jacinto classes, clerics, LotFP, wonders and wickedness

Cult Class(ic)

I’ve had this idea rolling around in my head for a while, and when I saw this post by Arnold, i figured out how to fit it all together.

  GODLING

A  race-class for Old School D&D

HP and XP as Magic-user
Save and Attack Bonus as Cleric
Godlings are minor, furtive divinities unable to directly interfere with the Land of the Living and the mortals therein. Instead, they act through cults and miracles, in hopes of establishing a true religion and becoming a greater god. Godlings can look like pretty much anything (that isn’t stupid) and their size and appearance becomes progressively more impressive as they gain levels.
SHRINES

Godlings can perceive, speak with, and cast spells on anything near their shrines. If all of a godling’s shrines are destroyed, their connection with the Land of the Living is permanently severed (i.e. it’s time for a new character).

1st level godlings start with a single shabby shrine in the nearest settlement. Godlings gain 1 xp for every gold piece spent on improving any of their shrines. Improvements can be aesthetic, or they can make the shrine harder to find or destroy. Godlings can also build new shrines to make themselves harder to permanently banish–establishing one costs 1000 sp and doesn’t count towards experience.

FOLLOWERS 
from princess mononoke

To interact with the Land of the Living beyond their shrine, a godling needs followers to act as proxies. In any town they have a shrine, they can establish a cult. To do so, they need to formulate some sort of creed or promise for their followers. Funny clothes help, too. The total number of cultists cannot exceed the godling’s level. Cultists work like retainers, save for the following:

  • A godling can perceive through any of their cultists’ senses, communicate with them mentally, and cast spells through them 
  • Cultists will do any mundane, non-dangerous task their godling tells them to do without question, and can be trusted not to steal items or money. 
  • Cultists receive a permanent +1 to Morale for every spell their godlings casts in their presence
  • Cultists do not require payment

Godlings still might have other worshipers, but cultists are the ones fanatic enough to put themselves at risk. Godlings can hire regular retainers, too, though they require pay and won’t sing your weird songs or wear those stupid robes. Other player characters cannot become cultists.

MIRACLES

Godlings can cast a number of spells equal to their level each adventure. They can cast any spell they know and begin knowing all the spells in a single school. Godlings can gain access to additional spell schools by hunting down one of their fellows in the Land of Spirits and eating them. Any spell that targets the self can instead be cast on a godling’s cultists. A godling’s spell school is a reflection of their nature:

Devil: Diabolism
God of Nature: Elementalism
God of Death: Necromancy
God of Magic: Spiritualism
God of Travel: Translocation
God of Dreams: Psychomancy
God of Life: Vivimancy

LOCALITY

The Spirit World coincides perfectly, intangibly, and invisibly with the Land of the Living. Every location in the Spirit World has a Land of the Living analogue. Godlings can directly interact with creatures and objects in the Spirit World, so players should be explicit where their character is–a godling can function perfectly well hanging out in town, sending miracles at a distance, but they won’t be able to interfere with Spirit World obstacles for their co-adventurers if they do so.

In any situation where a godling actually enters combat (such as when they confront another spirit or if they are pulled into the Land of the Living by a spell), they fight as a Cleric of equal level.

jacinto classes, clerics, intro, never read balzac, new age dnd

the weather in Goriat is lovely this time of year

Almost finished with the first chunk of Albion, but I have been less and less happy with and more and more stressed about it lately, which means it is time to think about other things for a while.

You are on the remote Isle of Goriat. Centuries ago, the island’s technologically advanced ancient inhabitants tried to capture Goriat’s tutelary wind deity for long-forgotten but assuredly unsavory purposes. This killed off most of them, and the god’s been missing ever since. Goriat is now cut off from the rest of the world, because without the god there are neither wind nor currents for hundreds of miles around the island.

You are in Hame, the last surviving settlement on Goriat, located where the River Wry flows into the sea. Most of Hame’s several hundred residents survive on subsistence farming and fishing, but you’re different. You scavenge for treasure in the ruins your ancestors built.

      CHARACTER CREATION
      Attribute scores work like LotFP:

      from lamentations of the flame princess

      Attribute/Skill checks
      Roll a d20 under Relevant Attribute+Relevant Skill. Always fail on a 20. You get a +1 to your class skills every odd level, including level 1.

      List of skills:
      Athletics
      Charm
      Dowse
      Lore
      Mechanics
      Medicine
      Perception
      Profession (pick a specialty, like singing or smithing or masonry)
      Nature
      Scare
      Sleight of Hand
      Stealth

      JOBS

      • You have HD equal to your level. Reroll them every time you rest. Add your Constitution modifier to the total.
      • There are no saving throws, only ability checks. Skills can help you out in certain save-like situations (Lore to resist magic, Nature to resist disease, etc)
      • Experience is based on DCCRPG. It takes 10 * level additional XP to reach the next level. Fights, heists, delves, and so on net you 1-4 XP each.

      from Bravely Default

      Warrior
      Class skills: Athletics + 1 more of your choice
      Equipment: You can use any weapon or armor.
      Every odd level, you get +1 to attack rolls. Every even level you get +1 to damage rolls.
      Choose a specialty:
      Virtue: You know one random boon as an ascetic
      Anger: You can rage (deal double damage, take half damage, advantage on Strength checks) for one fight per day.
      Simplicity: You deal d6+1 damage with your unarmed attacks. Your base AC when not wearing Armor is 14.   

      Beast Child

      from persona

      Class skills: Nature + 1 more of your choice
      Equipment: You cannot use metal weapons and are untrained in the use of armor. 
      Beast Children can turn into animals. In order to be able to turn into an animal, a Beast Child must possess a trophy, acquired by defeating the creature in a fight, such as a scale, fang, or piece of hide. The animal can be of any level, and trophies always count as significant items for purposes of encumbrance. When a Beast Child changes shape, only their trophies change with them. All other equipment falls to the ground.

      You can either start as an animal with a human trophy or an animal with a human trophy. Pick from dog, crow, spider, or monkey.

      from suikoden
      from suikoden

      Shaman

      Class skills: Lore  + 1 more of you choice
      Equipment: You can use simple weapons and are untrained in the use of armor.
      Go here. If I don’t get around to fixing it, summoning a spirit takes a number of Rounds equal to its HD, not hours.

      from Disgaea

      Specialist
      Class skills: See below
      Equipment: You can use simple and martial weapons and are trained in the use of light armor.
      You start with 4 skill points, to distribute among any skills you wish. You gain 2 more skill points every time you gain a level.

      Ascetic/Monk/Nun

      from tactics ogre: wheel of fortune

      Class skills: Dowse + 1 more of your choice
      Equipment: You can use simple weapons and are not trained in the use of armor.
      You start with 2 random boons from the longer list. You can learn more by reading sutras, liturgies, and exegeses, or training under an abbot. To cast a boon, you must chant the associated prayer, mantra, or passage of scripture. For each Round of chanting, there is a 1 in 6 chance the boon will take effect. 

      EQUIPMENT
      You start with 1 weapon d8+Cha mod things. You can carry a number of significant items equal to your Strength score. You are assumed to have the bags necessary to haul this stuff around.

      Weapons
      Ranged weapons automatically come with 12 pieces of ammunition.

      • Simple weapons deal d6-1 damage. They are usually improvised tools, such as staves, pitchforks, wrenches, or baseball bats.
      • Martial weapons deal d6 damage. They are designed to kill, and include short swords, axes, pikes, bows, and most firearms
      • Expert weapons deal d6+1 damage. They require special training or two hands, and include fancy swords, crossbows, battleaxes, and stuff like sniper rifles or flamethrowers.

      Armor

      • Light armor gives you AC 14+Dex mod AC
      • Heavy armor gives you AC 16 AC
      • Shields give you +1 AC   

      Gear 

      1. Two-way radio
      2. Solar-powered lamp (recharges with 1/hour of sunlight, but lasts as long as 1 torch)
      3. 4 torches
      4. Bag of ball bearings
      5. Toolkit
      6. Portable computer
      7. 1 stick of dynamite
      8. map of the island
      9. 1 week’s worth of rations
      10. a mule
      11. 50′ of rope
      12. bottle of propitiatory wine
      13. sack of golden lotus powder
      14. first aid kit
      15. Ritual kit (useful for summoners)
      16. Holy symbol (useful for monks)
      17. Grappling hook
      18. 12 pieces of extra ammunition 
      19. Compass
      20. 3d6 dollars.

      GORIAT 20 QUESTIONS 

      1. What is the deal with my cleric’s religion?
        • Ascetics draw on the celestial power of Heaven through prayers, chants, and mantras. The particular divinity is up to you, but the deities of heaven usually pertain to the sun, sky, and stars.
        • Shamans draw their power from the capricious spirit allies, whose natures and abilities are innumerable. People tend to be super suspicious of shamans though–they don’t like spirits being brought into town.
      2. Where can we go to buy standard equipment?
        • The Hamely Bazaar! I abstractify (???) equipment purchasing, unless you’re buying something interesting.
      3. Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?
        •  The people of Hame have little tolerance for those who traffic with the creatures of the wild, but Blacksmith Artesse might be able to hammer something together if you do him a favor on the side.
      4. Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?
        •  There are no wizards left of Goriat, though the rogue shaman Gnomon and his mortal enemy Sister Naomi have the greatest supernatural power.
      5. Who is the greatest warrior in the land?
        •  Sir Belvedere (not a knight in any legal sense) is Hame’s monster-hunter du jour. Well equipped, in the possession of many followers, and possessing a keen eye for licensing, Belvedere is universally considered an absolute dick by the adventuring crowd.
      6. Who is the richest person in the land?
        • Money only does so much on Goriat, but the Argus family has the most of it. There farms and livestock are almost suspiciously fecund.
      7. Where can we go to get some magical healing?
        • The ascetics of the Abbey or the shamans of the Empty Shrine, both a day’s travel from town, are your best bet.
      8. Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?
        1. See above
      9. Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?
        1. Monks and nuns can acquire the mantras for new boons at the Abbey, while shamans can acquire new summoning rites at the Empty Shrine. Both would require pretty significant favors.
      10. Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?
        • The engineers and hackers Hame tend to hang out at Artesse’s garage.
      11. Where can I hire mercenaries?
        1. Just post a bulletin in Hame. Don’t expect anyone on top of their game, though.
      12. Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?
        • Even the town is subject to incursions from animals, spirits, and rogue golems, so carrying weapons is accepted and expected. Magic is tolerated, but openly summoning or commanding spirits in Hame is a bad idea.
      13. Which way to the nearest tavern?
        • The Fountain of Dust is Hame’s preeminent watering hole and inn. There are nicer digs out there, but they’ll cost you more.
      14. What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?
        •  The Ocularium, a rogue clay golem
        • Bathsheba, a freakishly large cougar with a commensurate appetite.
      15. Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?
        •  Not really. There’s a bandit encampment parked on a desert spring to the northwest, though.
      16. How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?
        •  The Iron Ring in Hame holds a year-long tournament with weekly fights.
      17. Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?
        • Mmmmmmaybe
      18. What is there to eat around here?
        •  Vegetables! Chicken and fish if you can pay!
      19. Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?
        • Anyone who can find Goriat’s lost wind god has a ticket off the island.
        • The legendary gun Ultima Ratio
        • The Night God’s Bow
      20. Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?
        • Far to the north is a tower that juts from the earth like a nail from flesh. It is terribly tall and terribly dark and only terrible things live inside.
        jacinto amateur hour, classes, clerics, is this gonna work, LotFP, monsters, rituals

        propagating my incompetence

        Edited the new warlock, but that doesn’t warrant a whole post on it own. I’ve been trying to get this patron system right for over two years, ever since I tried to glue World of Dungeons magic onto LotFP when one of my players cut a deal with The Man With A Clock For A Face.

        With aching slowness, I am teaching myself InDesign. Here’s a thing I made for practice. Thinking my post-Albion project will be a monster hunt/pokécrawl.

        painting by John Singer Sargent

        illustrations by Harry Clarke

        pdf is available here

        jacinto classes, i am sick, LotFP, Pernicious Albion, spell

        Warlock 3.0

        Warlock, a class for Lamentations of the Flame Princess
        HP, XP, and Saving Throws as Magic-user

         

        Albion crawls with failed divinity: fallen angels, dethroned fairy queens, rogue incubi, all the exiles and rejects of Faerie and the Hereafter. While most look upon these beings as gods or demons, to be feared or adored, warlocks are those cunning or foolish individuals who instead see opportunity. Eschewing the hard study of magicians and the enlightenment of clerics, warlocks rely on their talent as rhetors to broker deals with these beings. All power they gain is through trade, and so they must constantly perform servies or find payments for their patrons. This struggle often pushes warlocks into the ranks of Albion’s freelancers and mercenaries.

        The locus of a warlock’s magical power is her contract, which contains the seals and signatures of every spirit with which she has formed a pact. Contracts describe the kinds of requests signatories will grant, as well as the kinds of tasks the warlock will perform in return. Signatories reward warlocks who have proved their worth and make a greater range of favors available as they gain levels.

        A warlock starts with a contract with a single spirit. She may add any number of spirits to her contract, but must first find them and make them signatories, usually in return for a some sort of service.

        A warlock can request favors from her signatories as often as she wishes. However, spirits are fickle; they may grant the request without question, demand payment, or punish the warlock for pestering them unless appeased in some way. Warlocks do not need to settle their debts to signatories immediately, but outstanding obligations sour a spirit’s disposition and make it more difficult to extract favors from them.

        Signatory: Old Queen Mab
        She was ancient when the heath lay deep beneath the sea.
        Sphere: Curses
        As the sometime Queen of Faerie, Mab above all else desires revenge against the King of Roses Red, who deposed her, and the supposed allies who let him. When she speaks with her vassals, she seizes control of a nearby animal or weak-willed human and speaks through their mouth.

        The Curse of Many Lances
        Prerequisite: 1st level Warlock
        Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to lances, bleeding, wounds, or impalement.

        The Curse of Stitched Eye
        Prerequisite: 3rd level Warlock 
        Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to dreams, insomnia, sleep, or sleep walking.

        The Curse of Eternal Darkness
        Prerequisite: 5th level Warlock
        Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to darkness, night, occlusion, or the color black.

        The Curse of Chains
        Prerequisite: 7th level Warlock 
        Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to bondage, chains, imprisonment, limitation, or servitude.

        The Curse of Changed Flesh
        Prerequisite: 9th level Warlock 
        Mab inflicts a curse of the warlock’s design that pertains to metamorphosis or any other sort of bodily transformation.

        For the Referee
        When a warlock calls on their signatory, the Referee makes a reaction roll to determine their initial disposition. Most favors should be no more effective than a spell a magician of the warlock’s level could cast. If they are more powerful, apply a penalty; signatories should grant extravagant requests either in modified form or in return for very difficult or dangerous services.

        Feel free to apply bonuses or penalties based on the situation—favors that align with a signatory’s goals (or at least amuse them) might get a bonus, while those that offend a signatory’s sensibilities might receive a penalty.

        • Malicious: The signatory harms the warlock or otherwise complicates their situation in a manner pertaining to their Sphere, and the warlock takes a -1 penalty to the next reaction roll with this signatory
        • Annoyed: The signatory harms the warlock or otherwise complicates their situation in a manner pertaining to their Sphere
        • Bored: The signatory does nothing.
        • Interested: The signatory is inclined to grant the warlock’s request
        • Cooperative: The signatory is inclined to grant the warlock’s request, and the warlock gains a +1 bonus to the next reaction roll with this signatory.

        Once the Referee has made the reaction roll, the warlock must actually convince their signatory to perform the favor. This proceeds like any other conversation with an NPC. The warlock says what they want, the signatory states their price, and then they haggle. However, this requires a great deal of extemporizing, so here is a heuristic to use if you get stuck:

        There are three broad classes of things signatories want: Sacrifices, Rituals, and Services. Agreeing to perform a Ritual or Sacrifice each increases a signatory’s reaction by 1 step. Agreeing to perform a Service has a variable effect, depending on its difficulty and complexity, but a Service that takes a session to complete should increase the signatory’s reaction by two steps.

        Warlocks do not need to perform Sacrifices, Rituals, or Services immediately, but for every outstanding Ritual or Sacrifice, the warlock takes an cumulative -1 penalty to signatory reaction Rolls. Services cause a -2 penalty to signatory reaction rolls.

        Rituals
        When a warlock offers to perform a Ritual in negotiation, roll on the following table to determine which the signatory wants.
        Performing a ritual takes 1 Turn and requires chalk and incense.

        1. Perform a ritual over the body of a recently slain foe, claiming their soul for the signatory.
        2. Perform a ritual to summon an agent of the signatory into the area.
        3. Perform a ritual to banish a rival’s influence from the area.
        4. Perform a ritual to attune the area to the signatory’s sphere.
        5. Perform a ritual to erase all evidence of the signatory’s meddling.
        6. Capture someone nearby and compel or convince them to swear a binding oath, making them an agent of the signatory.

        Sacrifices
        When a warlock offers to perform a Sacrifice in negotiation, roll on the following table to determine which the signatory wants.
        Sacrifices take 1 Round. Sacrificing a live, healthy goat (1 Turn) takes the place of any Sacrifice.

        1. Blood: d6+level damage
        2. Flesh: d4 Strength damage
        3. Grace: d4 Dexterity damage
        4. Judgment: d4 Wisdom damage
        5. Nous: d4 Charisma damage
        6. Time: incapacitated for d6 Turns
        7. Vigor: d4 Constitution damage
        8. Wit: d4 Intelligence damage 

        Services
        Queen Mab’s services usually involve some of the following:

        Objects

        1. Explosives
        2. Poison
        3. Regalia
        4. An exquisite meal
        5. A curse
        6. An ancient and enchanted weapon
        7. A treaty from times primeval
        8. A parasol
        9. A gown
        10. A rose

        People

        1. A spy
        2. A knight
        3. A child
        4. A cook
        5. A maid
        6. A shepherd
        7. A lord or lady
        8. An ambassador
        9. A magician
        10. The King of Roses Red

        Incidents

        1. Sabotage
        2. Assassination
        3. Marriage
        4. Sowing the earth with salt
        5. Framing someone for a crime
        6. Transformation
        7. Defenestration
        8. Decapitation
        9. Burial
        10. A feast

        Locations

        1. A busy kitchen
        2. A terrible prison
        3. A haunted barrow
        4. A decaying castle
        5. A splendid ballroom
        6. The cold and empty moor
        7. The Kingdom of Faerie
        8. A moonlit glade
        9. A backwater village
        10. A haberdashery

        Dispositions

        1. A hated rival
        2. A friend betrayed
        3. A wrathful widow(er)
        4. A murderous parent
        5. An erstwhile ally
        6. An aging guardian
        7. A fading beauty
        8. A vengeful victim
        9. An old friend
        10. A loyal servant
          jacinto classes, is this gonna work, LotFP

          over and over and over

          Inching forward with Albion, but I need to get this out of my head.

          1. I have an incurable fixation with Final Fantasy style summons and Pokemon style monster collection
          2. I like applying existing rules to classes (Starvation rules for vampires, reaction rules for warlocks)
          3. I have been think the anime series Mononoke (not to be confused with the Miyazaki film), a show that involves a great deal of spirit-wrangling
          4. I have been reading 1e Oriental Adventures and the fact that the shugenja and wu jen are barely different from clerics and wizards annoys me. I don’t like it when classes are matters of Find+Replace, and the heavy handedness of their depiction of Asia doesn’t help.
          5. I read Flying Swordsman, and I want more thematically from the Animist than what they’re giving me.
          6. It just occurred to me that the monsters from my unsuccessful Summoner class are just fancy retainers, which Lamentations of the Flame Princess conveniently already has rules for.

          Basically, when you want to hire a retainer, you have to spend a small sum of money to get the word out, the DM decides how many people show up, and then they roll 3d6 twice on this table, with various bonuses and penalties based on how attractive your offer is. The first roll is to see if they accept the job, while the second is to see what their morale is.

          So the goal is to make an animist/shaman/summoner type class that is easy to learn and use as LotFP’s retainer rules, which a group is conceivably already using.

          Spiritualist, a class for Lamentations of the Flame Princess

          from Mononoke

          HP, XP, Attack Bonus, and Saving throws as Cleric

          You traffic with spirits, fairies, ghosts, revenants, grudges, and poltergeists of all sorts. Sometimes you can bind them to your will.

          Spiritualists learn how to summon and bind spirits with rituals. Each ritual conjures a different kind of spirit, and an animist must learn a ritual from a teacher or text in order to perform it. Regardless, each ritual costs 100 sp×HD of the spirit it summons and takes a number of hours equal to the spirit’s HD.

          When you conjure a spirit, roll 3d6 on the both columns of the Summoning table. For both rolls, you should…

          • Add half your level, rounded up
          • Add +1 for ritual component or instrument you expend in the summoning. As you grow in power, spirits demand rarer and more exotic substances and devices; each costs 10% of the total silver pieces you had to acquire to reach your current level. 
          • Add a bonus to to the roll based on Terms you are willing to accept on the spirit’s service. You might give up the ability to command a spirit to fight, for example, or only be able to use the spirit in combat against evil creatures. This is up to the DM’s discretion and the player’s creativity.
          • Subtract the spirit’s HD
          • Subtract the total number of HD of spirits you currently have bound
          SUMMONING TABLE

          If you roll a 10 or lower on the Result column, then the spirit enters this world to do as it pleases, which probably involves attacking you or fleeing to perform mischief elsewhere. If you roll an 11 or higher, it is bound to you and must obey your orders to the letter, though certain types of commands strain the ritual bindings you have placed on it. You can command bound spirits to inhabit objects such as knives, staves, lamps, and rings. No more than 1 spirit can inhabit a given object.

          The second roll determines its Obedience score, which is a measure of the binding ritual’s power and functions similarly to Morale and Loyalty in a mortal retainer. The Referee will keep the Obedience score secret–you don’t get to know what it is.

          Check a spirit’s Obedience when…

          • You command it to violate one of its Taboos or otherwise act against its nature
          • You command it to exercise one of its Talents or otherwise call upon its supernatural abilities
          • You make the spirit feel afraid humiliated, angry, or otherwise upset, either due to a command you have given it or your attitude towards it
          • You fail to bind a spirit during a summoning
          • A spirit bound to you dies.

          To make an Obedience check, roll 2d6. If the result is under the spirit’s Obedience, then the ritual bindings hold and it will do as you say. If the result is higher, the spirit breaks from your control. Simple, easy commands like carrying a moderate amount of equipment, transmitting messages, or cleaning a room do not require Obedience checks.

          Spiritualists can re-perform the rituals of spirits they have already summoned, in hopes of making them more obedient.

          If a spirit is reduced to 0 HP, it returns to the Spirit World until called back again.

          Safely releasing a spirit takes 1 Turn per HD.

          If a spiritualist dies, all spirits bound to them are immediately and simultaneously released.

          by Kawanabe Kyōsai
          Spirits and Rituals

          Spiritualists start with knowledge of two of the following:
          1. Balance Spirit Ritual
          2. Homunculus Ritual
          3. Sylph Ritual
          4. Undine Ritual
          5. Salamander Ritual
          6. Gnome Ritual
          from Mononoke


          Balance Spirit (Scale Tsukumogami)
          HD: ½-10
          HP: 1d8, regardless of HD 
          AC: 12
          Attack: None
          MV: Half as fast as a human (fly and hover)
          Alignment: Lawful

          A spirit that takes the form of a jeweled set of scales, born from a balance used for 100 years. Incapable of both speech and violence, balance spirits can sense the disturbances that evil beings caused in the material and spiritual worlds. 

          • Talent: Lean towards the most powerful Chaotic spiritual presence within 100 ft, no matter how much it has concealed itself.
          • Talent: Spend 1 Round to create a single, perfect copy of itself. The copy has all the same abilities as the original, but the total number of balance spirits cannot exceed twice the original’s HD.

          Homunculus
          HD: 1
          AC: 12
          Attack: d4 (fist)
          MV: as a human
          Alignment: Neutral

          A simple servitor spirit; appears as a child-sized figure of grey clay. Homunculi are good cooks, porters, messengers, and cleaners, but they are adverse to violence and not much use in a fight.

          • Taboo: Fighting or putting itself in danger

          Sylph
          HD: 1
          AC: 12
          Attack: d4 (razor ribbon)
          MV: twice as fast as an unencumbered human (hover and fly)
          Alignment: Neutral

          Diminutive, androgynous, of avian aspect: the least spirits of air. Sylph are distracted, haughty, and obsessed with etiquette; they respond well to courtly mannerisms and are easily fooled by a sudden change in subject. They will fall in love with any prince or princess they see. Sylph hold power over wind and are about as strong as a cat.

          • Talent: 5 in 6 chance of following a scent it already knows over land
          • Talent: Creating brief gusts of wind, which cannot be stronger than the wind necessary to knock over a tent
          • Taboo: Harming a beautiful thing or person in any way; harming an artist

          Undine
          HD: 1
          AC: 12
          Attack: d6 (claws)
          MV: walk as a heavily encumbered human; swim twice as fast as an unencumbered human
          Alignment: Neutral

          Minor spirits of water, possessing a serpentine aspect. Undine are malicious, possessive, and compulsive coquettes. They love gifts, displays of submission, and music. They delight in drowning the rude and stupid. Undine can command the flow of water and are about as strong as a child

          • Talent: Create up to a gallon of water
          • Talent: Flood a victim’s lungs with water (3 in 6 Assassinate/Sneak Attack skill; only works on air-breathing creatures submerged in water) 
          • Taboo: Creating loud or many noises; harming a musician or an instrument

          Gnome
          HD: 1
          AC: 14
          Attack: d6 (club)
          MV: walk as a lightly encumbered human; climb the same speed
          Alignment: Neutral

          A lesser earth spirit of simian aspect. Gnomes are gluttonous, illogical, prone to enigmatic sayings.

          Gnomes have a talent for working earth, and have an effective 18 Strength. They also have a great respect for artifice and engineering of all kinds and do their best not to harm man-made objects.

          • Talent: Dig, mine, quarry, and otherwise move earth twice as fast as a human and without tools
          • Taboo: Damage or put at risk craftsmanship of any sort; includes all man-made objects and devices

          Salamander
          HD: 1
          AC: 12
          Attack: d6 (bite), d8 (flame)
          MV: walk as a unencumbered human; teleport between any two points joined by a contiguous fire
          Alignment: Neutral

          A petty fire spirit of feline aspect. Salamanders can create a sudden burst of flame the size of a small campfire within shortbow range, igniting flammable objects and dealing d8 damage to creatures (Save vs Breath to negate). Preservation, protection, and self-control are foreign to salamanders; commanding one to do anything that is not entertaining or destructive requires an Obedience check.

          Idol of Truth
          HD: 4
          AC: 16
          Attack: d8 (fists)
          MV: As fast as heavily encumbered human
          Alignment: Lawful

          A stony spirit that appears as an animate statue. It effectively has 18 Strength, and though it can speak, it must be ordered to do and and can say nothing but the last honest statement uttered in its presence. Idols love honesty, revelation, knowledge, and obeying the law; ordering an Idol to break the law, destroy books or records, cover up evidence, or perform similarly duplicitous actions will test its Obedience.

          Spirit of Salvation
          HD: 10
          AC: 16
          Attack: d20 (sword)
          MV: As fast as an unencumbered human
          Alignment: Lawful

          A heavenly swordsman of surpassing skill, sent by the gods to purge Earth of evil. The Spirit of Salvation is immune to spells and its attacks bypass all resistances. However, it is bound by immutable celestial laws. The Spirit of Salvation can only be commanded to attack Chaotic spirits, and only after the spiritualist has determined…

          • The evil spirit’s Form, or true shape and name
          • The evil spirit’s Reason, or deepest desire
          • The evil spirit’s Truth, or the circumstances that created it

          These count as Terms, and provide a +3 bonus to the roll to determine the Spirit’s loyalty. Traditionally, spiritualists allow Spirits of Salvation to spend the time between battles inside of a sword.

          jacinto classes, spell

          The House Without Walls

          Since Magic-users can learn any number of spells or any level, the real restriction to casting how many spells they actually find. This is a good opportunity for adventuring. If a Magic-user wants to learn the Slaying Spell, they need to find the long-hidden elves of the Bone House, whereas if they want to know Invoke Elemental, they need to trek over the the Summoner’s College of the Goths.

          The elves of the Branch House live in the Hallows, a forest grown over the ruins of an antediluvian necropolis. They worship their patron and progenitor, He Walks In The Woods, a beast-god associated with poison, wolves, crows, shapeshifting, and hunting. The elves live in encampments scattered across Hallows, each positioned over one of the primary entrances to the catacombs beneath. The Branch House guards the tombs below, ensuring that the restless dead stay inside and the greedy living stay above. They are currently struggling against the rogue Warlock Liebestod, who wants access to the treasure and knowledge locked within the necropolis’ vaults.

          Spells of the Branch House Magi

          It Hunts Again
          Component: A basket woven from the stem of aglaophotis, that rarest and most potent of herbs
          Target: The corpse of an animal, placed inside the basket
          The caster falls to the ground insensate and assumes control of the creature inside the basket. The spell lasts until the caster chooses to end it, and the animal appears healthy and alive for the duration, regardless of the condition of their body. The caster can use this spell in any animal they can fit in the basket, so the larger it is, the greater the range of animals the spell works on.

          This Is The Change (Polymorph)
          Component: A long flint razor, kept in a scabbard of bear’s gut
          The caster slices open their belly with the razor, and their new form shucks itself free.

          The House Without Walls (Teleport)
          Component: A bag of oak leaves, individually consecrated
          The caster and targets vanish in a sudden billow of leaves.

          It Was But Is Not (Baleful Polymorph)
          Component: a life-sized effigy of a human or elf
          The caster traces an X over the eyes, mouth, and heart of the effigy. In this version of the spell, the target does not need to make a System Shock check, and they do not retain their intelligence, personality, or knowledge.


          The Beasts of the Branch House
          I really like the idea of players gaining new character options as they explore, but I also want to keep everything pretty simple. Multiclassing is a good outlet for this–the way multiclassing works in Delving Deeper is perfectly functional, but as it has been amply demonstrated, there are cooler ways to do it.

          An elf of the Branch House can advance as either a Thief and a Fighter or a Magic-user and a Fighter. They can transform at will into an elf-beast, which takes 1 turn. In their elf form, they function as their non-Fighter class, and cannot use the Fighter’s combat matrix or class abilities. In their elf-beast shape, they function as a Fighter only, and cannot cast spells as a Magic-user or use skills as a Thief. Though their saving throws progress as any dual-classed character, elves of the Branch House track maximum HP and damage received separately for each of their classes. They deduct damage from their Thief or Magic-user HP when they are in their elf shape and deduct damage from their Fighter HP when they are in their elf-beast shape. When one form reaches 0 HP, the elf immediately changes into the other, and cannot return to the other shape until they it has at least 1 HP. Restored HP spills over from one form to the other.

          In their beast shape, elves of the Branch House

          • can deal damage with unarmed attacks
          • have a natural AC of 5
          • are treated as having 18 Strength
          • cannot use weapons, shields, or armor of any sort.
          • cannot speak or perform complex tasks

          The Synod finds such foul sorcery gravely disordered and invites all practitioners to submit themselves to an Inquisitorial Officer, so that they may redeem themselves in the eyes of Heaven.

          Art is from Dark Souls 2, Skyrim, and Demon’s Souls, respectively

          jacinto classes, new age dnd, type v

          Warlock Pact for Type V DnD

          Got stuck with some Pernicious Albion tables, so I shamefully put them off and wrote this for my increasingly anime Dungeons and Dragons not-game instead. It’s a new warlock pact, and rather experimental.

          THE SUMMON SCHOOL

          At 1st level, your  patron gives you an eidolon, a semisentient spirit from which you gain your magical power. It manifests as any humanoid, elemental, beast, or monstrosity with a CR of 1/4 or lower (with DM approval). Any cantrips or spells you would learn through your Pact Magic, Mystic Arcanum, or Eldritch Invocation class features are in fact acquired by your eidolon. For purposes of line of sight, range, and targeting, the eidolon casts your spells. However, your eidolon can cast any spell with a range of Self on you as if it were a Touch spell. Your eidolon’s Charisma score is always equal to yours.
               You can summon your eidolon with an 8 hour ritual and dismiss it with an action. Your eidolon shares your place in the initiative order and follows your commands as best it can, and will instinctively move where you want them to go, but you must take an action to command it to something more complex (Cast Spell, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, Help, etc). You must be able to speak to give your eidolon an order, and if it moves farther than 50 feet away from you, it vanishes into the aether and must be summoned again. The maximum HP of your eidolon is either its default or four times your Warlock level, whichever is higher. If your eidolon dies, you may summon it again by performing the ritual. If you die or fall unconscious, your eidolon vanishes into the aether and must be summoned again.

          Starting at 3rd level, you add your proficiency bonus to your eidolon’s AC, saving throws, spell saves, spell attack rolls, and proficient skills.

          Starting at 6th level, you may command your eidolon as a Bonus Action.

          Starting at 10th level, you can summon your eidolon with a 1 hour ritual.

          Starting at 14th level, you eidolon can move any distance away from you without vanishing, and you can telepathically communicate with each other regardless of distance.

          You still choose from the Fey, Archfiend, or Great Old One pacts, but only gain access to their associated expanded spell list.

          jacinto adventures, classes, LotFP, malamaut, Pernicious Albion

          Let’s make a deal

          So warlocks need to complete favors in order to maintain (semi)reliable access to their spells. Coming up with lots of favors on the fly is hard, so I made tables. Major favors also work as adventure seeds. These are for the incubus Malamaut.
          Minor Favors
          A minor favor cannot reduce HP or an attribute to 0, and all attribute damage heals after a night’s sleep.
          1. Dance with me! (for d6 x 10 minutes)
          2. I need some of your blood. It is very, very important that you not ask why (d6 damage)
          3. I need to borrow a bit of that body of yours (d3 Strength damage)
          4. I’m in need of some vigor (d3 Constitution damage)
          5. I want some of your grace (d3 Dexterity damage)
          6. Lend me your cunning (d3 Intelligence damage)
          7. I’ve never had the best judgment. Could I borrow some of yours? (d3 Wisdom damage)
          8. I need a piece of soul. I promise I’ll give it back (d3 Charisma damage)
          Major Favors
          If you can’t quickly come up with a good location, stick it d6 x 10 hexes (or miles, or days, or whatever) away in a random direction.
          1. It has come to my attention that a merchant caravan passing nearby is carrying a bottle of Quietus, that most potent and poisonous of aphrodisiacs. Fetch it for me.
          2. An old lover of mine has been condemned to death, and I want to watch. The execution is in [2d20] days in [the nearest large city], so do hurry. I always said I’d see him hang, and now I don’t have to do it myself.
          3. An old lover of mine has been sentenced to a most dreadful prison, and I want you to release her. She never did suffer prettily, and I still owe her a favor.
          4. Best beloved, one of those wretched hellhounds is getting awfully close to sniffing me out. Dispose of it, will you?
          5. I think it’s time you got me a proper present, dearest. I could have such fun with a weapon of those Grigori—I believe there’s one skulking around nearby.
          6. Oh dear. I’m fresh out of blood. Could you collect, say, [d100 HP] worth? Nothing too old, of course. (A bottle or wineskin can hold 10 HP worth of blood. Blood goes bad after a day unless it is refrigerated or hermetically sealed)
          7. Dearest, you caught me in the middle of an engagement. Treat me to a fine meal [2d100 sp per diner, d6 hour-long courses], or I will be most put out.
          8. The mayor in (the nearest village) has been treating his lover most viciously, and it is beginning to vex me. Put him out of my misery.
          9. I am in need of a pet. Capture [a monster or magical creature] alive, and I shall come to retrieve it once we’re all safe and sound.
          10. A most boring constable is trying to shut down a brothel in (nearest large city). Convince him otherwise, won’t you?
          11. What luck you called! I’m planning a party in [nearest large city], and I need a bit of cash to get it started (costs a number of silver pieces equal to 25% of the xp needed to reach next level)
          12. I’m in a bit of a bind—some fairy noble caught me in her bed with a lady-in-waiting, and now she’s sent a champion to challenge me to a duel. You‘ll stand in for me, right? They’ll get here in [d6] hours.
          13. Oh, it’s so romantic! There’s this eloping couple traveling nearby, and they’ll be eaten by wolves any day now. Go help them, will you?
          14. Some bore of a priest is burning books in [nearest village]. Go stop him—they always burn the ones with the exciting pictures.
          15. I can’t be seen with anyone dressed like that! Go find some half-decent clothes. (Must spend 5d100 sp on fashionable equipment—engraved grappling hooks, filigreed armor, lace handkerchiefs for cleaning swords, etc)
          16. You know, I’ve just had an idea. Fetch me a length of silk rope, a brazier, a small horse, a block and tackle, some lard, a bag of ball bearings, and some open-minded young people with a strong sense of adventure.
          17. I’ve been trying my hand at some poetry and am in need of a muse. Find someone fetching for me. (Acquire the services of a hireling with a Charisma modifier of at least +1 for at least a month)
          18. All this adventuring has left me fatigued. Take me someplace nice, darling (a night in the most expensive hotel or inn in the nearest large city.
          19. They’re circulating the most interesting pictures of (the region’s most notable noble couple) in [the nearest large city], but I hear the constabulary has begun to confiscate them. I simply must have one of these engravings.
          20. It’s been so long since I’ve been courted. Take me out on a night on the town. (Spend a full 24 hours and d1000 sp; roll on a carousing table if you’ve got one)
          jacinto classes, LotFP, malamaut, Pernicious Albion

          Warlock 2.0

          a class for Lamentations of the Flame Princess


          HP, Saves, and Experience as Cleric

          All warlocks possess a magical contract that contains the seals and signatures of every spirit with which she has formed a pact. A warlock can call upon such spirits for knowledge or power, while the spirits can demand favors in turn. Each spirit possesses a sphere of influence, such as Knowledge or Curses, over which it reigns supreme, and beyond which it is powerless.

          A warlock has a contract with a single spirit. She may add any number of spirits to her contract, but must first find them and make them signatories, usually in return for a Greater Favor. 

          A warlock can invoke any of her signatory spirits as often as she wishes. When she does so, she can either ask a question pertaining to the signatory’s domain or draw on its power to cast a spell. A warlock may cast any spell on a spirit’s spell list, as long as its spell level does not exceed half her character level, rounded up. In any case, whenever a warlock invokes a spirit, the Referee rolls 2d6 on the Spirit’s Vagary  table to determine the signatory’s reaction to her demand. If the roll results in a Lesser or Greater Favor, the Referee rolls 1d20 on the corresponding table to determine the spirit’s price. As a rule, spirits are uncharitable beings; when a warlock invokes a signatory, she takes a -1 penalty to its Spirit’s Vagary roll for each outstanding favor. If a signatory realizes its warlock cannot or will not complete a favor, it will extract its price forcibly and immediately, as determined by the Referee.
          STARTING PACTS

          There will be more, and they will come with tables for manifestations and favors, but I need to hammer these out for my in-person group today.

          Malamaut, Demon of Love and Spite
          his is the grin of the fox in a henhouse

          Sphere: Lust and Loathing

          An incubus who has grown disinterested in the business of perdition. Though he possesses not even the smallest shred of virtue, Malamaut has developed a stunted and entirely non-Platonic affection for humanity over the long millennia of his existence, and can be persuaded to serve a warlock for a sufficiently enticing price. He is a connoisseur of indecency and a gourmand of sin and desires pleasures of the flesh above all else.


          Old Queen Mab, Fairy of Malediction

          she was old when the heath lay deep beneath the sea
           As the sometime Queen of Faerie, Mab above all else desires revenge against the King of Roses Red, who deposed her, and the supposed allies who let him. When she speaks with her vassals, she seizes control of a nearby animal or weak-willed human and speaks through theire mouth.
           

          jacinto classes, is this gonna work, Isle of the Unknown, LotFP

          for what is the sun but a hell

          Felt like I was beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel with hex descriptions, so here’s a palette (EDIT: PALATE! I MEANT PALATE!) cleanser of something tangentially related before I get back to work. 

          M E T A L vs S K I N posted this really cool vampire class, and I started thinking about how I would implement something similar. I spent a lot of time trying to fit vampires as PCs and HP and hit dice together when I realized that there are already rules for starvation and dehydration in the LotFP handbook:

          “For every 24 hours that a character goes without water, his Constitution drops by half unless he makes a save versus Poison. After three such failed saves against Poison due to a lack of water, the character will be dead. Constitution losses due to dehydration or starvation recover at twice the usual rate with rest and proper nourishment.”

          Replace “water” with “blood”, and assume “rest” involves sleeping in a coffin, and you have the foundation for some pretty easy vampire rules.


          VAMPIRE
          A class for Lamentations of the Flame Princess
          blergh!

          HP, Saves and XP as Elf (elves are basically vegetarian vampires with good PR)

          Vampires, according to vampires1, are scions of those ancient lords and ladies who claimed the marches between the Lands of the Living and the Lands of the Dead. They fought back the innumerable souls of the departed, and in doing so rejected the tyranny of death, elevating themselves above the mortals around them. 


          Vampires, according to the Crown, are to be admired for their pursuit of immortality, and executed for their affinity for proscribed magic2. The Queen applauds the acquisition and hoarding of knowledge, but brooks no threat to the integrity of her realm.
          Vampires receive a +1 bonus to their Charisma modifier and can cast spells. Vampires have the same spell slot progression as a Cleric. However, they do not learn or prepare spells–a vampire can expend a spell slot to cast any spell on the vampire list (see below) of equal or lower spell level. Vampires are also naturally stealthy. They start with a 2 in 6 Stealth skill and progress at the same rate as the Elf’s Search skill. 

          Vampires do not age, breathe, or eat food, and cannot be harmed by poison, venom, or extreme weather. To feed, a vampire must drain blood from a humanoid (human, elf, halfling, or dwarf) victim. Vampire bites reduce a victim’s maximum HP by an amount equal to their HD for every round of feeding, which returns at a rate of 1 HP per day. A vampire needs to drain HP equal to their level in blood per 24 hour period to sustain themselves. A vampire can bite successfully grappled enemies with a standard attack. Draining blood does not restore a vampire’s HP.

          If a vampire is starving, they cannot recover HP in any way until they feed.

          Anyone who is reduced to below 0 HP through blood drain must Save vs Magic or rise as undead, with their disposition to the vampire being determined with a Reaction Roll, regardless of their character in life.

          When direct sunlight touches a vampire’s bare skin, they take d12 damage per Round. PC vampires can be Turned per the Turn Undead spell.

          The normal rules for sleep deprivation apply to vampires, but they can only sleep in coffins. Vampires recover d6 HP and their expended spell slots by sleeping for at least 8 hours in a coffin. 

          VAMPIRE SPELL LIST

          1st Level
          Charm Person
          Darkness
          Feather Fall
          Spider Climb

          2nd Level
          Change Self
          Invisibility
          Suggestion
          Wall of Fog

          3rd Level
          Army of One
          Clairvoyance
          Fly
          Speak with Dead

          4th Level
          Charm Monster
          Invisibility, Improved
          Polymorph Self
          Protection from Normal Weapons

          5th Level
          Animate Dead
          Bestow Curse
          Telekinesis
          True Seeing

          6th Level
          Animate Dead Monsters
          Death Spell
          Speak with Monsters
          Suggestion, Mass

          7th Level
          Charm Person, Mass
          Control Weather
          Remote Surveillance
          Unholy Word

           1Vampires from Albion, naturally. Vampires from other lands do not possess noble blood, and engage in all sorts of eccentric behavior. The vampires of the Norge swim amongst the glaciers and sup on the cold blood of fish, while the vampires of Columbia converse with the stars from mountaintops. The lamia far to the east hide from the day in the bellies of snakes. The vampires of Carpathia are rumored to be quite mad. In the farthest south, vampires can crawl into dreams and steal what they find therein.

          2While the people of New Londinium are famous for their casual disregard for the natural order, there is still a class of spells banned to all, not because they are necessarily dangerous, but because they are the sociological equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Animate Dead isn’t something you cast if you are about to eat dinner, but spells like Change Self, Charm Person, Suggestion, and Forget tend to engender massive, baroque, and self-sustaining schemes (e.g. someone uses Suggestion to motivate a magician to cast Suggestion on other magicians, then uses Forget so they have no memory of the encounter. In the Stokesy Incident, the rebellious initiator of such a cycle fell under the magical influence of the victim of his victim’s victim, and from that point the interlocking chain of Suggestions and Charm spells becomes so convoluted that some constables still wonder if those apprehended were dupes, arrested only because someone Suggested it to the chief investigator). Therefore, the Queen’s agents destroy any copies of these spells they come across, and summarily execute anyone they find in possession of them. This is one of the reasons why vampires are persecuted so much: they can cast these spells without being encumbered with discriminatory spellbooks or scrolls. Once someone encounters a vampire, they can never truly trust their own motivations ever again.
               The Queen has a keen understanding of how effective such magic can be, because 
          though she is now Agorath, the Sovereign of Albion and the Divinity of Forbidden knowledge, she once was Nimue. When her tutor Merlin was at the height of his abilities, he retreated to the heart of his sanctum and forged a great Staff of Power. When Nimue came into her own, she used Permanency to enchant herself with Shape Change, Spell Turning, Mind Blank, and Globe of Major Invulnerability, then built a small army of Simulacra. This is why Merlin is in a tree, and she is in a palace.

          first image by Alvaro Tapia, distributed under Creative Commons
          second image from Boktai 2