Sunday, August 4, 2019

Yoon Suin: Of Gods and Priests - the Vulture Priest

Yoon Suin has hundreds of gods , cults big and small.  In 5e this can be modeled fairly well with cleric domains and warlocks.  

In the GLOG, there are a few cleric classes floating around... but they tend to be generic and bland (in some cases, they are created begrudgingly by the author).  I don't think they fit the Yoon Suin Holyman very well.  I think instead it's much better to create a class for the priesthood of each god, as necessary - if a player really wants to play a holyman of Yato, keeper of secrets, or if they are facing a priest of the Elephant Demon of Hunger and Rage, create it!  Otherwise, keep it vague.  Not all priests will have classes that are suitable for adventure, but in the GLOG, balance is merely eyeballed, so even a priest with dubious powers can still contribute

The Vulture Priest

Embrace the ill luck of others oh mortal, because one day someone will relish in yours. 

With blackish robes and red collars, the Vulture Priests are an unwelcomed sight, lurking around, waiting for misfortune to fall - and it always does, sooner or later.  And from misfortune, opportunity.  As they grow in power their shoulders stoop, their neck becomes longer, their hair falls out and their nose become long and pointed.  The high priests of the Vulture God grow long wings, able to fly slowly but with little effort.  

For each template (ie level) of Vulture Priest, your perception goes up by 1, and your spell dice (SD) goes up by 1 (maximum of 4).  You learn 1 spell per level (see below).


A:  Iron Stomach, Temple Vulture,
B:  Scent
C:  Sense weakness
D:  Vulture merger

Abilities: 

Iron stomach:  You can eat flesh in any state and safely gain sustenance - it does not matter if it is spoiled, poisoned or curse.  This does not extend to other foods - moldy bread is a bad for you as anyone else - although eggs do count as flesh

Temple Vulture:  A temple culture chooses you as a companion.  You can communicate with it.  It will scout for you, but its reports are vague - it thinks like a vulture, and mostly reports about potential meals.  It will not fight for you but will defend itself if it can't run away.  It needs one ration's worth of food a day.  It will gladly eat your corpse.

Scent.  You gain the keen sense of smell of a vulture - you can smell and track living things, or dead things, by scent.

Sense Weakness:   When an enemy adjacent to you is struck by an attack (spell, sword, arrow...) and is reduced to 3 or less HP by the attack, you can immediately take a free attack against this enemy.

Vulture Merger:  A Temple Vulture merges with you (you still keep your companion).  You grow two long wings in your back.  You can fly somewhat lowly (speed 40 feet, ie 16) with poor maneuverability, but if the sun is up you can fly nearly effortlessly over great distances.  When the sun is down or indoors, you can fly a maximum of [CON] minutes.  Your preferred food is now raw flesh, and eggs are delicious.

The Spells.

At level 1, roll 1d4 to select your spell. At level 2, 1d6, level 3 1d8 and level 4 1d10. You can only learn spells of your god (with one exception...) and if you get a result you already had, reroll. You always have all your spells memorized.  To use other magic, you must use a magical item that supplies its own power - potions, wands etc.

1 The Wake
Range: 50 feet Target: [sum] creatures Duration: [Dice]
You share the blessing of your gods with others. Targets gain the capacity to eat and digest flesh as if they too had Iron Stomach (the end of the spell only means that they can't eat further, not that they will throw up what they already ate). Can be cast on herbivores.

2 Read the Entrails
Range: 0 Target: One body with guts, less than 1 week old Duration: 10 minutes
You poke around the entrails of a reasonably fresh body, and obtain a useful Omen from your god about a specific goal, creature, event or location.  Usable only once per body.

3 Invisibility to Predators/Scavengers.
Range: Self Target: Nearby predators/scavengers Duration: [sum]X10 minutes.
It's not that they don't see you, rather they don't see you as prey - they know your place in the game. A guard dog, sharks smelling blood, trolls, will all ignore you. They might not ignore your companions however.

4 Scavenge
Range: 0 Target: One fresh corpse (1 day) Duration: Instant
You eat a bit of a recently deceased corpse, and extract some life from it. You gain [dice]X1d6 from it. To sustain a 1dice spell, you need a corpse at least as big as a cat. 2D: goblin sized. 3D: human sized 4D: horse sized. A corpse can only be scavenged once this way - although the rest can be eaten the normal way.

5. Vomit
Range: 20 feet Target: 1 creature Duration: instant/[dice]
You vomit violently at a creature, and your strong stomach acids wreak havoc. Target takes [sum] dmg, and has disadvantage on attacks for [dice] rounds. After using this spell, you must eat [dice] extra rations in the day to avoid fatigue.

6 Dread Above
Range: 100 feet Target: 50 food diametre circle Duration: [Dice]X1d3 rounds
The vultures circle overhead, and opponents must save vs fear or feel like dead meat. Every affected creature must make a morale check, and suddenly running away feels like a very smart move. Foes that are affected but do not flee have disadvantage on all their attack rolls.

7 The Misfortune of Others
Range: 0 Target: self Duration: [sum]hours
Whenever a foe attacking you or your allies fumbles (in most system, rolls a 1 on the d20), your next attack against that foe is automatically a critical.

8 Heal Disease
Range: 10 feet Target: [dice] creatures Duration: instant
You share the Vulture's resistance to illness. Cure any food poisoning, food born illnesses, parasites or infected wound (including infectious bites). Does not work against air-born illnesses.

9 Part the Skin
Range: 5 feet Target: 1 immobile "skin" Duration: Instant
You part the skin and make a 2 foot long, 1 foot wide opening. For 1D, the skin can be something like a tough leather. For 2D, you could part a wooden wall. For 3D, you part an inch thick sheet of iron. For 4D6, you part dragon scales.

10 Mind Eater
Range: 0 Target: self Duration: Until used again
Eat the brain of a spellcaster, and learn one spell they have memorized (chosen randomly). You can now use this spell as you knew it, until you eat another spellcaster's brain. Also, regain [D] spelldice.

(Lastly, it should be noted that this is not playtested material. )

edit:  I did a few minor tweaks at the suggestions of the OSR discord group, which is, as always, very useful.

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