PDA

View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class Servant of the Great Old Ones - Player in Yellow (PrC)



Zaydos
2015-10-31, 08:41 PM
Player in Yellow

A Player in Yellow is a servant of the King in Yellow, tainted by his touch of madness which has changed them to the depths of their souls. The players go forth and spread his cult, the cult of the Yellow Sign, using the insidious and addictive beauty of the play named for their lord as their weapon.


Becoming a Player in Yellow

Becoming a player in yellow requires watching the play the King in Yellow and approaching an existing servant of the King in Yellow to teach you the ways of the King, to teach you your role in the play. Those who are deemed worthy of a role can become Players in Yellow to spread their King’s will.

Prerequisites:
Skills: Perform (Act) 10 ranks, Bluff 5 ranks, Disguise 5 ranks.
Feats: Servant of the Old Ones (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?447399-To-Serve-the-Ancient-Ones-%28Vile-Feats-3-5%29).
Special: Must have watched or read the King in Yellow.
Alignment: Any evil.

Class Skills: The class skills for a Player in Yellow (and their key ability scores) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (any, each taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (n/a), Spellcraft (Int), Tumble (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill points per level: 4 + Int modifier.

Hit Dice: d8.

PLAYER IN YELLOW


Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special

Spells per Day








0
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th


1st

+0

+0

+2

+2
Act of Madness, Maddening Play, Pallid Mask, Servant of the Yellow King
3
2
-
-
-
-
-


2nd

+1

+0

+3

+3
Soliloquy of Maddening Passion +2
4
3
1
-
-
-
-


3rd

+2

+1

+3

+3
Fascinating Performance
4
3
2
-
-
-
-


4th

+3

+1

+4

+4
Command of the Yellow Sign
4
3
3
1
-
-
-


5th

+3

+1

+4

+4
Masque of the Yellow Shroud
4
3
3
2
-
-
-


6th

+4

+2

+5

+5
Soliloquy of Lost Towers
4
4
3
3
1
-
-


7th

+5

+2

+5

+5
I Wear no Mask
4
4
3
3
2
-
-


8th

+6

+2

+6

+6
Soliloquy of Maddening Passion +3
4
4
4
3
3
1
-


9th

+6

+3

+6

+6
Role of the Shepherd
4
4
4
3
3
2
-


10th

+7

+3

+7

+7
The Unspeakable Name
4
4
4
4
3
3
1


Act of Madness (Su): Bardic Music except with Perform (Act), most Acts of Madness are Soliloquys which must be heard and function like oratory. 1 act/level each day, may use interchangeably with Bardic Music.

Maddening Play (Su): Performed as either a 1 man play or with aides. First act is 30 minutes and somewhat trite, 2nd act is another 30 minutes but has a fascinating effect. Creatures which attempt to leave during the second act must make a Will save or be forced to remain and watch. Any creature which watches the entirety of the 2nd Act gains 2 points of depravity and gains a mild or moderate depravity of your choice (same applied to entire audience) for 1 week. If this is used on the same creature before a week has passed the new depravity replaces the former (they do not stack). In addition a creature that has watched a Maddening Play feels compelled to watch it again. If able to watch for a reasonable price (a few gold at most, but within their means) a creature must make a Will save or be compelled to watch it again given the opportunity; every month that has passed since a creature watched a Maddening Play grants a +1 bonus on this save and a successful save stifles the urge for 1 day.

Pallid Mask (Ex): Your face is a mask perfectly under your own control and the distinction between the actor and the character begins to blur making your personal truth highly malleable. You gain a bonus to Bluff checks made to convince another of the truth of your words of 5 + your class level; this bonus does not stack with that granted by a Glibness spell. If a magical effect is used against you that would detect your lies or force you to speak the truth the user of the effect must succeed on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) against a DC of 15 + twice your class level to succeed. Failure means the effect does not detect your lies or force you to speak only the truth.
Finally you can conceal your aware of evil completely (detecting as if you were Neutral instead) as a standard action.

Servant of the Yellow King (Ex): You have pledged your soul to the King in Yellow, while his touch has maddened you leaving your sanity marred it shields you against the deepest madness. You may not gain enough depravity to place your mental taint beyond Moderate; if your Wisdom is lowered so that your limit on taint is lower you do not lose taint but excess taint is suppressed until your Wisdom is increased once more.

Soliloquy of Maddening Passion (Su): Inspire Courage except also grants a mild or moderate depravity for the duration; if you have IC you may add its bonus to SoMP. May add to slightly more than usual (all Will saves instead of just fear?).

Fascinating Performance (Su): Act of Madness which fascinates viewers (Will negates) and can charm one watcher who becomes infatuated with you if they are attracted to your gender (important because if someone is in love with you then you can ritualistically murder them to change your spells known).

Command of the Yellow Sign (Su): (Standard action) Make the Yellow Sign seem to glow on your face or hand and issue a command to any one creature with a depravity score above 0, or which has ever watched a Maddening Act or read The King in Yellow which can see it. Acts as a suggestion spell, Will negates and grants immunity to it for 24 hours.

Masque of the Yellow Shroud (Su): Invoking the power of the King in Yellow you act out the role of a master warrior. As a free action you can expend a use of your Acts of Madness ability to gain a bonus on attack rolls or AC equal to your Charisma modifier for a number of rounds equal to your class level. At the beginning of each round you may change to which the bonus applies.

Soliloquy of Lost Towers (Su): Act of Madness which causes one foe/round to make a Will save or be locked in a vision of a beautiful but alien world, a world which they cannot help but desire; once a creature fails you may not target another instead it simply holds the creature for as long as you continue. Each round they may make another Will save at -4 but they are otherwise completely helpless and unaware of their surroundings. Any lethal damage greater than your class level dealt to the creature frees it from the revelry. A creature that receives these visions finds their dreams haunted by them, the visions arriving in daydreams if they do not sleep. Each night the recipient must make a Will save (DC 30 + class level + Cha modifier – 2 for each previous night) or gain 1 point of depravity; a successful save ends these visions entirely.

I wear no mask (Su): You can suppress your Pallid Mask ability and reveal the full horror of your soul. When you do so you radiate an aura of evil which can be felt even without magic; you are considered twice your hit dice for the purposes of Detect Evil and any creature within 60 ft of you gets the unswerving knowledge that you are in fact Evil and of your presence (this is blocked by line of effect). A Knowledge (the Planes) check DC 25 reveals you serve an Outer God, a DC 30 check reveals you serve Hastur. Any creature that is not an ally who is well acquainted with your nature as a servant of a dread deity must make a Will save or be frightened for as long as they can directly sense you and 1d6 rounds thereafter, if they are placed within this area again they grow terrified once more; success grants immunity for 24 hours. Gain touch attack which causes Confusion for 1d6 rounds. You can reveal your true nature in this way for only a limited period of time each day equal twice your class level in rounds, it is a standard action to reveal your nature but a swift action to conceal it once more.

Role of the Shepherd (Su): Act of Madness fascinates those who see you perform and compels them to follow you wherever you lead; obvious danger breaks the effect.

The Unspeakable Name (Su): Whenever any creature on the same plane as you speaks your name you can sense it and Scry upon them for 2 rounds as a free action (CL = twice your class level). As a standard action during this period you may teleport yourself and potentially others to their location as if with the Greater Teleport spell (CL = twice your class level). If a creature is immune to scrying you still sense the direction and vaguely distance (you are off by up to 15%) that your name was spoken in although you may not teleport there.

Player in Yellow Spell List

Lv 0:
Acid Splash, Arcane Mark, Dancing Lights, Daze, Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Flare, Ghost Sound, Guidance, Know Direction, Light, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Open/Close, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Read Magic, Resistance, Summon Instrument, Touch of Fatigue.
SpC:
Ghostharp, Minor Disguise, Songbird, Stick.

Lv 1
Alarm, Animate Rope, Bane, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Chill Touch, Command, Comprehend Languages, Deathwatch, Detect Secret Doors, Disguise Self, Doom, Entropic Shield, Erase, Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Grease, Hypnotism, Identify, Lesser Confusion, Mage Armor, Magic Mouth, (Nystul’s) Magic Aura, Obscure Object, Ray of Enfeeblement, Silent Image, Sleep, Summon Elder Thrall I, (Tasha’s) Hideous Laughter, Undetectable Alignment, Unseen Servant, Ventriloquism.
SpC
Accelerated Movement, Amplify, Appraising Touch, Beastland Ferocity, Cheat, Crabwalk, Critical Strike, Dead End, Distort Speech, Distract, Swift Expeditious Retreat, Focusing Chant, Guiding Light, Herald’s Call, Improvisation, Incite, Inhibit, Insidious Rhythm, Swift Invisibility, Ironguts, Joyful Noise, Master’s Touch, Phantom Threat, Remove Scent, Shock and Awe, Sticky Fingers, Summon Undead I, Targeting Ray.
Lv 2
Alter Self, Bear’s Endurance, Blindness/Deafness, Blur, Bull’s Strength, Calm Emotions, Cat’s Grace, Command Undead, Darkness, Daze Monster, Death Knell, Desecrate, Detect Thoughts, Eagle’s Splendor, Enthrall, False Life, Fox’s Cunning, Gentle Repose, Glitterdust, Ghoul Touch, Heroism, Hold Person, Hypnotic Pattern, Invisibility, Locate Object, Minor Image, Mirror Image, Misdirection, Pyrotechnics, Rage, Scare, Shatter, Silence, Sound Burst, Spectral Hand, Suggestion, Summon Elder Thrall II, Summon Swarm, Tongues, Touch of Idiocy, Whispering Wind.
SpC
Greater Alarm, Battle Hymn, Bladeweave, Bonefiddle, Circle Dance, Cloak Pool, Cloud of Bewilderment, Curse of Impending Blades, Dark Way, Delusions of Grandeur, Discolor Pool, Disquietude, Dissonant Chant, Distracting Ray, Entice Gift, Swift Fly, Grace, Heartfire, Iron Silence, Know Vulnerabilities, Lively Step, Mesmerizing Glare, Mindless Rage, Nightmare Lullaby, Portal Alarm, Ray of Exhaustion, Reflective Disguise, Reveille, Speak to Allies, Sting Ray, Summon Undead II, Surefooted Stride, Tactical Precision, War Cry, Wave of Grief, Weapon Shift, Whirling Blade.
Lv 3
Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Blink, Charm Monster, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Confusion, Contagion, Crushing Despair, Daylight, Deep Slumber, Diminish Plants, Dispel Magic, Displacement, Fear, Gaseous Form, Lesser Geas, Glibness, Halt Undead, Haste, Illusory Script, Invisibility Sphere, (Leomund’s) Tiny Hut, Major Image, Nondetection, Phantom Steed, Remove Curse, Scrying, Sculpt Sound, Secret Page, See Invisibility, Sepia Snake Sigil, Slow, Speak with Dead, Summon Elder Thrall III, Vampiric Touch
SpC
Allegro, Analyze Portal, Mass Curse of Impending Blades, Dirge of Discord, Dolorous Blow, G’elsewhere Chant, Haunting Tune, Infernal Threnody, Know Opponent, Listening Coin, Love’s Lament, Puppeteer, Ray of Dizziness, Shadow Cache, Speechlink, Summon Undead III, Suppress Breath Weapon, Treasure Scent, Unluck, Wounding Whispers.
Lv 4
Blight, Break Enchantment, Death Ward, Detect Scrying, Dimension Door, Dismissal, Dominate Person, Enervation, (Evard’s) Black Tentacles, Feeblemind, Freedom of Movement, Giant Vermin, Hallucinatory Terrain, Hold Monster, Greater Invisibility, Legend Lore, (Leomund’s) Secure Shelter, Locate Creature, Mind Fog, Modify Memory, Poison, Rainbow Pattern, Sending, Shadow Conjuration, Shout, Slay Living, Summon Elder Thrall IV, Zone of Silence.
SpC
Celebration, Ethereal Mount, Fugue, Lay of the Land, Ray Deflection, Improved Portal Alarm, Greater Resistance, Ruin Delver’s Fortune, Sirine’s Grace, Spectral Weapon, Stone Shatter, Summon Undead IV, Voice of the Dragon.
Lv 5
Circle of Death, Greater Command, Create Undead, Greater Dispel Magic, Dream, False Vision, Greater Heroism, Mirage Arcana, Magic Jar, Mislead, Nightmare, Persistent Image, Seeming, Shadow Evocation, Shadow Walk, Song of Discord, Mass Suggestion, Summon Elder Thrall V, Waves of Fatigue.
SpC
Greater Blink, Bolts of Bedevilment, Hidden Lodge, Mass Reflective Disguise, Summon Undead V, Mass Surefooted Stride, Wail of Doom.
Lv 6
Analyze Dweomer, Animate Objects, Banishment, Mass Bear’s Endurance, Blasphemy, Mass Bull’s Strength, Mass Cat’s Grace, Mass Charm Monster, Control Undead, Create Greater Undead, Mass Eagle’s Splendor, Eyebite, Find the Path, Finger of Death, Mass Fox’s Cunning, Geas/Quest, Mass Hold Person, Insanity, (Otto’s) Irresistible Dance, Permanent Image, Programmed Image, Greater Scrying, Greater Shout, Summon Elder Thrall VI, Veil, Waves of Exhaustion.
SpC
Dirge, Hindsight, Nixie’s Grace, Ray of Light, Revenance, Superior Resistance, Symphonic Nightmare.

you2be
2015-11-01, 07:38 AM
I like your idea

noob
2015-11-01, 07:38 AM
"The Unspeakable Name (Su): Whenever any creature on the same plane as you speaks your name you can sense it and Scry upon them for 2 rounds as a free action (CL = twice your class level). As a standard action during this period you may teleport yourself and potentially others to their location as if with the Greater Teleport spell (CL = twice your class level). If a creature is immune to scrying you still sense the direction and vaguely distance (you are off by up to 15%) that your name was spoken in although you may not teleport there."
I guess everybody wants a name like "the" for finding everybody.

Dusk Raven
2015-11-01, 04:06 PM
All right, being a fan of the extended Cthulhu Mythos, I have a few observations to make.

At first I thought the Unspeakable One is not actually called the King in Yellow, although if the Call of Cthulhu RPG's take on the mythos is to be believed, it is the name of one of his forms. Also, I don't think you need to watch The King in Yellow, you just need to read it. That being said, I have wondered what watching the play enacted would be like, given that the cast would presumably have had to read it.

Given some of the abilities you're giving this class, you may want to have "any evil" as a requirement for the class. Otherwise, the Maddening Play seems interesting, though its length limits its applications. With that in mind, you may want to change "First act is 30 minutes and somewhat trite" - it's not going to be fun if audience members leave during that time. I don't know what the actual description of the play is in the lore, but perhaps you should add that it fills viewers with an odd curiosity, making them subtly want to see more. Like, it's not fascinating yet, but the viewer somehow knows it has great potential.

Lastly, given the references to Depravity, I assume those reference the Heroes of Horror rules which I have not had the fortune to be able to use in a campaign yet, myself. You may want to make that clear, and perhaps add options for campaigns not using those rules.

Zaydos
2015-11-01, 04:15 PM
"The Unspeakable Name (Su): Whenever any creature on the same plane as you speaks your name you can sense it and Scry upon them for 2 rounds as a free action (CL = twice your class level). As a standard action during this period you may teleport yourself and potentially others to their location as if with the Greater Teleport spell (CL = twice your class level). If a creature is immune to scrying you still sense the direction and vaguely distance (you are off by up to 15%) that your name was spoken in although you may not teleport there."
I guess everybody wants a name like "the" for finding everybody.

I might should note that it doesn't work if your name is a common word unless it is used contextually as a proper noun, but I kind of like the abuse. Of course you'd get so many false positives you'd probably go crazier.


All right, being a fan of the extended Cthulhu Mythos, I have a few observations to make.

At first I thought the Unspeakable One is not actually called the King in Yellow, although if the Call of Cthulhu RPG's take on the mythos is to be believed, it is the name of one of his forms. Also, I don't think you need to watch The King in Yellow, you just need to read it. That being said, I have wondered what watching the play enacted would be like, given that the cast would presumably have had to read it.

True it should be watch or read, will fix.


Given some of the abilities you're giving this class, you may want to have "any evil" as a requirement for the class.

It requires a Vile feat which by definition requires you to be evil so I considered it redundant to state it separately, if people think I should it's easy to add it. Edit: Helps if I link the homebrew feat.


Otherwise, the Maddening Play seems interesting, though its length limits its applications. With that in mind, you may want to change "First act is 30 minutes and somewhat trite" - it's not going to be fun if audience members leave during that time. I don't know what the actual description of the play is in the lore, but perhaps you should add that it fills viewers with an odd curiosity, making them subtly want to see more. Like, it's not fascinating yet, but the viewer somehow knows it has great potential.

In lore the description of the first half is that it is rather trite and cliche, and can turn people away is where the line actually came from (the time coming from contemporary 2 act play lengths and iirc I shortened it a bit).


Lastly, given the references to Depravity, I assume those reference the Heroes of Horror rules which I have not had the fortune to be able to use in a campaign yet, myself. You may want to make that clear, and perhaps add options for campaigns not using those rules.

I'll put some thought into adaptation for that likelihood, thanks for pointing it out.

Bhu
2015-11-01, 08:10 PM
Huzzah! :smallbiggrin:

noob
2015-11-02, 04:06 PM
"Of course you'd get so many false positives you'd probably go crazier."
Which is cool: everyone wants more craziness.
All my characters will from now on annoy people by having as a name a very common word.
"Where is the table"
"You mean my table?"
"No the table who just disappeared"
"You are speaking gibberish"
"Well the stop annoying me with the"
"I should probably stop using my dismembered arm to which I gave my name to annoy you"