Greybeard Pre-release

Description

+Intelligence, +Vitality, +Will*

*Choose from among all three when determining your two Class-based Personality Traits (the final may come from any Stat).

“Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.”

— — Gildor, The Fellowship of the Ring

You are an authoritative wizard whose words often hold greater weight than your spellcraft. Your magic is slow and indirect, requiring time and commitment to be fully effective and often coming with self-inflicted downsides, but can have dramatic results when used wisely.

Conduits designing a mission for you should try to give you time to think, not forcing you to take action too early so you have some room to set up. Your playstyle has a social core, requiring interactions with NPCs to set up many of your strongest powers, so if your Conduit wants to really challenge you they could try creating savvy, imperturbable enemies who don’t play into your hands.

Grounded in the trope of venerable magic users who rarely cast actual spells, the true extent of their mystical powers being a subject of much debate.

Examples from faith, folklore, & pop culture include:

  • Odin, Moses, and similar venerable religious figures
  • Rubezahl, Morozko, Cailleach, & similar folkloric entities
  • Galadriel (Tolkein’s Legendarium)
  • Mustrum Ridcully (Discworld)
  • Flemeth (Dragon Age)
  • Ogion the Silent (A Wizard of Earthsea)

Challenge Level: Mid

Class by Tomáš Staněk

Edition: Advent v1

Public: Yes

Signature Gear

Base Gear

Feathered Hat

Base

Decorated outdoorsman’s cap.

  • Local wildlife will tend to trust the owner (Low Impact).
  • The owner’s voice may emit from any location at will (Mid Range).
  • The owner may uncannily imitate natural sounds, scaling on their familiarity therewith.

Weathered Cloak

Base
  • Provides a High Ward against natural environmental hazards.
  • Boosts the owner’s walking speed, scaling on how demonstrably deep in thought they are.
  • Hang up this cloak on a terrain feature to Pitch the existence of a simple nearby hideout and its modest supplies/furnishings (1x Use).

Graven Staff

Base
  • Boosts the volume of the owner’s voice while they are behaving in a dramatic, vehement fashion.
    • If this staff is fittingly brandished, these amplified words will push away anyone they are directed towards (Low Cost, Low Range).

Elective Gear

Churchwarden Pipe

Elective

Long-stemmed pipe, magically lit with a tap.

  • Smoking gradually renders the owner calm and contemplative as well as anyone else who remains in their immediate presence over a Low Duration (Mid Impact).
    • Exhaled smoke may be shaped and puppeted by the owner until it naturally fades.

Orbuculum

Elective

Delicate crystal ball.

  • Peer into it to Pitch an event that will happen after a Low–Mid Delay.
    • If accepted, the owner sustains a spontaneous magical injury, with deadliness scaling up to High on how beneficial the Pitched event would be to them and their allies.

Eye in the Sky

Elective

Intelligent pet bird, capable of following sophisticated commands.

  • May be telepathically recalled to the owner’s side at all.
  • You may Pitch that a being knows of your character and recognizes this bird as their emissary (Mid Cooldown).
    • Your character becomes aware when this happens and may send that being a Mid-length telepathic message.

Abilities

Great & Terrible

Wax wrathful to grow in size and surround yourself with a Pitched turbulent natural force (fire, wind, cold, etc.), which provides a Ward against hostile magic.

Essence Cost
Mid
Duration
Mid
Cooldown
Mid

Paired Action: Portray a Turning Point showing your character exploding with well-founded exasperation, their severe mood lingering as an Altered State.

  • Benefits scale Low–Mid on how intensely and compellingly you portray the Paired Action and Altered State.
    • Growth caps out at double the user’s normal size and also applies to any of their Equipment on their person.
    • Destructive forces must remain very close to the user, like an expansive cape. These cannot be directly controlled and will steadily harm anyone nearby (including, to a lesser degree, the user themselves).
  • If the user calms down in a believable manner, this Ability will end prematurely.

Winds of Change

Pitch a temporary unseasonable change to immediately impose upon your surroundings, instilling either hope or dread in onlookers as fitting.

Essence Cost
Low–High
Range
Mid
Duration
Mid
Cooldown
Mid

Paired Action: Deliver a short, serious speech that aims to either embolden or dishearten its listeners.

  • Cost scales on how implausible the Pitched change is. (Pulling a ray of pure sunlight through heavy smog would have a Low Cost; bringing heavy frost to a springtime meadow would have a Mid Cost; turning midday to midnight would have a High Cost.)
    • Only affects the user’s surroundings, rather than the entire locale.
    • The more plausible the Pitched change, the longer it takes to revert once the Ability ends (Mid at max).

Mímisbrunnr

Willingly endure great suffering to receive an internal answer from your Conduit to any chosen question.

Essence Cost
Low
Cooldown
Mid

Paired Action: Ask a question to your Conduit while your character intentionally makes a bodily sacrifice (whether self-inflicted or by deliberately putting themselves in avoidable harm’s way).

  • Answer Impact scales up to High on how much harm the user incurs through the Paired Action.
    • If self-inflicted, injuries sustained in this way are patched up to the point where they aren’t getting worse.