Eclipse d20 and Exotic Martial Arts

Today it’s an offline question.

What are the limits of Eclipse’s Martial Arts? The rules list a specific set of Feats and Abilities that can be used to build a style – but some of the styles you’ve posted include things that aren’t on the list. Are there limits or not?

Well… Eclipse specifically allows variants, so the basic answer to all of these questions is pretty much “whatever the game master will let you get away with”.

So yes, depending on the nature of the game and the generosity of the game master, Eclipse Martial Arts can range from fairly realistic packages of combat training on up through minor schools of magic in themselves – just as they do in martial arts movies and comic books. After all, the continuum there ranges from “Walker Texas Ranger” and “Rumble In The Bronx” on up through “Kung Fu Hustle” and “Journey To The West”.

So how about a few more esoteric styles? I’ll make them Charisma based, just for fun.

First up, it’s a style for a minor superhero focused on positive-energy channeling and light magic:

Midnight Sun Style (Cha):

Most who channel positive energy, the searing radiance of the light, do so only in passing. Few indeed are those who seek to become one with the light, to infuse their very flesh with the inward fire of the light and its purifying radiance. Those few have chosen to bear the light into the darkness where none expect it.

The Midnight Sun Style focuses on subtly enhancing the user’s body and on filling it with sacred power. As such, it is very much an inward, “soft”, style like Tai Chi, more concerned with meditative states and the flow of the user’s inner power than with direct martial maneuvers.

• Requires: Ability to Channel Positive Energy at least five times per day and at least +2 Intensity.
• Basic Abilities:
  • Tempering The Flesh (Toughness 4)
  • Radiant Strike (Power 1)
  • Sacred Fist (Attack 1, Specialized for Increased Effect (The user’s blows are considered Holy) / only versus creatures of darkness or negative energy, not against creatures that simply happen to be evil)
  • Hand Of Light (Strike).
  • The Inner Eye (Synergy 4: Athletics, Insight, Perception, and Stealth).
• Advanced Techniques:
  • The Illumination Of The Entire Earth (Mind Like Moon).
  • The Sun Within (Channeling/Sacred Hand; the user no longer need a holy symbol to use Channeling)
  • Wheel Of Light (A spiral of radiance spins out to strike down the foe / Whirlwind Attack).
  • Armed With Light (Channeling/Glorious Touch, only to boost unarmed attacks and personal defenses).
• Occult Techniques:
  • Light Eternal (Inner Strength)
  • Speed Of Thought (Vanishing Technique)
  • Radiant Touch (Healing Hand)
  • Swallow The Sun (Rite of Chi with +4 Bonus Uses, Corrupted for Increased Effect (Can be used to restore Inner Strength), Specialized for Reduced Cost / Only to restore inner strength).

This art stretches things a bit. Still, while stuffing Channeling feats into a martial art is questionable, Sacred Hand is more of a style thing anyway (after all, you could put a holy symbol on a ring or get one as a tattoo or buy one for a tiny fraction of a point worth of Innate Enchantmant) and Glorious Touch is a good deal less useful when you can’t readily build on it – as well as being a way for a “sacred style” martial artist to empower himself with enough holy energy to actually hit various supernatural creatures effectively. Just recite the proper prayer or mantra and suddenly you can effectively punch out weird mystical beings – at least if you picked the right enhancement(s) to give yourself. Bad luck if you didn’t.

Now “Swallow The Sun” is a bit harder to justify, but most serious martial artists will pick it – or some similar ability – up in any case, and saving 3 CP after investing in a style on up through the Occult Techniques isn’t a particularly big deal, especially since “bare-fisted brawler with the supernatural” really isn’t a very well optimized career path to begin with. Overall, this is relatively reasonable for a martial art focused on developing an ability that doesn’t actually exist in reality. I wouldn’t expect a draconic martial art focusing on enhancing their breath weapons to restrict itself to the usual list of physical maneuvers either.

Overall, this one is entirely suitable for the setting – and shouldn’t be a problem for anything short of really low magic settings; it’s not too hard to come by magic weapons in most basic settings anyway.

Demon Fiddler Style (Cha):

“I guess you didn’t know it but I’m a fiddle player too
And if you’d care to take a dare, I’ll make a bet with you
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy
But give the devil his due
I’ll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul
‘Cause I think I’m better than you”

-The Devil Went Down To Georgia, Charlie Daniels

The violin wails like a chorus of the damned as the frantic speed of the user’s bow draws howling notes from the strings, a music that hammers against the boundaries of sanity like a battering ram, drifting upon the wind to pull forth rare insights into the true madness of reality. The Demon Fiddler style is not actually evil – but it requires a rare dedication to the art of the violin and access to rare energies to channel through it.

Obviously enough, this is a musical style – a physical absurdity, but hardly out of bounds for most d20 games.

• Requires: Perform/Strings total of 10+, Mystic Artist (Strings), +3 Speciality in Fiddles, a GM who allows Theran Channeling (Mind) and access to an appropriate power source of mental magical energy to draw upon.
• Basic Techniques:
  • Chorus Of Demons / Power 4 (Variant, adds to Charisma for musical purposes).
  • Joined Right In / Synergy 2 (Perform/Strings and/or Perform/Vocal).
  • Sounded Like This / Defenses 4 (+2 to saves versus sonic attacks per level).
  • Give The Devil His Due / Strike (Musical Assault, 1d5+Cha Mod lethal or nonlethal damage to listeners). It’s a bit of a stretch to make this area effect – but the damage is low and most of the time you’ll be hitting your allies too.
• Advanced and Master Techniques:
  • Echoes In The Hollows / Great Projection.
  • House Of The Rising Sun / Channeling (Theran Mind Channeling, 3 + Cha Mod uses, 6 CP)
  • Luck Of El Diablo / Luck with +8 Bonus Uses (Specialized and Corrupted/only for Theran Channeling effects, 6 CP)
  • Rosin Up Your Bow / +4 Bonus Uses of Mystic Artist (Strings) (6 CP).
• Occult Techniques:
  • Fire Flew From His Fingertips / Inner Strength II
  • It Made An Evil Hiss / Ki Focus (Adds to Charisma)
  • He Knew That He’d Been Beat / Vanishing.

Now this style is pretty much a small magic system in itself – granting a fiddle-playing Mystic Artist access to a a variety of mind-altering affects through his or her music. Of course, it’s only going to work in a setting that allows Theran Channeling (which is kind of rare) and in a game high-powered enough that the game master lets you get away with shoving four mystic artist bonuses into a martial art. Sure, that’s appropriate enough if you allow a musical martial art in the first place, and it is fairly limited use – but it’s a whole new power set that’s available for thirty-odd skill points and a decent charisma bonus.

I’d go for it – it is fairly creative, very thematic, and promises to be fun, which is, after all, the entire point of playing – but it opens the way for a bunch of other musical arts and magical duels winding up being settled by rock-offs. Now there’s nothing wrong with that (if the trope was good enough for Tolkien, it is good enough for most games) but it will make for some awfully literal battles of the bands.

Finally, we have the…

Radiant (or Vedic) Master Style (Cha)

Many Martial Arts focus on focusing C’hi, the power of the user’s life force – but that is merely the user’s fund of Positive Energy. It is possible to use those same techniques to better focus the positive energy one taps into through the disciplines of Channeling. The Radiant Master style is so focused, and it’s user’s are easily recognized by the burning radiance which blazes around them when they tap into positive energy plane.

• Requires: Ability to Channel Positive Energy at least five times per day and at least +2 Intensity.
• Basics:
  • Meditations Upon The Light / Power 4 (Adds to Channeling Intensity).
  • The Illuminating Mantra / Defense 4 (Adds to AC and Saves versus Undead – but only versus undead)
  • Truths Upon The Wind / Synergy/Religion, and Synergy/Turning Checks.
• Advanced and Master Techniques:
  • Drinking Down The Light / Augment Magnitude +2d6 (subject to normal maximums, 6 CP)
  • Light Pierces Darkness / Mind Like Moon
  • Bhumisparsa Mudra / Sacred Hand (Does not require a Holy Symbol)
  • Bodhyangi Mudra / Radiant Channel (When the user channels positive energy it also produces a Light-based spell effect of up to level (Intensity-4)/4.
• Occult Techniques:
  • Gayatri Mantra / Inner Strength II
  • Heart Sutra Bodhi Svaha / Ki Focus (+4 to Magnitude and Intensity)
  • Tandava Shiva Mantra / Wrath (Positive Energy, Provides protection from Negative Energy).

While superficially similar to the Midnight Sun Style and the Demon Fiddler Style, this one is actually quite a bit more problematic; rather than boosting a not-especially optimal combat style like the Midnight Sun Style, or providing an entirely new suite of mid-range abilities like the Demon Fiddler Style, this focuses on boosting Channeling – already a major power source. Up to +2 to Checks, +8 Intensity, +(2d6+4) Magnitude, and a bonus spell – possibly of fairly high level – cast with every use of Channeling is a pretty sizeable boost and will affect pretty much every other Channeling ability the user takes. For a Channeling specialist – or even a dabbler – this (or some variant) is pretty much a “must take” skill if the game master allows it.

And like most “must take” items, it’s really only suited to extremely high-powered games. That’s exactly where it originated of course; a way to bump a companion in a really high powered game up to the point where it could do something reasonably effective. I probably wouldn’t allow it into more reasonable games though.

It isn’t always easy to decide whether or not to allow a particular item in Eclipse. Just remember, it is entirely fair to say “I’m allowing this on an experimental basis. If it makes a mess of the game, or just doesn’t add to the fun, I’m reserving the right to revise or even reject it – although you can then spend those points on something else”. After all, the point is to have fun. If something is spoiling that fun never hesitate to throw it out.

Eclipse and the Pathfinder Assassin

And it’s time for another attempt to get started posting again. Being in the medical field in the midst of a pandemic has pretty much eliminated my writing time since last year – but it’s loosening up a bit now. To get back into the swing of things, questions are welcome; they give me a place to start. And for today we have Alzrius, asking about a breakdown for the Pathfinder Assassin Prestige Class.

We can probably assume the use of the Pathfinder Package Deal, but it doesn’t have any actual effect. The class basics are fully compatible with the vast majority of d20 settings anyway.

For the basics of this ten-level class we have…

• d8 Hit Dice (40 CP), 4 Skill Points per Level (40 CP), a Base Attack Bonus of +7 (42 CP), total Saves of +11 (33 CP), and Augment Attack (Sneak Attack option, +5d6, 15 CP).
• Assassins are also Proficient with Light Armor (3 CP) and a Limited Group of Weapons (3 CP).

That’s 176 CP out of the 240 CP available to a ten-level prestige class. In actual play they probably wouldn’t need to pay for the proficiencies since any would-be assassin really should have most of them already.

The items in the Pathfinder Assassin that improve the Death Attack trick include True Death (a sort of curse on those slain by the user’s Death Attack that makes them slightly more difficult to raise from the dead), Quiet Death (allowing the user to conceal the fact that he or she has used a Death Attack to kill a target during a surprise round), Swift Death (allowing the user to use Death Attack once per day without the normally-required study time), and Angel Of Death (Once per day can destroy a body, preventing the use of Raise Dead or Resurrection – albeit not the use of Wish or True Resurrection.

OK then:

• True Death simply annoys PC’s and really doesn’t affect NPC’s since they rely more on plot effects than wealth.
• Quiet Death… is pretty specialized. It’s neat when it comes up, but it’s not going to come up all that often.
• Swift Death lets the character make a quick save-or-die strike once per day. That’s really not that impressive; spellcasters can usually do this more often and better.
• Angel Of Death saves the bother of destroying a body some other way – perhaps by dropping a capsule of green slime on it. Handy, but but it’s not as if people in the real world, with no magic at all and a lot less motivation, haven’t disposed of quite a lot of bodies. Disposing of a body is not actually all that hard.

So to buy those items, take…

• Trick (Death Attack, normally requires three rounds of study and use shortly after the study period) Specialized and Corrupted for increased Effect (offers a choice of Death or Short-Term Paralysis, Only requires two rounds of study) / Requires a successful sneak attack, fails if the target is aware of the user or recognizes the user as an enemy*, must be used within three rounds (6 CP).

*OK, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. If I know that a particular assassin is after me, I’m immune to his or he death attack? After all, I know that he or she is an enemy even if I don’t know that they’re nearby – and therefore am protected? I recommend dropping the “or recognizes the user as an enemy” since any reasonable interpretation of that already falls under “if the target is aware of the user”.

Given that it’s not really that hard to get rid of a body lets go straight to a drastically upgraded version of Angel Of Death. Buy…

• Presence / Aura of Corruption (An improved, level one, version of Putrefy Food And Drink), Specialized and Corrupted for Reduced Cost / Only affects corpses, only of creatures that the user has slain with Death Attack (2 CP). There. That will cause the bodies of those you slay to be consumed by insects, fungi, and various microorganisms in a few moments – with the resulting compost being of no more use for bringing back the victim than a chunk of flesh from a wolf is useful for bringing back the deer it ate last week. Once a body has been consumed by other organisms and digested… it’s now a part of them and the relationship with the original creature is broken.

Even better… That works all day, every day, as often as you like. It will take a Wish or True Resurrection (or perhaps Returning) to bring back ANYTHING you kill.

If you want to do something else with your 2 CP… invest in an Injecting Weapon or look in The Complete Scoundrel, or any of dozens of other equipment books and go with the Green Slime again. Or any of several other oozes. There are quite a few of them which will eat a body, bones and all.

We’ve already got the Death Attack down to two rounds of study, and we want to eliminate the study at least once per day.

• Buy Reflex Training (four actions per day variant), Specialized and Corrupted for Increased Effect (accomplishes two rounds of study as a free action) / only for use with studying targets to allow the use of a Death Attack (6 CP). That’s four times a day, which is at least competitive with the local druid when it comes to save-or-die effects.

Quiet Death? For that you want

• Traceless (Murder), Specialized and Corrupted for Reduced Cost / Only keeps it from being noticeable when you kill someone with your Death Attack for a brief period (2 CP).

Again, that’s an improvement on the original ability which had much more limited applications since it only worked during a surprise round.

OK, that pretty much covers the Pathfinder Assassins signature techniques with some upgrades for… 16 CP. That’s actually pretty cheap.

So what else does the Pathfinder Assassin get?

• Poison Use (6 CP). This might be overpriced, but that’s back-compatibility again. Still, it lets you both make and safely use poisons.
• +5 on Saves Versus Poison. This could be bought with Resistance, or Augmented Bonus, either of which might be better in the long run – but I’m going to match the edge and buy Luck just to get a second chance against poisons (6 CP) – basically, letting the user roll twice and keep the best result when saving against poisons. An actual character might well be better served with Luck with +4 Bonus Uses, Specialized / only for Saves – but that has the same cost and so could be easily swapped in.
• Improved Uncanny Dodge. That’s Awareness (6 CP) with Flankless (Specialized, does not work against opponents with a four-level advantage over you, 3 CP).
• Hidden Weapons: You could duplicate this by buying Professional (Sleight Of Hand), Specialized for Increased Effect (+1 per level) and Corrupted for Reduced Cost / Only to use Sleight Of Hand to Conceal Weapons (4 CP) – but personally I would buy either Innate Enchantment / Handy Haversack (+2 CP worth of Innate Enchantment) or take Shaping in the Use of Charms and Talismans variant – thus getting the use of ten minor bits of magic – such as a making a weapon invisible when not in use, concealed pockets, a few moments of invisiblity, instant makeover capsules, and so on.
• Hide In Plain Sight could be an immunity, or smoke pellets, or some other trick – but the simplest way to get it is to take Opportunist (gets to roll to hide even when under observation and without cover, 6 CP).

That’s about 47 CP in total (possibly varying a bit of you take some of the Eclipse-style options instead of the attempts at duplication), giving the Pathfinder Assassin a net cost of 223 CP out of the 240 CP available – although it’s not a particularly efficient build, which kind of explains why the Pathfinder Assassin generally isn’t considered worth taking except – sometimes – as a dip. This being Eclipse, of course, you could start as an Assassin instead of taking it as a prestige class and have a lot of the special tricks within the first few levels. Throw in Duties (likely to whoever trained you), Adept or Fast Learner to cut down on the SP Cost (6 CP each, either worth 20 CP worth of skills (and continuing to offer benefits later) for a net savings of 14 CP – or take both to upgrade at a reduced cost) and cut the Hit Dice to d4’s in favor of Agile Combat [Advanced Augmented Bonus (Add (Dex Mod) to (Con Mod) for HP Purposes through level 10, 12 CP)] to save 28 CP and you’ll have 79 CP available – enough for, say:

• The full original Assassin Spellcasting Package (56 CP). This isn’t especially impressive, but does include some handy tricks and is rather tightly focused on stuff assassins are likely to need.
• The 32 CP Pirate Template and a bunch of other stuff – perhaps some of the C’hi Power packages from this article on Ninja or some nice Martial Stances or even something like a Birthright.
• The Bokor (“Binder”) Package (60 CP). This one will continue to pay dividends throughout your entire career and is very nice when you want to put together a package of powers that’s just right for taking out a particular target.
• The Entreaty Magic package (87 CP, so you’ll need to throw in a couple of your feats – but well worth it if you have a decent Charisma score) is another one that will continue to pay off throughout your entire career.
• Perhaps a good chunk of Witchcraft. That’s not overwhelmingly powerful, but it is very sneaky and versatile.
• Perhaps a Martial Discipline at (48 CP)? Or you could invest three Feats to either buy a second one or to triple your uses-per-fight on your first set of maneuvers.
• Or go with the Skill-Based Partial Casters (Type I or Type II) (Variable Cost).
• How about the Pulp Hero templates? At 32 (Basic) or 64 (Advanced) CP that would certainly be different!

Any of those options will make our revamped Eclipse Assassin considerably more effective – as it should be. The Assassin is a strong and popular archetype. It shouldn’t be crippling to want to play one.

D20 – The Narrative Voyager:

And for today it’s a spell that’s been requested a number of times…

Narrative Voyager

• Transmutation
• Level: Wizard 4, Druid 5, Destiny 4.
• Components: V, S, Magical Focus (a permanent Extradimensional Space), MF (a complex mechanism of turning gears, crystals, controls, and things that slide back and forth costing 100 GP), Narrative Focus (see below). .
• Casting Time: Three Turns.
• Range: Touch.
• Target: An Extradimensional Space that the caster is already in.
• Duration: Instantaneous (Special, See Below).
• Saving Throw: None (Environmental Target).
• Spell Resistance: No.

Destiny is not an absolute. Few if any points or outcomes are fixed and unalterable. Rather, it is a current – in some places sweeping forward with force, in others a gentle drift, and in yet others a gentle holding gyre or devouring whirlpool, carrying those who do not steer boldly and well into the stygian depths. Still, it has power. It flows around, or over, or ever-so-slowly wears away at obstacles – and, if contained in one place, it bursts free at three others.

Adventurers ride those currents. They may tack and steer to turn them to their advantage, but the seas of fate have always the final say. Still, where those currents come together, where potential accumulates, and where reality itself is but thinly bound… the power of destiny can be tapped.

The Narrative Voyager spell is best cast during a pause, when the currents of destiny have reached a decision point and are gathering together to rush onwards once more. It can only be cast only where the boundaries between the worlds are thin, in a space that is anchored to reality by a mere thread of magic. But if those conditions are fulfilled… it can set a group loose upon the seas of fate.

Narrative Voyage must be cast while inside a permanent extradimensional space. When cast it breaks the link between the extradimensional space and it’s host reality – setting the space adrift upon the currents of destiny, to wash up upon realities shores somewhere else.

• If it’s cast while the occupants of the space are entangled with the local currents of destiny (A.K.A. while actually on an adventure) it will take a mere 1d6+1 turns for it to relocate the entrance to the extradimensional space used to somewhere within medium range of its original location – but the spell will have no other effect. The waves of the great sea will toss you back upon your original shore.
• If it’s cast during a pause between the segments of an adventure, the space will almost always “arrive” (or at least re-establish the location of it’s entryway) in position for the next segment to begin – although it shows little or no respect for time, space, and dimension when doing so. The subjective duration of the trip is usually 1d6 minutes, but occasionally extends to hours for no apparent reason (at the will of the game master).
• If it’s cast after the unsuccessful conclusion of an adventure, the space tends to fetch up somewhere gloomy and claustrophobic, with little in the way of supplies or help available, where a grim adventure, foreshadoing for some later adventure, mysterious entity who will provide puzzle-clues, or similar interlude awaits. Such locations tend to be incredibly isolated villages or settlements if they aren’t space stations, ships at sea, lonely islands, outposts in incredibly hostile regions, or even small demiplanes or other pocket realities. In any case… they are usually virtually devoid of other means of escape. Leaving will usually require resolving the local narrative – one way or another – and thus opening the way to make effective use of this spell again.
• Occasionally, if cast after the conclusion of an adventure (whether successful or not), the spell will just take the caster (or someone else in the extradimensional space) “home”, usually in about an hour or so. Sometimes there’s an adventure there, but just as often it’s purely for character development and social purposes – or for someone to leave or join the party.
• If it’s cast after a successful adventure – or when nothing is going on at all – it will normally take you to the start of a new adventure in a subjective time ranging from hours to days. While this does have an annoying tendency to dump you right into the middle of things with little or no chance to find out what is going on before getting involved, get a handle on the local area, or access friends, allies, or supplies, they are invariably environments and situations that the caster and any companions can reasonably handle if they respond cleverly and don’t make any really irretrievable mistakes. After all… the forces of destiny have brought you there to deal with the situation. If they just wanted you to die, THAT could be done with considerable ease. The universe is bigger than any little group of adventurers.

Complications: While being swept along by the Currents of Destiny, an Extradimensional Space will occasionally (about one trip in four) intersect another pocket-realm and become temporarily stuck to it. This will give the occupants a little while to interact with whatever’s there and possibly let them go on a side-adventure.

D6:

• 1) Incursion: Something else that was traveling the planes comes aboard. This may be good or bad.
• 2) Passenger: You either pick up, or disembark, a passenger.
• 3-6) Location: You get to visit a pocket-world for a while. Roll 1d100:
  • 01-04) Badlands. Whether desert, plains, tundra, ice, or just rocks, there’s not much here.
  • 05-09) Wilds. Woods, jungle, or plains, this wild and uninhabited landscape is a great place to camp and relax for a bit.
  • 10-14) Isolated Holding. A small family farm or similarly isolated settlement. They will probably be surprised to have visitors.
  • 15-17) Ghost Town. This abandoned settlement may have a few locals, but not many.
  • 18-21) Camp. It may contain hobos, or boy scouts, or loggers, or fishermen, or a goblin warband, but mostly it’s just a temporary encampment.
  • 22-23) Caravan. Whether merchants, gypsies, or star voyagers, it’s a place for traders to stop before moving on. Occasionally this may be aboard a giant ship or some such.
  • 24-28) Thorp. This tiny settlement is a good place to get lunch, but usually not much else.
  • 29-34) Hamlet. You can probably find a bed-and-breakfast and some basic supplies.
  • 34-39) Village. A tavern/inn, possible basic hirelings, and some sort of local healer or priest are all likely attractions of visiting a village.
  • 40-43) Small Town. There are enough people around that you may not be instantly apparent as strangers, as long as you don’t stand out too much. You may be able to find a general store and a few basic specialists.
  • 44-47) Large Town: You can find specialists, currency has pretty well replaced barter, and common supplies are readily available.
  • 48-50) Small City. You can probably find a garrison, traders, banking, and money. There may well be a market for potions, scrolls, and other minor gadgets.
  • 51-53) Large City. Universalizes, libraries, sages, and exotic goods can all be found in a large city.
  • 54-55) Metrapolis. Ethnic districts, enclaves of exotic species, and organized crime have arrived.
  • 56-58) Megapolis. Often the center of a realm, politics, intrigue, wealth, and poverty all exist side by side with trade from distant lands.
  • 59-64) Imperial City. The center of an empire or great realm, this vast city is a center of events.
  • 65-70) Planar Metropolis. Filled with technology or magic so esoteric that it’s pretty much incomprehensible, a Planar Metropolis offers enough activity to support a campaign all on it’s own.
  • 71-80) Warning Realm. This realm is basically a quick survival-run through a “possible bad future” – what might happen to your homeland (or your next stop) if you let the zombie plague get out of control, or the big war starts, or whatever.
  • 81-83) Erroneous Past. Somehow you’re in the past, and – unless you fix whatever’s going wrong there – your future will cease to exist!
  • 84-86) Party. You’ve arrived at some social event. It might be austere, decadent, or simply strange, but you might make some contacts that will be useful later.
  • 87-88) Faerie. Or some other magical realm.
  • 89-91) Ruins. The remains of a fallen civilization, an abandoned megastructure, or something similar. There will be resources to be found, but likely dangers too.
  • 92) Arena. A place where giant monsters, or gladiators, or mecha, or whatever, do battle for some sort of audience. You’ll probably have to participate.
  • 93) A Monster Realm. A lost world full of dinosaurs, or place overrun deadly spiders, or a mist full of horrors, or wherever.
  • 94-98) Dark Realm. It may be full of undead, or be a city of Drow, or otherwise be a deadly place of horror, but there are always people to rescue or a revolution to start.
  • 99-100) Oracle. The place is inhabited by a mysterious being who seems to know much more than they should – and who can offer advice, or warning, or even send you to a particular place.

The game master is always ultimately in control of where the Narrative Voyager spell takes the caster. After all, he or she has to come up with and run the adventure – but characters who take Profession: Narrative Piloting (or something similar) will often be able to influence things a bit – arriving a little earlier than they otherwise would (giving them more time to scout and prepare), occasionally escaping some horrific destination before they can get entangled in a local plotline and have to deal with it, managing to make an intentional stop at a pocket realm to get something they need, or just arriving at a better starting point. Such influence is always limited, but it may be worth putting a few skill points into such a skill if you intend to cast this spell a lot. And yes, this is basically a “TARDIS” spell – but that has been requested several times. After all… a “TARDIS” is a near-ideal way to gloss over the usual bar-crawling, looking for patrons, finding treasure maps, and getting-the-characters involved routine. Instead the characters simply arrive someplace and get tossed straight into the action, acquiring background information and their “briefing” while on the adventure. Even better, they are pretty much stuck with actually going on the adventure before they can leave. There’s none of that bothersome backing out or deciding to go elsewhere.

d20 and Rapid Hiring

And this small request is, perhaps, a bit silly – but it struck me as amusing and didn’t demand much time, which has been in very short supply.

Voice Upon The Winds

• Conjuration (Calling)
• Level: Variable, normally a base of L2 Cleric, Wizard, Skill-Based Magic for Contracts, Management, and Playboy (among others). Probably suitable for various specialty classes and Hedge Wizardry as well.
• Components: S, M (a written notice).
• Casting Time: Ten Minutes.
• Range: Special.
• Effect: Calls forth a possible employee or employees.
• Duration: Special (The message is instantaneous, arrival usually is not).
• Saving Throw: None (Harmless).
• Spell Resistance: Yes, but irrelevant; someone who doesn’t want to be employed will not be targeted anyway.

This unusual spell causes qualified potential employees to arrive (or merchants to pass by). The caster writes out a list of primary duties, any necessary special qualifications, and a list of what salary and benefits are being offered, and hangs it beside his or her door. Presuming that the job is suitable for a relatively normal person, that the benefits are reasonably good for whatever the job is, and that the location of your door is at all reasonable (whether or not anyone would really be likely to pass by under normal circumstances), a suitable potential employee will normally turn up to inquire about the job shortly. The spell may be cast at a higher level to enhance it’s effects. Possible enhancements include calling for a small group of applicants (+1 Level), calling for rare and/or exotic types (+1 Level), having very specific qualifications (+1 Level), and asking for basic magical capabilities (+1 Level). On the other hand, if you are simply looking for an apprentice, houseboy, dishwasher, lantern-bearer, or similar unskilled entry-level employee that is (-1 Level).

You can look for very specific and powerful groups – perhaps you want a group of adventurers who are capable of killing that miserable dragon that’s moved into the caves nearby – but while casting this at level six will ensure that an appropriate group hears about your offer, it in no way guarantees that they will bother to respond and – if some do – you will just have to put up with whatever you get. Adventurers are like that.

• You want to pay a few coins for a reasonably reliable local kid to guide you around town for a day? Level one, and unlikely to take more than a few minutes. Pretty much every town has some bored kids. It may get odd if it’s a ghost town and you get a ghost kid, but what can you expect if you look for employees in a ghost town?
• You want an apprentice/aide who has at least a slight acquaintance with and talent for magic but you will be providing more advanced training along with support and occasional pocket money? That’s a pretty standard apprenticeship deal. Level two, but it might take a week or two. Kids don’t travel very fast even if the requirements aren’t very exacting there..
• You want a skillful nanny to look after the kids? Level two, usually in a few hours presuming that you’re in or near a reasonable settlement for raising kids in. They might want particular days off or something – and you probably won’t get Mary Poppins or Nanny Mcphee – but there are lots of older women who are good at handling children.
• You want a group of pretty-and-compatible young women to be light duty house servants and concubines? Level three, and usually in a day or two if your terms are good. It’s not like housekeeper/mistress is a particularly unusual position – and cute young women are not all that rare either (unless you’re of some exotic species of course, in which case you may be out of luck).
• You want an acolyte of a particular faith to look after your shrine and teach your kids some basics? Level three (if followers of the required faith are reasonably common in the area) or four if they are not. Could take a few days or weeks (and may well fail) if someone would have to come from hundreds of miles away and you’re not offering enough benefits to make it worth it.
• You want to hire a group of competent Drow Spies? That’s a group (+1) of rare (unless you live in a Drow City or some such) types (+1) with some very specific qualifications (+1) for a total level of five – and if there aren’t any drow spies around who would be willing to work for you… it won’t work.
• You want a pathfinder-style “Team” of Archers? That’s a group with some fairly specific qualifications, so level four if there are any such groups within a reasonable range. You want Elite Elven Archers who each know a little bit of Weapons Magic? Level six, and very likely to fail entirely if no such group is available for hire.

It is important to note that this is a Calling spell; what you want has to be out there and available. If you’re asking for people to work in an impossible environment, are looking for a qualified hyperdrive technician in a medieval setting, want to hire Drow in a setting that doesn’t include them, or some such, the spell will probably not be able to find a candidate. On the other hand… it IS a calling spell. If you fail to live up to your contract, or there’s some major difficulty, your employees have the option of simply going home. So if the Dark Lord teleports in and starts burning your castle to the ground at least you can pretty well count on your servants and clerks making their escape.

d20, Giant Otters, and Upgrades Thereof

Giant Otters have been bouncing around D&D games since Blackmoor – but haven’t usually been a major menace. In this case, however, they may be, since the original base species got experimented on – first creating the Untremi of the Anomaly and later the Militarized Untremi – also known in some regions as the “Zerg”. So here are the base statistics. Also a minor experiment in using the Pathfinder format.

Giant Otter:

• Challenge Rating: 1/2
• Neutral (Playful) Medium Animal
• Initiative +3; Senses Low-Light Vision, Scent; Perception +10

DEFENSE

• AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 Natural, +3 Dexterity)
• HP 13 (2d8+4)
• Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +2

OFFENSE

• Speed 30 ft, swim 50 ft.
• Melee bite +1 (1d4 plus grab)
• Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
• Special Attacks rake (2 claws +2 (1d3)), Improved Trip (running between your legs).

STATISTICS

• Str 10, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 12
• Base Attack +1; CMB +4 (+8 grapple); CMD 17 (21 vs trip)
• Feats Finesse (Uses Dex Mod instead of Str Mod for Combat Maneuver purposes).
• Skills Acrobatics +7, Disable Device +5, Perception +10, Stealth +5, Swim +8.
  • Racial Modifiers: +2 Disable Device, +4 Perception, +2 Stealth, +8 Swim
• Special Qualities: Cute (people often keep them as pets), Hold Breath, Weather Tolerance (can live outdoors with few issues).

ECOLOGY

• Environment: rivers and lakes, warm swamps and marshes, wet jungles, and shorelines.
• Organization: solitary, pair, family (1d6+2), or clan/pack (3d6+3)
• Treasure: Mildly valuable pelts. 20% chance of playthings in lair which might (but likely will not) include something shiny and potentially valuable.

Giant Otters are native to rivers, lakes, and shorelines, where they feed primarily on fish, including (in a fine demonstration of the advantages of a warm-blooded air breathing metabolism over a cold-blooded water breathing metabolism) predatory fish such as piranha, and secondarily on reptiles, crustaceans, and molluscs. They hunt in the daytime, are very alert, and live in family groups of up to eight individuals centered on a breeding pair. They are highly social, fiercely territorial, and can be quite affectionate, with many behaviors resembling wolves or dogs. Attacks on people (usually while swimming) are rare, but do occur (mostly when they are defending their territory or young). They are clever with their paws and can get into all kinds of things (sea otters are actually took users, which is fairly rare in the animal world). Males can reach almost 8 feet long (although a sizeable part of that will be their muscular tail) although females are usually slightly smaller. Unsurprisingly, their short (and mostly) brown fur is very soft, dense, and water-repellent. They are quite clever for animals, and make good (if excitable and bouncy) companions. Unfortunately, they are notorious for scaring horses and knocking things over.

Thanks to their “Playful” and “Cute” qualities, characters will often find it more profitable to catch and sell giant otters alive than it is to kill them – which also generally counts as defeating them. It’s also perfectly possible to take them as familiars or animal companions, although probably not as riding animals unless you are very small or you make your otter a great deal larger.

I would, out of fond memories, recommend The True Story Of Okee The Otter – but evidently enough other people share those memories to make obtaining a copy absurdly expensive.

Dungeon Crasher Style (Str)

There was a point in d20 where the “Dungeon Crasher” option for fighters was fairly widely recommended. After all, it opened up a niche that nobody else really had access to at the time – repositioning opponents without effectively giving up your actions to do it. It wasn’t the most powerful option of all time, but it was one of the few genuinely special toys that fighters could get. Personally I never ran into it much, simply because my games never ran much to Dungeons OR Classes; they tended to be wide-open transdimensonal Eclipse-based space operas where mages had trouble keeping up with martial types because a low-level fighter could be using advanced power armor, a microfusion missile launcher, ultratech grenades, and armored vehicles or spaceships. But there was a recent question about it, and it fits in among the other martial arts requests, so here is a (better edited and much more detailed) version of the quick notes that I gave that questioner to pass on to whoever-it-was that wanted it.

Dungeon Crasher is all about being a living wrecking ball – plowing through walls, traps, and opponents, smashing them between you and solid objects, and ignoring the consequences more or less as if you really were a huge ball of steel. You could build this as a spell or something – I once built a young 1’st edition mage who’s pride and joy was his thesis-project “boots of heavy kicking” that let him kick down doors, punt small creatures, and kick larger ones away from him as if he had 18/00 strength in his legs (only, and only a limited number of times per day, which made them MUCH cheaper than Gauntlets Of Ogre Power) – but this is a fighter thing, so I’m going to go with a nice cheap Martial Art. Any halfway decent Eclipse-built fighter will have several of those anyway.

Dungeon Crasher Style (Str-Based):

Requires: Improved Bull Rush (You no longer suffer an Attack Of Opportunity when you Bull Rush and gain a +4 bonus on your strength check to push back a defender) or equivalent point buy. A high Strength, a BAB of 2+, and an overwhelming desire to smash into things is highly recommended.

Basic Techniques:

• Defenses 4, Specialized for Double Effect and Corrupted for Increased Effect (Applies to Saves too) / Only versus Traps. This will provide a bonus of +2/4/6/8 to the user’s AC and Saves against traps.
• Power 4, Specialized and Corrupted for Triple Effect / adds +1d6 per level damage to the effects of Bull Rushing someone into a wall or similar obstacle. There’s a better technique later, but the basic technique is a start.

Master Techniques:

• Breaking: You may add your Dungeon Smasher skill total to your rolls to break things. This can let you smash things REALLY effectively.
• Sneak Attack 3: Specialized and Corrupted for Increased Effect (3d6 per time taken) / only with a successful Bull Rush maneuver ending in a wall to smash the opponent into.
  • Alternatively, you could reduce the maximum Sneak Attack rating to 2 and throw in Mind Like Moon: Specialized for Increased Effect / if the user is Surprised, he or she may roll initiative normally, but the only action they may take in the surprise round is to attempt to Bull Rush an opponent. If all opponents are too far away to be Bull Rushed, the effect is up to a full move towards them. This variant is a bit less damaging, but if surprise is a problem in a game can work surprisingly well.

Occult Techniques:

• Inner Strength 2: This grants the user 6 or 12 (if taken twice) phantom “Constitution Points” to power other occult abilities with.
• Light Foot: Specialized for Double Effect. The user may burn one point of Constitution (or a point from Inner Strength or Mana from Resilience) as a free action to gain +60 to a jump check or to Leap or run across water, grease, or other difficult terrain without difficulty / only to Bull Rush a target. This, of course, will let you slam people that you have no reasonable way to reach into walls.
• Ki Block: Specialized for Increased Effect, The user may burn one point of Constituition or a point from Inner Strength or Mana from Resilience to may make a DC 20 Reflex check to block or dodge a single successful melee attack OR may make a second save (DC 15) against any attack which normally allows a Reflex save. If either save succeeds the effect is normal for a successful save. If both do the effect is entirely negated / Requires the use of a +3 or better shield.

So how does this match up with Dungeon Crasher?

Well, when Dungeon Crasher becomes available at level two (costing one feat) it offers +2 Competence Bonus to AC and Saves versus Traps, a +5 bonus on Strength checks to break a door, wall, or similar obstacle, and the ability to Bull Rush an opponent into a wall or other solid object to inflict 4d6 + twice your Strength bonus (if any) points of bludgeoning damage.

A level two character in Eclipse can spend 5 skill points on this martial art (or half that with Adept). If they have a +4 Strength Modifier (not hard to do in Eclipse if expensive in baseline d20) they’ll have a +9 total – five techniques.

If they take Defenses I, Power II, and Sneak Attack I they get a +2 (Typeless) bonus to AC and Saves versus Traps, a +9 bonus to breaking stuff, and can Bull Rush an opponent into a wall for (5d6 + Str Mod) damage.

That’s not a precise match – the bonus to breaking stuff is +9 instead of +5 and the Bull Rush damage is (5d6 + Str Mod) instead of (4d6 + 2 x Str Mod) which (presuming Str 18 again) would be an average of 21.5 versus 22 – but the overall costs are cheaper. If you really MUST get the average higher… Try taking “Doubled Damage” (6 CP) or persuade the game master that a body-check with a shield counts as using it as a two-handed weapon (which certainly sounds reasonable to ME).

At level six, the Martial Art version will have +4 Skill Ranks, for +2 Techniques/ Putting them both on the “Sneak Attack” effect would put the martial art at a +2 (Typeless) bonus to AC and Saves versus Traps, a +13 bonus to breaking stuff, and let the user Bull Rush opponents into a walls for (11d6 + Str Mod) damage instead of +4 (Competence), +10, and (8d6 + 3 x Str Mod). Still, the total Eclipse cost (presuming Adept) is only 1.5 CP for one-quarter use of Adept and 4.5 Skill points – the cost of one feat instead of two. Sticking another feat into it could upgrade the Martial Art version in all kinds of ways and still cost no more than the original ability.

Rather more importantly, the Martial Art version can continue improving at higher levels with more skill points, up to a maximum of a +8 (Typeless) Bonus to AC and Saves versus traps, (13d6 + Str Mod) damage on smashing targets into things, and an uncapped bonus to breaking things with a couple of extra abilities – being able to Bull Rush across chasms, water, and difficult terrain and being able to block an unlimited amount of damage several times per day. All at the cost of a half-feat plus (Level / 2) skill points. There are ways to boost that even further, but they start involving spending more character points or buying specialized gear.

I must admit that – while the idea is amusing – Dungeon Crasher isn’t my usual style. There’s nothing at all wrong with it of course, but I do tend to have a personal preference for subtle, clever, mages. Fortunately, there are usually other people playing who like being brutal fighters and such, so that my subtle mages have something to hide behind. Ergo, this style is for them.

Valdemar D20 Part II – Gifts And Spells

For Part I, go HERE.

So what sort of powers do the books actually show Mages and Heralds using? Looking at the books, for Heraldic Gifts and Spells we have…

• Animal Mindspeech: You can “speak” with animals. That’s pretty basic.
• (The) Bardic Gift: Rather ill-defined, but it seems to be able to convey feelings, suppress pain, and convey impressions – so possibly subtle, internally-directed illusions. One of the few gifts that can directly affect a crowd though.
• Bonding: You can bond with something. Like a Hawk. Or Warsteed. Or Companion. Or Firecat. Or Lover. Or Twin or other Sibling. Or you can settle for a lesser version and fall in Love with pretty much anyone. This seems to be pretty much universal. Bonding with a Companion seems to allow the use of Truthspell – but that also relies on Vanyels old web-spell which creates a link with the Vrondi.
  • Personally, I’d forget about the Truthspell in any game setting. Heralds in the books often refrain from using it out of political considerations, or respect, or being forgetful, or not wanting to give people the impression that they aren’t trusted. Gamers will FIND an excuse to use it ALL THE TIME – and there go all your intrigue and manipulation plots. Mistaken identity? Falsely accused? Hidden traitors? We’ll have none of THAT.
• Channeling: The ability to act as a pipeline for raw magical energy that other people can direct or use. Rare and generally useless until the author decides that it’s needed as a plot device.
• Earthsense: You can vaguely detect damage and disturbances that affect the land and the creatures that live there. If they are suffering, you will do so as well.
• Empathy: Picking up emotions, truthsensing, and – for those with powerful gifts – the ability to compel weaker-willed individuals to speak the truth. Powerful empaths may be able to cause mental damage, which is best represented as some sort of curse.
• Farsight: Clairvoyance. When controllable, it seems to be fairly short ranged. It also shows visions to suit the plot.
• Final Strike. You can ramp up your power enormously by dying. Of course, EVERYONE with ANY kind of special power seems to be able to sacrifice themselves for a big boost when they want to save others, or take revenge at any cost, or whatever. Probably a world law or bit of divine assistance in recognition of your sacrifice or some such.
• Gift Of Tongues: Companions have this, but it’s rare among humans. You understand all languages but can’t bypass speech impediments (such as having a horses voicebox). So… a L2 version of comprehend languages?
• Mage-Gift: The ability to sense and manipulate the flow of life-energy about you. Doesn’t let you pick up the presence of living things nearby though. Why not? Because it would make mages hard to ambush. Comes in three stages – ability to handle ambient magic, ability to handle ambient magic and ley lines, and ability to handle ambient magic, ley lines, and ley line nodes. A good focus-stone seems to help somewhat in making things less tiring. Now here we have the good stuff! Generate Lightning! Make reasonably bright lights! Uhm… What other spells do we see?
  • Make a tent nice and warm! Or you could carry blankets with your adventuring supplies. Just Sayin.
  • Make a willing male gryphons body temperature stay low long enough for them to produce fertile sperm! Or sit in a cold bath for a while.
  • Summon Elementals! Abyssal, Air, and Fire elementals are mentioned – although they are quite small, none seem especially powerful, and most are timid.
  • Make new magical creatures or golem-things! Presuming that you are a master biologist as well as an uber-archmage or a blood mage villain, and even then it takes decades or centuries to make new creatures, they rarely reproduce well, and most of them have quite a lot of serious flaws and weaknesses. Golems and Frankenstein-constructs are easier, but are full of weaknesses and can never reproduce.
  • Open Gates / Teleportation Portals! Well, if you have some major power sources to draw on. Like being an adept using a node, killing a lot of people for blood magic, or having a big team of very well-trained mages. And you don’t mind being exhausted afterwards. And have time for it, since it often seems to call for a ritual. And there are no major magical disturbances in the area to disrupt your gate.
  • Summon Magical Creatures! If there are some about anyway. And you have enough raw power to gate them in (see Gates). And controlling them is quite another matter.
  • Make amplifiers for magic or other gifts! Which are expensive, unreliable, and take a lot of charging up – which is why they’re terribly rare.
  • Make a big magical greenhouse! If you have a node to tie it to, help in setting it up, and a lot of time. This may also provide some defense against divination, if only in the same way that a houses walls help against people spying on you from afar.
  • Summon or drive off magical entities! Given time, knowledge, and various rituals.
  • Make Videophone Calls! Well, if the people on both ends happen to be Adept or Masterclass mages of the White Winds school and they don’t mind throwing up a beacon of “here I am”, opening themselves to magical attack, and getting drained or exhausted in the process.
  • You can perform a ritual that will allow those betrayed unto death by an Oathbreaker to come back as spirits and take vengeance! If you’ve already captured and restrained the target, and have the help of a Priest, a Mage, and a Common Man of Goodwill who have all been betrayed by the Oathbreaker, and have lots of time, and the targets oathbreaking has resulted in other deaths. Or you could stab them a few times. Again,I’m just sayin…
  • Entrap other Mages in constraints that reflect their own magic back at them! If you have it all set up in advance for your targets and they don’t know how to get out. Given that the inventor made sure to spread knowledge of the spell around after using it, so that everyone WOULD know, this makes it a lot less useful.
  • You can Create Daggers Of Light! They last for a few moments after you let go of them, so you can throw them at people. Their effects are… exactly identical to those of any other decent dagger. You will always have a backup weapon though.
  • Throw various forms of Energy Blasts. Lightning. Fire. Er… maybe Force. I can’t recall much in the way of Cold, Sonic, or Acid blasts though. Usually targeting an individual or a small group. For a lot of “mages” this is about their only combat technique.
  • Spells Of Mass Compulsion! You can brainwash and compel entire armies! If you don’t mind being an irredeemably evil blood mage and performing lengthy rituals of human sacrifice. This also makes you a prime target for assassination of course.
  • Start Fires! Like with a match/tindertwig! Or, in advanced cases, like Alchemists Fire!
  • Hide Your Magic! So that the extremely rare people with Mage-Gift can’t automatically notice it if they look. Also, this only works if you’re an adept. Mostly only turns up in the Vows & Honor series before the magic system changed but I think that it got mentioned later.
  • Create Illusions! Well, this one is a bread-and-butter effect in many places, mostly being used for disguises. Larger scale, combat, or beyond-the-visual illusions seem to be much rarer. About the biggest combat effect seems to be the “Blur” spell.
  • Slow or Reverse Aging! Well, mages can live a long time; it comes of tapping into extra life energy. Few of them seem to die of old age though and getting younger seems to involve stealing other peoples lives or bodies. How often do RPG characters die or old age anyway?
  • Reincarnate! Like normal, except that you get to keep more of your memories at the cost of stealing one of your descendants bodies, driving yourself madder and madder, being evil, and being judged by the gods or possibly having your soul annihilated at some point.
  • Put low-resistance people to sleep! Like… you know, a Sleep spell!
  • Create an Adept Manifestation! Basically a Psychic Construct. If you happen to be an adept and are willing to put so much power into it that you endanger yourself if it is destroyed. Yet another effect that is used once in an early book and never really comes up later except to show “I am an adept!”. Mostly only turns up in the Vows & Honor series before the magic system changed.
  • Summon small Whirlwinds! Like… Dust Devil or Wall Of Wind. Mostly only turns up in the Vows & Honor series before the magic system changed, and so may be an air elemental effect.
  • Make Walls of Fire! Like… Wall Of Fire, but generally smaller and weaker. Probably a third level version.
  • Perform minor Divinations, drawing on notions of Sympathy and Contagion! Mostly only turns up in the Vows & Honor series before the magic system changed. Perhaps an air elemental effect?
  • Create a Dueling Circle, which contains your own attacks and prevents outside magical interference. Turns up in the Vows & Honor series (once I think) before the magic system changed and did not prevent multiple forms of cheating and external interference.
  • Empower your other Gifts with energy from Ley Lines and Nodes! If you’re Vanyel Askevron, and have had all those magic and gift “channels” blasted open in a horrible magical accident. Otherwise this doesn’t seem to happen much at all.
  • Project your spirit into the void between gates! Where there is… well, where there normally isn’t anything at all except a massive energy drain. Unless a mega-adept has hidden something there – which turns up ONCE – this is effectively “I can sink into a trance I might not awaken from and accomplish nothing!”.
  • Create a country-wide alert/spy system connected to all the other Heralds! Using the help of several other mages, a node focused through a Heartstone, and a small legion of divinely-empowered plot-device Companions… So no, this isn’t going to work for you.
    • Advanced Masters can set spells on triggers, to go off later. Almost like they know a bit of Metamagic.
      
• Mind-Healing. Well, this is SUPPOSED to cover a boosted understanding psychology, calming emotions, treating traumas and mental control effects, and so on. In the actual books it’s more heard of then seen, because stories about mentally healthy, well-adjusted, sensible people tend to be BORING.
• Precognition: This usually comes in a specialized variant; tactical precognition that gives you bonuses in a fight is very different from dreaming the distant future – and neither have much relationship to being able to predict the weather weeks in advance.
• Psychometry: Ability to “read” information and impressions from objects. Like that minor psionic discipline.
• Pyrokinesis: Mostly limited to the equivalent of “throw alchemists fire” if you can do anything beyond getting along without a cigarette lighter or match. A few people with this as a major gift show up, and can do things like start forest fires very quickly or perhaps throw fireballs.
• Shields: Pretty much all Heralds are taught to stabilize their mind and resist being influenced by effects resembling their own gifts. In d20 terms, they invest a bit in Will Saves. A lot of the more subtle stuff apparently automatically fails against anyone with a decent will save bonus. Mages use the same technique to help them resist magical attacks. Like… you know, buying up your saving throws.
• Summoning Rituals: What little is left of the old “call on entities from other planes” magic system. Mostly minor, easily turned back on the user, and dangerous. Mostly used by bad guys to summon “demons”. Since “Demons” never actually put in an on-stage appearance in most of the books beyond the Vows & Honor series – and that was before the magic system changed – we know little or nothing about them save that “they are bad”.
• Telekinesis: Usually minor, but handy for guiding missiles, snagging cell keys, and similar tricks.
• Telepathy: Usually fairly short range, but some few can check in on people they know at great distances. Often limited to either receiving or projecting, but it’s not too uncommon to do both. Stronger gifts can be used to cause insanity, charm people, make suggestion effects, and so on.
• Teleportation: Usually short range and of small objects to and/or from the user. Under great stress, and with a powerful gift, you can move something as large as a small person a short distance. Like a one-shot blink or very short range, low-capacity, Dimension door.

In case it wasn’t sufficiently obvious… most Gifts basically cover first level stuff. The occasional Major Versions of those Gifts cover a rather limited selection of stuff of up to level three or four. We aren’t talking vast cosmic power here. Next time around I’ll look at actually building this stuff.

Eclipse and Skill-Based Partial Casters II

And for today, it’s another offline question…

Is there a way (other than Stunts) to cast spells or otherwise empower magic with your normal skills?

Well, yes; of course. This IS Eclipse after all. Even discounting the Martial Arts Skill Magics that Kelelawar uses, you could buy:

• 30d6 Mana with the Unskilled Magic Option, Specialized and Corrupted / only for Unskilled Magic, cannot spend more mana per day on unskilled magic in a given field then one point per rank in an associated skill (60 CP). That’s about 105 points of Mana, An approximation, but many characters have few skills and others are unlikely to be called on much. How often are you going to need your full supply of Knowledge/Geography spells?
• Rite of Chi with +48 Bonus Uses, Specialized / only to restore the mana pool for unskilled magic (39 CP). Even with seriously below-average rolls that ought to do it. The total of 49D6 will pretty reliably beat the total of 30D6 – reliably enough so that there is little need to bother rolling.

Of course, unskilled magic eventually starts becoming ineffectual. You’d want some Augmented Bonus or Berserker (or both) to boost it, and perhaps an Immunity to wasting Mana with side effects, and so on. Worse, since this covers every skill… so eventually you’re going to start wondering what kind of magic “Profession/Lawyer” and “Craft/Carpentry” cover. Not all skills are really that well-suited for powering spellcasting.

Worst of all… this involves extra bookkeeping since your Mana pool is very unlikely to match your skill ranks exactly and you’ll need to keep track of both. This only approximates what is wanted.

As is fairly common when someone wants a new magic system, The best option here is to go with Immunities: Admittedly, these will be natural-law immunities, and so will require permission from the game master, but – as such things go I suspect that these are going to be relatively low powered compared to most natural-law immunities. Permission shouldn’t be a problem.

So first up…

Crafting Skills should probably be better at empowering items than at spellcasting – although you could do both. Why can’t you use Smithcrafting Magic to produce a “Heat Metal” effect? Still, the number of suitable spells for “Craft/Perfumer” is going to be fairly limited. Ergo, take…

• Touch Of The Svartalfar: Immunity/The Normal Limits Of Craft Skills. Each Craft Skill now provides “points” equal to it’s base rank. These may be invested each day in personal magical devices suited to the skill in question. It takes 1 point to empower a Charm, 2 for a Talisman, and (2+ Value / 2000 GP) to empower a more powerful (permanent-type) item – although item slots are not relevant, since these run on personal magic. (Very Common, Major, Variable: 5 CP to empower 1-point items. 10 CP for 1-3 point items, and 15 CP for up to 5-point items (6000 GP). After that… this starts becoming prohibitively expensive. It’s 30 CP for up to 7-point items, 45 CP for 9-point items, and 60 CP for up to 20-point items.

This is very useful at lower levels, where a handful of low-powered items can be a major power boost, but becomes less relevant at higher levels – although a handful of slot-free minor items can still be fairly handy. Whether or not that’s worth 15 CP and keeping some Craft skills up is up to you.

For most other skills we’re going to want actual spellcasting. To get that, take…

• Occult Master: Immunity / The normal limits of 2-4 Skills (2 for low magic settings, 3 for moderate magic settings, and 4 for high magic settings – like most standard d20 games). Each affected skill now provides daily “points” equal to it’s rating. These “points” can be used for Unskilled Magic, but only for effects appropriate to the skill. The point cost can be halved, and the side effects eliminated, by using the points to set up prepared spells instead of using them spontaneously. Very Common, Major, Trivial (maximum of level one effects, 5 CP), Minor (maximum of level three effects, 10 CP), Major (maximum of level five effects, 15 CP), Great (maximum of level seven effects, 30 CP), Epic (maximum of level nine effects, 45 CP), and Legendary (maximum of level 20 effects, 60 CP). Of course, since this is still limited by the rules for Unskilled Magic (below), this means that most characters might as well stop at the 15-point level – and they’ll likely need to buy further boosts to fully exploit even that.

Unskilled Magic:

• Whatever-it-is you’re trying to do will cost 2 Mana (“Points”) per level of the effect – half of which is wasted and a quarter of which goes into random side effects.
• The Casting Level equals the user’s level or (Int/3 + the effect level), whichever is less.
• The maximum level of effect which can be produced equals the user’s base Will save bonus or (Wis/3), whichever is less.
  Keeping the side effects down to displays and inconvenient effects (rather than dangerous ones) requires a Cha check at a DC of ([2x the Mana used] + 6). The side effects are always up to the Game Master

 

This Immunity is useful, and actually reasonably powerful – but after going for the most obvious set of skills (Knowledge/Arcane (Wizard Spells), Knowledge/Religion (Cleric Spells), and Knowledge/Nature (Druid Spells), you’re going to be trying to figure out what can be done with spells appropriate to Profession/Lawyer, Survival, and Perform/Woodwinds. I can think of plenty of useful things to do with all three of those – but few of them are going to be major contributions to any specific adventure and most are extremely situational. Worse, at lower levels… if you have +10 in Knowledge/Arcana, you’re going to run out of your spontaneous Wizardry after five levels of spells – and while a timely Fireball, a Magic Missile, and a Grease spell are all very useful, that’s not going to carry you through an adventure.

Just for fun, you can give these individual names:

• • The Lotus Of Jade for Knowledge Skills. Probably the first choice, since it provides classical, broad-themed, spellcasting.
  • Channeling The Dragon Lines for Physical Skills, such as Acrobatics, Escape Artist, Ride, and Martial Arts. This will let you pull off anime-style stunts like a cut-down Tome Of Battle character.
  • The Cunning Man for sneaky skills – Bluff, Disguise, Intimidate, and Stealth. If you want illusions, enchantments, and shapeshifting, this is for you.
  • The Secret Arts for skills like Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, and Survival. With this you can fascinate and persuade, summon and control animals, heal, and create traps and camps.
  • Master Of The Secret Order for Profession skills.
  • Master Of Sleights for Disable Device, Linguistics, Sleight Of Hand, and Use Magic Device. Go ahead, destroy your enemies weapons, speak power words, teleport items about, and enhance and manipulate devices.
  • For Perform Skills…there is nothing at all wrong with simply using art-based magic. Still, you might want to consider taking either Mystic Artist (6 CP Each) or Performance-based Ritual Magic (6 CP) – perhaps committing a few rituals to memory with the remaining (3 CP).

To be an even halfway decent spellcaster, you’re going to want to take three or four versions of Occult Master – totaling 45 to 60 CP. You’ll also need to take…

• The Immaculate Will/Immunity: Loss of Mana/”Points” to Side Effects when using unskilled magic (Very Common, Major, Variable Trivial (the first point, 5 CP), Minor (the first three points, 10 CP), Major (the first 5 points, 15 CP), Great (the first 7 points, 30 CP), Epic (the first 9 points, 45 CP), or Legendary (the first 20 points, 60 CP).

Once again, the first 15 CP worth of this is generally sufficient. Still, we’re now up to 75-90 CP.

Lets now throw in…

• Tongue Of Magic/Augmented Bonus: Add (Att Mod, Choice of Cha Mod, Con Mod, or Dex Mod) to the calculated Minimum Caster Level and (Att Mod/2) to the Maximum Spell Level when using Unskilled Magic – both Corrupted for Increased Effect (adding an Attribute Modifier to things that don’t normally get one) / this will not increase the caster level above the user’s level and only increases the maximum spell level by half the relevant attribute modifier. Sadly, this will not let the user exceed the spell level limits of the purchased immunities that let him or her use this version of Unskilled Magic in the first place (6 CP).

Without this, even a high-intelligence character is going to peak out at around caster level eight or so. With this… they can keep up for a few levels longer, which is pretty reasonable for a cheap power.

After that, they’ll need…

• Occult Focus/Berserker with Enduring: +6 to effective Caster Levels, +4 Charisma, -2 AC for (Con Mod + 3) rounds, activated as a free action (1 + Level/3) times daily (9 CP).
• At really high levels they’ll need to add Odinpower and Odinmight for Berserker (increasing the total to +12 Caster Levels, +8 Charisma, and -2 AC for +6 CP). They’ll still be using lower-level magic, but at least it will be reasonably EFFECTIVE low-level magic.

Finally, of course, to make this build work you’re going to need to keep 9-12 (or even more) skills at or near maximum. That’s going to call for both permitted instances of Adept (12 CP), Fast Learner Specialized in Skills (6 CP), and Advanced Improved Augmented Bonus (Add a second Attribute Modifier to your Intelligence Modifier for Skill Purposes, 18 CP).

Which takes us up to… 126-141 CP. Plus any more skill boosters or Mystic Artist you decide to throw in.

That puts us firmly in the “Partial Caster” category – which, with a maximum of fifth level effects, fits nicely. The Skillmaster Caster will have quite a lot of magic to work with at high levels – but it will be divided into many small special-purpose (if freeform) pools, so they’ll have to be pretty clever about using it if they want to be effective at really high levels. Still, they’ll have a much easier time remaining relevant than most skill monkeys.

You could pursue things up to the “Full Caster” level with skill boosters, but at least those are dual-purpose; higher skill bases are generally useful for more than magic. As a better alternative… Take a Companion (Familiar) with a +4 ECL Template (18 CP): Returning (Corrupted / must be resummoned by master), Occult Master x 3 (45 CP), and The Immaculate Will (15 CP). Since a Familiar has your skills – if not all your bonuses – this will let it cast spells too, if at a much lower caster level. Getting to routinely cast two spells a round, even if they are lower level spells  and the second one is at a lower caster level, can be quite useful. It probably still isn’t a match for the ability to cast ninth level spells, but even at 160+ points its still notably cheaper than spending 280 CP buying the full Wizard spellcasting progression.

A Skillmaster Caster neatly breaks down the boundaries between Skills and Magic – which is entirely sensible in a world of magic. I think I’d welcome one in any one of my fantasy-based settings.

Eclipse and Exalted

And it’s another question! In this case it’s about Exalted d20.

I’m curious how you’d go about running an exalted game in Eclipse. I imagine there’d be an ‘exalt package deal’, some odd world laws and building most things (as) stunts and reality editing but it seems to be far enough away from standard d20 and superhero stuff to be confusing.

-Jirachi386

Well, Exalted (1’st, 2’nd, 2.5, and 3.0) has a number of distinguishing features. They aren’t all quite the same for each edition, but in general…

1. You can buy almost anything you want at character generation. You start as a heroic mortal, get handed a can of cosmic power, and then get to throw in things like artifacts, wealth, power, ownership of magical fortresses, followers, leadership of organizations, or being worshiped by a quarter of the world. Maybe not all at once unless the game master gave you some extra points – but you start at the peak of most mortal ambitions.
2. The action is usually completely over the top. Even extremely skilled normal people are generally irrelevant (and just have to grin and bear it) and you start off on a par with the mighty powers of the universe. You can build characters who can seriously damage the cosmos right out of the gate. This can be a lot of fun, but doesn’t leave much of anywhere to go – which may explain why most of the Exalted games I’ve seen that actually ran by the Exalted rules didn’t all that long.
3. The special powers are generally based on your skills or attributes being enhanced beyond all reason while still following general themes set by your character class type of Exaltation. That’s a fun concept, even if you did wind up with lists of near-required powers that everyone of a given type tried to buy as soon as possible and occasionally ran into strict power limits based on your characters type and age.
4. Describing your action in an over-the-top way to get a bonus on it is a fun idea. Of course, it was the normal way of running role playing games until game designers (perhaps influenced by computer games) started writing stricter rules sets and trying to downplay stuff you couldn’t put on a chart. The implementation in older editions of Exalted was a bit of a kludge and made many fights drag on and on, so the current version relegates the effect to nothing but a few bonus dice and relies on it extensively for excitement in combat.
5. Effective Exalted characters are extremely complicated, with long lists of charms with evocative but uninformative names that need to be used in (unspecified) combinations with each other to work well. They take hours to build and are impossible, even as individuals, for most game masters to run properly without long study. In substantial groups they are nigh-impossible for one person to run properly. This means that small groups of PC’s, with players who are only running one character each, tend to run roughshod over everything.
6. The characters all have tragic flaws, They may be grand, and powerful, but they have rules for their flaws that will lead them into disaster. Personally I’ve never seen much need for that – the players have their characters cause plenty of tragic disasters without a need for a mechanism built into the game – but the mechanism was basically “you occasionally go completely out of your mind”. I’d have preferred accumulating more limited flaws as your power level went up beyond the limit of a human minds ability to handle it safely and you saw ever further into the chaos underlying reality – but that’s just me.
7. Attacks tend to be decisive or near-decisive when they do get through the defenses. If you were hit by that twenty-ton giant maul, you were in trouble. Of course, this turned a contest of grinding your way through hit points into a contest of grinding your way through defensive resources. In 3’rd edition fights tend to be short – but that only works because the PC’s pretty much always win. It wouldn’t really be Exalted if “OK, your characters are dead… make some new ones” was a routine part of the game.
8. The universe, right down to the paths taken by individual raindrops, is 100% run by intelligent, and mostly not-at-all-powerful beings. If they have cheap “perfect defenses” (very few things do), punching them is fairly useless. If they don’t… then almost any problem can be solved by beating on someone. And when almost every problem can be fixed by kicking the stuffing out of someone, and you can begin the game as a Superman/Batman combo buttkicker (with or without a weapon depending on personal style), it doesn’t leave much of anywhere to go – or much point in learning other ways of dealing with problems.
9. Organizations, overlords, large-scale resources, and managers all tend to be useless backstabbing bureaucratic nightmares that make you long to disassociate yourself from them. That, of course, is because the characters are supposed to do things THEMSELVES. You aren’t supposed to send in ten thousand men to dig a canal. You are supposed to smite the ground to open up a new canal and then fight the river god and make him consent to filling it.
10. The game master is always supposed to say “yes you can”, although it might be difficult. For example, the rules made it quite possible for an Exalt hiding under a bush in the royal gardens to decide that he wanted to find a fabulously powerful magical nexus there that everyone else had overlooked for centuries – and if he could roll well enough (which wasn’t all that hard), so he did. Whether or not it had existed before was irrelevant; a player had wanted it and rolled well, so it had always been there. This ensured that much of the plot (if any) was in the hands of the characters, but made it VERY difficult to actually prepare for a session.
11. The PC’s are always supposed to be the best and greatest. Sadly, since PC’s often come up with dumb ideas, this means that any idea short of “I hammer nails into my eyes!” still has to be better than the NPC’s best plans – so all canon NPC’s are incredibly short sighted and blind to obvious consequences – and their plans pretty much amount to “I set myself on fire and wait for it to start feeling good!”.
12. You can’t go back in time or raise the dead. No do-overs and some stuff can’t be fixed. Of course, a lot of game systems don’t allow this stuff either. D20 usually allows Raising the Dead – but that’s easy enough to ban.

Now, I suppose that any given point might be argued – but those seem to be the core points where Exalted differs from most games.

Now to adapt that to d20…

1. The power level implies being at least sixth level to start – the point at which a d20 character graduates to being more than mortal. It also strongly implies a maximum of level ten to twelve for anyone and everyone – the point at which d20 demigodhood really starts and about the last point at which a group of well-coordinated sixth level characters may still be able to win. Finally, of course, it means that normal mortals are usually level one and are limited to level two or so for heroes and elite types – mostly to figure out what they might be able to do on their own, since they’re never going to effectively oppose the Exalted.
2. This is exactly what the Heroic Scaling rule does, so it is obviously in use.
3. This implies that most “powers” are actually going to be Skill Stunts or something thematic (such as some Shapeshifting for Lunars or low-grade Elemental abilities for the Dragon-Blooded).
4. This is the “Cinematic Combat” ability. It’s considerably more flexible than Exalted stunts are, but there’s nothing wrong with that.
   https://ruscumag.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/eclipse-cinematic-combat-at-the-narrative-convenience-store/
5. This… is a bug, not a feature. Now admittedly, Eclipse can be very complicated too – but it can use all that published d20 stuff, doesn’t obscure what stuff does with needlessly flowery names, and rarely relies on complicated combinations of effects to make effective characters. We don’t need to do anything here.
6. Tragic Flaws in Eclipse are basically either Disadvantages or Witchcraft Pacts. Personally I’d go with some Witchcraft; it’s a great way to pick up personal boosts at a relatively low cost.
7. While the “decisive hits” idea can be taken to imply a reliance on high-damage weapons and damage boosters as well as on Blocks and Armor Class. On the other hand, “break through the defenses and try to land a decisive blow” is pretty much the classical first edition definition of hit points – they were “luck, skill, divine protection, evasiveness, and so on, with only the last few actually representing a serious physical wound”. This doesn’t match up well with many of the other game systems – such as “cure” spells – but at this level of abstraction it doesn’t much matter.
8. When you come right down to it, this implies that there is no physics. Now honestly… I don’t like this. Philosophically it runs into infinite recursive loops, it’s a silly way to try and run a universe, and I kind of think that “hitting things is the ultimate problem-solving technique!” is bad for the game. My advice on this one? Go ahead and stress nature spirits and such if you like, but leave some basic physics in play.
9. This can, once again, be covered by the Heroic Scaling rule. Mortal organizations simply are not important.
10. Well, if the characters want to take a little reality editing to bend things to the way that they want them, that’s one thing. Rewriting your setting history to accommodate the players whims is a no-go for most game masters. TORG and a lot of other games have done this much better, usually relying on something like “Whimsy Cards”. Go ahead, use something like our own Runecards for this.
11. NO. Just no. I don’t even do this when actually RUNNING EXALTED, and I do NOT recommend importing it into any other game system. The players will just have to put in a little thought and come up with decent plans of their own if they want to compete with the more competent NPC plans. Sure, NPC’s will do stupid things on occasion – but not ALL THE TIME.
12. So no time travel and no resurrections – although reincarnations might work just fine. Banning a couple of relatively rare effects is not too complicated.

So:

World Laws:

• Starting Level Five.
• Heroic Scaling.
• Limited Power Sets (Campaign Sheet Character-Building Restriction).
• All characters are Human, but there are 6 CP Racial Variants. Exalts lose their old racial variant in favor of 6 CP worth of Innate Enchantment. Lunars get the Minimal Werething package. Solars get personal attribute boosts, Dragon-blooded get minor elemental powers, Sidereals get stealth boosts, disguise boosts, and “natural weapons”. Other third edition types get something appropriate, I’m not familiar enough with them to say what.
• No time travel or raising the dead.
• Beyond Fate: give every player one Runecard (or Whimsy Card) at the start of a session. Give them another during the session if they do something really fabulous. The game master gets (Number Of Players / 2, rounded up, +1) for his own use.

The Exalted Template: Cinematic Combat (18 CP), Witchcraft (Either as “thaumaturgic talents” or as some specialized personal boosts) with Two Advanced Abilities and Three Pacts (Personal Flaws) (12 CP). +2 Specific Knowledges (Knowledge from former possessors of the Exaltation, 2 CP). That’s 32 CP or a +1 ECL Template.

And that about does it. Your d20 game will now function a lot like Exalted. Just take Exalted’s Artifacts as Relics, Manses as Wards Major, and there really isn’t a lot more you need to do. Like it or not, most of what makes Exalted distinct lies in the descriptions and setting, not so much in the rules. After all, we had no trouble at all running Exalted with the Baba Yaga rules.

Skill Stunts And Epic Skill Stunts XII – Information Gathering

Gather Information, Profession (Detective), Investigation, Find Clue, Locate Plot Element, and Knowledge (Local) are all basically variants on “Find Out What’s Going On” with a side order of “find out or know about the area” thrown in – and have fewer supernormal uses than many other skills, simply because they’re already basically “the game master either just gives you information directly or points out some clues and helps you put the pieces together” – and there are few powers more convenient than THAT. At least one character found that taking “hyperdeduction” as his primary talent was rather more useful than “getting to be a full-grown dragon at no cost” or “being a gestalt character” (which were what some of the other players took). About the only thing that limited him was if he got too focused on a particular issue and forgot to ask about other items.

Fortunately, that player was fairly easily diverted – and character turnover in that game was quite high – because if you aren’t REALLY careful this can easily become the equivalent of a “tactics” still that the user can roll to automatically win fights.

In d20, investigations usually require 1d4+1 minutes (current headlines, stuff everyone is talking about), hours (old public news, juicy rumors, dull facts), days (stuff that people are intentionally hiding, such as confidential police reports, the location of criminal enterprises), or weeks (stuff that people are intentionally hiding and which were never widely known – secret weapon plans, the D-Day targets, plans for the Death Star). Costs escalate similarly. A silver piece for the current paper and a few minutes spent standing around looking at it and listening to the conversations around the newspaper booth will usually suffice for the current major news, but uncovering the D-Day targets before D-Day may costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars – and may still not work.

Other basic modifiers include:

• Upping spending money or resources by one level gets a +10 on the check.
• Calling in contacts or favors gets +0 to +10 on the check, depending on relevance.
• Repeated attempts to gather information about anything past the current gossip may attract suspicion. The first retry while making sure to avoid suspicion is at -10, further retries are at -20.
• Reducing the time by one level modifies the check by -10
• Having other agents about provides the usual assistance bonues up to a maximum of +20.
• Being extremely suspicious or wildly abnormal for the area (you’re a blatant dragon or a fire elemental in a human town) or notorious or something might get you small bonuses, but it’s much more likely to result in massive penalties.

Pathfinder folds Gather Information into Diplomacy – which isn’t entirely inappropriate, but also means that this list can reasonably be combined with the Social Skills list.

Sample Stunts For Information Gathering:

• DC 10 (Normally no stunt required):
  • Locate Person: You can track down someone who is hiding in or moving through a populated area. If they are making active attempts to conceal themselves, this becomes an opposed check with a -15 penalty on the “location” side
  • Querulous Search: You are looking for available, but more-or-less difficult-to-find information about a specific topic or individual. This can range from the reasonably general and obvious (“is so-and-so in town for their concert already?) at no penalty on up through -5 (looking for a fence, supplier of illegal goods or services, or similar), -10 (looking for restricted information, such as military deployments or where specific people are), through -15 or more (information which others are taking deliberate efforts to conceal but which there are still plausible sources for – even if they aren’t supposed to tell anyone). Things like “where is the thieves guild?” – something that a fair number of locals have to know even if they’re afraid to talk about it – fit in here. Information which simply isn’t available in the area cannot be found this way. Looking for more details – blueprints instead of descriptions perhaps – causes yet more roll penalties.
  • The Local News: You get the local news, major items of gossip, rumors, and hot topics of the area. This very rarely attracts attention because much of it can be accomplished by standing near a local crier, buying a newspaper, or simply sitting in a public location and listening.
• DC 15 (May or may not require a stunt):
  • Locate Adventure: You can obtain likely-profitable adventure leads – whether it’s someone in need of couriers or smugglers, a hidden dark temple, rumors of some terrible monster, a sketchy map of an island that none dare explore, the location of a near-buried pyramid in the desert, an abandoned mages tower, guarding a caravan, or whatever. Sadly, a serious failure may lead you to a dead end. Sadly, the more profitable / higher-level you want the adventure to be, the larger the penalty on your check.
  • Profiling: You can build up a reasonable description of someone, including their appearance, their general abilities, their usual methods of operation, and their major personality traits, through reports of their (likely) doings.
  • Surveillance: You may set up a watch on someone or something, gaining a +10 bonus to rolls made to keep track of it and whatever it may get up to – while they suffer a -10 on any rolls made to spot the surveillance operation.
• DC 20:
  • Consulting The Experts: You may identify items, creatures, and locations by consulting hobbyists, rumors, and experts. The salient features of mysterious artifacts, ancient ruins, bizarre creatures, and long-sealed powers can all be obtained in this fashion. Success includes a basic description, each additional +5 you make on the check provides an additional useful detail.
  • Fixer: You may support an Average lifestyle by spending one day a week putting people who need one thing or another in contact with people who can supply those things. Sadly, if you restrict yourself to brokering ethical services, this requires two days a week.
• DC 25:
  • Blackmail I: Provided that you have no ethics, you may support yourself at an Average lifestyle by extorting money from others. Alternatively, you can attempt to obtain a minor favor, although making a habit of this is likely to result in backlash, up to and including attempts on your life.
  • The Delphi Method: If you want to find secret passages, ancient ruins, hidden caverns, long-hidden secrets, and mystic prophecies you may take the scholars route, consulting libraries and sages, you may go forth and physically search – or you can crowd-source it, consulting rumors, casual opinions, and random individuals, in confidence that – in a world of divination, prophets, meaningful dreams, telepathy, and magic… summing up those opinions is quite likely to tell you what you want to know. While this is at -15 compared to a similar physical search or to getting what you want through scholarship, that may well be smaller than the usual penalty for searching an immense area physically or prying into long-forgotten lore through scholarship.
  • The Serpent’s Tongue: You may spread rumors and false “truths” as readily as you collect them. In this way you can concoct slanders, libels, baseless accusations, and noxious rumors, spreading them through the population – causing them to believe that “there must be something to it”! Or “Where there’s Smoke, there’s Fire!”. You may thus spread a web of lies, as effective in entangling your victims socially as a spiders web might be physically. DC 40 it will soon become a popular meme with a fair number of believers, at DC 60 a widely credited whispering campaign sure to draw official notice, and at DC 100 a trigger for an official investigation / witch-hunt by the targets enemies.
• DC 30:
  • Locate Resources: You may find dealers in rare, unusual, or illegal items, materials, and services. The DC will, however, increase with the rarity of what you’re looking for. Mercury is fairly easy, dimethylmercury is much harder, and anti-mercury is pretty much impossible. You may also find people with particular skill sets similarly. Do you need a specialist in a particular ancient culture? This ability will let you find one of one exists.
  • Riddlemaster: Riddles and tales thereof are a popular game, and tales of them are widespread. You may use Gather Information in place of an appropriate knowledge or specific skill to answer a riddle up to (Int Mod + 1, 1 Minimum) times daily.
  • The Whole Picture: If you have access to the information derived from three or more successful Gather Information checks you may combine and cross-reference them. If you succeed, you may derive additional information from the original checks as if each was ten points higher than it was on the original roll.
• DC 35:
  • Dark Whispers: You can hear the subtle voices of the dark powers – and not merely the common temptations to misbehave. You can hear the offers of demonic magic in exchange for sacrifices, the whispers of devils making offers on your soul, and the twisted spells and lore muttered by the elder things haunting the abyss beyond the stars. It is rarely wise to listen – but sometimes, if the situation is desperate enough… you may judge it better than the alternatives.
  • Glean The Remains: You may hear the voices of the past and the echoes of great events, whether from places or things. You might hear a part of a call for war, the final words of a murdered man, or the humble voice of a smith presenting his or her finest work to the mage who planned to add some great enchantment.
  • Thiefsign: You may read the subtle signs left by those who have come before – obtaining at a glance an excellent notion of the dangers and opportunities lurking in a house, along a trail, or in some similar situation, provided only that others have passed that way before.
• DC 40:
  • Genre Awareness: You may survey a group or area, talking briefly to any people and soliciting random opinions on the items, to sort out which ones are relevant to upcoming plotlines. This will not, however, tell you why.
  • Incite Hostilities: You may spread rumors that will soon raise a lynch mob, rile up some witch hunters, or get a barroom brawl going, directing the hostilities at some group of targets. At DC 50 the mob you’ve raised becomes set on serious violence. At DC 60 it can spread to a moderately-sized group, such as a football crowd. At DC 75 you can spread the violence across a city – and probably become a high-ranking public enemy. At DC 100, you may include it’s suburbs and supporting settlements.
  • Whispers Of The Shades: You may now gather information from the dark realms, where the shades of the dead whisper in voices of dust. This is not the true afterlife, but even the shadows of the dead have some power. “Available Information” now includes items that are only known to the dead.
• DC 50:
  • Blackmail II: Provided that you have no ethics, you may support yourself at a Wealthy lifestyle by extorting money from others. Alternatively, you can attempt to obtain a major favor, although this is likely to result in backlash, up to and including attempts on your life.
  • Rumored Reality: You can weave rumors so juicy, compelling, and plausible that they will begin to manifest as more and more people hear about them. While this requires a minimum of seven uses of this ability over the course of a month, at the end of that time your narrative will take its place in the world. Such creations are relatively minor – a haunt in an abandoned building, a rumored love affair, or some such. At DC 60 notable creations are possible – adding a shrine or altar in the woods or similar. At DC 75 major creations are possible, making a forest a cursed and dangerous place or adding a cult or other small adventure to an area. At DC 100 you may add lost dungeons, hidden mesas full of ancient beasts, and similar creations to the world.
  • Voices Of Gaia: Your ability to gather information now extends to the supernatural communities of nature spirits, fey, and djinn, and elementals. You may seek for information that is only known to such entities without penalty.
• DC 60:
  • Cliche enforcement: Some scenes appear over and over again. They are the building blocks of greater tales. The bridge collapses, someone who should have died is captured, the portal closes in the nick of time… such narratives are their own imperatives, playing out again and again across space and time. With this stunt, if the game master agrees it’s appropriate, you may force such a vignette into reality, causing it to play out in the current scene. A selection of such tropes can be found under Stealing The Scene, and TVTropes more or less specializes in collecting them.
  • Gossipmonger: You may make up to (Cha Mod + 1, 1 Minimum) Gather Information checks daily as free actions. You keep your ear to the ground so much that you’ve probably already heard about whatever-it-is!
  • Interview Shades: You may seek out and interview the shades of the dead, the sort of impressions probed by spells such as “Speak With Dead”. Shades know little emotion, speak mostly of the high points and great events of their lives, and are dry as dust – no more than the echoes of ancient lives – but they can sometimes provide important information.
• DC 75:
  • Mythic Tale Gate: Tales have their own reality, gather together enough of their information and you will find them as real – or perhaps more truly real – than the material world. Places out of legend that the user and his or her friends can venture into and explore. While it tends to be fairly (to incredibly) difficult to derail the major plot of such realms, it is possible.
  • Poll the Multiverse: You can gather information from alternative timelines, whether or not such timelines every fully exist. Unfortunately, since they ARE alternative timelines, you can never quite tell if what you get matches your universe – so you get a spread of odds, and the finer the detail you’re looking for, the wider the spread. “Is this the work of a Vampire?” will probably return three or four probabilities, with one in the lead and one trailing. “What password are they using today?” is more likely to return dozens of possibilities, none of them very likely.
  • Voices Of The Divine: Your web of gossip extends to the realms of the gods themselves. You may use Commune, Legend Lore, and Contact Other Plane, once per week each.
• DC 100:
  • Akhasic Echoes: Your gathering has progressed to the point where you can opt to simply experience a section of the past, spending an hour to effectively live through up to a weeks worth of events from up to (Check Result x 10) years ago. If you have an appropriate relic – you are in a ruined city and wish to witness its demise, or you have some ancient bones and wish to see the death or funeral, the time limit is waived.
  • Produce Tome: You may produce a copy of any book or tome, whether the spellbook of some wizard from a thousand years ago, the Necronomicon of Abdul Alhazarad the Mad, or the True Sacred Book of some long-forgotten faith.
  • Voice Of The Cosmos: You can use the equivalent of Hypercogition.

Epic Information Gathering Skill Stunts

• Analyze Creature (Level 4, DC 26): Also known as “Consult Sourcebook”. This gives you a full description of any single target creature within long range – at the least, equivalent to making an appropriate knowledge check with an extra +40 insight bonus.
• Pivotal Point (Level 5, DC 30): You may intuitively identify the next important plot nexus, such as where a deciding battle will be fought, the climactic confrontation with the evil overlord, or the location where the great ritual must be performed. Once you know where you’re going, you can simply ride with the flow of events to reach it, halving the time, effort, and random difficulties which would normally be involved. Once there, the caster enjoys a +5 circumstance bonus on any actions directly related to resolving the situation.
• Organizational Chart (Level 6, DC 34): You may find out how a group is organized and identify its major members. Sadly, members with spell resistance only show up as a little blank box with a function title if the spell fails to penetrate their resistance. In general, this provides as complete a chart as will fit on one page. For small organizations this may seem quite detailed. Larger ones typically only show departments and major members.
• Lost Symphony (Level 7, DC 38): You may recover scale duplicates of lost works, including monographs, plays, symphonies, ballets, songs, statues, and architectural plans. Unfortunately, such copies are in ordinary materials and will not exceed one cubic foot in size. A version with appropriate metamagic applied to the formula may, however, increase the possible volume.
• Catalyst Event (Level 8, DC 42): This ability allows the user to set a chain of events in motion which will have great consequences later on. The user simply states a large-scale problem, casts this spell, and becomes aware of several possible long-term solutions. Some of these may not make much sense to the caster, since the spell does not explain. For example, if the problem is periodic floods
  along the river, possible solutions might include:
  • • Importing and releasing some giant northern beavers. This will stabilize the watershed over the
      next few generations
    • Digging a series of canals to divert the excess water.
    • Negotiating with the water elementals and river spirits.
    • Burying some caches of silver in obscure locations and starting a rumor about adamantine ore. Unknown to the characters, this will lead to enough mining on particular mountainsides to trigger a series of massive avalanches over the next few years – creating a series of natural lakes and reservoirs which will moderate the flooding.
    • Encouraging clear-cutting of the forests in the foothills. This will change the climate enough to reduce the yearly rainfall somewhat.
    • Building a house on stilts while establishing a plantation of Mondiko trees. Mondiko trees produce excellent fruits and lumber and like being flooded periodically; the lifestyle will catch on and make the periodic floods a benefit rather than a problem.
    • Disenchanting or removing the statue of Karis, god of storms, which is hidden high in the mountains.
    • Instituting periodic sacrifices to the river god.
  • Any of these should work. Which, if any, the players decide to attempt, is up to them. Catalyst Event will generally present 2d4+1 possible solutions (or as many as the GM can think of). All of them should be reasonably effective if carried out, at least semi-permanent, and free of severe side effects. They are rarely immediate. The spell is quite effective, but it isn’t really meant for questions which require answers in the next few hours or days, such as “How do we stop the onrushing Orc horde”?. There simply aren’t many subtle options at that point.
• Piercing The Veil Of Memory (Level 9, DC 46): You may revisit your memory of any place that you have ever been, During the spells one-minute duration you may investigate that place as it then was for up to (Wisdom) subjective hours. Nothing there can harm you (unless you discover some secrets that “man was not meant to know” or some such inherently harmful knowledge), you may move around the memory at will, you may read books that you did not open, investigate secret compartments that you did not find, run detection spells that you did not cast, and otherwise ransack the place utterly. Any resources you expend in doing so are, however, expended when the spell ends.
• Magnum Opus (Level 10, DC 50): You may reconstruct a lost culture, civilization, or time, creating a work on the level of Gibbon’s Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire on the topic. While complete accuracy is not guaranteed, and interpretation is up to the reader, this will produce a multi-volume, encyclopedic, survey of the target containing many, MANY, obscure details.
• Lost Lore (Level 11, DC 58): You enable everyone within a city or city-state to “put together the clues”. Do you wish to grant everyone the knowledge of Zyl’Kna’Lythk The Eyeless King Who Tramples Mountains and the all-too-simple ritual that will call him once more into the world? A through understanding of how the king is keeping the peasantry poor and oppressed? A good understanding of crop rotation or the germ theory of disease? So you can.
• Walk The Hidden Paths (Level 12, DC 58): You may initiate your target into any class, system of magic (or psionics of whatever you may call it), path of power, or similar that is 1) directly accessible by mortals without the use of magic above level eight and 2) that the game master agrees will function in the setting, whether or not it has ever existed in the current setting. It’s a big multiverse, and it has existed SOMEWHERE.
• Weapon Of Legend (Level 15, DC 70): You may call forth a legendary weapon, vehicle, or other device. It will remain for up to twelve hours – but there is no guarantee of your being able to use the thing. You may have to crack the command codes and figure out the systems to use the Enterprise, prove your right to wield Link’s Master Sword, or fight a battle of wills with Stormbringer.
• Nemesis Mirror (Level 18, DC 82): Every mighty force has it’s counter somewhere. All one need do is open the way. The Midgard Serpent on the rampage? You may call forth Thor to battle it. R’lyeh rising from the waves and Great Cthulhu of the Waters coming forth? Perhaps it is time to call forth Cthughu of the Celestial Fires. Unfortunately, this usually simply turns an ongoing disaster into an immediate catastrophe – but at least it will be over fairly quickly and you can start picking up whatever pieces are left.

Several of these effects are actually adapted from spells in Paths Of Power II or the Complete Paths Of Power – but they do fit in here nicely.

Adventures in Familiars II – Master And Commander

And today, it’s another question – although this one took a while.

Looking at the rules for Companion bonuses (Eclipse, p. 189), I’m given to wonder if there are other sorts of companion bonds that could be formed rather than familiars/psi-crystals, mystical mounts, or animal companions. If so, presumably those would have different benefits (and penalties, if the bond were broken such as by the companion being killed) than those listed for each of those different types of companions, before taking any purchases of upgraded Companion abilities into account.

What other sorts of bonds could there be, and what abilities would they have?

–Alzrius

Well, Eclipse already address taking pretty much any kind of creature with a Challenge Rating as a Companion. with the basic distinctions lying in the strength of the bond and the power of the creature(s) being bonded. To take a look at that:

Familiars are strongly and tightly bound to their owners, in large part because they are weak enough to be pretty thoroughly dominated by their master’s mind – which is why they automatically share their masters skills, can deliver touch spells, and have a mental link with their master. That’s why turning a sapient creature into a Familiar without its full, informed, consent is so unethical – and remains dubious even with consent; it’s slavery and mind-alteration. That tight bond is also why losing a Familiar is so traumatic and damaging.

Familiars get a specified series of bonuses as their master goes up in level, but you can Corrupt or Specialize the Companion ability to modify it. In Eclipse terms the various Pathfinder Familiar Archetypes are all simply “Specialized or Corrupted for Increased Effect; remove abilities A, B, and C and replace them with abilities X, Y, and Z”. Do you think that your hummingbird should invest the points that would normally go into it’s (non-existent) Natural Armor Bonus in bonuses to it’s movement skills and ability to dodge instead? Does your raven have Mystic Artist (quoting classical literature) instead of Alertness? Will your cat eventually learn Power Words instead of Spell Resistance? Is it actually an imaginary friend with Returning instead of Improved Fortune (Evasion) so that it comes back in the morning if slain or dispelled? Go ahead and shift a few points around.

Mystic Mounts and Companion Creatures are less tightly bound to their liege/employer/boss, whether that’s due to simply using a weaker link or because they are simply too strong to have so much of their bosses mind imprinted on them – which is why they maintain their own personalities and motives, even though they still draw power from the character. Thus creatures that are currently too powerful in their own right to get anything extra from a character cannot serve as Companions, which is why more powerful characters can take higher powered creatures as companions but enhance them less than they would a weaker companion. Their bonuses can be modified just as a Familiars can – Specializing or Corrupting the Companion ability to reassign their basic bonuses (Improved Fortune (Evasion), +(level /2 rounded down) to their Natural Armor and Warcraft, + (level/5 rounded down) to their Str or Con). Maybe your creature gets bonuses to Dex instead of strength or something. That’s relatively rare though; most companions find bonuses to Str, Con, Armor, BAB, and Evasion pretty convenient.

Animal Companions get weak links. These still provide some power, but only strongly influence the creature, rather than subordinating it – although once again, the benefits depend on the extent of the power difference between the creature and its patron. Nonsapient creatures do not understand what is going on with a weak link, but such weak minds are fairly readily influenced – turning them into Animal Companions. Personally, I generally don’t allow easy modifications to the Animal Companion bonuses. Since most of the power sent to an animal is channeled by their basic instincts and every animal wants to be strong, healthy, tough, and fast, that’s where most of the power goes. (A good bit probably goes into reproductive enhancements as well, but that has no game impact).

Sapient creatures, however, may be influenced by such weak links, and sometimes draw power from them – but remain very much independent and individual creatures, which is why they’re classified as Followers, and are obtained via the “Leadership” ability instead of “Companion” – and why they go up in level as their liege does but always lag somewhat behind him or her.

Thus, for example, pre-existing Intelligent Items can become Followers – but having established (and generally well-protected and somewhat pre-programmed) minds cannot become Familiars. Items that you create CAN, however, become Familiars since you can imprint your mind on them when you’re making them.

To buy intelligent item followers, take Leadership with the Exotic and Constructs modifiers, Specialized for Reduced Cost / Constructs only, Corrupted for Increased Effect (Only 50% of the cost of item followers counts against your Wealth By Level) / only one Cohort may exceed one-third the users level (6 CP). Since they are Followers, multiple intelligent items will get along reasonably well. Note that, in Eclipse, followers normally get NPC wealth by level, and will continue to do so without their boss having to worry about it. If their boss or the party in general wants to give them something extra, that’s up to them. Construct Followers get their choice of actual equipment (which works for golems and things) or built-in slotless equipment (equivalent to Siddhisyoga), which is less trouble but effectively halves their allotment since everything costs twice as much as usual.

Finally, of course, if there’s no link at all… then you have employees, beasts, slaves, contacts, and other creatures that you exchange services with, buy with money, or draft into service with raw power, diplomacy, or charisma. Such associates may “cost” a few character points spent on social abilities or some gold – but they aren’t really bound to the character and so get nothing extra from him or her. They are what they are, and associating with a powerful character does not inherently change them.

3.5 and Pathfinder have quite a selection of “Familiar” feats – Betrayal of the Spirit Linked, Celestial Familiar, Construct Familiar, Darkness Familiar, Dragon Familiar, Enspell Familiar, Evolved Familiar, Extra Familiar, Familiar Spell, Familiarity, Improved Familiar, Improved Psicrystal, Improved Spell Sharing, Item Familiar, Obtain Familiar, Planar Familiar, Shadowform Familiar, Shadow Familiar, Share Healing, Stitched Flesh Familiar, Token Familiar, Undead familiar, and Unfettered Familiar. There are some similar feats for improving Mystic Mounts, Mystic Companions, and/or Animal Companions (Improved Mount, Celestial Mount, Dragon Cohort, Dragon Steed, Fast Rider, Heroic Companion, Improved Fiendish Servant, Talenta Dinosaur Bond, Exalted Companion, Natural Bond, Monstrous, Mounted Fury, Nightmare Steed, Totem Companion, Vermin Companion, Etc) as well.

To look at these…

• More powerful Companion creatures can be obtained / used by simply going up in level or by buying the Template upgrade and using some one or more “Template Levels” to cover a creature with a higher base challenge rating; there’s no feat requirement in Eclipse. Similarly, mystic mounts and companion creatures get a pool of character points to buy freeform benefits with anyway – and buying your creature a template can modify and enhance it in innumerable ways. This covers Celestial, Construct, Darkness, Evolved, Improved, Planar, Shadowform, Shadow, Stitched Flesh, Token, and Undead Familiars / Psicrystals – as well as improving your familiar with Betrayal Of The Spirit LInked, Enspell Familiar, Familiar Spell, Familiarity, Improved Spell Sharing, Share Healing, and Unfettered Familiar as well as pretty much all the stuff for mounts and animal companions.
• Obtain Familiar and Extra Familiar simply call for purchasing the Companion ability again.

That leaves…

• The Spell Sovereign (Dragon 357) who can take Living Spells as Mystic Companions and effectively Awaken them. Of course, in Eclipse, this isn’t especially abnormal, even if it IS an unusual choice. Living Spells are just another type of creature after all. A few other classes also offer odd choices of Familiars, but nothing really out of the ordinary in Eclipse. Why shouldn’t you take a Swarm if you wish? It’s treated as a creature isn’t it?
• Pathfinder’s Summoners employ Edolions – basically relatively minor variations on psychic constructs (as per The Practical Enchanter). They can be built as Companions, obtained by Leadership, bought as permanent spell effects, generated by Witchcraft, or created in a wide variety of other ways. Admittedly, Pathfinder uses “Mutation Points” instead of menu choices, but the basic structure and malleable nature of the result is quite recognizable.
• Dragon Familiars from the Draconomicon. These require an extra feat on top of the ability to have a Familiar in the first place and get a greatly reduced set of the Familiar bonuses and a lot more independence than most Familiars. To do that in Eclipse you just take one as a Mystical Mount / Companion Creature – which will provide enough bonus points for the creature to buy the relevant Familiar bonuses (Alertness, Share Spells, Empathic Link, Deliver Touch Spells, Spell Resistance and Scry On Familiar) if you (and it) want them. Or you could spend the feat that would have gone to buy “Dragon Familiar” on a template upgrade for your draconic friend to make him or her the envy of other young dragons. “Returning” is always a good choice (hint, hint!).

In Eclipse, of course, you can take Children as Familiars, create Frankenstein’s Monster, have lots of annoying Dragon Cats, have Ancestral Spirits hanging about, have Robots or Warbeasts, a Shamanic Fetch, Lifling, or Shadow Guardian Familiar, or a Religious Advisor, or Minidrakes, bond with a lovecraftian entity from beyond space and time, or any of lots of other things – such as converting your Companion into a Vehicle.

There are a few possibilities that haven’t been addressed though. What happens if you bond with an object, group of objects, or a place? After all, classically there was the “Item Familiar” – a semiofficial optional variant from Unearthed Arcana.

Item Familiars could give your character a lot of extra power – but the character had to invest his or her own power (over and above the feat used to get an Item Familiar) in the item to get it. And if the item was destroyed or even taken away for very long the character lost everything they had invested in it permanently.

That’s not necessarily terrible. The Relic system in Eclipse works the same way unless you add in some upgrades, but a basic Relic rules are set up for a maximum investment of four character points (less than one feat). Losing four CP for a while is not a big thing, just as being unable to use one of your feats for a while isn’t particularly crippling. After all, even without buying any upgrades / “insurance policies”, if your relic gets destroyed it may be really annoying – but you can get another one to replace it if you search long enough. They are just another form of treasure after all.

But according to the Item Familiar rules “If you ever lose the chosen item (have it removed from your possession for a continuous period of more than one day per level) or if the item is destroyed, you automatically lose 200 XP per level as well as all benefits derived from possessing the linked item (plus any resources you put into the item). If you recover the item, you regain these XP. You may replace a lost or destroyed item familiar after you have advanced one level, as if you were gaining an item familiar for the first time.”

And, of course, the more resources you’ve invested in the item, the more power you get back. So to optimize your item, you need to invest heavily. So if your item is never destroyed or taken you get loads of free power. If it is destroyed or taken at some point your character is permanently crippled to the point of unplayability. Either way it’s no fun and potentially game-wrecking.

• If you want to let someone take an “Item Familiar” as a variant on “Companion” you can – but I really do not recommend it. Instead I’d recommend Create Relic (Specialized and Corrupted / only to make a particular relic or four-point set thereof) (2 CP) and Double Enthusiast, Specialized for Increased Effect and Corrupted for Reduced Cost / only provides four floating CP for creating the specific relic or set of relics above (4 CP). With that… you’ve basically spent a feat on having a few nifty toys. If something happens to them you may have to do without for a bit, but once you have a week or two of downtime you can recreate them.

An Imbued Staff (Dragon 338), on the other hand, was fairly useless. Sure, it turned into a +3 /+1 special ability staff eventually, could deliver touch spells, and could be easily repaired and summoned – but if your high-level Wizard was relying on poking things with a stick, or kept mislaying his staff, something was wrong. Even worse, it couldn’t do anything on it’s own, which pretty much eliminated the point in having a companion in the first place. It went too far the other way.

Still, that brings up the topic of “how much magical gear should a Feat (or the equivalent) be able to get you?”

I’d say “quite a bit”, given that a couple of Crafting Feats will halve the cost of much of your gear AND allow you to make gear for other party members at prices that will save them money and still make a profit for you. It’s not really that hard to effectively double or triple your usual “Wealth By Level” as a magical crafter.

That does take time and carry the risk of losing some of it of course. I think what we want here is something similar to the “Imbuement” ability, which days that “here is a signature item, if something happens to it I will shortly get it back”- less profit, but less risk. Ergo, lets build that with the existing mechanics. I’ll call it…

Soul-Forged Item: This “feat” allows the user to shape a portion of his or her soul into a powerful, personal, magical item or linked set of items, Sadly, this item or set of items must be

• Access to Dreambinding, Specialized and Corrupted for Increased Effect (200 GP multiplier, the item created is considered a part of the user; he or she can release touch spells through it, will always know where it is, may percieve its current location as if he or she was there, the item uses his or her saves, and – if sapient – is always cooperative). (3 CP) / only creates a single item with an effective 66.667 GP multiplier, specific item or set of items; functions may be added as the user’s skill increased, but may not be altered once added, skill cannot be increased beyond (Level +3 +Cha Mod) save through Skill Emphasis and Skill Focus.
• Fast Learner, Specialized for Reduced Cost, Corrupted for Increased Effect / only for Skills, only for Dreambinding, skill can be further augmented by Skill Emphasis and Skill Focus, but not by other means, increased effect is to always keep the Dreambinding skill it’s associated with maxed out (3 CP). The user’s effective score will thus normally be (Level +3 + Cha Mod). The GP value for various effective levels is: 1: 67 GP, 2: 267 GP, 3: 600 GP, 4: 1067 GP, 5: 1667 GP, 6: 2400 GP, 7: 3267 GP, 8: 4267 GP, 9: 5400 GP, 10: 6667 GP, 11: 8067 GP, 12: 9600 GP, 13: 11,266 GP, 14: 13,067 GP, 15: 15,000 GP, 16: 17,067 GP, 17: 19,267 GP, 18: 21,600 GP, 19: 24,067 GP, 20: 26,667 GP, 21: 29,400 GP, 22: 32,267 GP, 23: 35,267 GP, 24: 38,400 GP, 25: 41,667 GP, 26: 45,067 GP, 27: 48,600 GP, 28: 52,267 GP, 29: 56,067 GP, and 30: 60,000 GP.

Sample Soul-Forged Item – A Wizards Staff:

Dreambinding Total:

• 1) Lantern Staff (Two Handed Metal Hafted Weapon, can shed light as a Hooded Lantern, 9 Lb, Hardness 10, HP 30, 15 GP)
• 2) Add Folded Metal (+4 Hardness, 14 Total, +200 GP) (215 GP Total).
• 3) Add Masterwork (+1 to Attacks, +300 GP) and Resilient (+5 HP, 35 Total, 100 GP) (615 GP Total).
• 4) Add a Wayfinder Fineal (+500 GP, Light on Command, acts as a Compass, -100 GP, cannot yet hold an Ioun Stone (1015 GP Total).
• 5) The Wayfinder can now hold an Ioun Stone if one is available (1115 GP Total).
• 6) Add a Cracked Orange Prism Ioun Stone (Pathfinder: +1 Cantrip Known/3.5: +4 Cantrip Slots, either way grants a random power while in a Wayfinder, 1000 GP) (2115 GP Total).
• 7) Add first level Pearl Of Power effect (100 GP) (3115 GP Total).
• 8) Staff is now considered a +0 magic weapon (1000 GP, 4115 GP Total).
• 9) Staff is now a +1 Weapon (+1000 GP, Hardness 16, HP 45) (5115 GP Total).
• 10) No Improvement.
• 11) Staff now functions as a Staff Of Entwined Serpents, although it only fires one Magic Missile (-100 GP to 8065 GP Total).
• 12) Staff now fires Two Magic Missiles (+100 GP) (8165 GP Total)
• 13) Add a second first level Pearl Of Power effect (1000 GP) (9165 GP Total).
• 14) No Improvement.
• 15) Staff gains a +1 Weapon Ability (+6000 GP) (15,165 GP Total). This is technically slightly over the available amount, but I’m not worrying about 165 GP given that several other steps have been under the allowable total.
• 16) Add a third first level Pearl Of Power effect (1000 GP) (16,165 GP Total).
• 17) Add the function of a Lesser +1 Spell Level Metamagical Rod (3000 GP) (19,165 GP Total). (Or 6 uses of Minor Merciful since it’s only 1500 GP)
• 18) No Improvement.
• 19) Upgrade base material to Adamant (+2700 GP, now Hardness 26, HP 55) (21,865 GP Total).
• 20) Upgrade a Pearl Of Power incidence with Sapience (500 GP), Int, Wis, and Cha 10 (no cost), Telepathy (1000 GP), 120′ Senses (1000 GP), Darkvision (500 GP), and Magic Missile 3/Day (1200 GP) (26,065 GP Total).
• 21) No Improvement.
• 22) Add Called: you can summon your staff to you from anywhere in the same dimension as a standard action (2000 GP) (28,065 GP Total). “Called” is normally only for Armor, but – given that the staff is technically a part of you, it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to apply it here.
• 23) The Sapient Pearl can cast Greater Magic Weapon on the Staff Only (x.7 = 4200 GP) once per day (raising it’s enhancement bonus to +4 for 17 hours) (30,265 GP). In effect, the staff becomes a +4 weapon.
• 24) The Sapient Pearl can cast Mending at will (1000 GP) and gets the equivalent of a Healing Belt (750 GP) (32,015 GP Total).
• 25) The Sapient Pearl can cast Silent Image 3/Day (1200 GP) (33,215 GP Total).
• 26) Staff gains an additional +1 Weapon Ability (+10,000 GP) (43,215 GP Total).
• 27) The Sapient Pearl can cast Grease and Unseen Servant 3/Day Each (2 x 1200 GP) (45,415 GP Total).
• 28) The Sapient Pearl can cast Nerveskitter and Protection From Evil 3/Day Each and Magic Missile six times (3 x 1200 GP) (49,015 GP Total).
• 29) The Sapient Pearl can cast Web 1/Day (2400 GP) and Glitterdust 1/Day (2400 GP) (53,815 GP Total).
• 30) The Sapient Pearl can cast Dispel Magic 1/Day (6000 GP) (59,815 GP Total). (While that’s thematic, it won’t work too often at this point. If you really want to be Gandalf, use Phantom Steed instead).

After all, if it doesn’t take up an item slot… you can stack it onto something else – if necessary by gluing it there.

Sample Soul-Forged Item – The Sword Of The New Dawn:

Dreambinding Total:

• 1) Greatsword (Hardness 10, HP 10, 50 GP).
• 2) Add Folded Metal (+4 Hardness, 14 Total, +200 GP) (250 GP Total).
• 3) Add Masterwork (+1 Enhancement Bonus to Attacks, +300 GP) (550 GP Total).
• 4) Add Illuminating (May shed Bright Light in a 20′ radius and shadowy illumination in a 40′ radius, 500 GP) (1050 GP Total).
• 5) Add two Wand Chambers (200 GP) (1250 GP Total). These may or may not be much use to you, but – at worst – you can put some Eternal Wands in them.
• 6) No Improvement.
• 7) Weapon becomes +1 (Hardness 16, 20 HP, 2000 GP) (3250 GP Total).
• 8) Add Dwarvencraft (+2 Hardness (18 Total), +10 HP (30 Total), +2 on saves, +600 GP) (3850 GP Total).
• 9) Hollow Pommel acts as an Ehlonna’s Seed Pouch (1400 GP) (5250 GP Total).
• 10) Seed Pouch becomes Sapient (500 GP), Int, Wis, Cha 10 (No Cost), Healing Belt Functions (750 GP) (6500 GP Total).
• 11) SP can cast Nerveskitter 3/Day (1200 GP) (7700 GP Total).
• 12) No Improvement.
• 13) Weapon becomes Adamantine (Hardness 28, HP 33, +2700 GP) (10,400 GP Total).
• 14) SP becomes Telepathic with the bearer (+1000 GP) (11,400 GP Total).
• 15) SP can cast Resist Energy 1/Day (2400 GP) (13,800 GP Total).
• 16) No Improvement.
• 17) SP can cast Greater Magic Weapon on the Sword Only (x.7 = 4200 GP) once per day (raising it’s enhancement bonus to +5 for 20 hours) (18,000 GP Total).
• 18) No Improvement.
• 19) Weapon gains a +1 Weapon Ability (+6000 GP) (24,000 GP Total).
• 20) SP can cast Protection From Evil and Liberating Command 3/Day Each (2400 GP) (26,400 GP Total).
• 21) SP can cast Personal Haste 3/Day (1200 GP) (27,600 GP Total).
• 22) SP can cast Frostbite 3/Day (1200 GP) (28,800 GP Total).
• 23) SP can cast Light Foot 3/Day (1200 GP) (30,000 GP Total).
• 24) SP can cast Lead Blades 3/Day (1200 GP) (31,200 GP Total).
• 25) Weapon gains a additional +1 Weapon Ability (+10,000 GP) (41,200 GP Total).
• 26) Functions as per a Rod Of Bodily Restoration (3100 GP) (44,300 GP Total).
• 27) No Improvement.
• 28) Functions as per an Orb Of Mental Renewal (3100 GP) (47,400 GP Total).
• 29) SP can cast Scorching Ray 1/Day (2400 GP) (49,800 GP Total).
• 30) Grants the True Believer Feat (10,000 GP) (59,800 GP Total).

Both of those are pretty optimized – and are exploiting the Pathfinder rule that “intelligent items use the base caster level of the item without having to pay for it” rule quite unmercifully – but neither of them should be particularly game-wrecking, especially in Eclipse. A handful of low level spells, even being cast at high caster levels, won’t make that big a difference in higher level play.

Alternatively, you could add enhancements to an existing item – perhaps, in your hands, whatever magical longsword you are using will soon pick up intelligence and some secondary abilities. That could follow the same general pattern as the Dawnsword, you’d just be substituting other bits for the weapon abilities.

Still, that covers our “intelligent item familiars” niche.

Taking nonmagical, inert, things as “companions” (presumably in downtime backstory) may transform them into animated objects or conventional creatures – but that just puts them into the appropriate “Companion” category and offers an explanation for where they came from. Actually taking an entirely non-magical inert item as a “Companion” is allowable – but it doesn’t cost anything because it doesn’t actually DO anything. Your “pet rock” remains a rock, just as your favorite fern, or tree, or other inert item, remains whatever it is.

You can bond with an area too. If you draw on it’s power while you’re there, or set up special facilities, or some such, you can just use the Sanctum ability or the Castle Hieronymus setup.

Alternatively, if it’s a relatively small (and mostly un-empowered before you got to it) area you can exercise some control over the place. Purchase this as…

• Mystic Link with Communications and Power Link, Corrupted for Reduced Cost / links you to a specific, relatively small, location, does not interact with any further mystic links you may buy rather than stacking as Mystic Link upgrades usually do (6 CP) plus Leadership with Exotic Followers, Specialized and Corrupted / only one follower (a Ward Major at one-third your level), follower never accompanies you anywhere (obviously) (3 CP).

With this package you can draw on the powers of a Ward Major and direct it’s influence over the area it controls – although this does leave you obligated to regularly return to and defend that area. Still, if you want a dark forest where the mist rises at your command, there is always a pack of wolves ready to attack your enemies, and you know everything that happens… this is a way to buy it.

Large and powerful domains tend to have their own existing consciousness – a Realm Spirit (Eclipse, 169). And no, you generally cannot have one as a Companion, or even as a Follower. Realm Spirits are invariably up in the epic levels, so you’d need to be up around level sixty or so to qualify. If you’re bonded with a Realm Spirit… then YOU’RE the companion, and you’ve been let out to play for a while.

• To buy this, buy a Contact (with Occult x 2) / a Realm Spirit (3 CP), Mystic Link with the Communications and Power modifiers (9 CP), and Major Favors (The Realm Spirit, 6 CP)., all Specialized and Corrupted / the user is the mouthpiece, envoy, and troubleshooter for a semi-divine entity with little or no comprehension of creatures that don’t exist on a geologic scale and timescale. Certainly, you can ask the Realm Spirit of the Emerald Forest to swallow up an army tht happens to be marching through the area – but you will also be responsible for explaining to the king that the forest doesn’t want him building a castle in it. The link is not under the user’s control, and the user cannot prevent the Realm Spirit from exercising it’s powers on him or her if it so desires (not that there is usually a lot that can be done about a Realm Spirit anyway).

And I think that about covers the possibilities. There are still things like Forces out there – but having a special bond with (say) “Gravity” probably simply makes you a telekinetic specialist or some such. It’s not even remotely going to fit under “Companion”.

Eclipse – The Sagacious Advisor

This package gives you the classic sage, mentor, or royal advisor – someone who can tell you that the unseasonable winter blighting the land is almost certainly the work of the Winter King wielding the reforged Fimbulwinter Blade from his Otherworldly Castle Of Ice, and that some heroes must journey there to stop him by shattering the blade once more so that the seasons will turn properly for another age of the world.

He will even – after enough research (waiting to draw the right card since he only gets new ones for his Hexcrafting magic when important things happen) that the situation has become utterly dire and the party has had to hold off multiple attacks by Polar Bears, Winter Wolves, and other ice-monsters – be able to open a path into the mystic realms of the Seasonal Spirits, so that you can reach the Castle Of Ice to do battle with the Winter King.

He won’t know that the Winter King was recently overthrown by his treacherous son Prince Iceheart wielding the reforged Fimbulwinter blade, and that to restore the balance of the world the party will have to rescue the old king, defeat the Prince, shatter Fimbulwinter once more, and perform a ritual to reinstate the link between the Realm of Winter and it’s once and future King. After all, that information is far too recent to appear in the Sagacious Advisors ancient tomes – but he can still get the party started on their adventure.

Similarly, he can put the dying king afflicted by the nigh-unstoppable mystic venom into stasis, and greatly slow the decay of the land that ruler is linked to – but he will have to stick around to keep recasting that stasis (after all, it starting to wear off is probably an important enough event to justify refreshing his powers), leaving the quest for the cure up to the player characters.

Of course, if you wind up having to take a Sagacious Advisor along on your adventures – perhaps you need one of those vastly powerful spells performed at a particular place – then you will have to babysit them through the trip and then protect them from the inevitable massive attack while they perform their ritual casting because they probably won’t be any use at all along the way.

The Sagacious Advisor (Usually an NPC):

Basic Attributes: Str 8, Dex 8, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 16 (Pathfinder 15 Point Buy).

Available Character Points: L3 Base (96 CP) -18 (Untrained) +12 (L1 and L3 Feats) = 90 CP.

Basics (25 CP): Hit Dice: 3d6 (6 CP), Skill Points +8 (Fast Learner at L0, 6 CP) +6 (6 CP) = 14 (six knowledges at +1, 8 points for other skills), BAB +0 (0 CP), Saves +0 (Luck with +2 Bonus Uses, Specialized in Saves, 4 CP), Proficiencies: All Simple Weapons (3 CP).

Other Abilities (65 CP):

• Luck with +4 Bonus Uses, Specialized and Corrupted for Triple Effect: only for Skills, only for Knowledge, Skills, user must spend a lot of time rummaging through ancient tomes and lore, information often contains gaps (especially about recent changes) that will need to be filled by adventurers, user is afflicted with great curiosity and a certain lack of caution (12 CP).
• +6 Base Caster Levels, Specialized in Hexcrafting. (18 CP).
• Hexcrafting: 4 Free Invocations (8 CP), 3 Cards (8 CP), 2 Fixed Cards (6 CP). All Corrupted for Reduced Cost / the user must fumble around with assorted arcane ingredients, speak, and gesture to do anything at all. The Cards are also Specialized for Reduced Cost / Ritual Only, it requires at least one minute of ritual per card expended to create an effect.
• Berserker with Odinpower (+15 to Base Caster Level, -2 to AC) and +2 Bonus Uses, Specialized and Corrupted for Reduced Cost / each use only allows the casting of a single spell, user forfeits his or her dexterity bonus while casting, only half effect when using a free invocation, (4 CP).
• Choice of Houngan Conjurer (9 CP) or Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys (9 CP).

While the Sagacious Advisor is useful to have around, and makes a wonderful government official… he or she does not have the quick, or regularly-usable, power needed to be a real threat to the current rulers or to overshadow the player characters. Like it or not, he or she is effectively a plot device. Still, every so often, the Sagacious Advisor can perform a major ritual – opening the path to a realm of myths, transporting a city away from an attacking horde to an unknown alien realm (which will, of course, offer it’s own menaces and which will urgently need exploring), or stopping that volcanic eruption (while simultaneously upsetting some Elementals) – and then be quite unable to deal with the further consequences. Que the player characters having a new mission.

Given that the game is supposed to be focused on the player characters, that’s a good thing. I’ve played in entirely too many games where the megapowerful NPC’s could (and obviously SHOULD) easily fix the problem – but it gets shoved off onto the player charters for some unspecified reason. As an example from a game I once played in…

(My character) “So let me get this straight, The kings widely-loved daughter has been Kidnapped. So the King sent his most skilled (high-level) guards out to scoop up what must be the six weirdest, most incompatible (we had a Drow, a Minotaur, my chain-smoking modern Egyptian tomb robber who’d been drafted by Anubis to be a priest in a fantasy world, and several other weird types), people in the capital, whom he had no information on, who are not known as adventurers, and who he has no reason to trust, to send after her. He’s doing this on the advice of his supposedly good-guy Mind Flayer advisor. We’ve been told that she’s being held in a legendary tomb in the middle of the enchanted forest by bandits. The King refused to lend us a guide, or any guards to provide backup, or give us a map, or provide us with any gear. And we will be thrown in the dungeons if we don’t take on this mission. Well… Now that we’re approaching the forest… I vote that we make a break for it!”

The game master was extremely surprised when the party assumed that we were, at best, a sacrificial diversion for the real rescue mission – and that, at worst, the “lawful good king” was actually covering up the elimination of an uncooperative daughter. And why would we be asking for gear or a map or help? We had our first-level character creation funds!

With this build… that sort of thing is not a problem. The Sagacious Advisor can meet the magical needs of the kingdom, tell the party where to find the necessary plot coupons and mcguffins, and still remain low level and incapable of doing the actual adventuring himself. It also means that – in a setting where most of the world is low level – one can fairly readily find or train an effective royal advisor without having to assume that they just appear from nowhere when it’s convenient.

What’s a “Ruscumag” anyway?

A question that’s long overdue: what exactly is the “ruscumag” that’s part of your blog’s URL?

-Alzrius

Well, that will take a little digging, so bear with me…

Once they stretched across continents. Not Forests, but THE Forest. Trackless. Primeval, Unknown.

And in hidden places, where subtle vortexes of primordial energies and vagaries of geography have kept patches of forest relatively undisturbed across the ages, THE Forest remains.

Preserved within those vortexes, fed and given form by the burgeoning ancient life of the trees, are realms of history and imagination merged, mythic time and space, archetypal places governed by tales and magic. Within those realms you may find ancient peoples, beasts long extinct, and tales in a thousand forms to draw you into their narratives whether you like it or not. Within a few weeks outside, in a patch of woods a half a mile across, you may spend decades exploring thousands of square miles of hidden realms, lakes, and mighty rivers – sometimes even traveling through time and space or perhaps emerging from another patch of ancient forest entirely. Perhaps you will reclaim those lost years when you emerge, perhaps not.

All Forests One Forest.

Before Will, and Word, and Spirit, before the Gods walked… Sympathy, Contagion, and Similarity WERE,

Old, OLD, Magic.

Occasional myths and tales given form – Mythagos, whether manlike or monstrous – may emerge from the hidden realms as well, called forth by the dreams of men living beyond it’s borders – but beyond their realm, things such as the Wild Hunt, the Great Predators, and the Dark Cults will fade away into nothingness in a few weeks unless they return to the sheltering trees. Still, the borders of the Primordial Forest are an uneasy and perilous place, no matter how modern science seeks to explain what it is that walks in the darkness and then vanishes without a trace.

At the deepest? Past Witches and Warlocks, Past Arthur and his Knights, beyond the Fomori and the Nature Spirits, you will find the youth of the race. Delve deeply enough, and encounter the shamanic masters of fire, who first tamed it to the will of men, the lightning-hurling reflections of the homids who created bows, and spears, and throwing stones. Beyond them? A place that men find almost impossible to reach. The realms of innocence before the rise of mind, the ancient ice, the ages of beasts, the deep realms of the dragon lords, the green world before more than insects had emerged from the seas, and – at the last – the most ancient seas of a young earth. Perhaps fortunately… few indeed are the undisturbed patches of woods large enough to contain such depths. Even in this fantastic realm… there are limits.

Ryhope Wood – the centerpiece of the setting for Robert Holdstock’s Mythago and it’s sequels and prequels – only covers about three square miles, so it doesn’t go back much past the last ice age, but that’s still a rather long ways.

Within that novel the Urscumag Mythago – or on a couple of occasions (at least in the edition I happen to own) the Ruscumag – was both a guardian of the forest and a subtle and dangerous guide to the magical realms within.

Personally, I found the original book, and later the series, to be quite good. While the basic premise of an ancient place that served as a gateway to a mythic realm. of tales that play out again and again within that realm, and of masks – both literal and figurative – which give form to the formless forces of magic at play there, are not especially new, they’re well handled here, the books have interesting depths, and the tale offered up more than a few elements that suggested stuff for games, When I was setting up this blog, and found that the first few names I tried were already taken, I decided to go with something more obscure – and that the Urscumag / Ruscumag made a reasonable good game master metaphor. So I tried it with the Ruscumag spelling which I happened to like better. And thus Ruscumag.Wordpress.Com. The fact that the “Ruscumag” spelling turned out to be an obscure typographical error within a 1986 paperback printing left the origin of the word next to impossible for anyone else to find, but was at least unique.

That may not be terribly important, but I suppose that “why is this blog called something so odd” is worth clearing up – and since you have asked, I hope that help clarify things!

Stealth and Safehouses

And today it’s another question…

I am curious how you might create subtler stealth / warding effects. For example, what would a spell look like that made people around you find you unimportant or beneath consideration or whoever they expect to see most? Or warding a building so that only people who don’t wish the residents harm can find it?

-Jirachi

There are a lot of different ways to accomplish such things – some effective, and others less so.

A spell that convinces people looking at you that you aren’t important could be a mind-affecting effect (allowing a save), or a complex illusion, or a way to extend the Bluff skill. It has an advantage over Invisibility in that you won’t give away your presence by opening doors and such.

Using Bluff:

Extending the Bluff skill is slightly tricky. There aren’t any existing spells that work this way that I’m aware of, but you can build it using Eclipse and The Practical Enchanter. The basic effect is simply “You get to make a Bluff check when people see you to make them think that you’re harmless and too unimportant to pay attention to”. That’s equivalent to the Eclipse Opportunist ability – a Complex Mental Feat. The Surprising Mastery spell template in The Practical Enchanter can be set up to bestow that; the base will be level three, for one minute per level. Getting a nice big bonus on that specific check is basically the Glibness spell, also at level three. So this spell will be level four (likely for a Bard) or five (Likely for a Sorcerer/Wizard), depending on how well your game master thinks that the effects go together. Both base spells are Transmutation, so it will be too, it will last one minute per level, it will take a Standard Action to cast, and it will have Verbal and Somatic Components. Since it only directly affects the caster, Saves and Spell Resistance don’t apply – but all the usual methods of dealing with someone Bluffing will.

This general spell build is interestingly versatile. Go ahead; build a similar spell that uses Disable Device, or which fires every Wand in the area with Use Magic Device (although attended ones will get a save), or some such. I usually use Specialized Witchcraft to build effects like that, since they’re best for skillmasters who aren’t entirely focused on magic – but there’s no reason why you can’t build them with standard spells.

Using Disguise:

When it comes to disguises… there are a lot of easy ways to craft an actual disguise, but the problem here is that you’ll need to make one that every observer you encounter will consider unimportant – and while a generic servant or bum will pass in a LOT of places, you never quite know what exactly you will need to be disguising yourself AS.

The game master may let you get away with imitating Terry Pratchett and disguising yourself as a “Sweeper” or “Mendicant Monk” or “Bum” (which only works when people expect to see such types around; if it’s a top secret lab cleaned by Roombas, a “Janitor” will be VERY suspicious) or (if you are INCREDIBLY lucky) as “someone of no importance” – but there are likely to be really big penalties on that last check if you don’t have some detailed inside information on just what, in your current situation, is going to be considered “unimportant” by the people who are going to see you.

So there are at least two approaches here are 1) coming up with enough bonuses to overcome whatever absurd penalty the game master applies (a job for stacking different types of bonuses or a specific skill enhancing spell of whatever level turns out to be necessary) and 2) finding out what disguise is appropriate – which strikes me as a job for a level six to level seven specialized version of the Metafaculty effect. It may not sound all that tricky – but it’s still determining who you are likely to meet, what each of them is likely to dismiss at a glance, and how to disguise yourself in a way that simultaneously satisfies each such set of conditions.

Using Mind-Affecting Powers:

The mind-affecting version already exists as a level two Psionic Power. It’s called Cloud Mind, and is more or less exactly what you’re looking for. The problem here is that it only has close range, starts at level two, and has to be bumped up to level six to hit one target per level. I probably wouldn’t bother imposing a penalty for converting the effect to a spell; the fixed, and rather limited, nature of the effect seems like enough of a penalty compared to the original power. That would give us a level six Illusion (Phantasm, Mind-Affecting) spell – but it would only affect the original targets, not anyone who came near you. That’s a major vulnerability.

A simpler version – basically a specialized and shorter-term version of Mass Suggestion (“There’s nothing of interest about these people or going on here”) might be only level three or four depending on the spell list. It would be handy for – say – getting your party versus a group of guards. The problem here is that every one of them gets a save, and that your range and number affected is still pretty limited. Secondarily, of course, spending a fourth level spell slot on this is usually not a good investment unless you’ve restricted your spellcasting a lot to make it cheaper.

Safehouses:

Using spells to protect an area or structure is tricky because you want the effect to last. When it comes to spells, that generally means either a cheap spell with a long duration, a permanent (or “instantaneous”) effect, or a magical item using such spells. There are a few decent ones for that – most notably Anticipate Teleportation (L4, 1 Hour/Level), Mages Private Sanctum (L5, one day), and Psychic Poison (L4, one hour/level). Honorable mentions go to Detect Scrying (L4, one day, good to let you know you’re being watched but does nothing to actually prevent it), Scry Trap (the damaging version, L5, one hour/level. I personally would encourage the use of Scrying Guardians – on the theory that, Scry Trap can do 15d6 damage – the cap for a fourth level single target damaging spell. Ergo, add +1 level to a spell and you can cast it as a trap that will affect anyone who scrys on you. Go ahead; have some summoned monsters show them the error of their ways or something), Teleport Trap (L7, one day per level, may be made permanent, but is somewhat expensive) and Dimensional Lock (L8, but lasts for one day/level), all of which are good but situational and – at least for Teleport Trap and Dimensional Lock – rather high level. False Vision (only l5, but expensive and may be vulnerable to True Seeing) generally isn’t worth bothering with. Guards and Wards (L6) can annoy intruders, but usually annoys defenders just as much and does nothing for privacy or to stop teleportation. Hallow can have some good defensive options attached, but using dedicating the place to a particular god as a security system may be a bit off-color. Screen lasts for a full day and isn’t expensive – but it’s eighth level, takes ten minutes to cast, and may still be penetrated by True Seeing. Again, it’s probably not worth it. Some of the spells from the “City On A Hill” article might help as well.

The trouble here is that all of these – and most other methods – are vulnerable to effects like Commune, Contact Other Plane, Hypercognition, and Metafaculty. There isn’t anything below the epic level which will completely frustrate information-gathering effects – and for good reason; since the player characters are usually on the offensive, they’re usually the ones trying to figure out where to attack. Putting in a way to completely block that off simply stops the game until they come up with something else or get frustrated.

Overall, if you just want a reasonably well concealed spot… Mages Private Sanctum is your best bet. If you want to hide from unwanted visitors, Mirage Arcana (L5, one hour/level) works for a building – although it’s probably easier to just build underground and hide the entrance. To be cheap, “lead sheeting” blocks scrying and some other divinatory effects, and thick stone walls block some other effects – so simply tacking up sheets of lead all over the walls, floors, doors, and ceilings (and then I would hope adding paneling or paint) would work against many divinations. It doesn’t help with too much else though.

A character could buy the ability to boost the duration of a few such spells very easily, since it is a highly specialized field – but if you’re going to spend character points, you might just as well invest a few points in a Sanctum, or Ritual Magic (specialized and corrupted in privacy rituals only), or Cloaking a radius, or something similar,

On the “Item” front, a Ward Major (from The Practical Enchanter) is expensive – but if you want to protect a large area, powers like Forgotten, Veiled, and Otherworldly are just the ticket.

On a smaller scale, given that d20 makes it very easy to create extradimensional spaces, the simplest way to set up a short-term “safehouse” is to use Rope Trick at level two – or the “Mirror Hideaway” variant (also at level two), or just use the Spacewarp Spell Template from The Practical Enchanter to design your own space – and there you are; you’re immune to anything that doesn’t cross planes and have an invisible door. Go ahead. Add Hide Campsite (Ranger 2) and add another huge margin of safety.

For a longer-term effect… use Spacewarp with Barriers (allowing you to close the portal) and a duration of one day per level is merely level four. Go ahead; add some more options at +1 spell level each (Supplies, Furnished, or Hidden are all very good choices for a safehouse). In theory you could make an item capable of casting the fourth level version once a week after being given a command word at a cost of a mere 5000 GP.

For an all-in-one solution you can use either a Rod Of Residence (39,000 GP) or a Rod Of Security (61,000 GP).

For a lower-level, and more versatile, solution you could try the Panic Rune:

Panic Rune:

This simple bronze doorknocker portrays a sleeping gargoyle. It is only when it is pressed against a surface (a wall, tree, or similar) that it awakens – sinking into the surface and, after a minute or two, creating an invisible secret door with no magical aura (Spacewarp, Create Door on the inside of the portal, Magic Aura to conceal the magical aura of the portal, Arcane Lock to improve its security). Spotting it without the aid of the Panic Rune requires Detect Invisibility (to perceive the door at all) and then a DC 24 Perception check. The door itself has a Break DC of 35 and the Lock is DC 35. Neither Dispel Magic nor Knock nor ordinary magical methods of detecting secret doors will have any effect, since the door is just beyond a dimensional portal that such spells will not cross.

Beyond the door is a spacious hall, with private nooks, tables, comfortable furnishings, enough decent-quality food and drink for eight medium-sized creatures (renewed daily), and plenty of blankets and cushions. Sadly, the various furnishings vanish if they are taken out of the hall and no more than 120 pounds of additional material may be stored in the hall when the Panic Rune is inactive. As the hall is an extradimensional space, it is secure against divinations and other effects that do not cross the dimensions. The hall will always remain pleasantly scented, neat and clean, and well-organized (courtesy of Prestidigitation and the Handy Haversacks organizational effects). Residents will also be cleaned up within the limits of Prestidigitation. While there is a peephole to look out of in the door, the knocker itself maintains a tireless watch and will warn those inside of disturbances or creatures outside (while it’s Perception Roll is only +0, it does have 60′ senses and Darkvision). A Panic Rune can function up to twice a day, each activation lasting for up to 18 hours – a duration which it will simply overlap if left active for longer periods. When it deactivates, everything taken inside over the 120 pound weight limit, and any living creatures left inside, will be dumped into the area around where the portal was.

Obviously enough, the Panic Rune is generally a party item; whoever is carrying it slaps it onto a surface and everyone takes advantage of a place to rest that may not be absolutely safe, but is about as safe as you’re going to get for a few thousand gold per character until much higher levels. It’s Alignment and Ego are generally irrelevant given that it’s only active when no one is actually carrying it and it’s major interest is in keeping whoever is using it (and their friends) safe while they’re inside.

The Panic Rune is built as an Intelligent (+500 GP) Handy Haversack (2000 GP, caster level nine, holds up to 12 cubic feet or 120 pounds of material). Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10, Ego 13 (0 GP), Speech (500 GP), 60′ Senses and Darksight (1000 GP), (Basic) Spacewarp 2/Day (4800 GP; items inside the Haversack wind up on shelves inside the warp when this function is used), Prestidigitation at Will, Only inside the Spacewarp (x.5) = 500 GP), Magic Aura 2/Day (Only to conceal the spacewarp doors aura, x.5 = 400 GP). Create Door (2/Day, Only to install a door on the Spacewarp x.5 = 400 GP), Arcane Lock 2/Day (Only on the conjured door on the Spacewarp x,5 = 400 GP), plus Field Provisions Box function (minor variant: provides food for eight instead of fifteen, but it’s much tastier and you get juice and beer instead of water, 2000 GP) – for a Grand Total of 12,500 GP.

• If you want an immobile version to use as secret headquarters or some such you can slap the “Immobile, x.5) modifier on the entire thing – taking the cost down to a mere 6250 GP.

Luxury versions add more functions.

• A Hearth (as per a Fireblock with the Immobile Modifier) adds a happy little smokeless fire to cook or otherwise work on for a mere 90 GP.
• Add a quartet of Ioun Torches, for Light (+300 GP. These can be taken outside if necessary).
• Upgrade the Sensory Range to 120 feet (+500 GP).
• Give it a +5 on it’s Perception Rolls (+2500 GP, +1 Ego).
• Add Hide Campsite 2/Day (+4800 GP, +2 Ego). Now no one is likely to get close enough to try and spot your invisible door when you’re camping in the wilderness.
• Give it a Healing Belt (+750 GP) function.
• Add a Stable Annex (A Supply Pouch, +3300 GP, +1 Ego).
• Give it more 3/Day first level spells at 1200 GP and +1 Ego each. Alarm, Ventriloquism, and Restoration – among many others – all have obvious uses.
• Or just add Mages Private Sanctum on a command word once per day (+16,200 GP, +2 Ego) and move every few days and it will be very hard for anyone to pop in on you.

New Spells:

Mage’s Comfort (Bard I, Sorcerer/Wizard I, Illusion (Shadow), Casting Time 1 Minute, Components V, S, Area: Special, Duration Two Hours Per Level, Saving Throw None (Harmless), Spell Resistance No).

• Mages Comfort makes an area (campsite, apartment, extradimensional space, etc) pleasant to stay in – with blankets, cushions, comfortable chairs, endtables, beds with nice mattresses, and other “real enough” furnishings. Anything removed from the area will, however, vanish instantly and none of the items can be effectively used as weapons, restraints, or for purposes other than comfort.

Create Door (Cleric 1, Sorcerer/Wizard II). Conjuration (Creation), Casting Time: One Minute, Components V, S, M (a model door), Area: One arch, doorway, or portal, up to 3 feet x 6 feet, Duration: Instantaneous, Saving Throw None (Harmless), Spell Resistance (No).

• Creates a strong wooden door with a lock and a wooden bar up to fill a space of up to 18 square feet. AC 3; hardness 5; hit points 22; Break DC 25 when barred or locked (Lock: Disable DC 25, Hardness 15, 30 HP). The caster may opt to make it a Secret Door, with a perception DC of (15 + Level, to a maximum of 25).

Skill Stunts and Epic Skill Stunts II – Movement and Personal Control

Skill Stunts and Epic Skill Stunts allow you to attempt wild and wonderful things with your skills – provided that you can pay the price. Since there aren’t all that many examples provided in Eclipse, here are some for two additional sets of skills: Part One of this series (Basic Notes and stunts for Appraise / Finance / Etc) can be found HERE. 

Sample Stunts for Acrobatics/Balance/Burrow/Climb/Fly/Jump/Tumble (and sometimes Drive or Pilot) and similar skills:

All of these skills are about movement, and are already treated as being pretty flexible. I’ve yet to encounter a game master who would say “there’s no rule about trying to roll under the quickly-descending door! You can’t try to do that!”. Similarly, if you want to try to run on that tightrope, rather than walking slowly, or climb quickly and recklessly… it may be much more difficult, but that’s what DC modifiers are for. Ergo, this is a relatively short list as skill stunts go.

• DC 10 (normally no stunt required):
  • Balance on one hand, or sit on a flagpole for days, or do a triple-inside-out loop, or perform some other impressive but basically useless trick demonstrating your expertise. The better your roll, the more impressive your trick.
  • Maintain movement discipline with a group – marching, piloting, or otherwise – so as to avoid accidents (including “friendly fire”) and interfering with other members of the group. Sadly, while you can march all day in combat the duration drops to 3d6 minutes.
  • Make slow progress under moderately difficult conditions – picking your way over rough terrain, across ice floes, or climbing a somewhat-rotten tree. The duration is however long it takes to do it .
• DC 15 (May or may not require a stunt):
  • Accurate Measure: Accurately track how far you have traveled in various directions and at what angles, providing accurate measurements for mapping. Activating this stunt is good for twelve hours.
  • Instant Stand (or evade falling when tripped or otherwise knocked prone) with no AoO. (This is allowable, but much more difficult, under the basic rules. In Eclipse, however, it is a built-in part of many martial arts and available at first level).
  • Roll with the Punch: Subtract (Check Result – 10) from the damage inflicted by a fall or blunt force attack as an immediate action.
  • Sea Legs: Stand, fight, or act without penalty while on top of a relatively stable moving vehicle. Once active, this lasts until the situation changes or the user falls unconscious (including going to sleep).
• DC 20:
  • Ascension. You may move up walls or along ceilings as a part of your ground movement.
  • Evasive Maneuvers: Retain your full dexterity bonus even when moving at full speed in a straight line. Once active, this lasts for 3d6 minutes.
  • Tree Striding: You may move normally through forested areas or forest canopies. This remains in effect until the trip is interrupted.
• DC 25:
  • Communicate a clear message through interpretive movement. This requires however long it would take to give a similar speech and allows the use of other oratorical or communicative abilities.
  • Smashing Charge: Use a standard action and your (check – 15) as a strength check to smash a door, wall, or similar inanimate target.
  • Storm Legs: Stand, fight, or act normally while aboard a ship in a storm, atop a car during a chase, or while dealing with violently unstable or minimal footing (such as the classic “while standing on posts” martial arts duel). . This lasts 3d6 minutes after combat begins, but for hours otherwise.
• DC 30:
  • Dervish Dance: You may sacrifice your move action to gain an extra attack at your full base attack bonus, adding another bonus attack for each +30 on your check result to a maximum of +4 attacks.
  • Light Foot: stand or move on narrow surfaces, thin ice or branches, and other surfaces that would not normally support you without difficulty. AT DC 75 this includes clouds, illusions, and beams of light. This normally lasts for 3d6 minutes, but can be extended with concentration.
  • Navigate through whirling blades, bouncing boulders, or similar erratic obstacles. (Or, for that matter, pilot a small starfighter through a parking garage). If this is an ongoing problem rather than a single check, this remains in effect for 3d6 minutes.
• DC 35:
  • Coaching: Share your base movement skill with a group of up to (Charisma) others by focusing on giving them directions. This generally lasts as long as you continue to concentrate on giving directions.
  • Dream Stride: Somehow catch up with someone who is moving much faster than you are.
  • Implausible Maneuver: make a mid-air turns, perform a full attack while leaping or falling, execute a bootlegger reverse with an eighteen-wheel tractor-trailer.
• DC 40:
  • Evasion. Take no damage from an area effect attack after a successful saving throw.
  • Move normally despite severe damage – run on broken legs, drive a car despite having lost both tires on one side, and so on. The effect lasts for 3d6 minutes or for the duration of a dramatic scene, such as piloting a badly damaged ship that ought to be sinking through a terrible storm.
  • Take a move as an Immediate Action – for example, running across a roof quickly enough to catch someone who is falling off.
• DC 50:
  • Bowling for Minions: run into or sideswipe a creature, inflicting (Skill Check – 50) damage and a bull rush effect as a part of your move action.
  • Breach a dimensional barrier to move onto a coexistent plane as a standard action. You may take along whatever you can carry as usual.
  • Leap from chunk of debris to chunk of debris to run up an avalanche or collapsing roof.
• DC 60:
  • Leap of Clouds; move up to a mile as appropriate to the skill in use as a standard action. .
  • Water Dividing Fu: Swim up or divide a waterfall, tunnel through molten rock (leaving the tunnel open behind you), or leave a “tunnel” of vacuum in the air behind you. Such pathways will remain open for 3d6 minutes.
• DC 75:
  • Sonic Boom: Your movement generates a powerful shockwave in the ground/air/water/whatever is appropriate, inflicting up to (Check Result/10) d6 of damage to everyone and everything within 20 feet of your movement path. This will be modified by the base skill; if you are causing a shockwave in the ground, flyers will be unaffected.
  • (The) Toe Crusher: As a standard action move by up to (Dexterity) targets within long range, inflicting (Check – 60) damage to each. You may wind up anywhere within long range.
• DC 100:
  • Chasm Crossing Stride: move up to ten miles as appropriate to the skill in use as a standard action
  • Optional Gravity: Treat your personal gravity as having whatever direction is most convenient for you at any given moment for 3d6 minutes.

Epic Stunts:

• Ghosting Technique (Research Level 4, DC 26): You move so quickly that you generate afterimages equivalent to Greater Mirror Image. You may maintain this effect for 3d6 minutes, generating more images even if all of them were destroyed in a previous round.
  • This illustrates an important point. “Epic Stunts” don’t have to be particularly over-the-top in game terms. They’re just over the top in skill terms. Generating mirror images through illusion magic is easy. Generating them by moving so fast that you’re leaving afterimages? Definitely epic – and a good way to help keep a skillmonkey relevant at higher levels as well.
• Racing Cheetah Strike (Research Level 5, DC 30): Move to any location within extreme (800 feet plus 80 feet per level) range, become hasted for 3d6 rounds, and make a full attack.
• Spiders Dance (Research Level 7, DC 38): You may move across walls, ceilings, narrow ledges, twigs, individual strands of spider silk, water lily leaves, through horrible storms, over the most difficult terrain, the thinnest of ice, and through other environmental hazards, without hindrance or penalty.
• Leap Between Worlds (Research Level 8, DC 42): You may move from one world to another – perhaps leaping from Earth to Barsoom, from Planescape to Faerun, or from the depths of the Abyss to Greyhawk. You can bring along anything you can carry.
• Stance Of Clouds (Research Level 9, DC 46): You may appear at any location within one mile, stand and fight there without penalty (whether or not there is a surface or environment that can support you, and then reappear at your original location.
• Shadow Step (Research Level 10, DC 50) The user may move via the equivalent of a Dimension Door, three times as an immediate action, picking up and dropping off passengers along the way.
• Cometary Impact (Research Level 11, DC 54): The user may ascend several thousand feet, creating a takeoff shockwave which causes 8d6 damage in a 20′ radius and descend on any 40′ radius within long range, creating a str 40 pressure wave that will attempt to force anyone there prone and still, and impacting to cause (Check / 2)d6 damage within that area – although there is a choice of lethal or nonlethal damage.
• Scarlet Ribbon Dance (Research Level 12, DC 58): The user gains a +25 Dodge Bonus versus Ranged Attacks. Whenever this bonus causes an attack on the user to miss he or she may expend and AoO to redirect it at any valid target within 20′.
• Whirlwind Stance (Research Level 14, DC 66): The user’s movement is sufficient to generate tornado-force winds, for the next 4d6 rounds all desired targets within long range will be exposed to the effects of a Tornado.
• Avalanche Charge (Research Level 16, DC 74): Move up to five times your normal movement, automatically smashing through any obstacles in your path, including Antimagic Fields, Walls of Force, small mountains, and similar “impenetrable” barriers. Everything within a 20′ radius of any point along your route can be dealt up to 20d6 damage at the user’s option. If the route leads “through” a creature, it will be carried along until you drop it off or your movement ends.

Sample Stunts for Autohypnosis/Biocontrol/Biofeedback/Concentration/Control Shape/Meditation and similar skills:

As a “Psionic Skill”, Autohypnosis was rather awkwardly tacked on to the d20 system, has never had any real expansion or development beyond a few “epic level” uses, and primarily focuses on a suite of limited-use biocontrol abilities – not exactly a normal approach to a skill. You usually get to use skills all you please. It thus occupies it’s own little niche, somewhere between a skill and a suite of psionic powers. The Control Shape skill was a minor note under Lycanthropy (used to control their transformations), was given no other uses there, and got no real further mention or expansion anywhere at all – although I usually let it be used in place of Disguise if you wanted to use a transformation to conceal your identity. Since it’s functions were little more than a badly crippled subset of what you could do with Autohypnosis, I’m including it here. In any case, this is a straightforward pattern to expand on.

• DC 10 (normally no stunt required):
  • Deep Slumbers: You may fall deeply asleep at a moments notice, moving immediately to the most restful stages of slumber. You need two hours less sleep than normal each day.
  • Moderate Addiction: You may eliminate the cravings and penalties of a personal addiction for a day with a few minutes of meditation.
  • Tweak Form: When using any kind of shapeshifting you may control its fine details, granting a +5 bonus to Disguise checks to impersonate particular creatures or simply make yourself harder to recognize. This effect is automatically included when using a higher-DC shapeshifting effect to provide unique details in your default transformations.
  • Wipe Memory: You may forget inconvenient facts to avoid interrogation, mental probes, and similar. They are, however, gone for good barring the use of much higher-level effects.
• DC 15 (May or may not require a stunt):
  • Control Bleeding: As a swift action you may make a check to stop any bleeding you may be experiencing or act while at zero hit points without suffering further ill effects.
  • Endure Elements: You may protect yourself with an Endure Elements effect for a full day.
  • Firewalking: You may expend a standard action to gain Energy Resistance 5 versus any one energy type for 2d4+2 minutes. A check result of of 30+ increases this to Resistance 12, and a result of 60+ increases it to Resistance 30.
  • Purge Overindulgence: You may negate the effects, side effects, and after-effects of intoxication, the use of various drugs,
• DC 20:
  • Beastspeech: You may communicate with animals – although this does not ensure that they will have anything worthwhile to say.
  • Ignore Pain: You may resist torture, the effects of caltrop injuries, and spells and penalties based on pain.
  • Least Warp Spasm: Duplicate the effects of Pathfinders Beast Shape I (for Control Shape or Meditation) or Monstrous Physique I (for Autohypnosis or Bio- skills) .
  • Resist Domination: You may substitute the results of an Autohypnosis check for a failed will save against an Intelligent Item in a dominance battle against an intelligent item or items.
• DC 25:
  • Focused Mind: You may reroll a knowledge check with a +5 circumstance bonus. Unfortunately, this may only be used once per check.
  • Hibernate: You may enter a deep sleep, during which your need for food, water, and air is reduced to one-fifteenth normal. You will awaken if seriously disturbed, at a chosen signal (“Spring!” is very classic), or after an (approximate) chosen duration.
  • Remove Paralysis: You may negate a Hold, Paralysis, or related effect, whether or not you could normally act.
  • Soothe The Beast: You may retain control through an episode of Lycanthropy or a similar curse.
• DC 30:
  • Adrenal Boost: You may apply a +2 Alchemical Bonus to your Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution or a +4 Alchemical Bonus to any one of the three.
  • Tap Reserves: Once per day you may tap into your reserves, regaining 1d8 Power or Hit Points, 1d6 Damaged Attribute Points or Negative Levels, 1d4 Spell Levels or Drained Attribute Points, two Drained Levels or two uses of a daily-use special ability. The user may add another choice from that list (the same one may be taken more than once) for each additional 10 points in the check result.
  • Trance: You may substitute entering a waking trance for sleep without losing sleeps benefits. While in such a trance you remain as alert as if you were fully awake and can tolerate interruptions totaling up to ten minutes without losing the benefits of a full nights rest.
  • Walk of Memory: You may “revisit” a segment of your personal past, reviewing every sensory impression and thought that was going through your mind in exhaustive detail in only a few minutes
• DC 35:
  • Death Trance: You may die, releasing your spirit freely and cleanly into the outer planes, despite any attempt to entrap your spirit, force you to remain alive, or restrict you to a particular realm.
  • Feat of Endurance: You become immune to exhaustion and fatigue, and may continue even the most strenuous activity without food, water, or rest, for a full day.
  • Lesser Warp Spasm: Duplicate the effects of Pathfinders Beast Shape II (for Control Shape or Meditation) or Monstrous Physique II (for Autohypnosis or Bio- skills) .
  • Pattern Weaver: You may analyze your opponents movements and contacts, gaining a +1 Insight Bonus to your attacks and damage against them. A check result of 50+ grants a +2, and 75+ a +3.
• DC 40:
  • Clarity Of Focus: You may temporarily give yourself (Check Result / 5) extra skill points, although they may not exceed normal limits.
  • Purge Disease: Given a few minutes of meditation you may purge a disease from your body.
  • Sight From Beyond: Your senses, communications, and your ability to attack with unarmed strikes or natural weapons, extends into coexistent planes.
  • Stasis Trance: You may sink into metabolic stasis. In this state you are immobile, and only very distantly and slowly aware of your surroundings, but you are impervious to the passage of time, immune to poisons, radiation, and similar hazards, require no food, water, or air – essentially becoming a statue. You will awaken after a preset time, if you are forcibly damaged, ifany of up to (Int) preset triggers occur, or if someone applies an appropriate special ability.
• DC 50:
  • Memorize Scroll: You may transfer the contents of a scroll into a series of symbols embedded in your own consciousness, storing a maximum of (Wisdom / 3) such effects.
  • Perfect Resistance: If the user makes a saving throw for a partial effect, he or she can then use this check to negate the effect entirely.
  • Purge Poison: You may expel a poison from your system. If you start on your first action after it takes effect, this will negate the initial damage and any further required saves.
  • Warp Spasm: Duplicate the effects of Pathfinders Beast Shape III (for Control Shape or Meditation) or Monstrous Physique III (for Autohypnosis or Bio- skills).
• DC 60:
  • Iron Fist: Your natural weapons or unarmed strikes gain a total enhancement bonus of +3 (+4 at DC 75, +5 at DC 100). You may reduce the total as usual to add +1 or +2 weapon properties.
  • Memory Vault: You may conceal your true personality, skills, pieces of information, alignment, or other mental qualities in a sealed pocket of your subconscious. Until you opt to once more unveil your true self, all probes, divinations, or similar effects will reveal only your cover persona. This includes the ability to use appropriately-aligned sentient items without penalty.
  • Personal Panacea: Three times per day, whether or not you would normally be capable of taking an action for any reason short of death, you may generate a personal Panacea effect.
  • Psychic Reformation: As per the psionic ability.
• DC 75:
  • Greater Warp Spasm: Duplicate the effects of Pathfinders Beast Shape IV (for Control Shape or Meditation) or Monstrous Physique IV (for Autohypnosis or Bio- skills) .
  • Pierce The Veil: You may meditate for an hour and cast your inner vision across the world, duplicating the effects of a Scry, Legend Lore, or Commune spell.
  • Purity Of The Self: You may eliminate any forced alignment change, cast off enchantment/charm effects, restore any lost or erased memories, eliminate any transformation effects, and otherwise return to your true self.
  • Unconscious Concentration: You may place the responsibility for maintaining concentration on an effect on your unconscious mind, allowing said effect to continue until you decide to drop it. Sadly, no more than three effects may be sustained in this fashion – one for the Id, one for the Ego, and one for the Superego.
• DC 100:
  • Akhasic Shadows: You may open yourself to the astral echoes of the past, consulting the long dead. While you can have dreadful experiences this way, it isn’t dangerous – but there is nothing that forces any given echo to be cooperative, and no way whatsoever to force them to be since they are mere reconstructions within your own mind; if they will not cooperate, it’s all too likely that you’ve either hit a spot you couldn’t reconstruct or your mind is suppressing something that could damage it. Whether or not getting some clues to that ancient vault is worth listening to Dark Lord #372189 monologue for a day and a half is up to you.
  • Gate of Worlds: You may duplicate the effects of an Astral Projection spell.
  • Nirvanic Ascension: You may achieve Nirvana. From now on your image can appear anywhere and can speak with anyone or anything, dispensing whatever brand of “wisdom” you favor. You are indestructible, undispellable, unrestrainable, can use out-of-character information, and are as eternal as you wish to be. You can, however, do nothing else whatsoever – and the GM is entitled to veto your activities if they are too mundane (such as acting as a scout, messenger, or convenient information source). Note that you can make a check for Nirvanic Ascension up to once per year, including up to three times after death.

Epic Stunts:

• Reincarnation (Research Level 0, DC 10): You may carry your memories and abilities into a new incarnation. They will gradually emerge as your new self grows into them.
  • This has no cost; anyone capable of epic stunts in this field can do it. Of course… getting a nice, simple, “Raise Dead” is generally preferable to coming back decades later, potentially worlds away, with a new personality, and having to grow up again – complete with the risk of dying again before you unlock this ability again.
• Hypercognition (Research Level 9, DC 46): This functions exactly like the eighth level psionic power of the same name.
• Total Awareness Meditation (Research Level 10, DC 50): You gain a +10 Insight Bonus to your perception skills, may make checks against anything within (Check Result x 5) feet, and your senses extend through solid matter – although concealment effects allow a save against you. You could sketch a map of a network of underground tunnels, survey it for the current location of any monsters, determine what is in a tomb without unsealing it, and so on. Unfortunately you must choose what to focus on amidst the overwhelming flood of information. The game master may volunteer some obvious bits, but if you – for example – don’t ask what the tapestries look like, you will miss the terrible, sanity-blasting, eldritch horrors they portray and the symbols which can call them into being.
• Shapechange (Research Level 12, DC 58): While this requires no material component, it is otherwise identical to the (Pathfinder) ninth level Shapechange spell.
• Contemplation Of The Bodhisattva Nature (Research Level 14, DC 66): You may tap into the energies of the outer planes directly up to (Wis Mod) times daily, invoking the equivalent of any standard clerical spell of level seven or less without components.
• The Allegory Of The Cave (Research Level 15, DC 70): What is reality and what is shadow? This effect makes a projection – a clone, remote body, projected image, simulacrum, or what-have-you one and the same with whatever it is linked to. Thus stealing an item from a projected image is the same as stealing it from the caster, wherever he or she may be – as is stabbing a simulacrum, or giving a remotely operated body a cold. The effect normally lasts for 2d6 hours.
• Expressing The Soul (Research Level 16, DC 74): You may express the outer-planar attunements of your own soul, in effect Channeling (as per The Practical Enchanter) a summonable Outsider of your alignment of up to CR 15 for 3d6 minutes (add 1d6 minutes per -1 CR). The type of outsider is fixed once selected (you must work with the game master on this to select something compatible that exists in the setting), barring a change of alignment on your part.
• Shadows of the Past (Research Level 18, DC 82): Tapping into the akhasic shadows you may weave a pocket realm in the spaces between worlds to temporarily embody the past and place yourself and your companions within it – allowing you to, say, fight in an ancient war, visit a long-lost library, or discover what really happened to the princes in the tower. While physical items cannot be removed from the pocket realm, being killed in it simply results in needing to rest for 1d3 days after returning to reality. While the pocket realm lasts for a mere 2d6 hours by outside clocks, within it it’s duration may be up to a year and a day.

Eclipse: The Codex Persona is available in a Freeware PDF Version, in Print, and in a Paid PDF Version that includes Eclipse II (245 pages of Eclipse races, character and power builds, items, relics, martial arts, and other material) and the web expansion. Here’s a Featured Review of it and another Independent Review.

The Practical Enchanter can be found in a Print Edition (Lulu), an Electronic Edition(RPGNow), and a Shareware Edition (RPGNow).  There’s an RPGNow Staff Review too.

Eclipse – Sample Races, Templates, and Characters Update

Here, at last, is an updated index to all the Eclipse-Style Races, Templates, Power Packages, and Sample Characters on the blog.I’m going to sticky this and try to keep it reasonably current from now on.

If you’re building a character, the usual sequence will be Race – Template (if any) – Basic Build, so that’s how this is organized. If you’re looking for “how-to” information, next up is the level-by-level class breakdowns and the general power-package information and examples. After that, for inspiration, swiping power packages from, and use in other games, comes the sample higher-level characters.

Character Creation and System Primer

Sample Races:

• +0 ECL Player’s Handbook Races; Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and Halflings.
• +0 ECL Human Variants: Revised Human (how humans are different from other species), Spirit-Touched Humans (natural shaman), Elan (psychicly augmented humans, scroll down), God-Touched Humans (spirit channels).
• +0 ECL Human Variants/10-point Package Deals: Star Wars, Polluted Future, and Technical Expert Humans and Men of Faith (humans who draw strength form their religion).
• Elven Variants: High Eves (+0 ECL), Aquatic Elves (+0 ECL), Drow Elves (+2 ECL), Classical Drow Elves (+2 ECL), Gray Elves (+0 ECL), Noble Elves (+1 ECL), Wood Elves (+0 ECL), Wildwood Elves (+1 ECL), Xin Elves (+0 ECL), and 100 types of Affinity Elves (+1 ECL,  10 choices each of Terrain and Arcane affinities). Also, the Primal Elves.
• +0 ECL Wildfolk – generic anthropmorphic animals.
• +0 ECL Kitsune: Part I, Part II, and Part III (with higher ECL upgrades)
• +0 ECL Android: For when you want to play a construct.
• +0 ECL Half Plant-Fey. An example for making various half-fey templates.
• +0 ECL Ur-Human (Golden Dragon Heritage).
• +0 ECL Changelings (My Little Pony variety). Possibly higher-ECL depending on world laws.
• +0 ECL Dystopian Survivor Humans.
• The Blink Dog (+2 ECL), Bugbear (+2 ECL), Gnoll (+1 ECL), Goblin (+0 ECL), Hobgoblin (+0 ECL), Janni (multiple possible), Lizardfolk (+1 ECL), and Ogre (+2 ECL).
• +1 ECL Ri’aal: Non-humanoid cats with innate magic in lieu of tool use.
• +1 ECL Werewolf. As a species of their own, rather than as an infection, with assorted variants.
• +1 ECL Sentient Office Device for Battling Business World. This uses the half-price attribute rule, but the ECL would remain the same if it didn’t.
• +1 ECL Half-Giant.
• +1 ECL : Gargoyles and Bat-Winged Electric Cat Mutates. Yes, from the Gargoyles cartoon.
• +1 ECL Transhuman – for characters in post-cyberpunk settings.
• The Lesser (+1 ECL), Greater (+2 ECL), and High (+3 ECL) Fey.
• +1 ECL Basic Ponies (Additional +1 ECL for Unicorns, Pegasi, or Earth Ponies. If you have all three of those, you can add an additional +1 ECL for Alicorn Magic).
• +2 ECL Satyrs and Centaurs (scroll down, note that the Centaurs are easily tweaked to +1 ECL).
• +2 ECL World Tree Races: Cani (Dog-Folk), Gormorror (Bear Folk), Herethroy (Insect Folk), Khtsoyis (Flying Octopi), Orren (Otter-Folk), Rassimel, Sleeth (Big Cats), and Zi Ri (Minature Dragons), all with innate spellcasting abilities.
• +2 ECL Dark Reaper, responsible for capturing evil spirits which have escaped into the mortal world.
• +2 ECL Rad’Egion, Initiates of the Arcane Forge – creatures reborn as things of magic.
• +2 ECL Race or +3 ECL Template: Darkchilde’, children of tempter-demons.
• +2 ECL Basic or +4 ECL Elder Sekirei
• +4 ECL Darkweird Dragon.
• +4 ECL Dream Entity. A creature born of popular belief.
  • Genegrafting, Genetic Engineering, and Anthropomorphics in d20: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.
  • Building Sapient Animal Characters in Eclipse:
• High-Powered Races. Those marked with an “*” use the half-price attribute rule; if this rule is not in use, their attribute modifiers should be reduced appropriately. Others are simply built for extreme efficiency.
  • +0 ECL Basic Dragon: A minimalist dragon.
  • +0 ECL Fedyra: Dragon-Fey hybrids.
  • +0 ECL Tolkien’s Istari and Corrupted Maiar (scroll down to the racial breakdowns)
  • +0 ECL Neanderthal*: Quasi-ursine cave dwellers with natural magic.
  • +0 ECL NeoDogs and NeoDolphins*: Genetically-engineered animals.
  • +0 ECL Pureblooded Humans*: Genetically enhanced humans.
  • +0 ECL Atherian Races/Magical Birthrights*: Blood, Crystal, Death, Dimensional, Elemental, Forest/Plant, Ice, Illusion, Life, Light, Lunar, Order, Shadow, Solar, Totemism, and Dragon, Absolute Command, Divination, Venom, and Warding.
  • +0 ECL Twilight Isles Races: Ikam (Culture and Racial Traits), Shadow Elves (Culture and Racial Traits), and Thunder Dwarves (Culture and Racial Traits). Since the Shadow Elves have numerous bloodlines, here are some samples – Part I, Part II, Part III,
  • +1 ECL Twilight Isles Veltine (Culture and Racial Traits) – with an explanation of the races of the Twilight Isles. Also, the Veltine in Depth: More details on the culture of the Veltine
  • +1 ECL Twilight Isles Hahn Beastmasters.
  • +1 ECL Cartoon Pureblooded Human. For when you just need to get animated.
  • +1 ECL Cinematic Hero*: +1 ECL movie-style action hero.
  • +1 ECL: Childe of the Starborn Fire*. The offspring of a dimension-walking draconic power.
  • +1 ECL Demonically Infused Pureblooded Human*. This is your character on demonic power.
  • +1 ECL Loup-Garou: Another variant on the werewolf, this time as a very powerful nature spirit.
  • +1 ECL Number Lord Template:  For when a crazed mathematical spirit who cannot even exist in sane universes seems appropriate.
  • +2 ECL Generic Evil Outsider. For mighty demons and the like.
  • +2 ECL Alien Symbiont. For turning your familiar into something REALLY strange.
  • +1 ECL Chthonic Invested: Warrior-Mages, Assassins, and Black Knights.
  • +2 ECL races/templates from Monte Cook’s World of Darkness White Wolf adaption: Vampires,  Werewolves, Demons, Awakened and Mages (with sphere-based magic and notes on the innate specialization of the various White Wolf games).
  • +2 ECL Greater Undead Template and +4 ECL Knight of Hades Template. For when you really want some horrors running about.
  • +2 ECL Scion of the Damned: The offspring of life-draining horrors and cursed demons.
  • +2 ECL Promethean Revenant: When Dr Frankenstein starts digging up Angels and Devils.
  • +2 ECL Technarch. From Marvel Comics.
  • +2 ECL Terminator. Making playable Terminators. You know that they’ll be back.
  • +3 ECL Krell Psychic Adept*. Malevolent natural psychics, +4 ECL without the half-price attribute rule.
  • +3 ECL My Little Pony Dragon (+4 ECL in non superheroic worlds).
  • +4 ECL Light Military Cruiser An example of stretching things for people who want to play a warship.
  • +4 ECL Stormlord Template. Heirs to the Thunder Gods.
  • +4 ECL T-3000 Acquired Terminator Template.
  • +5 ECL Praetorian*: +7 ECL without the half-price attribute rule. An atrocity of raw physical power.
• Building Monstrous Races Level-By-Level: The Minotaur (and general principles) and the Succubus.

Sample Templates:

• In general, races may be used as templates at +1 ECL. This is especially handy with the Atherian Magical Birthrights and the Fey provided above. Here we have some note on Stacking Templates, just in case there are any questions.
• Negative ECL Races: Why they’re a bad idea, how to do them, and how to account for segments of templates which cancel each other out.
• +0 ECL Party Template and samples – the Knights of Yggdrasil, Forest Stalkers, Company of Kardeon, Angbokor Guild, and Royal Cartographic Society. The Party Of Last Resort is for a Scifi game.
• +0 ECL Low-Level Hero Template: Using Eclipse to run low-powered, slow-advancement, d20 games.
• +0 ECL Talking Teapot Template: For creating animated utensils and furnishings.
• +0 ECL God-Blooded Template: For those unfortunate Greek heroes who are stuck with quarrelsome divine parents – along with some additional power packages.
• +1 ECL Generic Lesser Outsider: for minor angels, demons, spawn of chaos, jinn, etc.
• +1 ECL Allomancer or Talismanic Mage.
• +1 ECL Time Lord Template. For those who like Dr Who.
• +1 ECL Anime Character Template.
• +1 ECL Cyborg Super-Soldier*. The effects will vary with the available equipment.
• +1 ECL God-Favored, +1 ECL Noble-Blooded, and +2 ECL Divine Ruler – divinely-chosen nobles and rulers.
• +1 ECL Elemental “Bender“, along with the +5 ECL “Avatar” template.
• +1 ECL Ciarkian Anthropomorphic “Adventurer Template“. For making venturesome animal-people. Also Part II with power-signs, Part III with a city and it’s Ward Major, and their Guilds and Knightly Orders.
• +1 ECL Basic Vampire. For playing vampires at a reasonable ECL.
• +1 ECL Minimal Lich. For undead spellcasters who want to continue adventuring.
• +1 ECL Spirit. Spirits of the dead acting from the Outer Planes.
• +1 ECL Contagious Piracy. A template that’s better than Ninja!
• +1 ECL Cartoon Character template (For Dexter’s Laboratory, with Dexter, Dee-Dee, and Mandark).
• +1 ECL Crystal Infusion Template. Note that this uses the Shadowed Galaxy skills.
• +1 ECL Shadowed Galaxy First Stage Vampire. For when you must have Vampires in Space. For Second Stage and further there’s the Background, the Second Stage Template Upgrade, Yytsuri Pilots Guild, Irtach Warlords and Okar Archivists, Olfun Guardians and Harvesters,
• +1 ECL Shadowed Galaxy Informational Mummy: When your “tomb” happens to be a starship.
• +1 ECL Valkyrie / Valkyrja Template. For when you want to be an emissary of death.
• +1 ECL Pulp Hero Template (and +2 ECL Advanced Pulp Hero Template). Also, Pulp Powers, More Powers, Drugs, and Archetypes, Vehicles, and Narrative Feats.
• +2 ECL Ancient One – a mortal suddenly infused with many lifetimes worth of ancient memories.
• +2 ECL Magical Girl (or Boy) Template. For  those who simply must.
• +2 ECL Spirit Binder. For those who wish to channel spirits.
• +2 ECL Elemental Infusion Template, for heroes and creatures filled with elemental power.
• +2 ECL Darkling Template: for making creatures of living darkness.
• +2 ECL Heritage of Darkness Template, for partial heirs of divine power. (Also usable for non-dark heritages).
• +2 ECL Mamluk / “Space Marine” Template (and the +3 “Direct Conversion” version that doesn’t actually work)
• +2 ECL Lord of Chaos. For when you really must stat up Discord from My Little Pony.
• +2 ECL Master Of Stars. A master of telekinetic attacks with no usage limit.
• +3 ECL Wyld Magic Template. For when you’re infused with vast – but mostly uncontrollable – powers.
• +3 ECL Favored Of The Outer Ones. For those whom the Elder Gods take a liking to.
• +3 ECL Techno-organic Entity. From Marvel Comics.

Eclipse Pathfinder:

Eclipse handles Pathfinder just fine – so here are Eclipse breakdowns for Pathfinder –Basics and Races and the class breakdowns for the  Alchemist, Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer and Summoner. The sample characters are pretty much all compatible with Pathfinder; if they don’t already have the Pathfinder Package Deal from Basics and Races simply add +2 to an attribute and +3 to their skills.

Sample Level One Character Builds:

• Iron Dragon:  unarmed and unarmoured tank.
• Shamanic Adept: a speaker to spirits.
• Vedic Master: a matter transmuter and self-enhancer.
• The Bulwark : a MMORPG – or 4′th Edition D&D – style tank/controller.
• Kabalistic Ritualist: a ritual mage. Includes the Priestly Scholar, Demonologist, Expert Ritualist, and Canny Spellblade variants.
• The Street Rat: a roguish street kid. Includes the Black Marketeer, Spellthief, Street Survivor, Gang Leader, and Wiz Kid variants..
• The Wraith: a short-range teleporter.
• The Swashbuckler: an unarmored fighter. Includes the Cinematic Hero, Experienced Duelist, Agile Master, Florentine Fighter, Demon Hunter, Dilettante Noble, Golden One, Shadow Adept, Military Man, Spirit Speaker Magical Dabbler, and Ruthless Questor variants.
• The Primal Warrior: a shapeshifter-berserker.
• Animist: a non-spellcasting wizard who speaks with creatures and objects.
• Harbringer of Doom:  an optimized skirmisher, and what NOT to do.
• Alarian Legionaire Build and some Sample Legionaires (these characters use the half-price attribute rule).
• Courtly Witch: a noblie intriguer with hidden psychic powers.
• The Battlerager: a totemistic warrior with rage-based augmentations.
• The Witch: a low-powered but extremely flexible psychic.
• The Gifted Psion: a second-edition style psion build.
• The Dweomer Master: a master of particular psychic fields.
• The Starfire Adept: a stress-powered master of psychic skills
• The Revised Psion: variants on the standard Psion build. Psychic Knight, Expert Psion, Natural Psion, Tower Resident, Fatebound Psion, Spirit Warror, and Psychic Artificer.
• Transhumans: mutants and superheros with limitless use of some specific powers.
• Scholarly Priest: a master of channeling aid to his or her friends.
• The Hellguide: a revenant from the abyss
• the Werewolf: a young ECL1 shapeshifter
• The Cyber-Warrior: and how to buy Cyberware
• Runesmith: a caster who builds up spells a bit at a time = along with some additional explanations of their abilities and limitations.
• Tollers: characters who summon essences into themselves
• Poseur or Mad Cultist: single-school spellcasters
• Mystic Adept: a design-it-yourself spontaneous spell point caster available in many different flavors.
• The Collector: a ritualist and collector of magical devices
• The Tech Wiz: a build for hackers, security breakers, and tinkerers. Includes the Technical Hero, Kit-Basher, Robot Master, Intuitive Expert, Expert Technician, Wondersmith, and Hacker variants.
• The Hotshot Pilot: a master of some type of vehicle.
• The Investigative Reporter: the truth is out there. Includes the Hard-Hitting Detective, World Traveler, Intuitive Reporter, Lucky Intern, Magical Dabbler, and Tough Reporter variants.
• The Elementalist: a specialist in a particular branch of magic
• The Fortunate Hero: a character who can provide his own lucky breaks
• The Bloodmarked: a victim of his or her own innate powers. Essentially consists entirely of variants.
• Khamsin The Wanderer, a warrior-mage designed to buy each of his spells, and their casting level, individually.
• Inaro Montban, a mystical agent of the Limbo Wheel built using a house rule I don’t recommend – but found irresistably amusing.
• The Paladin of Death, a guardian of life’s cycle.
• Ruth Gelman: A young – if very deadly – level one sharpshooter from the Federation-Apocalypse setting.
• Ishinomorel. Shadow Elf Archer-Runemaster. Level Two Upgrade.
• Tristan. Shadow Elf Pirate-Elementalist. Level Two Upgrade.
• Ysmir. Shadow Elf Scout-Firemaster. Level Two Upgrade.
• Vehn Rageclaw: Veltine Warrior-Mad Scientist.
• Rudra Mogzul, Thunder Dwarf Warrior. Level Two Upgrade (offsite link).
• Peregrine, a Veltine Bodyguard-Companion.
• Building the Level One Bladesinger
• S’stam: An Ikam Follower-Bodyguard.
• Orin Markala: A Wildfolk mage-priest and his Level Two Upgrades.
• The Children’s Crusade – building starting child-characters for children and making a suitable setting and adventures.  Part I with Julia Winters (a mystic warrior) and Georgina De’Flower (a positive-energy channeler and healer), Part II with Talios Asrian (swordmaster) and Horace of the Burning Blade (warrior-firemaster), Part III with Roland Huntley (skill monkey / trickster mage), Part IV with Nikoli Verburger (mystic archer), Melinissa (a ghostly dybbuk), and Tamlin Cooper (youthful shaman).
• “Ghost” the Shadowwalker. A shadowy trickster, her Level Two Upgrade and her Level Four Upgrade.
• Lerona Vendrith (Scroll Down): A youngster with a demon trapped inside her.
• Gareth Tamson, Feyblooded Cartographer of Dreams. With Mystic Artist/Cartography
• Lucas Arwin, the Master of the World. A young master of battle magic and his steam dirigible.
• Verdigrised Forge, Ironclad Pragmatic Engineer and Honorable Defender. A sapient golem-warrior and living artifice-furnace.
• Eliki Montari: An enthusiastic Kitsune Pirate.
• Level Zero Youngsters: Faelan, Mathghamhain, and Caiside, scout-apprentices, Edelbert a youngster transformed into a steed,
• Thomas Gelman or “Garm” – a kid with an internalized sixty-ton Mecha.
• Rainbow Dash, at Level Zero, Level One, and notes on higher levels.
• Mauric Wonderworker, Magical Founder
• The Dabbler. A writeup of one of Christopher Wests notions – in this case a would-be Wizard using unskilled magic.

Level-by-Level Class Breakdowns:

• The Merchant: A complete level 1-20 point-buy example.
• Basic Classes: Barbarian, Bard, and Cleric, Druid, Fighter, and Sorcerer, Paladin and Ranger, Rogue and Wizard, Psion and Psychic Warrior, and Monk.
• Standard “Types” broken down.
• Star Wars d20 Base Classes broken down for Eclipse.
• The Blade Dancer / Wuxia Adept.
• The D20 Modern class breakdowns.
• Zhan Rayden, Earth Manipulator. Levels (-2) to 2, Levels 3-8, Levels 9-12,

General Build Information and Power Packages:

• Eclipse and Skills – An article series mostly written by Alzrius covering skill-modifying effects in some depth. Introduction, Drawbacks, Abilities (through Journeyman), Abilities (Karma through Maneuver), Paths and Powers (through the Path of the Dragon), and Paths and Powers (Conclusion).
• Compiled Martial Arts: All the martial arts from the sample characters and site, given alphabetically.
• Specialized Martial Arts Techniques – Daiken Vior (versus Undead), Silver Forge Kung Fu (versus lycanthropes), and other highly-focused forms.
• 24 CP Archetypes and Roles:  Aristocrat, Berserker, Commander, Laborer, Magus, Messenger, Shadow, Wanderer, and Wise Companion,Broken Spirit, Brute, Elder, Great Leader, Official, Scholar, and Shaman, Centurion, El Diablo, Performer, Romantic, and Thief, Fortunate Scion, Merchant, Seducer, and Stoic, and the How-to-use-them guide
• 24 CP Sith and Jedi power packages, and translating Force Powers into Eclipse.
• (Mostly) 24 CP Star Trek Power Packages: Ensign, Infiltrator, and Engineer, Captian and Second In Command, Transporter Officer, Counselor, Mystic Counselor, and Doctor, Chief Security Officer, Cosmic Wedgie, Annoying Brat, the Mudd, and Holographic Characters.
• Eclipse Power Packages. Answers to requests on how to build particular powers with Eclipse.
• Buying Cyberware in Eclipse.
• Building Spellcasters. Various magical options in point-buy.
• Building Psychics: Power Sources and Basics, Types of Psychics.
• Advanced Companions: Templates for Companions, Familiars (Spirit Fetches, Liflings, and Shadow Guardians and the Wealth Level Templates from the Practical Enchanter), Mounts and Companion Creatures (Flying Steeds, Firehawks, Stormcrows, and other beasties), and Animal Companions.
• Literary Magic Items and Sample Relics: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, and Part VII (with Index and Summary). The Tongues of Heaven: Combined enchantment-relics and quest objects. Excalibur: The Blade of Kings. The Lives of the Saints: for preaching powerful sermons. Tolkien’s Rings of Power and the Silmarils.
• Political Positions: some rules for playing a politician, ambassador, general, or other influential individual.
• Martial Arts: Celestial Martial Arts, Harpist of the Weave Mystic Martial Art.
• Psychic Pilot Powers.
• Building Reserve Feats in Eclipse.
• Building Incarnum Weilders in Eclipse.
• Building Weapon Specialists in Eclipse.
• Building Narrative Powers in Eclipse.
• Thematic abilities for those who have returned from death: Deathly Feats and Spirit Riders (powers bestowed by symbiotic spirits).
• Building the Thaumaturgist in Eclipse; a more detailed look.
• Shapeshifters and Cursed Lycanthropes. Making Lycanthropy something to fear.
• Revised d20 Skills System: An option for making rarely-used skills more attractive by reducing their cost.
• Sample Thaumaturgy and Dweomer fields, along with Building and Playing Thaumaturgy and Dweomer Casters.
• Character Types – The Expert: General requirements and limitations of such characters, and how to build one in Eclipse.
• The Witchery and Negative Energy Domains.
• The Fellowship of the Ring d20: Converting characters from the books.
• You Have No Power Over Me!: Purchasing immunities to particular foes and types of foes.
• Companions: Notes on Companions: Appendums to the articles on Companions.
• Alchemical Magic: A spell list and spells for alchemical hedge magicians.
• Sample Package Deals: The Obsidian Order and the Crystal Seers: Two orders with opposing viewpoints on keeping secrets. Kadian Package Deals; training packages for youngsters. The Sarkari Seekers of Wisdom.
• Epic Spell Conversions: Part I; Spells and Stunts, Part II, Part III, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight.
• The Dreamspawn: The Basic Template, Timothy and Verendior, Dunangylaz and Antaeus Varin, Lerona and Queen Yintor, Oridon and Yinsloth. Mortal Children – and the Horrific Alien Monsters who love them. Akso Sevarangin – a thieflord
• The Society Mind and Psionic Focus: Building psychic networks in Eclipse.
• Hedge Magic Heroes: Practical magic for low-level characters: Part I, Part II and Part III (level zero spells), Part IV (level one spells), Part V and Part VI (level two spells and technological hedge magic), and Part VII (summary list and sample enchantments).
• Old School Skills: How to make skills a backup check in Eclipse.
• Old School World Template: why a simulationist world-view is a vital part of old-school gaming, why such rules sets aren’t actually at all “simple”, how the consequences of those choices leads to “old school” results, and the old-school world laws.
• Village Heroes: Building A Campaign (the basics of building an Eclipse campaign – and a sample setup for a low-level low-powered campaign setting), Village Hero Package Deals Part I and Part II (background package deals for low-powered local characters), Argius and Jamiel (a hedge mage and a village smith), Ethan and Kordov (an apprentice forester and a militia trainee), Tarvel and Raymund (a streetwise youngster and a scholarly initiate), Nagindeyu (a wannabee adventurer), and Maylindarin Vrilnassyr (elven archer-mystic).
• Character Optimization and Broken Builds: Ways to build overly-efficient characters – and ways to restrain those builds.
• Over-Optimized Builds – and what to look out for – in Eclipse.
• The Shonen Jump: Sudden power-ups in Eclipse.
• Teenagers from Outer Space: Making such characters in Eclipse d20.
• The Trickster Magi power package: Building mages with unlimited use of relatively minor powers.
• Mutants of the Eclipse: A guide to using Eclipse to run a “Mutant Superhero” game. The Basic Templates, The Element Master, The Feral, The Strongman, The Gadgeteer, The Blaster, The Speedster (and his spells), The Exokinetic, The Stealth Expert, The Healer, The Paragon, Minor Mutants, Weres, Alter-Egos, Metamorphs, Power Mimics, and Shapeshifters, The Duplicator, The Adept, The Channeler (and the basis of “Mutant Powers”), The Long-Range Teleporter, Power Duplicator, and Power Negator / Manipulator, Guardians and Monotalents, The Stuntman, The Armorsmith, The Immortal, The Combat Expert, and Adept Themes.
• Designing Subraces and the Mothu – sample human empaths.
• Role Playing Disadvantages – With Teeth. Why vague social disadvantages are NOT the soft option.
• Using Theurgy: How to use the Theurgy advanced magic system. Also, in the same category, Amnesia Magic.
• The Gravespeaker: Assorted necromantic power packages.
• The Serpent Master. A snake-themed dark magic package.
• Advanced Armor Training. For those who want their armor to be more than a bonus to AC.
• Leveling Intelligent Items. Turning your magic items into henchmen.
• Retraining and Exchanging Old Abilities: When you want to rewrite your character a bit.
• Making “Skill Tricks” in Eclipse. Part I and Part II.
• Playing Half-Dragons and High-ECL Races. Breaking down races into levels.
• Megalithic Magic. How to use massive structures to work very high-level effects.
• Atherian Package Deals: Landkeepers and Adopted Imperials.
• Immunity: The Fourth Wall. How to buy in-character metagaming abilities, or just to justify snarky remarks.
• Spellcasting Modification Feats. Giving characters signature magical knacks.
• Character Traits Explained. How to play effectively with the Character Trait system.
• Peasant Powers: A six=point power package to turn scrabbling medieval peasants into contended d20 peasants.
• A Feat Full of Tricks: Using Witchcraft to given characters a unique touch. Clerics, Fighters and Wizards, Rogues, and Barbarians and Rangers.  Also Monk Tricks and Redesigning Monks.
• Dangerous positive-energy abilities, Part I and Part II
• Building Unlimited-Use Shapeshifters, Players Handbook II or Pathfinder Style.
• Reducing Action Types: Doing more in the same time.
• Building the Possessed: Making characters like Naruto or Etrigan – with some powerful beast trapped in them.
• Creating Troublesome Relics: For items with drawbacks.
• Maker of Potions, Talismans, and Scrolls: For characters who stock up on minor magic items between adventures.
• Building Mad Scientists and Inventors: For when you’ve just got to invent something new.
• Occult Talent Builds: For characters who have just a touch of magic.
• Military PC’s and Fantasy Armies: Functional fantasy-style military groups for PC’s, to go with Mass Combat Made Simple.
• Building Mysterious Magic Items:
• Building True Love: When you want the power of heart.
• Gear and the Big Six Magic Items: How to buy extra gear, stipends, and wealth in various settings. Also Wealth in Eclipse Part I and Part II.
• The Oath of the Postulant: Religious Training through Spiritual Guidance. Includes the +1 ECL Spiritual Guide template.
• Condensed d20 Skills List: with magical skill applications.
• United We Stand and Group Magic: Two different takes on how to build characters who pool their magic for greater effects.
• Building Dragons: Part I (the basic small dragon), Part II (a playable ECL 5 Dragon), and Part III (a level one golden dragon hatchling).
• Building the Thrallherd in Eclipse: And why it’s a bad idea.
• The Sacerdos Pastor: A high-efficiency 24 CP package for village priests and wise men.
• Building Complete Gear-style Influence Points in Eclipse.
• The Houngan Conjurer: Enhancing your party with Conjures.
• Uses for Leadership – buying traps and tomb guardians, acting as a mentor to children, and improving intelligent items.
• Effective Castles; as bought with character points on the cheap.
• Do =-it-yourself Charms and Talismans: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, and Part VIII. Exotic proposals for more Charms and Talismans.
• Gun Fu. Yes, just like in all those movies.
• Narrative Manipulation: How to buy the ability to get bonuses for describing wild stunts.
• True Names and Nymic Magic: In a system that makes them worth using.
• Using vehicles in the game and buying them as followers and companions.
• Sample Occult Skills: Legendarium, Gadgetry, and Glowstone Alchemy, Dwarven Rune Mastery, Subsumption, and Identities,  Faith, Gathering, and Accounting, Foresight, Governance, Command, Ninjaneering, Dream-Binding, and Secrets, Minions
• Spirits in Eclipse: Building classical not-easily-killable spirits in Eclipse.
• Arcanist Casting in Eclipse: How sorcerer-types can swap out their known spells.
• Time-Manipulation Power Packages. How to meddle with that Timey-Wimey Thing.
• Eclipse and Mythic Ascension: The Basic Mechanic, How to Use The Secondary Progression Mechanic in Other Ways, Basic Mythic Abilities, The Universal Abilities,
• Buying Basic Survival Magics as Innate Enchantments and Crafting In The Game.
• Making Skills Magical – and why Craft and Profession (say… Demonologist) are not wastes of skill points.
• Talismanic Mystics – building characters who use a selection of personalized magical charms to produce effects.
• Arcane Smartclothes – transhuman equipment for medieval societies.
• Dexter, Dee-Dee, and Mandark – and the +1 ECL Cartoon Character Template.
• Scaling Damage in D20. And why nukes aren’t really that impressive.
• Acquiring reliable minions. Also the Minions and Networking Skills.
• Equipment Skills: An sci-fi alternative to wealth-by-level and to equipment lists. Armory, Biotech, Gadgetry, Logistics, Vehicles, and Weaponry (scroll down).
• Action Skills: For minor reality warping. Bullet Time, Erudite Focus, Narrative, Sensitive, Stealing The Scene, and Tough It Out.
• High-End Martial Abilities: Stances and Martial Maneuvers.
• Leadership and Sentient Items:
  • Nagakanya, the Handmaid of Kwan Yin, Child Instruction, and the Devotions Of Celestial Mercy, A powerful healer and guardian.
  • Uaithne, Harp of the Dagda. A near-ultimate bardic instrument.
  • Amit-Mursiel, the Voice of Winds, Guardian of Ma’at. A masterclass psionic item that really doesn’t need a bearer – or a party.
  • Malachai, The Messenger Star. A bearer of either the wrath or the mercy of the light of creation.
• Low-Level Talents for Scifi Adventurers.
• Bracers of the Poseur: Useful items, but listed here because they’re a reasonable list of “really useful spells” when you want a quick list.
• City Magic: Infrastructure, Industries and Services, Questions, The Growth of Cities, Resources and Defenses, Flying Ships, Notes, and the Price Chart. City Functions and Foundations, Magical Businesses (also known as “a way for martial characters to get cheap equipment”), and Large Cities, Wards Major, and Cultivating Adventure.
• Wealth-By-Level – as a character ability.
• Spirit Binders: The basic Bokor / Binder Package and First-Level Vestiges / Mysteries (Amon, Aym, Otzi, and Nabeius),  Second Level Mysteries (Cheshire Cat, Haagenti, Malphas, and Sabnock), Third Level Mysteries (Ahazu/Ahasie, Andromalus, Focalor, Ile Zeremika, The Swashbuckler, Eligos, and The Presence), Fourth Level Mysteries (Agares, Andras, Arete, Glaysa-Labolas, Astaroth, Belial, Buer, Kabeiroi, Eurynome, Echoing Vengeance, and Oculi Umbra), Fifth Level Mysteries (The Psychopomp, The Whisper From The Grave, Dantalion, Geryon and his Bulls of Wrath, and Kagura), Sixth Level Mysteries (Apophis, Barbatos, Ruh Göbekli-Tepe, Haures, Ipos, Shax, The Triads, The Heartless Shadow, and Mucha Lucha), Seventh Level Mysteries (Ansitif, Eligor, Marchosias, and the Exemplars of Magic), Eighth Level Mysteries (Kyrie, The Dread Wyrm, Halphax, Orthos, and Vierdan Sanguine), and Epic Mysteries (The Martyred Hero, The Fallen World, The Formless Horror, and The Big Man). Mysteries are not only important to Binders and Bokors, but also present a wide variety of power packages.
  • The Discordant Powers and the Seven Deadly Sins are a subgroup of Mysteries set up for use by My Little Pony style Dragons. Gluttony, Lust, Greed, and Wrath, Pride/Cruelty, Sloth, Deception, Envy/Treachery, and Chance (and Fate Magic).
• Cursed with Awesome: Dark Magic and You. Examining common magical tropes and how to implement them in Eclipse.
• Craft (Policy). For when you simply must play politics.
• Affordable Warlordism; minion-making magic.
• Realistic d20 Firearms – and why they’re not nearly as good as you think.
• Linear Fighter, Assistant Wizard. How to run first-edition style magic in d20.
• The Four-Color Superhero Package. How 24 CP and the Superheroic World Template turns normal characters into major heroes.
• Building Rich Bastards, Dilettantes, and similar types.
• Marvel Comic’s New Mutants in Eclipse and Mutants and Masterminds. Index, power level discussion, and conversion notes.

Sample High-Level Characters:

. . Note that these characters were generally built for particular campaigns, and so are sometimes built using campaign-specific variants – usually a price break on especially-relevant abilities. These are covered in the Campaign Sheets for the relevant campaigns – Federation-Apocalypse Campaign, Ironwinds Campaign, Atheria Campaign, Twilight Isles Campaign, and Darkweird Campaign.

Level Two Sample Characters:

• Abigail Saunders-Tabard, Iron Homemaker. Housewife, Mystical Cook, and Martial Artist.
• Ahriman, a second level Thunder Dwarf.
• Arnold Jeremyn: a cyborg superhero.
• Benedict: a mystic swordsman of the manifold, and his Homeworld.
• Lotus Lefarge: an influential on-the-spot reporter who can influence what happens with what she says.
• Jarvian Mitchell: a wandering mechwarrior (and his mech).
• Kevin Sanwell, unseelie knight and would-be demon lord.
• Marty Tabard, a cartoon businessman from Battling Businesss World.
• Rudra, A thunder dwarf warrior from the twilight isles.
• Terin Aderath, mystic ritualist and martial-artist assassin.
• Flowing River, an Ankorath Smuggler.
• Sem the Sin-Eater, an oathbound “Paladin” from Kharidath.
• Fauve, a Chelmian Adventurous Scholar.
• Killers, Diplomats and Technomagi: Eclipse Sample Characters, Jarek Zindel (assassin), Boran Nong (half orc apologist), and Rochar Lindolfsen (dwarven technomage).
• Professor Arcane: Level two anime-themed human occultist with the Respected Academic, Psychic Mastery, and Shamanic Lore power packages plus the Arnis-Barang and Kulam-Kali Occult Martial Arts. Also, some Alternate Power Packages: Frankenstein and his Monster, Alchemic Mastery, and Magic Theorist.
• Taric the Pit Fighter: A simple warrior build for Eclipse.
• Olivia Marcanti: Level zero Ancient One, visionary, and secretary.
• The Red Knights of Iskarin in the Twilight Isles: Hilsaryn Rollyn (Ikam Thief), Temorath Marbane (Veltine Runemaster), Serrulan (Thunder Dwarf Ranger), and Obian Bloodwrath (Shadow Elf Barbarian).
• Zachary Marron, Level Zero (ECL 2) Darkchilde’ Alchemist. A dark-blooded young adventurer.
• The Fey Swordsman: a very tricky warrior.
• Heng Xia: a mutant panda martial artist and c’hi master.
• The Servant of a Fallen God: A Sorcerer-Priest and his Companion Deity.
• Gar Ashwood, Pathfinder/Dragonstar Soulmech Gunslinger-Detective
• The Balancer Of Scales, Dragonstar/Pathfinder Paladin
• Marvel Comics Feral – a classic mad slasher catgirl.
• Marvel Comics Skids – a valley girl barrier warrior.
• Marvel Comics Rusty – a not-quite-a-superhero pyrokinetic who doesn’t need the Superheroic World Template.
• Marvel Comics Boom-Boom – explosives expert.

Level Three Sample Characters:

• Sir Laurent Onn, a knight who channels celestial energies into magical auras.
• Kysen Nial, a nemesis for low-level characters.
• John Jack: a paranoid James Bond-style gadgeteer/secret agent.
• Kesara Galano: a delusional shadow elf who thinks she’s a dragon.
• Tarlin Malority: a death-affinity Thunder Dwarf Assassin and his History. Also, a version of him as transformed into a magma elemental; Tarlin “Magma” Malorty.
• Volund Saril, budding thief-lord and Dreamspawn Companion.
• Coran Mordant, Thief of Scrolls: a villain who steals magic from dying magi.
• Wildfire: A fire-projecting cheetah-morph superhero.
• Dante Allegori, the Divine Comedian. A Catman-mystic weaponsmaster.
• Jade Alwyn, Elementalist-Prospector of the Shadowed Galaxy.
• The Battle Sage. A revised build by Christopher West.
• Marvel Comics Shatterstar. An “I has swords!” guy.
• Marvel Comics Domino. Yes, it’s a gun bunny.
• Marvel Comics Richtor. Seismic Manipulator and Team Player.
• Marvel Comics Warpath / Thunderbird II. A powerful totemic warrior.

Level Four Sample Characters:

• Cadmel, Anime Sorcerer. A roguish anime-style sorcerer with unlimited use of his spells.
• Ithulsin the Outcast: a powerful mentalist with the Krell Psychic Adept template.
• Li Kao, a d20 Samurai and Shintoist mystic. Exchanges favors with spirits for his magical talents.
• Lingering Smoke, a quick conversion of a Sidereal Exalted character to Eclipse.
• Jamie Wolfe – a MLELF Cyborg Super-Soldier.
• Dr Solomon Brenner: A highly skilled, if monstrously immoral, surgeon from the Linear Realms.
• Rahne Diende, a human runemage healer.
• Anatolia Demonslayer, a modern demon hunter.
• Yolande of the Sternwaters, a shapeshifter-witch-shaman
• Kelelawar, Vigilante Hero a mystic martial artist with skill-powered magic.
• Earthmaster Gedion, mystic architect and builder of Wards Major.
• Randolf Upton Pickman, a would-be bystander headed for his dark ascension. Also, a lot on Mystic Artist.
• Marvel Comics Magma. Yes, of the New Mutants.
• Marvel Comics Karma. And why she’s fundamentally a bit dull.
• Marvel Comics Cypher. Translator, magical dabbler, and hacker.

Level Five Sample Characters:

• Doctor Wrath, a power-armor supervillian who can fit nicely into most d20 parties.
• The Iron Raptor, a basic superstrong / flying / super-tough superhero build.
• Julius Gaius Maximus, a healer-priest of the Imperium.
• Charles Stevenson. An exceptionally deadly martial artist and master of C’hi Manipulation via Acupressure.
• Kristin Stanwell. A cyborg firearms expert.
• Matthew Carrington. An anime-styled paladin-archer and servant of the light.
• Shadow-of-Dark-Wings. A Dark Reaper, responsible for capturing evil spirits which have escaped into the human world.
• Terry Jenkins (offsite link). Battling Businesswoman, occult accountant, and Champion of the Numbers.
• Jim Corrigan, psychiatrist, road rager, and Battling Businessman.
• Aumakua Puka, the guardian of the Wolf Wood and his Companions.
• Sylthis Torr, a Sapient Leopard Warrior-Adept of the Obsidian Order.
• Baron Ectar, a supervillian and master of vocal powers.
• The Toller of the Darkness: A fifth level “Warlock” build for Eclipse.
• Variations on the Monk: The basic “Monk”, the C’hi Master, and the Exorcist at level five for Eclipse.
• Ifhitel the Assassin and Chandia the Snakewitch: Snake-themed bad guys.
• Marhandur the Son of the Serpent. A would-be hero with a dark heritage and some inherent supernatural gifts.
• Yuki Tendo, Mystic Ninja (relies strongly on Atherian world laws).
• The Walker in Darkness: a devilish warlock-styled priestess of Asmodeus.
• Noita Verduur, psychic shapeshifter and special agent.
• Jaelyn Kei Roskam, Manifold Elemental Master and Space Prospector.
• Trixie Lulumoon, The Great and Powerful. Also, the Alicorn Amulet, the Ursa Minor, and Celestia’s School.
• Marvel Comics Wolfsbane. Again, of the New Mutants.
• How to build Terminators. CR5 rather than L5 – but close enough. Basic Builds, Power Sources, Explosions, and Robot Buddies,

Level Six Sample Characters:

• A’ikana Kalil, a psychic monk, a dimension walking chi master, and agent of the Unified Church.
• Thrall, a jackal-barbarian Lesser Dark Lord.
• Amber the Dragon Sorceress. A young (ECL 6) dragon-sorceress.
• Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist.Yes, it’s the anime character. Someone wanted to know how to build him in Eclipse.
• Akio Matsuda: A sentient humanoid robot from Battling Business World and the Humanoid Sapient Device Template.
• Bernie “Coach” Thompson, Floorherd: A Battling Business World Stockbroker.
• Todd Jenkins, Battling Business World English Traditionalist-Archer.
• Howl-of-Death, Level Six Hyena Gravespeaker. A Bandit Queen, Demonologist and Necromancer, and all-around unpleasant person.
• Lynxi Abysinia: World-Conquering Sorceress Super-villainess Catgirl. Need I say more?
• Little Bear, Wrestler of Magic:  A mage who pounds magic into submission, with the Spellbreaker martial art.
• Taric of Alderdale, Dragon Warrior. Taric the Pit Fighter is growing up – and into his draconic heritage.\
• Warlock of the Technarchy, a Marvel Comics New Mutant. Including his Race/Template.

Level Seven Sample Characters:

• Esteria, a slightly senile old woman with poor control of her magic and entirely too many dragon-cats.
• Kelsaru Ana’Nasu, a crystal dragoness, powerful telepath, and Kevin Sanwell’s girlfriend.
• Xaliotl, an obsessive fire mage.
• Marty Tabard (offsite link), Battling Businessman and dimensional wanderer.
• Yuki Tendo – L5 to L7 Update. A slight upgrade to the original mystic ninja.
• Tomonoko (“Tomo”) Sayuki, a Power-Armor Superhero.
• An Arcane Rogue: A mystical thief and a very complex conversion.
• Dallyn Vortys, Ebonthane of Nidhogg the Devourer, Would-Be Dark Lord. A Warrior-Priest of Nidhogg.
• Illurion Voice-Of-Nightmares, Bard of the Unmaking. A Bard specializing in the music of destruction.
• Raykul Tepes, Scion of the Damned. The accursed offspring of a Necromancer Vampire Lord and a true, Demonic Lycanthrope
• Kivan Lark, Biologist and Monster-Maker.
• Lukas Scourgeson, a human prince – and a rampaging monster.
• Gravewright Eyes-Of-The-Dead, Lesser Lich.
• Whispering Songbird, cultist.
• Rake and Rokean, a dark druid and his aberrant familiar.
• Heir to Darkness, a partial vessel of a fallen god.
• Queen Chrysalis, of the My Little Pony Changelings.
• Marvel Comics Magick – and how the Eclipse build compares to Mutants and Masterminds.
• Marvel Comics Cannonball, also for Mutants and Masterminds.
• Marvel Comics Mirage and the Valkyrie / Valkyrja template.
• Marvel Comics Sunspot. A fairly classic paragon.

Level Eight Sample Characters:

• Gandalf and the Balrog. Surely I don’t need to explain who these are?
• Haurgrim the Sagacious, a magus, mystical artist, and demonstration of how to build an advanced skill.
• Arith Lewauken, a tribal warrior and witch-doctor turned mecha pilot.
• Ragnar the Questionable, a prismatic warrior from the Illusion Domain.
• Fred Gelman (Offsite Link), battling businessman and friend to sentient office devices.
• Ulric Kyrie Dunholtson, a mystical guardian, wielder of the Dragon Path, and hedge mage.
• Brendalen Kathin: a mid-level Loup-Garou.
• Princess Luna of Equestria. Ruler of the Night, Guardian of Dreams. Development notes HERE.
• Karthos the Dweomer Master. A fairly formidable warri0r-mage.
• Hisui Tsume (Jade Claws). A catman mystic samurai.
• Granny, the Secret Overlord. Background and Basics, Skills, Skill Tricks, and Related Abilities, Architectural Wonders, Experience by Study, and her Legendarium Panoply, Witchery, Poisons, and the Ruinous Powers, Rulership, Miscellany, Investments, and Equipment.
• Marvel Comics Cable and Graymalkin. The leader of X-Force
• DC Comics Raven, mystic and plot device. Background and Build.

Higher Level Sample Characters:

• Level Ten: Raven, a druid/thief/dragon who’s wandered in from older editions.
• Level Ten: Darius Metaxis, Siege Engineer. Along with his portable castle.
• Level Ten: Darth Vader (as a character-conversion example)
• Level Ten: Building the Kensai or “Sword Saint”.
• Level Eleven: One, the Number Lord of Identity.
• Level Eleven: Dark Lord Kevin, an ascending godling specializing in bestowing power on his minions. Also his bestowed Power Package from fairly early on.
• Level Eleven: Conley Mac’Gregor, a master shapeshifter.
• Level Twelve: Peter Leland (Offsite Link), a cartoon business raider and possum breeder.
• Level Twelve: Ryan “Tools” O’Malley. A tinkerer-engineer-artificer.
• Level Twelve: Anek Borez, Lord Goth: A fallen Paladin, now an undead Knight of the Abyss. With an ECL 16 Upgrade.
• Level Twelve: Haurgrim the Sagacious, Magus-Politician. Moving up in level and into politics.
• Lord Zero: The Number Lord of Eternity. A crazed godling.
• Level Thirteen: Adam, Praetorian Nightmare: a melee death-machine nightmare for entire high-level parties.
• Level Eighteen: The Atrocity Build: A grossly abusive build designed for raw sorcerous power – and his Companions.
• Level Nineteen: Torak Rosul, ECL 19 Accursed Primordial Vampire and his Followers
• Level Twenty: Uncle, A Tier-1 (or possibly Tier-0) Monk. Also, his Spell List and some intelligent item followers.
• Epic Level: A Balor, spawn of darkness…
• Epic Level: Amilko Moonshadow: History and Character Sheet. One of the few epic-level squirrels out there.
• Epic Level: Ptaysanwee, Priestess-Archer.
• Epic Level; King Dorsian, ECL 30 Warrior-Mage. Not an especially efficient build, but at this point who cares?

Level Ten and Twenty Breakdowns:

• The Warlock (and variations thereof).
• The Duskblade (and variations thereof)
• The Malconvoker and the Master Summoner variations.
• The Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade from the Book of Nine Swords.
• The Soul Archer (ten-level prestige class).
• The Iron Heroes Harrier.
• The Empiric Masquerader: A ten-level build that can impersonate many other classes.
• The Soul Knife: Along with how to upgrade them to make them usable.
• The Mastercrafter, Artificer, or similar.
• The Factotum and the Seneschal
• The (Totally Revised) Truenamer. For when you want a character like this who’s actually useful.
• The Soul Eater. When the flavor text is at war with the mechanics.

Alzrius has also put up quite a few Eclipse characters on his Intelligence Check blog – including quite a few interpretations of popular characters from a variety of sources. Pretty much all of them are written up for Pathfinder, and usually use the Pathfinder Package Deal.

• Rinoa, from Final Fantasy via Dead Fantasy, a powerful 15’th level spellcaster – along with the Hyne Witch template and a discussion of many of the other characters.
• Pyrrha Nikos, a 7th-level Huntress-in-training, along with statistics for Vytal Humans, three Martial Arts, and some world background and discussion.
• Sharalia, a Level One Fire Dancer – a character who controls flame through dance.
• A 20’th level breakdown for an Antimage –  a “class” that specializes in negating the powers of dangerous spellcasters.
• The Maedar – a racial template breakdown for a male medusa.
• Sailor Saturn – a fragile young woman from the Sailor Moon anime with some exceptionally over-the-top powers.
• Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, written up at the peak of his powers – along with the Netherrealm Ghost template and three Martial Arts.
• Sam Winchester, a level three paranormal investigator from the Supernatural television series.
• Varek, a Level Six Cleric with some support abilities.
• Abraham Lincoln, Level Twelve Civil Warrior of the United States of America – with a touch of Vampire Hunter and including his Martial Art.
• Agent Spin – a Second Level Elite Beat Agent who gets sent… to encourage people in trouble.
• Gargamel, a First Level Incompetent Ritualist and Bumbler – perhaps fortunately, without statistics for Smurfs.
• Spinnerette, a Level Five Spider-Style Superheroine/
• Malecite, a Level Ten Villainous Mage from Suburban Knights, along with Malecite’s Hand, a vastly powerful relic and various new spells.
• Dirk Markson, a Level One Dark Witch – and possible hero.
• Barney Stinson (Scroll Down), a Level One Sitcom Inhabitant – from How I Met Your Mother.

Alzrius’s Eclipse d20 Ponies:

Alzrius built his ponies so as to fit into “standard” d20 games – whereas I used the “Superheroic” world template because it would allow my builds to reproduce the things that the ponies did on the show. Of course, that means that my builds will only work well in games based on the assumptions of Equestria; they won’t do so well in basic games. For those, courtesy of Alzrius, we have…

• The Pony Races:  Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns.
• The Elements of Harmony:  Built as Eclipse Relics.
• Rarity:  Starting off the series at level one! Commentary: Using the Elements of Harmony to cover the characters occasional incredible stunts.
• Princess Celestia: As she generally appears on the show – as a ninth-level mentor-type who explains why she can’t handle things.
• Adagio of the Sirens: Unreformed, still at large, and needing only an enchanted gem to make a comeback.
• Lex Legis (And his Picture): Alzrius’s original character – and a very “gray” potential opponent.
• Notes on Zecora: A discussion of just how much power – or lack thereof – is needed to build Zecora. Comments: My take on Zebras.
• The Journal of the Two Sisters – and lapses in logic therein. Comments: Unicorn populations and birthrates, basic demographics – and why the “Unicorns losing their magic” story makes no sense in any terms.
• Iliana, the Ponyfinder Queen: An examination of how to use Eclipse to customize – and slightly upgrade – a Ponyfinder queen to fit her history.
• Lashtada, Ponyfinder Goddess:  As set up using The Primal Order for second edition.
• Sonata Dusk: As appearing in his Fanfiction.
• A Magical Medieval Society: Equestria: Building equestrian society using “A Magical Medieval Society”.
• Baby Got Backlash: Flurry Heart and Magical Surges
• Tempest Shadow: The movie antagonist escapes into d20, rather than remaining to face the friendship

Shadowed Galaxy Vampire Bloodlines – The Yytsuri Pilots Guild

While the vampire “bloodlines” (First Stage, Lifecycle, and Second Stage) of the galaxy are now diversifying, with a generation time of several thousand years the process is relatively slow. Still, while the various vampires strains are easily recognizable as variations on a theme, the vast size of the galaxy has ensured that numerous variations have arisen. 

The Warp Drive is the standard for most physical races; it avoids spacefield complications, the horrible risks of hyperspace or subspace, and quite a lot of other problems. Unfortunately, even the fastest (and exponentially more dangerous and power-hungry) Warp Drives require days per light year – while a Subspace Drive with a skilled pilot may require only an hour or so and is considerably simpler to build and maintain.

Sadly, Subspace Drives lead to the ships experiencing decades or centuries of time during the trip – and ships vanish entirely all too often.

Except, of course, for the ships of the Yytsuri.

Long centuries past, during the Yytsuri’s first attempts to reach the stars, a wealthy research sponsor proved to be remarkably gifted. Zhir could not only coax incredible performance out of even a basic subspace drive, but could reliably pilot a ship through subspace, apparently tapping into the energies of that realm to enter partial stasis and so easily survive the trip. Zhir piloted between the stars for the years of a greatly extended lifespan, and even managed to train a few others to do the same – although whatever mysterious process Zhir used to do so had a high casualty rate. Still, there were always more starry-eyed youngsters eager to gamble death against a long, long, life of wealth, luxury, and a service to their people that no others could provide amidst the freedom of the stars.

Eventually the Founder, grown old at last, took Zhirs private ship into space and vanished between the stars – a tradition that those of zhirs successors who beat the odds of space to grow old in the service of commerce, exploration, and defense, still observe.

Adrift between the stars, shielded from the “subspace mines” and other “haunted ships” by Zhir’s own projected aura, the Founder let Zhir’s crumbling physical form slip away to at last begin the long process of melding with Zhir’s ship – a task greatly eased by having a private ship, designed and built to Zhir’s own specifications, and saturated with several centuries worth of personalized attunements.

And some three thousand years later, a new Yytsuri Vampire Core found a world inhabited by a species that might – given a little protection and subtle nudging across the next few millennia – begin to reach for the stars.

And so protection and subtle nudging was given – and when the flowering came at last, there would once again be research sponsors and potential pilots waiting.

And eventually, after many more centuries of expansion and piloting… some of those pilots would take their personal ships on one last voyage, to vanish between the stars they’d opened the path to – and to eventually become new Yytsuri Cores to repeat the cycle once again.

The Yytsuri “Bloodline” has – fairly obviously – reached near-full symbiotic status with it’s host civilizations and has begun to spread fairly rapidly – at least by vampire core standards. It is, however, limited by slow recruitment (the desire that most “recruits” be willing and survive requires very careful selection of candidates and a lot of extra work), slow development (the desire for personalized ships calls for some very specific circumstances), and the need to locate and civilize suitable candidate-species.

Worse, of course, the Yytsuri may be helpful – but they push new species out into the galaxy and are not sufficient protection in themselves from the remains of other self-reproducing weapons. The galactic ecosystem is very dangerous, and pushing new species out into it is not always doing them a favor.

The Yytsuri Bloodline:

Disciplines: Cyberwarp (used to gradually attune ships systems to themselves), Electricity Master (fairly obvious), Entropic Blast (allowing fast drive startups), N-Space Adaption (to allow the use of subspace drives), and Subspace Piloting.

Traits: Breath of Puruza (used, among other things, for spacewalking, drastically slowing their subjective time while piloting through subspace, and detaching from their physical forms in a controlled fashion) and Cloaking (used to present the appearance that their ships are already hosting a Vampire Core or Haunt).

And I should now be able to get back to posting and answering questions here. Hopefully I can get caught up before something else comes up to interrupt.

Eclipsing Mirage

Danielle Moonstar or “Dani”, A.K.A. Mirage (or, briefly, “Psyche”)

Level Six Psychic Illusionist with a +1 ECL Valkyrie / Vakyrja Template, for ECL 7.

Mirage was fairly straightforward: originally she could manifest images of things that you feared or desired and thus either frighten / distract you or make you happy / confused. As she gained control, she could get more subtle about it. She also had some rapport with animals and soon developed a mental link with Wolfsbane.

And that was well and good. She had no actual offensive abilities outside of being decent (for a teenager) with a bow and knife, but she revealed secrets, confused targets, created diversions, got an overview of things through animal eyes, and scared groups of minions quite well. She worked very nicely in an investigative team.

Later on she developed the ability to manifest other images as well, becoming a useful general illusionist.

Still later she became a Valkyrie / Valkyrja (getting herself a flying horse, high resistance to soul- and death-related magic, the ability to sense death coming, and the ability to “fight off death” (basically being able to keep people alive if she “won a duel with death”. Usually she did, but sometimes she lost – and sometimes Death arrived peacefully and told her that it would be a bad idea to fight because the injuries were beyond mending). That still wasn’t much of a tactical power though.

Eventually a power-altering device upgraded her illusions to be able to manifest as quasi-real things – although she’d been stated to have that potential very early on. That didn’t last that long since it made a bunch of plotlines awkward, but she had fun with it for a bit.

Currently she’s had her mutant powers removed – although, in fact, looking at some current pictures… she seems to have simply traded in her illusions for membership in SHIELD (giving her access to advanced tech and spy gadgets) and the ability to have more weapons on her than a dozen heavily armed men could normally carry.

Anyway, we’ll be seeing how the Eclipse version (using the Superheroic World Template) stacks up to the Mutants & Masterminds version over HERE.

First up, it’s the elephant in the room. Becoming a Valkyrie / Valkyrja is actually a very big deal. Sure, they were only minor goddesses – but they traditionally had some fairly major powers, even if Marvel’s writers only bring them up on rare occasions.

Valkyrie / Valkyrja (32 CP / +1 ECL Acquired Template):

Classically the Valkyrja CHOSE the slain, shaped the course of battles and the destinies of men, granted health and fortune, or brought misery and death. They were spirits of Death, War, and Battle – servants of Odin and Freyja, yes, but extensions of their power and powers in their own right. In the Marvel Universe the Valkyrja tap into the Odin-Power – and, as a group, have been shown (in “What if the New Mutants stayed in Asgard?”) stripping Hela of her power and status and empowering Danielle Moonstar as the Asgardian goddess of death in her place. Going by that and by the old stories… being a Valkyrja offers a lot more power than Mirage has ever really used. It’s too bad that she doesn’t really know that.

• Occult Sense/The Forces of Death: May sense the coming and presence of Death (both the entity and the process), and communicate with Death and the Dead (6 CP).
• Grant Of Aid, Mana Powered, Specialized and Corrupted for Increased Effect (Uses mana at one point per use, works up to three rounds after death has technically occurred) / Only for “doing battle with Death”, only to get those affected to stable condition (not good health), occupies the user during the rounds it’s used (6 CP). In effect, if a Valkyrja is near someone who has just been mortally injured or slain, she can fight death for their life – spending up to the next three rounds (and probably all the mana she gets during that period) on Grant of Aid. If she can “heal” them enough for them to reach normal stability during that time, they will live. If not… she loses her duel with death, and they die (although she is unharmed save for the waste of time). Technically, Valkyrja can also do battle for their OWN lives – making them pretty tough to kill.
• Blessing, Specialized and Corrupted/only to allow the use of Grant of Aid on others (2 CP).
• Privilege: May arrange a peaceful and easy passing and a smooth transition into a the afterlife or into a suitable reincarnation for those under their (3 CP). Valkyrja can escort the dying into the realms of death, making their passage easy and offering a choice of destinations.
• Weave of the Norns: Adept (Wisdom-Based Death Rune Magic and Destiny Rune Magic, both Mastery and Casting in Each, 6 CP). +4 in each Adept Skill (8 CP). Valkyrja can, of course, build this up – but even the least skilled start with some abilities along these lines, even if they never use them much.
  • In Mirage’s case that’s +7 all around – enough for first level spells and caster level three if she was really aware of those powers. At the moment, any use of these powers is likely to be unintentional.
    
• Spell Resistance, Specialized for Increased Effect / only against Death and Soul Magic (6 CP). This provides a resistance of (10 + 2 x Level). It can be upgraded with a further +10/+20 at the cost of another 6/12 (3/6 after the template specialization) character points.
• Bearers Of The Dead: Immunity to Dimensional Barriers (Very Common, Severe, Major, Specialized and Corrupted / only to interact “physically” with spirits and move between the realms of the living and the dead (instead of all dimensions), costs 2 Mana to activate for one minute) (5 CP). Valkyrja in non-superheroic settings will need to modify this slightly or buy some mana.
• Spectral Stride: Shapeshift with the Shape of Death and Incorporeal Forms enhancements, Specialized and Corrupted/only to take Incorporeal Form, costs 2 Mana per round maintained. Note that if the user opts to remain incorporeal and on the edges of the realms of death, he or she will be effectively invisible, just like any other unmanifested spirit (6 CP). Valkyrja in non-superheroic settings will need to modify this slightly or buy some mana. Classically this was mostly used to remain unseen while awaiting the outcome of duels and such, but the Valkyrja could get in pretty much anywhere; no place in the mortal realms was barred to the handmaidens of Death.
• Immunity to Aging (Uncommon, Major, Minor, 4 CP). While not truly immortal, Valkyrja can expect to live for many centuries with little sign of the passing years.
• Companion: A Mystic Mount with a +2 ECL Template, 12 CP): Typically an Asgardian Horse with a variant on the Spirit Fetch template (less Favors, more Wings and Flying).
• Contact: Death (2 CP). Valkyrja get to know Death the Entity – and it hasn’t got many friends. It’s usually quite willing to talk. It also rather approves of people putting up a good fight, and bears no ill-will for being “defeated”. After all, that’s really only “Just a moment, OK?” from its prospective.

At 64 CP this would normally be a +2 ECL template, but Valkyrja are…

• Drawn to death. They will often find themselves called to attend and escort heroes to their rewards, to guide those dying untimely, to shape the course of fights, to teach lessons to young warriors, and to help calm the unquiet dead.
• Automatically entangled in the various Asgardian, Death-God, and Demonic disputes over the Dead and intervention in the material plane.
• Expected to be highly skilled in combat, A Valkyrie must be skilled in several different weapons and must maintain a BAB of at least 3/4’th their level to use their powers.
• Generally regarded as servants and harbingers of death. Most people will NOT be happy to see a Valkyrja and often blame or attack them for things that are in no way their fault.

This counts as a Specialization that reduces the cost to 32 CP – a +1 ECL Acquired Template.

Four Color Package (24 CP):

• This includes Superheroic Physics, Superheroic Durability, Superheroic Build, Rapid Recovery, Minor Conventions (Ready for Inspection, Comics Code, It’s Sufficient, Heroic Will, Heroic Rally, Coincidental Catch, Heroic Health, and a Minor Benefit (in her case, +2 Charisma).

Pathfinder Package Deal (Free).

Pathfinder Human (Free)

Basic Attributes: Str 12 (+2 Totem = 14), Int 13 (+1 Level = 14), Wis 14 (+2 Human = 16), Con 14 (+4 Totem +2 Enh = 20), Dex 14 (+4 Totem = 19), and Cha 14 (+2 Four-Color Minor Power = 16). Pathfinder 25 Point Buy.

Danielle needs an attribute booster, mostly because she’s almost always been either lacking in effective offensive powers (especially when she’s fighting robots) or powered down – and so the writers have usually given her the “badass normal” treatment (making her skilled enough to hold her own against millennia-old asgardian warrior women). Since it works when she’s powered down this can’t be a “mutant” ability – but she is Amerindian (and proud of her heritage), spent years training with a Shaman with significant magical ability, and showed an immediate rapport with a wolf-shapeshifter – declaring her her “soulmate”. Ergo, she’s channeling her spirit animal – in her case, obviously, a wolf. That’s Shapeshift, with the Attribute Modifiers, Hybrid Form, Clear Speech, and Variants (human appearance) modifiers, Specialized/a single animal form only and Corrupted/cannot actually Change Forms, for a net cost of 9 CP. This, of course, is one of the cheapest exploits in Eclipse – but is most helpful to physical-combat focused characters of races that don’t get a lot of bonuses to their physical attributes and fits into a superhero setting very readily indeed given the number of animal-themed characters running about in them. Her Wolf Totem grants her Str +2, Con +4, Dex +4, +2 Natural Armor, Trip (automatic attempt with a melee attack), Track, and Move +10.

Skills:

• Upgrade Human Fast Learner to +2 SP/Level (3 CP). Net Skill Points: (Int Mod + 2) x (Level + 3) +12 (12 CP) = 48 at Level Six.
• Tribal Heritage: Adept, pays half cost for Athletics, Expertise (Cheyenne Heritage), Intimidation, and Martial Art / The First Rays Of Heavenly Fire, 6 CP). All at a base of +9 (18 SP). Totals of Athletics +13, Expertise +11, Intimidation +12, and First Rays +12
• Other Skills: Acrobatics 2 (+6), Deception 3 (+6), Expertise (SHIELD Agent) 3 (+6), Insight 5 (+8), Investigation 4 (+6), Martial Arts (Generic Hero Style, Str) 2 (+6), Perception 5 (+8), Stealth 4 (+8), and Vehicles 2 (+6). (30 SP).
  • Bow Techniques (6): Attack +3, Instant Stand, Rapid Shot, and Inner Strength.
  • Unarmed Techniques (3): Attack +2, Improved Disarm.

Mutant Powers: Fast Learner, Specialized in Skills for +2 SP/Level, Corrupted / only to keep this set of Adept skills maxed out (4 CP), Adept (Wisdom-Based Rune Magic, both Casting and Mastery for Beastmastery and Illusion, Beastmastery Specialized for Increased Effect / telepathic effects only, no summonings/transformations/etc, 6 CP). Augmented Bonus (Add Con Mod to Wis Mod for skill purposes, Specialized for Double Effect/Only for Rune Magic, 6 CP). Total: 9 (Level + 3) +3 (Wis) + 10 (2 x Con Mod) = +22. Caster Level 11, Effect Level 5 for Illusions, x1.5 for Beastmastery.

• Her Illusions were originally mostly Figments based on strongly-emotional memories pulled from her target’s memories. These days she can give them a certain degree of reality with shadow magic and create illusions that can bring joy, induce potentially lethal levels of fear, and pull off a wide variety of other tricks.
• Her Illusions were originally Corrupted for Increased Effect (sometimes “cast themselves” when she didn’t want them to), but she’s since bought that off – so her actual upper limits haven’t changed that much.
• When “Depowered” this turns into Rune Magic: Weapons (mostly guns, knives, and various trick arrows) and Rune Magic: Spy Gadgets (Corrupted/only small and subtle stuff, she does not rate “James Bond” spy cars and such).

Soulmates: Mindspeech with Mindlink and Sense Sharing, may be established at any range with Rahne Sinclair / Wolfsbane (+1 CP), Specialized and Corrupted for Reduced Cost / ONLY with Rahne, only really works well in her Hybrid or Full-Wolf form, does not extend past death (or didn’t; now that Dani is a Valkyrja, who knows?), relies on her mutant Beastmastery and stops working if that does (4 CP).

This was the second half of a wonderful scouting combination; Mirage gets the general layout from mice, rats, birds, pets, and the other small animals that are found everywhere humans are, Wolfsbane slips in inconspicuously and gets any needed details, and Mirage relays them to the rest of the team. The fact that it was almost never used was kind of disappointing.

Basics:

• BAB +7 BAB (Corrupted, does not contribute to iterative attacks, 28 CP), +1 BAB with Bows (2 CP).
• Hit Dice: 12 (L1d12, 8 CP) +14 (L2-6dd, 0 CP) +30 (Con Mod x 6) = 56 (Mutants & Masterminds: Toughness 8, 11 with Costume).
• Saving Throws: +3 Fort (9 CP), +4 Ref (12 CP), +5 Will (15 CP). Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +8, all +2 Resistance (see Equipment) for +10 Total.
• Proficiencies: Proficient with all Simple and Martial Weapons and Light Armor (12 CP).
• Armor Class: 10 (Base) +4 (Dex) +3 (Armor) +2 (Natural) +5 (Enduring Combatant / Improved Augmented Bonus: adds (Con Mod) to (Dex Mod) for calculating AC, 12 CP) = 24.
• Attacks
  • Bow: +8 (BAB) +4 (Dex) +3 (Martial Art) -2 (Rapid Shot) = +13/+13, 1d6+4 (+1 Magic +4 Str) +1d6 versus Evil Outsiders, Crit 20/x3.
  • Unarmed: +7 (BAB) +4 (Str) +2 (Martial Art) = +13, 1d4+4, plus automatic improved trip attempt.

Minor Items:

• Martial Arts I: May inflict 1d4 damage in HTH, is considered armed when “unarmed” (3 CP).
• Expertise x2: AC and Attack, Attack and Damage/Effect (12 CP).
• Immunity/the normal limits of Intimidation. Mirage may opt to inflict a Dazed condition for one round with a successful Intimidation check (Common, Minor, Trivial, 2 CP).
• Minor Favors: SHIELD (3 CP), X-Groups (3 CP).
• Immunity/Fear (Common, Minor, Major, 6 CP).
• Track (Wilderness, using Cheyenne Heritage, 3 CP).
• Privilege: Unlike most heroes, Mirage actually has access to magical gear (3 CP).
• Privilege: Salaried (Secret Agent, Hero Team Member, Etc) (3 CP).

Total Costs:

• Four-Color Package: 24 CP
• Wolf Totem: 9 CP
• Skills & Mutant Powers: 19 CP
• 12 Extra Skill Points: 12 CP
• Mindlink with Rahne: 4 CP
• BAB: 30 CP
• Hit Points: 18 CP
• Saving Throws: 36 CP
• Proficiencies 12 CP
• Armor Class: 12 CP
• Minor Items: 38 CP

Grand Total: 214 CP.

Available Character Points: 168 (Level Six Base) +24 (Human, L1, L3, and L5 Bonus Feats) +10 (Disadvantages: History, Enemies (Originally the Demon Bear, later various), Vows / Cheyenne honor code) +12 (Duties; superhero, agent) = 214 CP

For the remaining details:

• Four Color Minor Power: +2 Charisma (as previously noted).
• With a +1 ECL Template on top of being Level Six, she’s entitled to 23,500 GP worth of gear. In Mirage’s case she has the standard “X-Man” package (13,000 GP):
  • Kevlar Reinforced Costume (“Leather Armor”, but 40 GP and only 5 pounds), Masterwork (+150 GP), +1 (+1000 GP), Amulet of Tears (2300 GP. This can provide up to +36 HP per day. Throwing that into his HP total for the purposes of calculation in M&M provides Toughness 12 normally, 13 when “blasting”. Armor Crystal: a Lesser Iron Ward Diamond (2000 GP). This isn’t a big deal, but every little bit helps.
  • Advanced First Aid Kit / Healing Belt (750 GP).
  • “Pocket Secretary”/Hero Team Comlink: Satellite Smartphone with HUD and hands-free links (250 GP), Smartsearch (As per a Tome of Worldly Memory, 1500 GP), Intelligent (500 GP), Int, Wis, Chr all 10 (0 GP), 30′ senses, uses Message at will (1000 GP). Note that, since smartphones can talk anyway, there is no need to buy speech for it.
  • Reactive Contact Lenses / Raptors Mask (3500 GP).+5 to Spot (Perception), Immunity to being Blinded or Dazzled.
  • Utility Pouch: Keys, LED minilight, multitool, chalk, nylon ties, etc. All the little junk that pops up once in a blue moon (10 GP).
  • And some individual items with the remaining 13,500 GP: +1 Composite Longbow (Str +4) (2800 GP), Medicine Pouch (+2 Constitution, 4000 GP), Least Fiendslayer Crystal (1000 GP), +2 Vest of Resistance (4000 GP), and Boots Of The Mountain King (1500 GP).
• That leaves some 200 GP (about four thousand dollars) for minor supplies – although her salary covers a rather good lifestyle.

Mirage is still primarily a team booster and illusion-crafter – a very useful member of a team, but not the one you turn to to defeat a rampaging menace. Oddly enough, in her “Depowered” mode, she’s actually a lot more destructive (capable of pulling out all kinds of guns, grenades and other explosives, missile launchers, and advanced energy weapons as well as various “spy gadgets” as needed) – if far less sneaky.

The fact that she can almost always save a dying teammate if she can devote a few rounds to it – being able to pull them back to stability from an average of negative 150 hit points, 40 points of Constitution (or other attribute) drain, or being energy drained to level (-14) – is pretty handy too.

Underlying The Rules: The Social Contract

There was a request a little while back for an article on what I thought of the social dynamics that underlie gaming groups even before you get to considering any particular set of rules.

That’s an interesting question, although I’m not sure that I’m the best one to be directing it to, or – for that matter – exactly where this series is going to go or how long it will take to get there (if it ever does). It seems likely to meander a bit – which at least makes it a bit of a new challenge.

Is everybody ready then? I think the best place to start is what might be called the Primal Datum of RPG’s…

Gaming is a social activity, which people engage in for the purpose of having fun.

If you show up for a game you’ve implicitly agreed to that, even if you’re only there because somebody dragged you along. It’s just like being there to watch a football game or listen to a band; there are some unspoken social rules – unspoken because human beings generally know them instinctively.

(If you’re just there to harass and annoy people there’s no point in talking to you. You’re actually there to participate? Good!)

The three biggest social rules are the same for every group. They’re a part of the basic “being sociable” deal. In fact, they’re pretty much the same (albeit in simpler forms) for chimpanzees, dolphins, and most other social animals.

• If what you are doing is inexpensively (whether the expense is financial, emotional, physical, or temporal) increasing everyone’s fun, keep doing it. If it costs too much… you’ll have to find another way to contribute.
• If what you are doing is decreasing everyone’s fun, stop doing it unless it’s a dire necessity. You probably will automatically because you’re ruining your own evening too, but some people are very stubborn.
• If what you are doing is increasing your own fun while seriously decreasing that of the other participants… then you are being a greedy, selfish, !@#$%^&* – and if you choose not to recognize that fact and do not change your behavior, then the group should throw you out on your ass.

These three rules are self-enforcing in most social groups. The Bridge Club, and the Monday Night Football Party Crowd, and the Rich Kids Clique won’t hesitate to stop inviting a disruptive individual to their gatherings. Gaming groups, however, commonly contain a high proportion of socially awkward introverts, who (having so few) are deeply reluctant to reject any social relationship and often make enormous allowances for obnoxious behavior. After all… they know that often annoy people without meaning to, and they’re not very good at telling if someone does mean to annoy them or if it’s inadvertent.

That means that some players will be allowed to get away with being greedy, selfish, !@#$%^&*’s for a very long time without being called on it. Long enough so that such individuals will often come to regard being allowed to get away with it as an entitlement – and will react to any suggestion that they’re misbehaving as if it was a horrible infringement on their “rights”. It can be very hard to tell though, given that most such individuals will deploy “indignantly blaming the wronged parties” as an automatic defense mechanism in any case. In any given case it might well be an act. (Don’t ask ME to sort that out for you. As a socially awkward introvert myself, how would I know?)

Still, after a bit… even socially awkward introverts will realize that they’re being taken advantage of, and soon after that they will come to resent it bitterly. They’ll resent it even more bitterly if they’re socially awkward enough to be unsure of how to do anything about it. In a gaming group such behavior is usually considered to be “cheating” (which is how gamers tend to describe “being obnoxious and unfair to everyone else”) – although this can confuse other socially awkward people who are looking at the rules of the game being played, rather than at the three social rules given above, and thus don’t see any “cheating”.

You want some more direct rules-of-thumb for avoiding messing up?

Commandment the First: Thou Shalt Create Personas That Can Fit Int The Player Group.

This doesn’t mean that you have to make a character who makes any sense as a part of the party, or has the same style, or anything else except for being able to work with the party. For examples…

A new player joined a fantasy-setting game. Against advice to wait until he knew what the party was like he made a half-ogre berserker barbarian who hated Elves, and detested puny mages, and equipped him with a magical halberd called “Elf-Slayer” that did extra damage to elves. He then announced that he was approaching the party on the road – and the player gave a rousing speech about how they should join him in his bloody crusade to strike down all Elves and their puny, effeminate, magic!

And then the new player looked at the bemused expressions of the six current players and asked “Uh… is anyone playing an elf?” And five hands went up, and the last player asked if half-elves counted. Because the current characters were two elven mages (a wizard and a powershaper), an elven priest, an elven swashbuckler who dabbled in magical swordsmanship, an elven illusionist, and a half-elven elementalist.

And there was a brief pause until the guy playing the wizard said “Charm Person!” and the half-ogres player did not bother to roll a save – but simply said “Except for youse guys! Youse guys are all right!”

And so the half-ogre joined the party (which needed the muscle), cheerily continuing his verbal crusade against elves along the way, and everyone had a good time. The notion that “Charm Person” could wear off or be dispelled (even if it was quite long-lasting in that edition) was never mentioned. Some NPC’s had some comments along the way, but no one had any trouble working with the half-ogre even if some of the characters professed to be relieved “because that charm spell could have worn off at any time!” when he got sucked through a gate into some terrible dimension about twenty sessions later and they couldn’t find a way to get him back. The player made a new character and found another reason to join the party.

And that worked. The other players provided an excuse and the half-ogre player made a quick concession to making the game work, and all was well.

The Shadowrun player who made a giant autobot character who insisted that magic did not exist and that everyone should obey the law and act like an idealized squeaky clean boy scout hero worked too. He proved willing to bend the law and work with dubious characters when it was blatantly obvious that the authorities were corrupt, was willing to accept the observed effects of magic even if he insisted that it was actually something else, and was perfectly willing to act as a diversion and as transportation when he was simply too big and too obvious to participate in the stealthy parts. Just as importantly, the player was willing to let me show him how to build the character he wanted as a starting character under the rules of the game, rather than demanding some sort of conversion. In fact, it worked well enough that another player used the same basic bag of design tricks to create “Thor, God of Thunder!” when the autobot player was no longer available a year or so (and fifty-odd sessions) later.

For high-fantasy Malavon one player made a BLATANTLY evil demonologist-necromancer and cheerily arrived to join the neutral-to-heroic party – offering to aid them in their quests if they would aid in his. He then directed his demon servant to just grab his daily sacrifice from a nearby village and made it utterly apparent that he was a horrible mass murderer, a torturer of children, utterly evil, and could in no way be reformed. The rest of the players quite accurately observed that – in the character’s eyes – there was no difference between player characters and non-player characters and promptly killed the “random monster”. The player then laughed, announced that “twelve minutes was two minutes longer than I thought he’d get!”, and got out the character that he actually expected to play. He didn’t expect his character to be able to join an incompatible party even if he WAS a player character – and that was good. He may have actively fought the party, and more or less created a throwaway character – but the player worked just fine with the other players even if it was in performing an elaborate suicide.

His new character was a fantasy ninja type, and was always voting for more stealth, and scouting, and less of the “charge in!” plans – but rather than fighting with the rest of the party he would generally just groan, announce “Oh not AGAIN!”, and vanish into the shadows to support whatever the rest of the group was up to now. And that was good too. He urged stealth, and took the lead on stealth missions – but he let the other characters do their own things too.

The naive blue whale werehuman, the more sensible paladins, the pragmatic evil robot assassin, and more, all fit in. They might have very strange goals (The blue whale had come up on land to see what was above the water – so all too soon he wanted to climb mountains to see what was above the land. The robot assassin wasn’t even truly sentient, had to be reprogrammed to accept the party, and rolled against it’s control program to see if he could come up with ideas or handle anything overly complicated) and equally weird ways of achieving them – but their players were willing to work with the other players to make the game work smoothly.

That’s pretty much ALWAYS possible. And it’s part of the “we’re all here to have fun” deal. It’s not a part of the game mechanics, it’s a part of the player group mechanics.

On the other hand I’ve seen plenty of bad examples too.

The werewolf kickboxer who – in a superhero game – had a backstory focusing on his massacring thirty-odd innocent people got the same second chance the half-ogre had years earlier (and with a completely different group). The (freeform magic system) superhero mage cast (unspecified) binding spells “as powerful as he could manage” on the character that were supposed to allow him to maintain control.

But the player liked massacres and saw them as being in-character for a werewolf, and promptly killed a lot more people. This was NOT compatible with an idealistic superhero group. In lieu of sensibly killing him or turning him in (probably to reappear all too soon as a villain) the group made allowances for his player-character status and resorted to binding spells that actually had game effects rather than just being an excuse for playing a little differently.

The player promptly abandoned the werewolf (who became an NPC and got put to work as a “rescue dog” – clearing normal people out-of-the-way of the superhero battles to help make up for the people he’d killed) and made another character since he didn’t like the idea of playing a werewolf with restraints (whether self- or externally- imposed) oh his behavior – and insisted on continuing to play murderous anti-heroes. The rest of the players, quite rationally, continued to play superheroes, stuck to their superheroic guns, and continued to capture the crazed antiheroes and send them to jail. Eventually he gave up and made a sane character. Now, if he’d been willing to make his ruthless anti-heroism more of a roleplaying item… he could have done just fine complaining about how weak everyone else was. It’s possible after all. Marvel Comics teamed up the Power Kids with The Punisher, Wolverine, and Cloak and Dagger. In fact, they teamed up Katie Power – a very nice five-year-old girl – with Wolverine repeatedly, and made it work. The player, however, wasn’t willing to try.

Then there was the saga of the bear shapeshifters.

The player wanted a character who could turn into a bear, so he made a shapeshifter character (who could turn into any animal but preferred bears). He joined the fourth level party, and the party decided to run off some bandits who’d been blocking the route they wanted to take. The bandits turned out to camp in a shallow cave beneath an overhanging cliff – so the shapeshifter decided that his only possible tactic was to turn into a bear, leap off the top of the cliff, and attempt to land on the bandit leader.

Pointing out that bears did not steer well when falling, could not fall in curves to get under the overhang, and, tended to just plummet and splatter made no impression. Pointing out that he could fly over the mans head as a hummingbird and THEN turn into a bear if he had to made no impression. Telling him that a natural 20 (that he did not roll when he insisted on making a die roll that he’d been told did not apply) did not automatically hit unless you were making a reasonable attempt to hit the target in the first place made no impression.

Splat.

The player grumbled about poor rolls, inquired about being raised (and was, once again, told that the party was only fourth level), and made another bear shapeshifter.

A few sessions later he tried a solo attack on their (much higher level) warrior-target atop a tall tower – turning into a bear, throwing himself onto the guy’s sword in order to grab him, and then plunging over the side to try and squash the guy beneath him ten stories below.

Higher level high hit point target wound up on top, said “Ow!”, regarded the deceased shapeshifter with disbelief, and continued the fight. Admittedly the target was now down a fair chunk of hit points – which helped the rest of the party win after a bit – but it was hardly an efficient way to do it.

A few more sessions later bear shapeshifter #3 attempted to leap off a flying carpet at 10,000 feet to land on someone (the party had no idea who, but the bear shifter presumed that it had to be an enemy) who was using a flying broomstick five thousand feet lower and a couple of miles away. He then refused to take any other form…

Splat.

Bear shapeshifter #4 was rejected by the rest of the party; they told the player that they weren’t letting any other bear-specialist shapeshifters join because their characters had concluded that bear shapeshifters were cursed or bad luck or something. Like it or not, the player would not work with everyone else and just kept wasting time on his one, fixed, idea – and so the players refused to have their characters associate with his characters until he decided to do something else.

After a few sessions of being left out he proceeded to make a mystic swordsman, and things did just fine after that.

There was a classic problem player who kept creating characters who were either constantly obstructive or who kept vanishing into the shadows to go on private scouting and stealth missions – demanding that half the game time be spent on him, rather than sharing it equally between the characters. He got quite indignant and tried to be even more obstructive when informed that he would get his share of the game masters time and no more. After a bit… he had to be told that he would be welcome to come back to play when he’d decided to behave himself, but until then he was not welcome. He never did come back. That was too bad – but he wasn’t really contributing to the game anyway.

One player saw the game simply as a way to blow off steam after his stressful work days – and thought that any game time not spent in combat was venting time that was being wasted. So whenever the players tried to have their characters gather clues, talk to the NPC’s, sneak around, or investigate something… His characters would attack. Guards tried to ask him some questions? They got attacked. Characters tried to investigate a crime scene? He tossed in an incendiary grenade “in case someone was hiding in there”. Trying to negotiate a hostage situation? He sniped the hostage and then went after the bad guys. Caught in a paralysis spell? He teleported high into the air directly above a church steeple and impaled himself rather than let the rest of the players talk to an NPC – and then made a new character who behaved in exactly the same way. Despite all requests, he wasn’t interested in letting anyone else do anything other than what he wanted to so – which was fight – and soon he wasn’t playing much. He still isn’t; he mostly plays online ship and tank combat games these days. He’s still welcome to drop by once in a while though; the group can always find some target to point an expendable mercenary type at.

I don’t often have to bounce anyone, and very much prefer not to – but enforcing the rules is one of the responsibilities I take on when I agree to game master – and that includes the social rules.

That’s actually segued into the next commandment of social gaming and what will be the start of the next segment in this: Thou Shalt Share Spotlight Time (Relatively) Evenly With The Other Players.

Making Magical Minions, Affordable Warlordism and Henchmen

Stormtroopers. Gangers. Toughs. Devotees, Stooges. Toadies, Vassals. Lackeys. Thugs. Pawns. Underlings. Aides. Retainers. Made Men. Flunkeys.

Evil Masterminds, mafia bosses, and gang leaders always seem to have their swarms of thugs about – but they never seem to train them properly. Their thugs fall for the same silly ruses, and people claiming to be sick, and simple distractions, over and over again. Their aim is always terrible. They get treated as being completely disposable by their bosses, they get wiped out by heroes in hordes (and without inducing any guilt whatsoever), and there are always – ALWAYS – more. They don’t seem to demand hazard pay, they don’t require recruitment, they don’t even seem to eat and drink. They’re just THERE.

And unless you’re in a deconstruction, they never surrender, or lament that they will never see their children grow up, or beg for mercy. You never see mourning relatives either. They just march to their anonymous dooms. Where do bad guys GET all of these obedient, disposable, unremarked, faceless minions?

Well…

You take Summon Monster as a Summon Minion variant. This version summons an NPC minion of the caster’s race with an effective level equal to (spell level -1) OR 4 thugs with an effective level of (spell level -2) or ten lackeys with an effective level of (spell level -3). All come with appropriate gear for an NPC of their level, although it will vanish with them. All have effective attribute scores of 12 in everything. The spell is otherwise identical to Summon Monster.

Getting minions designed using Eclipse is more expensive; it requires +1 level of the Amplify Metamagical Theorem to get one type of minion and +2 levels to get the usual summon monster style selection. Even then, the caster will have to work with the game master to design them and will need to keep them useful in a variety of situations and roles. Otherwise, given the ease with which Eclipse characters can be specialized for particular tasks, you can expect to see a lot of “Army eh? I summon (extremely specialized high powered lightning mage) and have her blast the entire area”.

The Basic Minion (48 CP):

• Universal Jack of All Trades: All Minions are considered to have a +1 base in any unrestricted skill (12 CP).
• Innate Enchantment: +2 to All Skills (1400 GP), Greater Invocation of Convenience (Produces any L0 Hedge Magic Effect, 2000 GP), Power Tool (2000 GP), Enchant Tools (L0, +1 Circumstance Bonus, 1000 GP), Mage armor (1400 GP), Force Shield I (1400 GP), Resistance (+1 Resistance Bonus on Saves, 700 GP), and Immortal Vigor I (+14 HP, 1400 GP) = 11,300 GP (12 CP).
• Luck with +4 Bonus Uses, Specialized in Skills (6 CP).
• Proficient with Simple Weapons (3 CP).
• Immunity/having to worry about where their gear is beyond tracking it’s encumbrance (Uncommon, Minor, Major, 3 CP). Yes, this subsumes worrying about drawing weapons and such.
• Minions normally come equipped with:
  • Explorer’s Outfit (10 GP, 8 Lb)
  • Light Crossbow with 3 cases of Bolts (38 GP. 7 Lb)
  • 2 Spears (4 CP, 12 Lb)
  • Heavy Mace (12 GP, 8 Lb)
  • Wooden Holy Symbol (1 GP, -)
  • Common Musical Instrument (5 GP, 3 Lb).
  • Thieves Tools (30 GP, 1 Lb)
  • Block and Tackle (5 GP, 5 Lb)
  • Pitons x10 (5 SP, 5 Lb)
  • Caltrops (1 GP, 2 Lb)
  • Chalk
  • Grappling Hook (1 GP, 4 Lb)
  • Lamp (1 SP, 1 Lb)
  • Oil, 5 Pints (5 SP, 5 Lb)
  • 100′ Silk Rope (20 GP, 10 Lb)
  • 10′ Pole (2 SP, 8 Lb)
  • Masterwork Artisan’s Tools (55 GP, 5 Lb)
  • Assorted Minor Bits – comb, string, tacks, candlestub, etc.
  • Light Riding Horse with saddle, bags, etc (75 GP)
    • With Workhorse, this leaves them with a Light Load.
• Luck with +4 Bonus Uses, Specialized in Saving Throws (6 CP).
• Workhorse (6 CP). A minions encumbrance level is reduced by one. They can carry roughly another two hundred pounds before exceeding a heavy load.
• First Level Bonus Feat: Occult Sense / Detect what their summoner would like them to do in their current situation. This means that you don’t have to worry about issuing orders or having them misinterpreted; they just know.
• Minions get four skill points. These are automatically invested in the Duck and Cover martial art, providing them with DR 2/-.

That gives our generic first level minions +1 to Attacks and Damage, AC 19, 23 HP, +2 on Saves, +5 on All Unrestricted Skills, and Initiative +1. They normally speak Common and one other language suitable to their race. They do get racial abilities.

Basic Minions are just all-around competent. They can cook excellent meals, manage your accounts, take care of your horses, provide first aid, find food and warmth in the wilderness, run bars, steal stuff, fix your mundane gear, baby-sit your kids, and paint your portrait with all the skill you’d expect of a well-trained professional – with occasional flashes of brilliance.

So are minions only for spellcasters? Certainly not!

Gangsta Wrap: This elegant scarf (many other variants exist) does not take up an item slot, since it need only be activated once per month in any case. It summons four basic minions to serve the user,

• Summon Thugs III (Specific Summons -1; four L1 thugs with no higher level options) with Improved Persistent +8 (lasts one month), Amplify +1 (Gets “Generic Eclipse Minions, as written up above), -3 (seven or more levels of built-in metamagic) -1 (takes a full minute to activate) -1 (can only be activated at a place suitable for hiring aides – whether that’s your office or a favored hangout) = SL 6 x CL 11 x 1800 GP (Unlimited-Use Command Word) x .05 (one use per month) = 5.940 GP. You will have to wait a month to “hire more” if they get killed though.

Four are not enough? Go to the Minion Employment Agency (Nodwick Import-Export Services) and hire some M.E.A.N.I.E.S

And how does that service get them?

• A Minion Employment Agency uses Summon Minion IV with Persistent +1 (lasts one minute per caster level), Amplify +1 (Minions are written up in Eclipse, although you only get one type per level, which must remain generic enough to be suited to a variety of tasks), Renewable +1 (when the spell is recast an existing summons may be extended, eliminating any one status condition or purging one negative level and regaining 3d6 hit points, one lost attribute point, and one use of a limited-use ability each time the spell is recast), Amplify +1 (being deceased does not prevent a minion from regaining hit points, and coming back, when it’s turn for renewal comes around – but it will suffer short-term amnesia as to exactly what happened), -2 (five or more levels of built-in metamagic) = Level Six.
• Effective Cost: Spell Level 6 x Caster Level 11 x 2000 GP (Unlimited-Use Use-Activated) x .5 (Immobile) = 66,000 GP. This can sustain 110 castings in total (each providing one third-level minion OR four second-level thugs OR ten first level lackeys), for an effective rental cost of about 1 GP per day (25 GP/Month or 250 GP/Year) per casting. (Interestingly enough, this comes out reasonably well in line with the rules on hirelings and such).

In either case, if first-level minions don’t do it for you, the simplest thing to do is to boost the level of the base spell.

• A Gangsta Wrap II (L2 Minions) costs 8190 GP, III (L3 Minions) costs 10,800 GP, IV costs 13,770 GP, V costs 17,100 GP, VI costs 22,770 GO, VII costs 24,840 GP, and VIII costs 29,250 GP.
• A Minion Employment Agency II costs 91,000 GP and provides 130 sustained castings (each providing 10 L2 Lackeys OR 4 L3 Thugs OR 1 L4 Minion), III costs 120,000 GP and provides 150 sustained castings (and L3/L4/L5 lackeys/thugs/minions), IV costs 153,000 GP and provides 170 sustained castings (and L4/L5/L6 lackeys/thugs/minions), V costs 190,000 GP and provides 190 sustained castings (and L5/L6/L7 lackeys/thugs/minions). I’d recommend some caution here; it wouldn’t take very much optimization to create an army of elemental blasters or some such.

You can also improve the duration another one or two steps instead of improving the summoning level, taking it to tens of minutes or hours per level – effectively dropping one or two levels on the minions in exchange for the ability to sustain ten or sixty times as many. Do you happen to need a clone army for your Star Wars game?

For a “ten times as many” example take a version III and give yourself 12,000 L2 Veteran Troopers, 800 Grizzled L3 Sergeants to command squads of 15 Troopers each, and 100 L4 Dashing Captains to command Companies of 8 Squads each, and your Warlord has the iron core for his army – and an answer as to how anyone can afford to actually field an army in d20. Yes, 120,000 GP is a big investment – but it buys you a fair-sized military force with perfect loyalty, unbreakable morale, a load-out of basic equipment, little need for supply lines, and the ability to reform itself from total annihilation in a day – at least as long as you maintain control of your central castle, or capital, or wherever you’ve put the place (video game special effects are optional). The resulting numbers are also a reasonably good match for the typical army sizes in medieval Western Europe. You’ll want to go for the “sixty times as many” option if you want to represent the armies of the Middle East or Asia.