Pawn of Fate (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

This is a work in progress.

A pawn of fate is a medium that can change psrit at the draw of a card or roll of a die, but the spirit called is random. THis archetype requires great facility woth the medium rules on the part of the player, and thus works best for experienced players that want to add an element of chance and flexibility.

Class Information

This is an medium archetype that channels random spirits.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Features

The pawn of fate has all the standard medium’s class features, except as noted below.

Spirit of Chance (Su)

When using the spirit ability, the pawn of fate calls a random spirit instead of one chosen by the medium. This is done as a full-round action that must involve some random element, such as drawing cards, throwing dice, drawing chits, or observing a random natural phenomenon.

After performing a spirit of chance seance, the pawn of fate cannot perform another ritual until an hour has passed or the medium has taken any attribute damage or hit point damage (lethal or nonlethal) equal to the pawn of fate's class level. Some pawns of faith use drugs or poisons to speed up this process by inflicting attribute damage, others use flagellation or ritual combat.

When the seance is complete, the player makes a series of random rolls to determine the abilities of the spirit, going through a number of steps that restricts the choice of abilities.

Random Level Roll 1d20. If the result is greater than or equal to the pawn of fate's class level, the spirit works normally. If the roll is lower than that, the spirit has the spirit powers typical of medium of that level. This counts as channeling a weaker spirit.

Random Legend Roll 1d6 for the spirit's legend:

1. Archmage
2. Champion
3. Guardian
4. Hierophant
5. Marshal
6. Trickster

Random Abilities Several but not all legends have one factor that is determined randomly, as follows.

Archmage Half of all new spells learned must be of a specific school of magic; roll 1d10. 1: abjuration, 2: conjuration, 3: divination, 4: enchantmen, 5: evocation, 6: illusion, 7: necromancy, 8-9: transmutation, 10 no restrictions.

Champion The exotic weapon you gain proficency with is determined randomly; roll 1d10. 1: dwarven waraxe, 2: elven curve blade, 3: falcata, 4: gnome hooked hammer, 5: hand crossbow, 6: net, 7: repeating crossbow, 8: two-bladed sword, 9: whip, 10: Any weapon of choice.

Guardian No random abilities.

Hierophant The spirit is tied to either positive or negative energy and can only channel energy of this type. Roll 1d10. 1-3: positive energy, 4-6: negative energy, 7-9: Negative energy if you are of evil alignment, otherwise positive energy. 10: An energy type of your choice. This has no effect unless the spirit has the intemediate spirit power.

Marshal No random abilities.

Trickster One of the two skills gained from trickster's edge is determined randomly (the other one is chosen normally). Roll 1d10. 1: 1: Bluff, 2: Diplomacy, 3: Disguise, 4: Handle Animal, 5: Intimidate, 6: Perform, 7: Sleight of Hand, 8: Stealth, 9: Use Magic Device, 10: Any skill of choice.

The extra spell slots gained when channeling the archmage and hierophant are spent first, before the spell slots the pawn of fate gains from Table: Medium.

When changing spirits, the new spirit has the same influence over the pawn of fate that the previous spirit had. This is a modification of the spirit ability.

Shared Boon (Su)

Instead of sharing spirit powers with their allies during a seance, the pawn of fate shares spirit powers with allies during spell preparation. The pawn of fate can choose what legend's spirit boon each ally gets, this need not be the same as the spirit of the pawn of fate. This modifies shared seance.

Pawn of Spirits (Su)

When using the haunt channeler, location channel, connection channel, or ask the spirits, the pawn of fate can use the spirit of chance ability to call a new spirit as a part of the same action. The pawn of fate can ignore the waiting period when callimg a new spirit this way.

Using Decks of Cards for Spirit of Chance

It is possible to use draws from a deck of cards for determining the specifics of a spirit of chance.

Harrow Deck

It is possible to use a deck of harrow cards to determine the abilities of the invited spirits. Each card is assigned a numeric value depending on alignment; LG: 1, NG: 2, CG: 3, LN: 4, N: 5, CN: 6, LE: 7, NE: 8, CE:9.

The suits match legends; Books: Archmage, Crowns: Marshal, Hammers: Champion, Keys: Trickster, Shields: Guardian, Stars: Hierophant.

Draw a single card for legend and level, the level is twice the alignment-value of the card. If the legend has random abilities, draw an additional card and read the alignment value. If the suit of the card matches the legend (and thus matches the suit of the first card drawn), the card value is 10 instead.

This method is slightly more beneficial than rolling dice.

Playing Cards

You need a deck of 52 cards (either remove or re-draw jokers).

Draw three cards. Unless exactly one of the cards is a court card, discard and draw again. The value of the court card determines the legend; Red Jack: Marshal, Red Queen: Hierophant, Red Queen: Guardian, Black Jack: Trickster, Black Queen: Archmage, Black King: Champion.

Double the value of the first number card; this becomes the level.

Read the value of the second number card; use this to determine legend-specific choice.

Summary of Changed Class Abilities

These abilities of the original class are lost or modified in this archetype:

• Spirit
• Shared Seance

The text in this article is Open Game Content. It is covered by the Open Game License v1.0a, rather than the Action copyright. To distinguish it, these items will have this notice. If you see any page that contains OGL material and does not show this license statement, please contact one of the Action administrators. Please note that images used in article may have different copyright than the text.