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
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
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
A spellbinder surprises on a 3 in 6 and is surprised on a 1 in 6 while in the wilderness
Spellbinders can cast 1 spell per level per day
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
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
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.
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:
Roll a saving throw versus spell, if casting against others use the target’s saving throw, otherwise use the spellbinder’s saving throw.
Roll a natural 1: the spell fails entirely
Fail the saving throw: roll for the column (d6: 1-2: Offensive, 3-4: Defensive, 5-6: Miscellaneous), then roll for the spell
Roll the saving throw exactly: player picks a column, roll for the result
Roll over the required saving throw: The desired spell is cast
Roll a natural 20: the spell is cast at maximum efficiency (e.g. most damage, most targets, etc.)
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.
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
Second Level
3rd Level
4th Level
5th Level
6th Level
7th Level
No comments:
Post a Comment