Caller
Within the purity of the elements and the order of the wilds lingers a power beyond the marvels of civilization. Furtive yet undeniable, this primal magic is guarded over by servants of philosophical balance known as callers. Allies to beasts and manipulators of nature, these often-misunderstood protectors of the wild strive to shield their lands from all who would threaten them and prove the might of the wilds to those who lock themselves behind city walls. Rewarded for their devotion with incredible powers, callers gain unparalleled shape-shifting abilities, the companionship of mighty beasts, and the power to call upon nature’s wrath. The mightiest temper powers akin to storms, earthquakes, and volcanoes with primeval wisdom long abandoned and forgotten by civilization.
While some callers might keep to the fringe of battle, allowing companions to fight while they confound foes with the powers of nature, others transform into deadly beasts and savagely wade into combat. Callers revere personifications of elemental forces, natural powers, or nature itself. Typically, this means devotion to a nature deity, though druids are just as likely to revere vague spirits, animalistic manifestations, or even specific awe-inspiring natural wonders.
Armor: Callers have proficiency in Light Armor.
Weapon Proficiencies: Callers are skilled with the following weapons: Short Weapon, Staff, Spear, Thrown, and Small Shield.
Spell Casting: Callers have access to the Nature school of magic.
Class Features
Shifter: This skill allows the Caller to change forms into that of an animal on a 5 second counted action. While shifted, the character cannot speak, save for with animals of similar type, and they can use no active skills, abilities, or magic items that require speech. All non-self-generated protectives, blade spells, and Aspect (caller spells with an animal name) effects are suppressed. This form has the same stats as the Level 8 Caller Spell Aspect of the Beast and the abilities reset with the character not every time the Caller shifts. This form can be shifted into at anytime but it's state is tracked separately. If you are killed in animal form, you immediately revert to your normal PC form. You cannot change back into the form until the character resets. If you are shifting back to your normal form before being killed, it takes the same 5 count as it did to shift into the animal form.
Nature’s Guide: Your bond with nature goes far beyond just physical to almost a spiritual level as the world around you almost speaks to you. This gives the character a few benefits: First, on the Prime or Essence, you can always find north and understand roughly where in the world you are. Second, you are always treated as though you have 1 Rank higher of Knowledge (Nature) than you have purchased.
A note about Spells: The SP cost listed for spells below applies if your Caller wants to teach him/herself a spell without a scroll. If you have a scroll available, you can read that into memory and avoid the SP cost entirely; the SP cost is available as a means to ensure that your Caller can acquire spells even a given scroll is elusive, or overpriced, or just sold someone you can't get along with.
Category | Skill Name | Prerequisite Skills | SP Cost | Use Cost |
---|---|---|---|---|
Magic | ||||
Mana (1-100) | - | 1/2 | - | |
Mana (101-120) | Mana (100) | 1 | - | |
1st level spell | 1* | 1 Mana | ||
2nd level spell | - | 1* | 2 Mana | |
3rd level spell | - | 1* | 3 Mana | |
4th level spell | - | 1* | 4 Mana | |
5th level spell | - | 1* | 5 Mana | |
6th level spell | - | 1* | 6 Mana | |
7th level spell | - | 1* | 7 Mana | |
8th level spell | - | 1* | 8 Mana | |
Spell Pool 1 | None | 0 | - | |
Spell Pool 2 | Spell Pool 1 | 5 | - | |
Spell Pool 3 | Spell Pool 2 | 10 | - | |
Spell Pool 4 | Spell Pool 3 | 15 | - | |
Spell Pool 5 | Spell Pool 4 | 15 | - | |
Spell Pool 6 | Spell Pool 6 | 15 | - | |
Metamagic | ||||
Ley Point 1-20 | 1 Mana | 2 | - | |
Hasten Spell | - | 2 | 1 Ley Point | |
Penetrating Spell | - | 2 | 1 Ley Point | |
Overload | - | 2 | 1 Ley Point | |
Aura Emulation | - | 2 | 1 Ley Points | |
Siphon Mana | - | 3 | 2 Ley Points | |
Forked Spell | - | 3 | 2 Ley Points | |
Natural Spell | - | 3 | 2 Ley Points | |
Storm | - | 4 | 3 Ley Points | |
Revitalize | - | 5 | See Below | |
Miscellaneous | ||||
Chain Spell 1-5 | - | 6 | - | |
Tongue of the Land | - | 3 | - | |
Boost Shifting | - | 15 | - | |
Cancel Magic | 10 | |||
Grasping Earth | 4 | |||
Advanced | ||||
Dense Fog | 8 | |||
Create Grove | 5 | |||
Reincarnate | 4 |
Caller Skill Descriptions:
Magic Skills:
Mana: Mana is the fuel by which spells are generated. For Callers, spells are leveled 1-8 and every spell costs an amount of mana equal to its level to cast. Callers pay 1 SP to get 2 mana until they reach 100; after that, additional mana is available at 1 SP per mana point unto infinity. Collectively, a Caller's available mana is referred to as a pool, despite the confusing overlap with the unrelated "spell pool" used for linear magic delivery. Callers on every world refer to things like the "depth" of their mana pools. It's an odd idiosyncrasy of the cosmos.
Schools: Nature. For now it's just Nature magic. Now go touch grass.
Spells 1-8: Broadly speaking, Callers may learn spells in one of two ways. The easiest is simply transcribing a written formula into memory, and Callers prefer this where the option is available. In order to do this, all your Caller needs is a scroll of the relevant spell and enough time to read it and learn it. Spells learned in this way cost no Skill Points, further endearing it to the casters of the worlds. Where this isn't possible (some worlds have outright banned magic from the lower classes, for example), it's possible to gut it out and teach yourself the spell. Doing this has no monetary cost, but it does incur a cost in skill points instead.
Spell Pool: At times Callers find themselves bereft of mana or needing to dish out direct damage to their foes. For times like this mother nature gave us that which has baffled early civilizations across the planes Lightning. Doing this is faster and less stressful than formal spellcasting. One point of spell pool generates 1 point of damage to a limit of 10 points at a time at Spell Pool I. This is cast as "I summon X <damage type>" and packet delivered. Every rank of Spell Pool adds 25 points of usable pool and increases the 'spell cap' of the amount used of your pool you can use at a time by 5. Thus, With spell pool 1 your cap is 10 points per use and with Spell Pool 6 you may use 35 points of pool at a time. Spell Pool must be delivered in increments of 5. Spell Pool can be refreshed with five minutes of uninterrupted time, or immediately refreshed via the 9th level Mage effect Evocation. Caller's have the Lightning damage type for their spell pool.
Metamagic:
Metamagic, as the name implies, is magic that affects magic. Metamagic effects modify spells in some way, or modify some other aspect of magic in some way spells cannot. Metamagic is fueled by Ley Points, and there are as many arguments about what Ley actually is as there are people making them. Callers purchase Ley Points directly, at 2 SP each, and a Caller cannot buy more than 20 total.
Hasten Spell: A Hastened Spell is delivered without a formal incant; this is called as "Magic <Spell Effect>". Hastened Spells bypass a number of usual spellcasting restrictions; they do not require incants and hence may be delivered while Silenced or otherwise deprived of speech. Hastened Spells may also be cast while confined. Hastening a spell costs 1 Ley Point.
Natural Spell: A Natural Spell is the closest Mages have gotten to Nature magic. Shaping a spell in this way eliminates the incant as Hasten Does, but is called as "Natural <Flavor> Effect>" and thereafter obeys the rules of the Natural delivery vector. Full details are available under Effect Delivery but briefly, Natural effects are stopped by shields, resisted with Resist Natural instead of Resist Magic, and affected by whatever nonsense 'magic' Callers use. Natural effects tend to be easier to stop than Magical effects, but some creatures are painfully resistant to magic and easily victimized by Natural effects. The existence of the Fae alone guaranteed that some Mage was going to develop this.
Penetrating Spell: Penetrating Spell shapes mana such that it punches right through armor; Penetrating Spells are cast as normal but have the call "body" appended to the incant. Unlike most meta magic, Penetrating Spell can be applied to Spell Pool. One application of Penetrating Spell affects your next two applications of Spell Pool - this can get expensive, but against heavily-armored targets with frail physiques it can also be lifesaving.
Overload: This skill allows the character to add the Critical Modifier to a single spell, or can be used with the character’s Spell Pool to add the Critical Modifier to their current pool.
Storm: This skill allows the character to enter a stance by planting their right foot and announcing, “Spell Storm: Lightning”. This effect will last until the player falls unconscious, moves their foot, or uses any other Active Skills. While active, the caller can throw an infinite number of packet attacks called as “Magic 10 Lightning”,
Revitalize: Revitalize breaks down Ley Points into raw mana, which can then be channeled to cast spells as usual. Revitalize costs one Ley Point to create 5 mana, and can only be used over the course of a given event to replenish a volume of mana equal to your base mana pool. This means, under normal circumstances, that you can generate no more than 120 extra points of mana per event, at the cost of losing your use of Ley Skills for that event.
Forked Spell: This skill allows the character to split their spell so it can hit more targets. When using this skill, the player adds “Forked“ to the end of their normal spell incant, and then can throw “Magic <Spell Name>” twice in succession, and only expend a single casting's worth of mana.
Siphon Mana: This allows your Caller to drain Mana from a willing donor into your own Mana pool. This costs one Ley Point per transfer and may transfer only enough mana to return your pool to full.
Aura Emulation: As practiced by Callers, this allows for mana to reflexively retaliate against a melee strike. This is called as "Magic Lightning Aura" in response to being struck. Aura Emulation allows for any of the four usual elemental flavors and Spirit. Other Auras are known to exist but those are not readily available and learning them can be a chore.
Miscellaneous Caller Skills:
Boost Shifting - The form granted to the caster via Shifter has the following changes:
- The base strength increases to +6
- Base Body increases to 40
Chain Spell: Chain spells delivers one beneficial spell to one extra target per level of Chain Spell. A spell caster with 5 levels of Chain Spell can cast Magic Shield (for example) on a total of six targets. The spell is cast normally for the first target; successive targets are called as "Chain Spell <Effect Name>".
Cancel Magic: This skill allows the character to end the duration of any spell that they encounter. The time it takes to cancel the spell depends on the spells duration: if the spell’s duration is in minutes, it takes 1 minute of concentration; if the spell’s duration is in hours, it takes 10 minutes of concentration; and if the spell’s duration is in days, or is a lasting effect, it takes 1 hour of concentration
Grasping Earth - This skill allows the character to call upon the forces of nature to aid them in combat. When used, the player announces, “All enemies in the sound of my voice Difficult Terrain”.
Tongue of the Land - The character gains the ability to speak with natural plants and rock formations. While most of the time such are not too smart, and communication can be difficult, the character can ask 2 questions that will be answered with a yes or no, of a given creature.
Advanced Caller Skills
Create Grove - This skill allows the character to imbue an area with the power of nature, returning it to a purer state. The character must spend 5 minutes concentrating and role-playing to create the protective barrier on an area or small building. For the next 5 days the area is protected from unnatural creatures; Undead, Golems, Elementals, Fae, and Abominations, as well as a few others types, cannot enter into the area. A Phys-Rep of green lights must surround the area, if outside; or around the primary doorway if created on a building. This effect cannot be stacked with a Wizard Lock.
Reincarnate - This skill allows the character to bring back a character who is Dead and in need of a Life spell. Like much of nature nothing happens instantly. To use this skill, the character must touch the target and make a 3 counted action ‘I Reincarnate you 3, I Reincarnate you 2,…”. After the count the effect takes hold, the target will continue their death count and when they hit the 4-minute count where they would normally dissipate; they instead begin a 1-minute count, at the end of which the target will be restored to life at full Body Points. This can be used once per reset for each time purchased.
Dense Fog - Pulling on the natural forces around you, you summon up an ultra dense fog around you giving your party cover as you slip past a potential fight, this allows your party of up to 10 players to move past the encounter without engaging. This skill only works while on Modules set in a natural terrain.
Caller Powers
Animal Speech - This power allows the character to talk normally while shape changed, as well as will let them communicate with animals of similar breed. This does not allow spell casting or using magic items that require speech to activate.
Aspect Mastery- This power causes Aspects that the player casts to have the duration doubled. It is up to the caster to inform the recipient of the effect.
Enhanced Shifting - This power allows Callers to select a specific animal when shifting and gain parts of that animals natural locomotive capabilities. When using their Shift, the Caller may now Fly, Swim (along with breath Underwater), or Burrow.
Master of the Wilds- This power allows the character to now affect 2 additional targets when they cast Aspects.
Wild Magic- Wild Magic: (Caller Only) this power uses your close ties with Nature to perform sometimes stupendous effects. Once per reset you may invoke 'Wild Magic' for a beneficial effect in accordance with your needs at the time. This can be something as lowly as a purify for a downed ally, a wolf pack flee for you and your friends, a Tree Walk to get you somewhere, or any other spontaneous effect. However, much like the Paladin spell Miracle, it is not entirely up to you what the effect is and you must discuss with the marshal on hand to come to an agreement on the final effect if it is anything beyond a standard spell levels 1-9 castable by any class. In the case of duplication of a standard spell the verbal for this effect it "Magic [spell name] wild magic"
Wisp Form - The caller may choose to enter Wisp form instead of a Beast form when shifting. The Wisp form has the following statistics:
15 Body
Resist Toxin/Physical x 1
Flee x 2
½ Damage from physical attacks
Immune to Wind & Lightning damage
+50 Spell Pool
Gain one bonus spells costing up to 5 mana
Caller Heroic Powers
Magical Shifting - Prerequisite Enhanced Shifting, Caller may not have Greater Enhanced Shifting
This power allows the caller to use a single Caller spell delivered as 'Magical [Spell Name] while shifted. In addition, the shifted caller gains a breath weapon with three uses of 'Natural 30 lightning' delivered via packet.
Greater Enhanced Shifting - Prerequisite Enhanced Shifting, Caller may not have Magical Shifting.
This power doubles the stats of the shifter including the Enhanced Shifting strength bonus. Additionally, the Caller may use a single two-handed claw or a long and medium claw instead of paired medium claws.
Greater Wisp Form - Prerequisite Wisp Form
Changes the Wisp form statistics to the following:
25 Body
Resist Toxin/Physical x 2
Flee x 3
½ Damage from all attacks
Non-corporeal
Can Flee into a combat they have left in the last 5 mins.
+75 Spell Pool
Can change Spell Pool flavor to Venom
Gain 2 bonus spells costing up to 7 mana
Feedback Loop Prerequisite: Spell Pool 4
Mastery over magic has become a way of life and you have taken it to the cusp allowing you to re-center yourself faster than novice mages. Three times each reset, the character can refresh their Spell Pool on a 10 counted action, instead of concentrating for the normal amount of time.
Nature’s Embrace - This Power binds the character’s body to the power of nature allowing it to heal more rapidly. The character gains Fast Healing 5, and additionally can Auto-Stabilize themselves twice each reset, setting them to 0 Body Points.