Sorcerous sorceries for the sorcerous sorcerers.

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TheCacklackian
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Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2020 3:59 am

Sorcerous sorceries for the sorcerous sorcerers.

Post by TheCacklackian »

Miasma:A sorcerer can create a thick inky fog of nether which slowly eats away at targets in melee range, doing damage to exposed areas. If the target is not wearing a mask, it will do extra damage to their torso and neck as it slowly dissolves their throat and lungs from the inside out.

Soul Harvest:Allows us to attempt to harvest the soul shreds from a corpse. The number of soul shreds is based on the size of a corpse. Soul shreds are often used to power some spells, and can be consumed from a talisman to grant a sorcerer a burst of energy, based on the number of shreds consumed.

Curses:Curses are metaphysical spells that cause afflictions and hindrances on living entities, usually by latching onto parts of the soul, and then enacting physiological changes on the victims neurochemistry to cause various effects, with severity depending on the caster's sorcery and the victim's meditation. Curses often require line of sight, or for more powerful sorcerers, a few drops of the victim's blood, which is usually consumed in the hex weaving. When some hexes are successful, you may not even know you've been hexed until the effects begin to kick in. However, should a hex fail, it is often appearant.

Curse of Vertigo: Victims of this curse often experience bouts of nausea and find it difficult to maintain balance, or and it often hinders melee combat, and/or dodge.
(This curse could maybe cause enemies to lose balance occassionally, or have negative rerolls to dodge, melee, stealth, ect?)

Curse of Insanity:Victims of the Insanity curse progressive lose large mounts of Sanity, often causing them to have bouts of paranoid schizophrenia, depression, and bi-polarism, and often victims speak total gibberish. (Effects
(Slowly degrades a person's sanity while having various nonreal effects at random. For best results, don't have this show up with 'sanity', so that players have no clue what's going on. Also give some space for GM's to muddle with the afflicted. Don't go so far as to 'force' players to do things while cursed unless it's part of normal sanity. Maybe cause bards to be unable to use words of power due to speaking utter gibberish.)

Coward's Curse:Victims of this curse often experience extreme bouts of panic or fear, disrupting the ability to think straight.
(Standard fear spell, which can have a variety of effects? Makes arcana or occult harder due to inability for rational thinking)

Curse of the Tainted:Afflicts a victim with a short lived major taint.
(Pretty much as it sounds, temporariliy afflict a victim with severe taint, causing ferrous materials to harm them greatly.)

Blood Signature:Hex Work-Skilled sorcerers can inflict hexes on a target with nothing more than a few drops of their blood. This allows a sorcerer to cast a hex on someone regardless of location, at the cost of consuming the blood vial, and a large portion of the sorcerer's energy. (this happens regardless of if the hex is successful or not)


Minion Abilities, Incorporeal:Would love to see the ability to create other nethrim which can be tamed for very long periods of time but have a chance of becoming hostile at random, especially if their creator should become memorized, or they end up in the present of more powerful nethrim. As such I would seperate this into two seperate forms. Familiars being completely and holy loyal to their creature, but taking a large amount of energy to create, and having skills that mirror that of the creator and end up being easy to control, and nethrim which are created from what remains of the soul in the blood of a corpse, creating more powerful incorporeal nethrim, at the cost of them being harder to control. I think it also allows for a way to have more than one 'pet' without it being entirely risk free. You can only ever have one familiar/familiar based minion, but the number of 'created' nethrim you can have can be higher, at the cost of losing control over more of them. The more you have, the more dangerous it becomes and the less control you have over each minion.

Shadow Familiar:By molding together nether, a small amount of soul shreds, and imprinting a small fragment of the sorcerer's soul into spell, a sorcerer is able to produce a shadow familiar. This is a small loyal nethrim that is roughly the size of a child, with two glowing blue eyes. These nethrim are heavily reliant on their creator for their attributes, having a maximum energy based on the sorcery skill of their master, and skills that mirror his. The creation of a familiar is often tiring, and due to the fragment of a soul required for a sorcerer to create one, it is heavily unsafe to create more than one.

Desiccate:A sorcerer is able to corrupt the remaining soul shreds in a corpse's blood, and force them to coalesce into some form of nethrim, the type often determined by what entity is desiccated. Due to the method involved, the corpse often ends up withered and dried up, making it completely devoid of soul shreds for harvest, and completely unusable in minor animation, and fairly fragile for major animation. The nethrim when initially created are hostile to any non nethrim entity, and must be bound, however, these forms of nethrim are not easy to control and often can be unwieldly, even when bound. Nethrim that are created depend on the creature dessicated

Human:
Highest Combat Stat
Ranged:Spectre
Melee:Wraith or Phantom.

Animals:
Horse:Nightmare
Insect:Nightmare Flies
Dog:Hell Hound
Cat:Chimera
Ect Cetra


Bind:A sorcerer of sufficient skill and willpower can force a nethrim under his control. Most nethrim are able to be bound for short periods of time, however those formed by desiccate can be bound for long periods of time, when done properly. The more nethrim that are bound, the easier it is for them to break the sorcerer's control, especially should the sorcerer be unskilled. Should a sorcerer get greedy, they can quickly find themselves horridly outnumbered by their former minions as they assault him from all angles. Absolute maximum is based on your sorcery skill, though the higher the number you have, the more likely they are to turn on you.

Obliterate:The ability to fragment a nethrim into a small number of souls shreds, this ability is fairly difficult, and can only be used on bound nethrim. A failed cast will result in a bound nethrim turning hostile, and often causing some form of mental whiplash in the mortal that just tried to shatter it into shreds.
(Instantly kills a bound/friendly nethrim turning it into several soul shreds if successful. If unsuccessful, causes fear, mesmorization, stagger, or root to the sorcerer and the nethrim turns hostile.)

Amalgamate:A sorcerer is able to combine a number of soul shreds, ambient nether, bound nethrim, and their shadow familiar into one, powerful entity should the ritual be successful. This ability often takes a long time to complete, a large number of soul shreds, any and all bound nethrim including animates, and your shadow familiar/shadow familiar based animate. Should you succeed you will find yourself with one of several different forms of amaglomates, with skills based on your sorcery, and the skills of the combined nethrim. The form they take varies on location:Wraiths-Ambushing NetherClaw using melee nethrim that do fairly good damage but have somewhat low energy. Spectres(Ranged casters with medium damage/energy), Phantoms(Close ranged nethrim that are do draining attacks for moderate damage, but that leech energy from a target, these nethrim also typically have high energy.) If you fail the ritual, the powerful nethrim is likely to be hostile to it's creator, and often the creator ends up very tired from the ritual itself. Amaglomates are loyal, and will not turn on their creator, however, they are still hard to control, and can lash out against others in unpredictable ways.


Minion Abilities, Corporeal:I want to see more than just minor animates with warlocks here. So my understanding of Minor animations are any animation that has a functional 'living' body. This means the nethrim would control the corpse via the brain, meaning that nethrim derived from humans, eg familiars/human shades, ect, can only animate humans, however minor animates are able to gain energy over time from metabolic processes as well as heal. On the other hand there are Major Animates, which is using sorcery to animate anything that doesn't have a biologically functional body. This can be badly damaged corpses, or golems, these animates do not heal over time, nor do they have a way to regain energy on their own, making them much harder to maintain than minor animates, however, they are resistant to most forms of dirty tricks, pain, bleeding, and do not require rest, oxygen, or food. They also function roughly via 'puppeting' a corpse by my understanding, meaning that non human animates are much easier as major animates than minor ones.

Minor Animate:A sorcerer is able to guide a familiar, amaglomate, or bound nethrim(human based only and dangerous as the things that apply to bound nethrim apply to their animates as well) into a human corpse fit for life, to reanimate them into a living entity, controlled by nether. These animates are often only as durable, or strong as any other human, and have a mixture of skills based on it's skills while it was alive, and the skills of the nethrim used to animate it. Should these animates be created by bound nethrim, they are still able to revolt against their creator if the situation allows for it. Minor animates can be healed via normal medical practices, and can gain energy on their own, however they must rest to do so like any other human. Should a minor animate die, the nethrim that is used to create it will coalesce into a nethrim again, however it will often be low on energy.

Major Animate:A more advanced animation technique, in which a nethrim is inserted into something that is biologically unfit for life. The nethrim is able to puppet the entity should it fairly well suited to being puppeted, such as a human corpse, or skeleton which may have sustained massive damage already. The benefits of major animates are that they no longer die from mortal blows, or strikes to 'vital' areas, instead only falling when their energy has been completely deplete, however massive injuries will still hinder their ability to fight. Major animates can't be healed by normal methods, though some, such as skeletons can be repaired by replacing damaged bones with new ones(usually found from human butchering). These animates have skills based solely on the nethrim used to create them, and will not regain energy without outside assistance, usually from essence transfer. When the animate dies the nethrim powering it will reform outside of the carcass, with drastically reduced energy.

Major Animation:Advanced-This ability would cover the advanced techniques in major animation the assembly of skeletons, golems, and major animates from animal carcasses.

Skeletons:Unlocks skeletal recipes, Built via the build command, these entities require bones found from humans or animals, the type of skeleton depending on what the bones were found for.
Examples:Human Skeleton, Feline Skeleton, Dog Skeleton ect. Skeletons are fragile to crush/bludgeon/puncture, but heavily resistance to pierce, slash, and hack.

Golems:Unlocks Golem recipes. Constructed from non-dense inanimate materials, typically wood, golems tend to be very slow, but have extreme resistance to most forms of damage(higher defense, lower offensive skills) They can be built from wood that has been prepared for this purpose, or should you have a large assortment of bones, it is possible to create a bone golem. There are other forms of golems that can be created from other materials, though these would be much less practical, and thus are not typically taught.

Animal Animates:The concept of animating animals is by no means a basic form of animation, even with major animates. Animals however can be animated by skilled sorcerers. Their offense skills would be based on the nethrim that animated them, however, their maximum energy, and energy drain per attack are based on the size of the animal created. Larger animates tend to be harder to maintain energy wise, though often are much more brutal in combat due to their overall size, and the weight behind attacks. However, smaller animals take much less energy to keep 'undead' but don't usually have as many capabilities.

Major Animate:Patchwork-The art of replacing broken bones, and patching patches of damaged flesh with bonuses from the following skills:Medical, Leatherworking, tailoring, and skinning. Unlocks 'flesh golem, and patchwork animate' recipes.
(Patchwork animates being something like frankenstein, having various bones and types of flesh sewn together)

Demonology:A rare ability to create flesh from pure nether, few sorcerers are able to learn the art of creating demonic flesh. This ability can be used in combination with major animate to create a demonic body, and animate it into a demon. This process is difficult, and demons, regardless of the nethrim used to create them, can sometimes break free of a sorcerer's control, even able to corrupt familiars or amalgamates that are embedded into their body. Demonic flesh cannot be healed in any way, though they can still be empowered via essence transfer. Demons often have high offensive stats and damage, with fairly low defenses, and are typically very aggressive, even when controlled properly.

Animate Recipes: Works similar to other recipe skills, only based on sorcery, you'll learn how to 'build' various shells for major animates, unlocking large classes of them based on abilities such as major animation:advanced which unlocks skeletal animates, and golems, while demonology unlocks demonic shells. Major animate recipes are likely significantly less recipe point intensive than demonology recipes, which likely take large amounts of sorcery skill and recipe points to learn.

Human Butchering:Based on skinning, players would be able to butcher/skin humanoids for flesh and bones to be used in flesh golems, patchwork animates, and skeletal animates.
TheCacklackian
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Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2020 3:59 am

Re: Sorcerous sorceries for the sorcerous sorcerers.

Post by TheCacklackian »

It should be noted, necromancy is very probably illegal or at the least, shunned. most major animates should not be allowed into towns. Minor animates maybe able to allowed into town as long as they are 'normal'. Amalgomates and familiars can be turned invisible, though bound nethrim can not be. Showing your nethrim in town is heavily unadvised, and you should not do it unless you wish to be attacked by townsfolks for conjuring dangerous entities in town.
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nobody
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Re: Sorcerous sorceries for the sorcerous sorcerers.

Post by nobody »

I'll chime in with a concern and an observation.
TheCacklackian wrote: Mon Oct 12, 2020 10:58 pm Curse of Insanity:Victims of the Insanity curse progressive lose large mounts of Sanity, often causing them to have bouts of paranoid schizophrenia, depression, and bi-polarism, and often victims speak total gibberish. (Effects
(Slowly degrades a person's sanity while having various nonreal effects at random. For best results, don't have this show up with 'sanity', so that players have no clue what's going on. Also give some space for GM's to muddle with the afflicted. Don't go so far as to 'force' players to do things while cursed unless it's part of normal sanity. Maybe cause bards to be unable to use words of power due to speaking utter gibberish.)

Curse of the Tainted:Afflicts a victim with a short lived major taint.
(Pretty much as it sounds, temporariliy afflict a victim with severe taint, causing ferrous materials to harm them greatly.)
I just wanted to briefly voice my concern based on my other reading
Kiyaani wrote: Sat Feb 29, 2020 12:09 pm Q: Will PCs still be able to become tainted/canim/ect?
A: Regarding PCs and various afflictions: Becoming tainted by nether will still happen. I'll give my usual disclaimer that while this may have some potentially beneficial side-effects, it is not meant to be an Overall Balanced Good Thing. It's a thing most people avoid for good reason. Regarding infested and canim, there are remote chances a character might suffer from them, but that's generally on GM initiative rather than the player's, and players shouldn't make character concepts based around the ideas. Again: They're bad conditions and not meant to be overall positive "cursed with awesome" situations (even if some aspects are indeed awesome), and those two in particular are conditions that could cause an individual to lose their ability to control themselves, essentially resulting in the player losing the character.

Q: So they may confer additional benefits but are more often than not negative attribute? I was just curious if they'd still affect PCs.
A: Yep. They can potentially affect PCs, and I'm just hoping people will treat those situations as bad, rather than encouraging and embracing the affliction only to be upset when it could result in the character's eventual unplayability.
-- abilities that dish out "large amounts" of sanity damage or major afflictions could (if my understanding of the mechanics are correct) cause a character to become unplayable. That's like throwing a perma-death override over someone else's choice to play an undying character and very not cool. Be cool.


And now for that observation:
TheCacklackian wrote: Mon Oct 12, 2020 10:58 pm Shadow Familiar:By molding together nether, a small amount of soul shreds, and imprinting a small fragment of the sorcerer's soul into spell, a sorcerer is able to produce a shadow familiar. This is a small loyal nethrim that is roughly the size of a child, with two glowing blue eyes. These nethrim are heavily reliant on their creator for their attributes, having a maximum energy based on the sorcery skill of their master, and skills that mirror his. The creation of a familiar is often tiring, and due to the fragment of a soul required for a sorcerer to create one, it is heavily unsafe to create more than one.

Bind:A sorcerer of sufficient skill and willpower can force a nethrim under his control. Most nethrim are able to be bound for short periods of time, however those formed by desiccate can be bound for long periods of time, when done properly. The more nethrim that are bound, the easier it is for them to break the sorcerer's control, especially should the sorcerer be unskilled. Should a sorcerer get greedy, they can quickly find themselves horridly outnumbered by their former minions as they assault him from all angles. Absolute maximum is based on your sorcery skill, though the higher the number you have, the more likely they are to turn on you.

Obliterate:The ability to fragment a nethrim into a small number of souls shreds, this ability is fairly difficult, and can only be used on bound nethrim. A failed cast will result in a bound nethrim turning hostile, and often causing some form of mental whiplash in the mortal that just tried to shatter it into shreds.
(Instantly kills a bound/friendly nethrim turning it into several soul shreds if successful. If unsuccessful, causes fear, mesmorization, stagger, or root to the sorcerer and the nethrim turns hostile.)
Would it be possible with these for a rival sorcerer to obliterate (or bind and then obliterate) another sorcerer's familiar thus permanently diminishing that sorcerer's soul (and ability to create future familiars)? I'm not opposed, it'd be on par with druidry I think, but a very interesting choice/suggestion all the same.

Edit to add: I realized I have an embeded assumption that taking another's soul wouldn't heal over time, and realized I have no lore justification for that assumption. So... *shrug* maybe not permanently hobbling another sorcerer's soul?
TheCacklackian
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Re: Sorcerous sorceries for the sorcerous sorcerers.

Post by TheCacklackian »

nobody wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2020 12:46 pm I'll chime in with a concern and an observation.


-- abilities that dish out "large amounts" of sanity damage or major afflictions could (if my understanding of the mechanics are correct) cause a character to become unplayable. That's like throwing a perma-death override over someone else's choice to play an undying character and very not cool. Be cool.
Neither the insanity debuff nor the taint debuff would last particularly long. The insanity one would maybe last an hour or two at the most, while the taint one would be probably in the range of 10-15 minutes at the most, ergo 'short lived' section of the description. Good question though seeing as I'm also opposed to being able to apply permanent afflictions.
nobody wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2020 12:46 pm And now for that observation:

Would it be possible with these for a rival sorcerer to obliterate (or bind and then obliterate) another sorcerer's familiar thus permanently diminishing that sorcerer's soul (and ability to create future familiars)? I'm not opposed, it'd be on par with druidry I think, but a very interesting choice/suggestion all the same.

Edit to add: I realized I have an embeded assumption that taking another's soul wouldn't heal over time, and realized I have no lore justification for that assumption. So... *shrug* maybe not permanently hobbling another sorcerer's soul?
I'd be up for having sorcerers be able to bind and obliterate rival sorcerers minions, though I don't think this would extend to familiar, or familiar based animates. Possibly for amalgamates, though even if it is extended to the shadow familiar, perhaps the sorcerer would be able to mend their soul with soul shreds from another entity, or via essence leech. If sorcerer one obliterated sorcerer 2's familiar, perhaps sorcerer 2 has reduced maximum energy until they are able to mend their soul?

I do think that if sorcerers are able to bind other sorcerer's 'minions', the roll should be based on the sorcerer's stats and not the minions, likely with negative rerolls for the master if they have several minions as it is harder to maintain command of so many.
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