Rodes#
Anyone can swing a sword for twenty years. A rode is deciding what the twenty years were for.
What your rode decides
Your rode is the one path of trials you commit to once you reach level 20. It gives you one lasting bonus that grows with each of its five ranks, ties you to the master who sets your tests, and gives your storyteller a thread to pull. You walk one rode, and you write it on your sheet.
Choosing a rode#
Every rode has one master somewhere on Sedia, and only that master can set its tests. At level 20 you find the master of the rode you want and ask. The master sets your first test, and passing it makes you an initiate. Every twenty levels after that the master sets the next one.
You walk one rode. Pick it for what it gives your class or for what your character believes; the best choices do both. A priest walking the rode of chance is harder to explain than one more priest walking influence, and a lot more fun to play.
Leaving a rode
You can walk away from a rode, but you give up every rank you earned in it. Another master will take you on after a year and a day, and your first test with them is always about why you left.
Five ranks#
A rode has five ranks, and each one opens at a level. You take the tests in order: no test for a rank until you’ve passed every rank before it. Failing a test costs nothing but time, and the master sets another when you’re ready. Each rode’s page has the tests its master sets. The Levels page shows where each rank falls among everything else a level opens.
- Level20Rank 1: Initiate
+1 to a score · +2 in a fight · 1d4 restored
The master asks why you came and sets a task to see whether you meant it.
- Level40Rank 2: Walker
+2 to a score · +4 in a fight · 1d6+2 restored
A task that takes you away from the master's door, with your party or alone.
- Level60Rank 3: Keeper
+3 to a score · +6 in a fight · 1d8+4 restored
A trial the master has watched others fail.
- Level80Rank 4: Warden
+4 to a score · +8 in a fight · 1d12+6 restored
A test of what the rode is for, out in the world, with somebody else's life on the line.
- Level100Rank 5: Exemplar
+5 to a score · +10 in a fight · 1d20+10 restored
The test the master once took. Few walkers ever ask for it.
The fourteen rodes#
The rodes fall into three kinds by what they give. Pick a rode to read its page: its master, its tests, and how it shows on the people who walk it.
Rodes of the self#
Each raises one ability score: +1 at rank 1, up to +5 at rank 5. The bonus sits on top of your score and isn’t held to the maximum training can reach, so it’s the only way past your class’s ceiling.
Agility
The rode of speed and footwork.
Influence
The rode of being listened to.
Purity
The rode of a body that holds.
Knowledge
The rode of the studied mind.
Wisdom
The rode of judgment and calm.
Power
The rode of raw strength.
Chance
The rode of luck.
Rodes of war#
Each adds to one number you use in a fight: +2 at rank 1, up to +10 at rank 5.
Protection
The rode of those who stand between a blow and whoever it was meant for.
Avoidance
The rode of not being there.
Destruction
The rode of hitting harder.
Elements
The rode of anyone who casts.
- Protection
- Physical resistance. Every bash, pierce, slash, fist or exotic hit you take does that much less damage, to a minimum of 1.
- Avoidance
- Armor class. Add it to your armor class, armor or no armor, so attacks have to roll higher to hit you.
- Destruction
- Damage. Add it to the damage of every attack that hits, weapon or unarmed.
- Elements
- Elemental damage. Add it to the damage of every elemental spell or effect you cast: fire, ice, lightning, earth, poison, pulse and darkness.
Rodes of renewal#
Each restores your health, willpower or stamina on its own, a little at a time: 1d4 at rank 1, up to 1d20+10 at rank 5.
Faith
The rode of belief.
Cognition
The rode of the mind that drives the body.
Endurance
The rode of the ones who keep going.
- Faith
- Health. Restores health.
- Cognition
- Willpower. Restores willpower, the reserve every spell is cast from.
- Endurance
- Stamina. Restores stamina, the reserve every skill is used from.
When a rode of renewal restores
Roll your rank’s die at the start of each of your turns in a fight and restore that much. Outside a fight, roll it once for every hour you rest. It never takes you past your maximum, and it can’t bring you back from 0 health.
Which rode suits my class?#
Pick a class to see every rode ranked for it. A rode that raises your class’s primary score, or one the masters say does its work, is built for it. One that raises its secondary score, or helps its work along, helps. Any class can walk any rode.
Where the masters teach#
The masters don’t travel. If your rode’s master is three provinces away, that’s where every one of your tests starts. Tharsis has more masters than anywhere else, as any Tharsian will tell you without being asked.
Tharsis
Crecia
New Saellem
Jewall
NarsisNo master teaches in Dumasque, Esthar, Amari, Moria or Menusia. A character from there walks a long way to every test, and their storyteller has a journey to fill.
The rodes side by side#
What every rode gives at each of its ranks.
| Rode | Gives | Rank 1level 20 | Rank 2level 40 | Rank 3level 60 | Rank 4level 80 | Rank 5level 100 | Master |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protection | Physical resistance | +2 | +4 | +6 | +8 | +10 | Captain Drogan, Tharsis |
| Agility | Dexterity | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 | Lilian Gom, Tharsis |
| Avoidance | Armor class | +2 | +4 | +6 | +8 | +10 | Horas Daquer, Crecia |
| Destruction | Damage | +2 | +4 | +6 | +8 | +10 | Damied Ankari, Tharsis |
| Elements | Elemental damage | +2 | +4 | +6 | +8 | +10 | Magister Ilsabet Varr, Tharsis |
| Influence | Charisma | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 | Gregory Simmons, Crecia |
| Purity | Constitution | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 | Thomas Moar, Jewall |
| Knowledge | Intelligence | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 | Yendor Valkez, New Saellem |
| Wisdom | Wisdom | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 | Euphrates Crill, Narsis |
| Power | Strength | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 | Nile Fin, Jewall |
| Chance | Luck | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 | Phinius Garland, New Saellem |
| Faith | Health | 1d4 | 1d6+2 | 1d8+4 | 1d12+6 | 1d20+10 | Prophet Qora, Crecia |
| Cognition | Willpower | 1d4 | 1d6+2 | 1d8+4 | 1d12+6 | 1d20+10 | Hin Vin, Tharsis |
| Endurance | Stamina | 1d4 | 1d6+2 | 1d8+4 | 1d12+6 | 1d20+10 | Sinthos, Tharsis |
