Ancient Power  ·  Background Sheet  ·  Bubble 2.6

The Grindstone

A man, a task, and the ten thousand repetitions between them
Cost8,000 XP
Grit abilityInt / Wis / Cha
Grit DC10 + ½ lvl + mod
ChassisUnmodified
ExitTerminal

Power is mostly weather: bloodlines, pacts, wishes, things that happen to people. Underneath all of it there is an older engine, the one that was never worth writing legends about. The Bubble has seen gods arrive fully formed and it has watched them lose, eventually, to somebody who simply did not stop practicing.

You are a completely ordinary person, and you have decided that will be enough. When you take this power, choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. That is your grit ability, and your grit DC is 10 + 1/2 your character level + your grit ability modifier. The choice is permanent.

OP 10

The Common Clay

Ex

There is no secret ingredient. You have no bloodline, no patron, no template, and no destiny, and this sheet only works because of that. NPC class levels count as full class levels for every ability on this sheet, and Untold Power's "5+ levels over your Tier cap" reads as 3+ for you.

OP 20

The Discount

Ex

Peak mortal is a place, and you know the shortcut, because you walked there. Levels in the Paragon class cost you half their Experience price, and you qualify for Paragon feats as though your Paragon level were 2 higher.

OP 30

The Arm

Su

Somebody built it; you made it yours, and now there is some of you in it and some of it in you. Your left arm is a magitek prosthetic bonded to your soul. It was built for somebody else and outlived them.

  • It cannot be removed, sundered, stolen, or suppressed as a magic item. In an antimagic field it functions as an ordinary arm.
  • It grants a slam attack, a primary natural attack one size category larger than you, counting as magic and adamantine.
  • Add your grit ability modifier to combat maneuver checks made with the Arm, and to Strength checks to break, lift, or hold made with it.
  • It has mod slots: two, plus one per 4 character levels. Mods are installed over a day's downtime and are paid for in silver, not Experience.
PartEffect
MOD-01Grapnel launchA 30 ft line, retracted as a swift action.
MOD-02Weapon housingOne one-handed weapon lives inside the forearm and is drawn as a free action.
MOD-03Shield plate+1 shield bonus to AC, +1 more per 6 character levels.
MOD-04Overdrive pistonOnce per scene, one slam deals +1d6 per 2 character levels and pushes the target 10 ft.
MOD-05Tool suiteMasterwork artisan's tools for any craft, always on hand.
MOD-06Rocket fistLevel 9+. The fist launches: make one slam against a creature within 30 ft, then it flies back and reattaches as a free action.
  • If the Arm is somehow destroyed, it reforms at your next full rest.
  • Forge-Heat. A mod may be installed in an hour rather than a day when the work is fired by a living dragon's breath. The hour counts, for the one breathing, as an hour immersed in open flame.
OP 40

Lock In

Ex

The world gets very quiet and very small, and everything left in it is the task. Once per scene, as a free action at the start of your turn, you lock in for a number of rounds equal to 2 + your grit ability modifier. While locked in:

  • You may take 10 on any skill or ability check, even under threat or distraction.
  • You are immune to fear, and gain +4 on Will saves against mind-affecting effects. An effect that would make you act against the task you named grants you a new saving throw at the end of each round, at the same DC, and ends on a success.
  • Your attacks against the one creature or objective you named when locking in gain +2, and you ignore concealment miss chances below 50% against it.
  • You cannot take attacks of opportunity against anything that is not the task, and you take a −4 penalty to AC against everything that is not the task.

When it ends, you are staggered for 1 round.

Out of combat, locking in on a task lets you take 20 in half the usual time, once per day.

OP 50  ·  The Last RepEx  ·  Once per character

The Last Rep

There is one rep left in you, and you are going to finish it. When you are reduced to 0 hit points or below, or would otherwise die, you may declare that you are not finished (no action, even outside your turn). You keep acting for a number of rounds equal to 2 + your grit ability modifier, at whatever negative total you are on. During those rounds:

  • You cannot be healed, stabilised, or restored to consciousness by any means, and nothing that would remove you from the fight can — no banishment, no petrification, no teleport, no time stop, nothing that ends your turn early.
  • Every attack roll you make threatens a critical, and every critical you threaten confirms.
  • You automatically succeed on any check or saving throw that would let you keep standing, keep moving, or keep hold of something you are holding.
  • Anything you were locked in on you are locked in on for free, and the −4 AC penalty does not apply.

When the last round ends, you die: see The Price. No roll changes that, and no ability on any other sheet at the table can undo it. Once per character.

OP 60

Ten Thousand and One

Ex

The reps count differently when somebody who finished them is watching. A day spent drilling under a master whose art is counted in steps and fists satisfies the week's routine, and the first time you lock in during the following week, the lock ends without staggering you.

┊┊┊┊╱ ┊┊┊┊╱ ┊┊┊┊╱ ┊┊┊┊╱ ┊┊┊┊╱  …  ┊ ten thousand, and then one more
TERMS

Conditions of Issue

The Price
01

The routine

Hours of real, boring practice, every week. Miss a week and the −2/−4/−6 ladder starts: the current step is a penalty on your attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks. Each further missed week advances the ladder one step; each week you train steps it back one. What counts is drilling a thing you have already done ten thousand times, not learning a new one.

02

The clay stays clay

You can never benefit from polymorph effects or acquired templates. This sheet only works on the chassis you were born with, and it stops working for as long as you are wearing anything else.

03

And it does not come back

No effect returns you to life. Not raise dead, not resurrection, not true resurrection, not a wish, not a god who owes you a favour, not the Chorus, not a Seam. When this character dies, that is the end of him.

04

The Arm remembers being a soul

It costs you nothing to use. Every time it does something a prosthetic should not, it is legible at a distance to whoever made it, and to anything else that reads souls. The signal cannot be turned off.

MODS

Authorized Modifications

Feats

Second Slot

Gain one additional Arm mod slot. May be taken more than once.

Deeper Lock

Lock In lasts 2 additional rounds and no longer staggers you when it ends.

Iron Routine

The routine's ladder advances every two missed weeks rather than every one, and one week of drilling clears the whole ladder rather than one step.

Overdrive

Your Arm's mods scale: the shield plate's bonus improves by 1, the overdrive piston fires twice per scene, and the rocket fist's range doubles.

Locked and Loaded

You may Lock In as an immediate action, including when you are surprised, and including when it is not your turn.

One More

Requires The Last Rep

Your Last Rep lasts 2 additional rounds.

The Ten Thousandth Rep

Level 11+

Once per day, while locked in, you may declare a natural 20 you have just rolled: that roll automatically succeeds, no matter how implausible. The success is the roll's, not the intent's: it wins only what that single roll resolves — an attack roll hits and, on a threat, confirms; it does not win the goal the roll was made for. What the roll wins cannot be reduced to nothing: its damage or effect has a minimum of 1 after all reductions.

Worked examplevs AC 5000 / DR 100/Divine, the nat 20 hits, confirms, and floors at 1 damage — you made a god bleed, you did not kill one.

Paragon of the Common Man

Levels in the Paragon class cost you one third of their Experience price rather than half, and you qualify for Paragon feats as though your Paragon level were 4 higher rather than 2. The Capstone Paragon purchase (§7.4) becomes available to you at Paragon level 10, and every 10 Paragon levels after.

← more homebrew  ·  Studio Egregori