The History of the Darkspawn

Today we cover the history and beliefs associated with the Darkspawn. The relevancy of Darkspawn to ones outlook has entirely to do with where you were raised, and what your race is. To the average citizen of Manrath, living in a densely populated city with hundreds of thousands to even millions of people, Darkspawn are barely a thought. A problem for the frontier provinces and the farmers to deal with.

(UNIVERSAL RULE FOR THIS POST: This is all very very general stuff, and even what is written here other than what I say is 'common knowledge' requires knowledge checks. Knowledge Darkspawn, Religion, History (Local and Ancient can cover different things), Nature, Underdark, Dungeoneering, and even Politics/Nobility can uncover other information and more detailed information on what I am posting here. To know anything about other Races beliefs you must make 3 checks, Knowledge Darkspawn, Religion, and History. This only applies if say you're a human and want to know the Halflings point of view on Darkspawn for example. An Elf or a Dwarf would only have to make 1 check, for an equivalent roll for their own racial histories. An Elf wanting to know Dwarf or Gnome history would have to roll 3 checks as well. Yes, I like knowledge rolls.)

(This will be listed on the House Rules post, but Knowledge (darkspawn) is now a class skill for every class.)

To others, like the populations of Feralath and Crombar, Darkspawn are a constant threat, and a daily topic of conversation.

'The Way,' the official religion of the Empire, describes Darkspawn as a cursed race that live underground, no different then the Drow or Illithid or other monsters of legend. Darkspawn simply come to the surface more often than any of those other monstrosities. For the vast majority of the Empires city dwelling population, that is a more than good enough answer to the 'question' of the Darkspawn.

To those that live in the farmlands, or in Feralath and Crombar though, see the Darkspawn more for what they are; something dark... twisted, unique among the dangers of the wilds. They see the large variety of 'types' of Darkspawn, and the ever increasing numbers as a genuine problem... but the common man still has little explanation for them.

Those with education know that the Darkspawn are a somewhat recent threat to the world. While written record of these creatures can be found in the earliest texts of the Empire, (approximately 700 years ago) they have only been a substantial threat to the empire very few times. The last 90-100 years, however, have seen a very steady increase in Darkspawn activity.

The Templar and the Military branches of Manrath have a more studied and educated view of the Darkspawn, as they've been fighting them for some time now. While publicly nothing is admitted, there are rumors of exceptionally well armed squads clearing out darkspawn 'Hives' that pop up near train lines or major farming grounds. In small town bars, rumors of what these groups find underground are spoken of in hushed tones...

The Templar and Emperor's military have been recruiting people with knowledge of the Darkspawn, and it is becoming a more gossiped about topic in the courts of the Empire... and like many things associated with the government, the 'recruitment' isn't always voluntary.

The most learned of the Empires sages know something much closer to the truth, and that is that the Darkspawn appeared roughly 3000 years ago, during a period of time called 'The Reckoning.' Other than vague references to this time on very ancient manuscripts, and writings on the walls of ruins, no human knows anything genuine from this ancient time frame.

(Ancient ruins... the source of our most ancient knowledge.)

As we have established, even the most wise sages know very little about the Darkspawn, and other than very few instances in the Empire's established history, have they been a threat to humanity.

To the much slower reproducing, and more wild roaming races of the world, the Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, Centaur, Giants, and other wild dwelling races, Darkspawn are the most serious threat of all. Every one of these races has a different explanation for the origins of these beasts, almost all of which involve curses from various divine agents.

(The following is all very general, and is what would be revealed with a DC 15 knowledge check on all 3 skills, Darkspawn, Religion, and History. No character has this information innately.)

The Elves squarely place the creation of Darkspawn on the Humans. Many many years ago, in the time when Elves were truly Immortal, the world was torn asunder. The humans in their hubris had tried to control powers far beyond the realm of their control. The darkness unleashed upon the world made the Darkspawn, the bane of the Elves. There are rumored to be some elves ancient enough to have lived during this time... but finding them would be a truly epic undertaking.

The Orcs place the corruption on the Elves, specifically the Drow. The greenskins claim that the Drow made a pact with a dark lord other than Lloth, and that in her anger she cursed them, and that curse then spread to what it is today. This can exacerbate the already touchy relationship between Orcs and Elves.

The Goblins blame the Gnomes, claiming that in ancient times the gnomes planar magic, (For those unfamiliar with my world history all gnomes had personal pocket planes, and potent magical abilities, just as strong as Elven magic but more specialized towards illusion and such.)  the goblins claim the Gnomes ripped a hole in the planar fabric to a cursed realm, where the original darkspawn came from.

The Dwarves blame the Goblins, with a story very similar to the goblins story involving dark magic and planar rifts. The Dwarves say the goblins intentionally reached out to a dark power for the power to conquer all, and the curse is what followed.

The Halflings don't blame any particular people, they claim that an incredibly powerful artifact was made to create and control the darkspawn, and if that were to be found the plague of darkness could be stopped.

The Gnomes feel that the darkspawn were an ancient race that was hibernating until the Dwarves mined too deep, waking them up and unleashing them upon us all. This belief has greatly strained relations between the racial cousins.

Many woodland races, like the Centaur and Fey, share the Elven view that humans are to blame for the darkness, while there are minor variations of the tale between Centaurs, Dryads, Nymphs, and other wild folk, the theme of destroying nature in search of power is common.

And so, I feel we have covered the basics of Darkspawn history. There is plenty more available to players with successful knowledge checks, but I think this should be enough to have a decent foundation.

A History of The Empire of Manrath, and its Government

Today we cover the basics of our world background and its governmental make up. The world, as stated in the first outline post, is my common DnD world Artheria. Those campaigns were so long ago that anything that occurred in those games is long lost to history. Some of the flavor and style of that world remains though, if you read through the old races post, (Found easily on the right) you'll see my style with all the races, and that flavor still exists in the world.

The written history of the Empire is known in its entirety only by few. There is no internet or other central database, and while grand libraries have information available, physically finding a 700 year old text from the start of the empire is a very difficult ordeal that requires perseverance and luck.

What is taught to today's school children is a very simplistic origin story of the Empire. The early tribes of humans were united by the first Emperor, a powerful warlord known as Manrar. The land he conquered was named after him, Manrath. Grade school then teaches our children that the third Emperor, known as Tigris, formed the foundation of our modern government, the Triumvirate.

The Triumvirate was made to enforce law and order in all aspects of life. It is taught that the Empire had grown too large for one man to govern himself, and so Parliament was formed, giving the common man, (and later women and then various religious and ethnic minorities.) the right to vote. Then to enforce the laws Parliament and the Emperor, a third branch was made, Regulation. Like the government, Regulation was split into a trinity. The Chantry, Ministry, and Templar.

When one gets into college, education becomes more detailed, and those that study history learn that ancient races, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, and often even Orcs and Lizardfolk are represented in ancient treaties, but as the Darkspawn have increased, those races have decreased. The Chantry and Ministry run most of the universities in the cities, and as such they determine what knowledge the general public knows. The Chantry in particular has a vested interest in keeping knowledge of demi-humans to a minimum. 'The Way,' the religion of the Chantry, is very similar to rougher Catholicism. It is very human centered, with a belief that God created humans in his own image. This makes the Chantry very skeptical of all demi-human gods. (AKA most of the traditional DnD pantheon) It even uses a cross as its holy symbol. I still use my 'flexible favored weapon' rules for clerics and deity weapons, and as such the most common weapons that represent the Chantry are small arms, (pistols) longsword, and greatsword. (Often a Zweihander or other extremely large sword will be shaped like a cross when used by Chantry crusaders or inquisitors.)

(Chantry Crusaders are fierce warriors.)

As of 117 years ago, the 'Pagan Emperor' Antonius introduced, and managed to pass, a freedom of religion law throughout the empire. This means that technically all religions are allowed in the Empire, however, over the years the more religious and Chantry affiliated members of Parliament have weakened those laws. In most cities religions that the Chantry doesn't approve of, (almost all of those that aren't the Chantry itself) are forced into poor neighborhoods, bad buildings, and other obvious signs of discrimination. Since over 70% of the population of Manrath regularly attends Chantry services every week, they have a genuine mandate on most of their actions in the cities. Since the Chantry runs the churches it is the most popular of the 'Regulation' branches among the common people. The Chantry enforces church code, but they tend to leave most magic-users alone. Unless a necromancer is animating the corpses of prominent members of the church, or summoning an exceptionally powerful demon near a population center, the Chantry leaves those matters to the Ministry. 

The Ministry of Magic handles regulating magical law in the cities of the Empire. At the current telling of this tale, all magic-users are to be registered approved students/graduates of the Ministry. Magic is a powerful force, and it is believed it must be able to be recorded and studied. This makes the only approved casters registered intelligence based casters. Sorcerers, Bards, Warlocks, and all other types of magic users are viewed as outlaws in the Empire. Most unregistered mages go to great lengths to hide their abilities within the city limits. Ministry enforcers scry on their cities from towers above the Universities. From the safety of their towers they can project their magical power all over the empire, summoning creatures bound to their will, projecting harmful illusions, or even teleporting if it was required.

The Ministry also regulates what kinds of magic are taught to the next generation of wizards. Depending on the individual schools administration, different schools of magic are highlighted. In Barshaw, the University of Necromancy has such sway that prospective students can sign over their eventual dead body to the school to cover tuition costs. Much of the labor that maintains the grounds is undead. In Harkota, it is rumored that demons and elementals often escape the confides of the school and wreak havoc in the streets. As long as the Ministry can control it, they don't seem overly moral in their research choices. The Ministry values knowledge above all else, and the power that comes with it. While the Chantry has some legal restrictions on what exactly it can do, (it doesn't chase out opposing churches anymore, for example) the Ministry has much more freedom in how it can enforce its laws. The Ministry is accused of all manner of underhanded practices, from pressuring parents to sign over custody of their magically gifted children, to enchanting senators to vote their way. Still, many believe that the power and destructive capability of magic must be kept regulated and controlled, and a corrupt Ministry is better than mages going around doing whatever they want.

(Cowled Wizard of the Ministry.)

The final branch of Regulation is the most visibly active of them all, the Templar. While the Chantry is busy running schools, churches, and homeless shelters, and the mages of the Ministry are cooped up in their universities, the Templar are keeping darkspawn away from the trains, breaking up smuggling rings, and protecting the farmlands from the Orcs. The Templar are the foot soldiers of the enforcement triad. Chantry and Ministry will often request the Templar hunt someone down for them, and the majority of these requests they accept. The Templar code is much more of a policing than a military mindset. For example, while they use guns and explosives, every Templar carries at least one non-lethal weapon. The Templar always try to use non-lethal solutions first, only killing if they view it necessary. The Templar also run the courts, training both defense and prosecuting attorneys. (Yes, that is an obvious conflict of interest, why do you ask?) Judges, however, are voted in when the country votes for Parliament. 

And with that... we're going to call this a post, I was going to go into more detail on the darkspawn, but it's been a long week and I'm exhausted.

A New Adventure...

Today we begin a new DnD adventure, that started from a strange, but fun, personality test found here. This happened to come across my facebook, I took the test... then posted it to my gaming group, then I decided to make a game with those characters.

A simple basis for what has turned into a highly complicated game, full of intricacy, politics, philosophy... but I digress.

The world is a somewhat 'modern day' DnD world. Think Final Fantasy, Steampunk, and other 'magic and technology' style worlds. I'm mixing Final Fantasy, (Mainly 6) Shining Force, Warcraft, Steampunk, and most importantly, Dragon Age Origins together for this DnD adventure.

What does this mean?

There is everything that is normal in a DnD game, dragons, genies, orcs, goblins, giants, etc. But there are also Darkspawn, from Dragon Age Origins. There are also guns and explosives in fairly common use, (Found in my old post here) and there is electricity, plumbing, washing machines, and other modern day comforts. However, most computer and telephone technology is in the 1950's level. TV is a very recent invention, only those that are well off have them or telephones, and what is the point anyway? Magic makes communication and TV mostly something only the poor would want anyway... still going to take some years before the lower classes get them outside of hotel rooms.

Magi-tech reactors, trains, large ships, even primitive planes have given humanity the decisive edge in adapting to Artheria. (The world, yes it's my old DnD world, thousands of years later) Over the last thousands of years, Humans have been becoming the dominant race covering the globe, and Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings are seemingly gone now. The common folk simply belief they're legends, mythological stories of a bygone era. Only those who are educated know that these humanoids all existed, and that much of Human understanding of Magic, Engineering, and Architecture was actually 'borrowed' from those races.

At the current point in time, the world is divided into essentially 3 broad areas, Civilization, Farming Suburbs, and Wildlands. Regardless of the type of terrain, the world can be broken down as such. The areas we would call 'Civilization' are large, grand cities, with a style and fashion similar to the 1950's and earlier eras.

(The Modern City for our DnD world.)

The cities, for the most part, are safe from the dangers of the outside world. (AKA Darkspawn, Dragons, Giant Tribes, etc.) But they are policed by three separate organizations, The Chantry, (Religious Leaders), The Ministry of Magic, (Mage Regulators) and The Templar. (Law Enforcement of the government, work for both the Chantry, the Ministry, and Themselves as well. All three of these will be spoken of in detail in a later post, this one is going to be big enough as it is.) Some people much rather be their own boss, and choose to live a rugged life farming out in the suburbs. The farmlands, as the city folk call them, are very dangerous for reasons pertaining to the wilderness. Wild life, monstrous humanoid tribes, and most horrifically Darkspawn, raid the farm lands for food and people, which might even be the same thing.

(Many rather have their own home, away from the cities, and take their chances.)

The final broad category is the wilds, which is relatively self explanatory. Dragons, Ruins, Orcs, Darkspawn, Undead, Twisted Necromancers, and more make their living out in the wilds of the world. 

So what is this world we keep referencing? The Empire Of Manrath is where this tale takes place, more specifically the Province of Kenrath. The map, which I drew, (I'm not a great artist) is as so:

(Our Little Fantasy World)

(That took me many many hours to do....)

This is the world that we have made. Many of these provinces were named/designed in part by my players. Which I do enjoy, I like taking their ideas and tossing my own twists on them. (Waliroe, Mordeth, and Feralath were all originally from players.)

The bulk of this story is going to be taking place in the area around Norshaw, in Kenrath. Each 'Shaw' is a massive city, housing many many hundreds of thousands of humans. A full 80% of the Human population of Kenrath lives in these massive cities. 

Almost everything else belongs to the beasts... the Orcs, Dragons, and Darkspawn. 

The provinces are broken down like so:

Kenrath is the main province of our game, and it is a mostly rolling grassland/forest province, that experiences decent rainfall, has fertile ground, and a few large mountain ranges near the coast line. It has many ancient, old forests, with many trees scattered throughout the province that easily top 150 feet, and resist any attempt to be cut down. Many locals feel these trees are proof that this whole land used to belong to the elves. Most of the farmers settle near Lake Shaw, towards the Mordeth border, which is far more secure than the other side of the cities. Kenrath has such threats as Darkspawn from the mountains, and monstrosities from the Ruins of Waliroe, not to mention scattered Orc tribes. Traveling off the beaten path, or not taking the railroads, is not advised.

Places of Note:

Kenshaw: the capital of the province houses more than 1 million people. It contains the largest Magical Universities, Churches, and centers of industry in the province. The only functioning port in the province is located here.

Barshaw: the city to the north of the capital has a few of the ancient trees that make the province famous. It houses about 700,000 people, and the city is of very industrious in mindset. If they could, the city representatives would chop down every tree, and mine every cave it could get its hands on.

Norshaw: the most northern major city in Kenrath, and the starting point of our game. 400,000 people, and many ancient trees. In between two of those trees is the Cafe of Broken Dreams, an extra-planar cafe whose owner/creator is unknown. The place has stood for the entire history of the city, and not much is known about it. The Cafe attracts many adventurers and other important people though.

Waliroe is the other main 'province' of our current game. Waliroe was once its own country, with a powerful reliance on Magi-tech, and with one of the most powerful Magi-tech reactors on the planet. (Think Nuclear... just with Magic) The city's reactor had a meltdown, and now the land is nothing but a magically radiated wasteland. The surrounding provinces have since moved in and taken over for the shattered government, and now the Empire 'rules over' the entirety of Waliroe. (Though only the area near the bottom dotted line with the houses is even somewhat safe.) 'The Crater' and the 'Old Waliroe Ruins' are both very dangerous places to explore.

Mordeth is the economic powerhouse of the provinces. It has the most fertile, most protected land in the region. The only obvious threats are from the magical wastelands to the north, and the Darkspawn that live in the mountains much rather attack Feralath and Crombar than Mordeth. Crossing the river is dangerous to the primitive creatures, so raiding the other territories seems to be their preferred attack pattern. Mordeth has claimed the bulk of Waliroe.

Places of Note:

Entrar: The capital of Mordeth, and currently of the whole empire. The Emperor lives there, and Parliament currently meets there. The city houses more than 10 million people, and houses all the luxuries, education, and corruption the modern world has to offer.

Nothia: A major trade city, a central hub between Mordeth, Feralath, Kenrath, and the recently claimed lands of Waliroe. It has become a very wealthy merchant city relatively quickly.

Feralath is a rough, wild place. It has enemies on all sides. (Except the south) Darkspawn from the mountains, orc tribes and monsters from the northern wilds, and barbarians from the desert. The land has harsher winters then Kenrath and Mordeth, and the people that live there tend to be more cautious and less welcoming than the other provinces.

Places of Note:

Feralas: The capital of Feralath houses a little under half a million people, and scholars claim it was once the center of a massive orc empire in time the Dwarves were the dominant force in the region. The residents of the town are very defensive in mindset, as are its representatives in parliament.

Crombar is similar to Feralath in many ways, only with a much greater emphasis on securing the border with the Anvar Wastes. It is a more dry land than Feralath, with less rainfall than its neighbor to the north.

Places of Note:

Cromyr: Often allied with Feralas in parliament, this city houses over half a million people, and is the central staging point against the barbarian tribes of the Anvar Wastes.

The Northern wilds are an ancient, thick forest. Full off orcs, giants, darkspawn, and other monstrosities. While the Empire 'Claims' those lands, (and the Anvar Wastes) they actually have very little, if any, presence both here and in the Anvar Wastes, which are a great desert.

Mankar, to the south, leads to the rest of the Empire, and is a very populated region with great political power, but isn't part of this region.

Places of Note:

Harkota: The old capital, before the Emperor moved it to Entrar, a massive city of over 20 million, with all the most prestigious schools in the land.

....

Now that we can see where the people are, we can discuss the government that rules them.

The Empire of Manrath is a rather complex system that has stood now for over 700 years. A large part of its longevity is that the government is divided up into 3 major parts, Emperor, Parliament, and Regulators.

The current Emperor is the Emperor Claudius, a tall, menacing man, with a mind towards expansion. The Emperor is not a king, like his title suggests. He actually only has limited voting power in the Parliament, but he is the official head of the Military, and he is an exceptional general. His gear is magically empowered Magi-tech, and many an orc and darkspawn have fallen under him. He is married to a skilled aristocrat, who bends many of the representatives in Parliament to their way.

(Emperor Claudius, conqueror of Waliroe.)

The Parliament is made up of voted in representatives from every city. The more populated the city, the more members it has. This is a direct ratio, more populated provinces often use that power to get what they want against the smaller provinces. On the map above, Mordeth and Mankar have the most representatives. The Parliament makes the laws of the land, and the Emperor's vote counts as Ten votes in Parliament. The Parliament currently has 90 seats, meaning the Emperor's 10 vote is rather substantial. It is massively lopsided towards the cities though. The entire farming population of Kenrath has only 2 representatives in Parliament, and Mordeth has only 4 representing them. The total 'farming/suburb' count in Parliament is 9, they often band together, but they have very little political power against the 81 members that represent the cities. 

(The Parliament building, located in Entrar.)

The true power behind almost everything in the Empire however, is the branch called 'Regulation.' They are the enforcers of the laws, in theory. This branch is split into three parts, the Chantry, which is in charge of religious enforcement. While technically the law is freedom of religion, the codes that govern where churches for certain religions can set up are enforced by the Chantry, and they are very selective about what gets enforced. The religion the of the Empire and of the Chantry is simply called 'The Way,' and it is very similar to Catholicism during its more extreme days. They employ inquisitors, have many connections within the Templar and the Emperor's military. They do tend to stay away from dealing with any manner of magic-user though, leaving that for the Ministry in all but the most extreme circumstances.

(The Chantry enforces The Word of God.)

The Ministry of Magic is arguably the most powerful of all the branches. It is made up almost exclusively of wizards, and they believe that not only must all magic be regulated. In order to be effectively regulated, the only way to practice arcane magic is through the use of runes, scrolls, books and the like. As such, the only 'approved' magic users are typically Wizards, Warmages, and Beguilers. Overall it's only intelligence based casters that are approved. Low level sorcerers and most bards are below the notice of the Ministry, but once a Bard or Sorcerer begins to cast level 3 or greater spells, they begin to become noticed by the Ministry. Most Sorcerers become hermits in the wilds rather than deal with the ministry. (Level 7 for Bards, and 6 for Sorcerers) The Ministry runs every magic school across the Empire, and its enforcement has exceptional reach, scrying the cities from the safety of their towers.

(The ministry of magic is typically eccentric... and very powerful.)

The final branch of enforcement is the most prominent of them; The Templar. They are the special forces of the police, the equivalent of a SWAT team. They are always well armed, trained with guns and explosives, and not only do they enforce the laws of the land, but they often are deployed against the Darkspawn when they threaten a city or major farm territory. The Templar, while they are separate from all other branches, to seem to help out with all manner of job. Whether it would fall under the Emperor's jurisdiction, Chantry, or Ministry, the Templar often has a hand in the enforcement. Templar enforcers are well armed, capable, and often very enthusiastic with their work.

(Templar Enforcers are modern, capable warriors.)

That covers the basics of the government. Now let us move on to the population...

The humans of Manrath do have a unique trait. Bloodlines. While Demi-humans, (Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings) are now practically myth, the evidence of their existence exists within humanity all over. The world of Artheria has a very vibrant past, and as such, humans have mingled with practically everything, demi-humans, elementals, angels and demons, fey folk, even intelligent plant life. Nowadays, those signs are subtly shown throughout the population.

Every person who took the personality DnD test was human, but with different levels of other races. (For example, I was human, with a 2nd place tie of Gnome and Dwarf, so my bloodlines are Dwarf/Gnome) Then to give people a choice, I allow them to have a choice for a secondary bloodline, this can be chosen from; Celestial, Infernal, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, and Fey. I chose air for the NPC character I'm mainly playing. Hence, Demar is a Gnome/Dwarf/Air Human. We have an Elf/Celestial, Dwarf/Celestial, Elf/Infernal, Elf/Wood, and more. (Lots of elves...)

As the characters grow stronger, the 'Bloodlines' will level up. This will happen every 5 levels for the first type. (Dwarf, Elf, etc.) The 2nd bloodline, (Celestial, Elemental, etc.) is based on story advances, not levels.

Demi-Humans, (this is the first edition term for Elves, Dwarves, etc.) are much more powerful than they are in the PHB. Not only do they have all of those abilities, but many more. Think Tolkien influenced. Elves are practically immortal, Dwarves are tough beyond belief, Halflings are resistant to evil, and lucky, etc. The following are some of the things that these races are known for:

Elves: Arcane and martial masters. They are said to live thousands of years, have advanced magical prowess, and great martial prowess as well. They are known as super aware masters of the wild, with great mastery over mithril and magic.

Dwarves: Master smiths that are tough beyond belief. Highly resistant to magic and corruption, living in massive well made underground cities. Dwarven military prowess is legendary. Guns, explosives, and rune magic are what they are known for.

Gnomes: Eccentric engineers and mages. Gnomes were legendary for advanced gadgets, blackpowder weapons, and magi-tech.

Halflings: The short folk were rumored to be practically immune to any type of dark magic, with a courage that made not only full grown men, but Elves and Dwarves feel bad about their valor.

Depending on your bloodlines, you will gain stat bonuses (and penalties) and abilities. I apply these to my boss NPCs as well.

I am not posting the actual numbers, since I want to have flexibility depending on the characters. Many things will be taken from the posts I did on this blog last year.

Many of the rules that I have on this blog still stand, I will be using the Magi-Tech engineer class I made, and also all the house rules that are posted on my house rules page. I will be adding to that page somewhat regularly, I plan on adding a few 'class variants' that I'm using for enemies, and a few prestige classes to that page soonish. I am also using most of the class changes I've made in the class posts. Should we play more than one game in this world, the variants, prestige and core classes I make on here will be open to newly made characters.

And with that, enough for one day. Next post will cover the history of the Empire, Chantry, Ministry, Templar, and Darkspawn in much more detail. Stay tuned adventurers!

The Skyrealm

Welcome back to Artheria.

Today we cover the Skyrealm, and the political/geographical hazards that occur there. I have been trying to learn how to make all my maps with computer programs, since I'm not a very good artist, and thought that would be the way to go. Alas, in the year 2014 there is still not an easy to use program that can make a wide variety of map types and make them well. So from here on out, I'm most likely going to be drawing most maps.

(If any of my players/readers know of a good program to use... let me know please. I've tried Campaign Cartographer and Dundjinni, with very limited success.)

Let us start with some basics, as I'm not a very good artist, my maps are not drawn to scale, or colored exceptionally well, but the idea should come across alright.

As far as the science goes, humans on earth can't live over 30,000 feet in the air. The pressure isn't right, the sun burns you while you're really cold, and your body's lungs can't pull enough oxygen out of the air to keep your body going. That isn't an issue on Artheria. Thanks to the reckoning, several portals to all sorts of places have opened up all over the place, and portals to the elemental plane of air have saturated the upper atmosphere with cleaner air than is found on the surface, and the general lack of cloud cover, since most islands are above or just in the clouds, allows plant life to flourish, which in turn supports animal and humanoid life of all kinds. Fresh drinking water can be hard to come by, while there are portals to the plane of water that continually dump water into the realm, there are often powerful creatures that live near such sources of pure water, keeping it under their own control. (Dragons or Storm Giants are relatively common owners of such portals.)

Overall, it is almost easier to live above the clouds of Artheria than the surface... and any monster that can fly has discovered that over the last 1000 years, and many have migrated up to this realm for that very reason.

(The Skyrealm, clicking it should make it bigger.)

Let us start with the middle, the little black spot and swirly bits are actually a perpetual cyclone/hurricane weather event over the Maelstrom, in the center of the planet. (See this post for the surface map of Artheria.) The winds around this point are constantly over 100 miles per hour, lightning, rain, hail, sleet, all of it exists in this zone, and the weather doesn't just go down towards the surface, it is not uncommon for gravity distortions, wind, or portals in this area to cause the weather to occur in very different ways. The most intense weather on the planet is in the few hundred miles around the center of the Maelstrom. This extreme weather functions in the massive planet long 'strip' that is the anti-magic zone, which brings us to the next obvious hazard...

The Anti-Magic Zone is a 1000 miles wide and 3 miles 'thick' zone where magic can not function. This zone appeared after the reckoning, starting at the center of the maelstrom and slowly spreading to the massive planet wide zone that is currently is. In the center of the maelstrom, the zone goes all the way down to the surface, 45,000 feet down to the bottom of the ocean floor, making it, at that point, 1000 miles wide by 10 miles high. The highest peaks of Entrar and the Frozen Wastes breach into this anti-magic zone on the upper right and bottom left of the map. Traveling in this zone is incredibly hazardous, as airships and planes will at some point fail, 75% failing as soon as they cross the 'line' into the zone. The safest travel is on a flying mount, like a gryphon or hippogriph.

Moving back to the center of the map, directly above the center of the Maelstrom is Zain's Island.

Zain is an incredibly powerful goblin lich necromancer, and is one of the most powerful creatures on the planet. (Zain was a level 1 goblin necromancer that was part of a monstrous humanoid party I sent against my players that all this is based on when they were level 1-2 in the very first dungeon of this game, the 3 were not meant to live, it was Zain the goblin, Griff the ogre, and a hobgoblin that died... they managed to escape my players wrath though and altered the story line forever as my players never got the upper hand on them. Ever.)

Zain's island is probably the most menacing island fortress on Artheria, and no one, not even demi-gods, have succeeded in removing Zain from his throne in the last 1000 years. His island, which exists within the anti-magic zone and the insane weather of the Maelstrom, is very near two other menacing places, Zain's Tower, which is a 9 mile high tower made from earth, coral, and the severed arm of the Adamantine Colossus, the massive construct that brought about the reckoning 1000 years ago. The other menacing landmark right by zain's tower and his island is the Adamantine Colossus itself, which has been sitting in the middle of the Maelstrom for the last 1000 years, flashing colored lights out into space through the perpetual 'eye of the hurricane' that exists there. The sea, on the surface, is always in a cyclone in that area, making approach by ship or by flying stead nearly impossible, and magical means of traveling there simply do not function, as the anti-magic zone is at its strongest there.

(The adamantine colossus is a creature of unknown origin, with powers that have never been beaten.)

All forces fear this area, and only the very bravest ever attempt an assault. Zain's power is unrivaled, for he possesses 3 incredibly powerful artifacts. The first is an orb of negative energy, which appears much like a dark colored crystal ball. Zain gained this artifact by besting my players at the time in an ancient gnome ruin, it amplified his powers enormously and took Zain from a fledgling wizard to a major player on the global stage.

(Zain's Orb of Negative energy.)

Next he turned his long time bodyguard and companion, Griff the Ogre, (Ogre Fighter/Rogue/Assassin/Blackguard) into a curst undead creature, granting the ogre an immortal life and even greater power... and traveled the planes, and stole an immensely powerful blade, the Soul Reaver, from Vecna, the god of secrets, magic, and undeath. With these two artifacts, Zain was able to wrest the 3rd, and final artifact, the enormous Crystal of Negative energy, an over 40 foot tall crystal that seems to help control the nature of the planes themselves, from several competitors. With this artifact under Zain's control, his power became unrivaled. None on Artheria have breached the inner sanctum of Zain in nearly 1000 years, the last to do so were the heroes of the last campaign, that all this is based on, and two out of the 3 paid for it with their lives, Rolltun, the 'avatar' of Gruumsh/Lytana, who lives in the Bastion of Light a little over 1000 miles away, is the only living creature to have entered Zain's island. 

Many attempts have been made to reclaim the negative energy crystal, all have failed. Just getting to Zain's Island is an incredibly difficult task. Airships and planes can't make it because of the anti-magic zone, and only the mightiest flying creatures can brave the extreme weather of the Maelstrom, the average gryphon, hippogriph, and even adult dragon  stands no chance against the hurricane force winds. For now, Zain's Island remains impervious... and his power continues to grow.

Now that we have spoken of Zain and the Negative Energy crystal, let us move on to Rolltun and the Positive Energy crystal. Rolltun is the last surviving player of the old game, and he is the hero of the elves, he holds the memories of Gruumsh before he became the god of the orcs, (He was an elf who fell from grace.) and is one of the mightiest beings on Artheria. He resides in The Bastion of Light, which hovers high above the Elf Lands, and houses the Positive Energy Crystal, which the elves have had control of on Artheria for eons. (This is the reason elves in my world live for thousands of years and all have the timeless body trait.)

Rolltun tends to stay in this area, protecting the preserved bodies of his friends, hoping to free their souls from Zain, and guarding the Positive Energy crystal. This general area, where Rolltun and the elves live, (Called the Noldrin Lihand on the map, or Floating Country in the common tongue.) is one of the most safest areas in the skyrealm. 

(The Bastion of Light, and some of the Noldrin Lihand.)

This area is made up of dozens of floating islands, several with permanent portals to various planes, some relatively safe, like the elemental plane of water, and others not at all, like Pandemonium. The elves, lyntanan orcs, and pegasus centaur that live in this area are constantly sending help to the surface, which is in much worse shape.

As far as the economy of the Noldrin Lihand, it is in large part based on exporting the freshest water in the sky realm, (the floating island with the twin waterfalls on the right side of the map.) and very well made goods of Elven and Orcish make. Getting to the 'Floating Country' is a bit more difficult, as it is mostly cut off from the rest of the world by the anti-magic zone, going around it is a very long process requiring you to fly around Grendar and the goblin government.

Which will move us on to Grendar. This land was once a gnome town called Gnomeweizen, (Like a Hefeweizen but Gnomish.) and was the starting point of the original campaign. The players failed horribly in protecting it from the goblins, and goblin army (Led by Darren Flamehair and Zain) conquered the town, and took control of the extensive underground ruins underneath. During the reckoning, the land started to shake, and Zain used his immense magical power to partially control the gravitational fluctuations to pull an absolutely massive hunk out of the ground, this continent was a full 40% of the old country of Mangderithon, (Where Contrador is located currently) from the earth, complete with many sets of ancient ruins and several smaller towns. This gave the goblins an enormous, isolated area to develop over time, and from here, Goblins developed their own magi-tek from the gnomish ruins, and built their massive 'trade fleet.' Which is the strongest air force on Artheria. Grendar is the largest, and most populated floating continent, housing over 700,000 creatures, the vast majority of that population goblin.  

While the main continent itself is generally off limits to non-goblins, (merchants are the one exception to this rule, though there are many taxes levied specifically against outsiders, making it difficult to make a living trading with them.) connected by a massive bridge to the main continent is a smaller island that houses the Golden Mushroom Resort and Casino. (Yes, I'm pretty much ripping off Final Fantasy VII, I'll admit that.)

(Come! Spend your money!)

The Golden Mushroom Resort and Casino is truly neutral ground. It is partially owned by Zain, and he and Griff are occasionally seen here socializing and gambling. The massive magi-tek resort has all sorts of attractions, traditional gambling, (slot machines and cards) gladitorial arenas, race tracks for all manner of racing, from dogs and horses to planes and airships, cuisine from every corner of the planes, bars, roller coasters, strip clubs, prostitution, (I hope you like goblins...) all manner of recreational drugs, you name it, it is here on this absolutely massive golden colored oddly shaped building. All are welcome here, as long as you have money.

Which brings us to the primary competition of the goblins, the Darithian Federation. This is the 2nd largest floating continent, and it was once the 2nd largest city in all of Mangderithon, and it was called Darith's Bay. It was torn from Mangderithon just like the goblin home was, though unlike Grendar, it didn't have an incredibly powerful wizard assisting anything. Half the city was destroyed in the reckoning, falling into the underdark as this half floated into the sky. The survivors, finding themselves now floating 40,000 feet above the ground, had to get inventive in order to survive. Luckily for them, 20% of the towns over 500,000 people are gnomes, and the technology and innovation of the gnomish magi-tek engineers have kept the people here thriving and successful for the last 1000 years. (The population is roughly 100,000 gnomes, 200,000 halflings, and 200,000 humans) Over the years, the need for more room as forced the townsfolk to chain in two nearby floating islands. One island just so happened to be incredibly mountainous, and had many natural caverns, this island is the source of the Federation's wealth, as they mine all kinds of precious metals and gems from the floating mountains. While Grendar and the Darithian Federation aren't officially at war, skirmishes and piracy abound between the two forces, any official military ships never fire on each other, but unmarked vessels are fair game.

(The Darithian Federation is a bustling floating city.)

This brings us to the last two entries, the Sindarin Crag, and the Floating Glaciers. The Sindarin Crag is the highest floating island on the planet, the highest peaks actually exit the atmosphere and exist in the vacuum of space. There are a few castles and keeps that dot the mountains, no one knows who or what lives there, very few creatures can make it to this island, as it exists in the anti-magic zone.

The floating glaciers are exact;y as they sound... glaciers that float in the sky. There are more of them forming over time. Sometimes a glacier just rips out of the frozen wastes, sometimes snow and ice just coalesce into solid orbs and float in the sky. White dragons, frost elves, frost giants, ice elementals, and all manner of other life attempts to scratch out a living in the cold harsh environment. While there are some small settlements that trade, most creatures hunt, pillage, and grow exceptionally hardy plants in ice caves though for survival.

That concludes the general situation in the skyrealm. I look forward to airship navies battling it out.



“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

House Rules

Alright... so now that we're getting closer to starting all the main games, I am deciding to place my house rules on a page. This will be getting added too as things come up. First off, if you are a rules lawyer, you will not like me. I am very fast and loose with the rules, I've played all 4 editions of DnD that have come out, and while 3.5 is my personal favorite, I mix and match things pretty constantly. In every DMG ever written, there is a universal rule: the DM is always right. Remember that when playing in Artheria.

We will start with the leveling up rules, I make 1 change here, taken from 4th edition. Every 4 levels, when you add a stat point, you get to add 2 points, they just can't be in the same stat. Example, I have a fighter/wizard who just hit level 4, I add my bonus points into strength and intelligence, but I can't add 2 points to any one stat.

Now onto feats: first off, weapon finesse is substantially more flexible. Almost any weapon you may apply finesse to, including: Any sword weapon, one or two handed, any monk weapon, (including the simple weapons on that chart, like the quarterstaff.) any spear or polearm weapon, any small weapon of any type, (including a small hand axe or hammer.) and any weapon underneath 4 pounds, period. The exceptions are shield bashing and armor spikes, no matter what the weight of the weapon/armor no weapon finesse there. I can describe almost any weapon in a finesse way, looking for weak points in the opponents defense rather than just smashing through them.

Added feats: Exotic weapon (Small Arms), and (Long Arms), Exotic weapon (Explosives), these feats allow you to use all of these weapon types. There are weapon focus and specialization feats for each of these weapon types as well.

There are also two other firearm/explosive feats, Rapid Fire (Firearms) which allow you to use the other firing options on the firearms chart, like 3 shot burst or full auto. The other is Explosives Expert. This feat adds a passive +2 to the save DCs of all artillery and explosive weapons, which increases every 5 levels. The bonus starts at +2, and increases by another +1 every 5 levels. This feat is retroactive. (+6 total at level 20)

Now we move on to my dice rolling house rules: SURGES! This is an incredibly old rule, well over a decade old now, in my sit down games. Should two NATURAL 20s be rolled in a row, you gain an extra awesome ability. This can be anything from the crit bonus increasing to gaining a permanent attack bonus to whatever you are attacking. No matter what, it will be a good bonus. If you roll 2 20's in a row, you will be allowed another roll, to get another 20. The more 20's are rolled, the better the bonus. The best in any game was 4 20's in a row, and the character that rolled that gained favored enemy and electrical resistance. (Permanent bonuses each.)

This goes the same way for critical failures, you can negative surge by rolling multiple 1's in a row. In the trial game the only player that negative surged was a gnome, and that character ended up losing their awesome magi-tek weapon. (It exploded....) The more 1's are rolled, the worse the outcome.

*8/30* Skill rules:

Alright, I've added various skills for piloting (Aeronautics and such, see the Airship post) which will still work fine for the new steampunk/final fantasy/modernish DnD game I'm currently running, but I'm also adding a lot more skills to various classes. In my first game I didn't need to do this because everyone was gestalt, so there were plenty of class skills to go around. This game is not gestalt though, and I'm still giving many skill points to players. (I like a lot of skill points) This has placed some players (Like our fighter and some of our wizards) into quite a predicament. What to do with all these skill points?

Many classes are gaining some class skills now. First off, all classes get spot and listen. It doesn't take special training to teach your eyes and ears to work better. As you go along living, and practice to pick up/observe different things, (AKA gaining experience and using skills) they naturally would be getting better. This isn't just a rogue or druid thing. All classes.

All classes also gain the 'Profession' skill. Profession is essentially a trade or day job that you are/were skilled in before you became an adventurer. Why couldn't a fighter have been an herbalist or a sailor? Why are druids, who spend their lives in the wilds, so commonly Professionals? Another weird one of the core rules. Everyone can take this skill now.

Wizards and Wu Jen now also have Forgery as a class skill, they spend a huge amount of time studying ancient script and translating it, (Decipher Script skill) copying text starts to become 2nd nature if you do that enough.  Wizards also gain Search as a class skill, picked up from all those hours searching through massive libraries for a particular tome or scroll.

Sorcerers, which have been reworked a bit in my games, gain many new skill options. I really like to emphasize the 'rugged' nature of the Sorcerer class, (which is how they're described, just not numerically set up) and as such, Sorcerers get Climb, Jump, Swim, and Survival as class skills. Instead of just getting bluff, they get to choose one single social skill (Bluff, diplomacy, or intimidate) as the social class skill. Some sorcerers are skilled liars, others use their powers to intimidate. This gives the Sorcerer plenty of skill flexibility.

All WARRIOR type classes gain the following skills, Knowledge (Warfare), which is the knowledge of previous battles, formations, and other formal or informal education about warfare and specifically strategy, and survival. Which is the skill of surviving on your own in the elements/wilds/city streets at night. Both of those are now class skills for every fighter type: Paladins, Fighters, Samurai, Swashbucklers, etc.

*10/4/2015* Updates on knowledge skills. Realizing that I need to add some clarification to things here. What are all the new knowledge skills and what do they cover? Here is a list!

Knowledge (Aeronautical Engineering), the knowledge of building and maintaining aircraft of all kinds. Provides synergy bonuses with Profession (Pilot). (Wizard, Bard, Rogue, Magi-tek Engineer, expert and aristocrat only.)

Knowledge (Navigation), the knowledge of cartography for all matter of travel, land, air, or sea. (Wizard, Bard, Rogue, Swashbuckler, Magi-tek Engineer, expert and aristocrat only.)

Knowledge (Warfare), the knowledge of tactics for both small and large scale battles, includes siege weaponry, and battle history. Gives synergy bonuses to Diplomacy in circumstances of negotiating before a battle.

Knowledge (Darkspawn), knowledge of Darkspawn, in their many forms. This is open to all classes.

Knowledge (Royalty and Nobility) is now (Politics), since these are pretty much the same thing.

There is of course History, but there are now two types, Local History, and Ancient History.

*That is good for now, as I think of more this list will be updated.*

*10/8/2015* Skill Expansions and other changes:

Now, as is established by now, I like tweaking a lot of rules and changing things around, I've added many kinds of knowledges and professions, and here is another universal rule: If you want a type of skill that isn't included in the skill list, you can ask me and we will either lump what you are going for in with an existing skill or we will make up a new skill. I like skills a lot, be creative.

Death, Dying, and First Aid:

Heal is an interesting skill as written. It is one of those that you need some ranks in, but not a huge amount. (Not a 'level up every time' type of skill) The reason for that is two fold, one, healing spells are relatively easy to come by in DnD, and two, all the DCs for Heal are set at 15. That is really easy. Even a level 1 character with a +1 wisdom will get that 50% of the time. By the time you're level 4-5 and you have +8-10, that DC 15 is really easy.

I am expanding a few things with this skill, one of which is going to effect everyone. When you are dying, the DC for stabilizing is now 15+ the amount of HP loss, example, if the dying character is at -3 HP, 15 + 3 is 18, so the DC to stabilize would be 18. This goes up to a maximum of DC 25. Yes, 25 at -10. I'm adding 1 extra point of HP for everyone when they are dying.

To augment your healing abilities, you may now purchase 'healing kits' like in Neverwinter Nights. (but not nearly as powerful.) Healing kits come in strengths of +1 to +6, and add that bonus to the heal skill. Healing now has another ability of emergency medical care, (AKA instant healing) this may ONLY be done with a healing kit, and heals damage depending on the result.

Heal result:

>20          None
20-25       1d8 (+ healing kit mod)
26-30       2d6 (+ healing kit mod)
31-35       2d8 (+ healing kit mod)
36-40       3d6 (+ healing kit mod)

You get the idea.

Healing kits have 4 uses per individual kit for +1-3 versions, 5 uses for +4-5, and 6 in the maximized version. Purchase prices are as follows:

Healing Kit +1 is 200 gold, +2 is 400 gold, +3 is 800, +4 is 1600, +5 is 3200, and +6 is 6400.

That covers the upgrades/changes to the heal skill.

Now we move on to Speak Language, which I am completely reworking. As written, you simply spend ranks and gain languages. This is... well... ludicrous. Language is an immensely complex device, and as such I'm implementing a new system for those with this skill, Fluency. A character is fluent in all languages they have at character creation, but it they spend skill points on this skill.

As bards are the only class with this skill open to them, I am changing that now to include all classes. (Like with search and spot) However, we now will include my new fluency system. There are 3 levels of Fluency, basic, conversational, and fluent. Someone with a basic understanding of a language can do simple things, ask for the bathroom or basic directions, what day it is, time it is, and other very basic things. Conversational level means that you know most words that you would use in a day to day fashion, and the characters grip on that particular grammatical structure. At the Fluent level, you can pass for a native of whatever the chosen language is, knowing every word and picking up on the slangs and subtleties of the language.

Each level of Fluency costs 4 skill points to achieve, thus to master a language takes 12 skill points total. I feel this is far more representative of the genuine complication that is language. (Watch my European players that speak 6 languages make fun of me now...)

Spellcraft is our next contestant. I make a few changes to this skill, one, it is whatever your casting stat for the skill modifier, if you're a cleric or druid, wisdom, wizards intelligence, and sorcerers charisma. Spellcraft is the art of identifying and manipulating magical energies. (Spellcraft and Knowledge Arcana provide synergy bonuses to each other.) As written it is used for mainly identifying spells, and counterspelling, and later on, creating and casting spells. (Epic level)

But spellcraft in all my games is far more flexible. It is the art of manipulating your spells. If you want to attempt to do something similar to a metamagic feat that you do not have, (For example, shaping a fireball to avoid your friends) you can attempt this, but the DCs are very high depending on the check, and if you critically fail things will typically go bad for you. This can be done to replicate almost any metamagic feat, if the dice results are high enough.

However, like casting many epic level spells, forcefully manipulating the magical energies that tie the world together can have consequences. Damage to the caster is the most common side effect. EXAMPLE: You attempt to forcibly maximize your fireball. You do not have the required higher spell slots or feat, but you roll super high on your spellcraft check. The spell will be maximized, but the caster will take at minimum 1d6 per level of the spell modified in damage. Say the character maximized a fireball, the back damage would be anywhere from 3d6 to 6d6 depending on the spellcraft roll. (Maximize raises the spell level 3 slots, which is where that range is coming from.)

I think that covers our expanded skills for now.

Now we move onto spells I believe. THIS LIST WILL BE ADDED ON TO AS THE GAME GOES ON!

*8/28/2015: More spell updates, and item class update.

Level 0: Arcane Charge: This very basic cantrip channels raw magical energy into Magi-tek batteries. Many of today's modern conveniences run on crystal batteries that convert magical energy into electrical/heat/other types of energy. This very simple spell adds a single charge to a magi-tek item. (This can only be used to refill magi-tek wands, all you use magic device types out there) Arcane charge has one unique trait, unlike normal spells, that unless aided with a metamagic feat gain nothing by being cast with a higher level spell slot, Arcane Charge provides more item charges the higher level spell slot you use. Level 0 is 1 charge per spell, level 1 is 2, level 2 is 4, 3 is 6, so on and so forth up to 18 charges for a level 9 spell. (Skip ahead to end of post for new item class)

Level 1: Tenser's Floating Disc: This spell was one of the first I ever memorized in original 3rd edition. My Paladin/Sorcerer, Demar, (Aasimar Paladin/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple.... My first 3.0 edition character ever.) memorized this and magic missile pretty much right away, and I would fly around on my floating disc riding it like a surfboard, I even made a 3rd level 'Fly' Equivalent called 'Demar's Flying Disc' that was in essence a slightly faster fly spell on the disc instead of on yourself. (Ok... adding that spell now...)

Anyway, back on point, Tenser's Floating Disc functions better than it is listed in the PHB. It acts as a telepathically controlled disc that can move as you will in the spells range, (Which is close range, or 25 +5 ft. every 2 levels) with the following limitations: It must stay within 5 feet of a solid wall-like structure, thick tree, etc. allowing it to act like a limited levitate spell. If you are not riding it and controlling it, you may move it at will, as long as it stays in your range.

Level 1: *New* Shocking Grasp: This is a touch spell, and it is 1d6 per level. This spell just isn't good enough to be really viable, the acid/flame/etc. orb spells do better damage at range. What were they thinking? This spell now does 1d8 per level, max 5d8 at level 5.

Level 1: *New* Lesser Orb of Fire/Sonic/Acid/etc.: All these spells, like stated above, are too powerful. 1d8 every two levels, like magic missile, at range. When these came out, especially sonic orb, every spell caster I knew was like, "Fuck burning hands/magic missile/etc. Gimme those." These are all now reworked: they are all 1d6 per two spell levels, require a ranged touch attack, but if they hit, each one has a status effect. Fire and Acid: Reflex save or half damage the following round. Cold: Fortitude save vs. Slow, Sonic and Lightning: Will save vs. Daze.

There, now they are different from magic missile, and better in some ways, not as good in others. (Magic missile ALWAYS hits, and on average will be around the same damage. But no status effect possibility.)

Level 2: Flaming Sphere: This spell is nice in the sense that it lasts multiple rounds and allows you to light people on fire.... but the 2d6 damage is really underpowered. At level 5 Burning Hands does 5d4 damage, (5-20) and this is stuck at 2-12.... so I'm enhancing it with an additional d6 every 5 caster level. (Max 5d6 at level 15)

Level 3: *NEW SPELL* Demar's Flying Disc:  This spell functions like a mixture of Fly and Tenser's Floating Disc. It creates a 5 ft. radius disc (+1 ft. per 4 caster levels) that moves at a rate of 60 ft. with a light load, 40 ft. with a medium or heavy load. The light load for the disc is 150 pounds per caster level, and the maximum allowed weight is 300 pounds per caster level. This can carry multiple characters, but a creature (like a dragon) can knock you off the disc.

Level 9: Time Stop: This spell was an absolute necessity in 2nd edition, or more importantly, Baldur's Gate II. This spell pretty much gives you 1d4+1 rounds to do whatever summoning spells and buffing spells you want. That sounds kind of nice... except in 2nd edition you had no limits on what you could do. You could spend 1d4+1 rounds casting fireballs and hitting them with your Kensai/Mage's Dual wielded Flail of the Ages +5 and Mace of Disruption +6... not that I've ever done that before. The books version in 2nd edition creates a zone where time completely stops and only the wizard may act. I am changing the spell to that version. You stop time in a 100 foot radius, and you can do anything that you want for 1d4+1 rounds. Cast any spell you want, all the quickened fireballs/chain lightnings/meteor swarms you can muster, they all go off once the spell goes off. Should someone outside of the sphere shoot an arrow or a spell into it, it stops once it hits the outer edge. This grants the wizard a +4 reflex save/ac/whatever once the spell fades. Time Stop is the end all be all of wizard might. Certain creatures are immune to this effect, like abominations or demi-gods.

*Prestige Class Changes*
Dragon Disciple: I hate the bonus spells, so I'm changing this to +1 spell level every odd numbered level, 1,3, 5 etc.
Green Star Adept: This classes spell progression is now 7/10ths, so every level except 2, 6, and 10.

*New Item Types: Magi-tek Convenience Items*

The modern era has many advantages that the standard DnD realm could never dream of. The current technological breakthrough in human civilization is magi-tek batteries. Rechargeable crystals that convert magical power into energy. This has all manner of applications, from portable radios, to skillets and plates that heat themselves. Glasses that can keep your drink always cold, wheels for your car or carriage with integrated levitate charges for those rough patches of road. (or that small river!) Overall, practically any minor enchantment can be found on any type of minor object. (Ropes and hoses that wind and unwind themselves, lanterns that require no oil, so on and so forth.)

Obviously, technology like that has all manner of military applications. The Military, (Led by the Emperor) The Templar, and the Ministry are rumored to have many secret weapons powered by magi-tek batteries, but their existence is classified, and black market trading is one of the few things all enforcement, local police, and the military will collaborate on. Stealing an arcane powered machine gun loaded military grade Golem is a surefire way to get on the top of the Empire's 'most wanted' list instantly.

Cost for these items ranges, but it is always AT LEAST base item cost + 15gp. (Example, I want a Hooded lantern that I can turn off and on at will, and has no oil, and works underwater, and has a built in radio for shits and giggles. The base cost is 7gp, then to make it arcane powered adds 15gp, then to make it waterproof with a radio adds another 15gp for each 'added use' it gives. As such, this waterproof arcane battery powered radio is 7gp + 45gp, or 52gp.

Arcane powered items are one of the most regulated pieces of technology in the empire... but recently becoming some of the most popular for day to day use.



And with that, I think this little post is done.

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
John F. Kennedy

Creating Characters of Artheria

Now I make one of the most important posts of the blog... the method of making characters. I am making the assumption with this post that you know something about DnD, that won't be the case with all my players though, several are new, and don't worry if you are, I will walk you through the entire process one on one.

We start with the basics, rolling dice.

We use 4d6, dropping the lowest, and we also ignore all 1's, rerolling those. I like my players to be above average in almost every stat. I will also want to be present for them, meaning we either do it through skype so I can see them, or most likely, we roll in a dice room where I can see the rolls, which is what we currently do whenever we play.

Once you have your numbers, you can arrange them however you like. If you want to reroll, I'm fine with it, just you have to reroll all the numbers, not just 1 stat or 2.

Then we choose our race, there are 10 to choose from.

Once you have your race and basic stats done, we choose our class combo. As we are playing ‘gestalt’ mode, every player has 2 classes they get to pick, and each time they level up, they get the best of both classes, and the abilities of all of them.

The best example of this is the Fighter/Wizard, as they are so different numerically as to make things pretty obvious. A fighter has 1d10 for hit points, and the wizard has a 1d4. Whenever you level up, you would roll the better fighter d10, and you would gain fighter base attack bonus, (BAB) at +1 every level, much better than the wizards BAB. Saves the combined of both classes, wizards have strong will saves, and fighters have strong fortitude saves, thus a fighter/wizard has strong fortitude and will saves. (And would follow the exact chart as a cleric or druid, which has the same saves)

The gestalt character would have all the fighters weapon and armor proficiencies, all the bonus feats, and still get wizard spell selection and bonus feats. (Things like arcane spell failure still take effect in this example, so the fighter would probably keep his armor on the lighter/non-existent end of things.)

For those unfamiliar with gestalt and all my crazy class changes, (because there are a lot) good things to look at are Fighter/Samurai/Ranger/Paladin and Sorcerer, the same classes also go well with Cleric, if you want a rogue type, Rogues mesh well with fighters-types, sorcerers, wizards, most other rogue types, (Rogue/Scout or Rogue/Spellthief) and monks. Monks mix incredibly well with druids, wizards, and rogues. There are numerous combinations available, and very few of them would I consider ‘bad.’  

Every player gets a minimum of 1 racial trait, and 1 class trait. The traits can kind of screw you, if you are a caster heavy combo, (say a shugenja/wizard) and you roll monstrous humanoid blood, that will nerf your mental stats, take it as a roleplaying challenge to be an above average physical point caster, make it a part of you.

Distribute the immense amount of skill points you will receive, choose feats, spells, and all that normal stuff. Skill points are a mildly complex formula, class 1 base skill + class 2 base skill, +2 general bonus + intelligence mod.

For example I have a ranger/wizard with 16 intelligence, (+3 mod) the characters total skill points would be 6 (ranger) + 2 (wizard) +2 (General) and +3 (intelligence mod). This character would have 13 skill points a level. All normal skill point maxes still apply, and you get x4 skill points at level 1, just like normal. (This particular character gets 52 skill points at level 1.)

This isn't that different from making standard gestalt characters, so anyone with a decent amount of DnD experience should be able to make a character fairly easily. Also, since we're making gestalt characters, racial favored class doesn't make as much of a difference. To augment this, if you have your favored class in your combo, (say the fighter/wizard in the above example is a dwarf.) you gain +1 hit point per level of the favored class, and you gain +2 skill points per level. This gives humans an advantage as they have 'Any' favored multi-class, which will let you pick any class you want to get extra bonuses.

But now we move to what makes my game different, traits. Each race and class has their own trait table, and while there is certainly some overlap, like permanent injuries and planetouched, most of the charts are unique. (Note to all trial game players, these charts have been majorly revamped for the main game, there is little comparison between the two.)

We will start with the race charts. For this, we roll a 1d10, and follow the chart. Humans get 2, halflings get 2 rolls and get to pick one result, and everyone else has 1 roll and is stuck with whatever they get. (I had a blind orc samurai this way... he was awesome.)

For class traits, you roll a 1d20. Class 1 of your gestalt combo will be 1-10, and class 2 will be 11-20. Each character should have 2 traits on average, (humans having 4) with the rare exception having more than that rolling 10's or 20's.

Human Racial Chart:

1. Permanent Injury, (Roll 1d8.)

           1. Injured leg, can't run, all things that require 2 legs (Jump, climb, etc.) suffer a -4 penalty. Can 'double move' but suffers attacks of op while doing so. (Normally don't if performing a double move out of threatened space.)

           2. Injured arm, can only use one handed weapons, it is obviously maimed, chopped entirely off, etc.  -2 penalty on all climb, balance, swim, or other 'needing two hands' skills.

           3. Injured Eye, you are missing 1 eye. All ranged attacks suffer a -2 penalty, (no depth perception) and you suffer a -2 penalty on all spot and search checks.

           4. Permanent Lung Injury. You have suffered a punctured lung, and as such, have an incredibly hard time drawing full breaths. You can not run, you may only double move, and after every double move you must make a fortitude save (DC determined by the DM, will be situational) or suffer fatigue, or maybe exhaustion.

           5. Permanent injury, paraplegic. You have lost both your legs. You must use a wheelchair, specially trained mount, or perhaps a trained ogre to get around. Your movement is entirely based on how you are moving around, but if you are in a wheelchair you may only double move, (fort save vs fatigue) and you suffer a -10' move speed debuff. (Stacks with armor, thus a legless human in full plate only moves 10' a round.)

           6. Totally Deaf, through some freak accident, or perhaps from birth, you can not hear. You can never cast any spells that have verbal components, you can never make a listen check, and since you can't hear your own footsteps or anything else, you suffer a -4 on all hide and move silently checks.

           7. Severe auto-immune deficiency: You have a severe disease that is beyond the science and understanding of DnD. (Say something like Lupus) Everyday you must make a fortitude save (DC = 10 +1/2 characters level + misc. modifiers determined by me.) or suffer -2 to everything. This intense disease may only be removed with a well worded wish or miracle spell.

           8. Totally blind: you were either born blind, or had something happen to both your eyes over the course of your life. (Like hit in the eyes with a poisoned katana... like the orc Samurai I tested.) You may not make spot checks, you will have to make checks constantly for normal day to day function, (like climbing a ladder) and you require the blind fight feat to even attempt to fight effectively, but on the plus side, you gain +2 to charisma. (Humbling awesome blind bonus, this becomes wisdom if it is a monk.)

(Permanent Injury chart end. All permanent injuries on all the other charts follow this one.)

(Should you have a disability, be creative with it, like this orc.)

2. Age advancement. You advance 1 age category, gaining the various bonuses and penalties. On the plus side, you gain 5 free skill points to distribute in anyway you desire, (even ignoring level/class limitations) that represents things you've learned over your long life.

3. Bit by a lycan: At some point in your life, you were bit by a lycan. You were given wolfsbane and 'healed' well enough, but the corruption still courses through your veins. You gain +2 strength, +2 dexterity, +2 constitution, +1 natural armor, and 3/silver DR. However, should any lycan of any type face you, you must roll a will save vs fear or be paniced (Shaken still on successful save). (DC = 10 + 1/2 lycans level + lycans charisma modifier) A lycan that has at least 4 more HD than you can use a "Command" ability, (as the cleric spell) against you every 1d4 rounds.

4. Altered Humanoid Blood: You have some other type of humanoid, monstrous or otherwise, mixed in with your lineage. This is not a direct parent, it could be a grand parent, great grandparent, or something even more removed. (1d8)

            1. Goblin Blood: You are small (for a member of your race) and you have obvious signs of goblin blood mixed in, green skin, pointy ears, something like that. -2 strength and con, +2 dex and intelligence. (Considered 'Goblinoid' and 'Human' for purposes of spells and favored enemies.)

            2. Orc Blood: You have the raging blood of the orcs coursing through you. You gain +2 to strength and con, -2 to intelligence, wisdom, and charisma, and gain 1 rage a day.

            3. Ibixian Blood: You have the blood of the goatfolk in you. You have small horns coming from your head that give you a natural attack, (1d6 headbutt) and you gain +2 strength, +2 con, -4 intelligence, -2 wisdom, -2 charisma, and +10' move speed.

            4. Ogre Blood: You are in essence part giant. You are much larger than your brethren, (not 'large' size category, but definitely in the 6-7 feet range.) and significantly stronger and tougher, you are certainly dull by comparison however. +4 strength and con, -4 intelligence, -2 wisdom, -4 charisma, and +3 natural armor. (You are considered 'giant' and 'human' for purposes of spells and favored enemies.)

            5. Changeling: You have the blood of a doppleganger in you. You gain the racial ability to ‘disguise self’ as the spell, at will, and you also gain +2 bonus on saves against sleep and charm effects, a +2 bonus on bluff, intimidate, and sense motive, and speak language as a class skill. (Shapechanger subtype)

            6. Elven Blood: The blood of the immortal elves flows through you, you gain +2 to dexterity, and gain a +1 caster bonus every 6 levels. You gain a +2 bonus on all saves vs. sleep and enchantment, and you live triple the listed lifespan of a normal human. You also gain a +2 to spot, listen, and search. You do suffer a -2 con penalty though.

            7. Dwarf Blood: You have the blood of a dwarf within you, and you are tough and hotheaded just like one. You have no body hair, (females have some hair on their head, but it is always shorter, males have none. This is in essence a toned down 'Mul' from darksun.) and your eyes are always the color of a darker gem. Statistically, you gain a free rank of Toughness (+3 HP) every 3 levels, and a free rank at level 1. You gain +2 to con, and suffer -2 to charisma though. Your life span is about double a normal human.

            8. Troll Blood: You have the blood of a troll mixed in with yours. You are much stronger, more agile, tougher, and all around practically impervious to damage other than acid/fire. You are one ugly, dull, crude representative of your species though. You gain the Troll Blooded feat, +4 strength, +2 dexterity, +4 constitution, -4 intelligence, wisdom, and charisma, and +3 natural armor. Your ears and eyes sharpen though, giving a racial +2 bonus to spot and listen.

5. Minor Magical Heirloom: You inherit a minor magical item, this could be a +1-2 weapon, a +1-2 armor or shield, a wand or staff with a level 1-2 spell, or something from the minor wondrous item chart. This item has been in your family for generations, and you are expected to hang on to it to pass down to your own children.

6. Noble Born: You were born into a minor noble family. You gain a +5 misc. bonus to Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) and +5 to Ride, a free Weapon Focus Feat, and double starting gold.

7. Planetouched: You have the blood of some extraplanar creature coursing through you. This is several generations removed, if a player rolls this twice (or more) they may choose to keep ‘increasing’ the one they already have, or roll on the chart again, mixing bloodlines. Improving the existing will eventually lead to gaining the “Half-‘whatever’” template. (half-fiend, half-celestial, etc.) Mixing bloodlines, however, will always yield a unique ‘synergy’ bonus, that wouldn’t be gained otherwise. For example, an infernal/fire genasi might gain increased fire spell damage. A 1d8 is rolled to determine type:

            1. Infernal: the blood of a devil, demon, yugoloth, or other evil outsider flows in your veins. You gain +2 dex and int, and -2 cha, 5 acid and fire resistance, and darkvision 60’. (or +60’ darkvision, if you already have darkvision)

            2. Chaond: the blood of a slaad, or other chaotic outsider, is mixed in with yours. Your skin color has a wide range of variety, but your general form is not proportioned normal for a member of your race, you often appear more toad-like. You gain +1d4 to strength, and +1d4 to a random stat determined by another 1d4 roll. (1. Dex, 2. Con, 3. Int. 4. Str.) You also gain 5 resistance to Sonic and 1 other random element, (1d4, 1. Acid 2. Elec. 3. Cold 4. Fire) and suffer a -2 to cha and wis.

            3. Earth Genasi: You have the blood of a Dao, earth elemental prince, xorn, or other earth outsider in you. Your eyes might have a gemlike appearance, your skin might have patches of actual stone as skin, but you are stronger and tougher than a typical member of your race. +2 to str and con, -2 to dex and cha, +2 natural armor, 10 acid resistance.

            4. Fire Genasi: Efreet, salamander, azer, or some other fire outsider mixed with your family line at some point. Your hair might be an actual flame, your skin might be red or orange and hot to the touch. Fire genasi gain +2 to dex and cha, -2 to wis, and 10 fire resistance.

            5. Water Genasi: Marid, water elemental prince, triton, or other water outsider mingled with your ancestry. You have scaled skin, some kind of fin, seaweed like hair, or other obvious sign. +2 con and wis, -2 dex, 10 cold resistance, and the ability to breath water.

            6. Air Genasi: Djinni, air elemental weird, or some other air outsider mixed with your bloodline. A perpetual breeze is always blowing your hair just right, your voice has an airy quality about it, your eyes can sometimes flash with lightning. You gain +2 dex and cha, -2 con, 10 electricity resistance, and +10 movement speed.

           7. Zenthryi: These creatures are a lawful outsider, like a formian, lumi, or abiel, mixing with your line. Skin colors are typically blue, purple, yellow, or silver. These creatures tend to be obsessed with structure and very efficient. They gain +2 to intelligence and wisdom, and suffer a -2 to charisma. They gain 5 sonic, fire, and electricity resistance.

           8. Celestial: You have the blood of a good outsider, like an angel or eladrin, in your family tree. You gain +2 to charisma and wisdom, 5 cold, acid, and electricity resistance, and the ability to cast the spell ‘light’ and ‘Cure Minor Wounds’ 3/day.

(It is usually pretty obvious if you have an outsider in your heritage.)

8. Draconic Ancestry: The blood of the mighty dragon flows in your veins. You gain +2 str, con, and cha, +1 natural armor, and a weak breath weapon that deals 1d8 at level 1, and increases by another d8 every 10 levels. (2d8 at level 10, 3d8 at 20, etc.) This damage may stack with a character who has a breath weapon, like a dragon shaman. They also gain 5 resistance to whatever element they breathe. Roll on the Kobold table to determine variety.

9. Mentor: You gain a powerful, supportive mentor that has taken you under his wing. The mentor has at least 1 class in common with you, and at game start, has given you +1 to two different stats, and a free feat. The mentor picks what is taught to you.      

10. Roll Twice, taking both rolls.

Elves:

1. Permanent Injury: As human chart.

2. Demonic Plague: You are infected with a demonic cursed disease that is incredibly hard to cure. (Requires many spells or a miracle/wish spell to cure.) This disease starts with -2 to one physical and one mental stat, but will progressively become worse.

3. Cursed item: you have a very powerful magic item, with a powerful curse on it. You must have the item on you at all times, and most of the time it will demand to be used. The player can choose the general type, (weapon, armor, wand, etc.) but the DM will make the item.

4. Minor Magical Heirloom: You gain a minor magical item. See human listing.

5. Elf Subrace: 1d10 for type

           1. Aquatic Elf: You can breathe underwater, and survive on land for an hour per point of constitution.

         2. Wild Elf: +2 to strength and con, -2 to int. and cha.

         3. Grey Elf: -2 strength and con, +2 dex and int.

         4. Sun Elf: +2 int, ability to turn undead 1/day, never die of old age.

         5. Ghost Elf: +2 wis, -2 con, ethereal jaunt 1/day, invisibility and blink 2/day.

         6. Avariel: Winged elf, fly speed 60’ (Average mobility)

         7. Frost Elves: +2 strength and con, -2 int, cold immunity, vulnerable to fire.

         8. Lythari: Elven werewolf, 5/silver damage reduction, and a werewolf form that grants +6 strength, +4 dexterity and +4 constitution, and +3 natural armor. (+1 in elf form)

         9. Drow: +2 int. and cha, SR 11+ character level, drow spell like abilities.

         10. Esperian: +2 to all stats, SR 13+ character level, spell level advances every 4 levels, and every 6 levels you may make any spell you know a spell like ability that you may use 3/day.

(Drow are one of many elf subraces on Artheria.

6. Nature’s Blessing: You gain an animal companion, or if a ranger or druid, you gain a stronger companion.

7. Planetouched: See human entry.

8. Mentor, as human entry.

9. Ceremonial Elven Gear: 1 Mithril armor and 2 mithril weapons, or 1 weapon and shield, all with 1d3 enchantment bonus.  

10. Roll twice, keeping both rolls.

(Ceremonial Mithril Elven gear is incredible.)

Dwarves:

1. Permanent Injury: Human table

2. Age advancement.

3. Cursed Adamantine item. Made of a cursed ore called ‘Dark Matter’ it will slowly take control of you, turning you into a horrid possessed dwarf. Player can decide general type of item, (weapon, armor, ring, etc.) I decide the properties and the curse.

4. Over sensitized Darkvision: Darvision extends to 120’, but you gain the ‘light sensitive’ trait.

5. High Ranking Clan: You gain a misc. +5 bonus to Knowledge (Royalty and Nobility), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) and Knowledge (The Underdark), as well as double the starting gold and a free weapon focus feat.

6. Royal Guard Member: You are a member of the royal guard, you get a hardened, and custom fit, suit of adamantine armor, (say type, light, medium, or heavy, I will decide the specifics.) It is not magical, but it is a very powerful suit of armor. You are expected to serve the dwarf royalty without question however, which can make adventuring a tad difficult.

(Dwarven Royal Guard, armed to the teeth, serving the throne.)

7. Planetouched: See human entry.

8. Thunder Blessing: You were born with the gift of thunder and lightning coursing through your veins. Any spell you cast with the ‘Electricity’ or ‘Sonic’ descriptor gets +1 to the DC, and +1 per damage dice, (example, a level 10 dwarf wizard casts lightning bolt, it does 10d6+10) if the spell has both descriptors, you gain +2 to the DC and +2 per damage dice. On the non-spell casting side, you gain 5 sonic and electricity resistance, and an innate lightning burst ability. (Every time you critically hit, you deal bonus d10’s of electricity and sonic damage, always half sonic and electrical.) Crafting items will always yield bonus ‘electrical’ or ‘sonic’ effects that the dwarf can’t entirely predict.

9. Adamantine Load out: You gain 1 armor, and 1 shield + weapon or 2 weapons, each has a 1d2 enchantment on it.

10. Roll twice, keeping both rolls.

(Dwarves of the Thunder Blessing can innately channel lightning.)

Halflings:

1. Permanent Injury: See human table

2. Advance an age category

3. Wronged the wrong humanoid… You wronged an influential monstrous humanoid tribe, and the word has gotten out. You lose your +4 bonus to monstrous humanoids, however, should you encounter a human or non-monstrous race that has similar issues that you have, you may apply your +4 bonus to them in social situations.

4. Survived a transformative ritual: You were captured, but managed to escape a transformative ritual. Your body is covered with ritualistic tattoos, scars, and other obvious signs of your capture. You gain +1 natural armor, and 10 negative energy resistance. You also have the innate ability to ‘detect corruption’ at will in a 60’ radius. This ability is always on and cannot be turned off. You are a little worse for wear however, suffering a -2 wisdom and -2 charisma.

5. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry.

6. Befriended a tribe: You are a trusted friend of a monstrous humanoid tribe near you. They will provide you with information and customers for your trading company, and once you get the leadership feat, you can recruit from this tribe.

7. Planetouched: As Human Entry

8. Draconic Heritage: See human entry.

9. Leader of your own trading company: Gain the leadership feat for free, cohort has a 50% chance of being a gnome, 30% chance of being a Halfling, 10% chance of being human, and 10% chance of being a monstrous humanoid. Your trading company is small, having as many low level employees as your leadership score allows, and comes with at least 1 area appropriate vessel to deliver trade goods with.

10. Roll twice, keeping both rolls.

(The scars of the ritual are obvious... the 'gifts' that come with it aren't.)

Gnomes:

1. Permanently injured… with SCIENCE! Gain the ‘Mad Scientist’ trait, which gives -6 wisdom, +4 int. and +2 cha, and a +7 misc. bonus to alchemy. (Includes all gnomish bonuses) Combine that with the human ‘permanent injury chart’ and roll again!

2. Advance an age category… through SCIENCE! ‘Mad scientist’ trait, and gain 10 bonus skill points as opposed to 5. Roll again!

3. Mad Scientist Trait. Roll again, with the power of SCIENCE!

(Tinkering with the power... of SCIENCE!)

4. ‘Nature’s Blessing.’ You gain an animal companion, or you can choose to take the mad scientist trait, (if you don’t already have it.) and gain an animal companion altered, with the power of SCIENCE!

5. Clockwork Golem protector: Family has given you this old, run down guardian. Starts relatively weak, with two weapon attacks, (Key/clockwork sword and shield bash) and 1 type of ranged status debuffing attack, (ranged touch slow or daze or something like that.) but as it is repaired it will become stronger. (If a mad scientist, you can empower it with SCIENCE!)

6. Magi-tek heirloom: Roll 1d6, that is the enchantment bonus on the item, tell me the general type and I will make it. If a mad scientist, make the roll 1d6+1 thanks to SCIENCE!

7. Planetouched: As human entry.

8. Outer Plane heritage: We roll a 1d10 to determine the general type of plane, and the bonuses will be decided by the DM on a character by character basis. These bloodlines will always stack with other bloodlines to grant ‘synergy’ bonuses. (The trial gnome got Ysgard and Celestial for his traits, they augmented giving him increased damage reduction and much better stats than otherwise.)

1-3 Evil plane, 4-5 neutral plane, 6-10 good plane.

Evil plane, (1d8)                         Neutral (1d4)                          Good (1d8)

1. Pandemonium                        1. Limbo                                1. Ysgard

2. Abyss                                    2. Mechanus                           2. Arborea

3. Carceri                                  3. Outlands                            3. Beastlands

4. Hades                                    4. Player’s Choice                  4. Elysium

5. Gehenna                                                                             5. Bytopia

6. Nine Hells                                                                           6. Celestia

7. Acheron                                                                              7. Arcadia

8. Player’s choice                                                                    8. Player’s Choice

9. Airship! You have access to a family (or personally) owned airship. Roll 1d10 to determine quality and outfit level, though it will never be better than a moderately equipped caravel class vessel. If a mad scientist, all weapons/gear included will be augmented… with SCIENCE!

10. Roll twice, taking both rolls. (Mad scientist trait if you so desire!)

(Gnome Airlines, the only way to fly.)

Orcs:

1. Permanent Injury: See Human Table

2. Age Advancement: As human entry, follow half-orc life span chart.

3. Cursed Item: As elf entry.

4. Mark of Gruumsh: You are missing your right eye, though your empty socket sees many things. You can see the general nature of anything, this is kind of like a weaker true sight. You won’t see what the doppleganger’s true form is, but you will know that something isn’t right. You also gain an additional rage per day, +1 natural armor, but suffer an additional -2 to wisdom.  

5. Orc Subrace: Roll a 1d8

          1. Aquatic Orcs: -2 str +2 dex, can breathe underwater, and survive for an hour per point of constitution out of water.

          2. Grey Orc: Underdark dwelling orcs, much more perceptive than the average orc, though not quite as tough. -2 con, +4 wisdom, 120’ darkvision, light sensitivity.

          3. Orcin: Orcs mixed with goblins, not as strong or tough, but much more intelligent. -4 strength, -2 con, +4 intelligence, +2 wisdom, bonus caster level every 6 levels.

          4. Orog: You are mixed with an ogre, you are nearly large sized, approaching 7 feet tall. You are incredibly strong and tough, but not the brightest thing around. +4 str, -2 dex, +2 con, -4 int, -2 wis, -4 cha, +3 natural armor.

          5. Urukai: Fierce, cunning leaders among the orcs, you appear more refined than your standard orc. You gain +2 to int. and wis, but lose the racial ability to rage.

          6. Lyntanan Orc: An orc that lives with the elves, worshipping the elven form of what would become Gruumsh. -2 str, +2 to all mental stats. Must be any good or neutral.

          7. Ysgardian Orc: Stranded from the heroic domain of Ysgard, you are a fierce, noble, rambunctious fighting force. +4 charisma, and you can cast bull’s strength, aid, and heroism 2/day each. Must be Chaotic Good, Neutral Good, or Chaotic Neutral.

          8. Esperian Orc: Mixed with an esper, you are incredibly powerful, and resistant to magic. Corrupted forces are drawn to you like a month to a flame though… +2 to all stats, SR 11+ character level, and every 6 levels you can choose a spell like ability, this is chosen from the wizard or cleric list, any spell of level 3 or below. These abilities can be used 3/day each.

(Orogs are a massive subrace of orcs, brutal and barbaric like their ogre heritage.)

6. Noble Born: See human entry.

7. Planetouched: See human entry.

8. Mentor, see human entry.

9. Oriental Warlord Load Out: You gain 1 armor, and 1 shield 1 weapon or 2 weapons, player’s choice. All are oriental adventures gear, with a 1d2 enchantment for each item.

10. Roll Twice, keeping both rolls.

(An Orc with a full oriental load out is an incredibly dangerous warrior.)

Goblins:

1. Permanent Injury: See human Entry

2. Advance an age category: Goblins use the Halfling age table.

3. Cursed: You are suffering the effects of the ‘Bestow Curse’ spell, on the flip side, you can bestow your curse on someone else 3/week.

4. Hand me down magical heirloom gun: Chosen from a 1d4 enchantment Flintlock pistol, or a 1d2 enchantment 3-shot wind up pistol, or 1d2 blunderbuss.

5. Goblin Subrace: 1d6

            1. Aquatic Goblin: Breath underwater, survive out of water for an hour per point of con mod.

            2. Snow Goblins: Gain the ‘Cold’ subtype, and +2 con.

            3. Batiri: Jungle dwelling goblins, more agile but not as smart. +2 dex -2 int.

            4. Forestkith Goblin: Hairy forest dwelling nomadic goblins, favored class barbarian. +4 strength, +2 con, -4 int, -2 wis. , +4 racial bonus on climb.

            5. Dekanter Goblin: Underdark dwelling red skinned rhino-like goblins. Significantly tougher than standard goblins, and still smart, just not as smart. +4 con, +2 strength, natural attack Gore, (With horn) 1d6 damage. -2 int. +2 natural armor.

            6. Flamehair Goblin: Descendant of Daren Flamehair, your hair is a little patch of fire, making you very easy to distinguish from other goblins. Statistically you gain +2 to wisdom and charisma, and 10 fire resistance. All fire spells you cast gain a +2 to their DCs to resist, and you deal +1 damage per dice for all fire spells. (Example, a level 8 goblin casts fireball, it deals 8d6+8 instead of 8d6.)

(Dekanter Goblins appear like small orange goblin rhinos.)

6. Member of a high end trading company: You gain a +3 misc. bonus to Appraise, Diplomacy, and Bluff, a free ‘skill bonus’ feat, and double starting gold.

7. Planetouched: See human entry.

8. Zain’s Blessing: The blood of the powerful arch-lich flows through you. You have an exceptional skill at channeling negative energy. 3/day, you may choose to augment any of your spells or spell-like abilities with negative energy. A spell will deal 1d8 negative energy damage extra per spell level, if you so choose. (Thus a shocking grasp cast by a level 5 goblin would deal 5d6 electricity and 1d8 negative energy, and a fireball cast by the same goblin would deal 5d6 fire + 3d8 negative energy.) You also gain 10 negative energy resistance and a +2 bonus against all saves vs. necromancy spells and effects.

9. Magi-tek Armament: You have been gifted with 3 magi-tek items, at least 1 of which is a weapon or armor, from the guild boss. Each has a 1d4+1 ‘enchantment.’

10. Roll twice, take both rolls.

(Goblins get inventive with their magi-tek...)

Centaur:

1. Permanent injury: See human entry.

2. Advance an age category: Centaurs use the human chart.

3. Cursed item: Centaur items grant power, but will encourage you to leave to the wilds… where you may end up being captured by cultists and transformed…

4. Minor magical heirloom: See human entry.

5. Squire: You acquire a human squire. (Level 1 fighter or knight) to help you out.

6. Sponsored ‘Knight.’ A wealthy person has taken to hiring you as a guard, you have to answer to your employer, but you start with double the starting gold, and you gain 3 (total) free hardening and custom fit modifications to your armor. (You could choose to take 2 hardened and 1 custom fit, or 3 custom fit, however you want to do it.) You also gain a mild enchantment (1d3) to an item of your choice. 

7. Planetouched: See human chart.

8. Draconic Ancestry: See human entry.

9. Pegasus Knight: +2 dex, and gain wings and a fly speed of 80’. Armor costs increase to 3.5, and light armor increases to double cost.

10. Roll twice, taking both rolls.

(Planetouched Centaur are nearly as common as altered humans.)

Kobold:

1. Permanent Injury: See human chart.

2. Advance an age category: Kobolds use half-orc table.

3. Cursed Item: Acts like a centaur item, drawing you towards your inevitable corrupted transformative death.

4. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry.

5. Emissary to the big folk: You are a messenger/diplomat for your people. You gain a +5 misc. bonus to diplomacy and either intimidate or bluff, (players choice) you gain 1 free language, and a small mount/beast of burden to aid you in your travels.

6. Empowered Breath: Your innate breath weapon damage increases to d8’s instead of d6’s, and you gain 1 extra bonus dice at level 1. The range of your breath weapon also doubles, becoming a 60’ line or 30’ cone.

7. Planetouched: See human chart.

8. Blessed Item: You have an item blessed by a dragon god, this item has 1d6+1 enchantment, is intelligent, and must be worn/used by the kobold at all times. (Player decides general type, I will make it.)

9. Chosen of the dragon gods: You gain the half-dragon template!

10. Roll twice, taking both.

(Half Dragon Kobolds are the chosen leaders of their kind.)

Lizardfolk:

1. Permanent Injury: See human chart.

2. Advance an age category: Lizardfolk live long lives, use the gnome chart.

3. Cursed Item: Like centaur items, a cursed item on a lizardfolk makes you want to seek out cultists to submit yourself to transformative ritual.

4. Minor magical heirloom: See human chart.

5. Transfer Student: You spent your time growing up in human lands, (Contrador) You gain 1 free language, and 10 free skill points to distribute however you desire. You no longer suffer the ‘half starting gold’ penalty.

6. Member of the hunter class: gain a free favored enemy, that must be chosen from animal, beast, magical beast, dragon, vermin, or any humanoid or monstrous humanoid. (Levels up every 5 levels like a ranger.)

7. Planetouched: Genasi ONLY.

8. Draconic Ancestry: See human table.

9. Chosen of Slavik: You have Slavik, the Marsh Guardian, as your mentor. You gain +2 to 2 stats, a simple enchanted item, and a free feat. Slavik has your back as well, which is incredibly useful… (Gestalt Druid/Sorcerer Lizardfolk level 19 each)

10. Roll twice, taking both rolls.

(Slavik, the most powerful lizardfolk on Artheria.)

Classes: PHB

Barbarian
1. Permanent Injury
2. Advance an age category
3. Tribe destroyed by evil: your tribe has been almost entirely wiped out, the members becoming corrupted creatures. (Or undead in the case of elfs, gnomes, or halflings, that don’t suffer from the ‘corruption’ specific transformations) The tribe is constantly searching for the last surviving members, your parents, siblings, pets, all are corrupted and searching for you. On the flip side, this has fueled your rage, granting you the ‘extra rage’ feat for free.
4. Chosen of the land. You gain an animal companion, like a druid of your barbarian level.
5. Bit by a lycan. (See human entry)

6. Minor Magical Heirloom: Just like the human entry, only the item will be barbarian specific.
7. Monstrous Humanoid Blood: See human entry for specifics. Reroll as ‘planetouched’ if elf or gnome. If player is an orc or goblin, reroll orc or goblin blood.
8. Draconic ancestry: See human entry.
9. Spirit Totem. A spirit animal watches over the barbarian. It can be communicated with in dreams, with some spells, or through ritualistic drug use. Roll 1d10.
1. Badger, +2 con, +1 dex, +2 fort saves, grants toughness feat, with an additional rank every 6 levels.
2. Wolverine, +2 str and con, extra rage feat.
3. Boar, +2 con, +1 str. grants ferocity, can fight to -10.
4. Wolf, +2 Str Dex Con.
5. Raven +4 dex, can cast commune with nature spirit 1/week.
6. Bear +3 str. +2 con, free endurance feat.
7. Lion +2 Str, +2 dex. Speed +10 feet.
8. Owl. +2 dex, +2 Wisdom, gain darkvision 30', (or it improves by that amount.) Can cast commune with nature spirit 1/week.
9. Moose +2 con, +2 str, +2 dex, +10 speed, -2 int.
10. Dragon +2 Str, +2 con, +2 int, +2 cha. 5 energy resistance. (1-5 chromatic dragon 6-10 metallic. Can alter alignment slightly)
10. Roll twice.

(Contacting your spirit animal can be done through a variety of ways.)

Bard
1. Advance an age category.
2. Cursed musical instrument. (Causes altered musical effects. determined randomly.)
3. Master of Poisons: Gain the ‘poison use’ feat for free. Also gain 100x1d4 extra gold to spend specifically on poisons.
4. Well Traveled: You gain a misc. +2 bonus to all knowledge checks and gather information, and 4 free ranks in knowledge (Geography).
5. Gifted performer. Choose a secondary perform skill, whenever you level up one skill, the linked skill automatically levels without skill points being assigned.
6. Back up band. 1d3 level 1 bards that improve your performance, and may potentially level up as well. Race/skill determination can be assigned by dice or the player.
7. Planetouched: See human entry
8. Celebrity (Gain the leadership feat for free, and +2 charisma.)
9. Blessed instrument (Like a cursed instrument, just not in the ‘screwing you over’ way.)
10. Roll twice

(The greatest warriors always have a bard follower...)

Cleric
1. Advance an age category.
2. Cursed by your god: You must seek an ‘atonement’ spell, as you've done something to anger your god. You do not have access to the bulk of your clerical abilities until you remedy this. (Only 1 spell slot per level, no domain spells, until remedied.)
3. Rage of the undead: You made a name for yourself as an exceptional undead slayer. You gain favored enemy: undead, and 1 free turning feat of your choice. Intelligent undead know this about you though, and will hunt you down. (You are worth a lot in vampire circles, for example.)
4. Extra Domain, must makes sense with your chosen diety.
5. Backing of the church. Have a home ground, with greatly discounted rates on healing and other services depending on diety and location.
6. Guardian angel. Some spirit of your god is watching over you. This grants a +2 bonus to all saves, and a misc. bonus based on diety and character. Straying causes the spirit to leave, and bestow a curse upon you as it goes away.
7. Planetouched: See human chart.
8. Blessed healer: You gain 4 ranks in heal, the empowered healing feat, and the healing domain for free, even if your diety doesn't have that available to them.
9. Chosen warrior of the gods: You gain a very powerful item, that is your diety's favored weapon. You must carry this with you, and use it in almost all situations of battle to not anger your god. 2d3+1 enchantment
10. Roll twice

(Excalibur.... the most famous blessed weapon of all time.)

Druid
1. Permanent Injury: See human table
2. Advance an age category
3. Druid circle wiped out by corrupted forces. Your druid circle was taken by the corruption, and has been transformed. (Or raised as undead creatures, in the case of elves, halflings, or gnomes.) You were there when it happened, and have some obvious scar from it. (-2 charisma) You gain the ability to ‘detect corruption’ in a 60’ radius at will however.
4. Empowered animal companion (Choose an animal companion one step higher than current level allows. This can stack for more powerful animals.)
5. Gifted shape changer. Gain extra wild shape feat, and 1 bonus wild shape (Or other nature druid type) feat.
6. Totem spirit, as barbarian table.
7. Planetouched: (Genasi ONLY)
8. Ironwood Plate. You have an ironwood medium or heavy armor, (dependent on proficiencies and such) the enchantment on the plate is 1d3+1.
9. Touched by the fey: You have a direct parent that is a fey creature. You gain Sylvan as a bonus language. Roll 1d4 to determine variety:
1.Sylph: Your mother is a fey from the elemental plane of air. You gain +4 to dex, and +2 wisdom, and charisma, and suffer a -2 con and str. You may cast levitate, gust of wind, and sound burst each 2/day, as a caster of your character level.
2. Sirine: Your mother is a Sirine, a singing, dancing, playful fey creature that enjoys lagoons and sandy beaches. You gain +2 to int, wis, and cha. You gain the ability to breath underwater, and may cast charm person 2/day, you may also ‘detect elements’ and sense large bodies of water, elemental creatures, etc. in a 100’ radius.
3. Dryad: Your mother is a beautiful tree spirit, a dryad. You gain +2 to wisdom and charisma, and +2 natural armor, but suffer a -2 to dex. You may cast barkskin, speak with plants, and entangle 2/day each.
4. Nymph: Your mother is a gorgeous nymph. You gain +4 to charisma, +2 to wisdom, but suffer a -2 to con and str. You gain the ‘unearthly grace’ ability, which adds your charisma mod to all saves, and you may also cast charm person 2/day.
10. Roll twice

(Being feytouched is usually pretty obvious.)

Fighter
1. Permanent Injury: see human entry.
2. Advance an age category
3. Gladitorial Veteran: Lose heavy and medium armor proficiency, gain 4 exotic weapon prof., this automatically makes you have a background from Entrar, you gain 1 free weapon from the Darksun list.
4. Monstrous Humanoid Blood: See human entry.
5. Bit by a lycan: see human entry.
6. Tough as nails: You gain DR like a barbarian does, but your body shows the damage you have accumulated over the years. (-2 charisma.)
7. Parent the blacksmith: +2 to all bowyer, blacksmithing, carpentry, leatherworking, and armorsmithing checks, or anything else you can convince me of. All gear becomes MW for the standard price. (At character creation only) Comes with blacksmithing/carpentry tools for free, and you have a parent with very high craft skill, which might be useful.
8. Noble Born: See human entry. (Or dwarf if a dwarf, as those skills are different.)
9. Famous family item. This is an item with a 1d4+2 enchantment, like an heirloom, you are expected to hand it down to your children, it is always a weapon, armor, or shield.
10. Roll Twice

(Gladiators are incredibly common in the land of Entrar)

Monk
1. Permanent injury: See human chart.
2. Advance an age category
3. Cursed Monk specific item: just like all the others, just meant for a monk.
4. Apprentice: You start play with a level 1 monk (non-gestalt) that follows you around, learning from you. You are expected to spend a lot of time training this character, but the character will help you to the best of your ability and may be of any number of races.
5. Ease of energy transference. Gain lay on hands exactly like a paladin, except based on wisdom instead of charisma. (Stacks with wholeness of body self-heal ability)
6. Magical Tattoo. You have a magical tatoo on our flesh. Roll 1d6 to determine the tattoo.
1. Arcane symbols. This series of arcane symbols, it grants SR 7 + character level, and your stunning fist attacks gain +1d6 arcane (pure arcane force) damage, this increases by an additional 1d6 every 7 levels. (2d6 at level 7, 3d6 at level 14, etc.)
2. Dragon, grants +1 natural armor, +2 strength, +2 con, a 2d8 breath weapon, and 5 energy resistance. (Determined by color, roll on the kobold chart to determine variety)
3. Phoenix. All attacks do +1 fire damage, you gain +4 saves vs. death effects, your stunning fistdoes 1d6 extra fire damage, and 10 fire resistance.
4. Celestial/angelic. +2 wisdom, +2 cha, can detect evil 3/day, 5 cold and electricity resistance, may also smite evil 3/day, adding wisdom bonus instead of charisma. This may be used in conjunction with stunning fist.
5. Infernal/demonic. +2 Str, +2 Dex. Gain darkvision 30' (or improve it) and cast darkness 3/day. 5 Acid, Electricity, and Fire resistance. Stunning fists deal an extra 1d4 profane damage.
6. Axiomatic. (Runes from Mechanus, perfect order) +2 wisdom and intelligence, gain 5/Chaotic DR, (increases by 5 every 10 levels, 10 at level 10, 15 at 20, etc.) and gain the ability to smite chaos 3/day, adding your wisdom mod to hit, and wisdom mod and monk level to damage.
7. Planetouched: see human chart.
8. Master martial artist. Dice size is increased one category. (Small to medium, medium to large)
9. Gith's tome of Understanding. A book of techniques that was pioneered by a half-fire elemental Githzerai monk, who ran the now called Frozen Monastery a few thousand years ago. It is loaded with techniques, meanings, and power that must be studied over one’s lifetime to understand. This also means that you are the chosen of the Monastery of the Frozen Flame, and gain a mentor of the 3 leaders of the monastery that matches your alignment. (LG Snirfneblin Monk/Cleric/Sacred Fist, LN Elf Monk/Druid, or LE Dwarf Monk/Wizard/Arcane Fist) You begin with +1 to 2 different stats and a bonus feat. (Determined by the book/mentor, not the player)
10. Roll twice, taking both rolls.

(Monks can gain power from tattoos.)

Paladin

1. Permanent Injury
2. Advance an age category
3. Cursed item: As human chart, though this item will specifically attempt to turn you into a blackguard over time.

4. Blessed animal companion. (Animal companion with Celestial template)
5. Hunter of the dead. Gain undead as a favored enemy, and turn undead like a cleric. The time spent around so much undeath has impacted your outlook however... -2 cha.
6. Noble Born: See human entry. (Or dwarf if a dwarf)
7. Celebrity Entourage: You have made quite the name for yourself. You gain the leadership feat for free, and start with at least 1d3+1 level 1 bards who follow you around, singing of your achievements. These bards take the 'level 1' slot under your leadership chart, your cohort will be a squire that is either a knight, paladin, or fighter/multiclass. (Like a fighter/sorcerer, this will be a non-gestalt character.)
8. Flying mount: (Not a dragon, will begin gaining the specified paladin bonus at level 5, like normal)
9. Blessed weapon: This weapon will be intelligent, and is guaranteed to have the Holy enhancement, and is a gift from your god, and as such, you are expected to use it. (Follow Cleric entry)
10. Roll twice

(Having a flying mount, like this Gryphon, is invaluable.)

Ranger
1. Permanent Injury
2. Advance an age category
3. Monstrous Humanoid Blood: See human table.
4. Empowered animal companion: Get a level 1 companion, as a druid, but you don't get another at level 4.
5. Bit by a lycan: See human table.
6. Additional favored enemy, with 20 bane arrows for the designated foe type.
7. Minor magical heirloom: as human table, only a ranger specific item.
8. Spirit totem, (as above)
9. Fey Blood, as the druid table.
10. Roll twice.

(Some rangers start with an animal companion, like this guy.)

Rouge
1. Permanent Injury: See human table
2. Advance an age category
3. Bit by a Lycan: see human entry.
4. Monstrous Humanoid blood: See human entry
5. Minor magical heirloom: see human table.
6. Proficient in guns and explosives. (Gains 5 ranks in craft explosives, and exotic weapon proficiency firearms, and exotic weapon proficiency explosives. Gain some primitive firearms and explosives)
7. Gang leader (free leadership feat, plus gives a home base and a local gang that matches the characters alignment/design)
8. Guild Boss's Chosen: You are an important employee of your local thieves guild... in fact, the boss goes to you first for the tough jobs. On the bright side, you get free reign to recruit other members of the guild to help with guild missions. You may recruit as many followers for a specific mission as you have points of charisma mod, and each follower will be a single class NPC of your level or 1 level below you. You also start with double starting gold and a 1d3 simple magic item gifted from the guild boss.
9. Stolen artifact: Stolen moderate wondrous artifact, however, this has placed you on the wrong side of the law. Whatever organization you stole this powerful item from is sending people after you.
10. Roll twice

(It pays to be the chosen of your guild boss.)

Sorceror
1. Permanent injury
2. Advance an age category.
3. Corrupted blood: By some twist of fate, you gain your sorcerous power though the corruption of artheria itself. You deal 1d8 bonus profane damage based on spell level, (see goblin table for specifics.) though all corrupted creatures can sense you, (And you them, 100' radius) and you are incredibly susceptible to the corruption itself. If an elf, gnome, or Halfling rolls this trait, they can be corrupted!
4. Planar companion: You gain an animal companion (like a druid) with a template coming from the planes. (Elemental, infernal, celestial, etc.)
5. Minor Magical Heirloom: As human table, sorcerer specific.
6. Planar Advisor: You gain the ability to cast ‘Contact outer plane’ once a week, as a spell like ability, to contact an outsider that matches your alignment, and is specifically looking out for you. At start, he has tutored you in a few ways, giving you +1 to 2 stats, and a feat. (Determined by the outsider, not the player)
7. Planetouched: See human table
8. Draconic ancestry: As human table.
9. Fey blood: see druid table.
10. Roll Twice

(Corrupted blood grants great power... at great consequence.)

Wizard
1. Advance age category
2. Touched the edge of existence: You are insane, having seen what was never meant to be seen by mortals. You automatically qualify for the ‘Alienist’ prestige class, and any others that require touching the edge of the multiverse. You gain +6 intelligence, and lose 6 wisdom. All creatures summoned, and any familiars you have, gain the ‘psuedonatural’ template. On the major downside though, psuedonatural creatures can sense you, and those with the epic version of the template may cast “Dominate Person” on you 1/day.
3. Cursed Wizard Item: See human entry.
4. Free improved familiar feat
5. Sage Mentor: You are training under a loremaster, and as such, you gain a +2 bonus on all knowledge checks, 8 free ranks that you may distribute among any ‘Knowledge’ skill, and 1 minor magical item.
6. Planar adviser: As the sorcerer entry.
7. Planetouched: See human table.
8. Body guard. Roll 1d6 to determine type, you must pay the creature/maintain it in some way.
1. Animal companion pet. (Basic list)
2. Small bound elemental creature. (Roll for type)
3. Monstrous humanoid fighter, (Single class, not very high ECL)
4. Primitive golem creature of the players design.
5. Planar animal companion. (Animal companion with some template added)
6. Exceptional humanoid fighter/mage, fighter/cleric, or fighter/rogue, it will be Githzerai, drow, lizardman, etc. determined by the DM depending on the region the character is from.
9. Personally attuned to a demi-plane. Through some twist of fate, your wizard is attuned to a region of the dreamscape ruled by ancient, sometimes very unstable, spirits. The wizard can make portals to this realm, using it for relative safety, a way to move quickly, etc. This is a ritual that takes often at least 2 hours. Gnomes with this trait can perform the ritual as quickly as 15 minutes, if the skill checks are made well, since they have intuitive understanding of planar travel, and their own pocket plane.
10. Roll twice

(Having your own demi-plane can be incredibly useful. Even if it takes awhile to travel to your castle in a crystal ball.)

Classes: PHB II

Beguiler
1. Permanent Injury: See human entry.
2. Advance an age category
3. Uncovered a tome of Zain the arch-lich: You found a small tome belonging to the arch-lich Zain, you gain 6 free spells known, half of which are necromancy spells, (ignoring the beguiler limitation) unfortunately this has taken a toll on your sanity and overall cheerfulness. You suffer a -2 to wisdom and charisma. The tome is on you at all times, and you may choose to study it for more magical power... at the cost of yourself.
4. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry.
5. Planar Adviser: As Sorcerer entry.
6. Planetouched: See human entry.
7. Fey touched: See druid entry.
8. Guild Boss's chosen: You are an important employee of your local thieves guild... in fact, the boss goes to you first for the tough jobs. On the bright side, you get free reign to recruit other members of the guild to help with guild missions. You may recruit as many followers for a specific mission as you have points of charisma mod, and each follower will be a single class NPC of your level or 1 level below you. You also start with double starting gold and a 1d3 simple magic item gifted from the guild boss.
9. Stolen Moderate Wondrous Artifact: As rogue entry.
10. Roll twice

(Page from the Tome of Zain.)

Dragon Shaman
1. Permanent injury: As human table.
2. Advance an age category
3. Tribe destroyed by evil: As barbarian entry, only it grants you rage 1/day as a dragon shaman. (Or the extra rage feat for barbarian/dragon shaman)
4. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry
5. Intensified Auras: Your auras project a 60' radius, double from the base 30'.
6. Draconic Ancestry: See human entry
7. Empowered Breath Weapon: See Kobold Entry, increasing to d10s for the dragon shaman.
8. Planar Dragon Ancestry: The blood of a planar dragon courses through you, the stat bonuses are the same as standard dragonic ancestry, with an additional bonus depending on dragon type: Roll on the following chart to determine variety: (1d12)
1. Fang Dragon: (Fang Dragons in my world are from both Faerun and the Outlands, though they don't reside in Sigil itself often) You have +1 natural armor, natural attacks, claws, fangs, elbow spikes, all deal 1d8 damage. This enhances a dragon shaman/monks unarmed damage up another size category. No energy resistance. (A medium sized monk/dragon shaman that rolled martial arts master and this variety would deal damage as a huge sized monk.)
2. Battle Dragon: These Ysgardian dragons grant an additional +2 to charisma, and allows the dragon shaman to cast bull's strength and heroism both 2/day. The energy resistance type for this dragon is sonic.
3. Chaos Dragon: Dragons made from pure chaos of limbo, they grant you a +2 bonus vs all enchantment spells, you may cast chaos hammer 1/day, and you have a random resistance type determined by dice. (1d6, 1. Acid 2. Cold 3. Electricity 4. Fire 5. Sonic 6. Any two, player's choice)
4. Ethereal Dragon: Etheral Jaunt 1/day (rounds equal to character level) Breath weapon is force, immune to magic missile. (No other resistance)
5. Howling Dragon: Insane dragons from Pandemonium, they grant sonic based breath weapon and resistance, and the ability to cast Confusion 1/day.
6. Oceanus Dragon: Living in the planes spanning River Oceanus, these dragons grant electricity breath weapons and resistance, smite evil 1/day, and the ability to breath underwater.
7.  Pyroclastic dragon: Magma dragons from Gehenna, they grant a breath weapon that deals half fire and half sonic damage, and 5 fire and sonic resistance.
8. Radiant Dragon: From the seven mountains of celestia, have breath weapons of force, and they grant the player a supernatural ability of charisma mod adding a deflection bonus to AC.
9. Rust Dragon: This metal destroying dragon from Acheron grants two unique bonuses, first you gain damage resistance against metal weapons like a barbarian does, and you may use a rusting touch ability 1/day. This is a touch attack that eats away any metal object over 1d4 rounds, normal items are allowed no save, magical items may make a fortitude save to resist the effect. (DC = 10+1/2 dragon shaman level + charisma mod)
10. Styx Dragon: This dragon dwells on the river Styx, and grants acid breath weapons and resistances, and the ability to breath underwater. There is also a side affect of being immune to the memory sapping effect of the river Styx itself.
11. Tarterian Dragon: Dragons from the prison plane of Carceri, they grant breath weapons of force and immunity to magic missile, and the ability to cast freedom of movement 1/day.
12. Shadow Dragon: Hailing from the plane of shadow, this dragon grants two unique abilities, whenever you are in the shadows or it is night, you are always under the effect of the blur spell, (can willingly negate this if desired) and you gain a +4 bonus on all saves again negative energy, energy drain, etc.

9. Servant of a Great Dragon: You serve a dragon that is your alignment. (or close to your alignment) This dragon is your mentor, he grants you +1 to two different stats, a free feat, (A metabreath feat typically) and he also doubles your starting gold.
10. Roll Twice, taking both.

(Pyroclastic dragon from Gehenna.)

Duskblade
1. Permanent Injury
2. Advance an age category
3. Cursed Weapon: this weapon has many spell storing abilities, is intelligent, and will attempt to dominate the duskblade. It is at minimum +5 enchantment bonus.
4. Minor magical heirloom: See human entry
5. Arcanist Blessing: Gain a familiar, just like a wizard.
6. Noble Born: See human entry, only the misc. bonus is taken from ride and added to Knowledge (Arcana) or Knowledge (The planes) player's choice.
7. Planetouched: See human entry
8. Magi-tek Blade: You have been gifted a magi-tek weapon (1d3+1 enchantment) with a minor spell storing component. This means you have a friend or relative that is a magi-tek engineer as well.
9. Chosen Duskblade of the elves: Changes alignment from any evil to some kind of neutral or good, and changes your home territory to the elf lands. You were trained by the greatest duskblades in Elven culture, and been rewarded with a mithril magical sword with a 1d4+1 enchantment bonus, and a mithril armor with a 1d4+1 enchantment. (This can not be mithril full plate if you manage to get a heavy armor.) You also start with 7+ int mod spells, instead of 4+int. mod.
10. Roll twice, taking both rolls.

(Magi-tek blades are unique, and powerful.)

Knight
1. Permanent Injury: See human table
2. Advance an age category
3. Cursed Mount: Your mount is an undead, demon, corrupted, or otherwise possessed creature. It is bound to you, and appears like a completely normal mount. It influences you deeply... whispering madness to you, wanting you to serve its dark masters.
4. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry.
5. Noble Born: See human entry.
6. The Holy Hand Grenade: You gain a holy hand grenade. one time use, 10d10 damage, 20' radius, count to Three.
7. Draconic Ancestry: See human entry
8. Famous Knight! You have an entourage of minstrels. You gain 1d3+1 level 1 bards that follow you around, 'aiding' you in their own, brave brave way.
9. Full Knight Sponsorship: You start with a custom made MW suit of full plate mail (2 flexibility and hardening upgrades), a heavy warhorse, full plate barding, a lance, a sword, heavy shield, and bow (or crossbow) all of masterwork quality. You are at the beck and call of the kingdom however.
10. Roll twice, taking both rolls.

(Need I say more?)

Classes: Complete Warrior

Hexblade
1. Permanent Injury: See human table.
2. Advance an age category.
3. Corrupted Blood: see sorcerer entry, can inflict corruptive damage on anyone you curse. (1d8 per -2 of the curse.)
4. Minor Magical Heirloom: see human entry.
5. Noble Born: See human entry: replace ride with knowledge (Arcana) (Religion) or (the planes).
6. Cursed Weapon: You have a weapon that channels darkness, unlike most cursed items, it answers to you. You have complete control of the cursed item, and while it will eventually harm you, for now, you have it under control. (Weapon will always increase your curse by another -1.)
7. Necromantic master: You start the game with 1 level 1 necromancy spell, which can be used 1/day. Every 5 levels you gain another free necromancy spell that you may use 1/day. (each ability is separate) At level 5 you may have a level 3 necromancy spell, at level 10, a level 4 spell, 15 a level 5, and 20 a level 6. These are used as spell like abilities.
8. Planetouched: (Non-Genasi Only)
9. Exceptional curse master, you gain 2 extra uses of your hexblade curse per day, and you start at the greater curse level, making the penalty at -4 instead of -2. (It continues to increase, becoming -8 at dire curse) Your curse also gains a misc. +2 bonus to the save DC.
10. Roll Twice, taking both rolls.

(A hexblade controls the powerful cursed weapons they wield... for a time.)

Samurai
1. Permanent Injury: See human table
2. Advance an age category
3. Cursed Item: See Elf table
4. Monstrous Humanoid Blood: See human table. (Obviously orcs ignore orc blood, etc.)
5. Noble Born: See human table
6. Ninja partner: You work in tandem with a single class ninja. This character goes with you on all clan based business, matches your alignment, (or at most is 1 step removed) and very much enjoys taking advantage of all those opponents focusing on you.
7. Planetouched: See human table
8. Extraordinary Sword Ki: You gain 1 more use of both Kiai smite and staredown, and both abilities gain increased potency. You now add double your charisma bonus to Kiai smite damage, and your staredown abilities gain a +2 bonus to the DC.
9. Chosen of the Shogun: You are the chosen warrior of your shogun. This grants you a suit of hardened, custom fit 'Great Armor' (Tosei-gusoku, with 2 ranks of each upgrade.) and a katana/wakizashi combo with identical 1d3+1 enchantments. You are at the beck and call of the Shogun, however.
10. Roll twice, taking both rolls.

(Sword Ki? Extraordinary. Afro? Extraordinary. Style? Extraordinary.)

Swashbuckler
1. Permanent Injury: See human table
2. Advance an age category
3. Town destroyed by Corruption: You are from a small town, (dependent on race and region) that was annihilated by corrupted forces. (Genlocks or Hurlocks most likely) You barely managed to escape. You suffer a -2 to all saves vs. fear, (this increases to -4 against corrupted creatures) but you can sense corruption 60' at will. This ability is always active and can not be suppressed in anyway.
4. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human table
5. Noble Born: See human table, the ride bonus becomes any craft or profession skill or the players choice.
6. Member of a crew: You are a member of a powerful pirate/smuggler/navy. (in the skyrealm this is airships, surface and underdark are traditional ships.) You gain the bonuses listed under 'Mentor' on the human entry, only you do not continue to gain bonuses, you are in a position to work your way up however, and potentially take over/make the ship your own.
7. Planetouched: See human table.
8. Blessed Item from the bottom of the Sea: You were shipwrecked in your past, and found an incredibly potent intelligent item that helped you survive your isolation. This item will be of any general 'type' that the player desires, but the DM will make the item. You also gain a free rank of toughness as a side affect of having to survive on your own.
9. Well known 'pirate:' You gain the leadership feat for free, and gain a region appropriate mode of travel, (ship, airship, trade caravan, etc.) with your leadership score determining the size of your crew. Your cohort is your number 2, and will always be the same race as you. (Halflings are the exception, they follow their own cohort chart on the halfling table.)
10. Roll Twice, taking both rolls.

(Leading your own group of air pirates pays off.)

Classes: Complete Adventurer

Ninja
1. Permanent Injury: See human table
2. Advance an age category
3. Cursed Item: See elf entry
4. Monstrous Humanoid Blood: See human entry.
5. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry.
6. Ninja Magic: You gain 1 spell per 4 levels, these follow the Wu Jen chart, and use a ki ability use per day to use them. You start with 1 at level 1, (a level 1 spell) and at levels 4,8, 12, etc. You gain another ability. You also gain 2 more uses of ninja 'ki'.
7. Martial Arts Training: You gain unarmed damage of a monk of your size, and 1 free "martial arts style" feat. (Complete Warrior has a bunch of them)
8. Exceptional Ki channeling: You gain 5 more 'ki' points that allow you to use your ninja abilities (like swift invisibility) more times per day.
9. Chosen of the Shogunate: You are the go to ninja of your Shogun. Because of this, you gain an armor, a weapon, and 1 misc. tool of your choice, (this may be substituted for another weapon if you so desire) all with a 1d3+1 enchantment. You also start with double the starting gold.
10. Roll twice, keeping both rolls.

(Ninja magic could come in handy.)

Scout:
1. Permanent Injury: See human table
2. Advance an age category
3. Cursed Item: See human entry
4. Monstrous Humanoid Blood: See human table
5. Scouting Buddy: gain an animal companion like a druid.
6. Noble Born: See human entry
7. Hunters Training: You gain a favored enemy, like a ranger, that levels up every 5 levels. (Stacks with elves and rangers, an elven ranger/scout that rolls this starts with 3 favored enemies at level 1, and levels up 3 every 5 levels.)
8. Scout of the Throne: You are a chosen scout for whatever kingdom you are closest too. You gain 3 1d3+1 items, 1 must be an armor and 1 weapon, you may command other scouts of the kingdom to assist with kingdom specific tasks, and you gain 4 free ranks of Knowledge (Local History).
9. Fey Bloodline: see druid entry.
10. Roll twice, taking both rolls.

(A scouting buddy is always helpful.)

Spellthief:
1. Permanent Injury: See human table.
2. Advance an age category
3. Cursed item: See elf table.
4. Wronged the wrong mage: You stole spells, an item, or otherwise angered a powerful wizard. He sends folks after you, and comes after you himself. On the flip side, you gain two mild wondrous items that you stole from the mage in question.
5. Noble Born: See human entry, substituting ride for Knowledge (Arcana), (Religion), or (The Planes.)
6. Stolen Moderate Wondrous Artifact: See rogue entry.
7. Innately resistant to all magic: Your spell-thieving abilities have transferred into innate spell resistance. You gain 5+ character level SR. If you have SR already, you gain +5 to the base number.
8. Church Inquisitor: You belong to a church (either as an employee, believer, etc.) as an mage hunter of the dark arts. You have the backing of the church, and gain 3 1d2+1 enchanted items, (1 of which must be an armor) and gain discounts on all healing and church related items. You will have the occasional order from the church though.
9. Greater Spell Absorption: By some twist of fate, you can absorb any spell that you qualify to steal (based on spellthief level) that is launched at you, 1/day. This is a supernatural effect that is very unique. Say a level 3 spell thief is shot at by a mage casting magic missile. The spellthief would then absorb the spell, and have to fire it back out at the spellthief's next turn, (it is a swift action to launch the spell.) otherwise they take the effect the spell. This will negate aoe damage from a fireball, the level drain of a necromancy spell, or anything else. There is no roll for this ability, as long as you are in the area of effect (or close enough to get there) you can absorb the spell.
10. Roll twice, taking both rolls.

(Absorbing spells and sending them back... wonderful to do against illusionists, and anything really.)

Classes: Complete Divine

Favored Soul
1. Advance an age category.
2. Twisted energy channeling: Your lay on hands now deals negative energy only. You may not heal anyone with it, (except undead)
3. Cursed of the Gods: You have angered your god, see cleric entry.
4. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry.
5. Blessed Companion: Gain an animal companion with a template. (celestial or infernal most likely, will depend on alignment and god worshiped.)
6. Holy Hand Grenade: See knight table. Your god has given you 1 single holy hand grenade.
7. Planetouched: See human table
8. Chosen Destroyer of the Dead: You gain 'undead' as a favored enemy, and may turn undead like a cleric of your favored soul level.
9. Chosen Warrior of the Gods: As cleric entry.
10. Roll twice, taking both.

(Blessed with the innate power to annihilate undead.)

Shugenja
1. Advance an age category
2. Cursed Soul Stealing Wakizashi: You were 'gifted' with this weapon, it is incredibly powerful, deals damage as a +5 katana, and if you do not quench its thirst, it will destroy you.
3. Minor Magical Heiloom: See human entry
4. Elemental Companion: A small elemental of your chosen element has taken a liking to you.
5. Noble Born: As human entry, only replace ride with Knowledge (Religion), (The Planes), or (Ancient History)
6. Apprentice Shugenja: You gain a level 1 Shugenja (non-gestalt) follower.
7. Planetouched: Genasi only.
8. Blessed Wakizashi: Just like a cursed blade, only intelligent and not cursed.
9. Chosen of the Elements: You gain the half-elemental template of your chosen element.
10. Roll twice, keeping both rolls.

(This shugenja is the chosen of water, and has greatly increased power.)

Spirit Shaman
1. Permanent Injury: See human table.
2. Advance an age category
3. Tribe destroyed by evil: See barbarian entry.
4. Monstrous Humanoid Blood: See human table.
5. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry.
6. Totem Animal: See barbarian table, spirit shaman with this trait will gain an additional stat boost and ability dependent on spirit rolled, since they have a greater connection with such forces.
7. Planetouched: See human entry.
8. Fey blood: As druid table.
9. Greater Spirit Connection: Your spirit companion gains a significantly more powerful template, like half-elemental or woodling, and you gain a minor template, like planetouched, and an additional 2 base uses of Chastise Spirit per day.
10. Roll twice, taking both rolls.

(A greater spirit connection will grant a much more powerful companion, like this flame wolf.)

Classes: Complete Arcane

Warlock
1. Permanent Injury: See human table
2. Advance an age category
3. Fell Curse: The darkness tugs extra hard on your soul. All your warlock abilities gain a +2 bonus on their DC to resist, but you suffer -2 to a physical and mental stat (determined by the DM) and whatever owns your soul has taken a much more interested view of you.
4. 'Fell' Guardian: The source of your power has sent a guardian to 'watch' over you and make sure you do as you are told. This guardian will protect you from a death blow at least three times before enjoying your death. Fey sourced warlocks get a guardian spirit that protects them only twice, but typically are not as interfering, being more curious than anything.
5. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry.
6. Planetouched: See human table.
7. Invocation Master: Your mastery of invocations knows no equal. You gain 2 additional invocations at level 1, and an additional bonus invocation known every 5 levels. (3 at level 1, 6 at level 5, 9 at level 10, etc.) Normal 'power' limits apply, you just know more of what you have access too.
8. Empowered Eldritch Energy: Your eldricth blasts are exceptionally powerful for a member of your class. Starting at level 1, and every 6 levels after, your innate blast damage increases by 1d6. (2d6 at level 1, 4d6 at level 6, 7d6 at level 12, etc.)
9. Greater Connection to Source: Whatever the source of your power is, you have a stronger connection to it than most. Each step of source abilities, (1,6,12, and 18.) you gain an additional stat increase and ability. This is different for each source.
10. Roll Twice, taking both.

(This warlocks enhanced connection to his source has granted him increased power... and wonderfully frightening glowing eyes.)

Warmage
1. Permanent Injury: See human entry.
2. Advance an age category.
3. Cursed Item: See elf entry.
4. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human table.
5. Arcanists Blessing: You gain a familiar, like a wizard.
6. Noble Born: See human entry, only ride is replaced with Knowledge (Arcana) or (Ancient History).
7. Planetouched: See human entry.
8. Mentored Warmage: You were mentored by a powerful, wise warmage. This person has gifted you with +1 to 2 different stats, (chosen by the mentor) and 2 bonus spells that may be of any school. The mentor picks what you are taught. Should you be taught a spell that you do not yet have access too, once your warmage levels allow you to cast that level of spell you will learn it.
9. Sponsored Warmage Loadout: Your kingdom, mentor, school, etc. has chosen you as their number 1 student, and given you proper warmage attire. You are given a mithril breastplate, a mithril medium shield, and a one handed weapon. All of these items have a 1d2+1 enchantment bonus. You are expected to work for whoever gave you this gear on occasion, however.
10. Roll Twice, taking both.

(Warmages adorned in Mithril are phenomenally capable instruments of war.)

Wu Jen
1. Advance an age category
2. Angered an Elemental Prince: While working on your elemental magic in your youth, you accidentally opened up a portal to your opposing elemental plane and happened across an enchanted stone that belonged to an elemental prince. Leaving the plane not knowing you wronged such a powerful entity, you made the item into an amulet, affixed it to a quarterstaff, or something else. Unfortunately, you have had elemental creatures hunting you ever since, and you have absolutely no idea why, but you sure do love that enchanted rock.
3. Improved Elemental Affinity: All spells you cast from your element gain a +1 to their damage dice, which stacks once the wu jen gains elemental mastery, and you gain 10 resistance to your chosen element. Unfortunately, you are more prone to your opposing element, which now deals double damage against you.
4. Minor Magical Heirloom: See human entry.
5. Arcanists Blessing: Gain a familiar, like a wizard.
6. Noble Born: See human entry, the ride bonus becomes Knowledge (Arcana), (The Planes), or (Ancient History.)
7. Planetouched: See human entry.
8. Exceptional Spell Secrets: Every time you gain a spell secret, (3, 6, 9, etc.) you gain 2 spell secrets instead of one.
9. Elemental Connection: You gain the planetouched genasi trait of your element, and an additional +1 damage dice to your chosen elemental damage dice.
10. Roll Twice, taking both rolls.

(Wu Jen with elemental connections are more obvious, and much more powerful.)

Magi-tek Engineer
1. Permanent Injury... through SCIENCE! Just like the gnome entry, roll again.
2. Advance an age category.
3. Cursed Companion: You made your magi-tek companion out of some powerful cursed material on accident. It is much stronger than usual, but is more in control of you than you are of it...
4. Competitive Rival: You have an NPC rival that has a love/hate relationship with you. This person attempts many similar creations that you do, and you might have studied under the same masters, school, etc. This person might help you sometimes, and might try to hinder you others. On the bright side you start with 1 additional magi-tek item. (1d3+2 at start, instead of 1d3+1)
5. Arcanists Blessing: You have a familiar, like a wizard. This can be in addition to your magi-tek companion, or if you choose to have either the oozeling or hybrid animal, a combined stronger companion.
6. Noble Born: See human entry: Ride becomes and knowledge skill, chosen by the player.
7. Member of a prominent trading company: Just like the Swashbuckler entry.
8. Exceptional Companion: You made your companion out of exceptional not cursed materials. It is stronger than normal, and follows your commands.
9. Airship! Just like gnome table.
10. Roll twice, taking both rolls, may choose to have the mad scientist trait as well.

(A cursed companion will be powerful, and in control of you.)

Once you have your racial and class traits done, your stats will be done, and you can calculate skill points and everything. Starting gold is determined by the dice, I am rather stingy with gold, I tend to reward players more with items and special abilities then tons of gold, which some people like some people don't, but that is my style.

All gold is decided by rolling a 1d6, just the multiplier at the end of it changes depending on what class you are.

1d6x500 classes: (500-3000 starting gold)
Paladin
Knight
Cleric
Samurai

1d6x400 classes: (400-2400 starting gold)
Fighter
Bard
Warmage
Rogue
Scout
Spellthief
Ninja
Ranger
Swashbuckler
Beguiler
Favored Soul
Hexblade
Duskblade

1d6x300 classes: (300-1800 starting gold)
Barbarian
Druid
Monk
Sorcerer
Wizard
Wu Jen
Shugenja
Spirit Shaman
Magi-tek Engineer
Warlock
Dragon Shaman

(With great rewards come great peril.)

Thus we complete the rules for making characters in Artheria. Everyone should be unique, powerful, and have enough 'background' to make a decent story for their character. I'm pretty flexible with things like rerolling stats, but I am not with regards to traits and starting gold, you get what you get. I look forward to getting the game going, and now, we can make our heroes.

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”
― Laozi