Characters

Homebrew Rules

• Boons & Burdens
  • You may start with a maximum of 2 of each.
• Accurate is Derived
  • Melee Accuracy: Strong + Quick / 2, rounded up
  • Ranged Accuracy: Quick + Vigilant / 2, rounded down
  • Abilities may override or remove Strong, Quick, and Vigilant in the calculations as appropriate.
  • 75 points to distribute, instead of 80.
• Stain of Corruption
  • Permanent Corruption is not added on top of your total corruption – when you take a point of Permanent Corruption it instead converts a point of Temporary Corruption into Permanent.
  • If you don't have any Temporary Corruption, or you have converted all your Temporary points into Permanent, then you take the Permanent Corruption as additional points like normal.
• Learned Training
  • If learning new abilities, and being trained by another PC or NPC, once you receive enough knowledge in it, you can learn the ability for half the cost (5 XP, down from 10 XP). This only applies to learning novice abilities.
    

Optional Rules (p178, CRB)

• Life Goals
  • A Life Goal is a summary of the character's values, principles and personal moral code, more or less what the character thinks gives life, as well as death, meaning.
  • If goals are what the character wishes to achieve, then the Life Goal is more a reflection of how the character thinks life is meant to be lived, and what the character is prepared to do to achieve its goals.
• Specific Experience
  • Specific Experience means that the player can only spend Experience on abilities that were used during the adventure, or to buy new ones.

Alternate Rules (p98, APG)

• Turn Undead instead of Dead
  • The undead are a plague that spreads throughout Ambria and Davokar. The reason for this is unknown, but theories speak of the “twilight of the world” and the “imminent collapse of the natural order.”
  • Let the player whose character dies roll a test to become undead instead, preferably a simple Resolute test.
• Turn Undead instead of Thoroughly Corrupt
  • Instead of becoming blight-born when thoroughly corrupt, they may roll a Resolute test to become undead.
• Start with Free Experience
  • Starting with free Experience means that each player gets 50 Experience points to use for his or her character.
  • This can be increased by choosing burdens and then spent to acquire boons, abilities and traits.
  • However, the Experience may also be saved for re-rolls, if the optional rule Re-roll for Experience is used by the group.
• More Rituals for Masters
  • Master ritualists can learn additional rituals for the cost of 10 Experience points per ritual.
  • Only a master can acquire more rituals this way; for less prominent ritualists, what is detailed in the description of the ability levels applies.
• Income from Boons
  • The most obvious boons to be used this way are Cartographer, Cheat, Escape Artist, Gambler, Impressionist, Medium, Mirage, Musician and Storyteller.
  • Other boons and abilities may of course be used to earn thaler, if the player can give a reasonable explanation as to how.
  • Once per adventure (or in-between adventures), the player may roll against the attribute related to the boon/ability; if there is no such attribute, use the highest of Cunning or Persuasive. A passed test renders an income of 1d10 thaler.
• Monster Trophies
  • For anyone who slays monsters and collects trophies there is money to earn, even if the procurement of the valuable parts can cause problems for the untrained – putrefaction spoils many trophies completely and lowers the price on others.
  • A Cunning test is required to be able to harvest a trophy, rendering a trophy in poor condition if successful and no trophy at all if failed.
  • To end up with a trophy in good condition, a passed Cunning test with the ability Beast Lore or the boon Bushcraft is needed; if such a test fails, a trophy in poor condition is harvested instead.

• Pact-making
  • Pact-making requires an agreement with a mighty being who is interested in becoming the character's protector and tutor; usually a nature spirit or an undead.
  • ◆ The Benefits of the Pact: The character can gain Experience in exchange for accepting permanent corruption; each point in permanent corruption gives 1d12 Experience points. This happens when the pact is forged.
    • Later a maximum of 1 permanent corruption per adventure can be accepted. The player decides if and when this exchange will be made.
    • Once the gift has been paid for, it must be acquired by spending Experience as usual.
    • The character can also gain access to other traits and abilities, besides the ones possessed by the being. In that case, the gift must be paid for with 1 point in permanent corruption, a point that does not provide additional Experience.
    • He or she must pay for these gifts with Experience as usual.
    • The character gains access to all monstrous traits, abilities, mystical powers and rituals that the being has.
  • ◆ The Price of the Pact: The character must accept one of the being's goals as his or her own and strive towards it.
    • This goal may either replace one of the character's own goals, or be assumed as an additional goal for the character.
    • Either way, the goal is determined when the pact is forged.
    • The character can no longer have personal goals which contradict the being's objectives.
    • This is also made clear when the pact is forged, and a requirement for reaching an agreement at all.
    • If the character starts to divert from or act in disagreement with the being's goals and objectives, the being will know this.
    • Initially, the character will be warned in the form of nightmares, physical discomfort or similar.
    • Then, if the character does not change his or her ways, things will go from bad to worse; the being will deny the character the choice to exchange corruption for Experience and put a curse on him or her – either meaning that all corruption gained by the character is doubled or that he or she cannot heal naturally and that all other healing is halved.
    • Another option is that all the oath-breaker's rolls against his or her most frequently used attribute gain a second chance to fail.
    • The being will choose the alternative which is most damaging to the character.
  • ◆ Breaking a Pact: There is no known way to break this sort of pact.
    • You can temporarily hide from the pact and the curse in a witch circle, a magic circle or inside a sanctum (see the rituals in question for details).
    • However, as soon as the character steps outside such a location, the curse returns in full force.
• Secrets of the Traditions
  • Every alchemist or artifact-crafter must choose which two traditions to belong to.
    
  • Note that the boon Forbidden Knowledge can give a character access to the secrets of all traditions from the start.
  • Secrets of Witchcraft
    • ◆ Alchemy: Transformation Brew, Thorn Beasties
    • ◆ Artifact Crafting: Bark Mask, Witch Braid, Beast Mask, Burial Shroud
    • ◆ Blacksmith: Blood-letting, Retributive, Witch Gown
  • Secrets of Wizardry
    • ◆ Alchemy: Alchemical Grenade
    • ◆ Artifact Crafting: Alchemical Mine, Spell Scroll, Spell Seal, Spark Stone, Ruler's Ring, Order Medallion, Mind Prism
    • ◆ Blacksmith: Flaming, Order Cloak, Poison Coated
  • Secrets of Symbolism
    • ◆ Alchemy: War Paint
    • ◆ Artifact Crafting: Ritual Codex, Ritual Seal, Transcendental Weapon
    • ◆ Blacksmith: Bane Weapon
  • Secrets of Staff Magic
    • ◆ Alchemy: None
    • ◆ Artifact Crafting: Rune Staff, Staff Foot, Staff Head
    • ◆ Blacksmith: Acid Coated
  • Secrets of Sorcery
    • ◆ Alchemy: Spirit Friend, Shadow Tint, Homunculus
    • ◆ Artifact Crafting: Death Mask, Iron Crown
    • ◆ Blacksmith: Concealed Armour, Death Rune and Desecrated
  • Secrets of Theurgy
    • ◆ Alchemy: Holy Water
    • ◆ Artifact Crafting: Pest Mask, Sun Mask
    • ◆ Blacksmith: Blessed Robe, Hallowed
  • Secrets of Troll Singing
    • ◆ Alchemy: None
    • ◆ Artifact Crafting: Healing Spider, Lucky Coin, Marlit Cape, Meeting Stone, Toad Guard
    • ◆ Blacksmith: Skald's Cuirass, Thundering
• Reputation
  • The value in Reputation states how well-known the character is and has the following effects:
    • Reputation modifies Discreet negatively when the character tries to avoid attention.
    • Reputation modifies Persuasive negatively when the character tries to influence a supporter from a hostile faction, if the character is recognised and identified because of his or her reputation.
    • Reputation modifies Persuasive positively if the character mentions his or her name and deeds when trying to earn social favors.
    • ◆ Changes in Reputation: The character can influence his or her reputation primarily by adventuring, but also by encouraging the spread of rumors, songs and tales.
      • On the other hand, the character may also make an effort to act discreetly, hoping to avoid becoming famous. Surely, being recognized is not in every character’s best interest.
    • ◆ Type of Reputation: Aside from the numerical value, a character’s reputation should be suitably described in the form of an epithet and a short sentence or two.
      • As previously mentioned, the details of the reputation can complicate things, depending on who you interact with – the epithet “The Savior of Thistle Hold” will likely provoke other reactions than “The Oathbreaker”, and would surely inspire to very diverse sentiments with people from different factions.
      • A reputation as a “Witch Killer” will earn the character a warm welcome in Templewall and certain parts of Yndaros, while the welcome would be quite different on Karvosti or when meeting witches deep inside Davokar.
      • In short: the reputation of the character will affect how he or she is regarded by others and provoke different reactions from different people.