DM Nagging: It's pretty much my job

[Anastasia]

I like Queen's movement, a cleric can get a lot of good use out of it when they have to run into danger to heal someone, since it protects against the spellcasting AoOs as well. Honestly I even feel like the name should be changed so it's less implied to be about movement.

It was originally meant to be a souped up mobility feat, you can see that in the name. I'll think about renaming it.

The two gambit ones I'm less sure about, especially the knight's one. I never liked the immediate teleport ACF conjurers can get and it's basically the same immunity to charges.

Pawn's Gambit comes down to this: I'm okay with someone thematic having it, but when it becomes commonly available it negatively impacts play. You're right about that, most of these spells are probably going to be Jarem's private spells that he's developed.  One person having a neat trick in spell form? Good and fun. That spell becoming widely used by everyone? Escalation. It's a DMing dilemma.*

I may tweak Queen's Gambit a little more, so you can't flank whomever triggered it, so that's it's more limited in requiring a second opponent to be there and flankable.

Skill is basically fine now, though it really doesn't deserve to be a special secret faith spell. It's just +X to hit and proficiencies. That competence isn't a type spells usually offer for attack and damage rolls really means it should be a gap filled in by something commonly known.

Something like that, yeah.

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* In a perfect world where I had unlimited time, energy and focus to develop things? I'd have epic magic include an access system. As in, demarcating who knows what spells. Is it a commonly known spell like the basic SRD ones? Is it a spell only known to XYZ, or a personal, unique spell?  There's a lot of room to do that, and I occasionally do so anyway, but I've never felt it to be productive to do that with the time I do have.

Access Levels

0: This spell is available commonly (as commonly 10th+ level magic ever is, proviso) and nothing special is needed to learn it.
1: Spell is not restricted but not well known. Unhidden but obscure magic comes to mind here. The character would need to discover the spell exists and get a copy of it to learn it.
2: Spell is somewhat restricted. Several entities and groups know it, but it has not spread further. Dealing with a group that knows it is essential to learning it.
3: Spell is restricted. It may be unique to one faith, a single cabal or similar such situations. Learning it is the same as 2, but such spells are usually even harder to pry loose.
4: Spell is heavily restricted. The spell may be known to a handful of people or be a personal spell of a particular character. It is rarely given out and almost impossible to learn.
5: Other. Spell is anathemic knowledge, spell requires an initiate feat to cast or is otherwise protected by a mechanical limitation. It can't be selected unless you fulfill or overcome that limitation.

0s are automatic and can be taken at will. No headaches. 1s require some effort to unearth them or even know about them. They're unprotected, just obscure. 2s and above requiring knowing people, being in the right groups or otherwise having access. 2s through 4s are a matter of it becoming more and more exclusive and thus harder to learn. 5s are things that causes the spell to be outside of normal selection all together. Examples:

Celestial Valor
Abjuration [Good]
Level: Clr 10, Glory 10, Good 10, Pal 8, Sor/Wiz 10
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100ft + 10ft/level)
Target: One creature/level
Duration: 1 min/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Access Level: 0

Celestial Valor's well known and not hidden, it's just worthless for evil characters.

Create Astral Island
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 10
Components: V, S, M, F
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Medium (100ft + 10ft/level)
Effect: One astral island; see text (S)
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Access Level: 1

Create Astral Island isn't hidden, but it's a rare spell that's specialized and thus not well known. It's a specialist's tool, known primarily by them.

Bibliotheca Arcana
Divination
Level: Clr 10, Sor/Wiz 10
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 24 hours
Access Level: 2

Bibliotheca Arcana is a spell created by Aurora, but has spread rapidly and fast, due to allies using it and spreading it to other allies. It's just barely a 2 right now and will become a 0 in time. It's a little too good, a little too useful and much too wide spread to keep quiet now.

Sever Divine Connection
Necromancy
Level: Clr 15
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
Access Level: 3

This pair of spells was developed by Eblis after his fall. They are not known beyond Eblis, the Sundered Suns, the Sultan of the Efreet and Asmodeus.

Unless you're a member of the Sundered Suns or two people who know Eblis well, this spell's off limits to you. Dealing with Eblis or a Sundered Sun to learn it (or the Sultan or Asmodeus) is an epic adventure by itself.

Canderella's Sudden Thunderbolts
Evocation [Electricity]
Level: Sor/Wiz 10
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100ft + 10ft/level)
Target: 1 creature/level
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes
Access Level: 4

Canderella knows this as she made it, Ebony knows it because she helped with it and perhaps 2-4 other people from Aurora know it. Unless you know just the right person and get them to tell you, it's impossible to learn. Like 3, but more exclusive.

[Corwin]

I feel this runs into the obvious problem, however.

Namely, that if Canderella could come up with this, why can't my ice-themed level 40 wizard make Corwin's Sudden Icicles which is mechanically the same to Candy's spell? IC he came up with it from scratch, and we'll pretend it's parallel evolution, but it's just her spell with a palette swap.

If you say 'no, you can't do that' then we hit the problem of why not? Does whoever got there first hold an eternal patent on the very concept of such a spell and similar ones? That's so obnoxious both IC and OOC!

[Anastasia]

Well, one thing is that the more common the spell is, the more likely there's a spell that does something similar. You run into that a lot with 0-9th level spells, a lot of direct damage spells are fairly similar, just with a few details tweaked.

There's a fair few custom spells out there that are very similar to each other. Different people end up on roughly the same paths, that's not surprising. I just rarely post those since what's the point?

[Anastasia]

Not a heavy words week, just tired and doing this on Monday.

Alicia

The story of the week was Antenora's ascension. Sometimes events fall apart due to bad dicing. Everyone's had good ideas that the dice loathe, that fortune stomps into the ground like a hateful whore. What's less known is that there's an opposite of that, where fortune pulls a long shot through by sheer luck. That's pretty much what happened. It was a huge win and a bit of a shortcut, as obtaining divine rank for others wasn't meant to happen this early. Oh certainly the seeds were there, I've been laying them a long time while withholding the key pieces of information that can lead you to this possibility, but getting that out of Eblis and succeeding on your own?

Yeah, no. Was just possible for a high Charisma character and I mean just (since Alicia was right and boosts would be counterproductive to becoming One, be it gear, spells or abilities like marshal auras), but it was done. Even then it takes absurd dice luck, 3 DC 30 Charisma checks. So this week was all about that fallout and sorting it out, understandably so.

Moore

Purely falllout and node increments from Salty Pier. Good overall - I think everything here more or less stands on its own - you succeeded, you made progress and you're reaping the fruit of that labor. Nice to hook you past Seira as well (and vice versa, obviously), while the nodes are independent, I do like them interacting at times. It's fun.

Tryll

Life happened, both for you and me, so this week was minimal and no weekend session to catch up. We'll see about next weekend.

Anyway, the sword puzzle's a fun one, can't wait to see how that's worked out.

Alyssa

Emily continues apace and now you have movement in the mystery of the assassin. Fun and progressing well, as well as setting up improving your islands. A solid week overall.

Seira

See my comments in Moore's commentary about Seira and Moore interacting.

That said, decent week. The Arvandor trip was nice and let you fill in some characters well as well as work on Amaryl and Sanzha. I really liked that one overall, it was good stuff for both and felt like it also filled in Hanali, Corellon, the Triune and Labelas Enoreth.

[Corwin]

I liked interacting with the elf gods, there's continuity in that they're standoffish in a sense, but also progress since once we got past that they were pretty accommodating and went beyond simple good host stuff. I liked that!

Sanzha is a tease, but she'll pay for that.

Amaryl really needs to speak up more, or even just do stuff. She can move in the background desc or whichever, I dislike that she simply melts away when there are others around.

We'll see how the Moore/Celestia thing goes. I hope it's clear this mission is a secret one so no leaks!

[Ebiris]

I'm glad the Antenora thing worked out how it did. Becoming One by taking instruction from someone else feels more like becoming One- or Two Minus One or... well, something else that's lame and derivative! Like she'd probably have gone all genocidal if Eblis had guided her through the process so I never even considered that as an option.

Also it's good for the Sylica rep. Nice unbroken string of highly visible and profound victories like that has us really solidifying our place. Now that we're effectively a triumvirate of three deities, even if we're low tier ones, it makes us that much more of a force to be reckoned with that others will have to step carefully around.

[Ebiris]

Also re: access level stuff? Any spells Alicia makes should be treated as access level 0. She tends to make straightforward battle magic that anyone can use and she's more than happy for it to be spread around.

[Yuthirin]

Okay Yuth, where are we at on powers? Wanna finalize them when possible and start getting them moving.

This weekend sucked. I missed this post. I'll get on it.

[Yuthirin]

Examine Astral Reverberations
Clairsentience
Level: Psion/wilder 9
Display: Mental and visual
Manifesting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous
Power Points: 17

This power taps information stored in tha astra, such as a creature's movements or location. This power shows the movements of said creature and all of their actions taken within the last week, as well as who and what they interacted with.

This power does not work on any plane that is not connected in some way to the astral plane. This power only functions on creatures and objects with an astral presence; a mind. Inert, non-magical objects such as walls or non-thinking creatures such as non-intelligent oozes and mindless undead are invisible to this power.

Augment
If an additional 5 power points are spent, the power also attempts to postulate a likely future outcome. This provides a benefit similar to that of a divination, but less cryptic. Any information conveyed would concern one single action or possible action regarding that creature, and the question must be phrased to outline the direction for the power to take. Information conveyed can be contained in no more than one single sentance.

If an additional 10 power points are spent, the manifestor may make an opposed caster level check to reveal information about a target that has or had an active mind blank spell.

You have a typo in the first sentence, that should read 'the astral'. Also spell check the last word 'sentence' in augment's first paragraph.

It's fine in principle, though since it targets a specific creature rather than a location or the like, I'd include a saving throw. Creatures get those, locations generally don't. Likewise note how it works with mind blank and the like.

That aside the basic idea is fine. It needs a save since it's targeting creatures, however. No save abilities against a creature are something I try to avoid.

Examine Astral Reverberations
Clairsentience
Level: Psion/wilder 9
Display: Mental and visual
Manifesting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous
Power Points: 17

This power taps information stored in the astral, such as a creature's movements or location. This power shows the movements of said creature and all of their actions taken within the last week, as well as who and what they interacted with.

This power does not work on any plane that is not connected in some way to the astral plane. This power only functions on creatures and objects with an astral presence; a mind. Inert, non-magical objects such as walls or non-thinking creatures such as non-intelligent oozes and mindless undead are invisible to this power.

Augment
If an additional 5 power points are spent, the power also attempts to postulate a likely future outcome. This provides a benefit similar to that of a divination, but less cryptic. Any information conveyed would concern one single action or possible action regarding that creature, and the question must be phrased to outline the direction for the power to take. Information conveyed can be contained in no more than one single sentence.

If an additional 10 power points are spent, the manifestor may make an opposed caster level check to reveal information about a target that has or had an active mind blank spell.

For every 2 power points spent in either of the above augmentations, the power's DC increases by 1.

[Yuthirin]

Astral Ingress
Psychoportation
Level: Psion/wilder 8
Display: Visual
Manifesting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: Willing creature touched, or up to eight willing creatures joining hands
Duration: Instantaneous or concentration (up to 1 round/level)
Power Points: 15

This power creates an interdimensional connection between your current plane of existence and a plane you specify, allowing travel between those two planes in either direction. The ingress itself is a circular hoop or disk from 5 to 20 feet in diameter (manifestor's choice), oriented in the direction you desire when it comes into existence (typically vertical and facing you). It is a two-dimensional window looking into the plane you specified when manifesting the power, and anyone or anything that moves through is shunted instantly to the other side.

Augment
If you spend an additional 4 power points, the duration of this power becomes minutes/level.

So this is basically a psionic gate spell? I don't have any real problem with it, just bump it up to nine to match gate, since psionics don't progress the teleport powers it copies any earlier than magic gets them.

(Side note: Why is psionic teleport and psionic teleport circle nomad only, but psionic greater teleport is psion/wilder? Weird.)

It lacks the calling feature that makes Gate so impressive. I honestly feel like 8 is too high. It's really only a precise plane shift.

Well, the thing is, we don't really use that here. We use gate about 99% of the time for transport and 1% to summon an ally (From Aurora in B3, a node member in this game or back in B1, ect). Additionally, a really precise plane shift is cleric 7 or sor/wiz 8 (greater plane shift). So by standards we can see that just taking that into account, this spell's already where it should be.

So 8 is right in the ballpark to begin with. Is turning it into a transportation gate worth the level bump to 9? I think so. It lets everyone travel smoothly and swiftly.

Is there a psionic plane shift or anything like that?

Well, there's the rub. The original Gate spell was fine on its own as it stood for a 9th level spell. The fact that the rules of this game alter the spell's functionality should have been taken into consideration when the changes were made. Changing it from a Call Major Planar Ally And Also A Portal spell to Just A Portal Spell is a rather huge change. 2/3 of the value of the spell is removed, if we were in a normal game without any house rules. I'd say that Gate in itself in your world is overpriced as a 9th level spell, because it's been pretty heavily neutered.

As for plane shift, yes. There's a psionic version. It's just as inaccurate as the magic version. Also, it's overpriced for arcane spellcasters. The SRD lists it as cleric 5, sor/wiz 7. No real reason for that, in my opinion.

I'm requesting that plane shift be made a flat 5th or 6th level spell/power, and Gate be a flat 7th level spell/power because of the massive changes to its functionality. Yes, it's more precise than plane shift, thus the 2 spell/power level increase.

Reminder that my argument still exists.

[Nephrite]

I don't have a lot to add about this week's node update.

I will say I would generally agree with Yuth's sentiment with regards to gate -- it's basically Greater Plane Shift (Which is Clr 7, Sor/Wiz 8) except you can concentrate to keep it open.

I guess in that regard it may make sense to keep at a higher level, I dunno. It's odd that it's 9 for both divine and arcane casting, though that may have originally had more to do with the calling functionality than the transportation functionality.

[Ebiris]

I personally think Gate's fine where it is since the mass transport function of it makes it the premiere transport spell. The calling thing was always super unbalanced anyway, it's so massively better than Greater Planar Binding and Summon Monster IX that it really doesn't fit in the same spectrum.

[Corwin]

Teleportation Circle is also lvl9, and only allows continued transfer on the same plane.

[Anastasia]

I liked interacting with the elf gods, there's continuity in that they're standoffish in a sense, but also progress since once we got past that they were pretty accommodating and went beyond simple good host stuff. I liked that!

Yes, once you get in with them they're decent folks, like most elves.

Sanzha is a tease, but she'll pay for that.

So she is. She's good at it too, I think.

Amaryl really needs to speak up more, or even just do stuff. She can move in the background desc or whichever, I dislike that she simply melts away when there are others around.

Agreed, working on that.

We'll see how the Moore/Celestia thing goes. I hope it's clear this mission is a secret one so no leaks!

Agreed again. Hopefully the mission is a big success for everyone.

[Anastasia]

I'm glad the Antenora thing worked out how it did. Becoming One by taking instruction from someone else feels more like becoming One- or Two Minus One or... well, something else that's lame and derivative! Like she'd probably have gone all genocidal if Eblis had guided her through the process so I never even considered that as an option.

You aren't wrong. After all, who says Eblis succeeded in the same way Antenora succeeded?

Also it's good for the Sylica rep. Nice unbroken string of highly visible and profound victories like that has us really solidifying our place. Now that we're effectively a triumvirate of three deities, even if we're low tier ones, it makes us that much more of a force to be reckoned with that others will have to step carefully around.

It is, no doubt about it. You're getting closer to being a pantheon rather than just a few oddities, building up your stock.