Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Dark Sorcerer or "Anti-Sage"

My post on Sages and the Sage Magic system is the most popular post on my blog. In celebration, I will make an opposite class. Sages are the support casters of a dungeon crawling party, they will usually be the white or good magician character. Since the rules are meant to be as setting agnostic as possible, you could fluff a Sage as being a generic white wizard, kindly healer, wise man, religious priest praying for miracles, or a psychic medium.

But what about the opposite? All the powers of the Sage, but made dark and twisted. Sages have spells that heal and support, so the Anti-Sage has spells that harm and curse. Sages serve the light, law, or goodness. Anti-Sages serve darkness, chaos, and evil.

Since “Anti-Sage” is a bit of a lame name, let's just call them Sorcerers instead.

Sorcerer
Combination of Evil Cleric + MU. Saves and health as Magic User.

Sorcerers cast dark spells by rolling 2d6 vs target difficulty HD as Sages do. The effects are simply reversed. Rolling a 1 on either die gives -1 ongoing, you have to roll 7 or better to succeed on a basic roll, etc.

All Sorcerers are tutored in the dark arts, and know the following powers.

Summon
Roll vs HD of creature or spirit you are trying to summon. Must be near a threshold, portal, or the location where the creature or spirit can pass over. This can bring forth the being, but it cannot bind them which must be done through sacrifices or negotiation with the entity.

Harm
Roll vs number of damage points to inflict. Harm usually manifests as a sudden rending of flesh, a wasting or rotting of the target's body, black bolts or sickly green light. Elemental damage is more 'neutral'.

Inflict
Roll vs HD of target. Add +1 to the difficulty of this spell per HD of creature's ability you are emulating. ie; HD 2 spitting cobra spit, blinding spell has +2 HD difficulty.

Curse
Roll vs HD equal to malus to enemy roll. ie if you want to give them a -2 to their roll, counts as HD 2. When cast the Sorcerer must choose the exact roll or action that gets the negative.

Darkness
Roll vs HD of candle-light worth of illumination to snuff out. Can also literally snuff out candles. Just the opposite of the light spell, can be cast on regular darkness as well and can make areas supernaturall dark and forboding.

Obscure
Roll vs HD equal to damage dice of trap or hazard. Opposite of warning, makes it harder to sense traps or items OR gives out a bad feeling to make a place feel haunted and unwelcome.

Ruin
Roll vs HD equal to turns it would take to repair item or the number of rations. Ruins, rusts, and putrefies supply items. You can cast this on a farm to make things generally sick and cause the damage before the food has even been prepared.

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