Strange Brew: Book of Shadows

My next book out for Pathfinder is now out!

Strange Brew: Book of Shadows

From the blurb:

Legends say that witches keep their spells inscribed into a Book of Shadows that holds their accumulated wisdom and power.

Here, in Strange Brew: Book of Shadows, you’ll find magic drawn from real-world legends, mythology, and folktales, as well as pure flights of fancy. Within Strange Brew: Books of Shadows, you will find over 100 spells and a half-dozen rituals, enough to delight your characters, bedevil your foes, and make your witch (or other spellcaster, whether arcane or divine) a formidable opponent.

Witches are magical creatures.

All for your Pathfinder Role-Playing Game!

50 pages, full color.
Again. Special thanks to +Rich Howard  and +Robert Hudson  for helping me get this together. And of course my editor/publisher +Christina Stiles The cover art is by +Jacob Blackmon,  whom I have featured here many times.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Spellbook Gaming Boxes

I love seeing things on Kickstarter that I have never seen before.   Today's feature certainly qualifies.

Spellbook Gaming Boxes

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1584169644/spellbook-gaming-boxes/

I mean seriously.  These look so cool.
I particularly love the one that can hold the four minis and the dice.  My first though went right to my iconic witch character Larina.  I have four different minis to represent her at different power levels, and I always have some nice dice.

Now if they only had a pentagram for the cover!

Witch spells for Nox

I have expanded on my write-up on Nox, Goddess of the Near Dark, for the Petty Gods project.

Here are some new spells for followers of Nox and a new minion.

As always the material below (except the art) is released as Open under the terms of the OGL.

Section 15: "Witch Spells for Nox" Copyright © 2015 Timothy S. Brannan.

Summon Fyre Fae
Affiliation: Nox, Goddess of Near Dark
Level: Cleric (Nox) 3, Magic-User (Wizard) 3, Witch 3
Range: 150’ + 50’/level
Duration: Special (see below)
By means of this spell the cleric or witch may summon a Fyre Fae, a small pixie like creature the glows much in the same way as a Will O’ The Wisp.  The cast beeches a boon from Nox, who knows the location of hidden things, and summons the fyre fae to find what they seek.  The caster must be specific in what they are looking for and it must be within the range of the spell.  So for example a caster can ask “please help me find the key to unlock the door to the Dungeons of Dragoth-umar” if the key is within the range, then the fyre fae will find it and return to the caster. Requests like “help me find the safest route” or “help me find the way home” may not always have the most direct route, but they will lead the caster in generally the correct direction.
The duration of the spell is equal to 10 minutes plus 1 minute per level of the caster.  The spell though will always end once the last rays of the sun are gone and true night has started.  When the spell ends the fyre fae will disappear.
Attacked fyre fae also disappear.  Casters that summon the minions of Nox and attack them will also discover that they will no longer be allowed to summon a fyre fae.

Summon Gloaming
Affiliation: Nox, Goddess of Near Dark
Level: Cleric (Nox) 5, Magic-User (Wizard) 5, Witch 5
Range: 50’
Duration: Permanent/till dispelled
The followers of Nox know that her power lies not in light or dark but in the shadows and near dark in between.  While many know of the playful fyre fae that serve Nox, few know of her other servitors, the Gloamings.
A gloaming is a shadow-like creature that often takes the shape of a large, but indistinct animal. The gloaming summoned will attack a group of creatures that the caster chooses.  The gloaming will attack until the creatures or itself are dead.
The caster may summon 1 gloaming + 1 per every other level.  A summoned gloaming does not have the fear causing effects of a naturally occurring one.

Gloaming*
Armor Class: 14
Hit Dice: 5*
Alignment: Neutral
No. of Attacks:  2 claw / 1 bite + Fear
Damage: 1d4/1d4 1d6 + 1 point Strength loss + Fear
Movement: 45'
No. Appearing: 1d6, Wild 1d10
Save As: Fighter: 6
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: None
XP: 660

A gloaming is a shadow creature that is typically found in wild, untamed places.  Mostly discovered in the time between sunset and the full dark of night these creatures appear to be large, but indistinct shadow creatures. They are on four legs and stand about 3’ to 4’ high with a massive head. The only features that are distinct are their eyes which glow amber, red or green.  Sometimes confused with hell hounds, a gloaming is an undead creature. It is the undead creature of a large predatory animal, but it does not attack on sight.  Typically a gloaming will radiate an aura of fear (as per the spell, cast by a 5th level caster) to scare off interlopers.  Failing that they will attack with a claw/claw/bite routine.  Only on a successful bite attack will a gloaming drain 1 point of strength.
A gloaming is an undead creature and can be turned as a 5 HD creature (or as a Wraith, depending on your system of choice).

New Spells: Blessings of The Morrígan

Couple new spells I have been playing around with.  I was inspired by reading the overviews of the Artesia comic that Trey is doing over at From the Sorcerer's Skull.  I picked up the first couple of comics and they are good.  They certainly remind me a lot of Celtic myth, but there is more to it than that.   It got me thinking about this article saying that if there were a zombie apocalypse we would not have to worry because nature would wipe out all the zombies.  In particular birds would eat them.

So what is an a party to do then when a group of zombies, who are immune it seems from the fauna of your world, show up and ooops, they don't have a cleric to turn them?  Simple. They make sure their witches and druids have these spells.

Still playing with the damage.  I wanted them to be right around "fireball" strength, but given the higher level and the fact they only effect undead I was fine with the extra 1d12.  Let me know what you think.  Also I am releasing it as "open" under the OGL.  So take it and use it how and where you like including publishing your own stuff.

All material below this point is Open for terms of the OGL.
Section 15: "Blessings of The Morrígan" Copyright 2014 Timothy S. Brannan

Blessings of The Morrígan

Clerics are granted blessings from their deities in dealing with the undead.  Nearly all gods want the dead (whom they are caretakers of) to be at rest. A soul roaming free after death cannot be claimed by any god.  So clerics can turn or destroy undead creatures as their own gods wish.
Other followers of gods and of divine or arcane principles, such as druids and witches, lack this innate power.  Some have learned magic though to mimic it.

Blessings of The Morrígan
Level: Druid 4, Witch 4
Range: Corporeal Undead within sight
Duration: Instantaneous
By the means of this spell the druid or witch sends out a plea to The Morrígan, the great Battle Mother, Crow of War.  Instantly several murders of crows fly out from a spot just above the caster toward  any corporeal (ie Physical) undead the caster can see.  The crows bite and pick at the undead till 1d12 + 1d6 per caster's level is done in total damage.  Damage is divided up among all the undead creatures with weakest getting damaged first. Any creature reduced to 0 HP is dead and stripped clean of all flesh it had renaming.  In the case of skeletons they simply die. Creatures not damaged will be held for 1 extra round while the crows fly about.
This spell will effect skeletons, zombies, ghouls, ghasts, wights, mummies, vampires and liches.  The crows are considered magical.  It has no effect of ghostly or ghost like undead.
This spell has no damaging effects on living creatures, though for the round the spell is cast they are temporarily held (as per a Hold Person spell) and blinded (as per a Light or Darkness spell). Both of these conditions are removed at the end of the current combat round.
Material Components: A feather of a crow found feasting on a corpse after a battle. Only one feather may be used per crow.  The feather disappears after this spell is cast.

Blessings of The Morrígan, Greater
Level: Druid 6, Witch 6
Range: Incorporeal Undead within sight
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell is identical to the 4th level Blessings of The Morrígan spell, save this one will affect Incorporeal undead.  The crows will appears as ghostly crows and only partially in our own reality.
This spell will effect wraiths, spectres, banshees, ghosts, shadows and other ghost like undead.  It has no effect on corporeal or physical undead unless that undead creature also has become incopreal, such as a lich in the Ethereal plane or a vampire that has become incorporeal.

I get the BEST Spam!

So I have mentioned before I don't sweat Spam here. I don't use CAPTCHA. I see it. I delete it. No big.  But every so often I get something rather fun.

This one was posted on my recent Basic Witch Spells.  I did a quick search and it is posted all over the net in one way or another, mostly on web sites/blogs offering to cast spells for you for a price.

natasha michael has left a new comment on your post "New Basic Witch Spells": 

I will not stop testifying about this great man who helped me. My name is Natasha, i live in spain, USA. I have been married to my husband for 15 years and we ARE both blessed with four kids living together happily, until last three months things was no longer the way it used to be due to the fact that husband lost his good paid job. But he later gets a new job this month and this was the beginning of our trouble, he started sleeping outside our matrimonial home. Only for me to find out that he was having an affair with the lady that gave him the job. since that day every thing became more complicated and when i call him, he doesn't answer my phone calls. My husband just kept on seeing the lady until he filed for a divorce and left the kids and I with nothing, we went through hell because it wasn't easy taken care of kids all alone.

On one faithful day, as I was surfing through the internet, I came across several testimonies about this particular spell caster called high pries ozigididon. Some people testified that he brought their Ex lover back,some testified that he restores womb,cure cancer,and other sickness, some testified that he can cast a spell to stop divorce and also spell to get a good paid job and so on. He is amazing, i also come across one particular testimony, it was about a woman called jenifer, she testified about how he brought back her Ex lover in less than 48hours, and at the end of her testimony she dropped the High priest's e-mail address highpriestozigididon@gmail.com After reading all these, I decided to give it a try. I contacted him via email and explained my problem to him. He instructed me on what to do and In just 48hours, my husband came back to me begging at my feet. We resolved our issues, and we are even happier than ever. My husband quite the job and with the help of this same great man, he is now working with another company that pays much more than the former. High priest ozigididon is really a gifted man and i will not stop publishing him because he is a wonderful man. If you have a problem and you are looking for a real and genuine spell caster, Try him anytime, he might be the answer to your problems. you can contact High priest ozigididon on highpriestozigididon@gmail.com

The following are the spells that he can launch within 2 days;
(1) If you want your ex back . .
(2) Do you want to be promoted in your office.
(3) Want women/men who are after you.
(4) If you want a child.
(5) Do you want to be rich.
(6) You want your husband/wife to be yours forever .
(7) If you need financial help.
(8) Care Herbal
(9) Help get people out of jail
(10) Marriage Spells
(12) The beauty spells
(13) The Spell of Attraction
(14) Kissing Spell
(15) Remove Spells diseases
via his email:highpriestozigididon@gmail.com 

Great stuff!  High Priest Ozigididon.  What a cool freaking name!  Sounds like a
Yeah I left the links intact. I copied it as-is so you can see how fun this is.
In a way this is actually doing the spammer a favor.  But I seriously doubt anyone here is dumb enough to fall for this sort of scam.

High Priest Ozigididon, please meet Dr. Zabaza.

New Basic Witch Spells

A couple of new spells I have been working on for the witch. Designed to be used with The Witch for Basic Era Games but it can certainly be used by other classes such as the Necromancer or Vivimancer.

All spells and names are considered 100% Open in terms of the Open Gaming Licence.

Blood Augury
Level: Vivimancer 1, Witch 1
Range: Caster
Duration: One Question
This spell is a very limited augury where the caster can ask one question and watch how the blood reacts. If the witch uses her own blood the question must be about herself or someone close to her, if it is the blood of another then it can only be about that person.
The question must very specific; “which door should I take?”, “what is the safest way home?” Given the nature of the blood magic the question is usually related to life, death or mortality. The answer is entirely up to the game master.
Note: If a witch or vivimancer uses the blood of a pregnant woman then the answers will always be vague since it involves two lives. The one exception is if the witch asks the gender of the unborn babe.  This will always produce a correct answer.
Material Components: A pewter plate and a drop of blood.

Feel My Pain
Level: Necromancer 1, Vivimancer 1, Witch 1
Range: 50’
Duration: Instantaneous
The witch transfers pain and damage to another target in line of site.  She invokes the spell and either cuts herself or causes damage in some way, such as putting her hand in a torch fire.  She take 1 hp of damage (regardless of how much would have been dealt) and she turns and magnifies that on her target causing 1d6 points of damage.
Material Components: The material components for this spell are the witch's boline or dagger or what ever she uses to cause herself pain.

Share My Pain
Level: Necromancer 2, Vivimancer 2, Witch 2
Range: 25’
Duration: Instantaneous
With this spell the witch can turn damage caused to herself to another.  The witch can cast this spell after any attack that causes her damage and return the same damage to her attacker. Only the one that attacked and damaged the witch can be effected.
Material Components: The witch must have been damaged for at least 1 hp of damage.

Stay Death's Hand
Level: Necromancer 1, Vivimancer 1, Witch 1
Range: 1 Target touched
Duration: 1 round/level
By casting this spell the caster will cause one target touched to stop loosing hit points if they have reached 0 or less.  For the duration of this spell the recipient will not die from their wounds.  This spell does not prevent the target from taking additional damage, say from fire or additional attacks. Nor does this heal damage.
Material Components: A touch and a soothing word.

Vigor

Level: Cleric 1, Witch 1

Range: 1 Target touched

Duration: 1 round/level

This spell allows the caster to temporary increase the Constitution score, with associated hit points, of a single touched creature.  The witch herself will take a temporary loss of 1 point of Constitution and 1d4 hp.

The increase is 2d4 (2-8) and lasts a number of rounds equal to the witch's level.  Hit points lost will be from these temporary hit points first.  When the spell is complete the witch's Constitution returns to its original value but the hit points are lost till healed.

Material Components: The life essence given up by the witch.

Witch's Cradle

Level: Witch 4

Range: One target in line of sight

Duration: 1 round/level

With this spell the witch can cause one target in visual range to have all their senses completely blocked. They cannot hear, speak, feel, smell or see anything for the duration of the spell. If the witch ends the spell, becomes unconscious or is killed then the spell automatically ends.

The spell is similar, but superior to, the Hold Person spell."

Material Components: A bit of string or cord the witch wraps around the fingers of her off-hand.

Section 15
The Witch: A sourcebook for Basic Edition fantasy games, Copyright 2012 Timothy S. Brannan
Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts, Copyright 2013 +Dyson Logos
The Complete Vivimancer, Copyright 2014 Necrotic Gnome Productions and +Gavin Norman
New Basic Witch Spells, Copyright 2014 Timothy S. Brannan