- Lesser Cosmologies: Small cosmologies that replace parts of a greater one.
- Lost Constellations: Mysterious constellations with no home.
- Concordia Cosmology: The constellations of the plane of Concordia, based on the Eastern zodiac.
- Haab Cosmology: The constellations of a distant plane, based on the Mesoamerican zodiac.
- Material Plane Cosmology: The constellations of the Material Plane, based on the Western zodiac.
- Quiet Lands Cosmology: The constellations of the plane of the Quiet Lands, based on mystical beings from a long-running fantasy franchise with a decidedly finite name.
The above constellations are available to zodiacs and characters with the Amateur Astrologist or Noble Astrologist feats. Each constellation is associated with a primal element: Air, Earth, Fire, or Water. Air compliments Fire and opposes Earth, Earth compliments Water and opposes Air, Fire compliments Air and opposes Water, and Water compliments Earth and opposes Fire. Whenever a character attempts to manifest a constellation while they already have a constellation of the opposing element manifested, they must pay an essence penalty, increasing the amount of essence burn taken when manifesting the new constellation by 3. If the character cannot pay this increased cost, they cannot manifest the new constellation.
When a character takes their first level in the zodiac class, or when they first take the Amateur Astrologist feat, they must choose a cosmology. Currently several cosmologies are available, and additional cosmologies may be presented in later products. Once a character has chosen a cosmology, they cannot manifest constellations from another cosmology without taking the Expanded Cosmology feat. If a character spends at least one month in a plane with a different cosmology than the one they chose, they may choose to realign themselves with the new cosmology, losing access to their previous cosmology and constellations and gaining access to those available in the new cosmology.
Discipline Champions: When a constellation with an associated discipline has a champion form, the champion must have that discipline as one of their available disciplines. The discipline can never be exchanged for another one.
Exotic Constellation Weapons: You are always proficient in your constellations’ weapon forms, but other creatures using them are not automatically considered proficient.
Signs[]
This is a new form that constellations can be manifested in. Similar to the champion form of a constellation, the sign form binds a constellation’s power into the form of a creature. However, unlike champions, signs impart existing creatures with the power of the stars rather than materializing a new creature. The sign forms of constellations use the following rules:
- Creatures that gain the ability to manifest a constellation’s champion form, such as by the Noble Astrologist feat, also gain the ability to manifest that constellation’s sign form.
- Zodiacs automatically gain a constellation’s sign form as part of the action to manifest it. However, instead of gaining the sign form of a constellation themself, they can choose to grant it to another creature when manifesting it. This is done by touching another creature as a part of the action to manifest a sign. Attempts to grant an unwilling creature a constellation's sign form require a melee touch attack and the target can attempt a Will saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 the zodiac’s level + the zodiac’s charisma modifier) to resist. If the zodiac misses, or the target creature successfully resists, the sign does not manifest, but the essence burn taken to manifest it remains until recovered.
- A creature that has been granted the sign form of a constellation is referred to as “the marked”.
- A creature can be marked by a total number of signs up to their Charisma modifier (minimum 1). If a new sign would put a creature past this limit, that sign replaces and dismisses another sign marking that creature of their choice. Additionally, a creature can only be marked by a single instance of any given sign. Attempts to mark a creature with a duplicate of a sign they already possess fail.
- The sign form of a constellation normally has the appearance of a silver colored constellation-like glyph on a readily visible area of the marked’s body or clothing. The zodiac chooses this area when manifesting a sign. This glyph cannot be hidden by any means, and will even instantaneously migrate to a new area on the marked’s body or clothing if necessary to remain visible. This does not interfere with effects that conceal a marked creature from sight such as stealth and invisibility, but can potentially hinder disguises. However, as a part of manifesting the sign form of a constellation, the zodiac can use the Disguise skill to make it appear to be an innocuous marking such as a birthmark, tattoo, part of the weave of a garment, ect. A creature cannot attempt to identify a disguised sign without first succeeding on a Perception check to notice that it is a constellation’s sign form.
| Constellation champions represent a versatile companion option similar in nature to the Leadership feat. There are a lot of considerations that the Zodiac player and their GM will need to look at when playing this class. We recommend that in campaigns where PCs can make their own cohort or animal companion that they be allowed to do the same for their champions. Some GMs will prefer to level the champion creature themselves. Have the discussion when creating the Zodiac character how this will work for a given campaign. Above all else—prepare the champions before a session begins. Spontaneous generation of a companion after a session starts will be time consuming and distracting particularly at higher levels. GMs should not allow an unprepared champion to be summoned. |
| Constellations with [dismiss] abilities present a new dynamic not present in previous zodiac cosmologies. While zodiacs using the Material Plane or Concordia cosmologies will often have their favorite constellation champion traveling alongside them throughout an entire adventuring day, the significant essence cost of the Quiet Land constellations and their dismiss effects mean that these constellations are best conjured during the first round of combat and will rarely last beyond that combat. Using these potent constellations requires the zodiac to carefully consider when and where they conjure their most powerful constellations.
High essence cost constellations are best used in situations where you have a reasonable expectation of being able to take a short rest afterwards; even conjuring the most expensive champions like the Sultan of Flames can be completely recovered from during a 15-minute rest. Champions like Forest Guardian and Terrabird have lower costs and more easily controlled [dismiss] effects, making them reliable options for players who prefer to have a constant companion while exploring or traveling. |
| According to a dev post: The essence burn for a constellation acts as an assigned value. If that temporary essence would hit its normal expiration and you would no longer be able to sustain your constellation, the constellation is immediately dismissed. If the temp essence would reach it's normal expiration and you have enough essence available to sustain the constellation out of your normal essence pool, you can immediately subtract the difference from your normal pool as burn. |