Occult Skill Unlocks

Characters capable of casting psychic spells or who have the Psychic Sensitivity feat gain access to skill unlocks—a host of esoteric skill uses not available to other PCs. These are not entirely new skills, but rather new uses of existing skills for those trained in the occult arts. A character must be trained in the appropriate skill to use that skill’s unlock, even if the skill can normally be used untrained. It’s impossible to take 10 for an occult skill unlock. Occult skill unlocks require intense concentration and strenuous effort, so the amount a character can use each skill unlock is limited to once per day or per week. This limit is for all uses of the skill unlock; if a character uses hypnotism to implant a suggestion, he can’t also use it to recall memories on the same day.

Some new types of gear grant bonuses on specific occult skill unlocks.

Automatic Writing (Linguistics)

You can produce mysterious writing that pertains to the immediate future, either under the influence of enigmatic guiding spirits or by unleashing your subconscious intuition.

Check: Once per week, you can spend 1 hour posing questions while your hand unconsciously scribbles messages of varying legibility and accuracy. At the end of this hour, You attempt a Linguistics check to decipher the meanings of these messages. If successful, you gain information as though you had used augury. If you have 10 or more ranks in Linguistics, you can attempt a higher DC check to instead gain information as though you had used divination. The chance of successfully producing coherent or meaningful writing from any of these effects equals 60% plus 5% for every 1 by which your check result exceeds the DC (to a maximum of 90%). You must choose which DC you’ll try to meet before attempting the check. The GM rolls the check and d% roll secretly, so that you can’t tell whether the messages are accurate.

Writing Results Ranks Required DC
As augury spell 1 20
As divination spell 10 30

Action: Automatic writing takes 1 hour.

Try Again: Yes. You can attempt to learn more about a subject, but can still attempt only one check per week.

Dowsing (Survival)

You channel mysterious forces in the nearby environment to locate hidden resources.

Check: Once per day, you can follow a dowsing rod’s movements to locate a particular type of location. Each attempt requires 10 minutes of intense concentration, after which you attempt the Survival check with the DC listed on the table below. The maximum range at which you can detect anything using dowsing is 400 feet + 40 feet per rank in Survival you possess. The rod’s directions persist for up to 10 minutes. You choose a particular target each time you dowse, and get the following information on a successful check.

Find Water: The dowsing rod points toward the largest source of fresh water within range, including aquifers, lakes, ponds, and springs.

Grave Dowsing: The dowsing rod points in the direction of the largest burial site, cairn, or tomb within range.

Locate Metal and Gems: You concentrate on a specific metal or mineral. On a successful check, the dowsing rod points to the largest quantity of the selected mineral within range.

Dowsing Target DC
Water 15
Grave 20
Mineral 25

Action: Dowsing attempts take 10 minutes to initiate. The results of the check persist for 10 minutes afterward.

Try Again: Yes. You can try to dowse from the same location more than once, but still only once per day.

Faith Healing (Heal)

You apply esoteric principles to temporarily suspend or remove curses, diseases, and ability damage.

Check: You can use faith healing once per day. The DC and effect of the Heal check depend on the task you attempt. You can’t use faith healing on yourself.

Restore Vitality: You suppress ability damage. You perform a 1-hour ceremony, after which you attempt a Heal check against the DC of the effect that caused the ability damage.

If you succeed at the check, you temporarily suppress 1 point of ability damage for 1 hour, plus 1 additional point and hour for every 5 by which the check result exceeds the DC. A creature can benefit from this treatment no more than once per day.

Suspend Affliction: You treat one curse, disease, or poison affecting a creature. You enter into a deep trance for 1 hour while you treat the subject, after which you attempt your Heal check. If the check is successful, you suspend the effects of the affliction by 1 hour, plus 1 hour for every 5 by which you exceed the DC. This time doesn’t count against the effect’s duration (if any). The affliction can still be cured by other means while it’s suspended.

Remove Affliction: You can attempt to permanently remove an affliction in an 8-hour ceremony, after which you attempt a Heal check. If the result of the check is at least double the DC of the original affliction, the sufferer can attempt another saving throw using the original DC to permanently cast off the effect.

Task DC
Restore vitality Effect’s save DC
Suspend affliction Affliction’s save DC
Remove affliction Double the affliction’s save DC

Action: Restoring vitality and suspending afflictions each require 1 hour in a quiet environment. Permanent removal of afflictions requires 8 hours of heavy activity.

Try Again: Varies. A creature can’t be the subject of faith healing more than once per day. You can’t try to permanently remove an affliction again.

Hypnotism (Diplomacy)

You use the power of suggestion and subtle psychic influence to alter a subject’s mind and dredge up repressed memories.

Check: You can use hypnotism once per day. The DC of a Diplomacy check to hypnotize is 20 + the subject’s Will save modifier against mind-affecting enchantment (compulsion) effects. All uses of hypnotism are mind-affecting enchantment (compulsion) effects.

Implant Suggestion: You can implant a suggested course of reasonable action in the mind of a willing creature, along with a defined trigger. To implant a suggestion, you spend 1 minute inducing a trance-like state in the subject, after which you attempt a Diplomacy check. If the check is successful, You implant the course of action, as a suggestion spell with a duration of 10 minutes plus 10 additional minutes for every 1 by which your check result exceeds the DC. If the subject ceases to be willing, it can attempt a Will save once each round to shake off the effects. The save DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Charisma modifier. You can attempt to subtly implant a suggestion in the mind of an unwilling creature with an attitude of indifferent or better after 1 minute of continuous, calm interaction with that creature, but the DC is 10 higher.

Recall Memory: You can draw out forgotten memories from a willing subject. You spend 1 minute inducing a calming, trance-like state in the subject, after which you attempt a Diplomacy check. If you succeed at the check, the hypnotized creature can reroll any previously failed Intelligence or Knowledge check to recall the forgotten information with a +4 bonus. The information must be something the subject once knew or was exposed to.

Action: Hypnotism takes 1 minute of calm interaction.

Try Again: Yes. You can try to hypnotize the same creature more than once, but only once per day.

Phrenology (Knowledge [arcana])

You examine the skulls of intelligent creatures to analyze the subjects’ psychological attributes, since the shape of the brain influences the shape of the skull.

Check: Once per day, you can use your fingertips to examine the shape of a creature’s skull. Reading a creature’s skull requires 1 minute of concentration and scrutiny while

You physically manipulate the skull. This technique can be used on a willing, helpless, or paralyzed creature, or on decomposed remains (as long as the skull is intact or can be pieced together). This skill can’t be used on creatures without discernible skulls, such as constructs, elementals, oozes, or plants. After the minute is up, the GM attempts a secret Knowledge (arcana) check. The DC is typically modified by the subject’s Hit Dice. With a single check, You determine all the information whose DC you meet.

For instance, if you had a result of 22 when examining a creature with 2 HD, you would learn that creature’s race and age, gender, alignment, and class, but not its level or HD.

Task DC
Determine race and age 10
Determine gender 15
Determine alignment 15 + creature’s HD*
Determine class 20 + creature’s HD*
Determine level or HD 25 + creature’s HD*

*A dead creature’s skull uses the HD the creature had when alive.

Action: Reading a creature’s cranium requires 1 minute of uninterrupted study.

Try Again: Yes. Reexamining a skull may provide new insights. You can attempt only one such check per day.

Prognostication (Sense Motive)

You are skilled in means of folk divination. The most common methods are cartomancy (reading cards), cheiromancy (reading a creature’s palms), crystallomancy (crystal-gazing), extispicy (reading animal entrails), horoscopy (reading a creature’s birth stars), oneiromancy (interpreting dreams), osteomancy (reading cast bones), and pyromancy (reading flames).

Check: Once per day, you can predict a creature’s fortune for the near future. You spend 10 minutes interpreting the divination means at your disposal. The GM then attempts a secret Sense Motive check with a DC modified by the subject’s Hit Dice (see the table below). The result of the check can give you basic insight into the subject’s nature, including its alignment, class, and levels or Hit Dice, and might reveal clues to the creature’s immediate future.

Determining the immediate future as an augury spell has a chance of successfully interpreting meaningful readings equal to 60% plus 5% for every point by which the check result exceeds the DC (to a maximum of 90%). With a single check, you determine all the information whose DC you meet.

For instance, if you had a result of 22 when telling the fortune of a creature with 2 HD, you would learn that creature’s alignment and class, but not its level, HD, or fortune.

Task DC
Determine alignment 15 + creature’s HD
Determine class 20 + creature’s HD
Determine level or HD 25 + creature’s HD
Determine fortune as augury spell 25 + creature’s HD

Try Again: Yes. You can attempt to read a particular creature’s fortune repeatedly, but only once per 24 hours.

Special: Specially crafted items purchased for the exclusive use of this skill grant a +2 circumstance bonus on Sense Motive checks to prognosticate.

Psychometry (Appraise)

You can read the psychic impressions left on objects or in places by previous owners and events.

Check: Once per day, you can concentrate for 1 minute while in physical contact with an item or location, during which you receive flashes of insight regarding the subject’s nature and ownership. After 1 minute, you attempt a DC 15 Appraise check to decipher the visions. You gain one piece of information about the historical significance or the last previous owner—such as a glimpse of the last owner’s appearance or its emotional state when it last used the item—determined by the GM. You learn one more piece of information for every 10 by which your check result exceeds the DC, as long as you concentrate for 1 additional minute for each piece of information. If you fail the check by less than 5 or the item has no significant psychic imprint, you don’t learn any information. If you fail this check by 5 or more, the item appears to be psychically significant even if it’s not, and the information you gain is wildly inaccurate.

If you attempt to use psychometry on an item affected by charge object or implant false reading, you automatically learn all information imprinted by the spell. You must also attempt a Will save. If the item is affected by an implant false reading spell, on a success, you realize the information was false, and can determine the true information as well. On a failure, or if the item is affected by a charge object spell, you believe the information is true.

Action: Reading an object requires at least 1 minute of uninterrupted concentration.

Try Again: Yes. Multiple readings on an object or place always give the same results unless its circumstances or ownership have changed, but additional checks might reach further back into an object’s history. You don’t reroll the saving throw to determine if a psychic imprint is false.

You can still use psychometry only once per day.

Read Aura (Perception)

Your psychic sensitivity allows you to read the psychic and magical auras of creatures and objects.

Check: Once per day, you can examine the natural aura of a creature or object to discern the subject’s alignment, emotions, health, or magic. This requires 10 minutes of concentration, after which you attempt a Perception check. Each time, you must pick one of four auras to read: alignment, emotion, health, or magic. The result of the check applies only to the selected aura. You must be within 30 feet of the subject at all times during the reading.

Objects typically have only magic auras, though some also have alignment auras (and intelligent items have emotion auras). You can still attempt to detect a type of aura an object doesn’t have, but you get no results. The DC varies depending on the aura, as shown on the table.

Read Alignment Aura: You attempt to read the alignment aura, learning the alignment and its strength. An alignment aura’s strength depends on the creature’s Hit Dice or item’s caster level, as noted in the description of the detect evil spell.

Read Emotion Aura: The colors within the target’s aura reveal its emotional state. If successful, you learn the target’s disposition and its attitude toward any creatures within 30 feet of it. For a number of rounds equal to the amount by which you exceeded the skill check’s DC, You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks against the target.

Read Health Aura: Viewing the flow of vital force, you assess a creature’s physical condition. You learn if the creature is unharmed or wounded, if it is poisoned or diseased, and whether it is affected by any of the following conditions: confused, disabled, dying, nauseated, panicked, staggered, stunned, and unconscious. You also learn the total number of points available in its ki pool, grit pool, or similar resource.

Read Magic Aura: You attempt to determine the number and power of all magical auras on a target creature or object (see detect magic to determine a magic aura’s power). If the check is successful, you can attempt Knowledge (arcana) or Spellcraft checks to determine the school or identify properties of a magic item, as normal. If the item is affected by magic aura or a similar spell, you can realize this and determine the actual properties of the item if your check result exceeds the DC by 5 or more. If the spell is of a higher level (such as aura alteration), increase this threshold DC by 2 for every spell level beyond 1st.

Task DC
Read alignment aura 15 + creature’s HD or item’s caster level
Read emotion aura 20 + creature’s HD or item’s caster level*
Read health aura 15 + creature’s HD
Read magic aura 20 + creature’s HD or item’s caster level

* Intelligent items only.

Action: Reading an aura requires 10 minutes of study.

Try Again: Yes. You can read a creature or object’s aura more than once, whether you read the same aura or a different one. You can still attempt only one skill check to read an aura per day.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Occult Adventures © 2015, Paizo Inc.; Authors: John Bennett, Logan Bonner, Robert Brookes, Jason Bulmahn, Ross Byers, John Compton, Adam Daigle, Jim Groves, Thurston Hillman, Eric Hindley, Brandon Hodge, Ben McFarland, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Tom Phillips, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Thomas M. Reid, Alex Riggs, Robert Schwalb, Mark Seifter, Russ Taylor, and Steve Townshend.

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