Martial (and other) Arts: Inner Planets

Locheil on the GLOG discord had a good idea:

So I've decided to write it. Since it's in the GLOG discord, I'll obviously write it as GLOG classes. But I think it would probably work best as half-classes, 2 templates with a delta requirement.

(the deltas preclude magically guaranteed outcomes, so an actual prophetic dream doesn't count for the Lunar Arts, and a magic rock that makes people view it as valuable doesn't count for the Mercuric Arts)

Lunar Arts

Δ: Have a dream of yours literally come true, by chance or by effort (ask your DM for random dreams)

A: Select an art form. Works you make in that medium can either provoke an emotion of your choice, or make those who view them for more than d6 rounds save or fall asleep and have dreams of your choice. Artworks must be prepared as a downtime action (whether painting a picture, writing a song, etc.)

B: Gain an MD and an Illusionist spell. You regain this MD by meditating on the moon, and cannot regain it on nights of a new moon.

The Lunar Arts are practiced in urban monasteries by artist monks who sleep based on the moon, rather than the sun, and who record their dreams.

Mercurial Arts

Δ: Trade or sell something for 10 times its worth

A: Once per day, you can convey an impression telepathically to someone you've met before, regardless of distance. If it wouldn't work, its not expended. You can also run a marathon at your normal running speed. You'll be exhausted at the end, and if you are carrying significant weight you can only run half as far.

B: You can squeeze through any space that can fit your skull, and learn an (expensive, illegal, toxic) recipe for a potion which will cause 1 lie you say to be fully believed by anyone who hears it.

The Mercurial Arts are practiced by itinerant monks, who have no qualms about profiting off their expertise, and are generally mistrusted.

Venerian Arts

Δ: Have 3 people in love with you at once, or perform a really significant sacrifice for the person you love most (DM will tell you if this has happened, don't do something little and then pester the DM)

A: You learn a rite by which you can bless a field, orchard, or vineyard to provide triple its normal produce. Its kinda gross though. Requires one other person.

B: Your knowledge of anatomy qualifies you to be a surgeon. Increase your damage with unarmed attacks and knives by 2 steps (1 → d4, d4 → d8). You can bless an additional field etc.

The Venerian Arts are learned by temple prostitutes and certain farmers. They ritually drink vinegar, and meditate with incense and the music of stringed instruments. Obviously they are highly sought after.

Solar Arts

Δ: Ingest a pound of gold over a period of seven days, and meditate for the whole seventh day

A: For feats of strength (but not attacks) you count as Strength 20. Reduce this effective strength by any amount to produce a blast of blue chi dealing twice that much damage, which cannot miss. You have to wait a round before using this again. Reducing it by more than 10 takes a round to charge. Recovering this strength takes a day of meditation (sunup to sundown).

B: Reduce your effective strength by any amount to fly for 10 minutes per point at your regular running speed.

The Solar Arts are practiced in isolated monasteries, which are attended and patronized by noble second sons. While the monasteries are actually pretty spiritual, the threat of 20+ flying laser warriors who can punch through an oak portcullis means that temporal powers don't tend to cross them.

Martial Arts

Δ: Fight 10 men to the death.

A: You cannot fumble with any weapon.

B: Any group you lead counts as half the size for logistical purposes, and twice the size for positioning purposes (i.e. flanking and sieges etc.)

You don't need me to tell you who practices martial arts.

Perennial Wizardposting

 

On posts like this, AI art suffices.

A year has fled with hardly a post to my name. This post will be light and unpolished, to hopefully initiate a habit. And, what else should it be on but wizards?

My recent thoughts on wizards have been on the diversity of their abilities. To my mind, there's essentially two types of wizards. The first is the Mage. This is the wizard whose spells are simple solutions to problems. When it is dark, they cast Light. Their toolset is practical, but limited. I think Harry Potter wizards tend to be like this, or else that's simply how they're written. They stick to their expelliarmis, lumos, etc. OSE wizards are also unashamedly of this type, at least to start.

The other type is, I suppose, the Arcanist. When they encounter an issue, they respond with "I think I'll try..." or, with hope, "I've been waiting for ages to try out...". Their spells are arcane, that is, esoteric and unknown. They have a grand variety of spells that, in 90% of cases, simply don't apply. For all their faults, I think that comic books have the best illustrations of this type, though I don't often read them. From what I've seen, Dr. Strange (in the comics, not in the movies) is always casting some weird-ass spell that never came up before or ever will again. 

I think, at least to my current mind, that the Arcanist is the more really Wizardly of the two. Wizards should have a really big bag of weird tricks. This, I don't think, is really represented in RPGs right now. Even GLOG wizards have only 2 real spells to start with. There's a real dissonance there. Why does an orthodox wizard need a whole tome for Knock and Grease? One can come up with the standard vancian answers, of course, but I think there's a real potential in having wizards whose tomes are full, 100+ pages of spells like Gershwin's Modulation or Servant of the Fungal Power which the wizard, if she is weak, hasn't learned or, if she is powerful, is simply waiting to use.

I've had 2 RPG experiences that could be considered to have come close to this kind of wizard. The lesser one, but the one which I think would probably apply more widely, is the magic system from Maze Rats (at least, v. 0.1). Originally, I was kinda put off by it, since a central feature is that the Magician class can swap out their spells when they rest for entirely new ones, randomly generated. "This works for warlocks," I said to myself, "but how could a Wizard neglect to remember the basics?" But in the context of an Arcanist, perhaps a beginner looking through a tome they hardly understand, it makes perfect sense that one day they'd have Concealing Bronze Sigil and the next day they'd try out Enraging Wine.

My other experience, which probably cleaves more closely to the true Arcanist, was in a GLOG campaign I played, Beyond the Bizarre Armoire. My character was, ironically, more supposed to be of the first type, with practical little tricks (or at least that's how I think Vayra designed the Class). However, by a quirk of rules, I gained access to a considerable portion of wizard spells from several wizard schools (Necromancy, Biomancy, Elementalism, and Snake Wizardry I think). The caveat was that I could only cast these spells once each, and each one permanently drained my max health by 1. The result was that I, very sparingly, cast the most wack spells imaginable to apocalyptic effect. It was probably one of the most fun wizards I've ever played. Due credit to Semiurge, though, for making very interesting and dynamic situations which respond well to those weird catalysts.

Yeah that's the post, just wanted to talk about wizards some. If you want to make more of the arcanist type, Maze Rats 0.1 is a good place to start I think. I might join in with the Dungeon 23 thing that's been going around? dunno. Alright I'm gonna go eat.