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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Mystic - A Class for Adventurers of the Lost World

Now that GenCon is over us (and I have lots of stuff to tell about this great gathering of gamers), I can continue posting some of the stuff I've already written for my Adventurers of the Lost World setting / toolbox for DCC RPG. This week I bring you the draft of the Mystic class, a kind of character similar to the traditional Monk of our beloved fantasy roleplaying game. These are individuals that seek balance between body, mind and soul through exercise, meditation and learning.

Mystic 


You've hones your body and your mind as a single, unified entity. Your thoughts empower your fists. In far away monasteries you trained for years to achieve a state of equilibrium most mortal men don't even dream about. But that is not enough. Not for you. You seek the perfect balance between mind, body and soul, and the only way this can be found is in the Lost World.

Mystics are mysterious warriors who have developed their bodies and minds to a point where they are almost at perfect equilibrium. This gives them special powers that makes them go beyond the normal limits of mortal men. Although most of them seek inner peace and the equilibrium of body, mind and soul, their training makes them extraordinary warriors, with their fists as deadly as any weapon. Any group can benefit from having a mystic among them, since they make great defenders and have a special sense connecting them to the mystical powers of the Lost World.

Hit points: Mystics receive 1d8 hit points per level.

Proficiencies: Mystics are another breed of warriors and are only considered trained in the use of civilian weapons. In the same vein, they are not trained in the use of armor of any kind, preferring to rely on their quick reflexes and sharp minds to get out of harms way.

Alignment: The majority of mystics follow philosophies that tend to the neutral and lawful alignments. Prosperity and balance is generally the moving principle of most of the mystic orders where they come from. However, there exist obscure and sinister orders of chaotic mystics that believe the world needs to be reduced to chaos so a new and better order can emerge. Whether their alignment, these individuals seek the secrets forgotten in the Lost World to help them shape the world to their philosophies and achieve the ultimate stage in their training and evolution.

Meditation: The balance of body, mind and soul is very important for a mystic. One of the methods they use to enter in a state of equilibrium is through meditation. By closing his mind and body to the outside world and concentrating in their own spirit, a mystic can empower himself and heal injuries and diseases that may be affecting him. Once per day, spending 1 hour in meditation, the character may make Personality check, modified by his level and consult the table below. This function in similar ways as the clerics lay on hands ability of the DCC RPG Corebook (but the mystic can only use it on himself, or course). He uses the column of adjacent alignment and can spend the HD in the same fashion as the cleric. In addition each hit dice may be used to give +1d for an hour to a specific kind of ability check. For example, if he obtains 3 HD on the chart, he could give +1d to all Agility checks for 3 hours, or +1d for Str, Agi and Sta for 1 hour.

Martial artist: Mystics are exceptional warriors, but they prefer not to bear any weapons and, if given the option, will try to resolve their conflicts in a non violent way. However, their training transform their body into living weapons that they use when it is needed. When in combat, mystics can use their unarmed strikes as if they were armed. They inflict as much damage as normal weapons and they become even deadlier as they advance in levels. 1st level mystics do 1d6 points of damage with their unarmed attacks, raising it to 1d8 at 3rd leval, 1d10 at 5th, 1d12 at 7th, 1d4 at 9th and finally 1d16 points of damage at the 10th level.

Deed die: Mystics get normal attack modifiers as other classes but when they are using only their bodies to attack, they get to use a deed die just like warriors do. They apply the deed die result on both attack rolls and damage rolls as warriors with unarmed strikes.

Mighty deed of arms: When using their body as weapons, mystics can perform extraordinary maneuvers while attacking. This works the same way as the warrior’s ability of the same name, allowing mystics to disarm their foes, trip enemies and do many different kinds of feats. Judges are encouraged to be creative with this, since mystics are restricted to only using this ability with unarmed strikes.
Stunning strike: This is one of the deeds mystics can do with the above ability. Striking the vital points of the target’s body, a mystic can paralyze its enemies, making them more vulnerable to future attacks and allowing him to take other actions. A judge can decide that certain creatures without discernible anatomy are immune to stunning strikes.

Deed Die
Deed Result
3
The attack paralyzes the enemy for a few seconds making him drop to the last spot in the initiative order.
4
The strike forces the enemy to make a Fort save (DC 12) or lose –1d on the dice chain for the following round. He also drop to the last spot in the initiative order.
5
The mystic hits one of the central nerve points and forces the victim to make a DC 12 Fort save or he will lose his last available action dice for his next round.
6
The central nerve system is affected with this strike and the target need to make a Fort save (DC 15) or be paralyzed for 1 round.
7+
This strike can shut down the nerve system of the target. If he fail a DC 15 Fort save he will be paralyzed for 1d6 rounds.

Flurry of blows: Mystics using their body as a weapon are some of the fastest and deadliest warriors in a battlefield. A character from this class can take his normal action dice and trade it for 2 action dices with a -1d penalty on the dice chain if he makes unarmed attacks with them. They cannot, however, then trade those same dices again to keep doubling their attacks.

Mystic skills: Mystics are not just warriors that use their fists as weapons. They are people who have trained their bodies and minds to achieve the perfect stage of balance. In this way, a mystic learn a few skills that allow him to perform actions others have a difficult time doing. They can walk silently, avert falls, climb mountains, jump great distances and many other fantastic feats as described below.
Stealth: With this skill, a mystic can walk silently through any surface and escape notice from his enemies. This also allow the character to hide in the shadows to avoid detection. The difficult varies according to the surface being walked upon and the surrounding conditions, like the cover present and other noises.
Avert fall: This skill allows a mystic to avert the falls and avoid the damage they cause. Depending on the result rolled on the skill check, the mystic ignores the falling damage according to the following table. The character needs something to avert his fall, like nearby walls, flowing clothes, giant leaves and other things that could slow him down. 
DC
Distance of the fall averted
10
10 ft
12
20 ft
14
40 ft
16
60 ft
18
80 ft
20*
100 ft
* the distance increases by 20 ft for each 2 points over 20.

Jump: The intense and fantastical training the mystics undertake allow them to cover great distances with their jumps. This makes them capable of overcoming obstacles like walls, chasms
Climb sheer surfaces: Mystic's training involve the surpassing of high walls, hills and entire mountains. Most of the monasteries where these individuals have learned their skills are on top of very high mountains, so mystics learn to climb sheer surfaces very early in their careers. The DC for the climb check varies according to the surface, going from 10 for a rough wall to 20 for an almost completely vertical and slippery surface. 

Mystic defense: In their constant mission to hone mind and body, mystics learn to predict and avoid enemies' attacks. Bulky armor restrain their movements, so they are expert combatants, capable of dodging out of the way of most attacks made at them. In addition to adding their Agility modifier to AC, mystics also add their Intelligence modifier.

Resilient Body, Mind and Soul: Because of their intense mental, spiritual and physical training, a mystic is very resilient. Everyday, a mystics gets to choose to add his Luck modifier to an specific kind of saving throws for that whole day. This means that one morning he can choose to add his Luck modifier to Reflex saves and change it to Fortitude saves next day.

Action dice: Mystics can use their action dice for attacks and skill checks.

Table: Mystic
Level
Attack
Crit Die /Table
Action Die
Ref
Fort
Will
Unarmed Damage
1
+1 / d3
1d8/III
1d20
+1
+1
+1
1d6
2
+2 / d4
1d8/III
1d20
+1
+1
+1
1d6
3
+3 / d5
1d10/III
1d20
+2
+1
+1
1d8
4
+4 / d6
1d10/III
1d20
+2
+2
+2
1d8
5
+4 / d7
1d12/III
1d20
+3
+2
+2
1d10
6
+5 / d8
1d12/III
1d20+1d14
+4
+2
+2
1d10
7
+5 / d10
1d14/III
1d20+1d16
+4
+3
+3
1d12
8
+6 / d10+1
1d14/III
1d20+1d20
+5
+3
+3
1d12
9
+7 / d10 +2
1d16/III
1d20+1d20
+5
+3
+3
1d14
10
+8 / d10 +4
1d16/III
1d20+1d20
+6
+4
+4
1d16

Table: Mystic skills by level
Skill
Modifiers by Level

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Stealth*
+1
+3
+5
+7
+8
+9
+10
+11
+12
+13
Avert fall*
+3
+5
+7
+8
+9
+11
+12
+13
+14
+15
Climb sheer surfaces*
+1
+2
+3
+5
+6
+7
+8
+9
+10
+11
Jump*
+1
+3
+5
+7
+8
+9
+10
+11
+12
+13
* The mystic's Agility modifier, if any, is applied to this skill.

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