• Ignis Fatuus: can ignite flammable objects with a touch
• Familiar: can turn into any mundane creature cat-sized or smaller
• Goblin: can eat anything horse-sized or smaller
• Great Stag: Carries 1 passenger. Moves three times as fast as an unencumbered human
• Nosferatu: -1 to enemy morale rolls

• Carmilla: recovers half damage dealt as HP
• Cynocephalus: can assume the likeness of any human it or the Summoner has seen
• Homunculus: can use equipment like a PC
• Juggernaut: Carries 2 passengers. +2 AC to everyone on its back
• Troll: 20 AC when guarding something

• Bahamut: Carries 3 passengers. Great serpentine fish, mobile in land and sea
• Husk: Summoner can possess it, controlling it directly as their own body lies helpless.
• Lamia: can command snakes
• Roc: +3 to grapple checks; can fly
• Undine: nearby allies can breathe underwater

• Behemoth: can trample enemies for d10 damage
• Ifrit: attack with flame, dealing d10 damage to all enemies in a 100 foot line
• Dryad: allies that spend all their time in its presence heal d4 HP per day
• Marid: any ship it is on will not sink due to natural storms
• Wicker Man: carries 4 passengers, who are immune to all damage except fire

Fifth Order spirits do not have a particular weakness.

• Colossus: +d12 damage
• Dragon: Carries 5 passengers. Also flies
• Dracula: can turn into a great swarm of bats (attack all enemies in cloud)
• Revenant: Can possess the remains of creatures of up to 10 HD, gaining their abilities 
• Seraph: can learn 5th level Cleric spells

Got my copy of Dyson’s Delves, and it seems really handy. Don’t think I like the proliferation of plate +1‘s, though. I am not having consistently scaryweird magic items, but I still like special equipment to feel qualitatively/mechanically different than whatever they can buy in town. Also tried to include interesting mundane stuff, like a bow that shoots grappling hooks or a spear that is also a gun.

Still don’t like too much magic stuff, though, so I think if a character has more than one magic item on their person, they’ll have to roll on the Maleficar‘s Cast the Bones table to activate or benefit from them. Magic items as neat niche tricks.

1. Abyssal Imprecation: Curse in an alien tongue. 0-handed weapon. Range: Targets everyone in earshot. Roll d20+Attack Bonus+Charisma modifier. Deals d8 damage to everyone it hits.
2. Dreadful Doll: 0-handed weapon. Range: 100 feet. Roll d20+Attack Bonus+Charisma modifier to command this cloth-and-wire doll to attack or grapple.
3. Gillespie-Thurber’s Dark Speech Dictionary Volume 6, W-Z: 2-handed weapon. Range: Earshot. Roll d20+Attack Bonus+Wisdom modifier against targets AC. On a hit, you can give the target a Command as the Cleric spell, but only with words that begin with W, X, Y, or Z.
4. Dagger of Consumption: on a successful hit, recover HP equal to half of damage dealt
5. Bow that can also launch a reusable grappling hook arrow
6. Sword with a shield welded to the hilt (longsword damage and +1 AC, one handed weapon)
7. Rapier with a lantern set into the hilt. Uses oil as fuel. Pressing a button in the handle releases all the remaining oil into special channels in the blade, causing it to deal +d6 damage for 3 rounds.
8. A spear that is also a rifle. 2-handed weapon with reach. Acts as a ranged weapon 1/encounter. Can stab and shoot same target in one round.
9. Dark sword: deals damage as longsword. On a sucessful hit, for every d4 damage the wielder chooses to take, the target takes d6 additional damage
10. Storm Staff: One handed weapon. Range: Line of Sight. Roll d20+attack bonus+Intelligence modifier against target’s AC. On a hit, target takes d8 damage as they are struck by lightning. Only works outside. Critical fumbles disastrous.
11. Slow Knife: dagger. On a hit, roll d20. Target takes 1 damage a round for that many rounds. Does not stack.
12. Morphic Armament: Made of a weird rubbery substance. Can turn into any mundane weapon.
13. Spiral Staff: 1 handed staff. When they use it, the wielder must make an Intelligence check. If they succeed, they cast a random spell on the target. If they fail, they cast a random spell on themselves.
14. Giant War-fan. 2-handed. d8 damage, can clear mist, gas, and odors.
15. Harpoon gun. 2-handed, ranged. d8 damage, target now connected to gun with a rope.
16. Blunderbuss: 2 handed. Ranged. d10 damage, uses anything that fits inside as ammunition
17. Blast Hammer: 2 handed weapon. Warhammer with an explosive cap on the business end. Deals d12+d8 damage on a hit, but only d12 damage if the explosive cap has been used and not replaced.
18. Gemini Bow. Shortbow that can be split into 2 shortswords.
19. Shotgun. d12+attack bonus+Dexterity mod damage. Attack roll is always an unmodified d20.
20. Giant scissors. 2 handed, d12 damage.

1. Colossus Armor. 20 AC, doesn’t stack with any other bonus to AC, wearer’s movement speed is reduced to ponderous graceless stomping
2. Asbestos Armor: AC as chain, encumbrance as plate. Reduce damage from fire and heat by 10.
3. Sealed Armor: AC as chain, encumbrance as plate. Reduce all damage from acid by 10.
4. Hermetic Armor: AC as chain, encumbrance as plate. Reduce all damage from magic by 5.
5. Furnace Armor: AC as chain, encumbrance as plate. Reduce all damage from cold and ice by 10.
6. Chitin Armor: as chain. The armor has 2 extra arms you can manipulate as if they were your own.
7. Revenant Plate: as plate. When killed, you can continue to act for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom score before perishing.
8. Revenge Cuirass: as leather. When killed, you explode, dealing 3d6 damage to everything in a 20 foot radius.
9. Cat Hood: AC as plate, encumbers as cloth. Cloak with cloth cat ears stitched on hood. Makes you good at dodging.
10. Viking Helm: ahistorical helmet with horns. Wearer deals +d4 damage for melee attacks, but takes +d4 damage from melee attacks, too
11. Red Ribbon: +1 to all attribute checks to avoid harm
12. Skull Helm: +1 to Dangerous Magic rolls
13. Knight Helm: You can take damage for anyone adjacent to you
14. Bat Wing Cape: you can glide 10 feet for every foot that you fall and do not take falling damage as long as you have room to glide.
15. Security Mittens: +1 AC, don’t require a free hand. Can’t do anything that requires 5 fingers.
16. Ghost Garb: AC as leather, encumbrance as cloth. You don’t leave footsteps or scent, and you count as half your size and weight for squeezing through spaces and figuring out what can support your weight.
17. Morphic Armor: can turn into any type of mundane armor
18. Jade Armor: as plate. wearer will not age.
19. Coat of Teeth. As chain. Enemies have a -1 to morale
20. Robe of Rags: as unarmored. Wearer is immune to disease and poison

PC WEREWOLVES

• Gain HP equal to twice their level as the moment of their transformation, even if this would raise their HP above their normal maximum
• Have Armor as chain no encumbrance
• Have 18 Strength
• Deal d12 damage with their melee attacks
• Cannot use magic, weapons, complex devices, or anything that requires patience, manual dexterity, or concentration
• Must make an attack round, even if it is an ally

My autumn game is coming up, and I really want to do a sandbox hex-crawl. It feels a little overwhelming, though, so I have decided to start the players out on an island with no easy way to leave, then making sure several of the adventure hooks lead to a way off. All in all, the set-up is a little contrived, but I think my players want more structure than I have been giving them, anyways. It also gives them things to want; I always wished my players would give their characters more motivations and ambitions, but having just rolled a character for a clearly defined setting, it dawned on me I never told them anything about the world other than what they needed to now at that exact moment.

So, here are the things that everyone on the island, including Level 1 PCs, knows. It also fits onto one page, so I have done my due diligence in not giving players homework. 

The Isle of Saturday  is currently under the effects of a dragon’s curse; no wind blows and no current flows for hundreds of miles around, making travel to mainland impossible. It has been this way for hundreds of years.

Well known (but still difficult) ways to get off the island:

• Help the engineers at the decrepit and widely scorned University construct a self-powered ship (a project they have been working on with no success for some centuries)
• Destroy the source of the curse, an ancient and powerful dragon sealed away beneath the Isle by the long dead and still revered Hero Saturday.

Famous things:

• The Vaults: numerous dungeons scattered across the Isle. Each contains the tomb of a companion of the Hero Saturday, as well as the now legendary weapons they used to fight the dragon
• The Merchant Guild: organizes the trade caravans that link the Isle’s ailing bastions of civilization. Always looking for guards, and those with enough money might even be able to set up a business and join as a member
• The University: Though crumbling and thought to be an endless source of white elephant projects, its members will pay handsomely for creature specimens, archeological finds, and pieces of ancient technology
• Castle Drear, the abandoned castle of Hero Saturday, now being excavated by the current Lord of Saturday for reasons unknown.

The Isle’s Factions

• Havenhoist, The Duke of Saturday: Hereditary ruler of the Isle. All towns, villages, and settlements belong to him. He commands the only army on the Isle, and Wonceworm, his loyal Court Wizard, is the famous for his magical ability (in addition to being the one who enforces the Duke’s ban on uncertified magic). The Lord of Saturday’s capital is Brass Town, built directly above the dragon’s prison. 
• Lady Orchid: Exiled sorceress and Pretender to the Throne. She plots coups and invasions from her lair in the Dark Grotto, and leads a coven of warlocks, werewolves, and undead. The most distant, wild places of the Isle are her domain.  
• Irk, The Bandit Chief: colossal leader of a loose network of brigands, burglars, and grifters that spans the Isle. He is based in an ancient heathen temple.
• The Dragon Bishop: leader of a cult that worships the dragon responsible for the Isle’s curse. He leads his followers from the Temple of the Dragon, carved from the petrified remains of what is rumored to be the cursed dragon’s sibling.

map for players, location names subject to change

Court Wizard Wonceworm. from suikoden.

Bandit Chief Irk. from suikoden.

from final fantasy tactics a2

Spells
Attraction (grappling hook): 3 in 6
Destruction (bow): 3 in 6


Possessions:
Cardinal Mangle, loyal cat-steed (or very feline horse, if giant cats aren’t a thing)
Set of Skirmisher Armor (Cat Hood+Padded Pants+Security Mittens)
Crosier (Standard weapon used as Witch wand)

The story so far:
Mao is a magician from the Mana Wastes, nearly graduated from the Witch Academy and trying to collect the research necessary to complete a thesis on Dark magic.

Currently in the Spire of Asmodal, having just helped acquire the Bow of Wilda and liberating a bunch of extra-dimensional interlopers. 

Short term goal: Eat cooked food and sleep inside
Medium term goal: Examine the Chaos Crystal, finish thesis, and get a degree in Witchery
Long term goal: Benevolent world domination

I’m looking forward to finally playtesting this class.

While I love this post, I can’t get behind Patrick’s distaste using Charisma and Wisdom for attack rolls. That was one of the bits I liked about 4e. Plus, I just love wacky weapons: books, dolls, jars, brooms, souls, cards. I’d like to defend Constitution, but I just don’t know how that’d work.
  
You can possess a number of mental weapons equal to your Intelligence modifier. Always roll against target’s AC, even when you think it doesn’t make sense.

Dreadful Doll: nightmare of cloth and steel. Plant a shred of your psyche in its head and it is yours to command; you can tell it attack (d20+attack bonus+Charisma modifier, d6 damage on hit) or grapple at a range of 100 feet. Goes inert beyond that.

from Tales of the Abyss

Abyssal Imprecation: profane even for the denizens of the Void. d20+attack bonus+Charisma modifier, d8 damage on hit, roll to attack everything in earshot, including yourself.

Vatic Pronouncement: the future is yours. d20+attack bonus+Wisdom modifier, on a hit you can choose which ally the target will attack on its next turn

Sylvan Drone: droning trance that lets you command animals. d20+attack bonus+Wis modifier, most dangerous member wildlife in earshot deals damage based on size to target

And just because, here’s a monster
Pallid Walker
A small, cloaked creature with a ghastly pale face. It strides about on stilts, stooped under the weight of the jar on its back
HD: 1
Move speed: 60′
Saves: 11 for all
Damage: d6 (dagger) 
Special: Receive +5 to grapple checks, can cast 1 1st level spell
Pallid Walkers always attack the nearest creature. They usually try to grapple unless the fight isn’t going their way. Once a target is successfully subdued, they can place it in the jar in their back. For every creature in the Gentle Stalker’s jar, it gains 1 HD and the ability to cast a single spell with the same level as its HD. Creatures in its jar must make a Strength check (Save vs Paralysis) to get out.

Saving throws drive me nuts. They have a certain arbitrary charm, but there are a lot of them and the categories don’t make much sense and the rolling mechanic is dissimilar to most others in LotFP. So I have replaced them with roll-under stat checks and given each class a bonus against certain kinds of attacks. 20s always fail. It isn’t mathematically identical, and doesn’t tie into character progression, but in most cases making saves will still be pretty scary.

• Fighters get a +3 bonus to rolls against crushing, constricting, poisoning, and other forms of direct bodily harm 
• Magic-Users get a +3 bonus against magic that comes from gods or the natural world
• Clerics get a +3 bonus against magic that comes from humans, demons, or the unnatural
• Specialists get a +3 bonus to all checks to dodge, avoid, or escape
• Beast Children get a +3 bonus against bodily transformation of any sort
• Witches get a +3 bonus against charm, sleep, illusions, anything that affects the mind

I like magic to be either excessive anime electrofluorescent hyperkinesis or horrid baroque darkness. Mr. Logan Knight has the latter just about covered, but I think my players would be a little traumatized by the sort of body horror he does so well, so I have written up a couple of substitute charts, with a minor aim of making a more folklore-y Magic-User. 

Psychic TV album art

1. Thousands and thousands of bats
2. Gravity is reoriented for d6 rounds; whichever way the 6 is pointing is the new down.
3. The Sun fades away, becoming an immense red rimmed eye for the rest of the day. You can see it staring at you no matter what, even if you are inside or underground or are otherwise blinded. The Eye’s cyclopean regard fills you with guilt; once an hour every hour until sunset, you must Save vs Paralysis or spend a turn describing 10 terrible thing you have done that you have not yet described.
4. The full Moon rises and begins to sing. Animals begin to act aggressively and with vicious cunning, madmen become violent and adept at escape, monarchs begin to plot invasion, and the general populace is driven to fear, paranoia, and despair. The tides are erratic and extreme. Lasts 2d4 weeks.
5. The Stars flare to life in the sky, then vanish. Navigation by night becomes impossible, roads lead astray, and currents lead .to strange seas. Lasts 2d4 weeks.
6. The caster begins aging 5 years an hour. When they reach 100 years, they die, and an infant crawls from their body’s clothing. It continues to age at the same rate until it reaches 20. Same character, same memories.
7. A random spell you know scuttles out of your mouth, transforming into a monster with twice as many HD as the spell has spell levels. Determine its abilities and appearance using the LotFP Summon spell. You cannot cast the spell until you defeat it.
8. Your hands detach from your wrists and scuttle away, and new hands grow in their place. For the rest of the day, every time you cast a spell, the same thing happens. The hands remain animate until destroyed, and will do their best to make terrible mischief.
9. You spend d6 rounds coughing up a glistening black fruit. If you eat it, you spend 2d6 rounds coughing up two more fruit. If anyone else eats it, their eyes will roll into the back of their head and they will make a prophecy promising disaster.
10. A thunderous voice narrates everything you do, say, or think for the next d4 hours.
11. Everything with a mouth present must Save vs Magic or vomit slick red fish for d4 rounds.
12. A black tree erupts from the ground in front of you. If anything dies in the presence of the tree, the tree sprouts a hard, spiny fruit with the creature’s soul inside.
13. You into a small stone idol. You can still see, hear, and cast spells, as well as speak with anyone who holds the idol. Once a day, you must attempt a Save vs Magic to turn back.
14. Dozens and dozens of classical statues erupt from the ground up to their shoulders, making it difficult to walk, and begin to scream, making it difficult to hear.
15. For the next d4 days, every time you attempt to speak, including to cast a spell, you must Save vs Paralysis or instead deliver a lengthy and discursive monologue on (1: bean cultivation 2: the daily schedule of an emperor who died thousands of years ago 3: the spiritual beliefs of spiders 4: the life cycle of the cherub 5: the various manias, phobias, a perversions of the nearest, most powerful monarch 6: the correct method of preparing, storing, and administering a heretofore unknown and spectacularly deadly poison 8: famous fish poets 9: the dangers of breathing 10: the magical properties of cheese)
16. You are now wanted for (1: theft 2: murder 3: witchcraft 4: embezzlement 5: arson 6: public nudity 7: antisocial behavior 8: assault 9: sedition 10: trespassing) in the nearest town, city, or settlement, even if such a crime was impossible.
17. It starts raining sticky black tar.
18. A spring opens up beneath your feet. Its water is sweet and clear, and every time someone drinks from it, they age one year.
19. Terrible Gift
20. Terrible Gift

1. You turn white hot, then detonate, dealing d6 damage per character level to everything within 50 feet
2. You have been spurned by the Earth itself. All animals within 100 miles of casting will do their best to kill you.
3. You will cast d10 random spells in sequence, one right after the other, from lowest spell level to highest spell level, with random targets. These still use Cataclysm points, and you must Cast the Bones as normal.
4. You melt into a puddle of clear water. It is impossibly deep, and dark shapes can be seen stirring in its depths. They don’t seem very friendly.
5. Everything goes dark. If you or your allies manage to produce a light, it is flickery and tenuous. The darkness is filled with singing things with soft hands and pale faces.
6. The immediate area pinches off from greater reality like a piece of dough. You have an hour to find a way back or this demiplane will join up with a reality Somewhere Else.
7. Some major deity or spirit has noticed your magic use and declared you anathema. All promises, obligations, and contracts with you are now void, and anyone who aids you is considered an enemy of the Church. An angel/archon/spirit of said deity appears and tries to destroy you and your allies.
8. You know that a malign spirit has bribed one of your party members; if they kill you, they will gain an experience level immediately.
9. A shadow version of you is born. Its attributes are the opposite of your’s. If you have a 3 in an attribute, the shadow version’s is 18; if you have a 13 in an attribute, the shadow version’s is 7. It wants to kill you, and it is willing to play the long game to do so.
10. You are perfectly, perfectly still. When your allies examine you, they see that you are actually hollow, and that your skin and hair are part of a paper thin shell. If it is broken, incredibly powerful acid jets out.
11. There is a piece of chalk in your hand. You sketch a door on the nearest flat surface. It is real, and leads into some sort of cave. You walk in and do not come out. Your allies can hear slithering noises from beyond the threshold.
12. You slump to the ground, dead, and all of your known spells go off at once.
13. You have awakened the dead. All graveyards, necropoles, crypts let loose the interred.
14. You lose all Cataclysm points. A golem, animated from the available materials and with a number of HD equal to Cataclysm points lost, comes to life and tries to kill everything.
15. The sun does not shine on anything in a 5 mile radius of the caster. The exist in a great circle of darkness.
16. A small cracked opens up beneath your feet. You can feel heat rising up from it. It is the beginnings of a volcano, and will rise height by 50 feet a minute and erupt when it is mountain sized. Run.
17. You are now a cat. Roll a new character.
18. Your mind is consumed by a malign spirit, which then inhabits your body. It is a level 20 Magic-User and has Big Plans for this new body.
19. Lose a character level and gain a Terrible Gift. If this drops you below level 1, you perish and will return as wrathful, ghostly version of yourself.
20. The next creature or person you kill with magic rises again with an extra HD and full HP, but still bearing the wounds that killed them. Killing them again will give them another HD and so on and so on.

1. Your head turns into that of a (1: tiger 2: jackal 3: crow 4: cobra 5: crocodile 6: baboon). If you have a tiger head, you can speak Feline. If you have a crow head, you can speak Bird. If you have a cobra or crocodile head, you can speak Reptile. If you have a baboon head, you can speak Primate.
2. Your lower body turns into that of a (1: tiger 2: jackal 3: fish 4: serpent 5: spider 6: crocodile)
3. You are subject to a vision of the Land of the Dead. Your skin becomes ashen. You take d6 damage/minute in direct sunlight, but you can bring false life to the fallen. By spending a number of Cataclysm points equal to a creature’s HD, you can reanimate it to do your bidding. This only lasts until the next sunrise, at which points the creature crumbles to dust.
4. You can create a concoction from your blood that gives the drinker all of your Terrible Gifts but this one for d6 hours. This requires dealing d12 damage to yourself.
5. When your GM is rolling your Cataclysm points, for every d6 of HP you sacrifice, you gain d6 additional Cataclysm points.
6. Your form is fluid. Every time you wake up, your physical appearance and voice change. You re-roll Charisma every day, and there is a 50% chance that you changed sex.
7. Everyone within shouting distance hears your voice as a rasping whisper, no matter how loud everything else is. There is no way to stop this.
8. If someone says your name, you know where they are. If you say someone’s name, they become aware of your attention.
9. Your heart stops. You are treated as Chaotic/undead for purposes of Clerics, Turning, and holy water, but you do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe.
10. For every secret you know about a person or creature, they take a -1 penalty to saving throws against your spells. For every secret a person or creature knows about you, they receive a +1 bonus to saving throws against your spells.
11. For every gift or favor a person or creature accepts from you, they take a -1 penalty to saving throws against your spells. For every gift or favor you accept from a person or creature, they receive a +1 bonus to saving throws against your spells.
12. When you are struck by a silver weapon, it reduces both your HP and Cataclysm pool.
13. When someone swears an oath in your presence, you can expend a number of Cataclysm points. If they break that oath, they take damage equal to the number of Cataclysm points used. You cannot break any promise or oath you make.
14. You can gift others with a number of Cataclysm dice, allowing them to cast spells. In return, they can give you a number of HP, points of any Attribute, or improve any of your saving throws by worsening theirs by the same amount. This must be voluntary. You can set conditions or time limits to this transaction. Once the time limit is up or a condition is met, the transaction immediately ends.
15. You can buy and sell things like memories, senses, souls, and dreams.
16. You cannot cross the threshold of a home without being invited or cross running water without being carried.
17. You can counter magic. When a Magic-User of any sort casts a spell in your presence, you can negate it by expending a number of Cataclysm points equal to the spell’s cost. Roll once on Chaos Reigns and once on Utter Disaster when you do so.
18. If you invest a Cataclysm die in a common animal, you can see through its eyes. If you invest two dice, you can influence its behavior, as well. You can withdraw the dice when your GM rolls your Cataclysm pool.
19. You don’t have a reflection or a shadow.
20. Your teeth are sharp and venomous; if you bite something, it must Save vs Poison or take 2d6 damage.

Patrick Stuart’s post about mining newer editions for ideas has been rattling around my head for a while.

Magic Item Creation

Pathfinder magic item are intimidating, and LotFP’s research rules are that combination of risky and complicated that my players would probably never try.

Magic-users can make magic items. They do so by sacrificing spell slots. They can only sacrifice one spell slot per item. The numerical stuff is easy; a magic sword has a bonus to attack rolls equal to 1+half the level of the spell slot. A magic suit of armor has a bonus to AC equal to 1+half the level of the spell slot. For fussy effects like water walking or flaming weapons, I’d say if the effect can be roughly duplicated by a spell, then it requires the sacrifice of a spell slot 1-2 levels higher. A perpetually glowing lantern requires a 2nd level spell slot because Light is a 1st level spell, whereas a burning sword might require a 4th level slot, since Fireball is generally 3rd level.

It takes a number of weeks equal to the spell slot’s level to make an item. It does not require continuous labor, and can be halted and resumed later. Magic-Users can reclaim sacrificed spell slots by disenchanting the item, which takes the same amount of time it took to create the item. However, spell slots in destroyed or stolen items are just lost (barring a lengthy adventure, I’d imagine)

I like the idea of summon spells working the same way, rather than summoning a bunch of random monsters for a few rounds or punching holes through reality in an apocalyptic display of incompetence. Magic-Users, once they learn the name of a spirit, can summon it when they a preparing their spell for the day. They sacrifice a spell slot, and the spirit has an experience level equal to the slot level. The ally lasts until it is reduced to 0 HP or is banished. Magic-Users can banish summoned allies and regain their spell slot whenever they prepare spells. Banished or spirits previously reduced to 0 HP can be summoned again, though they may resent summoners that bring them to harm.

These rules give item creation a Sauron feel, especially when it comes to make things like Rings of Spell Storing. Magic-Users can become a lot more powerful, but they are betting that they will not lose access to their equipment. I also might include a Horrible Side-effect table if this makes magic items to gadget-like.

And here is the not-Runepriest. I briefly thought about doing an Ars Magica style magic-user transplanted into a DnD style game, but wanted something weirder.

Occultist, a class for LotFP

HP, Saves, and XP as Cleric

Occultists learn Words of Enochian, the heavenly tongue spoken by angels and used to build the world. Anything said aloud in Enochian comes true. Thankfully, Occultists are imperfect practitioners of the art of Creation. As such, they face the following limitations:

• They can only learn Enochian nouns. Knowing the word for a thing in Enochian means you can create it from nothing.
• They can know a number of Words equal to their level.
• They can manifest a number of Words equal to 1+half level. They can unravel anything they have created at any time.
• While Occultists can create living things, such creatures are nearly mindless, acting only to obey the commands of its creator.

Objects created by a speaker of Enochian are always perfect exemplars of their kind. Just because something takes multiple words in English to describe doesn’t mean it does in Enochian. Things created by the same word always appear and operate exactly the same. Occultists can manifest Words as often as they like. They must hear or read a Word in Enochian to learn it.

Occultists roll on the following table to find out what Word they start out with. The DM figures out how they learn more.

1. Sword
2. Peal of Thunder
3. Flash of light
4. Stag
5. Magnetic field
6. Rope
7. Ember
8. Cloud of moths
9. Plate mail
10. Brace of six knives

I suspect half the fun of Occultists is how they get along with Clerics. Are they like children left alone in a cosmic garage, drilling holes in the walls with heavenly power tools? Or just a different flavor of priest?

There are a crazy number of magic statues in Isle of the Unknown, so I want to have several different location replacements to make things more varied. Having dozens and dozens of graveyards is a bit much, even for an awful zombie island.

Tree by blmiers2 on Flickr. Creative Commons license.

A single tree has 1d6 pieces of fruit/usable pieces of wood/doses of sap. Fruit goes bad in 3d6 days, unless somehow preserved.

1. Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: transplant stolen from an abandoned paradise. Whoever eats its fruit can choose to become a Chaotic Level 1 Cleric, keeping all of their other attributes and abilities, but never again leveling up in their old class.
2. Tree of Life: another tree snatched from the First Garden. Whoever eats its fruit no longer ages, naturally or magically, but can still die from sickness, violence, and poison. They will be hated by all holy people and creatures.
3. Skull Peach Tree: peach tree planted on the site of a terrible massacre. Bears large, succulent fruit with pits shaped like human skulls. If eaten, the peaches causes 24 hours of temporary undeath (Curing magic harms, harming magic heals, sunlight deals d4 damage a round, Turn Undead works, and non-sentient undead ignore unless attacked). The pits are valued by sorcerers of all sorts.
4. Wormwood is a fruit-bearing tree on the Isle of the Undead. It is a supernaturally powerful purgative; whoever eats its berries is beset by sweating, weeping, and vomiting (lasts d20 rounds, no save). However, it also removes all poisons and tainted food from the victim’s system, even if they have already begun to take effect.
5. Ebon Apple Tree: Completely, perfectly matte black apple tree. Whoever eats this apple can make a Saving Throw against the next hostile spell cast on them. If it would allow for a saving throw anyway, they can make two.
6. Sin Fig: fig tree with a tap root reaching down into Hell. Eating one of its figs causes d6 damage to Wisdom, and an equal increase to a single random attribute that isn’t Wisdom.
7. Spitefruit: pale green fruit with a bitter, stringy pulp. Resents being eaten. Those who do so have the fruit’s personality take up residence in their brain. It performs petty crimes when they sleep.
8. Greater Driftwood: piece of driftwood brought to false life with necromancy. Instruments made from its wood can attract or repel the undead, especially the drowned.
9. Jackal Pear: eating a Jackal Pear turns a person’s head into that of a wild dog. Does not interfere with speech; gives them an acute sense of smell but a sensitivity to sound.
10. Tree of Idol: Grown up around a pagan idol. Someone who possesses a part of the tree can ask the heathen spirit a question about (1-Necromancy; 2-Vampirism; 3-The History of the Isle; 4-Dragons; 5-The Old Gods; 6-Nature) but there is a 1 in 6 chance it will tell a destructive lie and a separate 1 in 6 chance it will demand recompense.
11. Mandragora: Planted on the grave of a criminal. Screams when cut. If a doll is carved from its wood, it will serve as a loyal, if barely sane, familiar. Its consciousness is formed from a dead man’s id. Name (1-Phfuck; 2-Plop; 3- Corn Nut; 4- Diggum; 5-Chico; 6- Chicken Dinner)
12. Dark Mulberry: its berries are unremarkable, but silk produced by the worms that feed on this tree has a shadowy, dim quality, giving those who wear it a +1 to Stealth rolls (or +15% if you aren’t using an x in 6 system)
13. Ootalisk Cedar: Cultivar from  the Fossil City of Ootalisk. A mask fashioned from its wood allows the wearer to speak an additional language; each tree is associated with a different tongue.
14. Tenebrous Myrrh: produces a dark incense beloved by liches and vampires. Went burnt, this tree’s resin creates a rich black smoke that smothers all light it touches, regardless of intensity or source.
15. Acanthus Gum Tree: its sap is as addictive as it is dangerous. Every time after the first time someone has consumed acanthus sap, they must Save vs Poison or be addicted. Once addicted, they lose 1 point of Strength and 1 point of Wisdom for every day they do not consume at least 1 dose of acanthus sap. Every time someone consumes the sap, they recover lost attributes due to withdrawal, and must Save vs Poison or be changed by the drug, gaining +1 cumulative to AC and -1 cumulative to Dexterity as their skin becomes gnarled and bark-like. If their Dexterity reaches 0 they turn into an Acanthus Gum Tree.
16. Rose Tree: Plucking a rose from this tree summons a Knight of the Rose (Level 5 fighter, platemail, longsword). The summoner can give the Knight a single task, which they will carry out unerringly, but if they die in the line of duty, the will return as a far more dangerous Knight of the Thorn to extract revenge upon their former master.
17. Suntree: a tree killed and then reanimated with unsavory magic. Produces chloroplasm, a substance that can bring the wounded and ill back from the brink of death. Has many exciting side effects.
18. Petrified Tree: trapped inside ever petrified tree on the Isle is a skeletal sage, who, if rescued, will truthfully answer a single question out of gratitude. Aside from this, they are all terribly wicked, and capable of the greatest of perfidy.
19. Revenant Grove: Circle of twisted black trees. Anyone buried amongst them will rise again as a cruel and powerful wight.
20. Barrow Tree: enormous redwood planted over a barrow. If killed or removed, the ancient king or queen buried inside will break free from their bindings and attempt to reform their kingdom. 

Not a huge fan of the magic statues from the Isle of the Unknown. They start to feel a same after a while, especially because there are so many of them. So I am replacing them with several different kinds of locations, the first being graveyards.

by Zdzisław Beksiński

The dead and buried
1-90: 2d100 regular humans
91: d1000 regular humans
92: 2d12 demons
93: 2d10 dragons
94: d10 members of a race of antediluvian giants
95: d6 demigods
96: d20 infamous murderers
97: d4 wicked sages
98: 2d6 martyred saints
99. 2d100 empty graves
100. 2d100 zombies, trapped in their coffins 

The atmosphere
1. Hideous Gothic confection: spikes and gargoyles and gurning cherubs, lots of mist
2. Uncanny. Gaunt angels with too many limbs, eyes and hands and mouths carved everywhere. Quiet voices on the wind.
3. Orderly. Smooth gravestones on a manicured lawn.
4. Decrepit. Illegible and crumbling gravestones, partially dug-up graves, scattered bones.
5. Verdant. Grass, flowers, creeping vines, trees.
6. Withered. Packed, dry ground. Dead trees. Blowing dust.
7.  Religious. Crosses everywhere, church in the center. Statues of angels and saints.
8. Occupied. Houses among the tombs.
  
What lives unlives is loose in this graveyard?
1: Pack of wolves, living with a commune of feral huners.
2: Magic-users training to become bona fide necromancers
4: An assassin cult
5: A merchant from the Lands of the Dead, with his spectral guards
6: Grave-digging bandit gang
7:  A Vampire and its charmed servants
8: An adept Necromancer. 1 in 6 chance they have established themselves and started raising the graveyard’s inhabitants.
9: A Warrior-Priest(ess) and a cult of fervid followers, guarding against looters and witches
10: Roll twice. They’re fighting!

What is important here ?
1. A necromantic source of power, unclaimed and quiescent
2. A gate to the Lands of the Dead, hidden in a mausoleum
3. A chest with d6*1000 pieces of gold, guarded by vicious ghosts
4.  A noble, kidnapped and placed in suspended animation until the ransom is paid
5.  A garden of black and purple lotus
6.  A single dose of a cure for vampirism
7.  A book explaining how to escape the Isle of the Undead
8.  A spell that banishes the souls of the dead permanently
9. The deed to an abandoned estate
10. A powerful war golem, waiting for a new master

What’s under this tombstone?
1-90: A body
91. A coffin filled with buzzing flies
92. A body, its head replaced with a birdcage containing a live crow
93. The body of the last NPC you talked to
94. d6*1000 pieces of cursed gold
95. A spellbook
96. A Vatic Mummy
97. d100 human hands
98. A deep shaft with a ladder
99. A young man or woman, alive. Theirs is the name inscribed on the tombstone, but they have no other memories,
100. Lich!

photo of Leonor Fini

• Keep their max and current HP, saving throws and attack bonus,
• Keep their Intelligence, Charisma, and Wisdom
• Gain the Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and AC of the creature
• Gain any special abilities the creature possesses
• Can speak with any other creature of the same type, unless that requires you to gain a listed language.

Summoners call forth and bind spirits. Doing so requires sacrifice—they must wound themselves for d4 damage to call forth a spirit with 1 HP, +0 Attack Bonus, 12 AC, and 14 in all saves. Calling up a spirit takes a full round. A spirit under a Summoner’s control will obey all of their verbal instructions to the letter.

• increase the spirit’s HP by d6
• increase the spirit’s AB by 1
• increase the spirit’s AC by 1
• reduce the spirit’s saves by 1

• Replicate the effect of any simple weapon, tool, or mechanical object, such as a torch, grappling hook, bow and arrow, or ladder.
• Manipulate an object. The witch uses Charisma in place of Strength and Dexterity.