Holy Selmat, with Prejudice

"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -H.L. Mencken, Prejudices

The time has come. Feats and paragraph-long spells have been banished, and awful goblins, hands full of abbreviated monster stats and pre-alpha rulesets, emerge from their hiding places to declare victory. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. The Gods of the Copybook Heading with terror and slaughter return. Etc.

I have begun the conversion of my weekly game in Holy Selmat to GLOG. I've found sufficient GLOG classes for most of the current PCs, but since two of them are classes unique to Holy Selmat, I've decided to take a crack at giving them something unique.

Art by Roman Chally

WITNESS

A variation of Type1Ninja's Bard class.

For every fifteen years you’ve been alive, increase your save by 1. Starting skill: history A: Eidetic Memory, Make Known, Witness B: Tale of Monsters, Relax C: Tale of Treasure, Group Witness D: Mythologize, Legends

Eidetic Memory- You automatically remember everything that you witness

Make Known- When you expound something in a public place, everyone in the area knows about it within one week. (When you talk to someone, roll under your Charisma to see if they believe it.)

Witness- Before another player rolls, use your action to witness them, which gives them advantage (roll twice, use best) on their roll. Uses per day equal to your number of witness templates.

Tale of Mortals- Sing about a past figure, who is now real. Takes at least 10 minutes. Uses per session equal to your number of witness templates. The GM may deny this ability if your claims are ridiculous, irrelevant, or conflict with known information. There’s a 50% chance that the next important person you meet is similar to this figure.

Relax- Once per day, you can play especially relaxing music. Allies who can hear you regain 1d4 HP. This is non-magical healing. If you use this ability out of combat, allies instead gain 2d4 + your Charisma bonus HP.

Tale of Treasure- Sing about a treasure hoard, including one specific item that you make up, which now exists. Takes at least 10 minutes. Uses per session equal to your number of Bard templates, shared with Tale of Monsters. The GM may deny this ability if your claims are ridiculous, irrelevant, or conflict with known information, but you might get a bonus for listing the curses as well as blessings. The next time you get a lead on treasure, the specific location of the item is revealed.

Group Witness- As Witness, but you can use it at the beginning of a round to grant your entire party the buff. Unlike Witness, you can only use this ability once per day.

Mythologize- As Tale of Mortals and Treasure, but you can sing about entire dungeons or anything else you can think of.

Legends Born- Guarantee that someone succeeds on a single roll, as long as it's plausible that they could succeed. Usable once per session. 

PRACTITIONER

Starting skill: drugcrafting A: Alchemy, Commandments, +1 MD B: Smite, See evil, +1 to hit C: Chemic, +1 MD D: Reckoning, +1 to hit

Alchemy: You begin play knowing two footnotes and three random formulae. More formulae can be learned through study.

Commandments: Must remain silent every seventh day. On all other days, must compose a verse or measure in remembrance. Must only eat seeds and meat. Indiscretion is a mortal sin. Additionally, you can see around corners but dead bodies are unclean to you.

Smite: Once per day, designate a wicked target. For the duration of combat, deal an extra +1d6 damage to that target.

See evil: Can identify wicked creatures at a glance. It's like a whole other color. I know a lot of people don't use alignment, but this is the holy land. Some things are antithetical to the world's grand purpose.

Chemic: When you reduce an opponent to 0 HP, you may immediately use one of your formulae. Additionally, you may start researching new forms of Gigre, an undertaking that takes a great deal of resources.

Reckoning: When you kill the target of your smite, you may immediately designate a new target. You may choose to regain a magic die. If you do, the threshold for mishaps and dooms decreases by one.

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Practitioner Footnotes:

1. Smell Drugs: range 40'
2. Know God: reveals if a holy epithet belongs to a god you know of.
3. Alter disease: can direct illnesses to act differently. Like diplomacy but different.

Practitioner formulae are a combination of holy, alchemical, and combat-oriented spells. Some examples:

1. Rubbery Body: +3 defense against bludgeoning. Immune to fall damage and similar things. Amazing contortions. Lasts [dice] minutes.
2. Shrink: For [dice] hours, target becomes half their size.
3. Adhesive Spittle: ranged attack to stick target in place for [dice] rounds.
4. Truth paste: when consumed, cannot lie. 2 MD: must answer all questions.