Level Up (A5E) (+) Project Chronicle: Class Conceits and Narrative Role

[Steampunkette]

Maybe the different patrons could be ancient Sorcerers who fell to corruption and became something like an Archfey or Fiend etc? Then the warlock travels and finds these unique masters, who teach them very specific occult lore, making them different than wizards who instead rely on their own studies and the grimoires in which they are contained.

Absolutely one of the options, yeah! Ancient Occult Knowledge hidden in some Dungeon because it couldn't be Destroyed. Full on "Book of the Dead" from the Mummy (1999) or Akivasha from Kull the Conqueror. Vestiges of bygone eras and Unaussprechlichen Kulten!

But also still have actual Fiends and stuff around if someone wants to actively make a pact standard D&D style 'cause that also fits into the Sword and Sorcery Milieu.

 

[Steampunkette]

There are names which must never be spoken, lest you invite the evils of the past to haunt the present. Names bound to vellum and ink, trapped within scrolls sealed and hidden because they could not be destroyed. These names hearken to terrible evils, ancient threats so powerful, so wicked, the Gods themselves intervened to see their end. To remember them, to speak them, could awaken such horrors from their tormented slumber and restore them, bodily, to our world.

There are whispers of them. Hints and false-names, titles and legends. You must never seek these things, never follow the enticement to learn of the ancients and their horrors, as I once did. Because the evil you restore to the world may be beyond you to return to it's prison.

May be beyond us all.
-The Chronicler-

 

[GuyBoy]

There are names which must never be spoken, lest you invite the evils of the past to haunt the present. Names bound to vellum and ink, trapped within scrolls sealed and hidden because they could not be destroyed. These names hearken to terrible evils, ancient threats so powerful, so wicked, the Gods themselves intervened to see their end. To remember them, to speak them, could awaken such horrors from their tormented slumber and restore them, bodily, to our world.

There are whispers of them. Hints and false-names, titles and legends. You must never seek these things, never follow the enticement to learn of the ancients and their horrors, as I once did. Because the evil you restore to the world may be beyond you to return to it's prison.

May be beyond us all.
-The Chronicler-

Love it. Resonates with Nyarlathotep, Book of the Dead, Xaltotun and Tharizdun, all in one go.

 

[Blue Orange]

Late to the party, but six of the seven gods are kind of nasty. Maybe have warlocks make pacts with them instead of the Great Old One, Fiend, and Archfey?

 

[Steampunkette]

While that's certainly an option, @Blue Orange, it's not the direction I want to take the setting in.

There will, of course, be evil priests and cults of the gods. And there will probably be cults devoted to other gods that may or may not exist. But the gods as presented aren't specifically malevolent toward mortals. The curses exist, but in the canon it's presumed they're based on some terrible offense that mortals committed in the distant past. One that they can't seek atonement for because they literally don't know who did what wrong.

Like going to confessional and saying "Forgive me father, for I have sinned, but I don't know -how- I sinned or how much but terrible things are happening so it must have been a LOT." and the priest going "Well just keep saying Hail Marys and Our Fathers 'til you die and let's hope that covers it." (Not that that would ever happen in reality, just using a colorful example)

But also: are there even actually gods? There's gonna be myths and legends and stories about them... but all the gods (Except the Flower) are just the natural way of the world. Storms gonna storm, earth's gonna quake, animals gonna kill and eat people if they get the chance, and people die in weird ways or just in general. Maybe Priests get their Divine Magic through devotion to an ideal rather than a god and they just create the trappings of godhood and worship as a conduit for their devotion, or don't know that the gods are fake, or maybe they're real, or maybe Priests build up elaborate rituals and faiths around gods to control the masses. Who can -truly- say except the dead?

And the dead keep their secrets well.

 

[Steampunkette]

Baseline Wizard Changes:

Lorebook​

At 1st level, you have a lorebook containing six 1st-level wizard spells of your choice and your collected notes on magical theory and the world.

The spells that you add to your lorebook as you gain levels reflect the arcane research you conduct on your own, as well as intellectual breakthroughs you have had about the nature of the world and the peoples in it. You might find other spells during your adventures. You could discover a spell recorded on a scroll in an evil wizard's chest, for example, or in a dusty tome in an ancient library.

Using the Book's Information. Your lorebook contains your thoughts and observations, as well as those notes you've taken from others in compilation, on the world around you and the people in it. So long as you have your lorebook and 1 minute to reference it, you gain advantage on your next Knowledge skill check relating to a location, person, creature, or event that is contained in your lorebook.

Copying a Spell into the Book. When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your lorebook if it is of a level for which you have spell slots and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.

Copying a spell into your lorebook involves reproducing the basic form of the spell, then deciphering the unique system of notation used by the wizard who wrote it. You must practice the spell until you understand the sounds or gestures required, then transcribe it into your lorebook using your own notation.

For each level of the spell, the process takes 12 total hours and costs 5 gp. The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the inks and paper you need to record it. Once you have spent this time and money, you can prepare the spell just like your other spells.

Replacing the Book. You can copy a spell from your own lorebook into another book-for example, if you want to make a backup copy of your lorebook. This is just like copying a new spell into your lorebook, but faster and easier, since you understand your own notation and already know how to cast the spell. You need spend only 4 total hours and 1 gp for each level of the copied spell.

If you lose your lorebook, you can use the same procedure to transcribe the spells that you have prepared into a new lorebook. Filling out the remainder of your lorebook requires you to find new spells to do so, as normal. For this reason, many wizards keep backup lorebooks in a safe place.

The Book's Appearance. Your lorebook is a unique compilation of spells, with its own decorative flourishes and margin notes. It might be a plain, functional leather volume, a collection of scrolls, or even a loose collection of notes scrounged together after you lost your previous lorebook in a mishap.

I think this might be a tiny shake up for all wizards. I've reduced the cost to inscribe spells, because buying special Arcane Inks that are expensive doesn't work in a world where arcane magic is largely distrusted. But increased the time required drastically, essentially making copying spells into your lorebook a downtime activity.

Which, honestly, feels more appropriate, to me..? To keep it from being too onerous I specifically noted that you can break up those 12 or 4 hours across multiple short or long rests, or knock 'em all out in one shot.

Now here's a fun thing... The Chronicler Wizard Subclass is something I've been poking at but haven't really committed to (Spent the last two days mostly with my husband since he had time off work) and I'd like to get a couple of opinions at least:

Option 1) Adventurewizard. Free casts of Mage Armor, increased skill variety, possibly allowing the Chronicler to use their Intelligence in place of Strength for certain skill or ability checks to show a wide variety of minor magics being active. Like using their Intelligence score to determine their jumping distance, or letting them use magic to hold a door shut like a Barbarian might use his mighty thews.


Option 2) Flexiwizard. Straight up give them Eldritch Invocations as a Subclass Ability. It heavily informs the idea that Eldritch Invocations are a form of "Properly Educated" magic if Wizards, who study magic, gain some as they go along. It also means that these Wizards would gain a lot of flexibility through spells and invocations. Probably more than Warlock-Magess, overall, which also reinforces the idea that Warlock-Mages are kept under some measure of information-control.

Option 3) Combination of the Two. Less Invocations, no free Mage Armor (Without taking the invocation), but some skill-use changes to allow for Adventurewizard shenanigans. Blending the two options may seem like a no brainer, as it gives them the most variety of subclass abilities with some being flexible and others having flexible applications, but I'm worried about the comparative power level involved.

Y'all have any thoughts?

 

[Krachek]

For me I make great difference between PC and NPC.
For a world theme NPC class like can be shrink as desired. No Npc paladin, no Npc monk, fine.
PC are heroes, they can be the only one of their class since a century. The need of trainer, and structured organization for each class can be toss away.

 

[Steampunkette]

For me I make great difference between PC and NPC.
For a world theme NPC class like can be shrink as desired. No Npc paladin, no Npc monk, fine.
PC are heroes, they can be the only one of their class since a century. The need of trainer, and structured organization for each class can be toss away.

That's pretty much my thoughts on paladins in a nutshell. They might be trained in the same sort of fighting styles as any other member of a military unit or whatever, but the majority of what they do with their magics is something that they have personally that others do not. They are unique heroes.

Monks I'm a little more open on with the idea of there being training? But not exactly martial arts schools like you might see in a kung fu flick from the '70s, or Lone Masters with Fu Manchu beards training Uma Thurman in the 1-inch punch.

More a doctore in a ludus, training a group of gladiators in brutal unarmed combat, or a group of priests and trained to fight with peasant weapons in case a wicked King decides to send his guard to curtail their religious freedoms.

 

[Krachek]

That's pretty much my thoughts on paladins in a nutshell. They might be trained in the same sort of fighting styles as any other member of a military unit or whatever, but the majority of what they do with their magics is something that they have personally that others do not. They are unique heroes.

Monks I'm a little more open on with the idea of there being training? But not exactly martial arts schools like you might see in a kung fu flick from the '70s, or Lone Masters with Fu Manchu beards training Uma Thurman in the 1-inch punch.

More a doctore in a ludus, training a group of gladiators in brutal unarmed combat, or a group of priests and trained to fight with peasant weapons in case a wicked King decides to send his guard to curtail their religious freedoms.

Monk training can be done in vast organization, but it can be also a family secret.
For an adventure a monk can be presented as coming from a distant kingdom, or a distant plane…,. It really depend on player expectation. some will like the uniqueness concept, some will favor more collective support.

 

[Steampunkette]

Monk training can be done in vast organization, but it can be also a family secret.
For an adventure a monk can be presented as coming from a distant kingdom, or a distant plane…,. It really depend on player expectation. some will like the uniqueness concept, some will favor more collective support.

A DM can, of course, decide that there's a continent far in some direction or another where Ninja and Samurai and Warrior Monks who run on water or up the leaves of bamboo all come from. I can't stop them from doing that.

I just don't wanna make it a specific -thing- in the setting. So I'll be aiming the Adepts (A5e's Unarmed Fighters) toward more of a gladiatorial or priest role.