| Spirits of Artheria The Spirits of Artheria are, in reality, the souls of those who have died. When a person dies, they go to the Shadow Realm, a world which. to make the name obvious, shadows our own. It looks different, the smells, the sounds, and tastes are more muted, but in all ways its an accurate reflection Hanging On When a person ends up in the Shadow Realm, they start to slowly pass away, until they no longer have a strong enough will to remain connected to the real world. Each day that a person remains in the Shadow Realm, they must make a Will save, DC: 15. For each point they fail it by, they get a -1 penalty on the next save. When their overall roll is a 0, they are gone, to the Spirit World, and can no longer affect reality. If they are not badly injured, they can take 10 on this saving throw. Affecting Others within the Shadow Realm When you appear in the Shadow Realm, you have all the stats, equipment, and abilities you might have had in the real world. The exception is, that you cannot be killed. No-one in either the Shadow Realm or the Spirit World can die. They can be rendered unconscious, but, unless constant effort is maintained, they will eventually wake up. Combat in the Shadow Realm operates exactly as it does in reality. When someone is reduced to below zero HP, they fall unconscious and will wake up in 6 hours. Magic works normally in the Shadow Realm. While killing someone is not possible, each subsequent day that a person is knocked unconscious(with less than a single hour of consciousness per day), they get a cumulative -1 penalty to their will save to remain in the Shadow Realm, and powers can be used to attempt to reduce the opponent's will saves in other ways. Meaning? People can be permanently removed from the Shadow Realm, but its a long and difficult process if they are strong-willed enough to remain for a while in the first place. Seeing the Real World In reality, to the very perceptive, the Shadow World looks exactly like the real world. But, due to the detachment from physical form, the characters get a -10 penalty to spot and listen checks against things of physical form. This causes things to appear blurry, and only the most wise and perceptive of spirits can see into the real world with reasonable clarity. Affecting the Real World Just because your dead, doesn't mean you can't affect the real world. But there are problems involved. First, objects from the real world appear to weigh fifty times as much as they should to those in the spirit world. This means that in order to lift, say, a Long Sword, you must have a strength of 15 to do it at all! And to be able to actually wield it as a weapon, well, then you'd need a strength of 23. You can try to use your weapons that came into the shadow realm with you against people in the real world, but they gain an automatic ability to divide any damage from shadow realm creatures by fifty. Rounded down. Which means, you need to do at least 50 points of damage to be able to deal a single point to someone in the real world. Objects or spell affects that are manifested in the real world from the shadow realm are 1/50th of their normal counterparts in all non-size respects. Even an adamantite object manifested in the real world would have less than one hp per inch of thickness, and a 5-inch thick solid iron wall would manifest with only 3 health. Mind-affecting magic, or things that target real creatures have.. 1/50th of their normal affect! If this would be an instant kill, it loses 1/50th of its hps. If this would adjust its attitude.. its adjusted 1/50th of the way. Not to mention a +20 bonus such creatures gain against any saving throws against such affects (Spell Resistance works as normal, and Reflex Saves of real creatures automatically fail; they cannot dodge what they cannot sense). So what does that mean? That only someone with power of Epic Proportions can affect the real world? No. It doesn't. Just not physically, or magically. Movement Your character can move at his normal movement rate while in the spirit world; in any direction, as if it were a Flight movement with perfect manueverability. Your character can walk through physical matter, moving through it at a rate equal to his movement rate in object hit points. Thus, if an object had 10 hp per inch, and your character was running (120ft. movement for a 30ft. move char) he would move 1 foot through the material, or 12 inches. He has no affect on physical objects, though this causes a distraction if performed on a living creature, forcing them to take a will save or get a -1 penalty to all rolls for one round. Power Sharing Those with levels of the Cultist class can aid a sorcerer or any other magic user, including another Cultist, by paying half of the power cost of any given spell for the caster. If they form a link to a given person, simply by touching them and expending a point of power, they can do this at will, and sense when the person uses magic; as well as, if they can perceive well enough (remember the -10 penalty) to know whats going on, sense what they are using it for. They can pick or chose whether to pay the power in these cases. Speech If a character can succeed at a will save, DC:20, he can speak to a sentient creature in the real world, uttering a single word for each point he suceeded the save by. This can be re-tried as much as you want. You can hear anything said in the real world normally; simply a listen check with a -10 penalty. Dedication If an NPC dedicates themselves to you while you are in the shadow realm, you gain a +1 bonus to your will saves to remain there. Each time the number of people dedicated to you doubles, you gain an additional +1 bonus (so at 2 you get +2, 4 you get +3, 8 you get +4, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, etc.) to this save. Also, you gain 'Dedication' of +1. Your Dedication equals the total number of those dedicated to you. Dedication regrows itself at a rate of 1/10th your max dedication per day, and can be used in place of Power to achieve affects or be given to spellcasters to aid casting. Cultists You can acquire Cultists if you somehow convince a Dedicated to become one. Each Cultist adds +1 dedication per level of Cultist he has taken; generally, this is enough to add an extra 1/2 onto your Dedication once you have a large enough following. The will save DC to speak to your Cultists is only 15 rather than 20, and you automatically suceed at attempts to perceive the area around your cultists. You can choose to aid a cultist by spending 1/2 the power cost of any spell he casts to reduce that cost similarly. You can show dissaproval by not doing this, or by granting less of the power, or even through direct speech to him. Spirit: Class Levels You can, if you so choose, stop progressing in your normal classes after death, and start progressing in the Spirit class. The Spirit class uses entirely seperate magical skills than the other classes, gains skills as those of a cultist, and gains powers based on wisdom. The sole benefit of this class is that abilities used by this class manifest at 1/10th the normal affect, rather than 1/50th, as those of other classes. If a character should happen to be ressurected, however, the spell abilities of the spirit class STILL only have 1/10th the normal affect on the real world. But in both cases, they have full affect on the spirit world. Touched If a person dies, and has not passed on into the spirit realm yet, you may spend 10 power or 10 dedication to allow them to, indefinitely, use your own will saves instead of their own to remain in the spirit world. These people are referred to as 'touched', and this power operates indefinitely. Followers of yours who are 'Touched' and dead will continue to provide dedication as normal. Blessed If a person is about to die, a spirit may, with a readied action just before they pass on, make them Blessed. This costs 100 power or dedication to enact, and immediately applies the Blessed template to the person, as well as restoring them to 10 hps. If the person is not a follower of you, or stops being a follower of you, they will slowly die, losing 1 point of wisdom per day until death. This can be applied to someone who is not about to die, but in this case the target MUST be willing. Another spirit can 'take on' a blessed if he so chooses, preserving his life, in which case his wisdom rises by 1 point per day back to its original level. You can apply other abilities to the Blessed, but these follow the normal rules for permanent magic. Accursed For 100 power, you can apply the Accursed template to a target. The target must be someone that you have an intense dislike for for one reason or another. This power grants them some extra abilities, but also causes all who have dedicated themselves to you to have 1 less category of reaction attitude to them, and all cultists dedicated to you to have 3 less categories of reaction. (From friendly to indifferent to unfriendly to hatred, for example.) It also gives them a -1 luck penalty to all saving throws and to AC while you are within 100 feet. Multiple Spirits may designate a target Accursed, but this is a bad idea, for this can only be done to your enemies, and this makes them stronger. Avatar If you have a 20th level or higher, willing, cultist, you can make them an Avatar. This grants them DR 10/- versus all sources of damage, a bonus to all stats equal to your modifiers in those stats, and costs 1,000 power or dedication. If this occurs, you can 'take on the avatar's form', and then your class levels, and those of the avatar, will stack together, allowing you to use the abilities of both. Of prime importance, however, is that you can then use your powers, including Spirit powers which normally max at 1/10th affect, at their full possible affect in the real world, using the Avatar as a channel. You can impart other abilities in your Avatar through permanent magic, and it is highly recommended you do so if it comes to this stage; your avatar is your most valuable follower. Targets dedicated to no spirits must make a will save (DC:20) upon seeing your Avatar, or be immediately converted to a dedicated. Shadow Realm Objects Objects made in the shadow realm, and not specefically manifested in the real world, neither affect nor can be affected by the real world. Quite commonly, spirits in the shadow realm will build structures, generally floating in midair since gravity is meaningless there. It is rumored that, long long ago, powerful spirits created entire kingdoms in the clouds, and escorted all followers to there to live forever. Objects in the Shadow realm can be created at will. If a character can suceed at a will save whose total roll squared is at least equal to the object's gp value, the object will simply appear, formed from the material of the shadow realm. Magical items can be formed similarly. However, opponents can also remove objects simply by beating you in an opposed will save, if their roll was high enough to have created the object. Either creating or removing an object is a move-equivalent action and provokes no attacks of opportunity, and has a range of LOS. Creating masterwork or magical items in this manner also requires an appropriate Craft skill, but creating normal items requires none. Shadows Another aspect of the Shadow Realm are the Shadows. Creatures formed from the fears, nightmares, and dreams of people still in reality, these shadows take on real form in the shadow realm. They can be quite hazardous to the common people of the shadow realm, and while most don't have the patience to stick around and make sure a target remains dead, some of them do; and there is no limit to what the deranged nightmares of a mortal can create. These creatures, unlike sentient beings in the shadow realm, can die. |