#pactbinder

Most of the Pactbinder’s first term, including a few classes and their first opportunities to practise each of the Masteries before committing to their first choice of magic.

Signups for Societies, and their first session for each choice.

A Halloween party during which absolutely nothing goes wrong.

The Pactbinder’s first chance to roam Hightower freely and pursue their own interests and curiosities!

Seriously, nothing goes wrong. I swear.

I hope that you enjoy the release, and please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any feedback or commentary; I’m making sure I have the time to spare over the next couple of days to review and action it!

As always, views on the game so far and comments are truly gratefully received - we're moving slowly towards the conclusion of the end of first-term, and part 1 of the book.

Ancestry and Background

Despite his looks, Gilles is still a Human, giving him two free ability boost which we’re taking in Strength and Intelligence. You know tactics, you have sword. easy peasy.

You’re also a Skilled human, giving you a sneaky peak into Occultism- you get training at this level, and expertise at level 5. Also at level 1, you become a Devil’s Advocate, giving you a +2 bonus to perceive devils, and your saves against them. you can also gladhand devils in social situations- you can make an impression immediately with a penalty, but if you fail you can try again after a minute of talking like usual. I know your book’s more about eldritch abominations, but you gotta start somewhere, right?

at level 5 you get that occultism boost I mentioned, and that’s enough to make you a Wavetouched Paragon, giving you a swim speed. I know you don’t become a squid now til we get to the casters, but hey, it’s flavor.

At level nine you’re a Hardy Traveler, increasing your bulk limits by 1 and giving your party an extra 10’ of speed during overland travel. I give Gilles a lot of shit in this series, but he can really move an army around when he wants to. Like, he gets a whole-ass army from Lyon to Orleans in, what, a couple days? That’s some speed for the 14th century.

at level 13 his Stubborn Persistence that no, King Arthur is actually Jeanne d’Arc, you don’t know her like I do, makes it harder for him to get fatigued. whenever you’d become fatigued, you can make a dc 17 flat check, and on a success you just. don’t.

at level 17, your advanced general training gives you an Arcane Sense, letting you detect magic at will. Makes it a lot easier to fall to the tentacly side if you can actually see them, y’know?

Since saber Gilles is still leading the French army, he’s still a Warrior, giving him a boost in constitution and charisma. he also becomes trained in intimidation and warfare lore, and also gets the Intimidating Glare feat, letting you demoralize foes with a glance, avoiding the penalty from trying it on a creature that can’t understand you.

Class Levels

1. Fighter proficiencies! your key ability is strength, you start off trained in will saves, advanced weapons, your class DC, all armor, athletics, society, religion, arcana, and deception. as you boost your intelligence, you’ll also learn survival, crafting, stealth, and thievery. you’re also an expert in perception, fortitude and reflex saves, and all non-advanced weapons.

first level isn’t just proficiencies though, so you can use your Ability Boosts on Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence. You can also make an Attack of Opportunity as a reaction, hitting someone who moves, manipulates, or makes a ranged attack near you. The secret to winning a war is making everyone else lose.

To help with that, you can also make an Exacting Strike after making at least one attack in a turn, so any missed attacks don’t count for your multiple attack penalty.

And once again, Shield Block. Gilles doesn’t have a shield, but if you want one, it’s an option.

2. As a second level fighter, you become a Devoted Guardian. A very, very devoted guardian. This means you can spend an extra action after raising a shield to give an ac bonus to an adjacent creature as well as yourself. I know I just said Gilles doesn’t have a shield, but his sword’s one-handed and this is flavorful, so suck it up.

You also become a Charlatan, so people don’t catch on to the whole. Squid. Thing. And the kid thing too, but that’s too depressing to make a joke about. In PF2E though, a charlatan can deceive people into thinking your use of a magic item is actually a spell you’re casting. That book’s pretty special, make sure nobody figures out what’s in it.

If you want something that’s actually useful right now though, we have to pick up the Marshal Dedication, making you trained in diplomacy and giving you a marshal’s aura, a 10-foot radius of soldiery goodness giving you and any allies in it a +1 bonus against fear. You’re a regular guy fighting a zombie Jeanne d’Arc that commands dragons, that’s pretty fucking scary.

3. To push things further, third level fighters have Bravery, making you an Expert in will saves. in addition, succeeding against a fear effect is always critical, and your frightened condition always starts one lower than usual.

You’re also Schooled in Secrets, making it easier to gather information on cults and the like by using Occultism instead of Diplomacy. You also automatically recognize other members of your cult unless they’re hiding from you. I mean, they’ll definitely be able to recognize you, so it’s only fair you can recognize them. Not many people around looking like a popeyed goldfish. You also get better at Deception to hide the whole “cult” thing from the general public.

4. At fourth level you can spend two actions to Swipe up to two adjacent foes, dealing one roll of damage to each hit creature. If you’re spending more time in court, you can also use Discreet Inquiries to find more sources of occult information, letting you hide your true purposes from others.

You can also enter an Inspiring Marshal Stance, giving nearby creatures a +1 bonus against attacks and mental saves. We all know he’s kind of skeevy in the end, but he’s not publicly skeevy, so he’s not intimidating.

5. At fifth level you get another Ability Boost in Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma. Your Fighter Weapon Mastery also makes you a proper saber by helping you master non-advanced swords and become an expert with advanced swords. You also have access to sword’s critical specialization, making creatures flat-footed after you score a critical hit on them.

Finally, you get trained in Medicine. You’re no doctor, but I’m sure you can patch yourself up in an emergency.

6. You might not be scary, but you’ll happily take advantage of creatures that are, letting you Shatter Defenses of frightened creatures, making them flat-footed if you hurt them, and if they were already flat-footed they can’t shake off their fear for a round.

You can also use Magical Shorthand to learn spells more easily. We’ll use that in a bit, don’t worry. You can also use this to learn spells while earning income, which… might work with the Ritualist class later? I don’t know.

To keep up that fighter façade, you can also call out for a Rallying Charge using two actions, moving up to your speed and making a melee attack. If it hits and deals damage, every ally nearby gets temporary HP for a round. See? Jeanne’s not the only one who can inspire an army! She’s just better at it.

7. A seventh level fighter is a Battlefield Surveyor, making you a master in perception and giving you an extra +2 bonus to initiative, so you can always be on the front line! You’re putting Gilles in your front line, right?

You also have Assurance in Occultism now, so you can always skip rolling and take a 10 plus your proficiency bonus when casting freaky spells. Speaking of, you’re a master in Occultism now too. Have fun with the squids!

You also have Weapon Specialization, helping you deal extra damage with weapons you’re good at using. Which is all weapons.

8. Eighth level fighters have Resounding Bravery, so when you critically succeed at a will save, you get a +1 bonus to all saves and temporary HP for one minute. If it’s against fear (which you always critically succeed at btw), the effects are doubled. You looked at the things that give most people nightmares and were like, “yeah, I can work with that. those are gonna be my co-workers”.

This is why you have Disturbing Knowledge. By spending two actions, you can read out a list of your starfishes’ names with an Occultism check against the affected party’s will DC, freaking out a target enemy within 30’ (or anyone within 30’ if you’re a legend) once per day per creature. On a critical success, they’re confused for one round and frightened 1. They’re just frightened on a regular success, nothing happens on a failure, and on a critical failure you become frightened instead. Except you don’t since you’re a fighter and frightened 0 isn’t a thing. So really there’s no downside beside the fact that it uses two actions.

Finally, you read enough of Prelati’s book to become a Ritualist, teaching you three uncommon ritual spells now, and one more every four levels. Right now we’ll keep is simple: an Elemental Sentinel here for an alarm system, an Unseen Custodian there to keep the manor looking spiffy, and maybe a Concealment’s Curtain so you can go about your business without arousing suspicion.  

9. At ninth level your Combat Flexibility lets you mix and match an extra fighter class feat of 8th level or lower that can be switched up every day. You’re also a Juggernaut, making you a master in fortitude who always gets critical successes when they don’t fail.

You’re also better at deception now. You’re doing evil magic, don’t tell nobody, capiche?

10. At tenth level you get another Ability Boost in Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma, and you can make a Certain Strike after making at least one other attack- even if you miss (but not critically), you still deal a little damage.

You also know some Slippery Secrets, so even mind-reading has a chance of failure if your deception check is good enough.

One of the biggest issues with cults is that you need to work with other people. Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead and all that jazz. Thankfully as a Flexible Ritualist you now need one less caster to help out, taking up the secondary role in their place.

11. At level eleven your Armor Expertise does exactly what you’d expect, giving you expertise in all armor. you also get the specialization effects of medium and heavy armor. I don’t know what the half-armor half-robe outfit counts as, but it’s probably up there, right? You also get Fighter Expertise, which again, does what you’d expect, as well as expertise in Athletics.

Finally, for something that isn’t expertise, pick up Deceptive Worship, letting you use that hefty occultism score to impersonate the worshipper of another faith, like say, Christianity. You still need deception to be a specific person, but at least you won’t get lynched. For a bit.

12. At level twelve you can deliver a Brutal Finish as an action, ending your turn but dealing one extra die of weapon damage, even if you miss the attack. This one only works if you’re two-handing the weapon, so maybe pick up a bastard sword. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.

You also have some Bizarre Magic, making the DC to Recognize Spells you’re casting a bit higher than usual. These rituals take days to set up, it would suck if someone figured out you’re trying to summon an elder god and stopped you at the last second.

To make that last second even faster, you can now make Efficient Rituals- If a ritual takes a day, it now takes 4 hours. If it takes multiple days, it takes half that time rounded up. For example, when you Commune with extraplanar beings it only takes 4 hours, and since you can take the space of a secondary caster you can do this all on your own. You call up the creature to answer yes or no questions, even getting short answers on critical successes, and can ask up to 7 questions in the 10 minutes you have them on the phone.

13. At level 13, you learn we live in a Society. Enough for expertise in dealing with it, at least. You’re also a Weapon Legend, making you a legend (appropriately enough) with simple and martial swords, a master with simple and martial weapons plus advanced swords, and an expert with all other advanced weapons.

Yep. That’s the whole level! I mean, this is also the level you get Stubborn Persistence, but we covered that already.

14. Your brand-new Disruptive Stance lets you use your attack of opportunity on anything that uses concentration as well as moving and all that, and if you hit, it’ll disrupt their concentrate or manipulate action. A sword to the face from a madman tends to be pretty distracting.

You’re also a Resourceful Ritualist, which despite being ritualist-exclusive isn’t part of the archetype. whatever. It lets you cast rituals that require one step more proficiency than you actually have in any skill. You’re a self-taught eldritch caster, after all.

I mean. You’re totally a normal fighter. No time to think about what I just said, To Battle! Spend one or two actions, shout, and a nearby ally can react to stride if you spent one action or strike if you spend two. Whew, almost dropped your disguise there!

15. Use this Ability Boost to bump up your Constitution, Charisma, Intelligence, and Strength. You also get Evasion, making you a master in reflex saves, plus your successes are always critical. Like every other save you make now.

I guess we gotta get more active to avoid suspicion, right? Pick up a Powerful Leap for an additional 5’ on vertical and horizontal leaps. You also get Greater Weapon Specialization, and Improved Flexibility, both doubling down on existing feats. Yeesh, not even Pathfinder knows what to do with martial classes.

One more thing- you’re now Legendary in Occultism. There’s no feat to go along with it, but you can feel real accomplished now. Plus, Disturbing Knowledge is now an AoE effect!

16. At this level you become a Stance Savant, dropping into a stance as a free action when initiative starts. Hunker down and get ready to protect Jeanne like you always do! Except for that one time, but still!

You can also apply Battle Medicine, letting you heal someone with healer’s tools as an action, once per person per day.

At sixteenth level you can also learn the terrifyingly powerful ritual, Legend Lore! You can learn legends about a subject, learning even more if they’re present, and learning less if you don’t know much. Also don’t crit fail this one- you’ll spend a whole week out of commission why is legend lore a seventh level ritual?

Whatever. With this, your mastery of rituals has improved to the point that you can pick up the Pactbinder Dedication, letting you make a Binding Vow. This spends an action making a promise that is very clearly magical and important- if you break the vow you lose all pactbinder bonuses until you finish your job or attone. You also can’t make vows that you were going to enact anyway, so… I doubt this will get much use outside of what we need it for.

On the plus side, all request or coerce actions that will fulfill  your vow get a +1 bonus against creatures aware of it.

You’re also an expert in diplomacy now, as well as arcana.

17. I know we’re leaving you hanging on what pactbinder could possibly be useful for, but we’ll get back to that, I promise. For now, a short intermission.

Armor Mastery: Guess what you get from that.

Also, you’re legendary in deception now. Gotta keep those pacts under wraps, after all. Especially with what you’re about to make a deal with…

18. Eighteenth level fighters can make Savage Criticals- if you make an attack with a weapon you’re legendary with, you can crit on 19s and 20s if a 19 would hit anyway. If a nineteen can’t hit something at level 18, you probably shouldn’t be hitting it to begin with.

We start getting a little spooky when we Consult the Spirits once an hour, spending 10 minutes to recall knowledge with Occultism. If you succeed, you can ask the spirits of the land 1-3 simple questions about the area. Like, “Where can we find dragons around here?” feels pretty relevant to fighting the dragon witch.

We complete your fall to darkness by making a Pact of Eldritch Eyes, letting you cast prying eye once an hour. It creates a sensor at a spot within 500 feet of you, and each turn you can sustain the spell to move the eye up to 30’ feet, or 10’ if you want to be thorough.

You’ll get a bunch of nightmares from this, but you’ll also get trained in random lore each night. They might pop in during the day too, which normally doesn’t have a mechanical problem attached but it is disorienting.

19. At nineteenth level, you can perform a Rapid Mantel, letting you pull yourself up for free whenever you grab an edge.

You’re a master at Society, and thanks to being a Versatile Legend, advanced weapons and your class DC too. Plus, you’re a legend at all other weapons.

20. Our final level gives you an ability boost in Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom. Your Weapon Supremacy permanently gives you an extra action which can only be used to attack. Saint War Order is one hell of a drug.

You also learn some Doublespeak, so only allies who’ve traveled with you for more than a week can understand what you’re truly talking about. Or someone who critically succeeds on their perception check against your deception, but you’re really good at deception, so I wouldn’t worry about being found out.

Our final archetype feat is a Coordinated Charge, helping you properly kick off the Saint War Order by striding and striking using two actions. That’s not special, but if you hit, every ally within 60’ of you can use their reactions to stride closer to the creature you hit. It doesn’t deal extra damage, but it’s… kinda useful? A good representation of your NP, anyways.

For your final ritual, you can make a Supreme Connection with your eldritch buddy, summoning them for up to 10 minutes to answer up to seven yes or no questions. This is more a performance piece than actually getting info though, since you need a crowd around to get any answers.

On a critical failure, you’ll get the shit beaten out of you and everyone hates you a little bit more. On a failure, not much happens mechanically, but you don’t get any answers. On a success, you get your seven answers, and the audience believes the thing was telling the truth- meaning your deception and diplomacy checks get a bonus if they involve the thing’s answers. On a critical success, the entity is more likely to be honest, and you can even get short phrases for answers. Plus, you get a bigger bonus to fleece the crowd with.

It’s… not exactly a giant tentacle monster, but that’s more the caster’s schtick.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Gilles de Rais ended up having some surprisingly powerful saves available, making him really consistent in fights, especially when mental effects are getting thrown around. He’s got buffs, he’s got crit saves, and every time he makes a save he comes back stronger. Add in those special attacks that’ll keep you hitting consistently every time, and you can stick around a lot longer than you’d expect.

You’re also really deceptive when it comes to your magic, making it hard to figure out exactly what you have up your sleeve. Which is great, considering most of it is questionable at best, pure evil at worst.

Thanks to being a ritualist, you can pump out magic pretty quickly, especially considering the fact that you’re not even a caster yet! Plus, being a battlefield surveyor and having an extra eye to throw around is neat.

Cons:

A lot of your cooler features use two actions, and you only get three per turn. It's not terrible, but it is frustrating. Especially since that fourth action you get at the end of the build doesn't fix this, since it only works on basic strikes.

You're... pretty evil? I mean, not as much as your future self, but still, not good. While you are good at hiding it, that alignment will limit who you can work with, because...