Microcosmic Orbit

Cultivation
Qi Condensation
Level
5

Building the Circuit is only the first step. A canal does not prove its worth upon being dug; it must be connected to the river it is meant to hold.

Upon taking this feat, you gain no benefits. To gain its benefits, you must spend no fewer than 800 hours within one year in seated circulation, running the loop again and again. You must spend at least 4 consecutive hours doing so, and never let more than 72 hours pass without the practice or the accumulated turning unwinds and you begin again. Throughout, you must consume circulation-stabilizing pills worth no less than 2,500 gp in total, which keep the flow from tearing loose as it deepens. At the end of the work, you must make a DC 25 Fortitude save to lock the wheel into permanent motion.

Upon failure, you damage your Qi vessels and take 1d6 Constitution drain, and you may not attempt this step again before that drain is healed. As a result of the damage you explode, taking damage exactly equal to your maximum HP (after the drain) and dealing the same amount to all creatures in 60 ft. Also, so long as your constitution drain remains, you lose safe access to your Qi pool. Every time you access your Qi pool while you have Constitution drain, you have a 50% chance to take an additional 1 Constitution drain.

By doubling the amount of time and/or wealth required, the DC of the save can be lowered by 2 per doubling (you may not double the wealth required if you are not using pills to begin with). This doubling, unlike most Pathfinder doubling, is exponential (doubling twice results in a fourfold increase, not a threefold increase).

You may also increase the HD of your Heart Demon by 1d4 and the Heart Demon’s minimum HD by 1 to gain the benefits immediately, with no check or preparation required.

When you succeed, there is a faint shimmer that travels through your body and lights up your spine like a thousand small fireflies. At some moment weeks after your success, you notice the circuit has been turning without you, and that it has been turning in place for some time. From then it does not stop — not in sleep, not in fever, not in death, until something breaks it. A haze of lighter than air settles over your skin and does not lift again, and within a few days you stop feeling hunger as mortals do.

You gain the following benefits:

  • You gain 1 temporary Qi point out of combat while not undergoing heavy exertion every ten minutes (for example you could not gain these in a chase sequence, but could gain them during shopping or walking through a dungeon hallway). These temporary Qi points stack to 3. When spending Qi points, you spend these temporary Qi points before your Qi pool.
  • You constantly wreathe yourself in a protective haze of Qi that cannot yet stop attacks outright but can deflect and slow. You gain a +1 Divine bonus to AC and all saving throws.
  • When you touch an object, if it has an Alignment or was recently touched or handled by a demon or spell: you learn its alignment of the item or demon, or the school of the spell, as if you had used Detect Magic or Detect Evil/Good, as appropriate. The item can still be obfuscated from you through means like Nonalignment.
  • You gain Athletics base sphere (Run), plus the Expanded Training (Climb)(Leap), Surface Strider, and Wall Stunt talents.
  • You also gain the ability to jump up to three times (as a full round action), and can airdash horizontally up to your speed as a move action, or as part of the jumps. This does not allow you to stay in the air if you cannot reach a surface or ledge at the end of your turn, and if you are unsupported at that time you begin to fall as normal. When falling, you treat the fall as 20 ft. shorter than it really is.
  • You have a perfect inventory of all objects within 10 ft. of you at all times. This does not include creatures, objects held by creatures, or objects purposefully hidden from you; for those, a perception check is still needed.
  • You can sustain yourself indefinitely on a palmful of grain or meat and one mouthful of water a day.