Wednesday 24 July 2019

GLOG wizard: pyromancer

Found this GLOG wizard class in a homebrew I prepped for first time players and hey, why not share it? Based on the Elementalist. Very much Oh Fuck Its A Wizard. Damage-focused and probably overpowered compared to regular GLOG wizards because they recover magic dice so easily, but let me know what you think.

THE GLOG AND ITS WIZARDS, BRIEFLY

I tend to write for people who know of a general topic (roleplaying, physics) but aren't immersed in it. So, just in case: the GLOG or Goblin Laws of Gaming by Goblin Punch is a trimmed down version of D&D, optimised for speed, improvisation, table rulings over lengthy rule lookups, and customizability.

Original and further posts by Goblin Punch, pirate variation by Skerples, overview of the GLOG's many contributors by DIY and Dragons.

GLOG wizards in particular:
  • come in four levels of power and risk life, limb and soul using magic
  • get one magic die (MD) and one spell slot per power level
  • can use a wand (has one spell memorized) and robes (+1 MD)
  • learn 2 spells at level 1, one spell at each next power level, from a widening spell list (d6&d6,d8,d10,+6 spells from list)
  • invest MD to cast memorized spells in spell slots, which run off the [sum] of the [dice]
  • retain MD that roll 1-3, lose MD that roll 4-6, refresh all after a good night's sleep
  • have always-active perks and drawbacks, and cantrip spells they can cast without using MD


Source: Kevin Keele

PYROMANCER



Fire was the second spirit we made a deal with - ancient, hungry, always in danger of running wild. Orthodox wizards may sling more refined spells, but none with the purity of flame.

Perks: can recover one magic die by starting a fire and tending it for an hour. This is your only way of recovering magic dice.

Drawbacks: smell slightly smoked, cannot eat uncooked food. Forbidden to put out fires and cannot cast fire magic if you are soaking wet. Use the Size of fire table below to determine how many magic dice you lose when hit with an equivalent amount of water. Four buckets of water should drench you, as will a barrel full.

Right off the bat, you're a pyromaniac. You're always fiddling with fire because that is where your power comes from. I'd say that you cannot actively put out a fire with water or sand, but you can let it peter out in a controlled way. You could also stop a forest fire by starting a controlled burn in its path and exhaust the local fuel supply. Your drawback is easy to predict and accessible even for townsfolk: soak the pyro in water so he can't burn you to death.


Cantrips
  1. You can always start a fire, even if the wood is soaked or a gale is blowing.
  2. Snap your fingers to summon a flame the size of a candle's for a second. Cannot deal damage.
  3. Sense the direction and rough distance to the nearest fire.




Useful cantrips, but you'll need them if you want to perform magic. I'd rule you can't start a fire underwater (your drawback would prevent your magic from working), but in a monsoon, you can either keep a tiny flame going or sense the nearest village with a fire pit.

Dawww. Source Nishio Nanora

MISHAPS OF THE PYROMANCER

(On doubles on magic dice; suffer the mishap that matches any matching dice. Yes, 2-2-5-5 makes you suffer two mishaps at the same time.)

  1. MD only return to your pool on a 1-2 for 24 hours 
  2. Take 1d6 damage 
  3. Random mutation for 1d6 rounds, then make a save. Permanent if you fail. 
  4. Burn-out. Cannot regain [dice] for 24 hours. 
  5. Burning agony incapacitates you for 1d6 rounds. 
  6. Bursts of 2d6 fire fly to random flammable targets in 50', 1d6 rounds. 
Mishaps 1-3 are standard; mishaps 4-6 show what happens when you lose control.

DOOM OF THE PYROMANCER

(On triples on magic dice; each time, take the next higher Doom)

  1. Take sufficient fire damage to reduce you to zero HP.
  2. Each time you cast a fire spell, Save Cha or the spell flies out of control and escapes into the world. Treat your spells well, and good luck luring them back into your spellbook.
  3. Fire consumes you.Take enough fire damage to reduce you to a pile of ash. This doom can be avoided by performing a great service to Fire, such as reigniting a dormant volcano or resurrecting the mythical Phoenix bird.
A big goal of senior Pyromancers is to hunt for Phoenix eggs, or to unblock a lava tube. A big goal of non-Pyromancers on the same continent is to stop them.




Size of fire: [dice]
An apprentice can't yet command a forest fire, and even a master will struggle to make a forest fire do their bidding.

  1. torch - can fit in the palm of your hand, perhaps fill a bucket.
  2. campfire - size of a barrel or a small child.
  3. pyre - size of a cart -or a person- requires two hands to control. 
  4. bonfire - size of a cottage, requires two hands and half your movement to control
  5. conflagration - size of a small keep or forest fire, requires two hands and your whole round to control


Anyone else feel cold huh huh huh


Anima banner: your inner fire made manifest
An idea I got while adding images. This fits with Oh Fuck Its A Wizard. As a Pyromancer, fire is in your very soul and the more magic you use, the more this spills out into the waking world. As you cast spells, you will be surrounded with a ghostly image of fire; it doesn't start fires and doesn't burn anything it comes into contact with but it is bright. This anima banner (stolen directly from Exalted) starts as near-invisible flames and blossoms into an iconic image.

When you cast a fire spell, increase your current anima level by the number of [dice].
Anima levels drop by 1 for every scene you're not actively using magic.
  1. From certain angles, a flickering flame seems to dance on your brow. Subsides an hour after you stop using magic.
  2. The soulfire on your brow is visible from across the room. Disadvantage on stealth. Subsides one level a turn after you stop using magic.
  3. Your entire body is enveloped in soulfire bright enough to read by and the flame on your brow is a golden blaze that shines through any covering. Stealth is impossible. Subsides one level a turn after you stop using magic.
  4. You are enveloped by a bonfire from your feet to a foot above your crown. Anything it touches becomes bleached as if left in the sun for may days. Enough light to read by out to 100 feet. Visible a mile away. Subsides one level a turn after you stop using magic.
  5. Your towering soulfire takes the shape of the great spirit of fire that inspires you; for instance, a fiery dragon, a powerful smith, a twisting salamander, a hulking efreet, a golden bull. The spirit moves, observes, responds, but takes no direct actions. The glare is visible for miles. Ghost heat prickles the skin out to a spearcast. Thankfully, subsides one level the next round you use no magic.

Pyromancers should have anima banners that flare up the more [dice] they use. Cool. Let's add that to the class. Image found here

SPELLS



Pyromancer apprentice spells

1. Control fire
Range: 50’
Target: existing fire up to [dice] size
Duration: concentration up to [sum] rounds
  • Shrink a fire up to [dice] size steps down to 1 for [sum] rounds (concentration to maintain)
  • Make a fire grow up to [dice] size steps for [sum] rounds
  • Move a fire up to [dice] size a distance up to your movement speed

Talk to a fire, see if you can get it to do something for you. Note that you can't completely extinguish a fire, and that it's quite easy to make a fire grow out of your control. At least a fire that's too big for its fuel source will burn itself out. (You flame murderer.) Then again, if a bigger fire finds the powder room or dries out the undergrowth enough to catch fire...)





2. Protection from fire
Range: touch
Target: [dice] targets
Duration: 10 minutes / 8 hours
Ignore [sum]+[dice] fire damage for 10 minutes. Alternatively, the spell protects its targets from the negative effects of heat for the next 8 hours.

Was very tempted to make this a higher level power. But I like the idea of wild-eyed apprentices thinking they're now invulnerable to flame.



3. Ignite
Range: 50'
Target: object or creature
Duration: 0
Target takes [sum] damage and catches on fire. Save negates.

Upgraded version of your firestarter cantrip. You need this. Start more fires. Fire fire fire. Yes, this spell as written can set anything on fire. Fires burn out without a fuel source.


Source: GunBooster




4. Ancient Flame
Range: touch
Target: ashes
Cast upon ashes to determine what they were before they were burnt. You can see what happened in the [sum] rounds before the object caught fire. [dice] determines how old the ashes can be:
1 [dice]: a day
2 [dice]: a week
3 [dice]: a year
4 [dice]: a decade
5 [dice]: a century or more

Because fire is more than damage; it's destruction and rebirth. Crazy pyros swirling their hands through ashes and getting wild visions.



5. Wall of Fire
Range: 20’
Target: wall
Duration: 1 minute
You summon fire to form a 10’ by 10’ panel per [dice]. You can mold the wall, similar to cutting holes and notches in a sheet of paper. The wall does not block line of sight. It deals 1d6 fire damage to anything that passes through it. Save vs Dex or be set on fire.

Seen it before? Sure. Love the classics. Fire is beauty. Fire keeps you safe. Build more fires.

6. Fire Sight
Range: 10'
Target: fire you lit from another fire
Duration: concentration
Cast this on a fire you lit from another fire that is still burning. You can see and hear as if you were present at the site of the original fire. At 2 [dice], can speak through the fire (flames take on shape of your face). At 3 [dice], can cast spells on the original fire.

It'll take a bit of setting up, but now you can use fire to scry and cast at a distance. Light the lord's privy council fire with an ember from the kitchen or the smithy. Hear his words, strike him down from afar. Yes, you can multiclass and cast other spells through this link.


Pyromancer adept spells



7. Fireball
Range: 200'
Target: 20' diameter
Duration: 0
Does [sum] fire damage to all objects.

Some schools get fireball only as a legendary spell. Those schools are amateurs who are playing with entirely too little fire.

I'm in love. Found here


8. Black Flame
Range: 50'
Target: fire up to [dice] size
Duration: [dice] hours
Cause a fire equal to or smaller than [dice] size to stop shedding heat or light.

You can not see it,  you cannot feel it. You just hear the crackling of the wood around you and then your skin turns to ash. Light a torch with black flame and wander through the castle.

Source: Lucas Graciano






Master pyromancer spells
 
9. Fiery retribution
Range: self / target within 50'
Duration: [dice] x 10 minutes or depleted
Target who attacks you immediately takes 2x [dice] fire damage. Once this spell has dealt [sum] damage, it ends.
Fire you want fire I will give you fire


10. Unburn
Range: touch
Target: flame
Duration: concentration up to [sum] minutes
Cause a burnt item up to [dice] size to become whole again in [dice] rounds. Target will burn again once you stop concentrating.

Again with the utility magic. Players can peer back in time, disguise stuff they need to smuggle as ash, and so on. Reconstitute ancient warriors from the fire that consumed them. A zombie is a size 3 fire; a skeleton a size two. An ancient fire dragon, burnt out after its death, size 5. Gives you zero control over anything you Unburn.
Source Tavener Scholar

11. Heart fire
Range/target: fire within 50'
Duration: 1 round per [dice] refreshed
Pull fire from a nearby blaze and reshape it. You temporarily refresh a number of MD up to the fire's size-1. These dice remain for [dice] rounds; each round, you lose one of them.


This might be overpowered. I just can't resist the idea of a pyromancer, cornered and exhausted after lighting the castle on fire, nothing left to throw at the guards...and then she sucks in the surrounding blaze. Verges on the edge of extinguishing a fire, so be a good pyromancer and start some fresh fires to make up for that.


Mythical spells

12. Body of Fire
Range: self
Duration: [dice] rounds
You turn into a fire elemental; immune to fire damage, vulnerable to water/cold, touch deals 1d6 fire damage.

I am become FIRE. Cannot fly, cannot enter water, in fact water is now deadly poison to you. But fuck water. Droplets evaporate before they touch you, rain creates a hissing cloud of steam, and it all doesn't matter because you're blazing away like a happy little elemental.


13. Phoenix
Range: within 50' of a bonfire sized fire
Target: self
Duration: special
You can cast this as a reflex when you take enough damage to kill you. Explode in an impressive shower of sparks. If taking [sum] less damage would not have killed you, you reform in 100 / [dice] hour.

Inspired by a psionics power from D&D. Keep some magic dice in reserve to try and cheat death.

I'd rule that savvy enemies who know of this spell can douse your ashes in water to prevent your resurrection. Keep in mind that it's rare and mythical, so they'd have to see it once. If a fire the size of the [dice] you used could be extinguished by the amount of water used, you stay dead.

(Or do you just wait until the ashes dry out? Ancient pyromancers finally reconstituting after the amphora holding their ashes in holy water gets broken by adventurers. "I. I need. I need FIRE." Awesome.)

Found here

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