Hermit#

Seekers who leave everyone behind to find what holds magic together. A hermit sees every weave, speaks the seams whole like a priest, and answers every blow before it lands.

How it plays#

Hermits fight from balance: ten structures, one every five levels from 5 to 50, each a surer counterattack than the last, until a hermit answers every blow twice and every spell as well. Wisdom leads and intelligence backs it. The methods of balance are the spells that come out of it: bending distance, detouring, magnifying or negating energy, and at the top, ripping time and bonding energy.

The road to understanding changes the hermit’s own body. A hermit learns to walk on water, then to need no food, no water and no sleep, to shrug off poison and disease and speak every language, and at level 100, transcendence: the hermit becomes an avarie or a daemune. They fight with any weapon, mastering each family in turn, and wear nothing heavier than light armor.

Hermits are one of the spirit and song classes. Every ability, level by level, is under Abilities.

The road to Psion#

A hermit takes a new title at levels 100, 200, 300 and 400. A title can be declined; Five titles says what that means.

1. Level1
   Rank 1: Hermit

   Your class's own name. You earned it by doing the work, and nobody has to grant it.

2. Level100
   Rank 2: Spellbreaker

   A spellbreaker may break any ward, seal or magical lock in a province's keeping when its court asks, and the court pays the fee whatever is found behind it.

3. Level200
   Rank 3: Soulreaver

   Soulreavers may bear witness to what a spirit says, and the courts of Crecia and Esthar take it as if the dead had sworn it themselves.

4. Level300
   Rank 4: Demi-Psion

   A demi-psion may read anything in the Grand Library's closed stacks, though they may copy none of it.

5. Level400
   Rank 5: Psion

   The last title. Every province leaves a psion alone by law, and everywhere else they're left alone by common sense.

Where they train#

Ostin lived in the Grand Library for thirty years and left when he’d read everything worth reading, which he says took twenty-nine. Students find him by asking the right question at the library door. The librarians won’t say what it is.

Find Ostin at a cave above Jair Pool in the Crecian Highland. Any trainer can take your training points, but titles are bestowed here. Where the classes train maps all fourteen.

How it shows#

None of this changes a roll. It’s how the people around you can tell what you are, if you let them.

• You go quiet at odd moments, as though someone across the room just said your name.
• Small things drift toward you across a table: crumbs, coins, a spilled bead of water.

How hermits see magic#

Hermits see the weaves of the world and are curious about all of them, and every element is open to them. Like priests, they speak the seams whole. However much they know, they look for more meaning, and the psions among them go after the heart that all magic turns on. Every tradition, and what the scholars say underneath them.

Races that start closest#

The races whose starting scores sit nearest a hermit’s wisdom and intelligence. Any race can be a hermit; the class finder and the race finder rank all of them.

Pixie Pixies are tiny, all women, and as old a people as the elves. WIS 12 · INT 11 · AC 5 Sprite Wisdom 11 leads and intelligence 12 backs it. WIS 11 · INT 12 · AC 5 Elf Elves live longer than any other race you can play, up to 750 years, and spend most of it away from everyone else. WIS 11 · INT 11 · AC 8 Dwarf Wisdom 11 is a dwarf's best score after strength and constitution, and a hermit leads with it. WIS 11 · INT 9 · AC 15

Rodes that suit#

A rode is the one path of trials a character walks from level 20. These are the ones that do the most for a hermit; the rode finder ranks all fourteen.

Wisdom Wisdom is a hermit's primary score, the one every skill it uses adds. The rode takes it past where training stops. Built for it · +1 to +5 WIS Avoidance Hermits already live by dodging, and the rode makes them harder still to touch. Helps · +2 to +10 armor class Knowledge Intelligence backs a hermit's wisdom. The rode takes it past where training stops. Helps · +1 to +5 INT Cognition Hermits cast from a deep pool of willpower, and the rode keeps it from running dry. Helps · 1d4 to 1d20+10 willpower

Tradesguilds that suit#

A character belongs to two tradesguilds at most. These are the ones whose work fits a hermit; the guild finder ranks all eleven.

Alchemy Hermits live where the herbs grow, and alchemy turns a walk in the woods into a satchel of remedies. A natural fit · hall in Menusia Animal Husbandry A hermit alone in the wild could do worse than a companion that hunts. Works well · hall in Esthar

What others say#

The missing page

A page has been cut from a book in the Grand Library’s closed stacks, and the only person who could read it was a hermit. Ostin says it wasn’t his student. He says it the way people do when they’re sure it was.

Abilities#

A class teaches its abilities in disciplines, a handful of related abilities learned as you level. Most open at level 0 and add one every ten or twenty levels. The heroic disciplines open at level 50 and run to 100.

A cost in willpower or stamina is paid each time you use the ability. A passive works all the time, and a toggled ability stays on until you turn it off. Every ability starts at 0 efficacy and gets better with practice, as Levels explains.

BalanceRoad to understandingWeapon expertiseMethods of balance

Balance#

Ten structures, one every five levels from 5 to 50, each a surer counterattack than the last, ending in two counterattacks to every blow and two counters to every spell. 10 abilities, levels 5 to 50

Basic Balance StructureLevel 5 · Passive

DC 15 chance to counterattack.

Formless Balance StructureLevel 10 · Passive

DC 10 chance to counterattack.

Relative Balance StructureLevel 15 · Passive

DC 5 chance to counterattack.

Graduated Balance StructureLevel 20 · Passive

100% chance to counterattack.

Combat Balance StructureLevel 25 · Passive

100% chance to counterattack, DC 15 chance to double counter attack.

Expert Balance StructureLevel 30 · Passive

100% chance to counterattack, DC 10 chance to double counter attack.

Unnatural Balance StructureLevel 35 · Passive

100% chance to counterattack, DC 5 chance to double counter attack.

Kinetic Balance StructureLevel 40 · Passive

100% chance to counterattack twice.

Arcane Balance StructureLevel 45 · Passive

100% chance to counterattack twice, 100% chance to magic counter.

Psionic Balance StructureLevel 50 · Passive

100% chance to counterattack twice, 100% chance to magic counter twice.

Road to understanding#

The body learning from the mind: feather and dodging, then levitation, needing no food or sleep, natural immunities, every language, and transcendence at 100. 8 abilities, levels 0 to 100

FeatherLevel 0 · 20 willpower

Reduce all stamina cost by half except ability costs.

Expertise DodgingLevel 0 · Passive

Ability to dodge mastered weapons proficiently.

Natural LevitationLevel 20 · Passive

Passive ability allowing water walking and prohibiting fall damage.

Natural ConservationLevel 40 · Passive

No need for food or water.

InsomniaLevel 60 · Passive

No need for sleep, unable to sleep.

Natural ImmunitiesLevel 80 · Passive

Immune to poisons and diseases.

Innate LinguisticsLevel 100 · Passive

Character can communicate with all languages.

TranscendenceLevel 100 · Passive

Characters race is accommodated to their perspective qualities, avarie or daemune.

Weapon expertise#

Each family of weapon mastered in turn, and the art of balance at 100. 6 abilities, levels 0 to 100

Mastered SlashingLevel 0 · Passive

Take lvl/10 less damage, deal lvl/10 more damage and DC 18 to dodge slashing weapons.

Mastered PiercingLevel 20 · Passive

Take lvl/10 less damage, deal lvl/10 more damage and DC 18 to dodge slashing weapons.

Mastered BashingLevel 40 · Passive

Take lvl/10 less damage, deal lvl/10 more damage and DC 18 to dodge slashing weapons.

Mastered UnarmedLevel 60 · Passive

Take lvl/10 less damage, deal lvl/10 more damage and DC 18 to dodge slashing weapons.

Mastered ExoticLevel 80 · Passive

Take lvl/10 less damage, deal lvl/10 more damage and DC 18 to dodge slashing weapons.

Mastered Art Of BalanceLevel 100 · Passive

Take lvl/5 less damage from art of balance, and deal lvl/5 more damage and dodge.

Methods of balance#

Spells that come out of balance: clumsiness, dimensional perception, detoured, magnified and negated energy, compression, and from 60, spectral leaping, kaleidoscope, cognitive blast, ripping time and bonding energy. 11 abilities, levels 0 to 100

ClumsinessLevel 0 · 25 willpower

Target drops held item or weapon(s).

Dimensional PerceptionLevel 10 · 30 stamina

Ability to see outside body 10 yards in any direction. May not pass walls or locked doors.

Detour EnergyLevel 20 · 50 willpower

Turns harmful spells aimed at you onto someone else in the room at random, or back on their caster, for the next 3 rounds.

Magnify EnergyLevel 30 · 100 willpower

Increase the immediate areas potency for elemental magic.

Negate EnergyLevel 40 · 100 willpower

Decrease the immediate areas potency for elemental magic.

CompressionLevel 50 · 50 willpower

Area affect causing skill costs to increase as the pressure increases around targets.

Spectral LeapingLevel 60 · 20 stamina

Ability to pass through creatures and doors while moving.

KaleidoscopeLevel 70 · 40 willpower

All spells being cast or magic affects are dispelled with a DC 10 to cause blindness for 3 rounds.

Cognitive BlastLevel 80 · 50 willpower

Physical 2d20+20 attack that interrupts and silences target.

Rip TimeLevel 90 · 30 willpower

Cosmic 2d20+20 attack that stuns and deafens a target.

Energy BondingLevel 100 · 50 stamina

Steal 15 willpower from target for the next 3 moves until its depleted.

Proficiencies#

What the class can wield, wear and speak from the start, and the extra attacks it learns as it levels.

Weapons

Hand to hand, two-handed weapons, dual wielding, basic slashing, basic piercing, basic bashing and exotic weapons

Armor

Light armor

Languages

Common

Extra attacks

Second attack at level 24 and third attack at level 47

Combat puts these to use: weapons and extra attacks under Attacking, armor and parry, shield and dodge under Defending.

Magical Affinity

Grants a +10 to lore on magical concepts and mysterium.

Magical Aptitude

Grants DC 18+INT mod chance to add 10 elemental or sub-elemental resistance against attacks once per round.

Magical Arcanum

Allows usage of staves, wands and orbs.