What I Talk About When I Talk About Prestige Classes (Part 2)

So I've been writing some posts about prestige classes. This one is to develop the idea of campaign-specific classes that help to tie the PCs into the world. They're divided according to a range of half-formed campaign ideas I've been thinking about.

Classes for a campaign based on Norse mythology

Berserker: "When Hardbeen heard this, a demoniacal frenzy suddenly took him; he furiously bit and devoured the edges of his shield; he kept gulping down fiery coals; he snatched live embers in his mouth and let them pass down into his entrails; he rushed through the perils of crackling fires; and at last, when he had raved through every sort of madness, he turned his sword with raging hand against the hearts of six of his champions."

- Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum

Berserker Rooks from the Lewis Chessmen. Note the teeth chewing the shields.

When a warrior is violently wronged - his comrades slain, his hall burned, his village slaughtered - he may become a Berserker. Such a state lasts only so long as the character quests to revenge himself upon the perpetrator of the evil deed. When entering into a berserkergang (rage) the character will gain temporary hit points, a bonus to attack and damage, and immunity to fire. However he may struggle to tell the difference between friend and foe.

Völva: The völva are seeresses who practice the mysterious magic known as seid, which allows them to gaze into the future along the strands of fate, and at higher levels to weave the threads of fate themselves. Völva are wanderers, travelling from place to place where their services are needed but rarely welcome after their task is complete. If a völva is to take on an apprentice, she must first be convinced of the character's worth and wisdom. After becoming a völva, the character can never return home again.
Male practitioners of seid, known as seidmen, are even rarer. Because they practise women's magic, they are reviled in Viking society and executed if captured.
Hermit: Sometimes the violent life of a Viking becomes too much for even the stoutest of warriors. After witnessing the death of a boon companion, a character may choose to take the Hermit class. A Hermit does not own anything he cannot carry, nor can he use any items worked by human hand, including armour and weapons. The Hermit gains tracking abilities as a Ranger, and is able to travel and feed himself without fail in even the most dire of conditions. Mundane wild animals will not harm him, and those who once knew him will not recognise him any more. The Hermit can gain bonus XP by throwing treasure away into the wilderness.
The Hermit generally renounces his class after a period of mourning, after which he returns to civilisation more or less the same as he was before. (This class is derived from certain scenes in Arrow-Odd and also the Epic of Gilgamesh.)
Skald: A Skald is a wandering poet who describes tales of wonder and glory for the entertainment of his listeners. To become a Skald, a character requires both a high Charisma and a suitably epic story to tell about their adventures. The player must then compose a poem describing the adventure and perform it. The Skald's poetry grants him the adoration of the masses and a bonus to reaction rolls for large groups of normal humans. Additionally, many fae creatures, demons and even gods can be distracted or defeated by flyting, an act of ritualized poetic insults.

Classes for Batmania

Traveller: When different Aboriginal tribes wish to communicate or trade, there are complex laws and taboos that govern their interaction. The one invested with the power to navigate these laws is called the Traveller. Travellers essentially have 'diplomatic immunity' between tribes, though this depends on their comprehensive knowledge of the local customs. This diplomatic immunity extends even to the realm of the spirits, who must accept the Traveller and not harm them as long as they obey the spirits' traditions. The Traveller is also able to sing special songs that guide them along songlines, where each landmark in the journey is related to a specific verse of the song. Travelling on songlines is always easy and free of trouble. The powers of the Traveller remain only so long as they are charged with a specific journey by their own tribe.

Classes for Hogwarts

Animagus: An Animagus is a wizard* who can transform at will into a particular animal. The species of the animal is selected randomly. The process of becoming an Animagus includes both arduous training and beastly shamanic rituals to unlock the wizard's inner creature. If the ritual goes wrong, the Animagus may become permanently trapped in animal form, or turned into a horrifying human/animal hybrid.
Legilimens: A Legilimens is a wizard trained in the art of mind-reading, allowing them to delve into the thoughts of others. They are also able to use the opposite discipline, Occlumency, to protect themselves against Legilimency and other mental attacks. Legilimency requires strenous training and can only be learned from another, more experience Legilimens.
*Of course, in Hogwarts everyone is a wizard even if they are a Fighter or a Thief.

Classes for an Antediluvian setting

False Idol: False Idols are those who are worshipped as gods, in defiance of the one true God who created the heaven and the earth. The False Idol class is unusual in that anyone or anything can take levels in it - not just humans but also animals, spirits, inanimate objects or landmarks. Instead of gaining EXP, the Idol's level is related to the number of active worshippers. The False Idol gains the ability to spontaneously cast Cleric-type spells, and at higher levels to grant such spells to its own followers.

Bonus: Classes that can be granted by PCs or NPCs

Rolang wrote up a Paladin class in response to my post, where he specifies that the Paladin is created by a high-level Cleric with the spell Initiate Paladin. This got me thinking about other master-apprentice type relationships. The following classes can be taken by PCs when they are low level, and/or granted to their hirelings when they are high level.

Trusty Sidekick: A Fighter of 6th level or above may choose to appoint one of their Fighter henchmen as a Trusty Sidekick, but only if the henchman has saved the Fighter's life. The Sidekick now has hit points or hit dice equal to their master, will never fail morale checks and will always act to protect and serve their master. (If a PC, the Sidekick can still choose to abandon their master but will lose the prestige class immediately.)

NPCs who grant Sidekick status are typically retired or semi-retired adventurers, local lords, knights, and other such who will not be likely to join the actual PC party and thus overshadow everyone else.

If the bond of the Sidekick is broken, the two characters will become Mortal Enemies, destined for strife until only one survives.

If the Sidekick or the master dies, then the other must enter a period of mourning as a Hermit (if the death was natural or immediately avenged) or a Berserker (if the killer escapes unpunished).

As well as a PC-NPC interaction, the Sidekick system could also be used as a hacky way to let low-level PCs adventure alongside high levels.

Sorcerer's Apprentice: A Magic-User of 8th level of above may take on 1-3 Apprentices. The Apprentice must be a Magic-User henchman of lower level. To initiate them, the Magic-User must grant them one spell for each level of spell that they are able to cast. Wise or paranoid masters will also require a magical blood binding which compels the Apprentice to protect and obey their master at all times, an enchantment that is difficult to be rid of. 

If an Apprentice ever exceeds the level of their master, then the blood binding is reversed. Most Apprentices will definitely seek to exploit this in order to slay their master and steal their spells.

Not really sure about the rules for these two but the concept is solid. Basically the idea is that the Sidekick relationship is about being best buddies and crying when the other person gets killed. Apprentice is the opposite of that - it's a race to get more XPs so you can dick the other guy over.

Weapons and Armour of Batmania

Flintlock Pistol
Price: 50sp
Ammunition price: 5sp
Range: 15'/25'/35'
Damage: 2d6
Reloading time: 1 round
Special: Ignores 2 points of AC.
A roll of 1 on the attack roll indicates a misfire. The gun is now unusable, and repairing it will cost 25sp.

Musket
Price: 100sp
Ammunition price: 5sp
Range: 250'/300'/450'
Damage: 2d10
Reloading time: 2 rounds
Special: Ignores 4 points of AC.
A roll of 1 on the attack roll indicates a misfire. The gun is now unusable, and repairing it will cost 50sp.

Boomerang
Price: 5sp
Range: 150'/300'/500'
Damage: 1d6
Special: If the boomerang misses, it automatically returns to the thrower. This doesn't work in enclosed areas.

Woomera
Price: 10sp
A woomera is a device used to throw spears faster and further than with bare hands. A spear thrown with a woomera increases its range to 50'/70'/90' and its damage to d8.

Plate Mail
Is still the same as regular plate mail, except it looks like Ned Kelly armour.

Body Warpaint
Available only to Aboriginal Fighters. Warpaint covers the whole body and is imbued with a mystical defensive power. It is superior to armour in that it confers no penalties to movement or action, but it must be applied regularly to be effective. Application takes 10 minutes to complete and costs more depending on the strength of the warpaint. One application lasts for six hours. If the Fighter loses more than 25% of the warpaint (i.e. by wading through water) then its power is lost.

White Warpaint: Base AC 13. Cost: 10sp. This is the most common paint used by Aboriginal warriors.
Patterned Warpaint: Base AC 15. Cost: 50sp. This paint incorporates patterns of white, red and yellow.
Dreaming Warpaint: Base AC 17. Cost: 400sp. This paint features complex images that are uniquely related to the warrior's Dreaming totem. The paints must be prepared beforehand by an Aboriginal sorcerer.
  
Not sure about how well these numbers compare to those in the LotFP rulebook. The guns are basically similar to crossbows but more expensive, deal more damage, and have a chance of a misfire. The body paint will probably be really powerful, since you can get almost up to the level of platemail without encumbering yourself at all, but it's hopefully balanced by the fact that six hours of Dreaming Warpaint is nearly half the cost of a set of plate that will last you forever. (Or until you meet that rust monster, anyway ;)

Batmania Pictures

 

One day I will run this, for sure...

Dhinnabarrada

Another type of monster to be found in Batmania. The Dhinnabarrada appear to be humans with the legs of emus. They live in secluded areas of the desert where very few other creatures can survive. Most Dhinnabarrada subsist entirely on witchety grubs. If they touch the feet of a human, he/she will be transformed into a Dhinnabarrada like them. Although they are not violently aggressive, they take great joy in converting more people to their race, and thus the Kulin and other native peoples consider them enemies. One weakness of the Dhinnabarrada is their obsession with prey animals, which they rarely get a chance to eat. An adventurer passing through the lands of the Dhinnabarrada should carry a live bandicoot, which can be released to distract the Dhinnabarrada if they attack.

(Yes, this is a real thing from Aboriginal mythology.)

Monsters of Batmania

Some of the weird monsters than inhabit Batmania:

Gumnut eyes, also known as beholders, are ferocious creatures that float through the air and fire various beams from their terrible eyes. They are spawned from eyeball gums, which superficially resemble other trees until they have grown to a certain size. The gumnuts of these trees grow larger and larger, eventually dropping off to form a new beholder. The beholder completes its life cycle by exploding into seeds after it is killed. These barbed seeds can bore through earth, leather and flesh to find a suitable place to grow. The Kulin people rightly consider this plant a menace and will burn any eyeball gums that they find.

Orcs are creatures of mud. They are generated spontaneously in the warm depths of the Yarra River, to come crawling out under the moon and drag themselves into dark caves. They are filthy creatures that defile their living space with feces and oils that drip from their skin. When one place is too vile to live in, they will move on to another. An orc's corpse will dissolve into mud within three days of death. However, if the body is left to dry in the sun it will become hollow and hard. This corpse can be fashioned into tough but brittle armour (AC strong as platemail, but on a critical hit the armour is shattered.)

Kobolds are humanoids with the bodies of young boys and the heads of dingoes. They live together in warrens where they communicate in a language of high-pitching yipping. At night they dance around bonfires in their own strange corroborrees, though none can say why. It is well known that kobolds suffer from chronic obsession and paranoia. They compulsively build primitive traps of all kinds in and around their warrens. Over time, the warren becomes crowded with traps until the kobolds begin to get killed by them. After the death count grows too high, the kobolds dismiss the warren as 'bad country' and relocate to a new home. The empty trap-filled warren is left behind.

Giants, also known as yowies, are huge hairy men who dwell in the upper slopes of the Dandenong Ranges. They are superficially similar to the hill giants of old Albion; other races, such as the fire and frost giants, are not found in Terra Australis. Like the Kulin, the yowies follow complex kinship systems, which in the yowies' case are based around order of precedence on cliff-passes. Many trails on the mountains are too narrow for more than one yowie to walk abreast, so when two yowies meet one must turn around and go back. They will often spend days locked in legal discussion to determine who must turn back, even if there is an easy passing-place within a few yards. If the yowies' discussion goes on for one full turning of the moon, they will be turned to stone.

Gnolls reside exclusively on the island of Van Diemen's Land. They are humanoids with heads that resemble the Tasmanian Devil. Their favoured tactic is to lie under mounds of wet leaves and burst out suddenly to surprise their victims. Rather than tattooing themselves, the gnolls shave off their hair in patterns that describe their kinship, country and line of descent. The most insane gnolls will even shave explosive runes into their backs so that they can never be snuck up on. The shamans of their tribes are shaved completely from head to toe.

Goblins are creatures of the paperbark trees. Their skin is white and papery, and is constantly peeling off in the same manner as a snake's skin. They live amongst paperbarks and treat the trees as their totems. However, they hate the 'knobble-bark' of other trees and are often seen chopping down or burning any flora that does not have the right kind of bark. When dissecting a goblin's body, one will find no flesh, only layer after layer of papery skin down to the bones. It is said that under the skin of the goblins, everything they have ever seen and done is recorded. Goblin shamans have their spells inscribed under the skin on the back of their head.

Campaign Idea: Batmania

The Australian mountain forests are funereal, secret, stern. Their solitude is desolation. They seem to stifle in their black gorges a story of sullen despair… The very animal life of these frowning hills is either grotesque or ghostly. Great gray kangaroos hop noiselessly over the coarse grass. Flights of white cockatoos stream out shrieking like evil souls. The sun suddenly sinks, and the mopokes burst out into horrible peals of semi-human laughter. The natives aver that when night comes, from out the bottomless depths of some lagoon the Bunyip rises, and in form like a monstrous sea-calf, drags his loathsome length from out the ooze. From a corner of the silent forest rises a dismal chant, and around a fire, dance natives painted like skeletons. All is fear-inspiring and gloomy.

- Marcus Clarke

Deep in the southern hemisphere there lies an uncharted continent known only as Terra Australis Incognita. It is a land more ancient than any other; the elves have no memory of it, the dwarves have no records of it inscribed upon their stones. Its people, the dark-skinned natives of the many tongues, have never before seen the strange white men who are now settling on their shores.

In Sydney Cove and Van Diemen's Land, small penal colonies have been established, where the overflowing inmates of Albion's soot-stained prisons are shipped to toil the rest of their days under the hot southern sun. Yet there are also men who come to this land willingly, seeking its rich natural resources, and the foremost amongst these men is John Batman. Having made his fortune in Van Diemen's Land, he has now established a third fledgling colony: a ramshackle camp on the banks of the Yarra River, which he has given the name, Batmania.

The forests of this land are thick, the mountains tall and ancient. Even the Kulin people, who have dwelled here for uncounted generations, know only a small fraction of the secrets that the uncharted bushland holds. Rumours abound of weird monsters that roam the dry interior, of enormous hairy giants who lurk in the mountains, and of cyclopean ruins of ochre stone, built by some empire lost to time. Though there are no elves or dwarves native to Terra Australis, they have rough equivalents in the brolga people and the wombat folk - strange beings who are half-man and half-creature, with whom the Kulin natives share a quiet but enduring peace.

As it was in Albion long ago, a great age of adventuring is about to begin. Swordsmen, pistoliers, sorcerers and priests from all over the world are arriving in Batmania, eager to make their fortune exploring the undiscovered country. At the same time, the young men and women of the Kulin take up their own weapons and their own magics, leaving their tribes to go 'walkabout' alone or in the company of white men. For these bold souls, either riches or death await. From the seal rocks of Phillip Island to the rugged peaks of the Dandenong Ranges, from the dusty plains of the northwest to the creeping horrors of Van Diemen's Land, they will pursue their prize, and either return as heroes or be forgotten as a few more of those who vanished into the last uncharted continent.

Note to international readers: Don't snigger. John Batman was a real person and the city where I live (Melbourne) really was called Batmania when it was first founded. It has nothing to do with a certain gravelly-voiced superhero.