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View Full Version : Kaziir-Thet, Stealer of Clarity (3.5 Binder Vestige) PEACH



Elves
2019-02-23, 11:33 PM
This is for Age of Warriors (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581281-The-Age-of-Warriors-(Project-Revived!)). It's meant as a companion to Demented One's Reshar vestige (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?54640-Reshar-Lord-of-the-Nine-Swords-Vestige).

Uncertain about the balance of the abilities so please critique.

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Kaziir-Thet, Stealer of Clarity

Kaziir-Thet was a rakshasa prince infamous for infiltrating the Temple of Nine Swords and stealing the Diamond Mind sword, Supernal Clarity. This was seen as the start of the Temple’s decline.

Vestige Level
3rd

Binding DC
20

Legend

The rakshasa, or Earthly Demons, are a vicious and materialistic race of beings shaped as beasts. They are reborn time and time again, fearful of the Outer Planes and chained to the world by their love of material vice. Kaziir-Thet was one of their princes, and his wealth made him privy to every kind of indulgence.

So what was the motive for his theft? He was no martial practitioner himself, and had no clear use for the weapon he stole. Speculation has ensued: everything from an agenda against Reshar’s Temple, with the added suggestion that he was the mastermind behind the Shadow Tiger Horde, to the more recent speculation that there never was a Kaziir-Thet, and that the story of a rakshasa sneaking in to steal Clarity was a metaphor for the Temple’s loss of clear-mindedness.

To no one, not even the few who have bound him, has Kaziir-Thet revealed the stupid truth. When he came to the Temple, he had no intent to steal the sword. He had, in fact, no knowledge at all of the Temple, and from the outside assumed it was some lord’s castle. The sybaritic rakshasa was not going to sleep outside in the rain, so he sought shelter in the sympathetic guise of a human traveler. Half on his mind was to eat everyone within, and take the castle for himself.

Only when he entered did he learn he was in a famous martial academy, and over dinner, welcomed in to feast side by side with the school’s students, he was regaled with tales of Reshar and the nine priceless swords that were the school’s treasures.

He had no real interest in the students’ blather, preferring to focus on the sensual pleasure of the food before him. Even when taken aback at the spartan accommodations of the room they gave him — though it was no poorer than even the highest-ranking master’s — Kaziir fully intended to leave in the morning and hurry back to his palace.

But then came the moment of his opportunity. Unable to sleep in the rough bed, and viciously sour at his supposed misfortune, he roamed through the empty halls of the academy. When he got to the training rooms, he saw it lying there: an impossibly keen rapier with its grip wrapped in beautiful blue wire. For some reason, the Diamond Master, normally preternaturally alert, had put down her sword during her evening practice and forgotten to take it back. No one had dared to touch it, nor did anyone who saw it remind her, since they were sure she couldn’t have forgotten.

Kaziir-Thet grabbed it before he even registered the impulse, and within minutes was out running through the night, in his athletic, native tiger form. The loss of that sword — for the Diamond Master was blamed bitterly for her negligence — soon led to the discord that caused the Temple’s fall.

Kaziir’s theft has been discussed as the ironic epitome of Diamond Mind, embodying action before thought. And yet this is a simplistic picture of what Diamond Mind represents, for it seeks not the mere dampening of the conscious self, but rather the ultimate self-awareness — the supernal clarity — that makes deliberation unneeded.

Having stolen away another’s clarity, the rakshasa prince couldn’t stop it from affecting himself. Supernal Clarity cleared Kaziir-Thet’s mind of the violent bestiality that constantly possesses all rakshasa, allowing him to transcend their cycle of earthbound reincarnation. But as rakshasa have no home on the Outer Planes, his spirit now dwells in the void — a vestige.

Manifestation
As Kaziir-Thet’s seal is completed, a door appears within, with a loud, desperate knocking sound coming from the other side. Should you open it, you find yourself facing a weary, rainsoaked traveler, apparently standing on a stone portico, just as he appeared to the doorman of the Temple of Nine Swords. But as he steps through, he grins and transforms into a rakshasa, his fur stripeless and brown, like it was in life. When dismissed back to the void, he roars in frustration.

(Note: the door this seal conjures is an apparition, and cannot be entered or used as a barrier. If you refuse to open the door, it disappears after a minute and the seal must be re-drawn.)

Sign
Your hands turn backward, like a rakshasa.

Influence
Kaziir-Thet hates and rues, yet still fadingly remembers, the moment of enlightenment that made it impossible for his spirit to continue the bestial, abhorrent existence it had kept on earth.

He believes that if he can completely drown out all the clarity and self-awareness that the stolen sword granted him, his spirit will once again be able to manifest itself upon reality as a rakshasa.

Hence he relishes the chance to be bound, for more than just a way to sample earthly experience again, he sees it as a means by which his spirit can be reminded of its former shape and delights — nudging it back out of self-conscious oblivion.

This plan for escape may be true or it may be just hopeful delusion. But Kaziir-Thet desperately believes it, and so he drives his binder to embody all the worst things he loved on earth. While you have him bound, you delight in causing arguments, lie and steal compulsively, and take great pleasure in violence.

Granted Abilities
Kaziir-Thet grants those bound to him the power to sow discord and confusion, steal, and shift shape.

Infiltrating Guise
At will Alter Self, as the spell, caster level equal to your effective binder level (EBL).

Steal Clarity
Grant one creature a penalty on all Wisdom-based checks, including Will saves, equal to half your EBL rounded up. Will DC 13+EBL negates. If you successfully impose this penalty, you gain that same amount as a bonus on all Wisdom-based checks. Range 10 feet/EBL. Duration 1 minute. Cast: Standard. This effect does not stack.

Martial adepts affected by Steal Clarity also take -2 to initiator level for any maneuver they know and take -4 on attack rolls made as part of Diamond Mind strikes.

Moment of Perfect Mind cannot be used in place of a Will save to resist this ability.

Sow Discord
Select either one or multiple targets. If you choose multiple targets, their combined HD cannot exceed twice your maximum. If you chose one target, it becomes belligerent against everyone around it. If you chose multiple, they become enemies. The degree of violence the subjects are willing to engage in is contextual; without extenuating circumstances it will not escalate to the point of actual violence, though they will be ready to insult, denounce, accuse, or otherwise cause social harm. However, if already in lethal combat, they will use lethal force. Attacking someone with whom the subject has a particularly close relationship grants another save (each time). Will DC 13+EBL negates. Range: 10 feet/EBL. Duration: 1 hour/EBL. Cast: Standard. You must wait 5 rounds to use this ability again.

Dishonesty
You gain a +3 bonus to Bluff, Forgery and Sleight of Hand.

Impulsivity
You gain +2 to initiative.


Note: Occult Adversaries (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?84798-Occult-Adversary-PrC) find Kaziir-Thet grants access to these maneuvers: Pearl of Black Doubt, Action Before Thought, Hunter's Sense and Flesh Ripper.

Mysteries:

- What was it that made the Diamond Master distracted that night?

- Did Kaziir-Thet die naturally, or did his spirit abandon the Material Plane as soon as he achieved enlightenment?

- Where is Supernal Clarity now?

khadgar567
2019-02-24, 01:16 AM
Nice story but for some one pulled heist of centuary abilities feels like lacking to me

JoshuaZ
2019-02-24, 11:08 AM
Overall I like this. Seems balanced and I really like this take on the story of the theft.


Nice story but for some one pulled heist of centuary abilities feels like lacking to me

Part of the point of the story is that it wasn't in fact the heist of the century, but sheer impulsiveness and luck.


Be A Jerk
You gain a +3 bonus to Bluff, Forgery and Sleight of Hand.

Can I suggest renaming this to Master of Deception?

For Steal Clarity it maybe should also impose a penalty on their initiator level for any martial maneuvers they know (maybe -2?).

Finally, note that since this is explicitly a vestige associated with the tradition of the Temple of Nine Swords, it should probably have explicit maneuvers given via Occult Adversary; the obvious ones would be maneuvers in the Diamond Mind discipline.

Elves
2019-02-24, 12:41 PM
Nice story but for some one pulled heist of centuary abilities feels like lacking to me

A heist might be more exciting, but the book said it was stolen impulsively so this was my take on that. I guess it could be made more cinematic, eg he finds its case unlocked and seizing it triggers alarms and such.

Might replace Sow Discord with something more roguey, though I like the synergy it has with Steal Clarity.


For Steal Clarity it maybe should also impose a penalty on their initiator level for any martial maneuvers they know (maybe -2?).

Added:
Martial adepts affected by Steal Clarity also take -2 to initiator level for any maneuver they know and a further -2 on attack rolls made as part of Diamond Mind strikes.

Moment of Perfect Mind cannot be used in place of a Will save to resist this ability.

I almost want to make the DM attack penalty -4 (and remove IL penalty) as I enjoy the thought of this vestige being a soft counter to Time Stands Still/Avalanche of Blades, or at least an incentive to Stormguard them.


Occult Adversary

Added.

JoshuaZ
2019-02-24, 07:02 PM
I almost want to make the DM attack penalty -4 (and remove IL penalty) as I enjoy the thought of this vestige being a soft counter to Time Stands Still/Avalanche of Blades, or at least an incentive to Stormguard them.



I think as a third level vestige it would be fine to give it both, because this is very situational, and the power level isn't that high.

On the other hand, let me argue that in the other direction briefly: Part of the power level of a binder comes in part from their limited number of vestiges. As there are more and more vestiges allowed, the power level of a binder becomes higher, and they become closer to functioning as or slightly below a T1 caster. In my own campaigns, the solution I have for this is that the vestiges in Tome of Magic are the ones which are well known enough that any binder can easily find their seals and how to bind them, but that other vestiges require additional research, quests, or exchanging information with other binders. If one isn't playing that way, then every little highly situational vestige represents a slight push of the binder into T1. (Honestly I'm not sure there's a fundamental problem with a T1 binder; the binder is cool, and if wizards can do lots of stuff why shouldn't binders? But it is a balance issue to keep in mind.)

Elves
2019-02-24, 07:07 PM
There will only be 2 vestiges included so shouldn't be an issue.

Unless more people comment, leaving this as good for now and will get the base classes up soon.