What A Woman Knows (GLoG Chassis: Witch)

You walk the line between two worlds, and have created something new in its wake. Artisans fear you, for you collude with forces that cannot be fully understood, and it in turn despises your brazenness. You are both mentor and student, caregiver and warrior.

You are a Witch, with all that entails. 

For more information: part 1, part 2, part 3 (must rewrite eventually)
Art by Zhang Shu

THE WITCH

Mystic (d4 HP d4 ST)

+1 Magic Dice per Template

Starting Skill: 1) Botany 2) Literature 3) Woodcarving 4) Knotcraft 5) Alchemy 6) Horticulture

Starting Equipment: Per witch coven. In addition, gain a big hat, a gown with a removable skirt, a satchel bag (three slots), & two Tools of the Trade.

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A – Witch's Craft

B – Hybrid Tutelage, Study Group

C – Share The Load, +1 Hex

D – This Too Shall Pass

+

Δ – Mother's Love 

Δ – Ugly Superstition

Your Magic Die is a d4, which is returned to your dice pool on a roll of 1-2 and expended on a roll of 3-4. You are proficient with simple knives, staves, and occult implements (as if you were an Artisan), along with whatever else your coven provides.

Witch's Craft

Hexes

As you gain templates in this class, you learn Hexes. Hexes are minor charms & curses unique to your craft which require your Magic Dice to function. Unlike traditional spells, any MD invested into a hex are immediately returned to your dice pool once their effects end—usually when the duration elapses—unless the subject is destroyed or killed, in which case they are expended.

You can have as many hexes active at one time as you have Witch levels. It is possible to replenish Magic Dice that're currently invested in a hex, such as through rest, but any MD returned while your dice pool is full are lost. Hexes cannot generate Temerity (see below).

You learn two hexes when you take your first template in this class. For a comprehensive list of hexes available to all Witches, see the list at the bottom of the page.

Finally, while wearing your big hat, any hexes you cast are as if you invested +1 MD, though most people will now immediately identify you as a Witch. 

Invocations 

Being a Witch, you also gain the right to participate in Invocations—exceptionally powerful hexes. Invocations are a protected and secretive form of spell-casting for Witches, and are often unique to the covens they originate from. Any MD invested in an Invocation ritual cannot be replenished until their effects end. The caster may, however, allow up to [level] other Witches participating in the ritual to invest their Magic Dice in her stead.

You don't know any Invocations when you become a Witch, but you will eventually gain enough knowledge (and experience) for your Coven to teach you their signature curse. You might also be able to find them (along with new spells & hexes) in other, more distant places...

Coven

A Witch gains its spell list, as well as additional features and proficiency, through their chosen Coven. The list of currently available covens for this chassis can be found below:

1. Colorful Witches (links to come)
   
2. Blood Witches
3. Tide Witches
4. Lead Witches

Hybrid Tutelage

Your spell-casting is scrutinized for stepping between the dual worlds, but this freedom can be used to your advantage. Whenever you cast a spell that returns one or more of your MD, fill that many Memory Slots with Temerity. You can also convert this resource into Serenity at a rate of one slot per hour during downtime, so long as you aren't doing anything else. These are your Scale Resources.

Should either scale exceed your Witch level, you become Unbalanced. In this state, you must consume Temerity or Serenity in order to cast spells — though you can consume either, not just the resource at fault — and doing so harms you: one Hit Point & one Strain per slot, respectively. However, you add +X to the total [sum] of your MD rolls for each slot of Temerity you consume, and +X to the total [dice] of your MD rolls for each slot of Serenity. You remain Unbalanced until these totals no longer exceed your Witch level.

[note: You have ten memory slots, which function like inventory slots. Spells go here, as well as new languages, curses, and other nasty—or beneficial—effects. Strain is, similarly, a psychological companion to HP. Your hexes, like cantrips, don't take up slots.]

You lose all of your Temerity & Serenity when you finish a long rest. Some Witch spells are vulnerable to the presence of your scale resources, however, and can be cast as modified versions if one is inserted into its slot. This prevents you from losing that resource until either the modified spell is cast or another spell consumes it while you are Unbalanced.

Study Group

While engaged in downtime activity, you have an additional X-in-6 chance of learning a rumor, where X equals the number of Witches involved in the same activity. Visiting a coven grants you a rumor automatically—though as a wandering girl, you may be obliged to perform some task that they cannot.

Share The Load

You can exchange spells & hexes with other Witches. This process takes a couple of minutes, and costs both participants one Strain, as the spell (and any embedded scale resources) slithers into their brain. You can also send a spell directly, without an exchange, for two Strain. Bring tea?

Additionally, the first time you cast a spell each day that removes you from the Unbalanced state, your party regains one Strain.

This Too Shall Pass

Once per day, if a spell you cast while Unbalanced would deal damage or strain to you, you may ignore it. As a reaction, you may instead activate this feature targeting another Witch you can see who would become injured in the same way.

Trust In The Goodly Moon
'Frpth' by Marina Krivenko

Δ - Mother's Love

Rescue three mundane women from certain danger, offer them the necessities, then provide them with an acceptable new lifestyle.

You may adopt a hireling into your coven given a month of downtime, after which they become a Witch A. You can train any number of witches, but only [# of Witch templates] may travel with you at one time.

Δ - Ugly Superstition

Become unbalanced in both the Occult and Primeval doctrines—spend a season in this state.

Save vs Mutation, with a +1 bonus for each Witch template you possess. On a success, gain the Druid A template and choose an inserted spell: that spell is added to your Coincidence table. On a failure, you are cursed by the green door and begin your transformation into a Hag.

 [note: While a lot easier to achieve at low levels, you put yourself at risk of Hagdom—a death sentence for fledgling Witches. Matrons and experienced Witches, however, have much higher chances of success, although they must seek out other means if they wish to store all of the necessary spells inside of their head.]

I love the headless vulture in this one
Art by Aleksander Brodzinski

Witch's Hexes

Hex: Call
R: touch T: a poppet, totem, or figurine you've crafted (1 hour) D: until slain

You perform a ritual which invites spirits to inhabit your offered vessel, and something has taken root. The familiar's form is small and resembles an animal of your choosing, which needn't fit the vessel used, although the process of transmogrification introduces certain complications. It is friendly and helpful to you in every way it can. Unlike an Artisan's pet, it doesn't need to be persuaded to do things.

Your familiar can be instantly killed by a sword strike. For every magic die invested after the first, they gain one of the following benefits:

• Your familiar can fly, swim, and climb uneven terrain, if it couldn't before. It does not need wings to fly, nor does it require air to breathe.
• Your familiar gains two inventory slots, which also serve as memory slots. Items placed within these slots can be accessed by others using a password.
• You can see and hear through your familiar's senses, so long as you are within one mile of each other. Your own senses are muffled while doing so.

Hex: Evil Eye

R: long T: a living creature D: ten minutes

You lock eyes with another and burn your gaze into their mind. You can always see a vague outline of your target, even through obstructions such as smoke or trees, but they can see you in the same manner. This penetration is stopped by a foot of stone. For every MD invested after the first, you gain one of the following benefits:

• The afterimage is blinding—both characters have -1 Save for the duration.
  
• Your visual effects are tripled, allowing you to see through three feet of stone or an inch of lead.
• A red-hot phosphene of your inner face flashes across their vision. Target must Save vs Fear. Replaces normal effect, unless you invest in multiple benefits. You cannot use this effect again for the next minute.
  
• Flickering spirits form a trail towards the target, which lasts for the duration. If the target moves away from you, the trail follows their movements exactly, even when out of sight.
  

 Hex: Fly

R: touch T: a broomstick, cushion, or chair (1 hour) D: until slain

You inscribe runes into an object and invite spirits to inhabit it. The enchanted object floats a foot off the ground, remaining adjacent to you at all times unless it is placed somewhere, where it stays put until retrieved. The object can support the weight of you and your carried equipment, but refuses to carry much else. For every MD invested after the first, you gain one of the following benefits:

• You may speak a command word to call the object to you, so long as it is within shouting distance. This command can also be used to deactivate its flight, turning it into a mundane object or back at will.
• The object will now (begrudgingly) carry an additional passenger, so long as they are no bigger than yourself and could reasonably fit.
  
• You can now engage in limited bouts of true flight. Pointing and speaking a command word will cause the object to fly you to a location that you can see adjacent to a physical object, where it will remain until you either dismount or make another command. Every third time you do this, Save vs Destruction or the object breaks—only once you're safely dismounted.
  
• Your movement speed is tripled when sprinting while mounted.

Hex: Flock
R: self T: 15' radius D: one hour

An area around you is enveloped by stimuli: visual static and eye floaters, the smell of boiling leather, and other signs of coincidence. While traveling in a group, you cannot be identified through sensory means—onlookers cannot single you out from the crowd, even if they know you are present. For each MD invested after the first, you gain one of the following benefits:

• Magic can detect your presence within a crowd, but not your exact location. Fails against spells cast in quick succession, exceptionally powerful divination, or creatures with true-sight.
  
• Allies gain +X Stealth within your radius, where X equals the number of characters present with Witch templates. This does not stack with itself.
• Your sensory obscurement extends to allies for the duration.
  

Hex: Seal

R: 30' T: a small object D: until dispelled

A one-handed object that you can see (a sword, book, or wine bottle) is sealed shut. Creatures struggle to open (or unsheathe) the object, and must use an action to successfully release the hex. The first X attempts automatically fail, where X equals the number of MD invested after the first.

Hex: Shroud
R: touch T: self (1 hour) D: one hour

You meticulously apply a glamour to your body, disguising yourself as a medium-sized animal whose heart, eyes, and stomach you have consumed before. The guise falls apart if you take damage or fall unconscious. For every MD invested after the first, you gain one of the following benefits:

• You may speak normally while disguised.
  
• While standing still, you can remove your arms and legs from under the glamour, allowing you to interact with objects or cast spells.
  
• Taking damage no longer ruins the glamour. You gain a bite or claw attack that deals 1d8 damage.
• You gain five additional hit points while disguised.

Fear The Hound Who Speaks In Threes
'Shape on the Stairs' by Dappermouth

Tools Of The Trade

1. Witch's Hammer. A square-headed mallet, adorned with runic symbols. Twice per day, you can crush a small object (such as a mug, stone, or coin purse) to break it into its constituent parts. Larger hammers can separate bigger objects.
   
2. Skeelo Whistle. This reed whistle gives off an eerie shrill when blown. Upon use, any familiars within earshot must Save vs Paralysis. If used for longer than a few seconds, the whistle falls apart, and affected familiars gain a favor against their master.
   
3. Mimicry Kit. This collection of pelts, dyes and concoctions cover a menagerie of beasts. As part of a 1-hour ritual, you can disguise yourself as a Deer or Owl (or an equivalent) without investing any MD, and the glamour lasts four hours. If you possess the Shroud hex, you may invest MD to gain benefits as listed. One slot.
   
4. Pixie Flytrap. Not as bad as it sounds; a catch-and-release system for nature spirits. +2 MD, but can only be spent on your hexes, and are expended until they're recovered + a Long Rest. Two slots.
5. Burial Urn. About the size of a wine bottle. Anything kept inside won't rot, although it will slowly dry up. One slot.
   
6. Cauldron. Doubles as a cooking pot, so long as you remember to clean it out beforehand. Comes with some neat wheels, otherwise two slots.
7. Bag of Bones. Knucklebones, specifically. These have been whittled into something fierce, allowing for their use as caltrops, as well as whatever else bones are used for.
   
8. Bronze Broomstick. Once per day, you may speak a command word and fly to a location that you can see. If you possess the Fly hex, this does not count towards your three uses before needing to make a Save. Usable as a blunt object in a pinch. Two slots.
   
9. Talisman. Protects you from one source of Strain before becoming inert. Activates automatically, unless you decide not to use it—suit yourself! Two to a bundle, one slot.
   
10. Tea Set. Great for lunch time. Includes four cups, as well as appropriate dining ware.
11. Ritual Dagger. Sharp as a line, about as thin as one. +1 damage. One slot.
    
12. Bag of Salt. Good for ghosts, apparently. Can be used in ritual circles, recipes, and for throwing in someone's eyes. Ten doses, one slot.

Fighting Man (Classis: Fighter)

Writing this quickly for the pseudo-real system that exists in my head—apologies if my next few class posts are incomprehensible for your preferred elf-game. Generic setting dress (for now) to get a handle on what my design philosophies are.

Thanks again to Numbers Aren't Real (and some of Arnold's OG fighter) for making such excellent content to steal borrow from. I'll slowly start weaning off of your teet, I promise.

Chassis Shenanigans

You are a Fighter, with all that entails:

• you can parry like a sword-shepherd.
• You gain an extra attack at 1st level (displayed below).
• you can never fumble with conventional weapons. 

 

The Class Itself

THE FIGHTER

Warrior (d6 HD d4 PD)

+1 To-Hit per Template

Starting Skill: 1) Crop Rotation 2) Garrison Management 3) Blacksmithing

Starting Equipment: Light warhammer, medium broadsword OR longbow with 20 arrows, a buckler, leather gambeson, and a week's worth of rations.

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A – Long Day Ahead, +1 Attack

B – Notches

C – Dissociate, +1 Attack

D – Impress

+

Δ – Bannerlord

Δ – Master of One

Long Day Ahead

The first time you take a respite (short rest) each day, you regain additional hit points equal to your character level. (note: that means you heal 2x your CL, or 2x+1d6 if you eat!)

 Notches

Whenever you get a kill with a specific weapon type (such as a dagger), mark it down somewhere on your character sheet. Whenever you attain a total of 10, 30, and 50 kills, you gain one of the following bonuses:

• +1 Damage
• Expanded Critical Range (19-20)
• +4 Combat Maneuver (1/combat)

 Dissociate

One of your Psyche dice becomes a d6. You may space out for one round, at any time, to receive -1 Strain (stress damage) from any source, but you take a -d6 penalty to Tests (checks & saves) and Attack Rolls.

Mighty unhelpful in conversations, or when there's a boulder barreling towards you.

  Impress

Whenever you win a fight against challenging foes, people who don't like you make a new reaction roll with a +4 bonus. This even works on people you just defeated in combat, unless you caused them undeserved or disproportionate harm.

Δ: Bannerlord

March on a villain’s enclave/stronghold/dungeon with at least a half-dozen loyal hirelings. Take control while half of them are still standing.

 
Hirelings under your employ will follow you into certain danger: they gain a +1 to Morale checks, and will willingly put themselves in harm's way if they believe it’ll benefit the entire warband (fend off those ghouls!).

Δ: Master of One
Attain 100 notches with a singular weapon type, then challenge a master of the same weapon to a duel to the death. You must objectively win the fight—no deaths.

Whenever you deal damage with your mastered weapon, you can roll twice and select the higher number. Your critical hits deal triple damage. Your first combat maneuver each turn automatically succeeds with this weapon.

If you ever use a weapon that isn’t your mastered weapon, you must spend a week atoning at the nearest training ground.

Chaos In Completion (GLoG: Wizard Chassis)

Working Old-School, Bear With Me
Image From Tumblr

The more time that's passed with this blog, the more I've become enthralled in exploring the GLoG design space. This is all very new to me, and I'm not quite sure how it works, but I'm going to try anyhow. Maybe I'll make a GLoG Hack of my own!

This post is gonna suck, so don't take it super seriously. I'll make something actually original Soon.

Inspired, like everyone else, by The Legend Himself. Also, a shoutout to The Nothic's Eye for catching my attention so well that I wanted to rip them off.

THE CLASSICAL WIZARD

+1 Magic Dice per template (Including Deltas)

Starting Skill: 1) Runecrafting 2) Alchemy 3) Mathematics 4) Astronomy 5) Literary Studies 6) Divination

Starting Items: Per Wizard School, otherwise, Pointy Hat, Extravagant Clothing, Magic Wand or Staff or Orb, two pieces of Wizardly Ephemera (see table at post's end).
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A – Wizard School, Signature Appearance, Arcane Foci

B – Book O' Lore

C – Counterspell

D – Prepared For All

+

Δ - Apprentice

Δ - Familiar

Δ - Tower

Spellbook
You begin play with a Spellbook, which fills an Inventory Slot. It looks however you wish.

A Spellbook has enough space to hold 5 Spells (+1 per Template). While in possession of your Spellbook, you can spend an hour of grubwork to replace any number of spells you have memorized with those in your spellbook or vice versa. You can also copy spells found in scrolls directly to your Spellbook in this way.

If a Spellbook is lost, so are all the spells stored in it.
Replacing a Spellbook, or buying a new one, costs 50 Gold.
You can upgrade your Spellbook with embellishments, magical inks or pages, and additional spell space. 

Wizard School
A Wizard's Spell List, Perk, Drawback, Mishaps, and Dooms are all decided by their School.
Should hopefully work with any GLoG Wizard School.

Signature Appearance
You eat, sleep, speak and fuck like a Wizard. You also dress like one. Whether in flowing robes or a gown of glistening patterns, others will immediately identify you as a practitioner of the arcane. Consequently, you've learned to spot others much the same, allowing you to identify magic users and their tools with a gaze, even if others find it difficult to ascertain.

While not as important as your Arcane Foci, being caught outside your classic appearance would be embarrassing. It's also not very helpful, and MD are returned on a roll of 1 while improperly dressed. You keep a lot of important things in those pockets!

Also, just kidding about that first part. Wizards don't have sex.

Arcane Foci
Your arcane foci are the most important part of your wizardly repertoire because it's through them that you can cast your spells. Wizards can only be attuned to one at a time, but carrying a spare wand or staff with you never hurts, especially in a pinch. 

While attuned to your arcane foci, which takes the equivalent of an hour's rest, you gain +1 MD and a 1/day charge for a single spell you've learned.  You can expend the charge to cast that spell without using Magic Dice, instead using a number of free [dice] equal to your Wizard templates. If applicable, you take the average [sum] of those dice rounded up. You can change the applied spell when you reattune to an arcane focus.

Book O' Lore
Your Spellbook serves not only as storage for your spells, but also as a repository of information. Whenever you make a knowledge Skill check, you can burn 1 MD to subtract [sum] from the roll. 

Counterspell
You can lessen or undo the effects of a spell cast at you or your allies, by declaring you would like to Counterspell, then choosing a spell with an opposed effect - Wall of Water vs. Fireball, Alarm vs. Sleep, or Incite Anger vs. Charm Person, that sort of thing. 

If you have a Spell in your repertoire that is an effective Counterspell, then subtract your [dice]/[sum] from the [dice]/[sum] of the attacking Spell.

Prepared For All
You are always ready for the trials at hand. You can cast spells straight from your Spellbook, or from a Scroll without burning it. You declare this at the start of a given round, and cast it at the end of the round—it fizzles if you take any damage in that round.

Additionally, for the first round of combat, you cannot roll Mishaps or Dooms.

+

Δ - Apprentice
Spend up to a year training a commoner in the art of magic — then send them on a quest

Upon your Apprentice's return (2-in-6 with half year, 4-in-6 with full year), they become a level 1 Wizard with a template of your choice (preferably your own, spells rolled randomly). Your Apprentice may follow you on your quests, or be sent along their own journey, becoming a powerful Wizard in their own right.

So long as you have at least one living student (including the Apprentice of your Apprentice), your wizened body glows. You grow a magnificent beard of silvery hair, and choose two spells in your mind or Spellbook: whenever you cast these spells, you may choose to do so with +1 MD, for free.

Δ - Familiar
Convince an animal, small outsider, or other spirit creature to make a pact with you.

You become that familiar's patron — you can swap senses with them, grant it your spells and MD to cast from a distance, and communicate telepathically. If you give your familiar a Spell or MD, you don't have them until your familiar uses it.

Once a familiar has cast a given spell, it is lost until the next morning. MD expended are always burned. Your familiar may serve as a decent mount if large enough and willing.

Δ - Tower
Take possession of a comfortable defensive position. This could be a house, tower, or any other amenable locale. Then, stock it with 500 Gold Pieces worth of treasure and equipment.

You can now perform research in your private sanctum, and are reasonably protected from the elements and living dangers. You are always aware of creatures nearby or within your private sanctum, and can always find your way back no matter how lost you are.

you can also build a scrying room, crystal ball and all, which you can use to observe distant locales. (1 MD, 2 MD if you've never seen the location before).

Spellcasting
Spellcasting follows the MD rules.
You gain two Spells from your Spell List whenever you level up, representing research and grappling with the deeper mysteries of arcana.

If you roll a duplicate spell, move up or down the list until you get a spell you haven't got yet.

Roll the following Dice:
Level 1 – The first spell on your list, and roll 1d6 for the other.
Level 2 – 2d8
Level 3 – 2d10
Level 4 - Choose three spells from your list. 

Wizardly Ephemera (Once Again, Thanks Boss)
1. A Spare Hat, which is slightly less impressive than your primary one.

2. Monogrammed Handkerchief. Filthy, but classy.

3. Folding Sanctum, an overly classy name for a tent with lead-lined fabric. Keeps out most prying eyes.

4. A Handful of Planar Dirt. Gotta be useful for something, right? Choose or randomly determine the plane of origin.

5. Spellbook Case, which keeps it nice and dry in inclement conditions.

6. Calligraphy Set. For inscribing scrolls and sending letters.

7. Tarot Cards, featuring such standouts as The Lady, The City, The Spire and The Wheel. Can be used for minor divinations - roll 1d6. The closer to one the result, the worse the cards think it’ll go.

8. Telescoping Tea Set. Fills a single slot, contains tea, cups and self-heating-kettle for eight.

9. Magnifying Glass. Don’t look into portals with it!

10. Portal-Finder’s Pamphlet. Contains the locations of portals to three random planes. There’s a 2-in-6 chance that the portals are now gone, or were never there in the first place.

11. Flintlock Pistol. A light gun, for when you’re all out of spells. Comes with 20 bullets and a tiny powder-horn, for a total of two slots.

12. Address Book, which contains the stated addresses (probably decoys) of three Wizard Pen Pals, who you could write to in a pinch (or just to check in).

13. A Case of Dispaterian Cigars, which stink of hellfire for everyone but the smoker, who feels pleasant megalomania while smoking them.

14. Statuette of a Horse. Was, at one point, a Figurine of Power, but one of the legs broke off. It would be immoral to actually activate the poor thing.

15. Bastard Cat. Not all cats are bastards, that’s a mean stereotype. This one, however, very much is. Takes up two slots if you have to carry it.

16. Three Part Folding Wand. Newfangled! Contains 1MD and a random spell, but if you roll 6 when using it, the wand fucking explodes.

17. Chunk of Spirestone. A slot of chalky grey stone. Can’t be affected by magic. Good for chucking at other wizards’ heads, or as a paperweight.

18. 3d6 Coins from Various Planes. A mix of Hellmarks, Sigillite Crowns, Gehennan Stingers, Heavenly Merts, and a bunch of random Prime-World garbage. Only worth 3d6 in Sigil, probably worth 1d6 anywhere else.

19. Notebook of Observations. Can store a single spell, as per a tiny spellbook. Contains observations surrounding a wizardly obsession, useless to anyone else.

20. A Curio!
        1. Gold Chain, covered in Terran runes. The bearer of this chain is entitled to be rescued by Earth Elementals, for free, from any one cave-in or unwilling burial.

        2. Declaration of Angelum, the legal status of being an Angel. Works great with the Heavenly Bureaucracy, who, if presented with this document, will be forced to acknowledge you as a minor Deva.

        3. Half-Bottle of Burning Rye, boiled up by Night Hags in the farthest edge of Krangath. Makes you immune to the effects of cold, very drunk, and also flammable, until you sleep it off.

        4. A Gold Crown, specifically, the crown of a tiny Prime-Material kingdom. That was a wild night.

        5. Rilmanic Dagger, perfectly balanced light weapon, to the extent that the principle carries over to the wielder - they can’t be knocked over or otherwise lose their footing.

        6. Empty Soul Jar, perhaps previously occupied by a Lich. You’ve got no damn clue how to get a soul into it, but it could definitely hold one…