Delcan
2006-07-20, 09:51 PM
We were somewhere around Tradegate at the edge of the desert when the glamers began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should take the reins..." And suddenly there was a terrible roar around us and the sky was full of what looked like giant stirges, all swooping and stabbing and diving around the cart, which was going about a hundred miles an hour to the portal to Sigil. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Heironious! What are these gods-cursed animals?!"
Then it was quiet again. My bodyguard had taken his tunic off and was pouring ale on his chest to facilitate the tanning process. "What the frell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring up at the sky with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound gnomish sungoggles. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to take the reins." I stopped the mules and aimed the cart towards the side of the road. No point mentioning those stirges, I thought. Poor sod will see them soon enough.
...We had two bags of halfling pipe-stuffing, seventy-five charges of color spray in wands, five scrolls of major image, a salt-shaker half-full of pixie dust and a whole galaxy of multicolored charms, glamers, cantrips, dweomers... and also a quart of mead, a quart of ale, a potion case of lesser confusion, a pint of raw id moss, and two dozen kender sugar cookies.
...The only thing that worried me was the cookies. There is nothing in the Great Wheel more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of a sugar binge...
-Gonzo Redeye, famed goblin journalist, from Fear and Loathing in the City of Doors
Wizards and sorcerors draw from different sources of inner and outer power to fuel their magic. Wizards tend to believe in an underlying set of universal laws that inundate the multiverse, which define reality and can be predicted with but the right knowledge. Sorcerors confide in a chaos-with-purpose, a flowing and unpredictable sea of magic, like the run of a river that changes course where it may and takes the willing along for a ride.
Some mages go crazy. Not the terrifying crazy that eats at the will and drives one to fiendish acts, but the strangely amusing kind of crazy that makes one lose their grip on everyday life. Mages who have slipped off the status quo have been seen talking to signposts, writing entire books in one letter, or casually slinging magic missile spells at shadows, asserting with calm grace that they are "attacking the darkness." They're prone to using illusion spells to trick their own eyes, and dosing themselves on powerful hallucinogens to while away their free time. They're harmless nutters, usually.
Of course, when signposts start talking back, and the tomes entitled "AAAA AA AAA AAAAAA" start making sense, it could be there's a method to a mage's madness. Or a madness to a mage's method. Noone's quite sure how it happens... but every once in a blue moon, a crazy mage gets so eccentric that the world they interact with starts going bonkers too.
They're the Weirders. And they're Weird.
WEIRDER
To qualify for the Weirder prestige class, a character must meet the following prerequisites.
Alignment: Any chaotic.
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 4 ranks.
Spells: Must be able to cast at least two 3rd-level arcane spells from the illusion school.
Special: Must have accomplished at least one of the following:
-Made friendly contact with a chaotic neutral outsider.
-Concentrated on a self-induced illusion for at least 3 consecutive days.
-Overdosed on a hallucinogenic substance.
-Been subject to insanity, as per the spell.
BAB: As wizard.
Hit Die: d4.
Saves: All bad.
Skill Points: 2 + Int modifier per level.
Class Skills: Craft (alchemy) (Int), Profession ("herbalist") (Wis), Spellcraft (Int).
1st: Addled mind, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
2nd: Psychadelic aura, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
3rd: Indecipherable, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
4th: One with everybody, the furniture is talking, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
5th: Un/Real, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
Proficiencies: Weirders gain proficiency with no weapons or armor.
The following are class features of the weirder.
Addled Mind (Ex): Weirders have trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality, and so do their enemies. Weirders suffer a -4 penalty to Will saves against magical effects of the illusion school. However, they add their weirder level to the Will save DCs of their own illusion spells and magical effects.
Psychadelic Aura (Su): At 2nd level, anyone within a weirder's immediate surroundings sees things begin to distort and change in bizarre ways - changing colors, growing stretched or squashed or bent in odd places, and in general not making sense to the rational mind at all. The weirder exudes a psychadelic aura, with a maximum radius of 5 feet per weirder level; anyone within this range suffers a 20% miss chance with all attacks and a -2 circumstance penalty to attacks, saves, and skill checks. The weirder can expand or contract this aura, extending its radius up to 5 feet per level of weirder, or reducing it to as little as a 5-foot radius. They cannot supress their aura, and if dispelled it remanifests itself as a free action on the weirder's next turn.
The weirder is immune to the effects of psychadelic auras, his own or another weirder's. Presumably, he's used to seeing the world that way anyway.
Indecipherable (Ex): Weirders are hard to get a hold of with enchantments and compulsions, as their thought processes are so cross-wired that everybody else's assertions seem crazy. At 3rd level, they gain a +4 bonus to Will saves versus mind-affecting and compulsion effects, and are immune to confusion, insanity, and similar spells and effects.
One with Everybody (Ex): At 4th level, a weirder's sense of self becomes so distorted that it encompasses others as well. They can cast spells with a range of "self" upon other creatures by touch.
The Furniture Is Talking (Su): At 4th level, the world around the weirder starts to get a mind of its own. Objects in the weirder's psychadelic aura begin moving of their own accord, as an animate objects spell of caster level equal to the character's weirder levels. (For example, a 4th level weirder's psychadelic aura will animate up to four Small objects, two Medium objects, or one Medium object and two Small objects.) They cannot control which items animate, or what these items do, and the items de-animate once they leave the psychadelic aura. Animated objects have an Intelligence and Charisma score of 10 + weirder level; in general, they will act in the interest of self-preservation and engage in social interaction where inappropriate.
Un/Real (Ex): At 5th level, a weirder's power and mind have become so scrambled by madness that they often cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not; eventually, reality begins to buckle with their perception, treating all magical effects as both illusive AND real at the same time. Weirders may react to any spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural effect not originating from themselves as if it were either an illusion or real. If the weirder treats a normally real effect as real, or an illusory effect as illusory, then there is no change in treatment of the magic. However, things get fuzzy when they mix up others' magics.
If a weirder reacts to an illusion as if real, then for all effects and purposes it IS real for the weirder. An illusory fireball requires a Reflex save to avoid taking full damage, for example, and the illusion of a wall is just as solid as true stone. This can be used to the weirder's advantage - the illusion of a rope will hold a weirder, while other characters could never hope to use it, and a silent image of a bridge spanning a chasm can be trod upon by the weirder as if it were truly there.
If a weirder reacts to a real magical effect as if illusory, then they may make a Will save to disbelieve the very reality of the magic (they still take a -4 penalty due to their Addled Mind). If the spell usually allows a Reflex or Fortitude save, then a successful Will save is treated as if it were the save usually made for such a spell. (For example, a weirder who disbelieves a fireball and makes their Will save still takes half damage.) The weirder can also make a Will save to disbelieve structures such as a wall of force, a gust of wind, or a symbol; success allows the weirder to ignore them as if they didn't exist at all.
No matter their addled senses, a weirder always knows which of their spells are real and which are not, and thus can never disbelieve their own non-illusory spells, or treat their own illusions as real.
Then it was quiet again. My bodyguard had taken his tunic off and was pouring ale on his chest to facilitate the tanning process. "What the frell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring up at the sky with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound gnomish sungoggles. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to take the reins." I stopped the mules and aimed the cart towards the side of the road. No point mentioning those stirges, I thought. Poor sod will see them soon enough.
...We had two bags of halfling pipe-stuffing, seventy-five charges of color spray in wands, five scrolls of major image, a salt-shaker half-full of pixie dust and a whole galaxy of multicolored charms, glamers, cantrips, dweomers... and also a quart of mead, a quart of ale, a potion case of lesser confusion, a pint of raw id moss, and two dozen kender sugar cookies.
...The only thing that worried me was the cookies. There is nothing in the Great Wheel more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of a sugar binge...
-Gonzo Redeye, famed goblin journalist, from Fear and Loathing in the City of Doors
Wizards and sorcerors draw from different sources of inner and outer power to fuel their magic. Wizards tend to believe in an underlying set of universal laws that inundate the multiverse, which define reality and can be predicted with but the right knowledge. Sorcerors confide in a chaos-with-purpose, a flowing and unpredictable sea of magic, like the run of a river that changes course where it may and takes the willing along for a ride.
Some mages go crazy. Not the terrifying crazy that eats at the will and drives one to fiendish acts, but the strangely amusing kind of crazy that makes one lose their grip on everyday life. Mages who have slipped off the status quo have been seen talking to signposts, writing entire books in one letter, or casually slinging magic missile spells at shadows, asserting with calm grace that they are "attacking the darkness." They're prone to using illusion spells to trick their own eyes, and dosing themselves on powerful hallucinogens to while away their free time. They're harmless nutters, usually.
Of course, when signposts start talking back, and the tomes entitled "AAAA AA AAA AAAAAA" start making sense, it could be there's a method to a mage's madness. Or a madness to a mage's method. Noone's quite sure how it happens... but every once in a blue moon, a crazy mage gets so eccentric that the world they interact with starts going bonkers too.
They're the Weirders. And they're Weird.
WEIRDER
To qualify for the Weirder prestige class, a character must meet the following prerequisites.
Alignment: Any chaotic.
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) 8 ranks, Knowledge (the planes) 4 ranks.
Spells: Must be able to cast at least two 3rd-level arcane spells from the illusion school.
Special: Must have accomplished at least one of the following:
-Made friendly contact with a chaotic neutral outsider.
-Concentrated on a self-induced illusion for at least 3 consecutive days.
-Overdosed on a hallucinogenic substance.
-Been subject to insanity, as per the spell.
BAB: As wizard.
Hit Die: d4.
Saves: All bad.
Skill Points: 2 + Int modifier per level.
Class Skills: Craft (alchemy) (Int), Profession ("herbalist") (Wis), Spellcraft (Int).
1st: Addled mind, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
2nd: Psychadelic aura, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
3rd: Indecipherable, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
4th: One with everybody, the furniture is talking, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
5th: Un/Real, +1 level of arcane spellcasting class
Proficiencies: Weirders gain proficiency with no weapons or armor.
The following are class features of the weirder.
Addled Mind (Ex): Weirders have trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality, and so do their enemies. Weirders suffer a -4 penalty to Will saves against magical effects of the illusion school. However, they add their weirder level to the Will save DCs of their own illusion spells and magical effects.
Psychadelic Aura (Su): At 2nd level, anyone within a weirder's immediate surroundings sees things begin to distort and change in bizarre ways - changing colors, growing stretched or squashed or bent in odd places, and in general not making sense to the rational mind at all. The weirder exudes a psychadelic aura, with a maximum radius of 5 feet per weirder level; anyone within this range suffers a 20% miss chance with all attacks and a -2 circumstance penalty to attacks, saves, and skill checks. The weirder can expand or contract this aura, extending its radius up to 5 feet per level of weirder, or reducing it to as little as a 5-foot radius. They cannot supress their aura, and if dispelled it remanifests itself as a free action on the weirder's next turn.
The weirder is immune to the effects of psychadelic auras, his own or another weirder's. Presumably, he's used to seeing the world that way anyway.
Indecipherable (Ex): Weirders are hard to get a hold of with enchantments and compulsions, as their thought processes are so cross-wired that everybody else's assertions seem crazy. At 3rd level, they gain a +4 bonus to Will saves versus mind-affecting and compulsion effects, and are immune to confusion, insanity, and similar spells and effects.
One with Everybody (Ex): At 4th level, a weirder's sense of self becomes so distorted that it encompasses others as well. They can cast spells with a range of "self" upon other creatures by touch.
The Furniture Is Talking (Su): At 4th level, the world around the weirder starts to get a mind of its own. Objects in the weirder's psychadelic aura begin moving of their own accord, as an animate objects spell of caster level equal to the character's weirder levels. (For example, a 4th level weirder's psychadelic aura will animate up to four Small objects, two Medium objects, or one Medium object and two Small objects.) They cannot control which items animate, or what these items do, and the items de-animate once they leave the psychadelic aura. Animated objects have an Intelligence and Charisma score of 10 + weirder level; in general, they will act in the interest of self-preservation and engage in social interaction where inappropriate.
Un/Real (Ex): At 5th level, a weirder's power and mind have become so scrambled by madness that they often cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not; eventually, reality begins to buckle with their perception, treating all magical effects as both illusive AND real at the same time. Weirders may react to any spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural effect not originating from themselves as if it were either an illusion or real. If the weirder treats a normally real effect as real, or an illusory effect as illusory, then there is no change in treatment of the magic. However, things get fuzzy when they mix up others' magics.
If a weirder reacts to an illusion as if real, then for all effects and purposes it IS real for the weirder. An illusory fireball requires a Reflex save to avoid taking full damage, for example, and the illusion of a wall is just as solid as true stone. This can be used to the weirder's advantage - the illusion of a rope will hold a weirder, while other characters could never hope to use it, and a silent image of a bridge spanning a chasm can be trod upon by the weirder as if it were truly there.
If a weirder reacts to a real magical effect as if illusory, then they may make a Will save to disbelieve the very reality of the magic (they still take a -4 penalty due to their Addled Mind). If the spell usually allows a Reflex or Fortitude save, then a successful Will save is treated as if it were the save usually made for such a spell. (For example, a weirder who disbelieves a fireball and makes their Will save still takes half damage.) The weirder can also make a Will save to disbelieve structures such as a wall of force, a gust of wind, or a symbol; success allows the weirder to ignore them as if they didn't exist at all.
No matter their addled senses, a weirder always knows which of their spells are real and which are not, and thus can never disbelieve their own non-illusory spells, or treat their own illusions as real.