[HR] The Argyrian Claviger

Here is a race / class combination for my campaign. This campaign has been going on for quite a while, so I’ve been puzzling how to incorporate this.

  • Argyrians *
    Custom Race / Class for the Nine Planes Campaign (ACKS)
    Inspirations:
    Warpsmiths from the Miracleman comic, 1980’s run, Alan Moore
    Hasturs from the Dark Border novels, by Paul Edwin Zimmer
    Alien refugees from the movie Stranded, 1987
    The Argyrians are through to be a Glaetyri (elvish) offshoot, having split off from them during the Interregnum. Abandoning the holistic wisdom of the Pattern, they discovered a new home strongly influenced by the order of the Obelisk. It was a warm world of perpetual twilight. Stars shone continuously as three moons shed their gentle light upon Permian jungles of mauve fern-trees.
    It is unknown how they were discovered by the Rhodrians (mind flayers). With their outposts overwhelmed, the population was driven back to the main city of tall towers on the shore of a broad, deep lake. Sadly, they had to flee, chased from their paradise. The Lord Hastur and his followers demonstrated a new power, one unconnected to the Pattern, Obelisk, or Maelstrom. He fought a valiant rearguard as his people fled through a gate. Now they are nomads in the places between, taking necessarily short excursions through the Sea of Dirac to new lands. With the wisdom imparted to them through Lord Hastur’s sacrifice they seek a means to reclaim their beloved homeland, Lost Carcosa.
    Argyrians are a tall, lithe race with a pale, bluish-grey skin and silver, dark grey or black hair. Their eye color tends towards the jewel tones of the Glaetyri (green, blue, purple). They are found throughout the city-states of the Star Crown Empire, although they favor Sentinel, the City of the Singing Flame.
    ** Requirements **
    All Argyrian classes require a minimum Charisma of 9 or better. Argyrians must have a confidence in their inner strength else they would succumb to despair.
    ** Class Category Values **
    Pervasive Infirmity: Argyrian classes cannot have greater than 1d6 HD per level and +1 hp per level after 9th level.
    ** Argyrian Values **
    When building an argyrian custom class, assign between 0 and 4 build points to the class’s Argyrian Value. At Argyrian 0, all argyrians gain the following three custom powers:
    Keen Eyes: Argyrians detect hidden and secret doors with a proficiency throw of 8+ on 1d20 when actively searching, or 14+ on casual inspection.
    Spatial Awareness: Argyrians have a sure sense of distance and position. In combat, they are able to fire into melee as per Precise Shooting.
    Flash Step: A legacy of Lord Hastur’s final stand, Argyrians are able to walk through the Sea of Dirac, allowing them to cross several feet with a single step. The Argyrian teleports in a similar fashion as the Dimension Door spell (Arcane 4), limited to a 30’ range. This is very fatiguing for them as they are travelling through a dimension hostile to life. The Argyrian can do this once per turn, and they and anyone carried by them suffers 1d4 damage each time they flash step. This is considered movement. Should an Argyrian’s hit points be reduced to 0 due to a flash step they do not reappear from stepping between realities and are lost.
    Unstuck in Space: Additional points to the Argyrian value demonstrate an ease that the character has in moving through space. For each point above 0 the Argyrian has 15’ added to their base movement, 5’ added to their combat movement, as well as removing -1 from the penalty to fire into melee.
    ** Experience Points after 8th **
    Argyrians require an extra 10,000 xp to level after 8th.
    XP value as per dwarves.

** Argyrian Claviger **
Class Abilities
Prime Req: STR and CHA
Hit Die: d6 (+1 HP after 9th level)
Fights as: Fighter (+2 every 3 levels)
Saves as: Fighter
Allowed Weapons: All
Allowed Armor: Hide or lighter
Fighting Syles: Two-Handed, Two Weapons
Melee and Ranged Damage Bonus: +1 per 3 levels
Armor Class Bonus: +1, +2 at 7th level, +3 at 12th level
Uses magic items restricted to Fighter.
Maxiumum Level: 12
Flowing Step: The Claviger moves disturbingly easily with an odd grace. They have a base move of 150’, and a combat move of 50’. Furthermore, they can make a roll to attempt to flow around the combat and set themselves up for a surprise attack, as per Acrobatics.
Hastur’s Legacy: A legacy of Lord Hastur’s final stand, Argyrians are able to walk through the Sea of Dirac, allowing them to cross several feet with a single step. The Argyrian teleports in a similar fashion as the Dimension Door spell (Arcane 4), limited to a 30’ range. This is very fatiguing for them as they are travelling through a dimension hostile to life. The Argyrian can do this once per turn, and they and anyone carried by them suffers 1d4 damage each time they flash step. This is considered movement. Should an Argyrian’s hit points be reduced to 0 due to a flash step they do not reappear from stepping between realities and are lost.
Awareness Without: The Claviger is able to finely perceive the distance between objects, allowing them to fire missile weapons into melee with only a -2 penalty to hit. Also, they can discern hidden and secret doors with a proficiency throw of 8+ on 1d20 when actively searching, or 14+ on casual inspection.
3rd: Awareness Within: The Claviger’s mastery of bending reality improves to the point where they can make subtle shifts in their position. They can go into focus once per day per level of experience. While in focus, the character gains a +1 bonus to all attack throws, proficiency throws, saving throws, and initiative rolls. The awareness within lasts for 1 turn (10 minutes).
6th: Carcosan Stairs: Once an hour, the Claviger may “Escher walk” at standard movement on walls and ceilings for 1 round. If they do not end their movement on the ground they will fall at the end of the round.
8th: Twilight Sojourn: The Claviger leaves no sign of his passing over wilderness terrain, and may not be tracked. For every 3 levels of experience, the character may cover the tracks of an additional traveling companion.
11th: The Towers Fall: Once per day the claviger can reach out causing random ripples in space, shearing whatever lies in the path. In a stroke 5’ wide and 60’ long, everything within is cut for 1d6 damager per level of the claviger. A saving throw for half damage applies. Particularly hard or brittle items may shatter.

** Experience Point Table **
1 Coureur 0
2 Wanderer 2,700
3 Ascendant 5,400
4 Voyageur 11,000
5 Wayfinder 22,000
6 Nomad 44,000
7 Mazarine 90,000
8 Wender 180,000
9 Claviger 310,000
10 Claviger, 10th 440,000
11 Claviger, 11th 570,000
12 High Claviger 700,000

Behind the scenes work-
Hit Die: 1
Fighting: 2
Argyrian: 2
2100 xp for second level.
Reduce Armor from Unrestricted to Restricted, 3 options, +450 xp.
Reduce Fighting Styles to 2 (no shield style), 1 option, +150 xp
Experience for 2nd level: 2700
2 options used at first level.
1 option used for 3rd, 11th level.
1 option used for 6th, 8th level.

Very inspiring! I get a sort of eladrin/protoss feeling from it.

Moved Awareness Within to 3rd level; a 1 use / level power really should start at a lower level, I think.
Thank you! That is a style I am shooting toward. And, yes, I have been playing some Starcraft lately… :wink:
I forgot the fighter 5th level minion inspiration ability, which I think would still apply. They’re a bit alien, but a major monster-stomper is still inspiring. Their fortress would be more elven than fighter and I will probably go with that. Rather than being easier to defend due to the robins and bunnies spying on the invaders, Argyrian holdfasts simply don’t have windows and doors. And, it’s so quiet they can hear you breathe.
Is… is there something in the lake…?
The moon seems awfully bright… Maybe we should go…

Baron, that’s absolutely cool. Thanks for sharing your class!

I like this alto but have a couple of questions…
Don’t you have to spend 4 pounds among hd, combat, magic, skills, and divine?
Also when you take options by trading away fighter abilities isn’t the extra xp cost based on the number of options you end up with rather than the steps traded? So in your case 5 * 150? Or have I read that wrong?

  1. You do have to spend 4 points, yes. It looks like Baron only spent 3. In this context it’s probably fine to break the rules as it doesn’t look like the class is game-shattering.
  2. Fighter trade-off XP cost is 150xp x number of class powers, but that’s measured as if all powers were taken at 1st level. A class power at 4th/10th is the equivalent of 1 class power at 1st level. So this class has 4 class powers. I’ll make sure that’s clearer in the rules.

I believe that when you allocate the points, you have to spend 4 unless a racial package is involved. In that case, you can spend up to 4 pts on class abilities and no more than 4 pts on racial abilities.
In the case of the elf F/M, that is HD:1, F:2, Elf:4 I think.
I believe that the extra cost is for options traded away. When you trade options at 1st level for more options at later levels that has been deemed sufficient cost for the extra options. I’ll look at the end of the fighter section again.
I have to say, making up the XP Table certainly exercises the thesaurus muscles.
Next is the Argyrian Galliard; where once the rare youth heard the three moons of Rhoder sing the music of the spheres, now the song of the Singing Flame echoes in their dreams. How has this, along with their exile, altered their gifts?

Alex: “1) You do have to spend 4 points, yes. It looks like Baron only spent 3. In this context it’s probably fine to break the rules as it doesn’t look like the class is game-shattering.”
Oh… I thought that became optional when you included racial packages. Okay.
Hmm… I did have Thievery:1 in there, but wanted to trim down the xp costs. I may tinker…

Baron, you don’t need to spend 4 points IF you spend 1 point or more in the racial value (that’s been clarified in the latest version of the PC) but I didn’t see a racial value of higher than 0.
So I may be wrong on the build or not, I’m not sure!

Okay, I spent 2 pts on the racial package to give increased move and minimize friendly fire. I was leery of spending more… I didn’t want it to become over the top.
The elvish spellsword is pretty beefy. But it does have 4000 xp for 2nd level.
The tinkering is half the fun. :slight_smile:

Elves are:
2 Fighter, 1 HD, 1 Mage, +3 Race for 7 total (and 4 total in Mage).