Beastmaster Pre-release

Description

+Sensory, +Skill, +Vitality*

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

“Better to have beasts that let themselves be killed than men who run away.”

— — Jean-Paul Sartre

You are a domineering animal tamer who commands creatures to do your bidding. You have a vast toolkit, with a menagerie at your disposal and the ability to take charge of almost any beast you encounter on-mission, though you are largely helpless without them.

Conduits designing a mission for you should try to ensure there are some workable animals available — pets, steeds, and vermin as well as proper wildlife. While ferocious and versatile, your creatures are not infallible machines, so if the Conduit wants to really challenge you they could create heavily-armored or intimidating enemies that can ward off a bestial assault.

Grounded in tropes surrounding animal handlers training beasts for show or combat, especially (but not solely) those of a more autocratic bent.

Examples from history and pop culture include:

  • Siegfried & Roy
  • Beastlord Rakarth (Warhammer Fantasy)
  • Ken Ichijouji (Digimon Adventure 02)
  • Vetrix (Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL)
  • Dar (The Beastmaster)
  • Rexxar (Warcraft)

Challenge Level: Mid

Class by Reece C. Downie

Edition: Advent v1

Public: Yes

Signature Gear

Base Gear

Fearsome Visage

Base

Heavy, elaborate masked headdress.

  • Others are more inclined to perceive the owner as dominant while they are behaving accordingly.
  • The owner appears physically larger to others, scaling on how afraid a given observer is.
  • Lets the owner use the Witchfinder Ability Omoriori solely to sense and locate fear (Mid Cooldown)

Bullwhip

Base

Exceptionally long lash.

Accuracy Boost
Mid
Pain Boost
Mid
Loudness Boost
High
  • Each whipcrack may issue up to a 5-word command to any number of chosen allies who hear it.

Offcuts

Base

Chunks of bone-in meat.

Quantity
3x
  • Feed one to an interested animal to Hearten it with Low Boosted Impact without need of a Turning Point.
  • A piece of a fresh corpse may be used instead of expending your stockpile (Mid Cooldown).

Elective Gear

Sovereign Lion

Elective

Majestic but unruly big cat.

Toughness Boost
High
  • Unruliness scales Low–High with its size (Mid if not Reskinned).
  • May unleash a mighty roar to briefly inspire awe in non-allies within earshot, scaling on proximity (Low Duration, Mid Cooldown).

Diving Falcon

Elective

Exceptionally well-trained bird of prey.

  • Gains Boosted striking force and toughness while diving to attack, inversely scaling up to High with its size (Mid if not Reskinned, no Boost if larger than a condor).
  • May screech to mark a target within earshot, rendering them visible to the owner and their Companions; the falcon’s next dive at that target has Mid Boosted speed (Low Duration, Mid Cooldown).

Coiling Serpent

Elective

Languid bushmaster snake, docile unless threatened.

Lightness Boost
High
Strike Speed Boost
Mid
  • Up to High Boosted Toughness, scaling with its size (Mid if not Reskinned), and venom of up to High deadliness, scaling inversely with its size (Low if not Reskinned).
  • May hiss to cause enemies within earshot to fear this snake while they remain within Low Range (Mid Cooldown).

Abilities

Sic ‘Em!

Prompt one or more beasts under your control to fearlessly attack a target, dashing a Low distance at incredible speed to do so.

Essence Cost
Low
Cooldown
Low

Paired Action: Indicate your target and give a signal to strike.

  • If the target remains undefeated after a Low Duration, this Ability’s Cooldown is prolonged to Mid, and affected beasts become demoralized while this Ability is on Cooldown.
  • May target a single beast not under the user’s control to compel it to abruptly lash out at whoever is nearest to it (without dashing), whether an ally to it or not.

Collar

Conjure a magical ring around the neck of a beast to dominate its mind, compelling it to understand and comply with your commands.

Essence Cost
Low
Range
Low
Duration
Low–High
Cooldown
Mid

Paired Action: Call a cowed or awed animal to heel alongside an assertive gesture.

  • Duration, collar durability, and compulsion all scale on how intimidated and/or impressed the beast is (by the user or otherwise) as this Ability is activated.
  • If the beast is powerful or willful enough to resist the user’s commands, this Ability ends prematurely.
    • Also ends prematurely if the collar is destroyed, which enemies will instinctively know.
  • Cooldown begins on use rather than on expiry, allowing multiple instances to be active at once.

Lure Sigil

Mark a spot to draw a Pitched raging beast to that location.

Essence Cost
Mid
Delay
Low–High
Cooldown
Mid

Paired Action: Touch the surface of a terrain feature while Pitching the chosen beast.

  • A glowing, stylised depiction of that beast appears where touched.
  • Pitched beast must be appropriate to the locale. It arrives after a delay, scaling on the plausibility of that creature actually being present nearby. (e.g. A tyrannosaurus in a forest overrun with dinosaurs would have a Low delay; a sperm whale in overhunted waters would have a Mid delay; a dragon in a kingdom where they have been extinct for generations would have a High delay.)
    • The beast will always arrive enraged.