#gary mcbride

I happened upon this spell completely at random while going through some old 3.0 third party links I’d long forgotten about. While going through them, I happened upon an Open License spell from Sword & Sorcery called, Blackflame. That was interesting to me as I’d been wondering what “black fire” spell had been used in two of the art pieces done by SpiralMagus. Could this spell have been it? It fit. Undead were affected by it, it couldn’t easily be ignored by spell resistance, it did fire damage, and even if you were able to beat the fire you were still affected by the mind affecting aspect of the spell, which again, affected undead. This had to be it. But, it only did 1d10 damage. That’s so measly low for an 8th level spell. However, third party 3.0 spells weren’t exactly the most well designed back in the day. Still, it was a scary spell. Spell resistance meant nothing? Being an undead meant nothing? That’s perfect on so many levels for this adventure path. Duergar, drow, and liches and other similar creatures would no longer be “immune” to specific spells cast by the PCs. They would have an ace up their sleeve that could be used to combat them effectively.

So I looked into it further, and found out that “Scarred Lands Player’s Guide“ did both a Pathfinder 1e conversion and a 5e conversion for the spell. Unfortunately, the PF 1e got rid of the fact it affected undead and only doubled the damage it dealt, and it wasn’t continual damage either (at it was spelled out that it did). This was still a paltry number considering it was an 8th level and a hold person with a quickened magic missile combo dealt vastly more damage. This was especially a head-scratcher when the 5e version did triple the damage of the PF 1e and also dealt psychic damage, plus did continual damage that increased every round. The 5e is vastly superior comparatively.

This spurred me on to create a final revised version of the spell. Using the original as a base I came up with something I’m pretty happy with. I used a contact in the game industry to look over it and give his impressions of it. He said that Pathfinder had an equivalent metamagic feat from Ultimate Magic, Threnodic Spell, which would help determine how best we could balance the spell. Because it essentially uses a ‘+2 effective level’ metamagic as part of its base, he suggested that it should be around the same damage as a 6th level spell. More so because of its equivalent hold person element. There’s not really any “continual damage” spells with debilitating factors mixed in. I ended up looking at things like chain lightning and acid fog for 6th levels as well as incendiary cloud as an 8th.

On the forums, I suggested 5d10 or even 7d10. In the end, I lowered it do d8′s because of what the average damage per round is supposed to be equivalent to for a creature of that level (a CR 14 creature [a NPC wizard 15 would have 8th level spells] averages 48 damage per round on the low side, especially if it has a secondary effect).

This is the final version. Hope everyone is happy with it.

BLACKFLAME (Revised) The penumbral lord and archmage Dar’Tan is known for this signature spell, which causes his target to burst into agonizing, shadowy flames. School illusion (shadow) [fear, mind-affecting, shadow]; Level arcanist 8, psychic 8, sorcerer/wizard 8, witch 8 Casting Time 1 standard action Components S Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level) Target one creature Duration 1 round/level (D) Saving Throw Fortitude and Will partial (see text); Spell Resistance yes (see text) The target of this spell is engulfed in semi-illusory flames, a shadowy conflagration that manifests as very real wounds on the target creature’s body. If the target creature has spell resistance, a caster level check has to be made each round by the spellcaster against the target creature’s spell resistance. A successful saving throw or failed spell resistance check does not negate the blackflame. The spell can only be removed by the spellcaster dismissing the spell or by a dispel magic check.

Each round, the target must make a Fortitude save or suffer 6d8 damage. On any round the target creature suffers damage from the blackflame, the target must also make a Will save or become panicked for 1 round. As the flame is the source of fear, the target is considered cornered, and cowers, using its turn to fruitlessly attempt to douse the flames by swatting at them. Every round the target fails its Fortitude save against blackflame, the damage dealt by the spell increases by 1d8 (to a maximum of 15d8); every round the target fails its Will save against blackflame, it suffers a cumulative –2 penalty on their next Will save against the spell. If the spellcaster has line of sight on the target creature and is within 60 feet, the target creature suffers a –2 penalty on their saving throws.

This spell affects undead creatures (even mindless undead) as if they weren’t immune to mind-affecting or fear effects.

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I hope everyone is happy with how this ended up. If you wish to tweak it for your own games, whether it’s because it’s too powerful or not powerful enough, by all means. Spells are not my strong suit for balance, which is why I use my fellow game designers as contacts whenever I can.

In Bestiary 3, there is a gargantuan undead called the tzitzimitl. They are said to consume entire suns to “shut down worlds”. Given the supposed background of “coming from the stars”, it’s plausible that our final boss used a miracle to have it summoned to this plane, and in the vicinity of the mad scientist aberration.

The proposal is that it would normally be lying dormant, but should the PCs decide to interfere and try to dislodge the crystal, or they defeat the aberration, something might go wrong and the undead could “awaken”, spawning another encounter. At the very least, with it defeated and destroyed, the antagonists should no longer have the option of blotting out the sun.

Another idea could be that this was a titan at one time (or you could go it was an eclipse giant as they’re the same size), space debris fell and killed the creature, and after all this tinkering and trying to create an eclipse machine, or something to that effect, it inadvertently creates the tzitzimitl.

Just a thought.

Tzitzimitl (CR 19; XP 204,800)

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So, firstly, I do have an idea for this part, and I did mention that “This crystal is likely being harnessed for fuel, and given the creature’s name, used to blot out the sun.“

In retrospect, I agree that, that’s vague and doesn’t really help any one. So then the question becomes, how would I go about doing this? By using 3rd Party spells. Unfortunately, I can’t be too specific on by whom, because that was lost a long time ago (literally the file I have is going on 8-9 years of age now). They were 3rd party d20 3.0 spells that I randomly found on the internet while searching for stuff that could aid my players at the time when I was running the “Way of the Wicked” evil campaign. One of the PCs was somewhat sunlight sensitive, and I’d given him access to the 3.5 drow goggles that negated it for (I believe) 80 gold, but he had a penalty to visual Perception checks, but also a bonus against gaze attacks. So, win-win for him.

At any rate, I had found these spells, and his plan was to get extend and widen rods so that he could cast the spells without issue. Interestingly enough, I didn’t post these spells on my blog for adding to “Way of the Wicked”, but it seems I did post them on the Paizo forum. Weird.

If I was doing this, I would consider making the crystal in the picture with the seugathi, attached with harness, wires, and gizmos, to act as a minor artifact. When fully charged, it would mimic an 8th level spell with the Extend and Widen Spell metamagics, making it an 12th level equivalent spell. You can’t really do that in Pathfinder, but there are ways around it, thanks to things like metamagic rods and it being an artifact.

I’d call the item the “Bedim Sun Gem”, make it CL 20th, and have it cast heightened darkness (at level 9) along with the eclipse spell I had found (seriously, I found this years ago and have no idea where it originates from so if you know, PLEASE tell me). Was originally considering deeper darkness, but that hinders everybody.

ECLIPSE School transmutation [darkness]; Level sorcerer/wizard 8 Casting Time 10 minutes Components V, S, M (sun disk worth 500 gp and ink from a giant squid) Range 1 mile/level Area circle centered on you with a radius of 1 mile/level Duration 1 hour/level Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no You create a magical eclipse, blocking out the light of the sun and turning day into night. In the spell's area, lighting conditions are exactly like those at night, regardless of the actual time of day. If the sun is in the sky, it is visible as a faint halo surrounding a black circle. The stars and moon(s) are visible, just like the night sky. The area of the spell is considered nighttime for creatures that are affected by daylight or sunlight.

The eclipse spell blocks out one hour of daylight per caster level in the affected area. Time when the sun is below the horizon (i.e. nighttime) does not count against the spell's duration, so a high enough level caster could blot out the sun for two or more full days. Eclipse can even be cast at night, so that the sun is blocked out when it rises.

Material Component A golden sun disk worth 500 gp and ink from a giant squid, which the caster pours over the disk, dissolving it in a bubbling hiss like acid.

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Because eclipse is widened and extended, this immediately makes it 2 miles/level and its duration would be 2 hours/level. However, with it being an artifact, this length and duration would slowly increase over time until the entire world was encompassed in complete darkness. An estimation might be that total world enclosure takes about one month. You can speed up or slow down the process as you’d like.

For creatures that don’t like the sun, especially certain undead, or even a particular drow party that is considering taking over the world, this is the perfect spell to have access to. And with it being an artifact, it’s almost impossible to break. The party would have to look over this thing for a long time to even try ascertain a guess to destroy it. Turning it off, or keeping it from going off in the first place, would be significantly less difficult in the long run.

To destroy the artifact, a star archon would need to repeatedly blast the gem with its sunbeam spell-like ability continuously for 24 hours.

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Deep within the Zaraketh Mine, after solving a dwarven puzzle, what appears to be a mithral greataxe can be found by the party. To their astonishment, it’s actually an axe made of a new special material, gunzarak.

The provided lore says: But for all the dark elves’ skill in working this strange metal, it was in the forges of Dammerhall that the dwarves learned the secret of elevating mithral to its full potential. They could create an alloy that was lighter than aluminum, stronger than adamantine, as perfect a metal as this world has ever known. This was gunzarak (in dwarvish lit. the true gift of the earth) or “true mithral”. Even the drow had never seen its equal and it was Dammerhall’s gift to the world. Even today, centuries after the last sword of true mithral was forged, many a dynasty counts among its greatest heirlooms these dwarven blades and armors.The secret of making ‘true mithral’ was lost with the fall of Dammerhall. The dwarves too jealously guarded their secret and when calamity fell, the secret was lost. Perhaps there will never again come forth a smith capable of making gunzarak. Perhaps this jewel of dwarven lore is forever beyond the kin of mortals.

As written, the magic axe reads as thus:

The Axe of Horath Rocknose Aura moderate conjuration and transmutation; CL 10th Slot --; Price 27,320 gp; Weight 6 lbs. DESCRIPTION This is a +1 keen dragon-bane greataxe made of gunzarak (true mithral). It counts as both being made of adamantine while possessing the weight reduction of mithral. For the purpose of damage reduction it is considered as both an adamantine, silver and magic weapon. CONSTRUCTION Requirements Craft Arms and Armor, creator must know the secret of working true mithral, keen edge summon monster I; Cost 13,660 gp

Given its stats, it’s obvious that this was to be a major boon in Book 3. It can also be assumed that if the axe is shown to the stone golem blocking the secret passageway to Dammerhall, that’s part of the key needed for bypassing the guardian.

From a designer stance, this item has a few issues in the math and wording, but that’s okay. What’s important is that you can still discern its capabilities and what the author was trying to convey when he made it.

With what’s provided, and a little reverse engineering, we are able to deduce that, theoretically, gunzarak is worth 775 gp/lb. This is a little more than 1.5x what mithral costs (500 gp/lb.). That sounds reasonable enough.

Over the past month, I’ve had multiple discussions with some fellow game designers, as well as a bunch of players that I know. The reason being is designing special materials is a balancing act that many aren’t very good at. The conversations went from “treat this like a magic item and make the lowest cost be 1.5x the price and add the highest base, or at least add an additional percentage to the total price” to “adamantine in Pathfinder 1e and 3.5 was overpriced, so unless that gets fixed, you won’t get a proper price for this material.” What was also mentioned was that it was nice that this replicated both mithral and adamantine as a whole, like a magic item, what was special about it? What made it its own material that people would covet? Sure it was both mithral and adamantine, but you could find magic items that would made things better and cheaper, or even psionic powers or spells that could do it better, for cheaper, and not have any sort of weaknesses short of being dispelable. “True silver”, another special material (from Paizo), is processed to the point it was immune to rusting effects, so why wouldn’t true mithral have something similar, if not exactly the same? Again, all valid arguments.

In the end, after all the conversations had completed, this ended up being the final numbers and abilities. As such, I’d recommend the additional property be added to the axe in Book 2.

Gunzarak (True Mithral) Mithral that's been masterfully refined and processed, making it lighter than aluminum and stronger than adamantine. Armor: Heavy and medium armor are treated as one category lighter. ACP is reduced by 3 (to a minimum of 0), Dex bonus is increased by 2, and ASF is reduced by 10%. Grants untyped damage reduction 1/— (light), 2/— (medium), 3/— (heavy) Weapons: Ignore hardness of less than 20. Considered adamantine and silver with regards to bypassing DR. Special: Always considered masterwork. Immune to rusting effects. Hardness 20; Hit Points 30 per inch Armor Costs: Light (+6,000 gp), Medium (+15,000 gp), Heavy (+22,000 gp) Weapons and other items: 775 gp/lb.

It shouldn’t need explanation, but just in case, “rusting effects” include that of rusting monsters and the rusting grasp spell. Also, true mithral isn’t adamantine, even if it counts as such, so it won’t have the same ‘hit points per inch’.

I know that some people are going to argue that it’s way too cheap, but it’s honestly not. Adamantine is way too overpriced, and you fail a single save against a rusting effect and that PC is out their armor. Not to mention, given any other price point, you’re better off taking mithral armor and wearing a belt of Con for the additional hit points or something that can regenerate your heal in some way. Anything else would just be considered a waste of money. I know, the players I talked to schooled me pretty hard in that regard, and broke down the math. Not to mention, if you allow 3PP products in home games, a psychic warrior with the biofeedback power has DR 2/— for 1 minute/level, and can augment that to make it even higher. If you can turn that same power into a permanent magic item, it costs 8,000 gp to buy, but only 4,000 gp to make. It’s about being practical with your money at higher level, and crafting items takes a long time when it’s in the high, high thousands.

That said, if you feel it should be significantly higher, like say: Light armor +6,500; Medium +16,000; and Heavy +28,500 gp, which were the original prices I was suggested to go with, then so be it, but don’t be surprised if the party tries to sell the items for something cheaper and more practical, and bank the rest of the gold. Even more so if they’re playing with the kind of GM who is very strict about the wealth table, and being even 1 gold piece over it means you’re “broken” and no longer allowed an allowance until such time that you become high enough level to earn gold again. And, yes, those GMs absolutely exist, and players take that into consideration when it comes to their purchases. I will mention that my original prices were actually lower (14k and 20k for medium and heavy), but I was quickly talked out of it.

Again, this is what the decision came to be after multiple conversations with fellow TTRPG game designers (most having previously worked for Paizo) and players who’ve all played in very confining and restricted wealth games. In the end, we were all able to walk away happy. I have absolutely no idea how much Gary originally intended this material to cost, and I’m more than curious, but he had connections with Paizo as well (namely the director and lead designer, Jason Bulmahn), so it’s possible that our numbers aren’t all that different.

Segway: For anyone curious what a more practical cost for adamantine would be, Purple Duck Games published it as 750 gp for light weapons, 1500 gp for one-handed, and 3000 gp for two-handed. Armor was 4000, 8000, and 12000, respectfully. When it came to gunzarak, it was quoted as likely being 6000, 12000, and 18000 for the different armors. Weapons would probably start at 800 gp, to make it more of a round number, and different from adamantine. Mithral was also dropped to 350 gp for light weapons, 700 for one-handed, and 1400 for two-handed. Armor was 1000, 2000, and 3000. It sounds cheap, but the new Pathfinder 1.5 system they developed removed arcane spell failure.

Getting back to the original subject though, in Book 3, the party was supposed to discover the art of how to process the mithral, and I would bet that like in Book 2, the axe the PCs find is a key to a safe or another puzzle, that has that exact formula for how they’d do it. As to what that process is, I’ll leave it up to the GM. Their game, their rules. They would know best how it should be done in their own home games in their own home world.

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With that, the “Throne of Night” AP is complete. At least for now. All the known monsters have been identified and given stats (or linked to stats), the gunzarak is fleshed out a little more, an alternate race (that we should have seen in Book 3) was provided, a couple of extra monsters were added for additional encounters, more items were designed or showcased, and Mike’s fantastic art was shown off. Not to mention an entire AD&D adventure converted to Pathfinder 1e to help anyone finish their game without having to rely on books that don’t exist, and still give the AP some sense of finality. If there’s any more than that, I’ll do them as they come by may. At the very least, there’s more than enough to do your own game and give it a respectful ending.

If anything more if required, I made a resource page and posted a link on the Paizo forum for everyone to access. It has all of the relevant posts, additional adventures that could be used, suggestions and ideas from other GMs who homebrewed the rest of their own game, etc. A treasure trove of information for anyone needing it.

Starting off, we have what might have been an encounter in Book 4. Maybe.

Advanced Nysrock Demon (CR 14)

The nysrock demon is essentially the advisor or secretary for a demon lord. It would make sense that a city ruled by a demon binder, or someone very close to demons, would have such a creature there.

Vemerak (CR 14)

There’s a couple of options for this one. Either this is the first “taste” of a Lovecraftian monster during Book 4, while the PCs are trying to gather allies to take down demon worshiping and half-demon drow, or it’s in Book 6 with all the other Lovecraft stuff, but with significantly more HD added to it.

Purple Worm (CR 12)

Specifically, a “controlled” purple worm, as per Michael’s notes. It seems to have a control collar on it, so perhaps a collar version of manacles of cooperation, or something to that effect. This could work during any of the earlier books (namely 3 or 4). The worm could be the “pet” of a drow or a corrupted dwarf. If it’s for a higher level encounter, then maybe the Advanced +1 CR template wouldn’t be a bad idea, but if it’s also possible that the party might short circuit that collar and it end up turning on its “master”.

These next two I’m basically lumping together because I don’t know what else to do.

Brain Cylinder (CR 1/4)

These were the absolute closest I could find. The small one might be the “human scholar” example, but drow, and perhaps the bigger one belongs to a titan or giant, and belongs the long dead body that the sunkiller is attached to.

I did find the template, but again, not sure if either of these pictures represent this particular “creature”.

The only other thing I could think of was Gary was trying for the old fashioned D&D 3.5 brain in a jar monster. I mean, maybe if this was 5e or written for 3.5, but it doesn’t really work for Pathfinder 1e.

Honestly, deep dive thinking, there’s also the Brain Cylinder (Wondrous Item), but that would also mean that a mi-go is also somehow involved, or similar creature, but unfortunately there’s no art of one. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t one, but I don’t know. To be perfectly honest, I’m stumped on this one.

Lastly, this is a picture I’ve shared before, but I honestly thought it was Michael’s interpretation of a veiled master aboleth, which I then did a build for thinking it’d be a Book 5 or 6 encounter. That  might not actually be the case though, and could just be a generic sea serpent (linked below), if the tag it was given on Michael’s homepage is accurate.

Sea Serpent (CR 12)

If that’s the case, then this thing will need a few templates and a bunch of added HD, because it’s not amphibious, and needs to breath air. It’s kind of pointless, but the +0 CR amphibious template might a decent start. Then you’d need one to let it see in the dark, or one to give it the ability to create light so it can see in the dark, etc. Also, it’s gargantuan, so it might very well swallow the boat and its passengers in one gulp.

Or, it could be a Deep Sea Serpent (CR 19). Much higher CR and has darkvision, but there’s still the issue of it being so big that it could essentially swallow the entire party and their vessel in one gulp. Also, still not amphibious, which means it needs air. Would still have to apply the template.

This person? is called Castellan. Or at least that’s what the picture is saved as. I can’t even hazard a guess as to what this creature is. An efreeti, maybe? A zombie lord merchant? Ghast? I’m hoping not some variant of lich. It has elf-like ears so could have once been a drow. The skin looks incredibly burned and has very long nails. If anyone has a guess, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update the post accordingly.

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But that about does it for the additional encounters for all of the books from 3 to 6.

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Finally, the art for the Book 7/Book X Kickstarter Exclusive.

If you’re at all interested in what might all be here, check out my half-god build that I made four years ago. I also did up a phylactery shield guardian just to give it a bit more challenging an encounter.

About the only thing I don’t have built is this picture of the lich’s lab.

I don’t know what’s inside that jar, but it could be literally anything. World ending, even. Maybe an incredibly deadly ooze. Perhaps the secret to eternal youth or the liquid science for phylacteries.

There are no details released for this book, and it’s not really set to any one particular section of the adventure. To be honest, it probably was no more than 20 pages long. Maybe the equivalent to a Pathfinder Society scenario. Something that could be run in 4-5 hours from start to finish. This “book” is more of a side quest should the PCs decide to explore the uncharted seas. As such, the CR I gave it is a little low, but no finite. It could happen while the PCs are first exploring book 5, it could happen with them leaving the city in Book 4 early, maybe right before they enter the aboleth city in Book 6, or this could be something they do well after facing off against the final boss in and this is literally Book 7 with the PCs all at level 20 and itching for more of a battle. As written right now, this is only a CR 19 encounter, at best.

If adding more class levels isn’t your thing, changing this build from a dread lich to a mythic lich is always an option, but one that should be carefully considered. It’s a cheap thing to do, but my go-to if you need something really powerful is to add the mighty template. In this case, it’d made the half-god into a CR 23, which is quite respectable.

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And with that, more of less, Throne of Night is complete. I still have a one or two more entries to go over, but they’re fairly minor overall.

Thank you for coming along with me on this underground journey of theorizing what this adventure path might have been like after the first two books.