Building Bhakashal - New Classes - the Theurgist
In the distant past a warlock named Yimal the Heliotrope discovered creatures known as Jaema, tiny, ectoplasmic beings that existed between the astral and prime material plane. After crafting spells to communicate, he made a pact with them.
Yimal designed meditations that would put the mind in a state to draw Jaema to it, and then direct them at the minds of others. This would allow certain forms of mind control, misdirection, clouding. He also learned how to meditate to mind touch Jaema, which had divinatory effects as they exist out of flow with regular time. Finally, he learned how to summon and command insects and animals, then later monsters, using the Jaema. He then created a training facility and made an army of Theurgists, known as The Bharran, warriors with mind powers that he sent into the world.
Yimal the Heliotrope has been gone for centuries, but his army of Theurgists remains, and continues to train. Their ultimate goals now that Yimal is gone are unknown to the world at large, and low level Theurgists know nothing of the larger machinations of senior Theurgists. What is known to the highest level of Theurgists is that Yimal predicted that corruption would overwhelm all forms of government, so there would always be a place for his Theurgists to travel the world and work to silently and secretly eliminate those who are corrupted by pride, greed and cowardice.
1st level Theurgists, when their training is complete, will be affiliated with the Temple of Palashurem, deity of loyalty, duty and honor, Palashurem appears as a one armed humanoid, their skin covered with whorls of black mixed with copper red. Palashurem has long hair of orange fire, carries an onyx battle axe in each hand and rides a black and red striped tiger. Theurgists use this image of Parashurem to focus and enter the meditative state necessary to spell cast.
Until they reach name level the bigger goal of the Theurgists will be unknown to them, once they reach name level they will be brought into the fold by their patron and given the opportunity to pursue the greater goals of the secret society of the Bharran.
Statistics
Ability Minimums INT 15 DEX 16 STR 10 DEX 10
Weapon Proficiency Profile - Special
To Hit and Save Profile - Best of Mercenary/Warlock (Magic-user)
HD: d8
Weapons/Armor - no restrictions
Abilities
1 - Theurgist Spells: Theurgists cast a selection of mind altering and divination spells from all classes, mostly warlock and phantasmist, and have their own unique illusion spell as well. All Theurgist spells are cast from the mind, there are no material components for their spells. The Theurgist clears their mind and concentrates, creating the meditative state that draws in Jaema and directs them to create particular effects.
Each Theurgist follows a 1/2 spell progression with respect to what level spells they may cast, e.g. a 5th level Theurgist can use up to 2nd level spells, a 6th level Theurgist can cast up to 3rd level spells, etc. Theurgists are free casters within their selection of spells for each level, e.g. they do not have to choose which spells to memorize each day, all of the level appropriate spells they have learned are available to them.
Each theurgist will have a mentor/patron to train with. Theurgist’s gain spells by learning meditations with their patrons/trainers. Each mentor/patron has a number of learned spells from each level group equal to their number of additional languages + their Level/3.
The referee should roll up a list of all of the spells the mentor/patron has memorized using the tables above, and the budding Theurgist learns as many as she can when she reaches the appropriate level. Each attempt to learn a spell uses the Theurgist’s “to know” percentage +1% per level of experience. Then, once learned, the theurgist can cast 1 spell per level per day from any of the level lists they have access to at the time.
For example, Gogalath the Morreal is a 9th level Theurgist with an INT of 16, so she has 8 spells of every level from 1st to 4th learned. Gogalath has taken on Beamar Makelerion, a 1st level Theurgist with an intelligence of 15, she can learn up to 5 spells per level and has a 66% chance to learn each spell.
Gogalath’s spells are:
1st level - Animal Friendship, Detect Magic, Illeana’s Dry as Dust, Remove Fear, Sivir’s Scuttling Terror, Speak with Animals, The Indomitable Matador, Whisper of the Jaema
2nd Level - Augury, Detect Lie, ESP, Hold Person, Mirishan’s Misplacement, Snake Charm, The Artful Eyes of the Sharper, The Mad Rage of Rikkitan
3rd Level - Asher’s Mighty Aversion, Clairaudience, Fonreaver’s Ambient Awareness, Hold Animal, Mohrgrim’s Magnificent Mount 1, Precience, Querillon’s Heavy Hand of Indecision, The Covetous Eyes of Danner
4th Level - Animal Summoning 1, Confusion, Divination, Repel Insects, Speak with plants, Vassennan Vir’s Phantasmagoria of Pain, Voornogogg’s Fateful Fear, Whisper the Dead
So at 1st level Beamar chooses to learn 4 spells from her patron, leaving the last slot “open” for her to go to a new patron/trainer for a spell not on this list. She chooses to learn
Animal Friendship, Illeana’s Dry as Dust, Sivir’s Scuttling Terror, Whisper of the Jaema
She is successful for all but Illeana’s Dry as Dust, rather than try another spell to take that spot, she decides to stick with 3 spells for now, leaving two slots for later, so at 1st level she has the following spells available to her, one of which she can cast per day:
Animal Friendship
Sivir’s Scuttling Terror
Whisper of the Jaema
At 2nd level she can cast two of these per day, at 3rd, three per day, then at 4th she can try to learn a selection of 2nd level spells from Golgalath, etc. Or, she may find spells before she reaches 4th level and try to learn those if they are level appropriate. Finally, she can find an alternate patron and in exchange for a service be given access to their spells. The Theurgist will have to decide how many spells to try and learn each time they get access to a new level of spell, and will have to seek out patrons/trainers if they want to expand their selection. There is no “swapping spells” once you have learned the spell, so caution should be exercised before a Theurgist learns any new spell.
Scroll spells are another way for Theurgists to get access to new spells, but the number of spells of a particular level they can have learned is fixed by their intelligence + level/3, there is no adding more than that. So any scroll spells found after the spells are filled up for that level are castable from scroll only. Any spell of a higher level than they can normally cast uses the scroll casting rules from the DMG.
2. Theurgist Illusions
Theurgist’s can also cast generic illusions, and have their own version of Phantasmal Force to do it, called Whisper of the Jaema.
Whisper of the Jaema
Level: 1, Casting Time: 3 segments, Range: 4”+1”/level, Duration: special, Area of Effect: Special, Components: none, Saving Throw: Neg.
Whisper of the Jaema works like Phantasmal Force, it creates an illusion of anything the caster has seen before (seen well enough to create a reasonable version with their mind). The illusion appears in the victim’s mind only. The Theurgist can impact one mind per level of experience with this illusion.
Victims must make a save, if they fail, they stand still, in a trance, and experience the illusion as if real for 2 rounds. Then they gain another save. If that is failed the illusion lasts two more rounds, etc. Anyone trying to wake them gives them a save. Taking damage gives them a save. The illusion lasts until the Theurgist ends it or the victim makes their save.
The Theurgist must remain motionless and focused to use this spell while the illusion is attacking the victim, she may carry out no other actions. At 5th level the Theurgist can move at half speed while maintaining the illusion, and may perform simple, non-attack, non-spell casting tasks while maintaining it at 10th they may move at full speed while maintaining an illusion and may defend themselves or attack with a weapon.
The illusion works exactly as the real world correlate, with the following limitation, if the illusion is to do damage to the target, then creatures, spells and effects duplicated with this illusion are limited to the casters level in HD/Spell level. Any illusion of a creature/spell above the caster’s level cannot do damage.
A target fights the illusion in their mind as if it were real, with all real stats and attacks, and the illusion does real damage, if the illusion slays the target in this mental combat they are dead. If they are not slain before the illusion ends when it does they have whatever HP they had left in the illusion.
3. Martial Arts - Theurgists follow a demanding physical regimen originally established by Yimal the Heliotrope. Thus all Theurgists gain the martial arts proficiency, which shifts all of their unarmed attacks one column over on the “to hit” tables. They also gain the unarmed attacks per round progression of the spartan (monk). These may only be used if the Theurgist wears leather armor or no armor.
4. Preferred Weapon - In the Bharran Theurgists are trained to perfect the use of one weapon rather than taking multiple weapons. Theurgists start with three weapons, their main and a secondary of their choice. The third slot is taken as a +1 to hit / +1 to damage on their main weapon. They gain a new weapon proficiency slot every 2 levels (so at 3rd, 5th, etc.) and each new slot will be taken in their main weapon, giving it a +1 to hit /+1 to damage each time. So a 7th level Theurgist with a broadsword as her main weapon would have +4 to hit and +4 to damage with that weapon.
5. Mental Discipline - Theurgists have a disciplined regimen with respect to mental toughness, this gives them a +1 on mental saving throws and any saving throws associated with scrying or reading of minds for every 2 levels of experience, e.g. +1 at 1st level, +2 at 3rd, etc.
6. Group Mind - Theurgists can combine their powers to increase their effects. If two Theurgists have the same spell in their list of learned spells, they may both cast that spell at the same time, and all parameters of the spell are doubled, range, duration, AOE, etc. In addition, any saves against the spell are made at -2 for every Theurgist casting the spell.
7. Awareness - Their mental and physical discipline combined with their connection to the Jaema make the Theurgist extra aware of their environment. Theurgists are only surprised on a 1 in 6.
8. Language - All Theurgists speak a language only known to others of the class, it is the language which their spells are written in, and has many soft, sibilant sounds and odd clicks to it.
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