Saint (FiD)
Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page |
Gods and great spirits share their powers with their chosen saints and prophets. You have been chosen by a spiritual patron to carry its message to the world. As a saint, you were likely devout before you were selected, but you did not choose this path; your patron chose you. As a saint, you are given a purpose or agenda, often to reform a church or society or to prevent an undesirable fate. You are often at odds with established institutions and theurgists. This is less of a problem in a time of crisis. A successful saint may change the faith of later generations, their words recorded in holy texts and their things revered as relics, but this is for future generations; it won’t help you in the here and now.
Saints are restricted in what other playbooks they can take, but it is common to pick an additional playbook that matches the interests of their patron.
Paladins match Knight Saints, trickster champions may be Rogue Saints or Mountebank Saints, and so on.
Touchstones: Saints, prophets, divine messengers, and reformists. Friar Tuck is a part of a recognized religious order, but shows many of the chaotic tendencies of Saints. Chaotic clerics in general, in particular the mystic clerics from the Al-Qadim setting. The concept is similar to Pathfinder's oracle class, but not the execution.
Trauma Condition—Faith
As a Saint, you need to love and serve your spiritual patron; it can be hard to select an additional playbook, as it has to be acceptable to your patron. You pray for powers with straightforward words and gestures, asking for what you want to happen. Creatures you summon are servants of your patron, friendly but strict in matters of faith. You can commune with your spiritual patron for guidance, who may order you to go places and take on tasks appropriate to the campaign you are playing, perhaps with a bit of personal advice, but no detailed information unless you use appropriate powers. Your list of powers (see special abilities, below) has powers listed in yellow. The first yellow power you learn becomes your domain power. Once you have chosen a domain power, you can only select powers not marked in yellow.
Special Abilities
- Community: Gain +1d on all insight and resolve action checks when dealing with people that share your faith and increased effect when using any power in the presence of a congregation of a size matching the scale of your tier (p 221) of people who share your system of belief, even if they belong to a different faction or sect.
- Crisis of Faith: Add +1d to all resistance rolls. If your resistance roll is 1-3, you must choose one: question your faith—a belief, indulgence, or trauma condition causes an issue—lose sight of your friends.
- Divine Messenger: Increase effect on Sway checks to proselytize. You gain an additional xp trigger: You deliver a divine message and it is taken seriously. If your crew helped you, also mark crew xp.
- Expanded Domains: You can learn any power, removing the domain restrictions of Trauma Condition—Faith.
- Martyr: You can protect (p 135) anyone you can see, taking the harm coming their way. You can protect your crew and those close to you even if you cannot see them—you intuitively know they are in danger. You can protect several people from the same consequence at once up to the scale of your tier (p 221) at the cost of increasing the consequence by one category, to a maximum of deadly. You can resist these consequences normally.
- Protector: You may expend your Special Armor to resist a supernatural consequence, or to push yourself to deal with an occult problem.
- The Bigger They Are: When making an action roll that involves a higher-tier threat, gain +1d per difference in Tier.
- Powers Air, Animal, Barrier, Darkness, Death, Earth, Electricity, Fire, Ice, Flux, Illusion, Kinesis, Life, Light, Metal, Mind, Order, Plant, Space, Time, and Water. Powers marked in yellow can only be selected as domain powers, see Trauma Condition—Faith.
Allies and Antagonists
- ˄ ˅ Dossin, a heretic.
- ˄ ˅ Feral, an outcast.
- ˄ ˅ Harli, a rebel.
- ˄ ˅ Karu, a theurgist.
- ˄ ˅ Virex, an inquisitor.
Inventory
- ◯ Holy Disguise.
- ◯, ◯, ◯ Miraculous means.
- ☐, ☐, ☐ Potent Oil.
- ☐ Scroll.
- Holy Disguise ◯: A hooded cloak or a large hat that is ubiquitous in the setting. It helps you avoid attention as long as you lie low in a crowd, but won't conceal you if individually examined. As a Saint, this also protects you from all Attune, Study, and Survey Powers, but not mundane observation. Playbook.
- Miraculous Means ◯: This is a mundane object elevated by alluding to the divine. When using this object, gain +1d on a single action roll involving a power. Examples to allude to include the fruit of immortality, a phoenix feather, ambrosia, or the golden bough. Consumable, Playbook.
- Potent Oil ☐: A weapon coated in this oil becomes potent against the supernatural for an hour. Alchemy, Common, Consumable.
- Scroll ☐: Allows a single use of a power available to your playbook but not known to you. Playbook.
XP
Every time you roll a desperate action, mark xp in that action's attribute. At the end of each session, for each item below, mark 1 xp (in your playbook or an attribute) or 2 xp if that item occurred multiple times.
- You addressed a challenge using powers or charisma.
- You expressed your beliefs, drives, heritage, or background.
- You struggled with issues from your vice or traumas during the session.
Starting Actions
- Attune 1
- Sway 2
- 4 points by choice, no higher than 2 in any one.