jacinto classes, demon, djinn, LotFP

to slay a king or rout a host

My abridged copy of 1001 Nights is filed with dubious Victorianisms, but every once in a while it just really comes together. The genie Al-Ra’ad Al-Kasif to the puckishly homocidal fisherman Judar:

Ask what thou wilt and it shall be given to thee. Hast thou a mind to people a ruined city or ruin a populous one? To slay a king or rout a host?

So now I’m thinking about summoner types again. The last iteration was a bit too complicated and wasn’t quite doing what I wanted it to do. Here is yet another iteration, one that’s probably pretty close to complete, incorporating some advice from +Arnold K.

Summoner 3.0
by Kawanabe Kyōsa


HP, XP, Saves as magic-user
Summoners cannot perform magic under their own power, and instead call forth spirits to do it for them. First, a summoner must acquire the true name of a spirit. They can do this by finding it while adventuring or extracting it from the spirit itself, through trickery, violence, or diplomacy. Then, they must bind it. This is analogous to a magic-user preparing spells; the spirits a summoner has bound determines which ones they can summon over the course of a day. Finally, they can summon the spirit, which requires the traditional Loyalty roll (2d6 under a target number between 3 and 12).

At midnight, summoners can bind spirits whose true names they know. This takes as long as a magic-user memorizing spells from a spell book. Bound spirits, whether they are currently summoned or not, count against a summoner’s retainer total (if applicable to your rules of choice. Otherwise, they can bind a number of spirits equal to half level+Cha mod).

Summoning a spirit takes as long as casting a spell. When you summon a spirit, make a Loyalty check to see if you retain control of it. A spirit’s base Loyalty is increased by 1/3 your level (if your ruleset of choice does not provide a method for retainer loyalty, start it at 6) If you succeed, the spirit performs a single task for you to the best of its ability, then returns to the void, ready to be summoned again. If you fail, the spirit is free to do as it pleases until you subdue it or bind it again. Malicious spirits will attack you or otherwise sabotage your progress, while benign or neutral spirits will just leave or watch you get eaten by skeletons.

  • If you command a spirit to cast a spell, add the spell level to the 2d6 roll.
  • Spirits commanded to perform exceedingly long-terms tasks might require multiple Loyalty rolls. A spirit commanded to guard its summoner for an entire day would require Loyalty rolls every time it sustained significant damage, for example.
  • For every spirit you have currently summoned, you suffer a -1 penalty to Loyalty rolls.
  • Spirits have their own motives and personalities. If you command a spirit to act against its truest nature, you suffer a -1 to -3 penalty to the Loyalty roll, depending on how egregious the breach of its code would be.
  • You can gain a +1 bonus to a single Loyalty roll by giving the spirit an offering. This can be anything from a bottle of rum to a live goat, but the upshot is a single offering encumbers at least as a significant item and costs at least 50gp×the spirit’s HD.
  • A summoner can banish any spirit under their control at will, but they must be in earshot.
  • Spirits that die return to the void, and cannot be summoned until bound again.

Example Spirits
Inklings

from legend of zelda: wind waker

Spirits of hexed ink and sublimated shadow, about as intelligent as a human toddler. They possess a catlike susceptibility to affection, but also delight in cruelty.

Stats: As goblin
Can spider-climb and squeeze through spaces coin-sized or larger. Inklings take d4 damage per turn in lightless environments are their substance bleeds off into the ambient darkness.

from dark souls 2

Agrode
A crow the size of a mastiff. She has many red eyes, and speaks through the small human face hidden inside her beak. She is obscene, manic, funny, and enthusiastically anthropophagous. Agrode holds power over sight and thought.

Agrode adores children, and most commonly comes into conflict with humans when she starts kidnapping sons and daughters. Despite the fact that she is a giant, filthy, demonic crow, she actually takes quite good care of them, loving them with all her evil heart and teaching them all the secrets of her wicked wisdom. Some of the greatest witches in history were raised by Agrode. Occassionally, desperate parents leave their children out where Agrode is known to roost. She gratefully accepts them, then kills the parents for neglect.

Stats: As giant bat, no blood drain, Alignment is Chaotic
Can cast Comprehend/Obscure Languages, Phantasmal Force, and Forget at will. She can cast Charm Person at will, but only on those below the age of 18.

from final fantasy xii

The Queen of Lions
The spirit of the Queen of Sheba’s consort. Her features are concealed behind red lacquer armor and samite, but she stands a full head taller than the tallest man. She is taciturn, patient, suspicious of magicians, and wrathful towards liars. Hers are the powers of fortitude and purity.

Stats: As Ogre, Alignment is Lawful, cannot be harmed by man-made weapons
Can Turn Undead as a 3rd level Cleric, can speak to animals

Al-Ra’ad al-Kasif

from tales of vesperia

An ifrit, once immensely powerful, now sadly dissipated. He appears as a louche, middle-aged man in rich clothes. He is a knowledgeable accountant and talented lawyer, though leaving him to his own devices in financial matters is not necessarily wise, as his reach exceeds his considerable grasp.

Al-Ra’ad is a traditionalist djinn, and does not try to push too hard against his summoner’s orders. However, he desperately wishes to repair his ring, broken millennia ago by the wife of an old master, in hopes of restoring his former power. He is also a gourmand and a minor alcoholic, and his appetites occasionally surpass his best efforts and good intentions.

Stats: As Gnoll, Alignment is Lawful
Can Change Self at will. Al-Ra’ad is abnormally strong, and can carry twice as many items as normal. He can easily perform any feat of Strength a normal human is capable of, and automatically succeeds all such Strength checks. He only makes checks for tasks that would exceed the capabilities of a single person.

jacinto classes, djinn, is this gonna work, LotFP

bound djinni class

 Bound Djinni
a class for Old School D&D-alikes
by edmund dulac

HP, XP, Saves, Attack Bonus, Equipment Restrictions as Elf.

You are a spirit of flame and desire, sealed inside a magical vessel such as a ring, lamp, or sword. You must obey the commands of the person who holds your vessel. In fact, you must try to bring about all desires they verbally express in your hearing, whether they want you to or not (they can, of course, tell you to immediately stop what you are doing). You must always follow the letter of your vessel-carrier’s wishes, though you can otherwise interpret them however you want. This isn’t a matter of threat of punishment–this is simply what bound djinn do, though they certainly don’t always like it.

You do not need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. However, once you have completed all outstanding wishes, you are compelled to return to their vessel until called forth again. You must be within a few feet of your vessel into enter it. You cannot take any items with you.

Djinn vessels are indestructible, barring Wish-level magic, the fire of an ancient dragon, or divine intervention. Should you manage to get your vessel destroyed, you will be free to do as you please, assuming a magician doesn’t manage to cram you into a snuff box again.

Water and earth are anathema to djinn. You take d4 damage per turn of submersion or interment. 

by edmund dulac

Act of Change
When outside of your vessel, you can assume any shape you desire, within the parameters of Polymorph Self or Disguise Self. However, your height and length cannot exceed twice your level in feet. Changing shape is also tiring–every time you do so, Save vs Magic or take d4 Constitution damage. You do not need to make this Save the first time you assume a shape after resting inside your prison.

Act of Creation
Starting at level 3, you can create objects from nothing, but only to fulfill a command by the owner of your djinn-prison. The total value in gold pieces of objects you create over the course of a day cannot exceed your current experience total divided by 10. If a created object leaves your presence a number of turns greater than your level, it vanishes into black smoke. Djinni-created food and drink nourishes like any other meal if eaten before it vanishes.

Act of Strength
Starting at level 5, when in human or demihuman form, you can easily perform any feat of Strength a normal human is capable of and automatically succeed all such Strength checks. You only need to make Strength checks for tasks that would surpass the abilities of a single person. You can carry twice as many objects without being encumbered, as well. This does not confer any bonuses to combat.

Act of Nature
Starting at level 7, when in human or demihuman form, you can fly on a whirlwind at will, albeit clumsily, as the Chariot of Air spell.

Act of Desire
At level 9, you can grant a Limited Wish to the possessor of your vessel 1/week.

Etc

  • Typically, the carrier of a djinni’s prison is another PC, though it could be some magician who decided to give the mercenaries a little help. The relationship between a bound djinni and the carrier of their prison comes down to the players, though circumstances will probably conspire to keep them from outright wanting to kill each other–if a djinni engineers a TPK, they might end up stuck in their prison in the bottom of a dungeon for a couple centuries.
  • If you see a tower of diamond or a castle of steel, it probably has a powerful djinni bound at the bottom, supporting the structure’s existence with their presence. Releasing them destroys the edifice, and releases a barely-sane spirit of epochal rage into the world at large.
  • You could have a djinn-binder class who has half thief skill progression and MU XP who automatically gets an NPC djinni. For the semi-competent hero who stumbles onto awesome magical power.
  • There are plenty of people who want a bound djinni of their own. Careless owners of a djinn-prison might find their former servants fighting against them.
jacinto classes, LotFP, occult, san serafín, spell, table

Meet the Witch

A class! This is another draft of one I’ve done before, except I cleaned up the layout a lot. This art is by Alphonse Mucha–the previous picture by neev is going elsewhere in the zine now.

click me i get bigger

You can get a pdf of the witch class here.

And yeah, I’m thinking that San Serafín is going to get some sort of print release. I’ve finally figured out the look of it, I think.

jacinto LotFP, play report, san serafín

San Serafín Play Report #1

Keeping track of the necropolis exploration game I’m DMing.

The Suspects
Sarro the Wandering Swordsman: searching for a beast to bind to his service

Joaquin the Monk: sent to retrieve the soul of a saint from the city.

Ankara the Skull Elf: looking for a particular necklace lost in San Serafín

San Serafín is a giant cursed city sunken into a mountainside, inhabited by Devils and the Dead. Our intrepid adventurers arrived early in the morning, and upon entering the city from the east, decided to follow Sarro’s lead and head north. They very quickly encountered a huge ursine figure wearing a mask, with a basket strapped to its back. Sarro proposed a pact and the creature approached, speaking in a language that made everyone’s noses bleed. When nobody understood, it produces a chained human translator from the basket, who explained the beast was the 72nd Sky Devil, and it was interested in forming a pact, but first required Sarro to demonstrate his worthiness with a task.

Sarro instead demanded that the devil prove its power. It responded by summoning a torrential downpour. When Sarro pressed it for yet more demonstration, the 72nd Sky Devil proposed to prove Sarro’s worth and demonstrate its own power through combat, and then attacked. Sarro’s companions helped him fight the devil, but they ignored the growing glow of its internal fire until it vomited a fatal torrent of flame on Sarro, at which point Joaquin and Ankara surrendered.

The Devil demanded 100 days of service, and after some hedging, the surviving party members agreed. The 72nd Sky Devil gave them directions to “one of this city’s nobility” and told them to kill the aristocrat and retrieve a certain scroll in their possession. On the way, they stumbled across a small band of humans, but Ankara got off to the wrong start by mentioning they were working for a devil, and the band attacked. A crossbowman (Sarro’s replacement), sent by the 72nd Skt Devil to aid them, intervened, but the party was outnumbered and quickly fell, despite some impressive maneuvers on Joaquin’s part. The party rolled up new characters and we called it a night.

For next time
The Background/skill system I posted earlier worked nicely, but I think I need to include a canonical list of backgrounds.

I have no good way of seeding treasure throughout the city. Need to make a generator for that.

I need custom equipment tables. Six-shooters, flashlights, radios. I think I want to base armor on brands, so like the Gatiko label makes light armor and Dolores makes all the plate.

A good rumor table would be really handy also. The players don’t know as much about San Serafín as their characters should.

I need to flesh out the town that’s a sort of base camp for San Serafín explorers. Right now it’s empty and boring.

The city needs to be a little denser, I think. Too much going on in empty streets. I do like how the monsters as written all have immediate and easy to DM motivations, so even simple encounters complicate the PC’s relationship with the city. The very first encounter landed the party in hot water and 100 days of servitude to a fire-breathing jaguar devil.

jacinto LotFP, skills

simple backgrounds

When a character attempts a task that requires specialized knowledge or training (Is this mushroom poisonous? Can I pick that lock? Can I determine if that diamond is enchanted? Can I communicate with that bear?) they must roll a 6+ on a six-sided die. Rolling a natural 1 is always a failure, regardless of any bonuses. This is called a skill roll.

During character creation, players pick a background. It can be from a list offered by the Referee or one they created themselves. When the player is asked to make a skill roll that pertains to their background, they can declare themselves trained in the skill and add half their level to the roll (and all similar rolls in the future). However, their experiences before adventuring are limited–a character can only declare a number of skills equal to half their Intelligence score.

Why is this good?

  1. I don’t like how adventurers are not that good at adventuring. Fighters can’t sneak? Magic-users can’t pick locks? Nobody can fucking climb? This lets tomb robbers be tomb robbers while still allowing thievery to be somebody’s shtick. Drop Thief/Specialist as a class and just offer Burglar as a background.
  2. New school classes like Barbarians and Druids now don’t actually need classes. If you want to be a Bard, just pick it as your background as declare Millinery, Lute Playing, and Adultery as your skills. Druids are Magic-users with Botany, Animal Friendship, and Orienteering.
  3. This lets me have race-not-as-class without much cruft. Anyone with the Elf background can declare themselves trained in Flower Arrangement and Stealth. Drow can declare themselves trained in Poison Making, Echolocation, and Opera. Tieflings can declare Demonology, Hexing, and Pickpocketing.
  4. Spears of the Dawn and Stars Without Number backgrounds are really cool and really useful, but my attempts to write out all of them and then make sure each skill had roughly equal representation across backgrounds was kind of exhausting. This just lets me come up with a list of careers/species for a given region and then let players go nuts figuring out what skills they want. Character creation as world-building without much work.
  5. Making players decide when to spend a skill slot is a fun and slightly cruel minigame.
  6. No giant lists of skills to wade through during character creation. 

jacinto classes, LotFP, san serafín

righteous punching for justice

Early edition monks manage to be both incredibly boring and hideously complicated. Later editions are just kind of enhh. I want something 1. simple 2. wuxia-ish 3. appropriate in terms of power level for old school D&D. Here’s a try.

Monk, a class for old school D&D

HP, XP, Attack Bonus, and Saving Throws as cleric. In LotFP, monks receive the non-fighter attack bonus, but only suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls or AC when they Press or Parry. They also learn two Techniques of their choice and invention (and Referee’s approval) every level.

Techniques allows monks to recreate the effects of a particular weapon or armor their bare hands. A monk who has mastered the Hundredweight Hand (Battleaxe) technique can chop lumber, bash through doors, and deal battleaxe damage just with the edges of their hands.

Techniques bring all the advantages and disadvantages of the weapon or armor, so if it mimics a two-handed weapon, a technique requires two free hands. If a technique mimics plate armor, the monk must move as slowly as if they were in heavy armor to maintain the effect. Also, armor-based techniques require the monk to limber up for as long as it would take to don armor of the same AC.

All techniques must be be justifiable fictionally. A monk with the Heron Fist (Spear) technique could use it to probe for traps (as someone with an actual spear might) and claim to avoid the pitfall or whatever by virtue of the technique’s speed. But they couldn’t use it to hook the guard’s keys off her belt from far away. 

Oh, and players get to make up names for their techniques.

I’d suggest being generous for techniques that are odd/interesting/useful in non-obvious ways and conservative with techniques that are very powerful and direct (e.g. a technique based on heavy artillery). Here are a few weirder possibilities for starters:

  • Heavenly Kick (javelin): The monk can jump as far as they can throw a javelin, dealing damage to whatever they kick/land on.
  • Pure Flame Technique (torch): The monk’s punch deals d6 fire damage and ignites anything flammable
  • Bone Cage Technique (net): struck enemy counts as heavily encumbered until they take an action to steady themselves.
  • Armor Peeler (gun): Ignores AC bonus from armor. Only usable in melee range.
  • Blessed Palm (holy water): counts as holy water for damage (so it deals 0 damage against regular creatures and harm undead). Only usable in melee range.  
  • Cursed Fist (magic weapon): Counts as a magic weapon for purposes of damage immunity and reduction.
  • Empty Hand Shield (shield): +1 AC as long as the monk keeps one hand free

So ideally you have an unarmed and unarmored warrior encouraged to use a combination of lateral thinking and direct confrontation in their fights, with enough weird talents that they can be of use in that crazy heist the party has just planned.

jacinto classes, is this gonna work, LotFP

heaven help us

I figure it’s about time to hammer this old nonsense into something I can actually playtest. For this iteration, I wanted to make the religion-building aspects a little more baked in. Anyway, if you play in any of my games, you are free to choose this class (unless somebody else is already playing it. Running two of these at once is probably pretty dicey).
 
Shrine, a class for old school D&D-alikes
by sydney sime

You are an intangible, invisible spiritual presence, unable to interact with the physical world except through your shrine and those who worship it. You can speak with anyone in earshot of your shrine, and you can see anything in line of sight. If your shrine is destroyed, you lose your only connection with the real world until someone decides to build a new one for you.

The Cult
Worshipers are a mercenary lot, so inducting someone into your cult requires you to hire pay them like any other retainer (LotFP has good procedures for this). Once you’ve indoctrinated/bribed someone into your religion, you perceive everything they sense. You can also speak directly to your retainers, as well as anyone in line of site of them.

If you wish, you can possess one of your retainers. When you do so, you control them directly and use your abilities and attributes in place of theirs, including HP (so rolling Strength during character creation wasn’t a waste). However, if you are reduced to 0 HP while possessing a character, you both die. Extricating yourself from a retainer’s body takes a number of turns equal to your level and causes them to make a Loyalty/Morale check as soon as you’ve left them.

by harry clarke

Starting at level 3, you can acquire a Saint, who functions as a henchman in LotFP (they are a classed character two levels behind you, and get half of your treasure). Saints never check Morale, and all followers in their presence get a +1 to Morale.

Miracles
In a typical D&D system, you cast spells just like a cleric. If your DM is cool and has Wonders and Wickedness, you cast spells as a specialist sorcerer. Your school of magic and flavor of Maleficence determines your portfolio as a minor divinity. You don’t need to prepare spells–you can expend a spell slot to cast any spell you know. 

Casting a spell does not require any of your retainers to take an action–it’s your divine intervention, after all. However, you must use one of your retainers as the origin point for any spell you cast so if a spell has a range of 100 ft, your target must be in 100 ft of your shrine or one of your followers). Furthermore, your might probably have some funny ideas about what participation in a cult entitles them to and get mad when you ignore their invocations (when a retainer calls on your power and you don’t provide a miracle, they make a Morale check). 

You can’t learn new spells through research or transcription. Instead, whenever your followers burn a scroll or spellbook in your name, you learn all spells inscribed therein. If your followers sacrifice a wizard to you, you can choose to learn a single spell he or she had memorized.

Apostasy
If a hireling fails a Morale check, you can’t perceive with their senses, possess them, or use them as the origin for spell/miracles. However, if you manage to reconvert/rehire them, they get a permanent and cumulative +1 bonus to Morale/Loyalty.
Grow in Power
You don’t get experience just by collecting money. Instead, you get 1 xp for every gold piece spent improving your shrine. You also gain xp for building additional shrines. Establishing a shrine costs 2,000 gp. You can acquire worshipers in any town you have a shrine.

In addition to your HP, saving throw, and spell progression, you must issue an edict each time you gain an even level. An edict is a behavioral restriction that all of your followers must carry out. This might make adventuring life more difficult for them, but each gives all followers a permanent +1 bonus to Morale.

Other Stuff
LotFP has a bunch of kinds of retainers, but weirdly doesn’t include easy options for hiring mercenaries singly or day by day. I’ll say godlings (and only godlings) can hire cultists (who function as 0th level fighters, elves, halfings, or dwarves, to be randomly determined) for 10 sp a day + 10% cut of the treasure. Otherwise it’s linkboy’s and butlers.

An angry employer/divinity can compel a retainer or follower to reroll a Morale/Loyalty check through intimidation, threats, or show of force, but this causes a permanent -1 to Morale/Loyalty.    

jacinto demon, LotFP, monsters, san serafín

care to guess my name


They were the gods of the beasts, but grew decadent and cunning with the passing of time. They fell, finally and irreversibly, when they gave themselves names and rose to walk on two legs. Now, they are rejected by the wild and spurned by civilization. They have retreated to San Serafín where they wage a glacial and mostly invisible war on the dead. 

The greatest of their number is Madama Yaguar, the first beast to hunt and the first being to kill. She is sick now, and will teach the secrets of her illness to the strong


The forms of the devils are confused, they are furred and scaled and feathered and fanged. They hide their shapes in ragged finery and ivory masks and golden wire armatures. 

If defeated or entreated, the may agree to form a pact with an adventurer. To do so, the signatory character must sacrifice 15% of the XP needed to reach the next level. They learn the devil’s true name, and can summon it at any time with 1 turn of effort.

Once summoned, a devil makes a reaction roll. If it doesn’t try to eat everybody, the signatory can ask it for a favor. It might demand a service, a soul, or a burnt offering, depending on its Reaction.

DOMAINS
Signatories can ask a devil to perform a favor pertaining to its domain.

  1. Wealth Devil: Will sell you anything on the standard equipment list for 10 times the original price.
  2. Weather Devil: Will change the weather to anything you wish for one day, as long as it is appropriate for the local climate (so no snowstorms in deserts)
  3. Weapon Devil: Will sell you any standard weapon for 10 times the original price. +1 to damage and +1 to hit for 24 hours.
  4. Desire Devil: has power over a single random MU spell with a spell level of 1d4. It can grant the ability to cast it once to a single person. It can grant the ability to cast more spells by eating scrolls.
  5. Warfare Devil: will fight for you until it fails a Morale/Loyalty check. Loyalty/Morale is 2+signatory’s level. Warfare devils do not fear being outnumbered.
  6. Beauty Devil: Will change the Morale of all hirelings to 11 for a day, but failure means they have become enamored with the beauty devil and will henceforth follow its wishes in all things.
  7. Ascended Devil: Will grant three Wishes. They can be made one at a time or all at once, with any amount of time between them. Once it has granted them all, the pact terminates and it will try to kill you.
  8. Blood Devil: Will make a creature at 0 or fewer HP immune to damage for a day or until they reach 1 or more HP.
  9. Knowledge Devil: Has a 4 in 6 chance of truthfully and correctly answering any yes or no question asked of it.
  10. Truth Devil: Will enforce any oath made in its presence. Should any party break the oath, the Truth Devil will do all in its power to kill them. 

STATS
When in a pact, devils add half their signatory’s level to their HD. They can cast spells as a MU with half as many levels as they have HD. The appearance of all devils is similar, but they have stats as one of the following creatures.

  1. Medusa (can turn into an azure jay)
  2. Immature Red Dragon (can turn into a jaguar)
  3. Earth elemental (can turn into a caiman)
  4. Banshee (can turn into a howler monkey)
  5. Werewolf (can turn into a maned wolf)
  6. Harpy (can turn into a dolphin)
jacinto angels, LotFP, occult

Lamentation Overdrive

Lamentation Overdrive: mech fighting game in LotFP’s Worst Timeline historical fantasy setting. As in

  • Lamentation Overdrive: Borgia’s Banquet
  • Lamentation Overdrive: The Beast of Gévaudan
  • Lamentation Overdrive: War of the Roses
  • Lamentation Overdrive: Rise of the Anti-pope
  • Lamentation Overdrive: Tudor Returns
  • Lamentation Overdrive: The Revenge of John Dee
  • Lamentation Overdrive: Meat Festival
from bayonetta

Angelus Drive
Stolen tabernacle, inscribed with inverted Enochian and adapted as an angel-prison. Requires heavy occultum shielding or else leaked hieric radiation slowly transforms all nearby objects and creatures into perfect golden spheres

from final fantasy

Bazeries Battery
A puissant unanswered question, locked away behind an impossible cipher; allows a mech to run on ultra-efficient epistemological potential energy, but if anyone cracks the code or answers the question, the mech immediately shuts off.

Epistemological Array
Allows the mech to teleport, but only to the precise spot your opponent least expects. Frequently lands inexperienced pilots in the center of the sun.
 

from bayonetta

Nephilim Frame
Skeleton of an antediluvian giant, bleached with holy water and wired together with adamant. It’s almost indestructible, but not quite as dead as one would hope.

The Wicker Man
Pagan-built mech chassis. It’s fireproof, and in fact eternally burning, but the only fuel it takes is humans. 
 

from bayonetta


Wodewose
Lobotomized greenman; staggering healing ability allows implanted weapons to be incorporated just as easily as with a constructed chassis, but requires a huge amount of opium to maintain cooperation.

Aegis Ray
Medusa head mounted inside an optical device with rotating lenses; one magnifies, increasing area of effect but reducing range and petrification speed; the other focuses, creating a needle-thin, long-range beam of ultra telluric energy.

from bayonetta

Bomb of Gilead
A thrice-blessed and thrice-burned vessel of aromatic wood; can be activated once per day to temporarily disable all non-divine magic in a short radius around the mech.  


Paracelsian Contract
Legal documents penned in human blood allowing a mech pilot to call on elementals for service. The number of times they can be used depends on the clarity and quality of the contract’s writing, as well as how much the pilot is willing to pay.

  • Sylph are immaterial and non-violent, but they can be used for reconnaissance purposes. They require decadent confectionary and elaborate meals as their price–baby giraffe pâté, 1,000 perfectly fried hummingbird tongues, the broiled brain of an albino jaguar.
  • Salamanders are hot enough to burn anything, and will swarm over and through an enemy mech at the signatory’s request. They require horrific acts of arson in return for their service.
  • Undine allow the mech pilot to travel safely underwater. They require wealth to be dropped into the deepest parts of the ocean, though they occasionally demand mass drownings
  • Gnomes refuse to partake in this insanity.
jacinto classes, demon, LotFP, witch

put a spell on you

What if you didn’t prepare or expend spells and magic was just a bunch of weird tricks that just worked all the time. 

Witch, a class for old school D&D

source unknown. would really like to know who made this.

HP, attack bonus, saving throws, and XP progression as cleric. Equipment restrictions as magic-user.

Witches don’t cast spells. They know minor acts of magic known as arcana. A witch can use any arcanum as much as she wants, though some arcana have situational requirements or material components.

To learn an arcanum, a witch must belong to its School. A witch starts out in a single School of her choice; to be inducted into others, she must find a member and induce them to let her join. A witch can only belong to a number of Schools equal to 1/3 her level, rounded up. Witches do not learn arcana as they level up; they must learn them from books, research, or tutors.

A level 1 witch is a member of a single School and knows 1d3 arcana from it.

School of Knot Making
 It takes 1 exploration turn to tie a knot. I say “string”, but it can be a rope, cord, cable, whatever, as long as it is flexible– a big chain isn’t going to work.

  1. the Hundredweight Knot: once completed, this knot weighs 10×(1d6+level) pounds. 
  2. the Knot of Knowledge: the knot-tier knows when this knot is undone or the string it is tied from breaks.  
  3. the Ineluctable Knot: anyone restrained by this knot cannot slip free from their bonds. If they are strong enough, they can still break their bindings.
  4. the Adamant Knot: any string that bears this knot can only be severed or destroyed through magic. This does not affect the string’s tensile strength–it can still snap if overburdened. 
  5. the Knot of Fascination: anyone attempting to untie this knot must Save vs Magic. If they succeed, they untie at as normal. If they fail, they will continue to attempt to untie it, unaware to their surroundings, until it is physically taken away from them or something particularly compelling or dangerous seizes their attention.
  6. The League Long Knot: this knot takes an hour. Untying it results in a string twice as long as before.

School of Hexwork

  1. If you form a circle with your forefinger and thumb and blow through it into somebody’s face, they must Save vs Poison or catch a wasting disease. It reduces their maximum HP by 1 point each day and prevents all natural healing.
  2. If you extend your index and middle fingers, they function as a strong and sharp dagger
  3. If you form a circle with your middle finger and thumb, any object dropped inside will vanish until you pull it back out. You can store as many items as you want (that fit through this circle, obviously), but retrieving an item takes a number of exploration turns equal to the number of objects stored.
  4. By shaving your head and burying your hair, you can sterilize all soil and spoil all wells in a quarter mile radius around the burial site until the hair is removed or the curse lifted by magic.
  5. If you burn somebody’s teeth in a fire, they take d12 damage for every tooth burned. Save vs magic for half damage. 
  6. You can swallow fire and keep it in your belly. You can only keep one flame at a time. You can either vomit up the fire to ignite something or spit it at an enemy (10 ft ranged attack) to deal damage. A lantern flame deals d4 damage, a torch flame deals d6, a bonfire deals d12.

School of Maskmaking

from dorohedoro

You can make magic masks from the corpses of creatures you’ve killed personally. Wearing these masks allows you to polymorph into the creature for a number of turns equal to your level, at which point the mask breaks and you resume your natural form. A mask takes up a number of significant items equal to 1+half HD, rounded down, and requires an hour to make.

School of Summoning

    1. You can make spirit traps from the corpses of creatures you’ve killed personally. Once you’ve made the spirit trap, you can summon the creature’s ghost whenever you like. It is immaterial and vanishes back into the afterlife if it leaves your line of sight. Spirits must answer any question you ask them, but only have a 4-in-6 chance of answering honestly (5-on-6 if you have exceptional Charisma).Summoning a spirit takes 1 turn.
    2. You can summon a minor demon in the form of a nine-eyed crow. If you feed it a drop of someone’s blood, it will tell you what they most desire. It will not perform any other service for you, but will do its best to convince you to perform evil acts as long as it stays in this world.
    3. You can summon a minor demon in the form of a black, furred serpent. If you feed it a lock of somebody’s hair, it will tell you their most shameful secret. It will not perform any other service for you, but will do its best to convince you to perform evil acts as long as it stays in this world
    4. You can summon a demon of middling power to guard you. It adores you, utterly and stupidly, and will attack anyone who threatens you (or seems to threaten you) with suicidal ferocity. It has a number of HD equal to half your level, rounded down (minimum 1), and if it dies it cannot be summoned again for a number of days equal to its HD. Summoning and dismissing it takes 1 exploration turn.

    School of Dancing
    Magic dances are exhausting. For every turn you spend dancing, make a Constitution check. If you fail, take 1 point of Constitution damage. This damage heals at a rate of 1 point per week.

    1. Dance of Change: When you complete this dance, you may polymorph into a mundane animal with an HD of one or less. The transformation lasts for as long as you danced or until you choose to revert to your true form.
    2. Shatter Dance: Completing this dance breaks every mundane piece of glass within a number of feet equal to 10 times the number of Turns spent dancing.
    3. Dark Dance: Completing this dance extinguishes every torch, lamp, or other light source within a number of feet equal to 10 times the number of Turns spent dancing.
    4. Vorpal Dance: This dance ends by tracing a finger or toe across a flat surface. This creates a cut with a depth in inches equal to twice the number of turns you danced, regardless of material. 
    5. Arson Dance: When you perform this dance indoors, no fire within that structure can be extinguished until you leave or stop dancing. This may work in a limited area (such as a single story or wing) in very large buildings.   
    6. Wind Dance: As per Stormspeech. Lasts until you stop dancing.