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Monday, September 30, 2013

Not a Monster Monday... An archetype

This week instead of Monster Monday I present a work by a friend and sometimes collaborator John Karatovic. He wrote this awhile back as an audition peice to a world I will introduce to this blog at some point down the line. Its called Celtris and its a very cool co-creation of mine and Jeff Harris.

This week's theme is Arabian Nights and this will tie strongly with Wed article so stay tuned...



The Genie-Bound Noble

 

John Karatovic

DM_aka_Dudemeister
@johnpocalypse


 

Genie-Bound Noble (Summoner)

The genie-bound noble is born or adopted to one of the four powerful noble families in the secret city of Glim. As such you have a powerful pact with a genie who willingly harnesses the power of wishes and elemental power at your bidding.

Class Skills: A genie-bound noble gains Diplomacy and Sense Motive as class skills and does not gain Handle Animal and Ride as class skills.

Genie: At first level a genie-bound summoner  gains a genie. Unlike an eidolon a genie’s form is relatively fixed. As such genies use the following statistics:

Starting Statistics

Size: Medium; Speed 30 ft.; AC +2 Natural Armor; Saves: Fort (Good), Ref (Bad), Will (Good); Ability Scores:Str 15, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 11, Wis7, Cha 12.Bonus Feats: Light Armor Proficiency, Medium Armor ProficiencyFree Evolutions: limbs (arms), limbs (legs), Weapon Training.

Evolution List:Genies may select from the following Evolution List. Note evolutions marked with an asterisk are from Ultimate Magic.

1 Point Evolutions: Basic Magic*, Bite, Claws, Climb, Gills, Improved Damage, Improved Natural Armor, Low-Light Vision*, Magic Attacks, Pull, Push, Reach, Resistance, Skilled, Slam, Swim.

2 Point Evolutions: Ability Increase, Constrict, Energy Attacks, Flight (Su only), Grab, Immunity, Minor Magic*, Rend, Tremorsense, Trip, Weapon Training.

3 Point Evolutions:Blindsense, Burrow, Damage Reduction, Frightful Presence, Major Magic*, See In Darkness*, Swallow Whole

4 Point Evolutions: Blindsight, Breath Weapon, Dimension Door*, Fast Healing, Incorporeal Form*, Large, Lifesense*, No Breath*, Spell Resistance, Ultimate Magic*.


Summoning the genie is a full-round action and requires speaking a summoning phrase whilst holding the genie token.  Unlike an eidolon a genie remains active even if the summoner is unconscious or asleep, but if the Summoner loses contact with the token (such as if it is stolen or disarmed) then the genie immediately returns to within the token and remains there until the genie-bound summoner can perform the summoning action again. This ability otherwise is the same as the Eidolon ability.

This ability alters the Eidolon ability.

Genie Token (Su):At 1st level thegenie-boundNoble gains a token. This token is a focus for the genie-bound Noble’s magic, and a place for the noble’s genie to reside when not summoned. A genie-bound noble begins with a token at no cost and must fall into one of the following categories: amulet, ring, staff, wand or weapon. These objects are always of masterwork quality. Weapons acquired at first level are not made of any special material. If a genie-bound summoner attempts to cast a spell without the bonded object worn or in hand, he must make a concentration check or lose the spell. The DC is equal to 20 + the spell’s level. If the object is a ring or amulet it occupies the ring or neck slot accordingly.

Unlike an eidolon while a genie is not summoned it heals hit points at a rate of 1 hit point per summoner level per day. The genie must remain within 100 feet of the Token at all times, if it is between 100 to 1,000 feet the genie’s maximum and current hit point totals are immediately reduced by 50%. If the genie is between 1,000 to 10,000 feet its maximum and current hit point totals drop by 75%. If  the genie is more than 10,000 feet away it is immediately recalled into the token. Current hit points lost in this way are not restored when the genie gets closer to the token, but its maximum hit points return to normal.

This ability replaces Life Link.

Fleeting Wish 0 (Su): At 1st level a summoner may make a fleeting wish as a move action a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma Modifier. Doing so allows his eidolon to cast a single conjuration cantrip from the sorcerer/wizard spell list as a spell-like ability for one round, unlike a normal spell-like ability any material components costing more than 1 gp must be provided. The summoner must verbalize his wish, thus this ability does not operate in an area of silence or if the Eidolon suffers the deafened condition. At 3rd Level and every two levels thereafter the power of this ability increases by one spell level to a maximum of 9th level conjuration spells 19th level. At 19th level the genie may instead cast limited wish instead (the summoner or genie must still pay for any material components as normal).

This ability replaces Summon Monster I .

Elemental Wish(Su): At 10th level the genie-bound noble may use his Fleeting Wish ability to have his genie cast any spell from the sorcerer/wizard list with any one energy descriptor. Once the descriptor is chosen it may not be changed.

This ability replaces Aspect.

Miraculous Wish (Su): At 18th level the genie-bound noble may use his Fleeting Wish ability to have his genie cast any spell of the conjuration descriptor from the cleric/oracle spell list at one level lower. To a maximum of 8th level spells.

This ability replaces Greater Aspect.

True Wish(Su): At 20th level the genie-bound noble may three uses of his Fleeting Wish ability to have his genie cast Wish. The genie or the noble must provide any required material components.

 

 

 

 

 

Sidebar: Genie-Bound Nobles

The design behind the Genie-Bound Noble is to provide a summoner with more of a foot in the lore of a hero with a powerful genie, playable out of the box at 1st level. In many ways the genie is less of a combat monster than an eidolon since it receives far fewer attacks. The Genie-Bound Noble turns a summoner into a sort of limited wizard.  Ultimately the Genie-Bound Noble should take less screen-time at the table due to the limited number of attacks from a genie, and smaller number of summoned beasts on the table at a time.

3 comments:

  1. It's very reminiscent of the Oread shaitan summoner racial archetype, but unique in and of itself. Trading the summon abilities for some spell-like abilities adds a lot of variety. Without the Summon Monster ability, the summoner is a bit useless if her eidolon/genie is banished.
    You might want to add a reference that it counts as an eidolon for the purposes of spells (such as devolution and rejuvenate eidolon).
    One thing, though, regarding power- At 9th level you would be able to use six, seven, or even more 5th level spells in a day. That's a lot of extra bang, and might be stronger than a full sorcerer, who only just got 5th level spells that level. I would probably tone down the amount of uses the wish ability gets.
    Still, I love the concept!

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    1. Sorry, I've just realized that at 9th level you would only have access to 4th level spells, which is definitely a lot weaker. But the fact that you can choose any spell on the fly from an increasingly-widening spell list makes it still really strong.

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    2. If you take a look at some of the SLAs available to the normal summons for summon monster and add in the fact that if you are willing to dismiss you're eldion you can have 3+Cha of them for 10 minutes with no summoning sickness/delay its really not out of balance with what a normal summoner can do or a master summoner if you want to get scary.

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