“Each had a face sliced in
it. Each face was different. Every eye was a stranger eye. Every nose was a
weirder nose. Every mouth smiled hideously in some new way.” -Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree
Similar to the veil Drunkard’s Sash, Jack’s Lantern is available to all veilweaving classes. This veil while a bit odd should be reasonably balanced.
Jack’s Lantern
Descriptors: Evil, fire, necromancy
Class: Any
Slot: Hands, Wrists
Saving Throw: None; see text
“How will you light your way? Here is a coal for you, hot from my own fires. Now quit my gate and make for yourself a lantern, Stingy Jack of the Lantern” -Mephistopheles
When you shape this veil you gain the ability to manifest a large pumpkin carved with eyes and a toothy grin, infernal akashic flames glow within it. This weapon-like veil sheds normal light in a 10 ft. radius around you and acts as a light hammer sized appropriately for you. Instead of dealing bludgeoning damage like a normal light hammer, half the damage dealt by this weapon is fire damage and the other half results directly from infernal power and is therefore not subject to being reduced by resistance to fire-based attacks. Treat the base weapon size as one category smaller if the target of the attack is a devil, or one category larger if they are an undead; these size modifiers stack with all other size changes or virtual size changes. You may choose to use your veilweaver level in place of your base attack bonus when attacking with this veil.
Essence For each point of essence invested in this veil, the radius of normal light increases by 5 feet and the weapon deals an additional 1d4 points of damage; this bonus damage is not affected by size increases or multiplied on a critical hit. Like the base damage of this weapon, half of this damage is fire damage and the other half results directly from infernal power and is therefore not subject to being reduced by resistance to fire-based attacks. As long as you have at least 3 points of essence invested in this veil, undead creatures treat creatures in squares illuminated by this veil as if those creatures were under the effects of hide from undead. If this effect is ended, as described in the spell, you can resume it by taking a point of essence burn as a full-round action.
Chakra Bind (Hands) [D4, E3, G2, H2, N2, R3, S4, V2] Binding this veil to your Hands chakra grants your Jack’s Lantern a +1 enhancement bonus per point of essence invested (maximum +5). As long as this weapon has at least a +1 enhancement bonus, you may also use any invested essence to gain a +1 effective enhancement bonus you can spend towards any of the following weapon special abilities: brilliant energy, cunning, dancing, defiant, disruption, ghost touch, glorious grayflame, lifescorch, limning.
Chakra Bind (Wrists) [D7, E12, H8, N8, S8, V8] Binding this veil to your Wrists chakra grants you all the benefits of binding it to your Hand chakra, and whenever you confirm a critical hit with Jack’s Lantern you place a doom mark on the target of your attack that lasts for 24 hours.
This mark can only be seen by you and outsiders tied to death and entropy, such as psychopomps and daemons. Outsiders who can see a creature with a doom mark upon it always treat such creatures with hostility. As an immediate action when a creature you’ve placed a doom mark on dies, while the mark is active, you can attempt to transmute its soul into a soul gem. The creature targeted must make a Will saving throw or be affected as though by a create soul gem spell with a caster level equal to your veilweaver level. Soul gems created this way resemble glowing coals and shed light as a candle, but produce no heat.
For more on “doom marks”, see the Boatman’s Ensemble veil set from City of Seven Seraphs: Akashic Trinity(affiliate link). For more on soul gems, see Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Book of the Damned(affiliate link).
A few notes on weapon-like veils:
“When used as a thrown weapon a veil weapon does not dissipate for leaving your grasp and returns to you after the attack is resolved; if you no longer have a free hand after resolving an attack in this manner, it dissipates as normal.” –Lost Spheres Publishing, Co7S Kickstarter
The dancing property does not cause a weapon-like veil to dissipate for leaving your grasp and essence can be reallocated normally while this property is active; if you no longer have a free hand after the dancing property’s duration ends, it dissipates as normal. (House rule from me.)
James Ray 