F.A.Q. ~ Players ~ Powers ~ World ~ Main
The powers listed on this page have been revised for third edition. The second edition version can still be found here. Some liberties have been taken with powers (such as changing damage reduction to regeneration). Furthermore, powers can eb bought with experience and some of the vampire powers have been changed into buyable ones, not innate one.
Dragons will not be added as I can't think of a good un-munchy way (except possibly half-dragon pcs). Elementals will be added soon.
The reason for the revision was simply that 3e includes many of the features that were added in the 2e powers, as well as being much more useful for a modern-day d&d setting.
This is a special ability that some characters can have. It could even be a kit in itself, if a DM wanted. Animators are people born with a special affinity for the dead -- all dead, from zombies to vampires. What makes them an animator is the ability to raise the dead and animate them, an innate magical ability that must be used or will use them.
For game purposes, there are 2 styles of animators: Animators and Necromancers (called animator necromancers here to distinuish them from the traditional ad&d necromancer).
Animator:
All animators get +2 AC, +3 dex, +1 int, +1 wis. They also get a +5 to all saves incorporated into the PC. Animators get a +4 to Bluff, Concetration, Listen, Move Silently, Search and Spot checks.
Affinity for the dead: Animators can sense the dead, and their voices can sometimes command Zombies and the like to obey them. They can also (if they can raise 3+ dead) "feel" the dead in a cemetary and sense what kind of dead lie in it and how old they are. Some animators can sense the age of any undead -- vampires, liches etc. -- just by looking at them. However, as they have their affinity with the dead, the dead can recognize them as well, and the undead in question will sense the animator finding out how old they are.
Animating the dead: Animators have the innate skill to raise 1d4+1 zombies every night, costing 1 ho to raise and more if the animator uses their own blood in the animating. This power can only be used at night and the Zombie in question will be able to respond to commands and talk, depending on how life-like they are. All zombies break down over time (a year max.) since their is no soul behind them, just a memory of life.No reputable animator raises a zombie before they are less than 3 days dead because a portion of the soul might still be in them.
| Zombie Age | Cost to Animate |
| 3 days - 20 yrs. | None, just concentration and 1 hp damage to animator due to effort animating takes |
| 21 - 80 yrs. | Sacrifice of a chicken or such in a circle around the grave for the blood to call it + 1 hp. |
| 80 - 150 yrs. | Sacrifice of goat or such, 1 hp cost. |
| 151 - 250 yrs. | As above, + own blood to feed it (1d4 hp ddamage) + 1 hp If an animator has to use their own blood for the circle, it does 3d4 hp damage to them. |
| 251+ yrs | Requires the "white goat" -- human sacrifice -- to raise these dead. No hp damage to the caster but is very unethical. |
To summarize, the animator requires a circle of blood of some kind around the grave, both to contain the zombie as well as draw it out of its grave. Any animator can return a zombie to its grave by sprinking salt on the zombie (for show, most of them time) and asking it to return, whereupon the zombie basically is sucked into the ground. An unwilling zombie has to be held down for this to work, and the salt is mandatory then.
Being a Focus: A rare animator talent (5% chance to have it), this ability allows an animator to combine their powers with another and raise even more dead than they can normally. For practical game purposes, add their normal undead raising limit's together and multiply it by 5. For 1 hp each + animal blood, they can raise that many dead at once, to a maximum of 1 graveyard worth of bodies. So if Animator A can raise 4 dead and animator-necromancer B can raise 9, together thety can raise 65 zombies. If BOTH animators are focuses, the number of bodies raised is multiplied by 10, not 5.
Charm Dead: As well as the above powers, all animators can try and command even a zombie they did not raise to obey them. This has a base 30% chance of working, +5% per undead they can raise. Obviously, eventually some animators will try and raise more than they can. For this, they have a 30% chance to succeed on the 1st zombie, 15% on the second and thats it. If they fail, the zombie is loose to do whatever it wants, which often includes killing the animator or closest person for blood, out of instinct. However, if an animator succeeds in the attempt quite a few times, they power might increase to 1 more raising. The maximum a normal Animator can reach is 7, though it is extremely rare.
Immunity to Vampire Powers: All animators gain a +10 save against any vampire power and are effectively immune to domination or blurred time effects unless done by a Master vampire.
Animator-Necromancers
Exactly what differs the necromancer from the normal animator is often debatable. using the white goat (human sacrifice) is enough to be called a necromancer, but the actual strength to be one is rarer.
Animator Necromancers obviously have the "feel" of the dead skill in the affinity to the dead part of being an animator as well as charming the dead and the animating (which is changed a bit below). Being an animator necromancer doesn't increase ones chances of being a Focus.
Animator necromancer's can raise 1d4+6 undead nomally, with the usual 1 hp cost. Some are even powerful enough to raise 300 year old corpses without human sacrifice. As it is, their power to animate the dead is stronger than the normal animator
| Zombie Age | Cost to Animate |
| 3 days - 40 yrs. | None, just concentration and 1 hp damage to animator due to effort animating takes |
| 40 - 120 yrs. | Sacrifice of a chicken or such in a circle around the grave for the blood to call it + 1 hp. |
| 121 - 210 yrs. | Sacrifice of goat or such, 1 hp cost. |
| 211 - 270 yrs. | As above, + own blood to feed it (1d4 hp ddamage) + 1 hp If an animator has to use their own blood for the circle, it does 3d4 hp damage to them. |
| 271+ yrs. | Requires the "white goat" -- human sacrifice -- to raise these dead. No hp damage to the caster but is very unethical. |
Also, some of them have shown the ability to raise vampires as they do zombies! This effect works only in the day but the vampire in question literally becomes the animator's slave (the animator subtracts 1 off the amount of dead they can raise a night to have this happen). Effectively, the vampire will obey any command the animator necrmancer gives and is animated by their power, not by whatever force normally animates vampires.
Limitations
Animators must use their power at least once a week (or every two weeks if they can only raise 3 or less dead), or it will use itself eventually on the recently dead, which can cause some consternation.
Also, due to their relative protection against a vampires mental powers, most animators tend to be drawn to hunting them in order to protect other humans.
Elementals are ancient beings that have been around for thousands of years. Very few know they exist and most of those assume that they have summoned or created the elemental before them. They tend to be curious creatures and, while not the most intelligent beings around, they are also surprisingly powerful.
Elemental PCs work differently than other types. Certain benefits are gained at different levels in addition to powers that can be bought. The types of elemental sare Air/Smog, Earth/Dust (and Sand), Fire/Lightning and Water/Ice. Not even they have escaped the damages of man to the world.
Base Powers:
| Small (levels 1-5) | Medium (levels 6-10) | Large (11-15) | |
| Speed | 40' | 60' | 80' |
| AC | +5 | +1 | +2 |
| Attack Bonus | +4 | +3 | +3 |
| Damage (slam) | 1d6+1 | 1d6+2 | 1d6+4 |
| Damage Reduction | 15/0 | 15/Silver | 15/+1 |
| Strength | +3 | +2 | +3 |
| Dexterity | +2 | +2 | +2 |
| Constitution | +1 | +4 | +2 |
| Intelligence | -6 | +1 | +2 |
| Skills: | +5 Listen, +5 Spot | +3 Listen, +3 Spot | +3 Listen, +3 Spot |
| Feats: | The elemental gets power attack if they are Earth or Water and Improved Initiative if they are a Air or Fire elemental. | ||
| Elemental: | As an elemental, the PC is immune to poison, sleep, paralysis and stunning. They are also not subject to critical hits. | ||
Note that all benefits are cummulative. A large elemental gets +8 AC, +7 con, do 3d6+7 slam damage, Intellignce modifier of -3 etc. This does NOT apply to Damage reduction, which remains at 15.
Special Powers:
Each of these abilities cost 400 experience each.
Limitations:
If forced into direct contact with their opposite element (eath-air; fire-water) they take double damage unless they make a successful Fort save. Note that this is much easier for water and fire elementals to be affected by. An earth elemental would need to be shot right up into the sky and an air one buried under dirt.
Sometimes life really sucks. Sometimes you die and find out that death sucks, too. Or for some reason a part of you can't give up the world and you're stuck on it. This tends to be quite an adjustment process and some ghosts flat out pretend the world doesn't exist, some try and end whatever duty keeps them here and some are just nasty fellows. Depending on the nature of a ghosts death, their appearance can be anything from angelic to right out of some warped childs colouring book. While many of these undead are tied to their resting places, others wander the world freely, only being seen by Aminators and those with magical gifts -- unless the ghost wishes otherwise.
Base Powers:
Special Powers: (All saved as 10 + 1/2 Ghosts level + cha mod unless otherwise noted)
All ghost powers cost 1000 exp each.
Limitations:
As incorporeal undead, ghosts sometimes have problems gaining experience. As well, Aminators are increnibly resistant to their powers and other undead can shrug off the sight of a ghost. In addition to this, clerics are often more than willing to take up (or rediscover) their faith to deal with an evil ghost.
When the gods of old sometimes visit the world again, they seldom pass up the opportunity to leave some kind of mark behind. This often results in the god mating with a mortal and producing a child whom they leave behind to do their will on Earth. These children tend to stand out among their fellow, with shining skin, sparkling eyes and beautiful appearances, half celestials are perhaps the last remnants of the gods who once walked among men.
Base Powers:
Innate Powers:
These powers come to the half celestial when they reach the level specified. All the spells can be used once per day unless noted otherwise.
Special Powers:
Each of these powers costs 500 each to gain
Any other powers are up to the DM in question based on what nature of creature fathered the PC. All half celestials are native to earth and outsiders.
Limitations:
As creaturs of gods long gone from the world, half celestials find themselves contacted by their parents often and obliged to do their will in the mortal world. Due to their goodly nature (or perhaps curse) they are rarely able or willing to refuse their quests for aid. Outsiders due to their appearance, many of them live entirely for whatever quest they are sent on.
Everyone loves a joke, and sometimes the dark gods love them more. Sometimes the spirits of the otherworld find mortal flesh and return. Some of them mate with humans. The result of these dark acts are people infused with darkness. Some of them look human, some are in freak shows ... others become politicians or CEOs or design role playing games. Most of these beings learn quickly how to hide their dark nature from mankind and how to use it against the other beings of the world.
Base Powers
Innate Powers:
These powers come to the half fiend when they reach the level specified. All the spells can be used once per day unless noted otherwise.
Special Powers:
Each of these powers costs 500 each to gain
Any other powers are up to the DM in question based on what nature of creature fathered the PC. Half fiends with the fiend as a mother are not native to earth and get the Outsider designation. Other half fiends only get that at level 5.
Limitations:
None. The evil beings that sire half fiends are seldom the maternal or paternal types. As long as their progeny remember them and do evil acts, they can expect a good life. If they do otherwise, they can expect to die very, very soon.
Making a were pc is fairly easy in 3e. Str, Dex, and Con become the stat of the animal chosen and Int, Wis and Cha have no bonuses to them. If the were is a rat or around that size, they use the stats from the Dire animal version. Simple, really. Skill and feats would then be a matter of what makes sense and/or what the animal gets.
Base Powers:
Special Powers:
Each of the powers below can be bought for 700 experience.
Master Powers:
Each of these powers can be bought for 2000 exp each.
A leader of a Pack gets 1d3+1 additional DM-determined unique powers as well as being linked to the packs area. They can not be away from that area for over a year. Even going away for a month can trigger it as a Geas spell (3d6 damage each day, -4 to Str and Dex, move at 1/10 normal rate. Fort Save (dc 15) each day. If it is failed them become crippled (as if they had 0 hp, can't do any strenuous action at all). It wil go away when they choose to return home). A Pack Leader who resists the geas for the full year simply drops dead.
Weaknesses:
Were weaknesses not only add to RP, but also give them powers. For each 2-3 limits taken, the were can gain 1 special ability free. They can also invent their own personal ability for 3-5 weaknesses, with DM approval. Feel free to invent other weaknesses.
Were Mentality: The weres tend to be very open beings. Their animal self lets down some innate human defenses against the world, often giving weres a more playful aspect (especially younger ones). The other side of the animal self is that weres don't HAVE to justify killing ... its perfectly natural and they'll do it as quickly as blinking. When in human form, they aren't as blase about killing and often feel powerful remorse for what they did in their other forms. Most weres spend their lives fighting this killer instinct, with varying degrees of success. Most of them combat the naive nature of their animal self very quickly, or tend to die fast. The world isn't a forgiving place.
Mummies are ancient beings wandering the world on specific quests to end their unnatural existence. Unlike traditional movie mummies, these beings look perfectly human except they dont breath, eat, sleep, feel pain or are alive. The magic that sustains mummies has been lost to time, but new onces can be formed by someone inadverdently raising themself from the dead.. Aminators and certain powerful Weres have been able to accomplish this act, and prove extremely hard to slay.
Base Powers
Special Powers:
Each of these powers costs 550 experience to get.
Limitations:
Fire (A mummy takes double damage from fire unless a save is allowed for half damage. A successful save halves the damage and failure doubles it)
Other limitations are left up to the players imaginations.
The Fey, or fairies, or shining ones, or whatever one wishes to call them are the Custodians of Life -- a level of strength higher that the Lords of Life and Death hold. They oppose the existence of vampires and are the only think that truly terrify even master vampires. All the Fey now live on earth again, sunderered from the Summerland that was once their home.
Powers:
All fairies:
Mortal Farie Powers:
These cost 400 exp each.
(Former) Immortal Fairie Powers:
(These are natural for true fey and cost no EXP. They but the "mortal" ones the same as those Fey do.)
After the fairy creation known as Lilith brough death to their world, the fairies have returned to earth en masse, not aging but capable of dying. They can breed once again, but most do not think it worth the price of their own land.
Weaknesses
All fey suffer damage from iron as vampires and weres are affected by silver. Other weaknesses are entirely up to the player to devise.
The Glamour: This ability is the most powerful form of magic in the world. It allows fairies to alter the nature of the world at will. It consists of 3 levels of strength. At the first, it changes perceptual reality (acts as an audible and visual illusion). At the second, it can affect all the senses and last as long as the fairy wishes. At the third level, only available to immortal fairies at will and mortal fairies under massive stress, the fairy can make the glamour real. Neither weres nor vamps not even gods are immune to this power, and the Will DC to resist it is 35, reduced to 25 if one knows glamour is being used on them..
Fairy Mentality The Fairies tend to be love pranks as children but mature into quiet, reflective and very alien beings with powers that no human can understand. They (even the mortal ones) are blessed or cursed with long lives and can never forget. Many of them tend to have a very low opinion of humans and a profound hatred for Iron.
Unlike werewolves, the vampire powers are often highly individual and partially like the vampire who made you/brought you over or whatever. However, not all vampires are brought over. Those brought over are called undead and treates as such for purposes of animiator powers. However, vampirism is also an evolutionary trait . .whether forward, back or sideways is debatable. By that, it is possible for vampires to breed, and have children. These vampires are referred to as the unliving, not undead, and suffer almost no effects from religious icons and cannot be turned.
Drinking Blood: Most vampires do require blood to live, but it can be as little as a quarter a pint a night. Contrary to popular belief, most vampires do not drain victims dry -- most vampires simply can't; it would be like a human drinking water constantly. All drinking blood does is keep the vampire alive but if they hold out more than 1d4 weeks, they began to get weaker. A vampire deprived of blood for more than a month goes into a coma.
Base Powers:
Special Powers:
Each of these abilities can be bought for 600 experience.
Older Vampire Powers: Gained around 150 - 800 yrs of age
These abilities can be bought for 1500 experience.
Master Vampires: (Gained at 400+ )
These abilities can be bought for 3000 experience.
Master Vampires also gain 1-3 special powers of their own choice.
A vampire who becomes master over an area gains the ability to Block any power used in his or her vicinity and can command the lesser dead (zombies, weak vampires, lesser mummies) as if they were an animator. Most of them have a special feel and connection with the land they master. They suffer the same Geas effect weres do for leaving it.
Vampire Limits:
All vampires -- like weres -- suffer damage from silver. In addition to this, a Vampire takes double damage from fire though they heal it normally and their powers tend to be less effective (30% chance not to work at all during the day). For each 2-3 limits taken, the vampire can gain 1 special ability free. They can also invent their own personal ability for 3-5 weaknesses, with DM approval. Feel free to invent other weaknesses. Note that if a vampire is older than a certain religion, its symbols have a much weaker change of turning them.
Sample Weaknesses:
Vampire Mentality: Most vampires are old, from cultures and times where honour was real and keeping ones word sacred. Most of them pass this down to their progeny, so breaking one's word to a vamp is very dangerous business. Vampires are also rare because not many can survive the change into one, and fewer live out their first century as undead -- often dying by suicide or simple stupidity. However, the vampires that live past three or four hundred years are something else entirely ... often something very, very inhuman.
What does it mean to be human? No one has ever really answered that but most agree the key components are emotion -- compassion, love, self discovery. Many vampires lose the first over time, sickened by human stupidity, by loved ones dying until they learn how not to care -- if you've walked through Jerusalem during the Crusades, human life begins to lose a lot of meaning to you. And most vampires get so entrenched in who they are they they never discover themselves after a certain point. Older vampires also tend to become very bitter and morose, remembering wrongs before rights, the bad times over the good. Many others find adapting to modern times very difficult -- to the point of not understanding guns or cars. Most of them do know what they are, but how they work is unknown to them -- a few would seriously call it magic.