Class Example - Thief and Berserker

How Classes work

As with most class based systems, when you gain enough experience points you advance in level. When adding a level you gain the abilities listed for that level. Lower level abilities must be taken before higher levels. If multiclassing, the second class levels begin at level one. Or, should you prefer, mix the two classes via selecting one ability from each class, though you they must be of the same level and you must start your multiclassing this way.

Templates, such as lycanthrope or undead, replace one ability per level, player choice. “But my undead werewolf thief can’t backstab!” You’re probably thinking for some reason. Honestly, if you’re both a werewolf and undead, you’ve more important problems to focus on. Namely the lycanthrope and undead situations. Should an ability that offers bonuses get switched out, those bonuses get lost as well.

Based on this, most diseases will probably work in this manner, replacing using abilities with abilities such as "coughing fit" and "bleeding from the ears." That is yet to be seen, however. 


Further, based on the reaction I've gotten from the Erdgeist, I'm considering making the races work the same way. It may lead to hard choices, but that seems good to me. 

The reasoning behind this, is simple: Tools are fun, bonuses are boring. Also, despite being super easy, bonuses go against trying to keep low numbers. Enough plus ones lead to plus fives, but then the types won't stack, because they never do, except for when they do, which is most of the time. 


That sounds powerfully hassleful. 

A difficulty I've run into, however, is with the fighting type folk. Fighting bonuses tend to be their jam. Also, a consideration weighing me is Magic folk can pick up swords and be fighting types too. Shitty fighting types, but fighting types. Fighting types, usually, can't just pick up magic. Something for thinkering. 

Either way, here's the Thief and Berserker classes:



Thief
If Personality 15+, gain Master of Shadows - gain Personality bonus number of Mooks (doesn’t count towards limit) to serve as spies and informants. Can also fense. Rating is equal to Level. Require payment for services.


Level 1
Skilled Skullduggery - Gain levels in pickpocket and lockpicking per level of thief. Further, failed lock picking attempts now break your picks, rather than jam the lock.


Thieves’ Cant - You can speak the code of thieves and read their symbols.


Level 2
Quick Escape - Gain advantage to defense when moving out of combat


Advanced Tools - Select one spell. Unlike other non magic users, you've figured out how to activate a wand of that spell. Max level of spell is equal to thief level.


Level 3
Lightning Reflexes - Your time as a thief has taught you to be aware of your surroundings at all times. Whenever someone attempts to get the drop on you, you instead act first.


Get that thing I sent you? - When in a town or city, you may contact other scoundrels and ne’erdowells. By paying them an amount of gold, you receive a brown, paper wrapped package that takes up one inventory slot. If you find yourself in need of a certain, non-unique, one handed, single slot item of the gold amount or less, open the package and you’ll most likely find that item.


Level 4
Talented Smuggler - You gain two additional inventory slots. If you are ever searched, items in these locations are not found.  


Luck - Level/2 times per day, you may take advantage on save rolls.


Level 5
Gang Boss - You gain five additional mooks, that don't count toward your Personality limit. These mooks are stat'd as level 1 adventurers, with templates from thief and fighter as you choose.

Jack of All Trades, Master of One - Select a skill you're trained in. Stop bothering to make checks for it, you auto succeed.


Berserker


If Personality 15+, you gain Mark of Victory - By wearing symbols of your victories, intelligent creatures instinctively know you are a force not to be trifled with.


Level 1
Berserkergang - After consuming psychedelics or alcohol in battle, a holy rage comes over you. Gain +3 Attack target number, +2 Damage, and immunity to Fear. Defense score drops by 4, but Shield bonus still counts. You lose the ability to make tactical decisions more complicated than “Hit them with weapon until they die.” You continue fighting until all enemies (or anyone who hits you) are defeated or you’re subdued. You can attempt to calm yourself as a free action, for a 1 in 6 chance of success.


Bear Shirt Champion - +3 hp/level if wearing fur armor and nothing heavier.


Level 2
Northern Courage - Can use booze as healing potion. Restores 1d6 vigor points. Adds to drunk points, may trigger Berserkergang, and counts if forced down your throat when unconscious.


Bloody Shield - With a scream of rage, you bash an opponent with your shield. Make a strength check modified by their defense. If you succeed, the target is stunned for a round. By every additional 5 you succeed by, you stun the opponent for another 1 round.


Level 3
Challenging Roar - You give a might roar while making threatening gestures. You make a Personality check against enemies that can see or hear you. If you pass, enemy ranks break, running from you. If you succeed by 10, they fall to the ground in overwhelming fear.


Woaded warrior - Covered in blue body paint, forming spiritual totems, you are immune to Enchantments and Illusions while in Berserkergang.


Level 4
Too tough to die - When below a fourth your Vigor score in health, take a general +2 to Target Numbers. Applies to all rolls and continues until you are dead, or healed a fourth of your Vigor score.


Skin Changer - While wearing the pelt of a creature, which you slayed and drank Heartsblood during a hunt, with a few moments of concentration, you may take the form of that creature, gaining its physical attributes. Berserkergang works in this form.


Level 5
Unrelenting Force - If you roll a critical while under Berserkergang, don't roll to confirm. Select a breakable object the target has (weapon, shield, armor, limb, etc). They lose it.


Kraki's Champion - When under the Berserkergang, neither fire nor iron harm you.
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Wizard School


Do you dream of being a wizard? I do.
Do you ever have trouble sleeping? I do.
Do you ever use the time you're not sleeping to spiral into a temporary manic state and carve out one of your half-schemed ideas? I did.

Wizard School. Because morality is for the Mundanes.


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Los Luchadores

Trouble rules the land. Bandits surge the country side, as the oppressive Lord increases taxes. The old and weak are forced from their homes, their crops burnt in the fields. The poor are pressed into work gangs as they fail to pay tithes. The people cry out, their voices stifled by their oppression. The people dream of a hero. Their hearts ache for a champion. One man answers their call:

El Luchador

Bound by honor and a desire to bring Justice to the world, the Luchador is a travelling hero who's goal is to bring peace to the lands he walks. His identity hidden by a mask, his heart steeled by righteousness, his spirit unbreakable. He is a man of the people. He is the champion they require.

Any Luchador with Personality 15+ may, once per day, give a motivational speech full of flexing to re-inspire their allies and refresh their endurance points.

Level 0
EspĆ­ritu de MisiĆ³n

Level 1
Mascaras
Mano y mano

Level 2
Influir en los Corazones
CĆ³digo del luchador

Level 3
Mini-Estrella
TĆ©cnica Impresionante

Level 4
ExĆ³tico
Consejo de los fantasmas

Level 5
Invencible
EspĆ­ritu de un campeĆ³n

EspĆ­ritu de MisiĆ³n - It is said that one does not chose the life of Luchador, rather the life chooses them. This, in its entirety, is true. Should one show signs of the honor, truth, and spirit needed within their soul, El Santo will call to them in a dream and assign a Quest. Should they succeed they will be entrusted with a Mask.

Mascaras - To the Luchador, a Mask is more than just a method of hiding their identity, it IS an identity. An embodiment of Spirit. An embodiment of Works Done and Future Hopes. While the Luchador wears the Mask, they benefit from the powers entitled to their level. Further, they use their Personality to determine To Hit rolls. Once the Mask is donned, it must never be removed. Should the Luchador suffer defeat and be demasked, they lose their powers until the atone.

Mano y mano - The Luchador takes advantage when performing hand combat and feats of grappling.

Influir en los Corazones - When making a diplomatic check accented with words of Truth and Honor, and many flexing gestures, the Luchador may add their Level to the Target Number

CĆ³digo del luchador - To a Luchador, Honor is everything. Should an enchantment ever cause a Luchador to shame himself, the spell breaks instantly.

Mini-Estrella - The Luchador's fame has begun to spread, with tales of his deeds told, and from it an admirer. You gain a specialized Mook who dresses exactly as you, and has half your stats and half your height.

TĆ©cnica Impresionante - Through describing "high-flying" maneuvers in a vigorous manner, the player may gain a bonus - determined by the GMs impression - to the attack they are making. HOWEVER! The Luchador must never pile drive, for it is shameful.

ExĆ³tico - With a bit of preparation and some costume, the Luchador may impersonate any individual they have studied for at least an hour. While the Mask may not be removed, those fooled do not seem to notice.

Consejo de los fantasmas - The Words and Deeds of true heroes are never forgotten. In times of great need, or in great doubt, the wearer of a Mask may reflect within himself and seek the council of the Mask's former wearers. Activating the process takes one hour.

Invencible - Though the Luchador may lose the fight, they are never defeated. The Spirit of a Champion is unbreakable. Once per day, with a moment of pause to catch his breath, staggering to his feet, and an inspirational monologue (given at the table in real life), the Luchador gains a second wind, restoring half their endurance points.

EspĆ­ritu de un campeĆ³n - To continue to risk the safety of your friends in a fight you could end is cowardice. Once per day, you may call out a single combatant for a fight. On a successful Personality check, they accept your challenge. The fight is to the finish, as long as others do not interfere.

Unmasked Luchadors 

Any Luchador that becomes unmasked loses access to their powers. They can, however, seek atonement through the retrieval of their mask from the opponent that felled them. If they are successful, while they may not wear the mask again, as long as it is within their possession, their powers return in full. The fight to retrieve the mask is carrera contra carrera, where the loser is forced to "retire", be it through walking away from their army of thugs, imprisonment or, in case of the Luchador, walking away from the life knowing they have failed.

Rudos

Sometimes, despite all odds, a Luchador turns heel. These fallen warriors are known as Rudos. They are men of evil and pervert the Luchador way. It is the duty of every tecnicos (those still true to the Luchador way) to seek out rudos and offer them a second chance, or the taste of defeat.


If there are further questions, please consult this video. 
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More on the Erdgeist

I've had a request for more information on the Erdgeist. I find this a bit strange as, while they are essentially gnomes, they are meant to be horrible monsters. They are not the same as the other races, hardly even related to the Hulder. With that in mind, I attempted to make them different not just in fluff, but in mechanics, in an effort to show how alien they are. They're basically a forced combination of race and class - they were after all only suppose to be GM controlled creatures (specifically Mooks for Huldra), but you monsters drove me to dignify their existence.

The Erdgeist


Your first lullaby was the scratching of digging claws from passing creatures. Your mother's milk was the water you suckled straight from the roots of a plant. Your first memories are those formed when you first took conscienceness within the mud womb, and decided it was time to be born. Your "brothers" and "sisters" are those that also crawled from their holes in the ground around the same time you did. Your "parent" was the first Erdgeist that found and collected you, giving you tasks to perform.

You are an entity unto yourself. No family you have, as the mortal races would see it. From a moist hole in the ground you crawled, and to a moist hole in ground you hope to return once your body is weak and broken. Every fiber of your being urging you to serve Huldufolk. Through service you find neither oppression nor freedom, but rather meaning. As long as your hands stay busy, and your mind full, you hold off the Boredening - your fall into Goblinhood. This is critical, for once it starts, there is no undoing the process.

Unfinished Work is as a piercing, ear splitting siren to you. Tasks are meant to be completed, crafts are meant to be smithed. As such, in this new world, Human settlements, specifically the cities, are cacophonies of torturous bedlam, unlike the idealic symphonies of Huldra settlements attune with the workings of your ilk. Because of this there have been reports of human villages being swarmed at night by Erdgeist; clattering, ratterling, plucking and picking, cleaning and scouring all that needs it, leaving yarn spun, shoes cobbled and kitchens cleaned in their wake - albeit with causalities sustained to pets and sleeping children. Materials were needed after all.

To your ears, dwarrow settlements are a low hum, and the woodwose produce no sound at all.

Most beautiful to your ears, however, are the Words of the Hulder. For their most addictive of voices, you would do anything they command, no matter how dangerous or insane.  Though, their voice is not the only that you know. Through no conscience effort of your own, when in proximity of a native speaker of a language, that language is known to you. This service extends even unto the animals of the air and wilds. Fish, obviously, have no language.

As a creature of Productivity, an undeniable hatred for Urisks pumps through your veins. While Mortals often confuse your two kinds (As you do with humans and those tree dwelling creatures...what are they?...oh, "birds".) there is a very real and striking difference. The Urisk take to Lounging at streams and waterfalls, and offer no domestic help, but often steal or beg for their food. Disgusting things.

Further, as a creature of Productivity, crafting comes natural to you. While not as consistent as the dwarrows, you are able to produce items of stunning quality, with even the slightest of training. In Otherworld, these items were permanent. However, in this new reality, such items do not survive long after your death.

Speaking of your death, traditionally when your body was weak and broken from a life time well spent in service, you would find a nice hole in the ground and crawl in for your reward. Now though, in this strange new world of violence and sleep, when you fall, if left alone, your body will decay and strange mushrooms will crop up in a ring. The commoners have taken to superstitiously burn these rings, for fear of what will grow.

Also of note is your ilk, like the Huldra, sleep standing up, as sleeping while laying down invites death.

The Stats


  • Unable to resist Commands (per spell) given by any Hulder, even through magics.
  • In times of boredom, or idleness, must make a Personality Save vs Boredom. Failure results in a cumulative -1 to Personality score. Upon reaching Personality 4, the Goblinization process begins. 
  • Being a resident of Otherworld, your mind is built differently and, due to which, enchantments do not affect you. 
  • Any Erdgeist with <= Strength 7 gain Levitate Object level times per day. Just because you can't lift a thing, doesn't mean you ignore the order to retrieve it. 
  • When within (level * 10)feet of a natural speaker of a language, you too can speak that language. Should they move out of range, you lose the ability to speak the language. You retain no knowledge of the language. Within the company of other Erdgeist, your native language is a combination of clicks and whistles. 
  • When joining an adventuring group, you must designate one other member as your Master. You should then seek to serve them and fulfill their wishes. To willfully deny a direct order, carries the penalty of a cumulative -1 to your Personality score. To willfully refuse to take a Master carries the same penalty, but applied per day.   
  • You do not benefit from Mooks. You are the Mook. 
Level 1
  • Master Craftsman - Choose a crafting skill. You now gain a rank per level in that skill. Further more, once per level you may generate a masterwork item in the skill. Should you perish through age or violence, the object begins to degrade quickly. Weaves unravel, beer curdles, iron works dull and rust; all becoming unusable. Any spell targeting the item affects the Erdgeist as well. 
  • Gerry Rig - Given at least some time and vaguely the correct tools, you can repair a thing to working condition for Personality Bonus days. If the bonus is zero or negative, the time becomes fraction of a day. After the time passes, or first usage, the item breaks once more and needs to be repaired properly. 
Level 2
  •  Torchbearer - With a moment of concentration (standard action, if this is a factor), you may summon Swiftness number of floating orbs of light. They give off the dim glow of a standard torch and may be directed anywhere within 50 ft of you. They last roughly an hour. 
  • Strong Back - You gain level number inventory slots, as long as the items carried within are your Master's. 
Level 3
  • Transmutation - Given the proper focus (say, a spinning wheel) you may change one mundane substance (say, hay) into another (say, gold thread). This transformation, however, only lasts until the sun crosses the horizon. 
  • Helping Hands - To better assist in their tasks, the Erdgeist may create smallmen (think tiny homunculus) from rocks, sticks, children skulls, radishes, or anything else on hand. They won't fight, but have two inventory slots. Any damage they take, you take, and you can only make Vigor bonus number of them. They remain animated for one day, before the magic consumes the component parts. 
Level 4
  • Treasure Keeper - To better watch over your Master's treasure, you may place it into a nice sturdy vessel, like a pot. This vessel then acts like a Bag of Holding, but specifically for coin. You may only have one at a time. 
  • Chthonic Sympathies - With concentration you may detect the presence of valuable stones within 50 ft of you, Intelligence bonus times per day. 
Level 5
  • Immaterial Made Manifest - To better serve your Master, you may play host to entities on the Ethereal plane, potentially gleaning some of their knowledge. 
  • Hinzelmann's Homing - Should your Master ever misplace or lose an object of their ownership, you, the good servant, can take a few moments of concentration to know instinctively the direction and distance of the object. While arrows and items sold don't count, items stolen and daggers stabbed into the hide of a rare beast do. Tracking. I'm suggesting if you do it right, you can track a creature. Almost perfectly, without regard for terrain.  

So, yes, there it is. Clarification on how classes work will soon follow. Probably.

Enjoy being a Mook. 

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Random Encounters in the Tavalinen Sea

My current leafwrit is taking longer than expected, so to keep activity up, I offer a list of random encounters for adventuring on the Tavalinen Sea.

1d30

  1. A camp of the Wagonfolk, offering trade and rest. But are they what they seem? Yeah, probably. But are they?
  2. A stampede of Dire Bison
  3. Tick bite. Roll for disease (1d6: 1. Blood fever, 2. Lycanthrope, 3. Head broken off in skin, 4. Allergy to meat, 5. Skin fever, 6. Just an itchy bump) 
  4. Cultists around one of the mysterious monoliths. Doin' something evil, I bet. 
  5. A mammoth skull from which an ancient voice echoes within the characters' minds, demanding vengeance.
  6. 1d12 giraffes humming to themselves in the dusk of the plains. Does the air feel...thicker? Soon bats begin to sing, joining in the choir. 
  7. A half-orc on a coming of age spirit quest. 
  8. As 7, but the beast he is hunting has begun to hunt him. 
  9. Quicksand! The horses and wagons are stuck, and in threat of spilling. 
  10. Thick smoke on the horizon, leading back to a raided town. 
  11. Is that some sort of thunder lizard?
  12. A maiden is bathing in hot springs by moonlight. Wait...no, not a maiden. Her head is on backwards and there's blood on her fangs.
  13. A group of riders is chasing down a man. The riders claim he is a criminal. The man claims they're bandits. 
  14. Witches dancing in the full moon.
  15. Wizards picnicking in the noonday sun. 
  16. Bootleggers being chased into the depths by local law.
  17. An active still being tended by corpses.
  18. An active still being tended by goblins. The concoction is highly flammable. As is the surrounding grass, mind you.
  19. The ruins of nameless forgotten city, nearly reclaimed entirely by nature. What treasures or strange idols sleep within?
  20. Pajaki war party
  21. A half burried box. What's in it? (d6: 1. Coin 2. Mold covered scrolls 3. Hope 4. Ancient plague 5&6. Nothing.)
  22. A big god damn snake! 
  23. Heat strokes pretending to be a hookah smoking, vest wearing ferret with bifocals.
  24. Trip on a rock. Nice job.
  25. A memorial stone with weathered inscription 
  26. Large floating human head that vomits lighting from its can't filled mouth.
  27. A nest of Thunderbirds
  28. A man digging up dead bodies. "Mind your own business!"
  29. A river. How are they to cross? 
  30. A sign post which as been knocked over. The signs pointing to the next towns hang limp. Which way was which?

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