Lay On Hands (Class: Paladin)

 Paladin Bandwagon! G_d Throat!, HEAVENWROUGHT!, Drama!, Louisadin!, Antipaladin!, Your Blood In My Heart!, Shepherd!, Anti-Paladin!

“The same force that moves the heart is the same as the force that moves the firmament. Blood is Fire is Light!”  -Gershom ben Joseph

Chiriton Paladin

Requirement: To take this class, a paladin must channel 8 Radiance into your soul when you're at full health. This customarily involves a ritual.

Skills and Starting Equipment: By Order.

The Oath

Could the sun stop shining, could the river stop flowing? This is a misnomer. An oath implies that there is a choice, this is carved into the nature of your soul.

You are bound by the following tenets.

• Service. Do whatever is asked of you, unless asked by an Enemy.

• Resolve. Do not allow an Enemy to live. You can designate anyone as an Enemy at any time, for any reason, and you cannot take back the designation once it is given.

• Integrity. Never knowingly lie.

Radiance

Divine grace flows through everyone, even if only a trickle.

For each template of Paladin, you may hold 2 points of Radiance. You gain a point when you complete a service to someone in a way that genuinely brings them joy or meet the sunrise. Radiance exceeding your maximum is spent immediately. 

Aura

Your presence causes people’s hearts to stir. People struggle to perceive you in neutral terms.

As long as you have Radiance in your pool, reaction rolls of 3-6 count as 2s, and 7-11 count as 12s. Others need to roll under half your Radiance rounded down on a d6 to hold back from acting on their sense of justice or altruism, yes even if they are an Enemy.

A: Chirotony
Divine grace flows through everyone, and you are a channel.

You can conduct Radiance through any amount of living or undead beings as long as all of them including yourself are in physical contact. You also get a vague sense for the current health and emotions of those you're in contact with. Roll a d6 for each Radiance spent and distribute it as HP among the beings in contact or cause one of the beings to glow for an hour per point. Enemies take sacred damage instead. You may also give Radiance to another Paladin.

B: Temple

Your body is sanctified and purified over and over again.

As long as you have Radiance in your pool, you have +2 to saves, take half damage from fire and lightning and are immune to disease and fatigue.

You may spend Radiance to perform an additional action, but repeating an action you’ve already done this turn deals you d6 damage from over exerting yourself.

C: Dynamism

Be the axis on which the world spins.

For the purposes of Chirotony you may ‘touch’ someone who you're looking at and has your undivided attention. Which means unlike normal Chirotony this kind of contact only works on one target at a time.

You may spend 1 Radiance to throw a target you're in contact with up to 30 feet or rotate up to 180 degrees, during which they take no collision damage, unless they are an Enemy. This can be done as a reaction, in which case you make a contested initiative roll and the winner acts first.

D:Guardian Angel

Be where you are needed.

Chirotony connects not only through physical contact, but metaphysical contact now. Allowing you to conduct through beings that are linked by magic or trust each other unconditionally.

You may spend Radiance to travel to a being you're in contact with on a bolt of lightning, regardless of distance, this costs 1 Radiance for each being you conduct through and deals [R]*[R] sacred damage in a [R]*10 foot radius of their choosing. Unless it’s an Enemy, in which case you land on top of them.

Orders:

1. The Laughing Cavaliers.

Skills: Etiquette, Dance, Comedy

Starting Items: Fine clothes (+1 reaction with nobility), rapier(medium weapon), and a rose.
Known for: Deft swordsmanship, defenestration, flipping opponents on their head and maneuvers that would be comical if not for the gristly results. 

2. The Wax Host.

Skills: Beekeeping, Chandlery, Forestry

Starting Items: Waxen head, Leather overcoat (medium armor), bow and a dagger (light weapon)
Known for: Aerial maneuvers with the aid of Dynamism, and conducting Chirotony through the roots and grasses. They have also been suspected to utilize candle wraiths.

3. House Brais.

Skills: Philosophy, Calligraphy, Siege Craft

Starting Items: Chainmail (medium armor), halibard (medium weapon), and a scribe-squire.
Known for: For the destruction of the city of Resca, with lightning bolt. A feat that took the coordination of over 100 Paladins and has not been replicated since. Ironically their usual style does not favor Guardian Angel, preferring to move in cautious defensive formations where it’s easier to touch your allies.

4. The Cibrán School.

Skills: Epic Poetry, Wrestling, Cooking

Starting Items: The mask of a beast, a bunch of body paint and a Mouth.

Known for: Rushing forward faster than you can see, grabbing you jumping 30 feet in the air and slamming you into the earth. The style most likely to utilize Guardian Angel for combat instead of travel due to their reliance on their Mouths.

Discussion:

When people were discussing the Louisen Paladin oath, I had the idea that these Paladins should have a healing touch, that’s damaging when applied to an Enemy, and wrote a class centered around this idea. The main difficulty with writing a Louisen Paladin is that Louis already wrote it, so I had to do something weird with it. The mechanical structure of this class is based off of Hilander’s Cleric and I was also turning this thought in my brain while writing it.

Since I am someone who likes to write “take X damage to power your weird magic”. These paladins I wrote are still perfectly capable of doing horrible things in the name of what they consider good, but they don’t have to. I tried to write something half way between grace’s ideal and the kind of thing I usually write. (also the paladin she’s talking about here is this one.)

Index

This index is organised within chronological order within each catagory.

Systems

Games

• Snarvels

Rules of Magic

• The Odd Dead
• An Alignment System and magic rules expanding on it.
• Shadow Magic
• Power of Names
• Key and Lock Arts (These are Deltas, but not a class.)
  

Procedures and Subsystems

• Psychonauts (A structure for running adventures. Not good, but there might be something salvagable.)
• Test of Grit (for modeling challenges of endurance.)
  
• Low Alchemy 
  

Classes

Glog

• Very Smug Cat
• Umbrant
• Fading Curse
• Four Witch Microclasses
  
• SPACE LOVER ( A microclass and a race)
• Feral Elf
  
• Completely Normal Girl With Too Much Blood
  
• Bleeding Heart
  
• Feral Elf Redux 
• Wretch//Avenger
  
• Chiriton Paladin

Delta Trees

• Transfiguration (and some talk about MOSAIC Strict)
  
• Recursion

Exquisite CΔrpse

1. Red Knife Heresy
2. Forest Law 
   
3. Fox Hunt
   
4. Ocharna Ossis
   

Cloak and Sword

• Enigma
  
• Sanguine
  
• Vampyr
  

Worldbuilding

• Kowloon Planet (Three tables of traps, treasures and beliefs)
• Cultures of the Soupborn 

Adventures

• Village on the river Sword 
• Old Apothecary 

Characters

• Shoot for the Stars 
• Four Strangers 
  
• Three Oracles
  

Bestiary

• Caterwaul
  

Faiths

• Gnome Ann (With mechanics)
  
• Three-Legged Spider (pure faithposting)
  

Spells and Magic Items

• Phantom Steed
• Curse Flesh
• Chimeric Exchange
• Some Atrifacts
• Zodiac Armour
  

Actual Plays

• Boy vs the Blue Medusa
• The Adventures of Sibub (and rule varient for Pyrrhic Weasel)
  
• Sibub and the River Creature

Miscellaneous

• OSR Questinaire
• Nothing New Under The Sun
  
• Inside You Are Two Wolves (minimum) (Technically there is a EXP system here, but as it's directly stolen from another game, let's treat this as a theory post.)
  

Bad

Not good.

• God damn it. 
  
• Large Black Cat 

RUN, FUCKING RUN, GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE, IT'S GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU. (Class: Barbarian)

I've been milling over a stealthy barbarian ever since this conversation, which led to the thought that Fear and Rage are really two sides of the same coin. This class is written using deus's Barbarian as a base and written for the BLACK STAR OF THE CANNIBAL KINGS setting. As such it's also written assuming Varya's Ultimate Fighter and Ultimate Thief. It can be adopted to other games by replacing the numerical bonuses to those associated with Fighters and Thieves in your system. It can be adopted to a different setting by replacing the King that are your family with a vampire, a dragon, imperial soliders or any other force that a child could only hope to hide from.

Wretch//Avenger

It ate your family. You can never forget mother’s screams, the wet plop as father’s arm was wrenched from his socket, the way sister was released and caught again several times before that chuckling ogre shoved her into his mouth. There was nothing you could do to help them, because it is strong and you are weak. All you could do was lay still under the floor boards and swallow down your fury.

Skills: 1. Scavenging 2. Cheating At Cards 3. Holding your Breath. 

In a game with proficiency, you start with proficiencies as a Thief and gains the proficencies of a Fighter at template C.

Starting Equipment: Thread-Bare Cloak (as Unarmoured), Crooked Knife (Light), Soft-padded boots.

A: Little Mouse, Implicit Thunder, +1 to sneaking and saves.

B: Association of Vermin, +1 to sneaking and saves.

C: Cat Devouring Rat, +1 to-hit and HP.

D: Never Again, +1 to-hit and HP.

A:Little Mouse

You have lived too long with too little food. Your growth has been stunted, you will never grow as big as others. Everyone can see your a Wretch.

Roll your starting HP twice and take the lower result. You are always the least prominent member in any group and can shimmy through any opening that can fit your skull.

You always know when someone is watching you, thus can act during a Surprise Round set agains you.

A: Implicit Thunder

There is one thing that kept you going, when it was so easy to lay down and never rise again.

Gain a pool of Rage points, 2 at first level and +1 every level after that. You may spend a point when rolling a dexterity-related check to take a nat 20, or when combat initiates to enter a rage for the duration. While raging, you have a tendency to dodge weapon attacks that by all rights should have hit you with a 3-in-6 chance of success and must attack each round if able (if your only option is to attack an ally, you may save to end the rage early).

    When you eat a rich feast, drink deep, and get a good night's rest, regain a point of Rage. When you go hungry, stay up all night, brooding over the might of your enemies, regain a point. If belittled while your Rage pool is full, save vs. flying right off the handle.

B: Association of Vermin

You’ve made a name for yourself among the criminal underworld, rebel circles and other dregs of society. 

If you’ve kept a low profile, then you can always find whatever criminal services are available and buy them for a favorable price, be it in coin or services rendered. 

If you have caused a big incident recently, prudent criminals avoid you but you can find d4 1 HD ruffians out for revenge. The GM chooses the target of their vengeance, these ruffians will work for free on adventures actively seeking to kill thier target. If you succeed in killing said target, these henchmen get +1 Morale forever after and you may choose one to be your lover.

C: Cat Devouring Rat

You may never be big, you will never again be weak. They will know you to be an Avenger.

You can choose to be the most prominent person in any group and may spend Rage when rolling a strength-related check to take a nat 20. 

While Raging, gain a second attack and are immune to mind-altering effects (This includes the Command of Kings.), those who attempt to read your mind receive a concussion. 

D: Never Again

Even on the most peaceful nights you still sometimes wake up in a cold sweat. There is no way around this, this lightning will course in your veins as long as you live.

When you witness a loved one (or someone who reminds you of them) get threatened with death and torture gain a point of Rage. You may only generate Rage off of each individual once per fight, but if the same threat is targeting multiple people, you may choose to generate Rage off of only one of them. If this would cause your Rage pool to overflow, the excess points become bonus actions you must resolve immediatly, regardless of turn order.

Crownless And Unloved (Class: Elf)

I while ago I wrote a class about being an elves stuck between the worlds of the Sun and the Moon. This class assumed assumed the standard GLOG magic paradigm of spells being a kind of spirit that are domesticated and shoved into one's brain. On a whim I decided to rewrite this class for a varient on the classic GLOG mage while keeping the same core idea.

---

They say that when the world was young and magic filled the land, elves worked miracles and wonders. They were tall and beautiful and at harmony with the world. Spells that modern sorcerors and hedge witches would not dream to control played at the fingertips, for elves have spells in thier souls. That they could with their hands wieve such enchantments, castles of shimmering light, carriages pulled by moths. But this was long ago and untrue.

By some quirk of fate, children are born nowadays with a spark of that elvish art in their souls. Many live their lives being none the wiser to this, aside from a nagging feeling in the back of their head. If only you could be so fortunate. You do not know quite what you are, but they call you an elf, the dwindling rustic folk of dell and cave. The children of the day see you as wild child, a disruption to the proper way of things. The children of the night see as corrupted, a slave that clings to their shackles. They want to seperate what they like about you from what they don't, but it doesn't work like that you are both your halves. So you wander the world, child of the twilight hours, not wild, not domesticated but feral.

Feral Elf

While this is a racial class, you don't have to take it at first level. If you cast aside the trappings of civilization to cavort under the Moon one night, you may discover that you were an elf all along.

Starting Items and Skills: Roll on your preferred peasant table.

A: Heartspell, Moondancer, Changeling, Light of Day

Heartspell:

Your body is of a human, but there is a Word in the center of your soul, no force can take it away from you. You know it as intimately as fish know water or birds know the sky and can explain it about as well. At character creation choose or randomly select a noun to be your Word.

To work wonders, combine your Word with up to [template] Gift, one of which can be substituted with an Implement. You may not work wonders if you are touching Cold Iron, defined as iron which is currently cold.

Moondancer:

You have up to 4 Moon Dice that you can only use to cast spells that use your Word, aside from that they are identical to Magic Dice. Your MD returns to you when you frolic for at least an hour under the moonlight.

Each Tether that connects you with the Sun’s world suppressed one maximum Moon Die. You can increase your maximum MD back by casting aside any amount of these Tethers before the Moon and cavorting for a full night.

Tools: To cast aside tools requires you not to use crafted instruments. Rocks and sticks on the ground are fine, but not sharpened ones.

Shelter: To cast aside shelter requires you don’t wear clothes or rest in buildings. Making a nest of old rags in an abandoned ruin may be fine, at the GM’s discretion.

Language: To cast aside language requires you not read and tune out profane speech. You can get by fine with non-verbal communication especially with those you know well.

Culture: To cast aside culture requires you to ignore your vocation, social standing and obligations. Hanging around with vagrants is fine.

No matter how many times you come back from the Sun’s world, she always accepts your pledge, that this time you're truly casting it aside. She is always laughing.

Changeling:

You are a creature of three natures. The human, the inconnu and what lies between. Your current nature is based on how much MD (counting both Moon Dice and Magic Dice), and will change if those change.

Half-Elf: (0-1 MD) You count as a human with all that entails, maybe your ears are slightly pointy or the distance between your eyes is a little off. As long as you're not touching Cold Iron, you can intuitively but imprecisely sense magic and spirits, expressed in goosebumps, illusionary scents and vague premonitions.

If you are open about your nature get -1 reaction with most humans, if you conceal it then reroll your reaction with -2 if it’s uncovered.

Elf: (2-3 MD) You count as both a human and a fae, both the benefits and the drawbacks. Your sense for magic and spirits is visible and unambiguous, wizard crowns are directly seen, ghosts are visible, at a glance you can tell if something is magic and with 10 minutes of observation what words are imbued in it. You no longer need to sleep as long as you cavort under the Moon and can see under her light clear as day. Cold Iron is twice as encumbering however.

You have -1 reaction with both humans and fae and it’s no use trying to hide what you are.

Inconnu: (4+ MD) You count as a spirit, but unlike a true one, you're still reliant on your flesh. You can physically touch and be touched by the incorporeal, your skin is as light armour, your limbs are as light weapons and there is one favored environment your body is perfectly adapted to surviving without any of Sun’s Tethers. However, roll an additional die for damage from Cold Iron, the sunlight blinds you and your diet becomes one of a beast. You may communicate with Fae without language, meaning emotions and intentions but not taxes or whatever.

If you are open about your nature, get -1 reaction with most spirits, if you conceal it then reroll your reaction with -2 if it’s uncovered.

For each MD you have, you manifest one of your Gifts, which hides away if you lose that MD. At character creation you choose or roll four Gifts that represent your unique nature. When you die, your corpse stays in the form it was because all three are your true nature. An Artisan Wizard can extract the Gifts you had manifest when you died, and defile them to make an Implement that can do one of the things the Gift did, and you decide what curse the Implement has.

Light of Day:

The Moon will always welcome you back, but the Sun is not fond of indecision. 

When you roll doubles on a magic roll, a Mishap happens. If you love the Sun more, then the mishap is themed around the temporary loss of your Word. If you love the Moon more, then it’s caused by an excess.

When you roll a triple on a magic roll, a Doom happens. The first time the Sun forces you to choose between him and her, you suffer the first step. From then on, advance the Doom you committed to each time a triple is rolled.

Doom of the Sun:

1. Choose a Tether you may never cast aside.

2. Lose the ability to become an Inconnu, regardless of your current MD.

3. Forget your Word, and the ability to use magic forever. The surviving person is changed so irrevocably that you may no longer play them.

Doom of the Moon:

1. Choose a Tether you forever reject.

2. Lose the ability to become a Half-Elf, regardless of your current MD.

3. Forgot your humanity and all it entails forever. The surviving creature is changed so irrevocably that you may no longer play them.

Gifts:

Each Gift has one passive effect and one or two distinct effects they apply. If an effect grants the benefit of a light weapon or armour, it upgrades to medium if you're Inconnu.

1. Claws: As duel wielding light weapons. They may be used to tear through [Word] or grapple with [Word].
2. Teeth: As a medium weapon. You may eat [Word], either digesting it as food or storing 1 instance of it to regurgitate it later.
3. Sting: As a light weapon, that feels like a mosquito bite if the target is relaxed. You may inflict a poison or medicine of [Word].
4. Antlers: A large weapon. You may make a strike charged with [Word] and adding 2 to [sum] or inspire [Word] to all who can see you.
5. Skin: You are undetectable when hiding in your favored environment. You may wreathe yourself in a cloak of [Word].
6. Fur: As light armour. You may pluck out your hairs and transform them into stupid copies of you, which pop into [Word] if damaged.
7. Scales: As heavy armour, but do not impede you. You may reflect or deflect [Word].
8. Eyes: Your sight is never obscured by [Word]. You may inflict [Word] on someone but only as long as you look upon them or look out of [Word] that you have looked at up to a day ago.
9. Tail: Gives a fifth appendage that can hold your body weight. You may swoosh it over yourself to be disguised as [Word] or a thing of [Word] and it involuntarily starts wagging when [Word] is nearby.
10. Wings: Allow you to glide or fly if you're Inconnu. You may get a vision of [Word] within a day’s flight and directions towards it if it’s under the sky.
11. Gills: You breathe water but not air. While underwater increase [sum] by 3.
12. Liver: You're immune to all poisons you have survived. You may divine a question related to [Word] and receive an answer of “yes/no/maybe” or tamper with divinations on a specific question for [dice] days.
13. Voice: You can throw your voice within the distance you can show. You may issue a command of [Word] or sing to make [Word] dance.
14. Hooves: You are immune to detrimental terrain and being tracked in your favored environment. You may walk on [Word] as if it were solid or charge at great speeds leaving a trail of [Word] behind you.
15. Paws: Your footsteps are completely silent. Increase [sum] by 2 if you target someone who does not know you're there.
16. Gut: You're able to eat anything organic. You may fire a cone-shaped blast of [Word] from your mouth or fart a noxious cloud of [Word].
17. Small: You are the size of a child and the size of a mouse if Inconnu. You may use d4s for MD, still keeping them on a 1-3.
18. Large: You are the size of an ogre and the size of a house if Inconnu. You may use d8s for MD, still keeping them on a 1-3.
19. Thumbs: Select a craft, this craft does not count for Tethering you. You may craft magical items out of [Word], that last for [sum] days and fade in the Sun.
20. Warts: Are not Tethered by language if you're insulting someone. You may curse someone with [Word].

Several Elves:

For fun, let's try to build some elves, I'm going to use the schools of the Wonder Workers as the spark table for it, despite d5 being involved.

Word: Silence.

Gifts: Wings, Paws, Small, Warts.

Small little guy who seeks peace and quiet and only speaks up to force others to be quiet. I think they live in dense forests.

Word: Hallucinations

Gifts: Small, Tail, Large, Sting
Size changing scorpian which causes you to hallucinate shit, obviously lives in the desert and generally seen by those delious with dehydration.

Word: Lightning

Gifts: Paws, Gut, Eyes, Antlers

Some horrible thing that sneaks up on you and emits lightning out of everything. I think they live in the wind swept plains where flash storms are frequent.