Radiant Mind, Starlight Soul (5e Subclass)

Radiant Mind, Starlight Soul

Born of the spellplague, a new magic art rose from the shadows left in the wake of traditional methods: a form capable of great power, yet traveling in the company, of greater risk. Radiant Minds draw upon their own soul’s unwavering light, shaping and moulding the pliant filaments of starlight into new and powerful shape. Radiant Minds can cast any spell from their level, yet each only once, whereas other wizards may choose at at will, which can be applied without restraint; this grants Radiant Minds great variety, yet does so at the cost of multiple uses. Any wizard, or spell user can become a Radiant Mind, so long as they pass the Trial of Potential; yet the change can never be reversed. The player calls upon the strength of their own soul to cast powerful magics, yet this destabilizes their soul, and to do so more than once per day, is a death sentence surer than any blade can promise.

Several Arts exist, each with its own strength, and its own shortcoming. Only one can be learned, you must choose wisely. Using any art more than once per day forces the player to take the death and dying saves.

Lord of Stone

Glowing bands writhe from your fingers, plunging deep into the craggy earth. New strength burns through your veins like tide of iron and flame, wrapping your weary body in cloak of steel.

You can consume 5+level+constitution pounds of anything derived from the earth to heal one quarter of such a number in hitpoints, gaining temporary hp equivalent to any that surpasses their normal limit. (e.g: the player has a capacity of 27 hp, yet consumes 30 hp worth of rock, gaining 3 temporary hitpoints). However, objects of greater rarity, also give a more powerful benefit: with each rarity (copper to silver) you gain an additional +3 to your next attack. Feeding upon rock, or other such materials uses an action, and can be done only once per day. If done adjacent to an enemy, you elicit an attack of opportunity from them. A Lord of Stone can roll a fortitude save equivalent to the amount of stone above their normal limit, if they wish to consume more than normal, yet failure causes damage equivalent to that which would have been healed. Lords of Stone cannot consume living constructs of rock, nor any magically formed stone, without penalty. Such a penalty is left to the DM’s discretion.

Attack: Power collects between your ribs, pulsing and thrashing like a woven orb of furious serpents. Shards of earth burst from your parted lips, showering your foe in agony.

After feasting, instead of gaining hitpoints, the player instead may use an attack with an equivalent value of damage. This can be done with anything derived from mines or stone, meaning that metals to, can be used.

Stony Barricade: standard action, encounter power, You slash a hand across the corridor, not waiting to see if your power takes its effect before resuming your terrified flight. Effect: a barrier (Ac:15 hp:intelligence modifier) expands to fill almost any sized corridor; in open spaces, it rises to six meters in height.

Wrought Iron Presence: How dare these fools ignore you! Standard action, encounter power, immediate interrupt, effect: you seize the initiative, taking your turn as normal, and interrupting any attacks currently in effect.

Lord of the Seas

Your fingers sink beneath the water’s calm surface, leaving only a single ring shaped disturbance to mark its passing. Light burns out from your iron palms, as if your hands themselves are forged of red hot iron, reducing the liquid to little more than wisps of vapor.

The player can absorb water from any source including elementals, dealing their intelligence modifier of damage. The attack roll is equal to the player's intelligence or fortitude (the higher of the two) +5 vs ac (saving throw DC= player intelligence+10, and uses fortitude) Lords of the Seas do not gain hitpoints or rest from reducing liquid to vapor, yet such skills can ease the passage through dungeons and treacherous terrain. The player can only dispel water in equivalent measure to their intelligence modifier pounds. As with the other Arts, this uses an action for each thirty pounds of water consumed; this takes six seconds, and may provoke an attack from adjacent foes. While neither health nor rest is gained for the caster, your comrades will become stronger for your efforts and sacrifice: for each pound of water absorbed, you send fresh strength writhing through your party's veins like serpents of molten steel. All attacks by your comrades gain +1 critical chance, and +3 vs ac. All magic attacks are counted as criticals once per encounter, until you sleep, or enter a trance. All arts can be used only once per day, with some exceptions being recharged by counterattacks, as discussed below.

Lord of the Skies

Wind rushes between your fingers like rivers of sand, flowing between your lips and driving the strength of gods through your bones. Lightning courses along your entire frame as you rise heavenward, the power of nature hearkening to your silent call.

Lords of the Skies can consume 5 hp worth of air per turn, and in open environments (environments with neither roof nor walls to block the winds), call upon nature’s fury to deal either 1d6+intelligence modifier vs reflex with lightning, or 1d6+intelligence modifier vs fortitude with searing winds. In either case, damage is equivalent to the intelligence score. Additionally, a Lord of the Skies can fly for up to twice their speed on untroubled skies, a measurement that falls to less than half if the skies are not clear.

Lord of Flame

Without hesitation, you plunge your hand into the dancing inferno, watching as scythelike tongues of light writhe and slither over splayed fingers. Light flashes out, followed by a concussive burst of disorienting force that scatters a hollow ring of dust, as the light instantly burns away.

Lords of Flame gain hp equivalent to half their intelligence modifier,after eating flame, rolling a fortitude save equivalent to hp beyond normal capacity. The amount of flame you can absorb is vastly limited: a single torch's flaming end will he twice so much as your body will hold, beads of sweat tearing forth like angered parasites as strain tenses your muscles. At the cost of their own health, Lords of Flame can summon a burst of fire to deal damage equivalent to twice that which they sacrificed, (three times at the 12th level), 2x intelligence modifier vs reflex. Lords of Flame cannot consume living constructs or elementals.

Lord of Life

Savagely, you grin as iron fingertips burrow beneath your foe’s flesh, his life’s warmth ebbing rapidly as it flows into your body. Ageless and powerful, it is the might of gods that you wield. How strange, you muse: the more light you tear from their eyes, the darker your heart becomes.

Spending an attack action, you strike at any foe within your reach. The Art cannot be used on any creature that classifies as either livestock, or other type of small beast; meaning that insects and rats cannot be used to hold back the madness. Lords of Life can consume hp equivalent to their maximum from any foe, once per day. Any remaining after healing, is transformed into temporary hitpoints. The target makes a fortitude save (DC: amount of hp lost) to resist the Lord of Life; if the target fails, they either take the death and dying saves if a player, or if a monster, fall slain, depending of course, on how much damage was dealt. Like all Arts, this can be used only once per day. Unlike the other Arts, Lord of Life increases the player’s negative karma, changing from lawful good, to evil, and farther downward as needed depending on the severity: if an evil alignment was slain, their own alignment falls only to neutral evil. Much of the alignment penalties is left to the Dungeon Master's discretion. Additionally, the player gains several special attacks:

Unholy Command (Encounter): You force your will upon another, feeling his strength become yours, and his soul scream out in terror Melee action, Will vs Will. Effect: the caster now controls this monster, using the creature's abilities as if they were their own (save ends).

Chain Leech: (Encounter) Black lightning courses from your splayed fingers, punching through the hearts of those who've strayed too near. Close burst 5, will vs reflex. Effect: all targets take a -2 to attack rolls, and all party members gain a +1 toward criticals against these creatures. All targets lose 1d10 health, which is added to the caster's total, healing as needed.

Unholy Brand: (Encounter)Your comrade lays before you, his life slowly fading leaving his body cold and eyes dark. Tears burn at the edges of your eyes, carving thin streaks through the grim that cloaks your features. Rage blazes through you, a heat no forge could ever match, and rising you plunge one hand into the nearest foe's chest, your free hand resting upon the motionless heart of your comrade. Life flows from terrified beast into once slain companion; you expel a relieved breath: the gods themselves could not take him from you. Touch based, +3 vs AC. Success: your party member is restored to life. Failure: you had once chance, and with all your power, you strained. It seems Fate did not wish this man to breathe again. the targeted foe from whom life was to be leeched, takes damage equivalent to your intelligence modifier +1d10. This power can only be used in the same encounter that your companion was slain.

Crippling Slash (Daily): You stretch a hand past his reaching blade. Fear fills his eyes as black lightning courses along your fingers, digging glass talons into his flesh. Before the scream has left his mouth, his arm has turned grey, and his bones to ash. The blade clatters helplessly from his destroyed hand, as he gazes upon you in a potent mixture of horror and fear. As an immediate interrupt to a critical hit against you, or an ally adjacent to you, roll against the attacker's reflex. On success: the monster takes a -2 to AC, and 1d6+intelligence modifier damage. Depending on whether an arm or leg was targeted, the monster will either take -5 to attack rolls (arm), or -5 to agility (leg). On failure: the monster takes an attack of opportunity against you.

• Cursed Rune You scratch a series of sweeping lines into the ground beneath you, averting your eyes as each glows with an intense if brief light. Woe to the fool who treads upon this most foul of traps. standard action, burst 2, target: any creatures in the effect radius +7 vs reflex. On hit: black lightning curves and slashes out, cleaving limbs and punching through armor with uncanny ease the targeted creatures take a -2 to ac and attack rolls, as well as 1d10+15 damage.

• All attacks are recharged by consuming a soul; using an attack does not require a will save, only using the Art to directly replenish your powers.

• Should this Art be performed in sight of lawful good players or NPCs, the Lord of Life will be attacked, and either slain or incarcerated depending on the severity of their crime against the living. Moreover, those who worship gods are unnerved and angered by the use of divine power to destroy a living being's soul. To allow this is to risk the favor of their Lord.
• Unlike the other Arts, after consuming 1000 souls, the player can either choose another Art, or create their own Secret Art, which combines other forms, or creates their own. Yet with Lords of life comes a greater challenge: after using the Art, take a will save (DC:10+damage dealt by your most recent attack). On failure, you become Feral meaning that you attack and feed upon all before you, including party members until the same number of souls as the DC have been consumed. When Feral, you can use the Lord of Life Art once per turn instead of once per day. Similarly, a soul must be consumed once per seven days, lest the player turn feral. Feral players are under the DM's control like any monster, and are therefore unable to control who they target, and will take 1d10 damage per action until the proper amount of souls has been consumed. If the Art is used only to consume a soul, and thereby prevent loss of control, the player does not need to take a will save.
• This should only be read by DMs Vengeful Evvanoch: your hate has invited madness; pity then, that you forgot to lock your mind's door. Trigger: the player takes a soul in either anger, or vengeance rather than combat advantage; a personal feud rather than the impartial battlefield. Effect: Madness takes its immovable hold upon your weakened mind thick, swollen vines of molten rock burst from your flesh, cloaking your spasmodic frame in a cloak of liquid metal. You become a colossal beast forged of iron and hatred; a towering hulk that saps the life from all before it. The player's size increases to Gargantuan, and the DM takes command like any monster. Once it is slain, the player retakes command; yet during the fit of madness, there is no controlling who or what it attacks. Its armor is stronger than steel and ridged like a wrought iron screw, its eyes two almonds of molten steel that radiate all the hatred of a predator long deprived of its favored prey.

AC: 2x normal +15 (-12 size modifier)

Hp: 3x normal +75. The monster can only be damaged in a specific point, which is located with a DC 18 perception check.

Standard Actions: Spectral Howl: The monster's massive jaws yawn wide, lightning sparkling between saber teeth. Hiss one exhaled breath, and your strength flees. (at will breath attack, close burst five) +15 vs will. Effect: all creatures in area take a -3 to attack rolls, and -1d6hp per action; this amount is added to the Evvanoch's total health, healing as needed (save ends).

Radial Drain: Like tempestuous seas' frothing swell, a circle of seething energy rises around the monster's legs, reaching fingers of ash along its strong abdomen, and fading to nothingness long before reaching its glowing eyes. Pain, a horrible pain beyond any with business in a mortal's body, washes over you, then gratefully: darkness. (at will burst 10, or as an immediate reaction to an opponent moving adjacent, close burst 3) +16 vs AC. Effect: all creatures in the blast area take a -5 penalty to attack rolls and a -3 to AC; each takes a will save against the monster's attack roll; if the save is higher, the target takes 1d8 damage; if the attack is higher, the target falls prone, and takes the death and dying saves.

Staggering slash: Immediate Interrupt. The Evvanoch leans down, an awkward posture for one so massive; its hand fades to nothing more than a reddish streak that hammers against you with an incredible force no trebuchet could hope to match. You are flung far aside, slamming into the earth where you convulse and gasp for breath that will not come. So this, is how it feels to perish. +13 vs reflex reach 2 target all creatures in range. Effect: the target is flung twice its speed, taking this amount in damage, and is knocked prone for the rest of the encounter (save ends).

• Encounter powers:

Lightning Sabre: Immediate interrupt, triggered by a ranged attack against the Evvanoch. Black lightning curls out from the monster's hulking frame, slashing down arrows and surging on toward the terrified archers. Attack: +8 vs reflex, targets all creatures in burst 15. Hit: Bows clatter from useless hands, and jaws clench against anguished screams as all crumple to the earth beneath this tidal wave of light and shadow the targets take 1d12+12 damage, and fall prone until the end of their next turn. Miss: the targets take 1d12 damage, and a -2 penalty to all attack rolls until the end of the encounter.

Molten Skin: Immediate interrupt, triggered by an attempt to climb the Evvanoch that brings the player close to its weak point. Flesh of beaded rock flows like liquid fire beneath your fingers. One scream of agony, and you fall to the ground far below. Target: any creature within a burst 2 of the Evvanoch including those on it. Hit: target takes 1d6+1 for every square above the ground at the time of casting, damage, and -5 to all attack rolls until the end of the encounter. Miss: the target takes 1d6+1 for every square above the ground at the time of casting damage.

Dying Desperation: [immediate interrupt trigger: a lethal blow is dealt to the Evvanoch] Effect: the Evvanoch casts Radial Drain, regardless of actions and conditions. If successful, the Evvanoch rises again, its hp raised by the amount drained from enemies within the attack radius.

The monster takes the initiative and has two actions + one action for every two foes.

Skills: all skills are increased by 15, then multiplied by 2.

• If recharged (see below) the DC increases in terms of +5 until the player either fails, or refrains from the use of the Lord of Life Art. So long as the character continues to consume souls, they will not age; each soul grants the remainder of its lifespan in youth.

Lord of Mimicry

A confused foe is one more easily demolished. Your strength lies in the construction of elaborate guises through which the keenest eye cannot peer, and the strongest mind cannot unravel. Lords of Mimicry are able to replicate any creature of equal or lesser level to themselves, that they have encountered during their travels. Typical strategies are to either conjure a menacing foe whose frightful presence is more than enough to disarm their foe, or to create an exact twin of their adversary, a haunting vision even the most seasoned of warriors will oft find unnerving.

• Conjure Monster [Encounter] [standard action] Summon any monster of a level less than or equal to yours, that you have encountered at some previous time. This creature can attack, yet has only one action, and only one hitpoint. When summoned, all enemies in a burst 10 must take a will save equal in DC to the summoned monster's will, + the caster's intelligence. On success: Their resolve is shattered; now is the time to strike. All allies take a +2 to all attacks, a +6 to damage rolls. Failure: the monsters take an attack of opportunity against the caster.
• Replicate Foe or Comrade: [at will] [standard action] At your side materializes a twin to the adversary before you; an unnerving sight at the least. Summon up to 1+1d6 creatures whether allies or foes; these creatures can attack, but only with a single action each,yet can serve to intimidate or bewilder your foes. All targets in sight range take a will save against the caster's intelligence. On success, they are unmoved, and those adjacent take an attack of opportunity; on failure, the targets may attempt to flee, prompting allies to take an attack of opportunity, or the creatures may chose to remain, taking a -2 to all attack rolls until the end of the encounter.
• Disguise foe: [attack action] [touch] Target: one creature adjacent to you. You smile, a coy expression fairly reeking of false innocence. "Such a shame" you murmur, "it seems you now wear the skin of a most hated foe. I wonder, will your comrades hesitate?" Effect: the target takes a grapple check against you. On success: the monster shakes you loose, and takes an attack of opportunity. On failure: the monster's skin ripples and shifts like calm basin fleeing the touch of cast stone. In a breath, his face is now yours, and his body to has lost all that once it offered up as its own. If the Art was performed out of sight range of the target's allies, its allies will attack and react to the targeted creature as if it were an adventurer. If the Art was performed in sight range of the target's allies, its allies take an intelligence check to distinguish between you, and your new twin. If they succeed, your guise has no power over them; if they fail, then they react in the same way as if the Art was performed beyond their sight.

Trial of Potential

You gasp, falling forward and catching yourself upon outstretched hands, drops of perspiration splashing into the gaps between your splayed fingers, and turning the cracked earth into a sickly grey mire. Pain like none you've ever experienced radiates along your spine,reaching its barbed talons of flame and frost deep into your muscles, and driving its almighty hammer into that space between your ribs, where a now rapidly spasming heart lies. This will be well worth the pain, you convince yourself. This, is the key to the power mortals lost, when the Gods were destroyed, this is the threshold to godhood, and it is one you will cross no matter the cost

The Trial of Potential is left largely to the Dungeon Master to design, yet several key aspects must be included:

• Arid Lands: the player takes a fortitude save each turn, DC:15. Each failure results in the loss of an action for the next turn, and 1d6 damage.
• Divine Beasts: you are now in the sordid realm between Men and Gods, a land only the most vile call home. True enough all manner of creatures known to Faerun dwell here, yet they are far stronger than their mundane counterparts. All monsters faced by the player gain an additional hit die and damage die, and are immune to all mortal effects.
• A Lord of Lords: Much like the ascent to the Hos'ri-ein [1], the player faces a boss massively buffed, and immensely powerful. This boss employs multiple health bars, each of which absorbs any damage that would carry over into the next, meaning that even the strongest of warriors cannot destroy this monster in a single hit. The monster also retains the ability to change any attack, once per turn, into a critical failure, and any critical, once per turn, against the player, dealing damage against the attacker instead of the target. The monster, no matter what creature is used as its template, uses twice as many hit and damage die as it ordinarily would. Upon its death, you have now unlocked one of the Arts.

Overcharge

You are surrounded by your element. Why let it go to waste? You reel backward, bending beneath the force as countless tongues of deep gold burst from the ground around you, and force themselves down your throat. Sagging forward and holding a fist before your face, you exhale between pursed lips, expelling thin tendrils of light that wrap themselves tightly around your fingers, imparting a strength even gods would be wise to fear. The caster absorbs all of its element in the surrounding three squares (burst 3) gaining a +1 to damage for each pound of their element absorbed; or in the case of a Lord of Life, the number of souls consumed. Doing this greatly destabilizes the soul, and the caster's health is therefore reduced by 75% until the end of the encounter.

Secret Arts

Secret Arts are powerful versions of Starlight Soul, which offer immense boons to the caster's party, while harming the caster at an equivalent exchange. The Secret Arts are listed below.

• Way of the Demigod: You slam iron palms together, one hand turned outward the other pointing toward your body. Power collects along stiffened fingers, and as you extend trembling hands to your comrades, you feel the strength leave your body Players using Way of the Demigod sacrifice 99% of their health, and remain unable to use magic or Starlight Soul for the next three days. This sacrifice provides their immediate party members (only immediate party members, excluding townsfolk) are joined into a single body, an angel of flame and frost armed with all the actions of each party member, and each hit deals critical damage.

Counter Attack

• Direct Interception: another caster raises his hands, black lightning curling and thrashing between the crooked digits. You draw upon your own skill, conjuring a concave disk of light between your own open palms. Take a reflex save; if this exceeds the attack roll, you successfully absorb the power from your foe's attack, gaining strength and recharging your Art. If you fail, take damage as usual.
• Indirect Interception: your keen mind senses a gathering power: your foe is preparing to use one of the Arts; you quickly prepare a countermeasure, but who can say whether it will be too late. You and your foe take reflex saves; whomever rolls highest, succeeds, if you, the attack is successfully disarmed, if your foe, you take damage as usual, plus an additional 1d12 damage.

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