ability or the arcane bond itself is the spell-like ability (a constant one), so there is room for table variation there, and odds are a GM will simply reject the interpretation that this stunt calls for.

In other news, I found a Dark Affinity feat that gives Darkness and Deeper Darkness as 1/day SLAs.

Offline Power

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Re: [PF] Kitsune Star Gems
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2023, 05:52:08 PM »
I have a fun item to mention, even if it's expensive. The Silver Spindle Ioun Stone (24k gp, 16k if you want 1d3 cha damage per use) gives a 1st level Cleric, Druid, or Wizard spell as a 3/day cha-based SLA cast at character level. Requires 11 cha to use the SLA. Not sure if you'll need the extra uses that a Kitsune Star Gem offers but good to make note of. Also looks like you can just pass this ioun stone around and have everyone with 11+ Cha use the SLA for 3 uses? It's not an item with limited uses, after all, but an item that grants the wielder a SLA that he can use 3 times per day.

The Kitsune Star Gems also improve the Faith Singer Bard archetype for the first 3 SLAs anyway.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2023, 06:30:58 PM by Power »