Aetrimonde

To wrap up Ipki Chainbreaker, I’m going to take a look at one way that Ipki might advance through her first few levels. And, this will be a nice opportunity to preview some other types of Divine power, aside from the Wrath powers that Ipki focused on at level 0.

Also, be sure to read (or skip) to the end of the post, because I’ve got an announcement about where this blog will be going from here…

Level 1

One thing that Ipki’s level-0 powers don’t have is a melee option for when Ipki gets in over her head. Dazzling Smite helps with that: it exemplifies one “strain” of Divine melee powers, representing a weapon strike that erupts in magical energy–in this case, a flash of dazzling light–affecting creatures near the target. Powers like these are Divine melee characters’ main source of area damage: unlike Martial characters, who get powers that attack many targets at once, Divine characters make a single attack which spills over to other creatures nearby–if it hits. This means that they are all-or-nothing: the attack either hits its target and damages several creatures, or misses and does nothing at all.

Beneath Notice is one of the feats I previewed in an earlier post; it allows Ipki to remain under the radar until she gets her first turn in a fight, and I think it ties in nicely to her backstory as a guerilla slave liberator.

As her level-1 perk, Ipki will take Esoteric Knowledge [The Slave Trade]. This helps her out with knowledge checks related to capturing, transporting, selling, and working slaves–not so that she can engage in the trade herself, but so that she can better dismantle it. Better to know your enemy…

Level 2

Word of Mortality occupies a midpoint between Ipki’s ranged powers and Dazzling Strike: it has a 5-square range, but because it has a Pulse range, it can be used without provoking opportune strikes, giving her a little more range when tied up in melee. Aside from only targeting Anathema, this exemplifies another strain of Divine powers: “Word of” powers, representing a Divine character channeling the power of their god through the recitation of scripture, target a single creature at short range, cause small amounts of psychic damage, and have increased effects on injured creatures. Word of Mortality is an excellent niche option for cutting through the resistances of Anathema, and Ipki can Denounce non-Anathema to make them valid targets of it as well.

Radiant Exemplar is another feat I previewed in an earlier post: it has a minor but useful effect of giving Ipki a renewable, hands-free light source, which is not to be sneezed at when trying to fight something in a dark place. It’s also a rare example of a feat which is a prerequisite for another feat: we’ll see the second feat in a couple of levels.

For her perk, Ipki will take Craft [Improvised Weaponry]. This is a bit of an odd perk, because if you’ve used a Craft perk to make a weapon, is it really improvised? But the way I would adjudicate it is that this perk lets Ipki repurpose tools and other objects that are already similar to weapons (pitchforks, mining picks, manacles…) into actual, functioning weapons, given a bit of time to work. Very useful for arming slaves prior to an uprising…

Level 3

We’ve given Ipki a couple of powers branching out from the Wrath powers she specializes in: time to get back to those basics. Sweeping Sunbeam is a sustained area-damage power: while it has a relatively small area (blast 1, so a 3×3 area), it really shines on subsequent turns, when Ipki gets to move the zone it creates, attacking every creature in its path. Used well, this can sweep over wide swathes of a battlefield, and its path can be adjusted to avoid catching allies in the beam. Plus, it sheds bright light, effectively shining a spotlight on enemies in the zone. The big drawback to Sweeping Sunbeam is that it eats up Ipki’s main action: if she doesn’t use it to repeat the attack, her concentration breaks and the zone expires. That means she likely won’t be firing off any other powers while concentrating on the sunbeam.

Devout Prayers is the semi-obligatory bonus-to-attack rolls feat for Divine characters, and by level 3, Ipki will probably want to take it. Because Ipki really wants to apply her recoverable effects to Anathema, she benefits from a bonus to attack rolls more than a bonus to damage rolls, so that her attacks land and the effects go off. The Divine keywords Ipki can choose from are Binding, Psychic, and Wrath:

As her level 3 perk, Ipki will begin dabbling in Ritual Magic: as part of this perk, she learns three rituals which for the sake of brevity I’ll just summarize here:

• Dowsing: Creates a talisman that indicates the direction to a known creature, object, place, or substance. Ipki plans to use it when hunting down slavers known to her, or trying to rescue specific captives.
• Astral Projection: Allows Ipki to enter a trance and project an intangible duplicate of herself over a distance of kilometers. Ipki plans to use it for reconnaissance and communication, sneaking into slaver dens and slave quarters by simply floating through walls.
• False Face: Conceals Ipki’s identity by projecting an illusion over her. In a pinch, could be used to conceal even that she’s a goblin. Ipki plans to use it for infiltration, disguising herself as either a captive or a slaver.

Level 4

Another variety of Divine powers, which has the Boon keyword, provides direct support to allies. Unlike Armament and Ward powers (and there are Divine variants of these…), Boon powers have simple numeric bonuses or otherwise improve capabilities that characters already have, rather than adding new effects to their attacks or defenses. They’re also easier to use in the moment, rather than taking forethought to use well like many Armaments and Wards. Guidance, in particular, gives an ally a small but noticeable bonus to attack and damage rolls.

And, while on the topic of Boons, each Divine class has a feat that ties Boon powers into their class features. For an Inquisitor like Ipki, that is the Denunciative Boon feat, allowing her to use a Divine Boon power as a free action each time the target of Denunciation fails a recovery roll–which they will, given what Denunciation does. As long as Ipki can get a recoverable effect onto an enemy she’s denounced, she can then hand out Guidance for free on a regular basis.

For her level 4 perk, I’m going to give Ipki a free-fom perk: Terror of Slavers. Building on the Fame [Goblin Abolitionists] perk she already has, Terror of Slavers will give Ipki the perk benefits for checks related to terrifying slavers. That includes plain old Intimidate checks made against slavers, of course, but also extends to things like spreading propaganda, inspiring uprisings, and otherwise waging a campaign of psychological terror.

Level 5

The last type of Divine power that I’ll showcase in this post is a Binding power. These powers generally deal no damage directly, but have an effect on a single target lasting as long as the user concentrates. Extirpating Seal is of a variety that, while it deals no damage by itself, causes other attacks against the target to deal additional damage and have additional effects. It also complements Word of Mortality nicely: where Word of Mortality removes an Anathema’s resistances, Extirpating Seal worsens its vulnerabilities–and many Anathema, not to mention some other creatures that Ipki can denounce, have both.

And to cap things off, we’ll give Ipki the second Exemplar feat for Deum Radiant, which Radiant Exemplar was a requirement for: this allows Ipki’s light sources to help allies shake off mind-altering effects, like some Anathema are known for inflicting.

Last but not least, Ipki will delve a little further into ritual magic–this time aimed at striking fear into the hearts of slavers. This second Ritual Magic perk lets her specialize in one kind of ritual–she’ll choose Divination, to help her find and investigate slavers–and also learn another three rituals:

• Fabricate: Turns raw materials into finished goods. Useful for arming slaves in, say, an iron mine, and more generally to manufacture weapons that can’t be repurposed from tools or whatnot using Craft [Improvised Weapon].
• Geas: Forces a creature to follow one overriding command (while giving it freedom in how it interprets the command). Ipki will use this to dispose of slavers she captures in a way that spreads terror and has the veneer of legality: when a slaver marches into the middle of town and starts uncontrollably confessing their crimes to everyone they can find, nobody’s going to shed tears over what an incensed citizenry does to them.
• Remote Viewing: Allows Ipki to see and hear a creature at range using a mirror or pool of water, along with their surroundings. Ipki will use it to spy on slaver organizations from a safe remove, learning their plans and schemes.

Equipment

Finally, let’s take a loot at some items Ipki might find useful:

Ipki really wants to be sneaky, partly because of her backstory as a guerilla liberator but also because, well, she’s a really fragile character who doesn’t want enemies focusing on her. Something like a Chameleonic Cloak would be great: this allows her to flit past enemies, unseen as she blends into the background (Stealth check permitting…), and could also be useful to maybe dodge a few attacks if she gets caught in the middle of a fight with no other escape.

While Ipki doesn’t particularly need an amulet-style holy symbol to keep her hands free, one advantage of such an item is that it can be given enchantments for both holy symbols and amulets, and there are a couple of enchantments that can only be applied to holy symbols in this form. This kind of item is a useful way to make an item that serves double duty as an offensive and defensive item in one convenient package. In Ipki’s case, she’d love a holy symbol combining the Righteous and Sanctified enchantments:

These enchantments are a mixed blessing (ha) compared to equivalents: Righteous combines the item bonuses to attack and damage rolls of two other enchantments (Prevailing and Fervent), and applies them to all Divine powers instead of only those with a single keyword, but only to Anathema. Ipki can denounce a single creature to treat it like an Anathema, but unless actual Anathema make an appearance in an adventure, this means that these bonuses will only apply to a single creature: good for handling a priority target, less so for a horde.

Sanctified likewise combines three enchantments (Deflection, Protection, and Resilience, all for jewelry like amulets) with the caveat that their bonuses only apply vs. Anathema. Again, since Ipki can designate a foe as Anathema, this means she can always protect herself against at least one enemy in a fight, but that relies on being able to Denounce a foe before it attacks her. On the other hand, if she is facing a bunch of Anathema, this bonus becomes incredibly powerful. The Sanctified enchantment also gives this holy symbol another niche use, in that it can be passed off to an ally in need of protection from Anathema.

Up Next

That wraps things up for Ipki Chainbreaker, Goblin Inquisitor! I now have four completed sample characters, giving a representative sample of all four character origins and combat roles. I’d actually like to have six sample characters to include in Aetrimonde’s starter kit…but I’m going to hold off on that for now, because the next thing that I want to build for the starter kit is an actual introductory adventure. And, like these sample characters, I’m going to design this adventure with reader input: I’ll be putting polls as I write this, giving you the opportunity to help pick locations, guide the plot, design NPCs, and so on. Keep your eyes peeled for the first one, coming up soon!