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| Art by Joyce Maureira from Godbound free art pack |
These were one of the first classes I built for the settling, which is inspired by Omers Mechanist post. At the time I was looking for something different to the Dwarven Mechanist. Before I removed Dwarves from the game and replaced them with Gnomes. This has been a somewhat organic process.
THE MAGI
Prime Requisite: WIS and INTRequirements: None
Hit Dice: 1d6
Maximum Level: 14
When the gods passed beyond the world after the Arrival the voices from the heavens fell silent. Their followers found themselves powerless in a world shattered from the great conflict, to this day any followers of the old faiths are known as the ‘speakers of the dead’. But from the destruction of the old arose ingenuity and creation combined with the arts of science to give birth to the mysterious source. Some from the old faiths worked with artisans and scientists to learn how to tap this source, divine power without divine influence, a man made god. Their practices and miracles spread throughout the land helping hold back the descent of civilisation and knowledge into total collapse.
Magi are trained to defend their missions from threats, though they lack the raw ability and focus in the martial arts of fighters. At first level, magi hit an unarmored foe (AC 0) with an attack throw of 10+. They advance in attack throws and saving throws by two points every four levels of experience (as clerics). They may fight wielding a weapon and shield or wielding a weapon two-handed, but cannot dual wield. Magi may wear chain mail or lighter armor, but are proficient in only a small group of weapons, including the arbalest, crossbow, club, mace, staff, and warhammer. They may use any magic item usable by clerics.
The most recognisable and honed skill of the magi is the ability to design, build, and repair automatons. Automatons are machines similar to magical constructs, but using clockwork, steam engines, gears, and valves in place of dweomercraft. Their training and focus on mechanical engineering grants them specialized knowledge of automatons. They gain a +1 to throws to design, repair and build automatons (factored into the table below). They can recognize common automatons after careful investigation with a proficiency throw of 11+, but are unable to recognize uncommon or unique automatons, to discern command words, or to assess the specific abilities of an item. This ability is the same as the proficiency of the same name and stacks with any additional selections of the mechanical engineering proficiency.
Starting at 2nd level (Aspirant), magi may manifest the power of the source in the form of divine spells, which are granted through ritual and servitude. The power and number of divine spells available to the character are determined by level according to the Magi Spell Progression table. See the Spells list below for the list of all spells available to Magi.
In order to use spells and draw on the mysterious source a magi must uphold the doctrines of their order. These doctrines include the doctrine of ritual, the doctrine of advancement, and the doctrine of practice. In the doctrine of ritual the magi must perform a personalised daily ritual to show their worthiness to receive the gifts of the source. For the doctrine of advancement the magi must seek to expand and spread the influence of the source. Finally the doctrine of practice calls on the magi to practice their art for the betterment of their society, for without people it is said the source will wither and die. If a magi ever fails to uphold the doctrine they can fall out of favour with the source, this often manifests as penalties that are applied to the magi by the source. These penalties are entirely up to the Judge, but might include penalties to attack or a reduction in spells available. The source itself is unaligned and without will and while magi tend to be lawful and rule abiding in nature some have been known to warp the doctrine and follow a chaotic path. More information on casting spells and individual spell descriptions can be found in the Spells chapter.
When a magi reaches 5th level (Professor), he may begin to research spells, scribe scrolls, and brew potions. At 9th level (Principal), he is able to create more powerful magic items such as weapons, rings, and staffs. At 11th level, a cleric may learn and cast ritual divine spells of great power (6th and 7th level). These activities are explained in the Campaign chapter.
Upon attaining 9th level (Principal), a magi may establish or build a mission. So long as the magi is currently in favor with the source, he may buy or build his mission at half the normal price due to engineered providence. Once a mission is established, the magi’s reputation will spread and he will attract 5d6x10 0th level soldiers armed with various weapons, plus another 1d6 magi of 1st-3rd level to serve the mission. They are completely loyal (morale +4). While in the magi’s service, his followers must be provided food and lodging, but need not be paid wages. The Judge determines which proportions of followers are archers, infantry, etc. Missions follow the rules for fortified churches as detailed in the Campaign chapter.
Magi Proficiency List (28): Alchemy, Apostasy, Armor Training*, Battle Magic, Command, Contemplation, Craft, Divine Blessing, Divine Health, Engineering, Fighting Style, Healing, Inventing*, Jury-Rigging*, Knowledge, Laying on Hands, Loremastery, Magical Engineering, Martial Training, Mechanical Engineering*, Personal Automaton*, Precise Shooting, Quiet Magic, Scavenging*, Theology, Tinkering*, Unflappable Casting, Weapon Focus.
(* from players companion)
Class proficiencies at: 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th.
General proficiencies at: 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th.
Reclaimer Template: This pre-generated template represents a magi seeking to reclaim knowledge and artifacts from the age of enlightenment. The template is ready for adventure. However, if your reclaimer's INT is 13 or greater, you may pick one or more additional general proficiencies before play if you’d like (see Starting Proficiencies in Chapter 4 of ACKS). Additionally an advanced template ready for play at adventurer level play (6,000XP and 4,000gp) is listed below it.
Template: Reclaimer
Proficiencies: Magical Engineering, Knowledge (history)
Starting Equipment: Crossbow, case with 20 bolts, war hammer, chain mail armor, purple magi's cassock, leather belt, low boots, waterskin with fresh water, backpack, small sack, machinist’s tools, 1 week’s iron rations, 4gp. (6 ⅚ st., Move 90’/30’)
Template: Veteran Reclaimer
Proficiencies: Magical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Knowledge (history)
Starting Equipment: Masterwork crossbow (+1 to hit), case with 20 bolts, masterwork war hammer (+1 to damage), masterwork chain mail armor (+1 AC), purple magi's cassock, leather belt, low boots, waterskin with fresh water, backpack, small sack, machinist’s tools, 1 week’s iron rations, 194gp, 3,000 gp magic item chance (p.259 of ACKS). (6 ⅚ st., Move 90’/30’)
Magi Level Progression & Spell progression
Magi (Cleric) Attack and Saving Throws
Magi Divine Spell List
Magi Notes
Max level: 14
Tradeoff: Armor from Unrestricted to Broad for 1 power.
Tradeoff: Drop Turn Undead for 2 custom powers.
Powers: Add machinist abilities for a cost of 3, but reduce to 2 as they cannot create magical constructs at level 11. (technically at 11 they would gain the normal cleric ability so it’s cost addition is just bringing a version of the power forward, though this is a slight discount)
Powers: Mechanical engineering proficiency (I shoe horned this in to give them a different feel, more scientific, compared to other mechanist classes)
Weapons: Narrow, 6 choices; arbalest, crossbow, club, mace, staff, and warhammer.
Edit 17/11/19 - The need staffs, as a lot of staffs on the random table are staffs, replaced hand axe. I noticed swords had crept in, removed them and replaced dagger with club. Also fixed list above to include arbalest.
Save: cleric
Magic items: cleric
Spells: Close to cleric but focused around detection, illumination and mechanical. Similar to the chevalier in some ways, why so similar, the source, the tombeau, I wonder if they are related...
Prime requisites: WIS as a cleric, but adding INT for flavour and balance (It is generous on the cheaper powers)
Post 9 hp: as cleric = 1 per level
Experience: 500 + 500 + 500 = 1,500; Round 7 to 50,000; Post 8 = CLR 100,000 (effectively the same as a cleric)
Rank Names: Were based on academic/university ranks. Many have similarities to religious ranks given religion and teaching are historically intermixed. This helps make them feel slightly different to clerics.
