Elegist (Skald Archetype)
(art by RomanDubina on DeviantArt)
And so we reach a major milestone on the blog, for this is the very last Pathfinder First Edition Archetype we’re going to cover on the blog. (Though not the end of 1E content of course, what with all the class feature stuff like bloodlines, as well as retrograde revisions and whatnot).
How appropriate then, that the final archetype of First Edition on the blog should be the elegist, a form of skald focused on the legendary stories where the hero meets their end and is mourned?
Nearly all skalds focus on the stories of heroes, powerful foes, and whatnot, but an elegist, like the name suggests, focuses on stories that end in tragedy. The mighty hero defeats a great foe only to succumb to their wounds, the protagonist goes on a downward spiral that ends tragically, the hero whose death was fortold in prophecy and finally it found them, whether they struggled against it or met it head-on… All these are the purview of the elegist.
Such tales of tragedy evoke profound emotion, but it’s not especially inspiring to others. However, they do resonate with the elegist themselves, and from them they seek to either avoid a similar fate, or to find the resolve to be ready to meet such an end themselves when the time comes.
The core signature ability of the elegist is that rather than a song that inspires battle fervor, they instead create a performance that brings forth a manifestation of the sorts of sad stories they tell into reality. This entity is essentially a spiritualist’s phantom of despair, but being composed of a raw idea rather than a person’s soul. It may take the form of a more traditional phantom, or it might reflect either the story they are recalling or their favorite such tale, perhaps appearing as the protagonist, complete with marks of their tragedy like phantom wounds and whatnot.
However, unlike a true phantom, this spirit only exists while the skald maintains their performance, though they maintain their vitality throughout the day, but are restored to full health during spell preparation as the elegist refreshes the memory of the tale in their mind. If the phantom is slain, the skald must expend more of their performance to bring them back.
Naturally, these storykeepers have learned to reign in their own emotions to maintain a steady performance, making them resistant to emotion-manipulating magic.
Additionally, their own toughness and durability carries over to the phantom when it manifests as well.
True masters of the elegy can manifest their phantom much faster and can re-manifest a destroyed one at no extra cost and at full vitality, making sure their story ends only on the terms of the elegist.
This is a fun archetype, able to temporarily manifest a whole phantom companion whenever you wish and let it vanish just as easily is quite good even if they risk running out of rounds. The fact you straight up don’t get any raging song performances at all does mean that you basically have to build these character entirely differently than you would other skalds, focused on spells that work well with having a flanking partner with the unique abilities of a despair phantom, buffing yourself and the spirit, debuffing foes, and so on.
You might have noticed that the elegist focuses on sad stories and summons a despair phantom with them. To me, that’s just begging for a homebrew of alternate versions of this archetype that summon forth phantoms with different emotional foci instead! Furious songs of righteous indignation for anger phantoms, Stories of true love invoking the power of dedication, and so on.
Krodvic Dirgecaller has been telling the final story of Bladan the Mighty for years after the heroes death, but a certain account from one of Bladan’s allies has unsettled him. According to the retainer, the linnorm that devoured Bladan whole was slain by a powerful necromantic spell from his wizard ally. Krodvic now worries that such dark energies might have bled over into the dragon’s stomach, and that there might, in the dark places of the world be a shadow of the might warrior that needs to be laid to rest, even something as small and pathetic as one of the undigested undead.
Once, the Tombwatcher clan of gargoyles was like any other: stealthy predators taking advantage of their stony camouflage to strike down the unsuspecting. But when an elegist met with them while they had settled in near a graveyard, the skald’s tales of heroism and honor sparked a reverence in them they had not known before, and now several members of the clan can call upon the memories of the dead to aid in righteous defense.
Fighting through armies of guardians, the party is ready to aid their ally in performing the ritual that will slay the undead remains of their ancestor, whose deathly-half-life and the story surrounding it has left a stain on their clan’s honor. However, when they arrive, they meet a woman who tells a different version of the tale, one that offers a different path to putting the ancestor to rest without mindless bloodshed.
