Speech Impediments - For When PCs Remember a Language They've Never Spoken

We've all been there.

The party is confronted with an otherworldly horror uttering guttural chants, or behold a mysterious elven monolith covered in curling runes that twist before their eyes, or stand enraptured before the song of an ancient angel from a forgotten heaven, or receive an email from the marketing department.

Then one of your players hits you with the "oh wait that's one of my languages!" and you have to let them speak to whatever it is.

In regular D&D where you pick Languages during char gen, this happens when it turns out someone has been able to speak Gnomish or Celestial the whole time.

In my game this happens because my players insist on rolling Languages any time they come across a new creature that shows even the tiniest glimmer of sentience. This is why several characters apparently speak fluent Eastern Lowland Gorillese.
This is really very silly but it's fun enough to keep (a la the secret fourth option in this post).

What's the "solution" to this "problem"?
They obviously know the language, but given the fact that they've never even mentioned that they can speak it in months of adventuring it must have been quite a while since they did that exchange trip to the eighth circle of hell.
But they're totally fluent of course, but uhhh... how do you say...

I'm a Bit Rusty

The first time your character speaks a language that they haven't previously spoken in-game, they're rusty.

Roll 1d30:

Roll	Result
1	Can only speak in single syllables
2	Tourist phrasebook content only - "two beers please", "which way to museum?" etc.
3	They understand you but are always offended.
4	Words that start with a vowel only.
5	One word sentences only.
6	Absolutely always alliterate.
7	Words that start with a plosive only
8	Must "speak" by describing emojis.
9	Swear words only.
10	Must speak way too loudly.
11	Can only speak in quotations and metaphor.
12	Sentences must be spoken in reverse order
13	"Snake Snanguage" - all words start with the first two sounds of that language.
14	Unable to use pronouns (I/you/he/her/it/etc)
15	Unable to speak in present tense
16	No verbs
17	Speak in Haiku
18	Can only write it, not speak it.
19	Only know numbers
20	"G" and "J" must be pronounced with a soft "zh" sound, as in treasure or casual
21	No nouns
22	Last letter of one word must begin the next word.
23	One must refer to oneself as one, and instead of "we" or "they" must state the number of people in the group (eg. "One was with Four when someone robbed Two house")
24	No adjectives
25	All phrases must be an innuendo, if you know what I mean
26	All sentences must be noun-verb-object
27	Must stand on one leg while speaking
28	Overly formal, everyone must have a title, no contractions, etc etc
29	Every noun must be described by an incongruous and/or false adjective.
30	Can speak the language but only in a cartoonish over the top accent.

When you speak that language you must abide by the rolled limitation.
This represents your character pausing to think, forgetting words, getting tones wrong, using the wrong conjugations, and other such issues with dredging up the language you haven't used in a long time.
Failing to do so means you've said complete gobbledegook and nobody understands what you just said.

In subsequent sessions it's all come back to you and you are completely fluent.
Presumably you quickly brushed up on some refresher notes, or beseeched the Horrible Green Owl to reinstate your streak.

Specialists, of course, are always fluent from the get-go. Skills are their whole deal after all.

Inspired by the meta-diseases over at Beneath Foreign Planets.

Wizard Rework Finale: The Death of Spell Levels + 500 Levelless Spells

Last year I reworked wizards so that they used Mana instead of spell slots.

In that very post I said the following -

This is part of my soft move towards all spells becoming scaling Level 1 spells, a la Wonders & Wickedness. This way I can still use the regular spells in the book while any new spells can be introduced at Level 1.

Time to make that soft move a HARD MOVE BABYYYYYY.

A Whole Load of Spells

First off, here's my big list of 500 levelless spells (and counting!) culled from many sources.


Ten Foot Polemic Spell List


If you look at the sources you'll notice there's lots GLOG-adjacent stuff because translating "[dice]" to caster level is a pretty easy shift!
I'm still adding stuff (next is to scavenge spells from individual GLOG wizards..) but biggest thanks to Isaak Hill, Skerples, Lost Pages, and this imminentchurchengine person who posted a massive d200 spell list on reddit.

Spells are hash-marked because it's sometimes useful to be like "You find scroll #154" and then look up the hash later when they finally identify it.


Quick rundown of what's in this sheet -

Generator:
Generates random MU and Necromancer spells and random spell mishaps for each.

Magic-User:
One big list of all the wizard spells I've got so far!

Magic-User Mishaps:
Automated version of Aura's wild magic table. Pulls through to the Generator tab, but useful if you need a specific table result.

Necromancer: Big list of Necromancer spells. Currently fairly short, but more to come!

Spellbook Generator: Generates 6 MU spellbooks and 6 Necromancer grimoires.
The MU one is designed to give starting wizards mostly standard LotFP L1 starter spells with 1-2 fun ones from the whole list. Got to make sure new Wizards mostly get the classics!
Necromancers get their archetypical spell Subjugate Dead and 3 random spells from the whole list. I might change that if the Necromancer spell list gets anywhere near as big as the MU one, but it's fine for now! Raising and controlling the Dead is the main one, after all.

The layout is meant for copy-pasting into a doc for printing, which is why it looks a bit janky, and it doesn't update if you refresh the page, sorry!

Wizard spells should spit out into this document if I've got it right - Beginner MU Spellbooks.
And Necromancer spells should come out here - Beginner Necromancer Spellbooks.

Get on my Level

So - the obvious. All spells are now "Levelless", or effectively first level spells that scale with caster level.

This means I can tighten up the spellcasting rules as follows:

Mana: You have 1 Mana per level. This powers your spells.
You can still cast spells when you’re out of Mana, it’s just significantly more dangerous.
Your Mana Pool refills after 8 hours of rest.

Casting: You have two ways of casting spells.
Bound: Bind spells in advance. For those who plan ahead.
Wild: Cast instantly and spontaneously. For those who live in the moment.

Spellbinding: Spend 1 Mana and 10 minutes meditating with a spellbook to create a Bound Spell.
It takes a round to cast a Bound Spell - declare casting as an Action, it goes off at the start of your next turn. If you get hurt mid-cast, Save vs Chaos. On success you maintain casting, on failure the spell goes off immediately as a Chaos Burst

Wild Magic: Roll 2d6 on this table plus:

Skill: Your Intelligence modifier.
Bulk: -1 per Encumbrance level
Mana: For each Mana you spend, roll an extra 1d6.
Blood: For each HP you sacrifice, add +1.

Wild Magic is cast instantly as an Action.

Caster Differentiation

I had a few ideas about caster differentiation on one of the initial posts, but I've had a couple of slight changes of heart since!
Most significantly I'm making Necromancers have the same casting rules as others. This has necessitated separate spooky-themed Chaos Burst and Cosmic Horror tables, but that's part of the fun!
A smaller change is to move back to Magic-Users having one Familiar. I liked the idea of a powerful wizard being surrounded by a cloud of animals and people being able to guess what they've got prepped, but having a single Familiar (or two, in one notable case) is pretty iconic in my game now.

In short -

• Magic-Users get a Familiar and the most flexibility.
• Necromancers get a separate spooky spell list and need bodily fluids and stuff to cast spells at full power.
• Muscle Wizards trade range for close-combat capability.
• Elves get themed superpowers but can only cast Wild Magic.

Each caster class also gets a unique Vengeance when they die, which I thought would be a fun way to make the chaotic casters inject even more chaos into a situation!

Full player facing stuff is in the Quick Class Breakdowns, but here's the rundown using the casting rules above as the baseline.

Magic-User

Starting Spells: 
Start with a Spellbook containing four random spells.

Familiar:

Choose a smallish animal to be your Familiar at character creation. Familiars obey orders, communicate telepathically, and cannot die. If ever somehow destroyed, your Familiar reforms next to you.
Spells can be cast through your Familiar - counting it as the origin point of the spell.

Cantrips:
When you bind a spell, you can bind it into your own head or into your Familiar.
Spells bound in your head grant you access to Cantrips - minor magical effects on the general theme of the bound spell, eg. Sleep could make someone yawn or Magic Missile might give you a bonus to Aim actions.
Spells bound to your Familiar grant it useful mutations. Shield might give it a tough shell or Spider-Climb could give it spider legs to climb up walls.
These effects last until you cast the spell.

Wizard Vengeance:
When you die your Familiar mutates into a horrifying demon and takes revenge.
Unspent Mana gives it more power. Uncast Bound Spells give it more abilities.
Roll it up with this generator: Saker's Summon Hack.
It's base HD is your level +1 for each unspent Mana you had.
It can cast any remaining Bound Spells you had at-will.



Notes:
Moving to levelless spells really streamlines this class.
Familiars are the only change to before - back to a single creature.
Familiars are good for signal-boosting spells, delivering Touch or Area attacks at range, and mutating into useful forms for shenanigans.
Oh also I'm so glad I was linked to that Summon hack! Great stuff!

Necromancer

Starting Spells:
Start with a Grimoire containing Subjugate Dead and 3 random spells.

Vials:
Also start with a bandolier of glass vials. You fill these with the ritual components of your spells.
The bandolier is non-encumbering, but when you fill a vial it is added to your inventory.
You can stack up to 5 identical vials to an encumbrance slot.

Components:
You require vials of ritual components to cast spells at full power. The components are listed in the spell descriptions.
Sacrifice the required components when you cast the spell, otherwise the spell is cast as though you're a level 1 caster.

Last Breath:
The Dead will only obey those who speak with their voice, and so the most important ritual component is Last Breath - the final gasp of a sapient creature.
Breathing this in grants you the Voice of the Dead - crucial for raising, subjugating and controlling your Dead minions. A single vial lasts 10 minutes, after which your minions will simply obey the last order they were given.

Death Resistance:
Bound spells are ghosts that live in your bones and help hold your soul in.
Each Bound Spell grants you +1 when you roll to Tempt Fate.

Necromancer Vengeance:
When you die you release a wave of death magic and vengeful ghosts.
This deals 1d6 damage per unspent Mana and uncast Bound Spell to every living thing within 10'/level.



Notes:
Streamlining the Necromancer to be in line with other casters is good for newbies.
While in the previous version I envisaged the Necromancer as the mirror of an Elf - ie. can't do Wild Magic while an Elf can only do Wild Magic - it turns out every newbie finds "Necromancer" more evocative than "Magic-User"!

They've still got a "prepare in advance" vibe through their need to have vials of stuff ready in their bandolier, but you'll notice this doesn't matter at Level 1.
It would suck to be a new player or new character starting in the middle of a dungeon and find out you're unable to cast your spells because you don't have any salt or eye jelly on hand!
The components are loosely themed - like salt is for warding spells and blood is for affecting living things. I'll be building up the Necromancer spell list over the next little while, so more to come!
Having a bandolier of stuff for Necromancy is, naturally, inspired by Abhorsen. Albeit those were bells not vials of phlegm and bone dust.

The exception is Last Breath for their signature spell, as you'll see in the Subjugate Dead spell description in the starter grimoires.
Last Breath is evocative and also pretty readily available in any delve - just do a murder!
I also dig the idea that intelligent Dead are powerful because they don't need Last Breath to control minions - they're already speaking with the Voice of the Dead.
The ten minute limit on Last Breath is so you can micromanage your minions in a combat situation, but outside of combat you'll need to put them on autopilot.

Oh yea, and if you bind your spells in advance it makes it harder for you to die! Cool huh?
And then if you do die, you pull every motherfucker in the room into hell with you.

If you've got any rad Chaos Bursts or Cosmic Horrors for Necromancers, hit me up. I need more entries!

Muscle Wizard

Starting Spells:

Start with a Spellbook containing 4 random spells.

Muscle Magic:
Your fists deal 1d4 magical damage and count as Shanky weapons.
All spells have a maximum range of 10' - punching distance - and casting your spells must be combined with an unarmed attack.
You choose whether a spell you cast affects you, your target, or both.

Core Power:
Mana suffuses your core, increasing your resilience.
You gain +2 HP for each unspent Mana in your Mana Pool.

Bound Strength:
Binding spells moves them into your muscles to grant yourself physical power.
Each Bound Spell grants your unarmed attacks +1 to hit and +1 to damage.

Final Impact:
When you die you can flash-step to somewhere in the scene, utter a final line, and unleash your ultimate move.
Deal 1d6 damage per unspent Mana and uncast Bound Spell to a creature in the vicinity.


Notes:
I still laugh at that ridiculous Wide Kylo Ren meme. Anyway...
No big changes to the previous version, except they've got to choose between +HP and +attack with their Mana.
Do you keep it in Mana form so you're tough? Or turn it into Bound Spells so you're buff?
Remember - there's no penalty to casting Bound Spells in armour, so you can mitigate the HP tradeoff with better AC.

Affecting yourself and someone else with a single spell is very intended. Being able to go two-for-one on a buff spell at the cost of punching your mate in the face makes me laugh.

Elf

Heartspell:
Elves start with a single random spell from this list. This is their Heartspell.
It defines what powers they will receive and the monster they will become.

Wild Mage:
Elves cannot Bind spells.
They can cast their Heartspell instantly as an Action. Other spells require a Wild Magic roll to twist their Heartspell into a new shape.

Changeling:
The more Mana an Elf has, the more powers and mutations they manifest.
Mutations and powers can be found here - Elf Mutation List.
These power tiers are based on Mana, not character level, so they lose their gifts as they use up Mana.
If an Elf runs out of Mana they can no longer cast spells - they are human once more.

Moondancer:
Elves do not sleep, but they do disappear for hours at night to dance beneath the moon.
They are gone for an hour per level at some point during the night. When they return, their Mana is back to full.
Their powers wax as the moon wanes.
They get +1 Mana during a Crescent Moon, and double Mana during the New Moon.
They get -1 Mana during a Gibbous Moon, and half Mana during a Full Moon.

Cold Iron:
Cold iron weapons deal maximum damage to Elves.
Cold iron is simply iron that is cold - not a special type of metal.
Sustained contact with cold iron locks the Elf off from their powers, reverting them to human form until the cold iron is removed.

Wild Vengeance:
When an Elf dies it releases a Chaos Burst of its Heartspell per unspent Mana, each randomly targeted at any creature within 50'.

Notes: No big changes here, other than to give them their own special Vengeance thing.
That'll be great fun if my players face enemy Elves...

There's another minor difference to other casters - Elves technically can run out of spells! If you want to cast that dangerous 2d6 Wild Magic you'll need to keep a Mana back so you stay an Elf rather than some measly human.

original muscle wizard pic before I remembered about Ben Swolo

Finale Worde

So there you have it! What I always kind of wanted to do with the caster classes but was too lazy to follow through with!
Big big thanks to KingPenta who was the main person to nudge me into de-levelling the lotfp spells, and another big thanks to the GLOGosphere who I will continue to mine for levelless spells.
Turns out I find it kind of relaxing to translate content into my game's own idiom? I figure I'll just keep building it up over time.

Part of the fun is going to be adding my players' spells to the list over time as they research them, and in fact there are already a few in there from Sophia's brief but shining run as an Elf.

Conveniently enough one of my players has rolled up a Necromancer and another just rolled up a Wizard after his previous character united with his god and ascended ever so slowly to heaven, so I'll actually be able to see how they go in play!

Class: Barbarian - The Rage Spiral

It's been more than six years since I added the Barbarian class to my game, and in that time we've had a fair few of them!
Unfortunately they've rarely used their iconic Barbarian Rage ability. Something had to be done!
So here's a pair of abilities that synergise nicely, and encourage Barbarians to throw themselves headlong into battle...

Rage Gimmick Overview

Rage

You can go into a Rage at any time. 

You deal increasing amounts of damage as your rage grows, but the angrier you get the harder it is to stop!

Death Trance

When you're at 0 HP you enter a Death Trance.
The more hurt and/or enraged you are, the more attacks you get.

Rage + Death Trance

Together this means that a raging Barbarian in a death trance gets fuckloads of attacks and deals fuckloads of damage and will keep killing until everything stops moving.
Great for killing big monsters. Extremely great for dying gloriously. Extremely scary for everyone around you if you sink too deeply into battle-madness and go berzerk!

Rage Points

For ease of explanation and cross-compatibility I'm going to call the core mechanic "Rage Points" here.

Assume Rage Points last until you leave a Rage or combat ends.

Rage

Entering a Rage takes an Action.

While in a Rage:
- Hitting a foe grants you a Rage Point.
- Hitting an ally removes a Rage Point.
- Each Rage Point grants you +1 to melee damage and -1 to AC.

You must attack during a Rage. 

You lose 1 Charisma every time you could take an Attack action and don't.
If you reach 0 Charisma you lose your mind (and your character) and murder everything in sight.

Rage is overwhelming and calming down is difficult.
As a Standard Action, or for free when you kill a creature, you may attempt to calm the fuck down.
Save vs Doom, with a bonus equal to your level and a penalty equal to your Rage Point total.
On success, your Rage ends.

Note: Using an action to attempt to calm down is a non-attack action, so if you fail you'll lose Charisma. Best to sate your bloodlust by killing something...

Death Trance

At 0HP you enter a Death Trance.

While in a Death Trance:
- You gain a Rage Point every time you take damage.
- You gain an extra attack per Rage Point.
- You cannot be knocked out, put to sleep, or otherwise made unconscious.

Discussion -- Rage

So that's the Big New Thing! Pretty straightforward, and hopefully the synergies and tradeoffs are obvious.
Rage is good on its own - it makes you a powerful single-target damage dealer.
Death Trance is good on its own - it gives you a bunch of extra attacks in a pinch.
Put them together and you're a monster!

On the other hand, having tons of Rage Points is awesome up until you have to leave your Rage. If you're unlucky you'll get sucked down into a spiral of violence where you murder all your friends!

Moving Rage from a limited use resource to a building spiral was spurred by a conversation on the Discord with Great_Job, Chuffer, Rook, and some others.
Great_Job brought up that a Rage is usually presented as a resource management mechanic rather than evoking the "somewhat fluid, emotional nature" of losing yourself to anger, which is totally true!

Heavy inspiration from Great_Job's take on a rage monster PC: The Accursed.

The Rest

With the all-important Rage and the Death Trance out of the way, here's the rest of the Barbarian's cool shit.

Unique:
Barbarian saves and attack bonus don't advance normally.
Instead they roll twice on this Barbarian Powers table each level!

Bare-Chested:
Barbarians cannot wear armour, but they have a natural AC of 14 due to Barbarian luck and God-favour.
Despite wearing barely anything, Barbarians always count as protected against extreme weather.

Party Hard:
Barbarians are great at carousing.
The Barbarian, and anyone who chooses to Carouse with them, doubles how much they spend while carousing (and thus, doubles how much exp they gain).
However when they Save against carousing mishaps, they roll the save twice and take the worst result.
This stacks with multiple Barbarians. Two Barbarians means triple spend but roll three times and take the worst, and so on.

Discussion -- Full Package

Barbarian powers are cool and comfy at this point.
Everyone likes the wacky unique stuff like Charisma armour or crit range improvement, but you might notice that even the "boring" results - attack bonus and Save improvement - are indirect improvements to Rage. Attack bonus means you actually hit with your high damage rage attacks and Save bonus means you break out of Rage easier. Pretty sweet!

Low armour fits the Barbarian theme, but also serves as a way to separate the Barbarian from the other combat class - the Fighter.
Fighters can wear heavy plate, Barbarians are usually stuck with 14 AC. Low armour and a Rage mechanic that makes them easier to hit means they'll get knocked down to that spicy Death Trance easier!
Natural protection against extreme weather is important for my post-apoc weather stuff. I dig the idea that Barbarians can walk around in furry shorts while everyone else needs a full body suit!

Barbarians carousing is another thing that's seeped into the group lore, I really liked the times the rest of the group was like "uhhh no actually I can't afford to party with the Barbarian we'll carouse later".
I kinda picture Barbarians as being somewhere between That One Friend who first got you drunk when you were a teenager and That One Friend who insists on going to a club even though you're old now and it's past midnight and you've been feeling a bit tired since 7pm.
Either way you're going to find yourself staring at a toilet bowl asking yourself why you agreed to shots.

Yo what happened to punching ghosts?!

If you've been in my game for a while you might notice that the Barbarian has lost a few things they used to have as standard.

Long story short, both "fists do d4 and can punch ghosts" and "eat spells cast on you on a nat 20" are on the random Barbarian Powers table now.

This is largely because Barbarians get lots of wacky powers already, and keeping track of these and the random powers and abilities from backstories was quite a lot!

And Finally - Death Rules Integration

So that's the cross-compatible version above.
In my game I've integrated this into my Death mechanics. 

It's maybe a bit too mechanically cute, but it's my game so whatever! I can regret it later!

Pain fuels Rage.

So my death system basically works by giving you Death Tokens at 0 HP.
Mostly this is Pain Tokens which might make you pass out, but you can also get Bleed (damage over time) and Trauma (risk of death).

In this version, Pain Tokens are used as Rage Points.
This has a few fun mechanical implications!

Same exact concept as above, but here's how it works in the Death Token version:

Rage

Entering a Rage takes an Action.

While in a Rage:
- You never Tempt Fate, ie. No passing out from Pain, no death from Trauma, no damage from Bleed.
- Hitting a foe grants you a Pain Token.
- Hitting an ally removes a Pain Token.
- Each Pain Token grants you +1 to melee damage and -1 to AC.

You must attack during a Rage. 

You lose 1 Charisma every time you could make an Attack and don't.
If you reach 0 Charisma you lose your mind (and your character) and murder everything in sight.

Rage is overwhelming and calming down is difficult.
As an Action, or for free when you kill a creature, you may attempt to calm the fuck down.
Save vs Doom, with a bonus equal to your level and a penalty equal to your Pain total.
On success, your Rage ends.

Note: Using an action to attempt to calm down is a non-attack action, so if you fail you'll lose Charisma. Best to sate your bloodlust by killing something...

Death Trance

At 0HP you enter a Death Trance.

While in a Death Trance:
- You gain an extra attack per Pain Token.
- Pain does not add to your rolls on the Death Table.

Implications

So this version uses Pain Tokens but is functionally the same as up top.
The fun part is that this has fairly interesting mechanical effects!

Some examples:
- Pain Tokens don't add to death table rolls so you tend to shrug off minor wounds. Like even if you're at zero with 5 Pain and get hit for 6 damage... you "roll" 0d6+6 instead of rolling 5d6+6. Life saver!

- Clerics can heal Pain Tokens. Might be fun to sabotage an enemy Barbarian by healing them, or use God's mercy to calm the soul of your angry Barbarian friend before he murders you all.
- When the Rage ends you've still got a bunch of Pain Tokens, so could probably pass out after your Rage.
- Food heals Death Tokens too, so a Barbarian who's come out of a rage will be H O N G R Y.

- Poison is Death Tokens so you're literally immune to poison during a Rage.
- Drink Pain Poison to hype yourself up!?

Hopefully it is fun! Someone persuade Ollie to go into a rage so we can see what happens. Would be real funny (for me...) if Zulu murdered everyone in a rage-fueled accident!

Game Stuff

Here's the player-facing character breakdown text:

--

Barbarian

Strengths:
Combat Hero, Rage, Unique Barbarian Abilities

Weaknesses:
Can’t wear armour, anger management

Alignment
To the surprise of everyone, you detect as Lawful.

Technical Stuff
HD: 1d8 - minimum 6 at first level.
Saves: Fighter. (Stun 14, Doom 12, Blast 15, Law 13, Chaos 16)

Special Abilities

Unique: At first level, and every level thereafter, roll 1d100 twice on the Barbarian Powers table.
These can be anything from +1 to hit to intimidating hostile beasts to boosted crit damage.

Bare-Chested: You can’t wear armour (it’s for the weak) but you have a natural armour class of 14 due to luck, the favour of barbarian gods and/or protective tattoos.
Despite wearing not much at all you always count as protected against extreme weather.

Party Hard: You party really fucking hard. The whole party rolls double for carousing when you’re around, and when they save against Carousing mishaps they roll twice and take the worst.
This increases with multiple Barbarians - triple for two, quadruple for three, and so on.

Death Trance: You are an absolute monster when you are close to death.
While at 0HP, you enter a Death Trance where you attack in a frenzy and shrug off minor wounds.
In this state you gain an extra attack per Pain Token, and Pain does not add to your Death Table rolls.

Rage: In battle, as an Action, you can hype yourself up into a Rage.
Pain fuels your Rage - each Pain Token grants you +1 to melee damage and -1 to AC.
You gain a Pain Token whenever you hit a foe in melee, growing your Rage.
You lose a Pain Token whenever you hit a friend, slowing you down.
While in a Rage you never Tempt Fate due to Death Tokens, so you never have to stop fighting..

To stop Raging is difficult. As an Action, or when you kill a creature, you can attempt to stop your Rage by passing a Save vs Doom. You get a bonus equal to level and a penalty equal to your Pain total.

You must attack in a Rage. You lose 1 Charisma every time you could make an Attack action and don’t.
If this takes you to 0 Charisma you lose your mind (and your character) and murder all in sight.

And the full Barbarian Powers table

In case something happens to the Google doc!

Roll	Ability
1 - 29	More smashy! +1 to hit.
30 - 45	More lucky! -1 to all Saves
46	Double the Smash! When you dual-wield, always take both results for damage.
47 - 48	Meaty Motherfucker! +1 to Constitution Modifier
49 - 50	Fuck me?? No, fuck you! When a creature hits you when you're on 0HP, make a free attack against them. If you roll this again - two attacks, and so on.
51 - 52	Sense Weakness. When you attack an enemy, you know how much HP they have remaining.
53	Ah yes I know this beast. When an Encounter Check is rolled in a wilderness environment, you know exactly what a creature is from its Tracks, Spoor or Traces if you've seen its like before. If you reroll, +1 Wisdom Modifier.
54	Spell Eater. You can save vs any spell, even those that don't usually give a save. If you do, you "eat" the spell, negating the effect and causing your eyes and tattoos to glow a cool thematic colour. You unleash the spell's effect the next time you hit in combat, and you can save the spell for up to ten minutes. If you reroll, -2 to your Chaos save.
55	Loyal minion! You gain a hound, henchman, horse, or other exceptionally loyal and intelligent creature. They think you're the best, and obey your every whim. If you treat them badly they look at the camera and say "well, it's a living" and still do it. If you reroll and they're still alive, they get one free pass to avoid death. If they died already, it turns out they somehow survived! They're back!
56	Back, Beast! You can walk right up to a natural beast of animal intelligence and force them to roll a Morale check modified by the inverse of your Charisma modifier (as in higher Cha is better) - if they fail you choose whether they flee or calm down. On a reroll, +1 Charisma Modifier.
57	Something's coming. You have +5 Awareness in Wilderness environments. If you reroll, this bonus also applies to one other creature of your choice. One extra per reroll.
58	Get hench! +1 to Strength Modifier.
59 - 60	Bear-Handed. If you eat the heart of a natural creature you killed, you gain their strength for a ten minute Turn. That is, when you attack bare-handed you get their number of attacks, bonus to hit, and damage die. During this time you can't really speak and can only point and grunt. If you reroll, lasts an extra Turn.
61	King Hit. Boost damage die of weapons you wield. If this goes above 1d12 roll over onto 1d12+1d4, then 1d12+1d6, and so on. If you reroll, keep boosting.
62 - 63	Luck of the Gods. -2 to your Doom Save.
64 - 65	Overpower! On a melee hit you can blast everyone around you back 10' or so. On reroll, +1 to melee attacks.
66	And stay down! On a melee hit you can knock your target prone. On reroll, +1 to melee attacks.
67	Grapplemaster. When you win a Wrestle, you can choose 2 results instead of 1 - even the same result twice. If you reroll, +1 Strength Modifier.
68 - 69	Greetings, fellow traveller! +2 to Reaction Rolls and Morale Checks with other uncivilised folks, basically anyone who spends most of their life outside of a city, village, or other settlement.
70 - 71	But it is not this day! You can sacrifice a limb of your choice to cancel all damage from a single attack, and you no longer drop to 0HP when you sustain such an injury. If you reroll, an already broken limb somehow gets better (heals, miracle prosthetic, whatever) or the next time you do this you also pop back up to maximum HP.
72 - 73	Headtaker. Your crit range extends by 1, so you crit on a 19 or 20. If you reroll, it keeps extending.
74 - 75	Beastslayer. You deal double damage to natural beasts. If you reroll, triple damage, etc.
76 - 78	Gore Grinder. When you crit, roll twice and take both results. If you reroll, roll three times, etc.
79	Get behind me! If you pass a Save, you can make someone nearby pass their Save against the same thing. If you reroll, two people, and so on.
80-82	Glamour armour. Add your Charisma or Strength bonus to your AC, whichever's higher. If you reroll, either take both or boost your Charisma Modifier by 1.
83 - 84	Piss off, ghost! Your fists deal 1d4 damage and can harm anything, especially things usually immune to mundane attacks. If you reroll, keep improving the Damage Die of your fists.
85 - 86	Ultimate Nelson. When you choose to Hold a foe in a Wrestle, you pin them completely. If you reroll, +1 to Wrestle rolls each time.
87 - 88	Know no fear. Immune to fear effects and +2 bonus to Saves vs spooky undead or necromantic powers. If you reroll, further +2 to such saves each time.
89	Bah! It is nothing. You take 1 less damage from elemental effects, like fire or cold or lightning. Minimum 1. If you reroll, take 2 less damage, and so on.
90	Heedless Charge! When you charge into battle - you cannot be stopped by Opportunity Attacks and you deal double damage. If you reroll, triple damage, etc.
91 - 92	This will do. Given ten minutes and some relevant materials, you can craft a 1d6 damage weapon of any type from bones, sticks, rocks, and other detritus. If it gains a Notch it falls to pieces. If you reroll, improve the Damage die by one size.
93 - 94	These fools will believe anything! Civilised folk will generally believe anything you tell them about the exotic sights you've seen and great beasts you have slain. When you spout such braggadocio, reroll the Reaction Roll with a +2. If you reroll, add another +2.
95 - 96	Sin Eater. If a Cleric calls forth a Miracle in your vicinity, you cast it as well if you Save vs Law. If you reroll, -2 to your Law save.
97 - 98	Die! Die! Die! Once per round, when you successfully hit with an attack, you get a free attack against the same target. If you reroll, you can do it twice per round, and so on.
99	Don't Have Time to Bleed! You never take damage from Bleed Tokens when you Tempt Fate. If you reroll, +1 to your Constitution modifier.
100	Indestructible Master of War! Any time you would take Trauma Tokens, take that many Bleed Tokens instead. If you reroll, +1 to your Strength modifier.

Making Magic: Redux

Document here.

Previous version.

While my previous Wizard Downtime rules worked well enough, in the new post-apocalyptic paradigm I've been speeding up the ol' timeline so we'll get multiple years in-game per year of real time.

This is the exact opposite of a lot of games where you'll play for years and the characters only experience a few months of hooning around killing things.

Hence the very important rejigging of Downtime mechanics to taking place in units of weeks and months rather than days. Spend a month off and you'll get 4 weeks of downtime to be used at your leisure. More on that when I've rejigged the rest of the Downtime rules. For now, magic!

Chaotic Casters

I've spiced this up a bit with some new mechanics, and some juicier potion-making rules that focus on replicating found potions or generating random potions until you get one you like.

Activity	Time Taken	Cost/Spell Level
Copy Spell to Spellbook	1 Week	30 obols
Research Existing Spell	2 Weeks	150 obols
Create New Spell	4 Weeks	300 obols
Potions	1 Week	150 obols
Scrolls	1 Week	300 obols

Basic Gimmick
You're rolling up to three dice, with the size of each die based on the following factors:

Care: Roll 1d6. Improve by taking more time. +1 die size per extra week taken.

Quality: Roll 1d6. Improve by paying for higher quality materials. +1 die size per 100 obols.

Knowledge: If you have access to a library, roll 1d6. Adjust die size by Intelligence Modifier.

ie. Joe Average the Wizard has access to a library and isn't bothering to spend extra time. He rolls 3d6.
Smarto Richpants the Mage is in a town with no library but pays 300 obols for premium materials, and he's got a +3 Int Mod. He rolls 1d6+1d12 since the Quality is higher but without a library he can't put his superior intellect to use.

Roll and look up the result on the relevant table.

Spells

Add a spell to your spellbook, whether that's via copying a spell you have to hand, researching a spell that already exists in the game, or creating a whole new one.

Roll	Result
13<	Success! The Spell is now safely in your Spellbook.
9-12	Slippery. Roll one less d6 when casting this Spell spontaneously.
5-8	Seditious. Casting this spell simultaneously releases a Chaos Burst.
4>	Sentient. The Spell becomes intelligent, taking the form of a Familiar of its choice.    Your maximum Mana is permanently reduced by 1.

Potions
Copy a potion you have to hand, or create a random potion.

Roll	Result
13<	Success! The Potion is complete!
9-12	Spoilage. Potion will expire at the end of the next month.
5-8	Soured. Drinking this potion deals 1d6 damage in addition to its effects.
4>	Explosive! It goes terribly wrong! Take 1d6 damage to each ability score.

Scrolls
Copy a spell you have to hand into a Scroll. Anybody can use a Scroll, but most classes require an Arcana roll to use it.
If an appropriate caster identifies a Scroll with an Arcana roll (or the Identify spell), they Decipher it and don't have to use Arcana to cast it.

Roll	Result
13<	Success! The Scroll is complete! It can be used once before it crumbles to dust.
9-12	Overcomplicated. Scroll can only be used if Deciphered by an appropriate caster.
5-8	Indecipherable. Scroll cannot be Deciphered, so must be cast with an Arcana roll.
4>	Illegible. Scroll is Indecipherable and casts a random spell when used.

MY POTIONS ARE TOO MUCH FOR A BEAST, LET ALONE A MAN!

Clerics

Over half the current party are Clerics, to my delight. They're very very powerful and have some fun gimmicks.

A potential issue with the well-received new Cleric rules is that Clerics lost a few of their more powerful high level spells - namely Cure Disease and Remove Curse - so these are Downtime things now. Honestly it fits better this way - Curing Disease with a snap of the fingers is a little boring.

Activity	Time Taken	Cost
Bless Holy Water	1 Week	Free
Hasten Recovery	1 Week	100 obols
Treat Disease	2 Weeks	200 obols
Transfer Curse	2 Weeks	500 obols
Sanctify Church	4 Weeks	1000 obols

Bless Holy Water

Gain 1 vial of Holy Water per level.

Holy Water burns unholy creatures like undead, demons and elves for 1d8 damage.

Holy Water can be stacked 5 to an encumbrance slot.

Hasten Recovery

Miraculously increase the recovery speed of a person suffering from a lingering injury.

Each Hasten Recovery ritual reduces their recovery time by one week.

Treat Disease

Alleviate the symptoms and halt the progression of all diseases afflicting a person.

At the end of the ritual they may make a Save vs Law against each disease afflicting them, curing that disease on success.

Transfer Curse

Remove a curse from a person and place it into another vessel. The vessel can be any object, living or inanimate, but it must be present for the entirety of the ritual.

If the vessel is a willing person the transfer is automatic. Else the afflicted must pass a Save vs Law to successfully transfer the curse.

If the cursed vessel is ever killed or broken, the curse moves to the one who destroyed it.

Sanctify Church

Consecrate a building or structure to become a Church of your faith.

Churches are consecrated ground and painful for wholly Chaotic beings like demons, elves and undead to enter. Such creatures cannot use their supernatural powers within the area, and corpses in the area cannot be animated.

The sanctification lasts as long as the structure is used as a place of worship, or until the Church is desecrated by destroying the altar.

Discussion

Wizards

Spells
Some mild changes here on top of the timings, most interestingly - the potential to create a sentient spell! Extremely rare if you've got access to a library, but out in the woods with the hedge witches I suppose these things must be more common...
The other downsides are to make it more in-line with the new Mana rules for wizards.

Potions
I don't have enough opportunities to give players random potions, so here's a way for players to brew their own!
Rather than something boring like "brew a single-target spell you know into a potion", this now creates a random potion, or lets you clone a potion you already have. Much improved!

Scrolls
Deciphering is a bit messy. Basically any class can use any scroll with an Arcana roll. To allow MUs to use MU scrolls and Necros to use Necro scrolls without risk, successfully identifying a scroll means you can cast it without risk if it's on-type for your magic.
Full text for identifying scrolls and wands -
Roll Arcana. On success, you identify the spell. 
You also Decipher it if your character class can cast it. You can use Deciphered Spellbooks normally, and cast from Deciphered scrolls as an Action.

Clerics

Holy Water
Clerics can create holy water for free now! Good for fighting demons and elves and undead, so on-brand for Clerics.

Hasten Recovery
With the new Cleric comes the loss of classic Cure spells in favour of a healing pool mechanic. This does mean that there's no Cure Critical Wounds to heal a broken arm or something, so we've got this activity instead.
A team of Clerics healing one person seems pretty Christ-like. Maybe the disciples were Clerics too?

Treat Disease
A classic Cleric job, but in downtime form. Not much more to say really.

Transfer Curse
I never liked that Clerics could just cure a curse. Curses are fun!
So now there's this, which means a curse must be transferred to some other vessel.
The classic Levitican trick of a Scapegoat will totally work though!

Sanctify Church
A fun one because my campaign is going to have a through-thread of spreading across the world and repopulating it, chiefly by settling new towns in the horrible poisoned wastes. New towns need new churches, and this is how to make them!