jacinto amateur hour, classes, is this gonna work, monsters, Not Dead Yet, table, witch

this isn’t even my final form

I’ve been working on a village-building based D&D campaign. One of the things I want to do is tie character progression to exploration, and a way to do that is make classes available based on which NPCs the party has allied with or even brought back to their settlement. For this reason, I picked a random advancement scheme, where players roll 1d100 twice on a table associated with their character class to see what they get when they level up. They can choose choose to roll on the tables of unlocked specialty classes, which means they don’t need to roll a whole new character to realize the benefits of making allies and gaining access to new stuff.
Since this model of D&D is based on building relationships and developing a home base, I want making friends to be on the table as much as possible. This class is unlocked by normalizing relations with the Orminger King, the local dragon and source of many monsters incursions (and sagacious-monarch-turned-abhuman-monster). It also complicates the player’s relationship with most normative NPCs while potentially making it easier to seek peaceful solutions with monsters. Moreover, since this is a low HP class prone to drawing aggression while still having some pretty piquant abilities, players will hopefully be dealing with the mix of power and vulnerability that makes the archetypes behind this class compelling.

Also also, it’s a bit of a rough draft. I’m not terribly worried about balance since it’s random and also players need to go to a lot of trouble to make it available in the first place, but it could still be an issue.
Based on: Ganon, Howl, Witch of the Waste, Queen Beryl, Apostles from Berserk, Maleficent, animist wizards, there’s probably some Dark Souls in here if I’m being honest with myself
from full metal alchemist
WARLOCK
Requisites: make peace with the Orminger King
You are gorgeous and monstrous, magnificent and grotesque. Your magic is born from the darkness of the new moon and the blackness in the deepest earth. People think you’re not entirely human, and they’re not entirely wrong–the wilds and the ruins and the lonely places of the world are filled with the monstrous shells of the god-kings and wicked scholars who were consumed by the power you now bear. By its nature, your magic has left a sorcerous mark somewhere on your body: your palm, your tongue, your belly, your breast. In cosmopolitan areas, people who recognize you as a warlock will be discomfited, wary, and very polite. In more superstitious areas, people will be outright terrified of you–maybe enough to do what you ask, perhaps enough to just try to kill you. 

from magi: labyrinth of magic
  • HD: 1d4
  • Saves: as Magic-user
  • XP: as Magic-user
  • Prerequisite: have an emissary of the Orminger King join your village. New characters can be warlocks once the prerequisite is met, but existing magic-users can select it as a subclass.

The first time you roll on the Warlock table, you gain the ability to assume a monstrous aspect at will, giving you +1 Defense and allowing you to deal d6 damage with unarmed attacks. You cannot wield weapons or wear armor, in this form and most civilized peoples will attack you on sight. If they see you transform, they will seek to jail or execute you, even in human shape. Moreover, while you wear your monstrous shape, the Referee may require you to make a Wis check to resist the impulse to do something greedy or spiteful, if a compelling opportunity presents itself. The appearance of your monster-shape is up to you, though your face always remains the same even as your body changes.

Entries in a list separated by slashes show what is available with each subsequent reroll of that entry.

roll
new ability
1-40
+1 Spell Die
41-60
+1 Save
61-65
Your beast form gains one of the following movement types: climb, swim, clumsy flight. Pick another on reroll.
66-70
Your beast form gain skill of your choice from the following list: Track, Sense, Camouflage. Pick another on a reroll.
71-75
Your beast form’s size becomes Large and you gain +1 to Str and -1 to Dex checks. Lose the Dex penalty on reroll.
76-80
Your beast form has armor as leather/chain/plate.
81-85
Wormtongue. Gain a skill of your choice from the following list: Tempt, Deceive, Intimidate. Pick another on a reroll.
86-90
Dark Glamor. At will, you can wrap yourself in a mantle of dark power, allowing you to transform your clothing as you please and making you appear taller, more imposing, perhaps more appealing and perhaps more hideous. In this aspect your have +1/2/3 Disposition Die size from those prone to temptation and sycophancy; -1 Disposition Die size from those who value basic decency and bravery.
91-95
Minions. You have 1/2/3 Level 0 homunculi allies. They are dark silhouettes of humans, suggestive of ooze in the way their bodies give and sway with each motion. If they wear human clothes, nobody will be able to notice that their appearance is strange. If they die or get lost, you can brew one per downtime up to your max. They are very stupid.
96
Covenant. If someone breaks the word of a promise they made to you, they suffer a -2/4/6 penalty on their saving throws against your spells, and you instinctively know their direction and approximate distance. It must be a promise you genuinely wanted kept, and this ability ceases to function if you forgive them for their transgression.
97
All Shall Love Me. +1/2/3 Faction Die size with monsters.
98
Forbidden Power. When you cast a spell, you can choose to roll with d8s/d10s/12s instead. Each die still expends on a result of 4+.
99
Menace. Enemies in line of sight of you suffer -1/2 Morale.
100
Dark Garden. You rule a 1 acre demiplane that contains your lair. Its appearance is a matter of negotiation between you and the Referee. It can house and feed 1/2/3 people per day. It is totally inaccessible, but if you spend a long rest in a civilized place, you can choose to incorporate the gate to your demiplane into the location in such a way that even longtime locals may not notice it. If you close the gate to your demiplane from the outside, you can choose to send it away again. Anything native to your lair taken out of it vanishes into thick black smoke as soon as it crosses the threshold.

from spirited away
THE ORMINGER KING

A man’s impassive face, pale and immense, set onto a black-furred body, sinuous, graceful, larger than an elephant, walking on the fingertips of splayed human hands. Its great wings are like a crow’s. It is mad, mournful, vicious. It lives in the ruins of the Royal Archives, gently turning pages with giant fingertips. It brews and decants shadow-fleshed homunculi to send on raids for occult reagents and, once in a rare while, companions. It knows many spells of darkness and transformation.

RULES
I draw on some homebrew rules in a few of the entries, so here are explanations:

Magic

You can cast any spell you know. You have a number of Spell Dice, a pool of d6s which represent a combination of your innate magical affinity and experience with your craft. With more Spell Dice, you can cast more powerful spells more often. When you cast a spell, roll any number of your Spell Dice. Examine the result of each die and add up the results. Dice that come up 4+ are expended, and you cannot roll them again until your take a long rest.

from howl’s moving castle
Reactions/Personality Dice/Disposition Dice
The Referee makes Reaction Rolls on the usual table. However, they are not necessarily made with the traditional 2d6. One die is the Faction Die, and represents the encountered creature’s relationship with the organizations, groups, species, clans, etc the party or party leader is a member of. The other is the Disposition Die, which represents the encountered creature’s gut reaction to the party or party leader, a combination of the PC’s personal appeal and the creature’s mood. Both dice start at d6 and are increased by factors that would improve reaction and decreased by factors that would worsen it. Some characters have explicit bonuses to one or both dice, but the Referee can also apply modifiers ad hoc. Example: A handsome cleric wandering a dungeon encounters an incubus. The Referee determines that the Faction Die should be a d4, since demons find clerics tediously Lawful. The Disposition Die, on the other hand, is a d8, because incubi respect physical appeal.
from sailor moon
jacinto clerics, demon, encounters, flowerland, intro, LotFP, magic, monsters, new barbary, Not Dead Yet, npcs, san serafín, witch

the earth does not want you

hey guys. it’s certainly been a while. i’ve been thinking about a weird fantasy florida, recently, out in the palm scrub, where everything is mean and sharp and unfriendly and unnavigable and really kind of beautiful in a careless sort of way.

sinner
her flesh moves like fire on her bones, her hair roils like a plume of smoke from her head, her feet barely touch the water as she strides across it and you smell the black magic in the air: hot metal and raw meat and ozone.

  • Each sinner knows a random cleric spell with a level equal to their HD. They can cast it at will.
  • Sinners cannot cross lines of salt or enter holy ground or consecrated buildings like churches, and they must flee the sounds of church bells and calls to prayer as if they had failed a Morale check.
  • Sinners can walk on water, walls, and ceilings; they are supernaturally light when it suits them, and any surface or structure that can support the weight of a crow will also support a sinner.

corpse
they are pale, luxuriously dressed in black veils and black lace, they move in groups of two or three, they dart about close to the ground in the edges of your vision. they never seem to be what they should, seeming to be very large and very far away, or else very small and very close; you always have to reach farther than you think to strike them with your weapon, but they can just raise their hand and touch you all the same.

  • Each corpse can cast a random magic-user spell with a level equal to their HD. They can cast it at will.
  • If a corpse sees an open grave (dug for the purposes of burying someone, at least 6 feet deep, a burial marker at the head of the grave), it must climb inside and lie down. If it hears properly recited funeral rites (INT check and a round of effort), it must make a Morale check. Corpses cannot cross lines of salt.
  • As long as nobody can see its point of departure or arrival, a corpse can teleport to any location in 120′.

palm devil
a figure standing at the edge of the pines, a little too tall to be human, the contours of its body beneath its ragged coat too long and slender, it’s holding a palmetto frond in front of its face, and when it turns to you, all the leaves on all the trees as far as you can see rattle, malicious and filled with volition

  • a palm devil’s face is indescribable; should anyone see it they must Save vs Magic or become Feebleminded. They will transform into a sinner by midnight of the following Sunday unless restored by Remove Curse.
  • Can cast Gust of Wind, Move Earth, and Plant Growth twice each per fight.
  • Can fly by riding its palm frond.
  • In a palm devil’s hands, a palm frond functions as a vorpal axe and can easily cut through any mundane substance.

venomous augury
someone has nailed a huge rattlesnake to the trunk of a dead pine tree at regular intervals, tied lengths of red silk to each nail head. it looks at you with wet human eyes and tells you something horrible.

  • the venomous augury knows everything, probably. A player can ask it anything and it will give them the true answer. This can amount to a wish–ask it where the elixir of eternal life it, and it will tell you, whether or not there was an elixir before you asked. However, every answer introduces an evil equal in influence or power to the wealth or knowledge being sought. Ask “where is the woman who will save the world?” and the augury is liable to answer “in the house of the man who will one day destroy it”
  • once someone has asked the augury a question, it forevermore appears to them as a stinking dead rattlesnake grotesquely nailed to a tree.

prophet of mud
a huge hairless face emerges from the muck in front of you. it does not bother to turn its head, but swivels its bulging yellow eyes towards you as it begins to hum a hymn

  • the prophet of mud is a third level cleric and knows Bless, Command, and Augury and can cast spells from its head or its hands.
  • the prophet can emerge from any body of mud. it can reach its hands up from any body of mud or murky water that is contiguous with the mud it head is in.
  • the prophet’s head and two hands get their own turn in the initiative order. it can only see what its head sees, naturally, but will feel things out with one hand to help the other.
  • the prophet can spend a round singing hymns to cast Rock To Mud at will.

mother
there is a mother deep beneath the earth, she once had a shell of many hard plates and swam with many sharp legs and saw with a constellation of many watchful eyes. she died long ago, when this land was still a sea, but she is still here, she is a hollow in the bedrock far below, a long spiral in the dark. sometimes she tells the land what it used to be, and when she does it listens.

photos by me

    jacinto Carcosa, classes, LotFP, Not Dead Yet, Pernicious Albion

    Pernicious Albion Character Creation

    Character creation is exactly the same as Lamentation of the Flame Princess, except that you pick a bloodline and choose from the following classes. You can assign attribute scores as you wish, but you can’t reroll attributes if the modifiers are negative.


    BLOODLINES
    All Pernicious PCs are approximately human, but there are several variations on that theme.
    1. New Londoner: You are from the city of New Londinium. Your cosmopolitan upbringing (and proximity to a slightly radioactive knowledge-goddess) has given you a talent for languages; you have +2 to your Languages skill
    2. Briton: You are from one of the chieftaincies beyond the grasp of New Londinium’s rulers. Your people made pacts with the spirits of the wild long ago; you can use your Bushcraft as Languages when attempting to communicate with animals.
    3. Roman: The Empire had a rich tradition of poorly conceived sorcerous experiments. It is this fact that deposited Albion into the middle of Carcosa, and it is this fact that infused the blood of all Romans with a lingering taint of undeath. You can cast Speak With Dead 1/day.
    4. Deep One: You are descended from one of the marine monstrosities from far beneath Albion’s seas and lakes. As you are some sort of hybrid between fish and human (the specifics of how this looks is up to you), you can move with equal speed through water and over land, and you can breathe underwater. 
    5. Tiefling: You are descended from one of the soldiers that took part in Hell’s semisuccessful invasion attempt a century ago. You can ignite a fist-sized flame in the palm of your hand at will. You can throw it or thrust it at your enemies to deal d4 damage. It lasts for 1 turn after it leaves your hand, sheds flickering light, and otherwise acts like a regular flame. 
    6. Changeling: You are descended from a bona fide fairy. You cannot utter a lie. Any promise made to you cannot be broken, and you cannot violate any oath you swear.
    7. Nephilim: You are descended from the race of giants born when exiled angels bred with humans. You are 6 to 8 feet tall and have a +1 to your Strength modifier. 
    8. Human: you and your ancestors are (rather improbably) unwarped by the magics, radiations, and influences of Carcosa, which makes you sensitive to malign presences. You can Detect Evil at will.
    CLASSES

    Cleric of The Grigori

    1. Cleric or Druid: as Lamentations of the Flame Princess Cleric. You are a priest, druid, or prophet for one of the gods or goddesses of Albion. You have access to 3 miracles (which depend on your deity), and you can cast them without preparing.
      1. Her Majesty Gloriana: Queen of Albion, Supreme Governor of New Londinium, Sovereign Goddess of Forbidden Knowledge and Black Magicks
        father dagon. by roryrory, distributed under creative commons
      2. Father Dagon: Patron of Deep Seas and the Beasts Therein
      3. Cernunnos: Horned God of Hunt and Wild
      4. The Morrigan: Black-winged Goddess of Crows and War
      5. Desdemona: Princess-Diabolic of the Iron City of Dis and General of the Infernal Expeditionary Army
      6. The Grigori: The Watchers, The Angels-In-Exile, The Banished Council, Fathers of Giants and Artifice
    2. Magician: as Lamentations of the Flame Princess Magic-User. You start with 4 random spells in your spellbook.
      a gentleman magician
    3. Fairy-Knight: as Lamentations of the Flame Princess Elf. You have sworn yourself into service for one of the great fairies of Albion. You are skilled at both magic and combat; you start with knowledge of 2 spells (which depend on your liege) and can cast any spell you know.
      fairy-knight of rose
      1. King of Roses Red: Fair Monarch of that Land Known as Earth and All Denizens of its Surface and Interior, Liege to the Knights of Rose and Knights of the Thorn
      2. The Regent of Midnight and Noon: Seneschal of All Hours, Steward of the House of Death, Lord of the Tower at the End of the World, Liege of the Knights Chronic
      3. Morgaine: Sorceress Supreme, Mother of All Witches, Sister of All Spiders, Keeper of the Last Breath of the True King, Founder of the Dark Knights
        Morgaine
      4. Gogma, the Last and Most Splendid of the Sea Giants, Mistress of the Castle Glaces, Benefactress of the Knights Undulant
    4. Fighter: as Lamentations of the Flame Princess Fighter. 
       

      fighter veteran

    5. Paladin: XP as Magic User, HP, Saves, and Spell Progression as Cleric; Attack Bonus as Fighter. You are a warrior who has taken holy vows to fight for one of Albion’s deities.
      1. Pick a deity from the Cleric list
    6. Specialist: as LotFP Specialist
      there are so many knives in that hat
    7. Wildling: HP as Dwarf. Skills, XP, and Saves as Halfling. You have learned to survive in the strange wilderness outside the walls of New Londinium. You can withstand more punishment than any other class.
      a wildling who is totally about to save vs death