Mage

Benefits

• +3 reaction bonus from any NPC who knows his scholarly reputation, is a correspondent, or is an intellectual/author/researcher/teacher/journalist/scholar.
• Bonus to all Intelligence checks AND Wisdom checks (age/race-scaled, Table 5).

Hindrances

• Poor fighter: -1 to hit on his FIRST blow against any opponent in melee (removed on subsequent blows vs the same foe; resets when he attacks a new opponent).
• A know-it-all who freely offers unsolicited opinions.

Benefits

• Underestimated by males who've never faced Amazons: +3 to hit and +3 damage on her FIRST blow only, the first time such a male opponent encounters her. Does not apply to opponents 5th level or higher, or from cultures used to Amazons.

Hindrances

• -3 reaction from NPCs of male-dominated societies (fades once they come to know and respect her).

Benefits

• Find food in even the most barren environment: each day, enough to feed himself plus a number of people equal to his level.
• Cast a special 'good fortune' on himself + level others once per week: lasts a number of turns equal to his level, and all opponents suffer -1 to hit those affected.

Hindrances

• Strange appearance (leathery skin or coarse all-over hair): -2 reaction from all NPCs unfamiliar with Anagakok culture.
• Suffers penalties when exposed to environments radically different from his harsh homeland.

Benefits

• Free bonus Weapon Proficiency (does not use any wizard proficiency slot), chosen from the kit's weapon list.
• Can take certain Warrior nonweapon proficiencies at reduced slot cost (Mountaineering/Running/Set Snares at 1 slot).

Hindrances

• Limited spell access: specialists are barred from extra oppositional schools (Table 6); a Militant mage takes one DM-chosen limit — no 8th/9th-level spells, OR learns spells as if Int were 2 lower.

Benefits

• Choose ONE at creation (never changes). (1) Feign Death 1/week (as the 3rd-level wizard spell, on himself, up to 24 hours, wake anytime; concentrate 1 round, no components).
• (2) Spirit Form 1/week: become a flying ghostly cloud (MV 24, MC B), pass through tiny cracks, unlimited distance same-plane, invulnerable to all attacks (dispel magic returns him); body stays comatose and damageable; up to 24 hours; concentrate 1 round.
• (3) Levitate Self 1/week: rise 10 yds/round, hover/descend at will, carry normal max weight, lasts 1 hour, and NO attack penalty with missile weapons while levitating; concentrate 1 round; ends when he touches ground.

Hindrances

• Must meditate 2 consecutive hours/day at a fixed time chosen at creation (never changeable). If he misses, can't perform, or is interrupted >1 minute total, the NEXT day he casts only as many spells as a wizard ONE LEVEL LOWER than his actual level.

Benefits

• +3 reaction from nobles of his own culture, +2 from nobles of other cultures.
• Can demand free shelter from any fellow noble of his own culture, for himself + 2 persons per experience level.
• Begins with more starting money than other wizards.

Hindrances

• Accepts nothing but the best: pays 10% to 100% MORE than the Player's Handbook listed price on every purchase (DM sets the markup per item/locale).

Benefits

• In his homeland, always given free food and shelter by fellow commoners (extends to companions he vouches for).
• +2 reaction from peasants in ANY culture.

Hindrances

• Vow of poverty: aside from weapons, may own only ONE item worth up to 15 gp; all other possessions must be worth 10 gp or less (total wealth strictly capped).

Benefits

• Choose ONE at creation (never changes). (1) Protective Talisman 1/week: an herb pouch worn on a cord giving the wearer protection from evil (as the 1st-level spell) for a full day; takes 1 hour to make; dispel magic cancels it.
• (2) Replicant 1/week: craft a 6-inch clay figure of a chosen victim (must contain a lock of the victim's hair, etc.) for voodoo-style sympathetic magic per the source.

Hindrances

• Strange appearance and manners: -2 reaction from all NPCs not of his own tribe.

Benefits

• Begins knowing detect magic and read magic for free (in addition to normal spells).
• Gains natural once-per-week powers as she levels (don't count against spells known/used): L3 secure familiar (find familiar without the gp cost); L5 brew calmative (sleep-coated weapon, no effect >8 HD, save allowed); L7 brew poison (Class L contact poison, one weapon); L9 beguile (as charm person/monster, vs <=8th level / <=8 HD, NO save); L11 brew flying ointment (as fly); L13 witch's curse (as bestow curse, automatic, no save, 1d8 effect table).

Hindrances

• No experience bonus for high ability scores; cannot be multi-classed or dual-classed.
• -3 reaction normally (unless NPC is open-minded or has Int OR Wis 13+); -5 from uneducated/superstitious NPCs or those with both Int and Wis under 10.
• Risks a hostile mob if she lingers in a superstitious community: ~20% chance of a 4d6 mob after a day, +20% and +2d6 each additional day.

Benefits

• From 4th level, once per day he can cast any ONE spell that is 3+ levels lower than his level at MAXIMUM effect (max range, duration, and effect). E.g. a 4th-level Wu Jen maximizes a 1st-level spell.

Hindrances

• Bound by personal taboos: 1 at 1st level, +1 every 5 levels (6th, 11th, ...). Violating a taboo causes the DM-chosen penalty — lose levels, lose spells, illness, or even death.

Benefits

• An innate sense for magical traps.
• DISARMS a magical trap — she does not remove it — for 1d4 rounds, +1 round per 3 levels. A window to burgle through, not a solution.

Hindrances

• Sworn to her guild: missions on demand, and the guildmaster's permission before she may adventure.
• Once identified, non-elf mages distrust her on sight.
• Hunted by the wizards she has robbed, and by thieves' guilds that want her secret.

Benefits

• +1 to hit AND +1 damage with her chosen weapon, stacking with the racial +1 for swords. This is a hard cap: no further training raises it.
• Offsets special-maneuver penalties by +1 per 4 levels. It cancels penalties and is never a bonus on an unpenalized roll.
• Casting while fencing: her AC improves by her level divided by 2, plus 1, rounded down — against melee only, not rear attacks and not missiles. She may cast one-handed somatic spells at +2 to casting time; a hit still loses the spell as normal.
• From 3rd level she may teach the bladesong, for a steep price.

Hindrances

• Sworn to advance elvendom and to aid any endangered elf at any cost. Wariness of illusions is allowed.
• One weapon, forever. She loses the racial +1 with bows, and every other weapon is at -1 to hit even when she is proficient — nonproficiency penalties stack on top if the slot is unspent.
• No weapon-group specialization.

Benefits

• Battle plan: if she has surveyed and mapped the field and briefed everyone, her whole side gains +1 to attack for that battle — for each participant who passes a modified Intelligence check. A participant who fails gains nothing and risks spoiling a neighbour's bonus.
• +1 to hit with her weapon of choice, cumulative.
• A large-scale offensive or defensive 'spell of choice' every 4 levels, mediated by the DM.

Benefits

• Item lore: a 5% chance per 2 levels to place an item's history, purpose and alignment. Each attempt takes 4d3 days, and a research facility may raise the chance at the DM's option.
• Locate-research: a week or more in the books narrows a relic to a general search area.
• Rumour-mongering: 10d100 gp spent, plus Intelligence and Charisma checks, buys a lead.
• +10% to Find/Remove Traps.
• Luck: once a day she may add or subtract 1 from any roll, declared in advance.

Hindrances

• She lectures, and people react at -2.
• Never knowingly uses a charged item.
• Never willingly destroys a magic item or permits its destruction. Life or death is the one exception, and it costs her a week at -2 on saves and attacks from the depression that follows.
• Five items destroyed or allowed to be destroyed over a lifetime loses her the kit.

Benefits

• Passes as a tall dwarf or a short human at only -4, improving by +1 per 4 levels of her most XP-expensive class. The improvement applies to the bonus proficiencies only.
• +10% to two thief skills, picked once and for good.

Hindrances

• Identity erosion: her racial resistance to sleep and charm drops 10% per level, to a floor of 30% — which she reaches at 7th.
• Out of role she is beset by self-doubt about who she actually is.

Benefits

• Against her chosen undead species, prepared: +2 to hit and +2 damage.
• Traces a lair from signs and rumours to a general area, and hunts from there.

Hindrances

• Never declines a chance to destroy undead. Not a suicide charge, but the ultimate self-sacrifice is accepted.
• Sentient undead outrank mindless ones as targets.
• Cannot tolerate a sentient undead even when it is friendly or neutral, and will plot against a good lich.

Benefits

• Brews a poison antidote in up to a day (materials permitting); potency lasts 3 days per wizard level; 25% success plus 5% per level.
• At 7th level: brews magical potions (formulas researched per the DMG; ingredients still required).

Hindrances

• Restricted to the schools of abjuration, conjuration, divination and enchantment/charm, plus ONE of illusion/phantasm or necromancy. Cannot learn spells of a forbidden school.

Hindrances

• Every initial proficiency but one must relate to the pursuit of knowledge.

Benefits

• Takes rogue-group proficiencies without the usual extra-slot cost.
• Thieves' cant is available as a language selection.

Benefits

• Move Silently, Detect Noise and Read Languages at a base of 10% each, plus 10 discretionary points per level.
• May take the ninja-to at a cost of 2 weapon proficiency slots, and may learn the ninja (kuji-kiri) spells.
• No more than half a clan is ninja-class. A clan member of any other class MUST take their shinobi kit — it is not an optional choice within the clan.

Hindrances

• Reads PHB Table 4 — maximum spell level, chance to learn, and maximum spells per level — at Intelligence -2.
• Followers, when gained, are always Shinobi Mages, Shinobi Illusionists or Spirit Warriors.
• Full clan obligation, identical to a ninja's: assignments are not optional, and the clan's interest outranks every other loyalty.