Pact Magic Skills
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The following new rules are useful to binders when making skill checks relevant to pact magic.

Bluff (Cha)

You can feint the use of a supernatural ability, playing it off as a spell, spell-like ability, or a similar effect.

Check: You wave your arms about and mutter nonsense, arcane-sounding works in order to trick your enemies into believing that your powers are from a magical source. If you do not make a Bluff check to attempt to conceal the true natural of your supernatural abilities, onlookers immediately know that your powers are supernatural in origin and not the result of any sort of magical ability, and can make Knowledge checks to attempt and identify you and the source of your powers.

When attempting to masquerade a supernatural ability as either a spell or spell-like ability, you make a Perception check opposed by your onlooker’s Sense Motive. If you succeed, you convince your onlookers into believing that your abilities are magical in nature, although all Spellcraft checks and similar attempts to discern the truth about your powers automatically fail, perplexing your enemies. If an opponent’s Sense Motive beats your Perception check, they immediately realize that your abilities are supernatural in origin and can attempt a Knowledge check to attempt to identify the origin of your supernatural abilities.

Alternatively, you can attempt to convince onlookers that your supernatural abilities are extraordinary (nonmagical) in origin instead of magical. This functions as noted above, except you take a –10 penalty on your Bluff check. If used in a situation where your supernatural ability has a plausible, nonmagical origin (such as attributing a granted ability that provides an insight bonus on skill checks to good upbringing), your GM may reduce this penalty in increments of 2 based upon how believable the lie is (minimum 0).

Try Again: You can attempt a second Bluff check to convince onlookers that you failed to fool with your Bluff check that your supernatural abilities are, in fact, magical, but onlookers find this rouse unlikely, resulting in a circumstance penalties to your Bluff check as described in the Bluff skill section of Chapter 6 in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. You only receive this one, second chance to fool onlookers about the truth of your supernatural abilities.


Disguise (Cha)

You can hide the physical sign of any spirit that you are currently showing, allowing this potentially detrimental debilitation to go unnoticed by all but the most perceptive onlookers.

Check: You can use Disguise to attempt to conceal the presence of the physical sign of a spirit that you are currently showing. This functions as any other use of the Disguise skill, except if an onlooker’s Perception beats your Disguise check, they immediately notice your spirit’s physical sign for what it is: something abnormal and unnatural. Onlookers gain a bonus on Perception checks based upon how difficult the physical sign is to conceal or explain. A physical sign that causes a minor change, such as a change in hair color or skin color, grants a +2 bonus. A physical sign that is strange or difficult to explain, such as growing a tail or claws, grants a +4 bonus. A physical sign that is impossible to explain as anything other than occult, such as a spirit’s seal covering your face, grants a +8 bonus.


Knowledge (Int)

Binders use Knowledge in order to uncover lost lore about the many pact spirits that inhabit the world, using that lore to piece together the esoteric rites that allow them to bind spirits to their souls.

Check: If you possess the Amateur Pactmaker or bind spirit class feature, you can use Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (planes), and Knowledge (religion) to uncover the information required to seal a pact with a new spirit. This information is known as the spirit’s Knowledge Tasks, and the process of completing a spirit’s Knowledge Tasks is covered in-depth on the Pactmaking page.

Typically, a Knowledge Task involves checks involving Arcana, History, Local, Planes, and/or Religion to learn a spirit’s ceremony, constellation, personality, or seal.

Action: Using a Knowledge skill to attempt to complete one of a spirit’s Knowledge Tasks is a downtime activity.

Retry: Yes. You can continue to research a bindable spirit until you discover the lore you need in order to summon it.


Knowledge (religion)

Occult-savvy individuals can draw on Knowledge (religion) to identify pactmaking creatures and bound spirits.

Check: You can use Knowledge (religion) to answer questions about binder rituals and ceremonies and perform the tasks listed on Table: Pact Magic Knowledge. These tasks follow the same rules as similar tasks for Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (religion), respectively, except the DCs further increase based upon pact magic’s availability, as noted below.

Creatures with the Amateur Pactmaker feat or the bind spirit class feature ignore all DC increases on Knowledge (religion) checks to answer questions about pact magic and perform the tasks listed on Table: Pact Magic Knowledge due to pact magic’s availability. At the GM’s decision, characters that are extremely familiar with the occult reduce or ignores these penalties.

Pact Magic is Rare: In a world where pact magic is rare, the DCs for all Knowledge checks made to answer questions about pact magic or perform the tasks listed on Table: Pact Magic Knowledge increase by +4 because of general lack of exposure to pact magic.

Pact Magic is Emerging: When pact magic is emerging, the DCs for all Knowledge checks made to answer questions about pact magic or perform the tasks listed on Table: Pact Magic Knowledge increase by +2 as knowledge of pact magic’s rites and practices becomes more mainstream.

Pact Magic is Commonplace: In worlds where pact magic is commonplace, use the standard Knowledge (religion) DCs for answering questions about pact magic or performing the tasks listed on Table: Pact Magic Knowledge.

Table: Pact Magic Knowledge
Task DC1
Identify occult auras using detect magic or detect pact spirits†. 15 + 1/2 binder level
Determine whether a spell effect was created by a granted ability. 20 + 1/2 binder level
Identify materials manufactured by a granted ability. 20 + 1/2 binder level
Identify a granted ability (and its spirit) that just targeted you. 25 + spirit level
Identify the spirit summoned using a specific totem. 20 + spirit level
Identify a monster with the occult subtype’s abilities and weaknesses. 10 + monster’s CR2

1 These skill checks are made with Knowledge (religion).
2 Use either Knowledge (religion) or the Knowledge skill appropriate for the occult creature’s type.


Use Magic Device

You can use the Use Magic Device skill to activate magical implements associated with pact magic.

Check: You can use Use Magic Device to activate magic items with a binder level requirement instead of a caster level requirement. This functions as using Use Magic Device to activate any other magic item, except the check’s DC is further modified based on pact magic’s availability, as noted below.

Pact Magic is Rare: In a world where pact magic is rare, it is all but impossible for inexperienced individuals to use pact magic items. Emulating a class feature (usually the bind spirit class feature) is impossible and the DC to activate a pact magic item blindly is DC 30 instead of the usual DC 25.

Pact Magic is Emerging: When pact magic is emerging, well-learned people have heard of pactmaking and know how to use pact magic items. Emulating an occult class feature (usually bind spirit) is a DC 30 check and activating a pact magic item blindly is a DC 20 check.

Pact Magic is Commonplace: In worlds where pact magic is commonplace, use the standard values found in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook for determining the DCs of pact magic items.

page revision: 2, last edited: 07 Jan 2019 04:25

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