Thursday, May 6, 2021

 Building Bhakashal - New Classes - The Spellbinder


Image by Terry Oakes


Spellbinders are the shamans of Bhakashal.


In Bhakashal, the spellbinder is a practitioner of “natural” magic, e.g. as opposed to regular warlocks (magic-users) who study and memorize spells, or seers/beastials (priests/druids) who pray to the gods for them, spellbinders obtain their spells by communing with a particular group of their ancestors, otherworldly spirits who did not move on fully to the afterworld. These spirits are bound to a middle place between the prime material plane and the afterworld due to their behavior during their lifetime, and their “penance” is to be at the service of spellbinders. When called upon, they can create spell-like effects through the spellbinder, duplicating various seer, beastial and warlock spells. 


The advantages are impressive, spellbinders do not have “patrons”, they do not have to roll “to know” for spells, they do not have to find their spells, their spells have no material components, and their spell selection consists of all animal, plant and elemental spells from the seer, beastial and warlock lists. 


The drawbacks, however, are also important, and are listed below.


Stats


HD: d8


Weapons and Armor - As Beastial


Level Progression - As Warlock


Ability Requirements - STR 10 WIS 13 CHR 14


Weapon Proficiency Progression - As Beastial


Spellbinder Abilities

  1. All spellbinders have tattoos on their body, the ancient symbols provide the connection to their ancestors, they receive the tattoos from the previous spellbinder in their community when they are retiring, this passes their power to the new spellbinder

  2. Spellbinders have outdoor survival skills that allow them to survive in the wilderness indefinitely, they can hunt, fish, know enough about local flora to find food, and are able to track as a slayer

  3. A spellbinder surprises on a 3 in 6 and is surprised on a 1 in 6 while in the wilderness

  4. Spellbinders can cast 1 spell per level per day

  5. Spellbinders can cast spells of as high a level as half the spellbinder’s level (rounded up), e.g. a 5th level spellbinder may cast spells as high as 3rd level

  6. A spellbinder has to meditate and pray to their ancestors for 2 hours every day before resting, and then rest a minimum of 4 hours after this in order to be able to call on the spirits again the next day 

  7. The spirits are capricious and their motivations are opaque, they are forced to serve but they do so unwillingly, they can’t make a spell malfunction or deliberately harm their descendants, but they can mess with the spell provided, for humor, due to resentment, or any of a number of other motivations. The unredeemed dead are fickle. Sometimes they grant the exact spell the spellbinder wants, sometimes they give a related spell, sometimes they give a random spell.

  8. When a spellbinder wants to cast a particular spell (see lists below), they call upon their ancestor’s spirits to provide it, according to the following mechanic:

    1. Roll a saving throw versus spell, if casting against others use the target’s saving throw, otherwise use the spellbinder’s saving throw.

    2. Roll a natural 1: the spell fails entirely

    3. Fail the saving throw: roll for the column (d6: 1-2: Offensive, 3-4: Defensive, 5-6: Miscellaneous), then roll for the spell

    4. Roll the saving throw exactly: player picks a column, roll for the result

    5. Roll over the required saving throw: The desired spell is cast

    6. Roll a natural 20: the spell is cast at maximum efficiency (e.g. most damage, most targets, etc.)

  9. At 3rd level the spellbinder gets to re-roll one spell casting result per day, at 6th two, at 9th three, at 12th four, etc.

  10. If struck while casting a spell the spell is disrupted but this does not count against spell casting capacity for the day, spells are not “forgotten” 



Spells

First Level 

Offensive (d6)

1. Burning Hands

2. Entangle

3. Khostin’s Vermin Throng

4. Shillelagh

5. Shocking Grasp

6. Talons


Defensive (d10)

1. Affect Normal Fires

2. Animal Friendship

3. Fur

4. Invisibility to Animals

5. Invisibility to Insects

6. Invisibility to Lycanthropes

7. Protective Circle

8. Purify Air

9. Sinshara’s Astounding Salt Spray 10. Spider Climb

Miscellaneous (2d6)

2. Amillian’s Ambient Avian

3. Dancing lights

4. Devour

5. Find Familiar

6. Light

7. Locate Animals

8. Mending

9. Pass Without a Trace

10. Predict Weather

11. Purify Water

12. Speak with Animals





Second Level

Offensive (d6)

1. Cause Light Wounds

2. Charm Person or Mammal

3. Heat Metal

4. Jonnrigger’s Drive the Pack

5. Produce Flame

6. Stinking Cloud


Defensive (2d8)

2-3. Animal Senses

4. Barskin

5-6. Continual Light

7. Control Gases

8. Darkness 15' Radius

9. Eyes of the Swarm

10. Fight or Flight

11. Fire Trap

12. Jauncil Tinnobassar’s Avian Guardians

13.Presence of Danger

14. Pyrotechnics

15. Trip

16. Warp Wood


Miscellaneous (1d4)

1. Create Water

2. Cure light Wounds

3. Locate Plants

4. Slow Poison




3rd Level 

Offensive (2d8)

2. Bantar’s Dogs of War

3. Boneyard

4. Call Lightning

5. Curse

6. Dragonfly

7. Feral

8. Fireball

9. Flame Arrow

10. Lightning Bolt

11. Miasma

12. Monster Summoning I

13. Skin of the Beast

14. Snare

15. Summon Insects

16. Veen the Magnificent’s Storm of Stones

Defensive (d8)

1. Borrow

2. Explosive Runes

3. Gust of Wind

4. Hold Animal

5. Khor Khan’s Granular Projection

6. Plant Growth

7. Protection from Fire

8. Slimeskin




Miscellaneous (d12)

1. Burrow

2. Cure Disease

3. Leomund'sTiny Hut

4. Long Tail

5. Mohrgrim’s Magnificent Mount 1

6. Neutralize Poison

7. Remove Curse 

8. Saan

9. Stone Shape

10. Thunder

11. Tree

12. Water Breathing






4th Level 

Offensive (2d8)

2. Animal Summoning 1

3. Amsargoth’s Conjure the Carrion

4. Call Woodland Beings

5. Cause Serious Wounds

6. Charm Monster

7. Devolver

8. Efferenon’s Chill the Bones

9. Ice Storm

10. Mir Thensic’s Searing Steam

11. Monster Summoning II

12. Polymorph Other

13. Produce Fire 

14. Sticks to Snakes

15. Summon Lycanthrope

16. Wind Hammer


Defensive (d20)

1. Fire Charm

2. Fire Shield

3. Fire Trap

4-5. Hallucinatory Forest

6. Hive Mind

7. Hold Plant

8. Mir Thensic’s Mantle of Fiery Water

9. Parasite

10. Plant Door

11-12. Polymorph Self

13-14. Protection from Lightning

15. Protective Circle, 10’ rad

16. Repel Insects

17. Speak with Plants 

18. Wall Of Fire

19. Wall Of lce

20. Zel Austra’s Whirling Sands

Miscellaneous (2d4)

2. Control Temperature

3. Cure Serious Wounds

4. Hibernate

5. Jonigaster’s Opulent Amphibian

6. Mohrgrim’s Magnificent Mount 2

7. Rajmurangi’s Cunning Appendage

8. Remove Curse




5th Level 

Offensive (2d4)

1-2. Animal Growth

3. Animal Summoning 2

4. Crocodile

5. Hold Monster

6. Insect Plague

7. Small

8. Transmute Rock To Mud

Defensive (2d4) 

1. Anti-Plant Shell

2. Deluge

3. Fathom

4. Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound

5. Pass Plant

6. Wall of Iron

7-8. Wall of Stone


Miscellaneous (d10)

1-2. Airy Water

3-4. Animate Dead

5-6. Commune with Nature

7-8. Control Winds

9-10. Mohrgrim’s Magnificent Mount 3




6th Level

Offensive (d6)

1. Animate Liquid

2. Base Form

3. Cone of Cold

4. Fire Seeds

5. Monster Summoning 4

6. Otlluke's Freezing Sphere


Defensive (d10)

1-2. Anti- Animal Shell

3-4. Black Dragon

5-6. Call the Kingdom

7-8. Turn Wood

9-10. Wall of Thorns

Miscellaneous (d12)

1. Cure Critical Wounds

2. Fire Seeds

3. Insectivore

4. Lizard King

5. Mohrgrim’s Magnificent Mount 4

6. Move Earth

7. Part Water

8. Reincarnate

9. Stone to Flesh

10. The Mighty Ant

11. Transport Via Plants

12. Weather Summoning




7th Level

Offensive (2d6)

2. Ancient

3. Animate Rock

4. Charm Plants

5. Conjure Earth Elemental

6. Creeping Doom

7. Delayed Blast Fireball

8. Firestorm

9. Firrwin Hollinshae’s Release the Beast

10. Monster Summoning 5

11. The Swarm of Horus

12. Underworm

Defensive (d4)

1-2. Earthquake

3-4. Transmute Metal to Wood

Miscellaneous (d10)

1-2. Mohrgrim’s Magnificent Mount 5

3-4. Chariot of Sustarre

5-6. Control Weather

7-8. Lower Water

9-10. Wind Walk




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