Venger
2013-03-04, 12:53 PM
Triadic Guard:
As with many other things in Triadic, the Triadic Guard revolves around threes. In this case, the Triadic Guard are an elite group assigned to protect the heir (or in the rare cases where there is not one, the heir apparent) until he or she comes of age to take over ruling the state.
Traditionally, in popular depictions of the Triadic Guard, there is one of each sex portrayed: a woman, man, and mystery as a mindguard, bodyguard and soulguard respectively. This is rarely the case today as further advances in psionics, science, and magic have revealed that each sex has no physiological, mental, or mystical predisposition towards any one particular position, and recent records at the Triadic Academy show that discovered natural talents for each area of expertise occur just as often between any of the three sexes.
With this said, it would be erroneous to assume that all of the power of a member of the Triadic Guard stems from inherent talent. Training and hard work are an essential part of producing members ready, willing, and able to perform the duties of a Triadic Guard member.
A sojourn at the Triadic Academy (or Triad training as it is commonly referred to by the students there) is the highest mark of honor a citizen of Triad can achieve. Recruitment at the school is a matter solely of merit, and everyone from great military heroes to former outlaws have walked through its hallowed halls.
Being a member of the heir's Guard affords one an exceedingly comfortable life, and the position comes with a number of perks, including attendance of any events where the heir's presence is required from war meetings to debutante balls (and, of course, everything in between.)
This is not to say that the Triadic Guard is the only line of defense afforded. Triads are not lacking in more traditional roles of a medieval kingdom. Food tasters, for example, are still employed to guard members of court from deadly desserts. Tutors are still available to provide instructions in academic pursuits, and clerics are far from absent in a typical Triadic castle.
Instead, the Triadic Guard serve as an extra means of protection to up and coming heirs. An astute taster may well detect the bitter almond bouquet of a glass of wine laced with cyanide, but would be ill-prepared to heal damage the heir may have taken if the taster is too late, whereas a bodyguard would be up to the task with his transfusion ability, a soulguard would be detecting the alignments of anyone in the immediate area and relaying this information to the mindguard, who would then know whose thoughts to read first.
The training process is rigorous and takes three years, three months, and three days. During the final examinations, those at the top of the class engage in shows of their respective prowess in front of the current heir to the throne and submit to a battery of challenges developed by the academy in addition to one additional challenge for each group of students designed by the heir. Examples of challenges may include selecting the real heir from a group of three seemingly identical copies for a mindguard, succeeding in battle against the prior bodyguard for a bodyguard, or tracking down a target with no clues given for a soulguard.
Once an heir comes of age and takes his or her place on the throne, that generation's Guard are often kept on as generals, advisors, or ministers.
Specific information on qualifying for each individual branch of the Triadic Guard is below:
Mindguard:
I know what you're thinking, sir. Don't.
--- Redi Ramachandran the omniscient
The mind is one tool you are never without.
(FLUFF STUFF)
Becoming a mindguard
(WHO DOES THIS. WHAT CLASSES. HOW TO ENTER. FLUFF STUFF)
Hit Die
d6
Prerequisites
To qualify to become a mindguard a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
Alignment
Any neutral.
Skills:
Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate 8 ranks, Sense Motive 5 ranks, Psicraft 5 ranks
Psionics
Must be able to manifest read thoughts
Special
The character must be successful in passing their time of study at Triadic University.
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Powers Known
1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2| Think Before You Act| ---------
2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+3| Telepathy| +1 level of existing manifesting class
3rd|
+1|
+1|
+3|
+3|Quick as Thinking| +1 level of existing manifesting class
4th|
+2|
+1|
+4|
+4|Idle Thoughts, Strong Minded| +1 level of existing manifesting class
5th|
+2|
+1|
+4|
+4|Slippery Mind| +1 level of existing manifesting class
6th|
+3|
+2|
+5|
+5|Mind Over Matter| +1 level of existing manifesting class
7th|
+3|
+2|
+5|
+5|Thought Theft| +1 level of existing manifesting class
8th|
+4|
+2|
+6|
+6|Psionic Skill Boost| +1 level of existing manifesting class
9th|
+4|
+3|
+6|
+6|Guarded Mind| +1 level of existing manifesting class[/table]
Class Skills
The mindguard's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Lucid Dreaming* (Wis), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spot (Wis)
Skill Points at Each Level 4+Int modifier
* See Manual of the Planes p203
Class Features
Think Before You Act (Su): Any time you are able to detect hostile intentions from a mind you are reading prior to combat, add a +4 bonus to your initiative for the combat.
Telepathy (Su): A mindguard must be able to coordinate with the bodyguard and soulguard in her Trinity silently, as stealth is often paramount to success. mindguards gain ability to communicate telepathically within a range of 100 feet.
Quick as Thinking (Ex): Knowing that combat is imminent before the assailant has thrown the first punch is often an advantage to a well-prepared mindguard. A mindguard gains the Speed of Thought Feat, even if she does not meet the prerequisites. (If she already has it, it stacks as normal)
Idle Thoughts (Su): Reading the mind of an enemy, or suspected enemy (and mindguards are trained to treat everyone as a suspected enemy) is second nature by now. Whenever using the read thoughts power, you may instead manifest it as a move action. This has no effect on the amount of power points it costs.
Strong Minded (Ex): Through years of not-always-gentle training, your mind has built up a resistance to the crudest and most overt of mental attacks. You gain immunity to the feeblemind spell and the psychic crush power.
Impregnable Mind (Ex): Your study of the mind and its inner workings gives you a superb sense of self-awareness for when your own mind is being influenced or controlled against your will. Whenever a mindguard is affected by a telepathy power, she is entitled to roll her saving throw again in the next round if her initial attempt is unsuccessful. This may only be done once, and if the second result is unsuccessful, the result sticks.
Mind Over Matter (Ex): You have been trained to value your mind above all else. It is your entire reason for being, one of the three things keeping the heir to the throne safe. Any sacrifice you need to make to keep it in top working condition is a necessary one. You gain the Body Fuel feat.
Thought Theft (Ex): While to a lesser mind, the ever-present din of a thousand chattering minds would blend into an indiscernible din, certain sounds call out to you. You can tell each mind's voice apart from another as a detective would a fingerprint, and know when one is not itself.
When someone is the target of a mind-affecting power within the range of your telepathy and you are somehow aware a power is being manifested (i.e. an enemy did not dispense with display and you made the psicraft check to identify the power, you receive a positive from detect psionics, you were in telepathic contact with someone when they suddenly go silent in the middle of a thought, etc) you have the option of redirecting the power to yourself as an immediate action that expends your psionic focus.
If the power is hostile (such as ego whip ) and targeted at one of your allies by an enemy, as long as the ally is willing for you to take the brunt of the power, you are considered the new target and roll your saving throw (if applicable) against the power. If it is a touch attack, the manifester rolls again against your AC. It does not matter if you are not a legal target for the manifester of this power due to range or line of effect, as this ability represents the remote transfer of mental trauma rather than the physical transfer of the opponent's ray or psionic energy to a new target. This ability can be used after your ally has rolled his or her saving throw, but not after it has been declared whether it is a success or failure. This power ignores your Guarded Mind ability
However, if the power is beneficial (such as conceal thoughts, and you are attempting to redirect the effect to yourself against the manifester's will, you must make an opposed manifester level check against DC 11+the manifester level of the power in question. If you are successful, then the power now affects you (once more, even if the range of the power did not originally include you, such as bestow power, you are remotely stealing mental energy from others) with the relevant variables, such as duration, being supplied by the statistics of the original manifester. If you fail, then the power is manifested as normal and you still lose your psionic focus.
Psionic Skill Boost: Your training allows your insight into the minds of those around you to aid you in more mundane affairs, such as mediating conflicts and ascertaining motivations. Add a bonus equal to 1/2 your class level onto the following skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive
Guarded Mind (Ex): The pinnacle of your mental abilities is now on display. You are now immune to any mind-affecting power unless you do not wish to be.
Playing a mindguard
(HOW TO PLAY FLUFFWISE)
Combat
(FIGHTAN. TACTICS AND STUFF)
Advancement
(WHAT DO AFTERS)
Resources
(WHAT SWAG YOU GET)
Mindguard in the world
A QUOTE FROM SOMEBODY
(HOW PEOPLE REACT TO THEM)
Organization
(HOW YOU FIND THESE GUYS)
NPC Reactions
(WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK OF THEM)
Mindguard lore
Characters can make Gather Information, Knowledge (nobility and royalty), or bardic knowledge checks to learn the following facts about soulguards.
DC 10: (BASIC STUFF)
DC 15: (MEDIUM STUFF)
DC 20: (DEEP STUFF)
Mindguards in the Game
(THEIR ROLE IN THE WORLD, SCENARIOS YOU MAY FIND THEM IN)
Adaptation
(WHAT TO DO IF THINGS ARE DIFFERENT IN SOME WAYS)
Encounters
(HOW TO DESCRIBE THEM TO PLAYERS)
As with many other things in Triadic, the Triadic Guard revolves around threes. In this case, the Triadic Guard are an elite group assigned to protect the heir (or in the rare cases where there is not one, the heir apparent) until he or she comes of age to take over ruling the state.
Traditionally, in popular depictions of the Triadic Guard, there is one of each sex portrayed: a woman, man, and mystery as a mindguard, bodyguard and soulguard respectively. This is rarely the case today as further advances in psionics, science, and magic have revealed that each sex has no physiological, mental, or mystical predisposition towards any one particular position, and recent records at the Triadic Academy show that discovered natural talents for each area of expertise occur just as often between any of the three sexes.
With this said, it would be erroneous to assume that all of the power of a member of the Triadic Guard stems from inherent talent. Training and hard work are an essential part of producing members ready, willing, and able to perform the duties of a Triadic Guard member.
A sojourn at the Triadic Academy (or Triad training as it is commonly referred to by the students there) is the highest mark of honor a citizen of Triad can achieve. Recruitment at the school is a matter solely of merit, and everyone from great military heroes to former outlaws have walked through its hallowed halls.
Being a member of the heir's Guard affords one an exceedingly comfortable life, and the position comes with a number of perks, including attendance of any events where the heir's presence is required from war meetings to debutante balls (and, of course, everything in between.)
This is not to say that the Triadic Guard is the only line of defense afforded. Triads are not lacking in more traditional roles of a medieval kingdom. Food tasters, for example, are still employed to guard members of court from deadly desserts. Tutors are still available to provide instructions in academic pursuits, and clerics are far from absent in a typical Triadic castle.
Instead, the Triadic Guard serve as an extra means of protection to up and coming heirs. An astute taster may well detect the bitter almond bouquet of a glass of wine laced with cyanide, but would be ill-prepared to heal damage the heir may have taken if the taster is too late, whereas a bodyguard would be up to the task with his transfusion ability, a soulguard would be detecting the alignments of anyone in the immediate area and relaying this information to the mindguard, who would then know whose thoughts to read first.
The training process is rigorous and takes three years, three months, and three days. During the final examinations, those at the top of the class engage in shows of their respective prowess in front of the current heir to the throne and submit to a battery of challenges developed by the academy in addition to one additional challenge for each group of students designed by the heir. Examples of challenges may include selecting the real heir from a group of three seemingly identical copies for a mindguard, succeeding in battle against the prior bodyguard for a bodyguard, or tracking down a target with no clues given for a soulguard.
Once an heir comes of age and takes his or her place on the throne, that generation's Guard are often kept on as generals, advisors, or ministers.
Specific information on qualifying for each individual branch of the Triadic Guard is below:
Mindguard:
I know what you're thinking, sir. Don't.
--- Redi Ramachandran the omniscient
The mind is one tool you are never without.
(FLUFF STUFF)
Becoming a mindguard
(WHO DOES THIS. WHAT CLASSES. HOW TO ENTER. FLUFF STUFF)
Hit Die
d6
Prerequisites
To qualify to become a mindguard a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
Alignment
Any neutral.
Skills:
Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate 8 ranks, Sense Motive 5 ranks, Psicraft 5 ranks
Psionics
Must be able to manifest read thoughts
Special
The character must be successful in passing their time of study at Triadic University.
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Powers Known
1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2| Think Before You Act| ---------
2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+3| Telepathy| +1 level of existing manifesting class
3rd|
+1|
+1|
+3|
+3|Quick as Thinking| +1 level of existing manifesting class
4th|
+2|
+1|
+4|
+4|Idle Thoughts, Strong Minded| +1 level of existing manifesting class
5th|
+2|
+1|
+4|
+4|Slippery Mind| +1 level of existing manifesting class
6th|
+3|
+2|
+5|
+5|Mind Over Matter| +1 level of existing manifesting class
7th|
+3|
+2|
+5|
+5|Thought Theft| +1 level of existing manifesting class
8th|
+4|
+2|
+6|
+6|Psionic Skill Boost| +1 level of existing manifesting class
9th|
+4|
+3|
+6|
+6|Guarded Mind| +1 level of existing manifesting class[/table]
Class Skills
The mindguard's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Lucid Dreaming* (Wis), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spot (Wis)
Skill Points at Each Level 4+Int modifier
* See Manual of the Planes p203
Class Features
Think Before You Act (Su): Any time you are able to detect hostile intentions from a mind you are reading prior to combat, add a +4 bonus to your initiative for the combat.
Telepathy (Su): A mindguard must be able to coordinate with the bodyguard and soulguard in her Trinity silently, as stealth is often paramount to success. mindguards gain ability to communicate telepathically within a range of 100 feet.
Quick as Thinking (Ex): Knowing that combat is imminent before the assailant has thrown the first punch is often an advantage to a well-prepared mindguard. A mindguard gains the Speed of Thought Feat, even if she does not meet the prerequisites. (If she already has it, it stacks as normal)
Idle Thoughts (Su): Reading the mind of an enemy, or suspected enemy (and mindguards are trained to treat everyone as a suspected enemy) is second nature by now. Whenever using the read thoughts power, you may instead manifest it as a move action. This has no effect on the amount of power points it costs.
Strong Minded (Ex): Through years of not-always-gentle training, your mind has built up a resistance to the crudest and most overt of mental attacks. You gain immunity to the feeblemind spell and the psychic crush power.
Impregnable Mind (Ex): Your study of the mind and its inner workings gives you a superb sense of self-awareness for when your own mind is being influenced or controlled against your will. Whenever a mindguard is affected by a telepathy power, she is entitled to roll her saving throw again in the next round if her initial attempt is unsuccessful. This may only be done once, and if the second result is unsuccessful, the result sticks.
Mind Over Matter (Ex): You have been trained to value your mind above all else. It is your entire reason for being, one of the three things keeping the heir to the throne safe. Any sacrifice you need to make to keep it in top working condition is a necessary one. You gain the Body Fuel feat.
Thought Theft (Ex): While to a lesser mind, the ever-present din of a thousand chattering minds would blend into an indiscernible din, certain sounds call out to you. You can tell each mind's voice apart from another as a detective would a fingerprint, and know when one is not itself.
When someone is the target of a mind-affecting power within the range of your telepathy and you are somehow aware a power is being manifested (i.e. an enemy did not dispense with display and you made the psicraft check to identify the power, you receive a positive from detect psionics, you were in telepathic contact with someone when they suddenly go silent in the middle of a thought, etc) you have the option of redirecting the power to yourself as an immediate action that expends your psionic focus.
If the power is hostile (such as ego whip ) and targeted at one of your allies by an enemy, as long as the ally is willing for you to take the brunt of the power, you are considered the new target and roll your saving throw (if applicable) against the power. If it is a touch attack, the manifester rolls again against your AC. It does not matter if you are not a legal target for the manifester of this power due to range or line of effect, as this ability represents the remote transfer of mental trauma rather than the physical transfer of the opponent's ray or psionic energy to a new target. This ability can be used after your ally has rolled his or her saving throw, but not after it has been declared whether it is a success or failure. This power ignores your Guarded Mind ability
However, if the power is beneficial (such as conceal thoughts, and you are attempting to redirect the effect to yourself against the manifester's will, you must make an opposed manifester level check against DC 11+the manifester level of the power in question. If you are successful, then the power now affects you (once more, even if the range of the power did not originally include you, such as bestow power, you are remotely stealing mental energy from others) with the relevant variables, such as duration, being supplied by the statistics of the original manifester. If you fail, then the power is manifested as normal and you still lose your psionic focus.
Psionic Skill Boost: Your training allows your insight into the minds of those around you to aid you in more mundane affairs, such as mediating conflicts and ascertaining motivations. Add a bonus equal to 1/2 your class level onto the following skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive
Guarded Mind (Ex): The pinnacle of your mental abilities is now on display. You are now immune to any mind-affecting power unless you do not wish to be.
Playing a mindguard
(HOW TO PLAY FLUFFWISE)
Combat
(FIGHTAN. TACTICS AND STUFF)
Advancement
(WHAT DO AFTERS)
Resources
(WHAT SWAG YOU GET)
Mindguard in the world
A QUOTE FROM SOMEBODY
(HOW PEOPLE REACT TO THEM)
Organization
(HOW YOU FIND THESE GUYS)
NPC Reactions
(WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK OF THEM)
Mindguard lore
Characters can make Gather Information, Knowledge (nobility and royalty), or bardic knowledge checks to learn the following facts about soulguards.
DC 10: (BASIC STUFF)
DC 15: (MEDIUM STUFF)
DC 20: (DEEP STUFF)
Mindguards in the Game
(THEIR ROLE IN THE WORLD, SCENARIOS YOU MAY FIND THEM IN)
Adaptation
(WHAT TO DO IF THINGS ARE DIFFERENT IN SOME WAYS)
Encounters
(HOW TO DESCRIBE THEM TO PLAYERS)