25 July 2025

Class: Gnome

Gnomes are an artificial race created by Dark Lady Ta-tiki-tekh-uata, the Witch Mother, to serve as her attendants, spies and enforcers. Some sources suggest that she tried to replicate the long-lost Sidhe biomantic recipe for turning humans into elves, others claim that she did so successfully, but used her plentiful goblin slaves as the base stock instead of her much more sparse human subjects - in any case, gnomes were the result.

No one has a satisfactory answer for the colourful cap thing.
 
Old Gnome Wizard by Skywise00
 
This is a racial class, so its template A can only be gained during character creation. Inspired by Konsumterra.

I have no love for gnomes. They are surprisingly bland fey dwarves. There is no strong theme, no nice twist that would make me want them in my world. Yet for some reason, my players want to play as gnomes. Or rabbits. Making gnomes a regional offshoot of goblins gives them a place in the world, but at the same time, there don't need to be any gnomes save for the player characters, unless the party travels to Pflec. I can live with that.
  
High level grey cap gnome
From here.
  
Quest: Visit Pflec or the Witch Mother's lost demesne.

Language: Sylvan (Red, Green, Gold, Blue, Grey) or Pflecian (Svirfneblin)

Items: gnome cap, tool of your hereditary trade

Skills: (per sub-species) Parade, Recall Details, Music, Cooking, Tinkering, Ward-Breaking

Age: There was a mild imperfection in the biomantic formula used to create this race. Gnomes reach adulthood at age 20, but their appearance ages faster than that. A twenty years old, young adult gnome will look like a human in their sixties or seventies. They only get wrinklier and more stooped with age, though this does not affect their physical capabilities much. Gnomes live up to 200 years and in old age start to develop plant-like characteristics - wrinkles become bark, beard is more moss than hair. This is another flaw of the biomantic formula.

A: Gnome Cap, Small Stature
B: Gnomish Magic, +1 MD

Gnome Cap
Gnomes possess an innate magical spark than can be imbued into a special cap, which must be made by the gnome's own hands and have the appropriate colour. Only gnomes can use a gnome cap, but they can use any gnome's cap. Each breed of gnomes has a different power that they can imbue into their cap.

Each gnome can only make one cap at a time. Should they wish to make a new one, the old one must be destroyed first for the gnome's spark of magic to return and be ready for imbuement again. Thus gnomes are highly protective of their cap. Stealing a cap is seen as a heinous crime in gnome communities, often resulting in harsh punishments. Similarly, confiscating one's cap is a harsh punishment reserved for the most vile criminals.

You cannot wear both a cap and a helmet.

Small Stature
You only need half as many rations as a grown man. You can fit into small spaces rather comfortably.

Many items will be bulky for you due to awkward size. You can only wield long weapons (long sword, spear) with both hands and cannot use heavy weapons (great sword, halberd) at all.

You cannot reach the top shelf.

Gnomish Magic
You have learned to use your magical gift similarly to a wizard, though you do not possess a spellbook. Gain 1 Magic Die. Each subspecies gains two spells:
  • Red: death scythe, speak with blood
  • Green: misty step, speak with animals
  • Gold: part crowd, unseen orchestra
  • Blue: clean up, speak with doors
  • Grey: make material, move earth
  • Death: non-detection, spell collapse
You have to be touching your cap to cast your spells - your spells are "memorised" in your cap.
 
Young blue cap gnome
From here.
  
Gnome, Red Cap
Red cap gnomes were soldiers and enforcers. Once the most plentiful of gnomes, their numbers were mercilessly culled when the Dark Ones fell, the remaining few fleeing to Pflec or abroad.

Red Cap
When you put on your cap after it has been drenched in fresh blood (enough to actually drench it, a few drops will not suffice), you can take any number of Fatigue points - that number will be X. You gain Xd6 temporary HP, deal +X damage in melee, roll Strength with +X bonus and count as X size categories larger for grappling purposes (without actually growing larger). This lasts until you lose all the temporary HP or take off the cap.

Gnome, Green Cap
Green cap gnomes were scouts and messengers. Most have found refuge among wood elves or druids.

Green Cap
When you put on your cap, you can transform into a natural animal - specifically the animal whose blood and viscera was used during the creation of your cap. This animal can be no larger than a dog and no smaller than a mouse. You can transform as often as you wish, but your equipment (except for the cap) doesn't transform with you, you cannot speak (unless the animal can) and you can only use the animal's abilities while transformed. Your HP carries over between forms.

Gnome, Gold Cap
Gold cap gnomes were entertainers and designers.

Gold Cap
You can manifest tangible illusions from your cap, no larger than what would fit into the cap. For lack of a better term, these illusions are like a hardlight hologram. They can be be pretty much any inanimate object, but they do not have any special effects (illusory potion does nothing), they pop when they would take damage, deal damage or get overexerted (illusory dagger or crowbar are pretty useless) and they last no longer than 10 minutes.

Gnome, Blue Cap
Blue cap gnomes were servants and spies.

Blue Cap
When you put on your cap and close your eyes, you become invisible.

When you put on your cap and hold your breath, you become as light as a feather. When damaged or otherwise distracted, roll Concentration to keep holding your breath.

Gnome, Grey Cap
Grey cap gnomes were custodians and sappers.

Grey Cap
You can manifest small tools and spare parts from your cap, which can be used to repair various mechanisms, from locks to clocks. If not handled by a gnome for more than a day, anything you manifested from your cap crumbles into fine sand - pretty disastrous for any mechanism.

With an hour of time, you can construct a small, fragile clockwork device that performs a simple function. For example, it could be a walking toy soldier, a lighter or a music box.

Gnome, Death Cap
Death cap gnomes are a splinter group of gnomes who rebelled against the Witch Mother and helped the Attnamese Empire in toppling the Dark Ones. They call themselves Svirfneblin and ignorant commoners sometimes know them as Bog Gnomes - a name whispered with disgust and fear. Once the designated infiltrators and saboteurs, they carried out a series of attacks that turned Pflec - a thin stretch of land between the river Amir and the Trollish Peaks - from the breadbasket of the Dark Ones to a haunted, miasmatic wasteland of spellborn horrors.

After the war, imperial magistrates granted the Pflecian Marshes to Svirfneblin along with Hin halflings and some of the few survivors of the dwarven genocide as their new sovereign territory. The so-called "gnomish dictatorship" is the direct result of the resulting anti-imperial sentiment. Hidden behind a nigh-impenetrable mix of mires, mutated war-beasts and curse-warped illusions, Svirfneblin have established tightly controlled enclaves run with relentless efficiency and ruthless surveillance. Paranoid, secretive and unapologetically authoritarian, the Svirfneblin are widely hated for their plundering raids, river blockades disguised as taxation and the occasional disappearing of useful individuals from the borderlands.

And yet, for all their cruelty, they have made their death-bogs thrive.

Black Cap
When you put on your cap, you are warded against all magic. Any magic used on you - baleful or benign - has a 50% chance of failing.

Note that you will have to drop your cap when you want to be for example healed. Also note that your cap doesn't help you against secondary effects of spells. For example, ground coated with a grease spell will still be slippery.

Other subspecies of gnomes exist, such as quicklings and darklings, but they are a) basically extinct and b) not a player race.
 
  
Spells:

Clean Up
Up to [highest] creatures or objects within 30' no larger than a human/horse/ogre/dragon are instantly cleaned, groomed and perfumed.

One may specify the grooming, e.g. shaving, shaping or trimming of the beard; type of perfume, etc. This does not destroy the filth, merely puts it into a neat pile on the side.

Adapted from the handsome wizard.

Death Scythe
Plunge your arm into a corpse and pull a black scythe from its chest as it crumbles into dust. The scythe deals 1d8+[dice] damage, or double damage to creatures of the same type as the corpse. It lasts for [sum] rounds/minutes/hours/until dismissed.

Adapted from the necromancer.

Make Material
R: 60'
Produce [dice] slots worth of basic items or equipment from thin air. They are very low-quality and have a 50% chance of breaking when used. You may produce [sum] slots of items instead, but they will be of such poor quality that they always break on first use. Broken items or items older than a day crumble into fine sand.

Adapted from the manufacturing wizard.

Misty Step
R: self and touch; T: creature; D: [sum] rounds
Transform into a fog cloud. You can fly at your normal movement speed, but lose all senses except for touch. For every [dice] after the first, you can take someone with you.

Move Earth
D: concentration
Control a small amount of earth within 30'.

At 1 [dice], you can (a) excavate a bucket's worth of dirt, (b) shape the same amount, (c) cause the earth to swallow a small item or a non-resisting person, (d) knock over a shoddy shack with a tiny tremor.
At 2 [dice], you can move a wheelbarrow's worth and even make the earth slowly levitate.
More [dice] increase the effects further.

Adapted from the garden wizard.

Non-Detection
R: touch; T: [dice] creatures, places or objects no larger than a wagon; D: [sum] hours
Target is warded against divination magic. The target and anything on or in the target cannot be detected or perceived through magical means.

Part Crowd
Raise your hands over your head, then swing them down. Along a 500' line, creatures move out of the way, opening a clear path. Hostile creatures get a Save. The path closes naturally in 2d6 rounds.

Stolen from the civic wizard.

Speak with [thing]
Talk to [thing] for [sum] (real-life) minutes, or ask [dice] questions it must answer. Each [thing] only knows what it cares about:
  • Animals care about food, shelter, safety, etc.
  • Blood knows about sex and violence, instinct and base wants.
  • Doors know what is behind them and who uses them.

Spell Collapse
R: direct line of sight; T: spellcaster; D: reaction
The target caster must make a Concentration check at -[dice], or their spell collapses. In that case, roll d6:
  1. Normal spell effect inflicted on target caster.
  2. Half spell effect inflicted on target caster.
  3. Half spell effect inflicted on you.
  4. Half spell effect inflicted on random target.
  5. Half spell effect inflicted on original target.
  6. Spell works in an unexpected way. GM tells you how.

Adapted from the metamancer.

Unseen Orchestra
D: concentration
You are surrounded by instrumental music, as a single musician at 1 [die] and a full orchestra at 4 [dice]. It can play any song you have heard before, but cannot duplicate speech. The effect can either follow you, or stay anchored to the spot where it was cast.

Adapted from the elf wizard.
 
Svirfneblin butler by edubenavente
  
Gnomeblight is a poison developed by Svirfneblin and used profusely against their red-capped brethren during the war. It causes mild gastrointestinal inconvenience when ingested by most species, but rapid necrosis on touch to gnomes - they must Save vs Death; on success they "merely" take 2d6 Con damage. The formula is a tightly guarded state secret of the gnomish dictatorship.

22 July 2025

Class: Really Twitchy Hare

They call themselves Tu'er Ye, but are better known as Harelings, Harengon, Rabbitfolk, Tabbits or Al-mi'raj. They are few and rarely encountered. Their burrows are hidden in the deepest forests and never allow outsiders in. They love to gather knowledge and devote themselves to the search for truth - perhaps because they have lost their own truth.

There are multiple conflicting histories of the Tu'er Ye, each burrow usually subscribing to one version of their racial genesis:
  • They were created by Dark Lady Ta-tiki-tekh-uata as a more exciting prey for her wild hunts.
  • They are the chosen warriors of the Moon Rabbit, a god slain in an ancient war, and shall await his glorious return.
  • They were once simple rabbits who made an unwitting covenant with fey forest spirits, gaining sentience.
  • They are closely related to the mutated ratlings and their Horned Lords. This is a shameful secret and should never be revealed.
  • They have escaped from an alternate timeline where rabbitfolk are the norm, not humans.
  • They are just a boring evolved animal, like humans.
  • All of the above are true for at least one burrow. Tu'er Ye are subject to a strange phenomenon called "lapinisation", being coincidentally recreated again and again.
And there are probably many, many more.
 
From Armello.

 
This is a racial class, so its template A can only be gained during character creation.

Quest: Learn at least two secret histories of the Tu'er Ye.

Language: Usagi, a language whistled at high frequency. If a person who does not know this language hears it, they may mistake it for the sound of birds chirping. There is no written form of Usagi.

Skills: (d4) Decipher, Hide, Overhear, Storytelling

Age: Tu'er Ye are considered adults at the age of 10 and their lifespan is about 50 years. However, many adventurous Tu'er Ye run from home to travel the world as young "teenagers" - about 5 years old.

A: Leporine, Hare-Trigger
B: Lucky Footwork, Bunny Hop
C: Panic Attack

Leporine
You are a bipedal lagomorph, thankfully with opposable thumbs.

You are pretty small - about 3 feet. You have half carrying capacity and many items will be bulky for you due to awkward size. You can only wield long weapons (long sword, spear) with both hands and cannot use heavy weapons (great sword, halberd) at all. You can fit into small spaces rather comfortably. Despite your size, you can run and jump as fast as a human and still need the normal amount of rations due to fast metabolism.

You have long ears (+2 to hearing checks per template) and can hear slightly into ultrasound.

You have disadvantage on saves vs fear.

Hare-Trigger
You are as tense as a bowstring. If you interrupt the GM before they properly describe a new location or opposition, you can take an extra action. This does not work once you know what the target or danger is.

Lucky Footwork
Against effects that allow a Dexterity save for half, take no damage on success and half on failure.

Against other effects that could conceivably be dodged, you may as a reaction reduce their damage to half.

Bunny Hop
You can jump double the normal distance.

Panic Attack
When you fail a save vs fear, you can take an extra action to attack or run away, before any negatives are applied. You can choose to fail a save vs fear against anything, anytime, though you can only be afraid of one thing at a time. Stop being afraid before using this ability again.
 
The Long Patrol by Kekai Kotaki
 
Δ: Jackalope
Travel between burrows and learn their stories.

You grow antlers, a sign of divine favour according to your people's traditions. You gain trust and respect of all Tu'er Ye, but face an inescapable wrath if this trust is ever betrayed.

You can speak with all living things. This lets you comprehend and be comprehended by humans, animals, monsters, etc.; but does not work on for example undead, writing or recordings.

20 July 2025

Let Them Name It

My players are currently exploring a shadowy alien dimension. As they have no knowledge of the creatures they encounter, I have prompted them to name their enemies. Here are the results so far:

Shadow idjit

Eugene

Dildo man
 
Everything is working just fine and I have no regrets, obviously.

13 February 2025

Class: Necanthrope

This wizarding tradition is based on SLA Industries, but tweaked and reflavoured to better fit the magic punk of the Wizard City.
 
From SLA Industries
 
Sixty seven years ago, a massive dimensional rift opened above the town of Krew, spewing hell-flames and alien debris for seven nights and days before collapsing on itself. The resulting wasteland was named Chiaroscuro, after the strange chiaroscuro-like glow it emits during the night. From the wreckage came innumerable monsters, but also people wearing strange armour of chitinous plates and metallic barbs and twitching tubing. They called themselves the necanthropes, they claimed to have escaped from a world of untold brutalities and they turned out to be potent mages - unless deprived of their necrosuits.

In time, Chiaroscuro became a new resource - deadly but gladly exploited - and necanthropes started to recruit new members, teaching others how to use a necrosuit. While no one currently has the technology to manufacture a new necrosuit, there are plenty to be found in Chiaroscuro, buried in debris along with their unfortunate former users. The few original necanthropes who survived falling through the rift formed a not so secret cabal, the Teeth, that ostentatiously serves to police its own members and is rumoured to slowly consolidate power for inscrutable reasons.

Xenomorph Cobra by cgfelker
 
You are an Outsider.

Items: necrosuit

Perks & Flaws:
You must be wearing your necrosuit to use magic.

Necrosuit is a semi-living biomechanical marvel of magitech from another universe, brought Around Here by extradimensional refugees. It forms a symbiotic bond with its wearer, allowing them to store and channel magical energy even if their own talents are rather lacking. It also serves as a spellbook, storing up to 20 spells.

Necrosuits' designs vary wildly, but they are always unsettling, alien and very, very conspicuous. A necrosuit cannot be worn alongside an armour, but grants the wearer AC equal to twice their unspent MD.

Cantrips:
  • Imperfection: Crack any glass, crystal or ice you can see with a thought.
  • Notice Me: A creature you can see is forced to acknowledge you.
  • Becoming: Alter your necrosuit. This allows you to clean, mend or reshape it. However, it will always be an obvious, grotesque, Gigeresque biomagical monstrosity. You cannot make it look "normal".

Bio-Gothique by EnergyJones

Spell List:

1. Gore Cannon: Celrydreahad
R: 60'; T: creature
Momentarily transform your arm into a huge cannon that spews a torrent of psychoactive gore.

The target gets to choose to
  • either take [sum]+[dice] acid damage,
  • or suffer a detrimental effect of the caster's choosing.

The effect can be anything that could justifiably be caused by the aforementioned psychoactive gore. For example, the target gets glued in place, or blinded, or drugged, or the gore is acidic and dissolves their armour, or it attracts a swarm of biting vermin, etc. The target knows the exact effect before choosing.

2. Ebb Enhancement: Seven Senses
R: self; D: [sum] minutes
Choose [dice] modifications to your necrosuit's sensory processing. For example: infrared vision, night vision, 360° vision, see invisible things as faint outlines, see magic auras, scent tracking, detect poison or disease via smell, heightened hearing, etc. Your necrosuit mutates to reflect the effects, e.g. growing a hundred tiny eyes.

3. Ebb Enhancement: Necro Mod
R: self; D: [sum] minutes
Choose [dice] modifications to your necrosuit. Most can be chosen multiple times.
  • Grow any kind of melee weapon.
  • Grow a new, fully functional limb of any kind.
  • Gain resistance to one type of damage.
  • Your suit seals all orifices and provides you with oxygen. You don't need to breathe and ignore airborne toxins.
  • Sticky leakage allows you to easily climb on any surface.
Your necrosuit's AC is also maxed (as if all your MD were unspent) for the duration of this transformation.

4. Kinetic Ebb Force: Burst
All creatures and loose objects within [dice] spaces of the caster are knocked back [dice]×2 spaces, save negates. Everything affected takes falling damage.

5. Ebb Electricity: Bioluminescence
R: 60' (for shot orbs)
Conjure [dice] crackling orbs of electricity that slowly float around you for [sum] hours. As another action, shoot one of the orbs to stun a creature or disable an appliance, save negates.

6. Choose one of:
Blue Thermal: Glacial Ebb
R: touch; D: concentration
Freeze water or reshape snow and ice.

At 1 [dice], you can only roughly move, bend and twist ice, or freeze a barrel of water over the course of a minute.
At 2 [dice], you can craft elaborate objects out of ice, though they will be very brittle, or freeze a barrel of water in seconds.
At 3 [dice], you may enhance the properties of objects you shape. For example, a crowbar or armour made of ice can be used as if they were iron, or a gown of snow will not fall apart. However, your creations are no more resistant to thawing than normal ice.
At 4 [dice], you can affect glass and crystal, too.

Creatures resist the effects - water in or directly around them cannot be affected.

Red Thermal: Infernal Ebb
R: 100'; T: [dice]×5' radius
All water in the area is rapidly heated up, boiling in seconds. Creatures resist the effects, only taking [sum] damage.

7. Medical Ebb: Biomanipulation
With a touch, restore [sum] HP, or [dice] attribute points, or a Wound up to [dice]×2 severity.

8. Voice of the Ebb: Syndicate
The caster and [dice] touched creatures who share a language can speak in thoughts for [sum] hours. The spell is unreliable over vast distances and doesn't work across dimensional boundaries.

The caster can dismiss anyone from the syndicate and it ends altogether should they fall unconscious or asleep. Other targets remove themselves when they fall unconscious or asleep, or at will.

9. Kinetic Ebb Force: Field
R: 30'; D: concentration
Create a shimmering square of ebb force (10' × 10'), or a sphere around the caster (large enough for the caster and one other person). The force field has [sum] HP. It can move [dice] spaces per round and can support a person's weight.

10. Kinetic Ebb Force: Focus
R: 30'; T: creatures or objects; D: concentration
You can remotely manipulate targets as if with [dice] invisible hands of your own strength. Each "hand" can move [dice] spaces per round, independently. Creatures can wiggle free of your telekinesis with a successful save, but it takes their action. Telekinetic crushing or choking deals [dice] damage per round.
 
Gore Cannon: Celrydreahad
From SLA Industries
 

Emblem Spells:

11. Ebb Enhancement: Death Guardian
R: self; D: [sum] minutes
Animate your necrosuit to work as an independent entity. It shares your HP, MD, abilities and consciousness, but acts on its own (and gets its own action in combat). You can use your spells normally even outside of your necrosuit while this spell lasts.

With no Doom, the suit collapses on the ground once duration runs out. With the first Doom, you have to return to your suit before the duration runs out or die of sudden hemorrhage.

With 3+ [dice], if the caster's flesh body dies while this spell is active, the necrosuit will store their soul and will remain animated indefinitely.

12. Ebb Enhancement: Demon Form
R: self; D: [sum] rounds
Mutate your necrosuit into an unstoppable demon of utter destruction:
  • It grows [dice]+1 times larger;
  • its AC is maxed (as if all your MD were unspent);
  • gain [dice] damage reduction;
  • all of your attacks are enhanced.
At 2 [dice], take 2 actions per round.
At 4 [dice], take 3 actions per round.

When the spell ends, due to extreme strain you take [sum] irresistible damage and cannot use magic for [sum] hours.
 
I'm In Love With Your Darkness by DarthNeph
   
Dooms:
  1. Your necrosuit painfully and permanently bonds with your body. You no longer have skin, only necrosuit. On the bright side, duration of your Ebb Enhancement spells is now in hours.
  2. You lose consciousness and only wake up a day later. In the meantime, your necrosuit has gone on a murderous rampage.
  3. You are now biologically immortal. Once you die, likely violently, you will mutate into a murderous monstrosity that seeks to feed on magic, grow and evolve. It is quite likely, however, that the Teeth will find you first and offer that you join their ranks. They will not take no for an answer.

You can reset your Dooms by surgically removing the suit, regrowing your skin and starting over with a new necrosuit. Alas, you cannot be permanently rid of your Dooms.