Maddened Arcanist: Difference between revisions
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| Description | It is widely accepted among most intelligent creatures, at a very general level, that the world we all live in is balanced upon the surface of a much larger, darker, and far more terrible reality called the Outer Madness. Most people have little understanding of Planes, and in the minds of most people, Demons, Devils, Aberrations, and most 'weird' monsters are part of this terrifying background reality. | | Description | It is widely accepted among most intelligent creatures, at a very general level, that the world we all live in is balanced upon the surface of a much larger, darker, and far more terrible reality called the Outer Madness. Most people have little understanding of Planes, and in the minds of most people, Demons, Devils, Aberrations, and most 'weird' monsters are part of this terrifying background reality. | ||
However, there are always those who think that 'larger and more terrible' means, 'a convenient way to get power'. As a result, all over the world, in every race, creed, and culture, civilized or not, there are those with far too much greed and far too little wisdom who seek out this Deep Darkness and pledge themselves to it. The Creeping Madness is easy to access, easy to draw upon...and insanely dangerous. A fair number of those who attempt this foolish act are consumed utterly by their very first sup of that dark well, their lives, essence, souls, and flesh consumed entire. | |||
Many of those luckless fools do not quietly disappear, however. | |||
Maddened Arcanists are those creatures, with the Spark or without, who have reached out to the Madness, and not only survived, they have grown exalted. Arcanists are abominations, horrifically twisted, warped, and mutated, their minds filled with the ecstasy of the Endless Whisper. Some Maddened Arcanists are likely to be Maddened Mages who have survived and grown and been granted greater gifts by the Deep Dark. Other Arcanists were created new and whole, as their exposure to The Deep tears them from humanity to Other in one horrible, ecstatic wrench. | |||
Arcanists have warped and grown awful due to their corruption, but they bear their horrible deformities mostly within their minds, as their physical bodies are left almost shaped like their original form...as long as you don't look too closely. If examined in detail, numerous small appendages, extra eyes, ears and mouths, palps, folds, and tumors, short tentacles, protrusions of horn, fistulas, and many other 'small' deformities mar their form. But with a simple mask and loose clothing, a Maddened Arcanist can 'pass' as unmodified without too much trouble. Indeed, some especially bold Arcanists live among the civilized, plotting their vile murders and corruptions almost openly. | |||
Despite their passable appearance, Maddened Arcanists, like all of the Maddened, are united in their allegiance to the Searing Shadows, the Pulsing Madness of What Lies Above Heaven. They are not terribly organized, but they act, vaguely and constantly, to tear down civilization, destroy all the structures of the world, material and social, for good and for ill. They lurk and plot, they poison, murder, and ruin, they steal and burn, everything. Maddened Arcanists are subtle but relentless agents of bleak, writhing woe, and they will attack anything, civilized or monster, if they think it will lead them to the Final Truth: All things must fall to the Dark, sooner or later. | |||
Maddened Arcanists are tremendously intelligent, and for a Maddened, are very good planners and organizers...which means they get many of their plans almost half-finished before they fall apart. They are wildly inventive, utterly unscrupulous, and terrifyingly powerful. They can and will do such things as build Golems to kill every Vampire in a city, to drive the surviving Thralls into a maddened rampage, and then poison the entire city in the chaos. Just as one wretched example of their depredations. | |||
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<!-- Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance" --> | <!-- Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance" --> | ||
| Ability-1-Action-Required = | | Ability-1-Action-Required = Immediate Action when allied Maddened is killed | ||
<!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | <!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | ||
Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | ||
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<!-- Values: "S" for strong caster, "W" for weak caster, leave blank if unneeded; will auto-detect Combat Casting and include it --> | <!-- Values: "S" for strong caster, "W" for weak caster, leave blank if unneeded; will auto-detect Combat Casting and include it --> | ||
| Ability-1-Description = | | Ability-1-Description = Whenever any Maddened creature is killed by enemy actions, any Maddened Arcanist who has line of sight and line of effect to the attacker who made the killing blow may choose to make an immediate action attack of opportunity against that creature. They must have an attack of opportunity available, but Arcanists have Combat Reflexes, so that is rarely an issue. Arcanists prefer to use Chaos Orbs for this attack. They must take all normal modifiers for such attacks as normal. | ||
<!-- Insert colons ":" before each paragraph after first; replace any to-hit, damage or save DC numbers with variables: | <!-- Insert colons ":" before each paragraph after first; replace any to-hit, damage or save DC numbers with variables: | ||
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<!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | <!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | ||
| Ability-2-Action-Required = | | Ability-2-Action-Required = Standard Action | ||
<!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | <!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | ||
Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | ||
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<!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | <!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | ||
| Ability-3-Action-Required = | | Ability-3-Action-Required = Standard Action | ||
<!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | <!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | ||
Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | ||
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<!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | <!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | ||
| Ability-4-Action-Required = | | Ability-4-Action-Required = Standard Action | ||
<!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | <!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | ||
Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | ||
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| Ability-4-Description = As a standard action, the Maddened Arcanist may choose up to seven unoccupied, unblocked, squares within 50 feet of their space and fill all those spaces with eerie reflecting jumbled planes of cleaved space, looking rather like luminescent masses of cracked, cleaved ice. These squares may be seperate or contiguous at their whim. Each square is filled to a height of ten feet, and the Arcanist may arrange these squares any way the GM see's fit. These shattered jumbles of broken space block line of sight and line of effect against all creatures, and persist until the beginning of the Arcanists next turn. | | Ability-4-Description = As a standard action, the Maddened Arcanist may choose up to seven unoccupied, unblocked, squares within 50 feet of their space and fill all those spaces with eerie reflecting jumbled planes of cleaved space, looking rather like luminescent masses of cracked, cleaved ice. These squares may be seperate or contiguous at their whim. Each square is filled to a height of ten feet, and the Arcanist may arrange these squares any way the GM see's fit. These shattered jumbles of broken space block line of sight and line of effect against all creatures, and persist until the beginning of the Arcanists next turn. | ||
These fractures in reality do not impede movement at all, but any creature (friend or foe) who enters them suffers {{Special-Alpha-Dmg}} as {{dmg|rugosic}} damage as the disrupted space tears at their ability to perceive reality, a maximum of once per round, no matter how many squares of the effect they traverse, or from what source. | |||
Shattered Space allows a Fortitude save versus a target of {{Save-DC}} to take half damage. | |||
<!-- Insert colons ":" before each paragraph after first; replace any to-hit, damage or save DC numbers with variables: | <!-- Insert colons ":" before each paragraph after first; replace any to-hit, damage or save DC numbers with variables: | ||
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<!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | <!--Values: Sp, Su, Ex; can also include things like "disease", "poison" or "stance"--> | ||
| Ability-5-Action-Required = | | Ability-5-Action-Required = Standard Action | ||
<!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | <!-- Values: Full Round Action, Full Attack Action, Standard Action, Move Action, Swift Action, Free Action, Immediate Action | ||
Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | Free Action 1/Rnd, Free Action 1/Enc, Always On, Auto At Start of Encounter, Auto Upon Death, etc. --> | ||
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| CombatTactics = Maddened Arcanists are clever, sly, and subtle maddened murderers. Arcanists are incredibly skilled speakers, given the gift of sounding reasonable and sane, and their words are incredibly dangerous weapons. If driven into combat they relish it. They will strive to keep their foes at range, and will attack while flying above their foes if they are allowed to, raining down Shattered Space and using Dimensional Jolt against any effective ranged attackers. That said, if their foes retreat out of sight of the air, they will not hesitate to maneuver to keep attacking, even if they must close to tight quarters to do so, insanely certain they can slay their foes. If forced into melee, they will retreat and keep attacking if they can, and will resort to tearing at their enemies with their nails if they must. | | CombatTactics = Maddened Arcanists are clever, sly, and subtle maddened murderers. Arcanists are incredibly skilled speakers, given the gift of sounding reasonable and sane, and their words are incredibly dangerous weapons. If driven into combat they relish it. They will strive to keep their foes at range, and will attack while flying above their foes if they are allowed to, raining down Shattered Space and using Dimensional Jolt against any effective ranged attackers. That said, if their foes retreat out of sight of the air, they will not hesitate to maneuver to keep attacking, even if they must close to tight quarters to do so, insanely certain they can slay their foes. If forced into melee, they will retreat and keep attacking if they can, and will resort to tearing at their enemies with their nails if they must. | ||
Once battle has begun, Arcanists will kill every non-maddened thing they can find, unless they are destroyed first. | |||
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<!-- OUT OF COMBAT --> | <!-- OUT OF COMBAT --> | ||
| OutOfCombat = Maddened Arcanists are quite presentable for the Maddened, a trend that is an uncomfortable change for the Maddened. As a result, Maddened Arcanists can be found almost anywhere, even haunting the doldrums of civilized towns. They frequently ally with Vampire Thralls, continuing the odd symbiosis between the two unrelated tribes of fiends. Arcanists are incredibly good at negotiations, their honeyed words larded with their insanity so smoothly that they can | | OutOfCombat = Maddened Arcanists are quite presentable for the Maddened, a trend that is an uncomfortable change for the Maddened. As a result, Maddened Arcanists can be found almost anywhere, even haunting the doldrums of civilized towns. They frequently ally with Vampire Thralls, continuing the odd symbiosis between the two unrelated tribes of fiends. Arcanists are incredibly good at negotiations, their honeyed words larded with their insanity so smoothly that they can persuade seemingly reasonable people into the most insane of ideas. This may be their greatest threat, and woe betide the kingdom whose ruler is listening to one of these mad prophets. | ||
Arcanists are geniuses, albeit of a different, less deep sort than the monstrous Aberrants, although they are equally, utterly, nuts. Arcanist are sharply focused on the Real, and are exceptional thinkers of the darkest and maddest sort of ways to end everything. It is common to see Mavens or Magnates consulting an Arcanist (as well as Aberrants) for their wild ideas and insane strategies for how best to bring on Eternal Night. If such consultations are heeded and carried out effectively, the world has enormous problems. The safest course is to destroy Arcanists as soon as they are discovered. | |||