The Power of Ten – The Missing Tens – Sama Rantha, Vol I – Hagborn
(Note: Glossary at End of Chapter by repeated request!)
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Chapter One – Rebirth and Death
Where am I?
I looked around dazedly, trying to get my foggy thoughts together. It was hard to think.
I thought… I thought I had been reborn. I thought I was a baby again, and then, and then –
I jolted at the remembered images. No. No, I hadn't just thought that. Those balefire eyes, gleaming with evil. The bruised, blue-back skin, the warts and extended nose, the teeth like jagged nails, and that voice…
No, it wasn't a thought. And then that… thing. Like a baby made out of ooze. Crawling toward me, opening its maw into darkness, coming down on me, covering me, coming INTO me…
Devouring me…
I looked down at my hands.
They were translucent, see through, as if I wasn't really here. And small, too…
I was small. I looked around, and everything looked so misty, and so big…
Not really a baby, not really anything, but… a dream.
I twitched again, and memories fired back up coldly in my head.
How I had died… was that a building exploding, coming down on me? It was hard to tell. The world had gone to Hell, I was fighting… undead, zombies, yes… death…
It had been a game, it had become reality. I had been…
Sama Rantha.
My head snapped up and around as something seemed to whisper, inside, outside, I couldn't tell. I didn't know how real my body was, but my senses seemed to work the right way.
I was a Hagchild in the game. And now…
Naturally, being a Hagchild meant I had to learn just what being the daughter of a Hag meant. Basic information was that you were a would-be Hag who had undergone the Ritual of the Silver Queen, had the Hag's Curse and the magic that came with it ripped away, ending up a Forsaken Human who could never wield magic.
I had picked Annis-born, the brute Melees of the Hag set. A Hagchild had no strength penalty for being female. Annis-born had a natural 40' movement rate, instead of the default 30', and if they picked Improved Unarmed Strike, natural claw damage.
All Haghildren had double canine teeth. I licked mine, and yes, there they were. Their nails were also odd colors. Annis-born were black… as were mine.
I hadn't gone through the Ritual of the Silver Queen. I had been eaten.
Lore from the game rolled across my mind with uncanny clarity. Hags were as unnatural in childbirth as they were in life. They couldn't actually raise their own children, or they'd eat them. At the same time, they were compelled to expand their cursed sisterhood by inflicting their Curse on innocent souls.
Thus, every Hag's child was born by killing other children and taking their innocent souls.
And I… was that innocent soul...
Which meant… what was around me was the Hag's Curse. It had to rely on my soul to live. That I was awake, aware, and able to think was definitely beyond its current level of ability to deal with. On the other hand, I had no idea what to do, and likely I had been consumed and replaced.
Hagmom Annis would have raped and consumed some man to conceive a child. If she was cruel and cunning enough, she would have done so to my real father. The cursed thing she conceived was basically a soulless thing that would have consumed me and taken my soul to give it life, taking my place and living my life, blissfully unaware that it wasn't really me… until it was time, and it was old enough for the Hag Curse to catalyze. Nearby Hags would sense the readiness of a Hagborn, swoop in, and perform the Ritual to consume and corrupt my soul, warp the innocent persona that had lived out my life, and turn an innocent soul into a Hag.
Other Hagborn had different systems. Greenhags consumed a babe and conceived a replacement in their womb. Shellycoats relied on aborted fetuses and spreading venereal disease to as many men as possible in an orgy, bringing all the material together to form their daughter.
That process… was what was going on right now. I was a soul, trapped inside the auspice of a new Hagborn that had taken my place.
Trapped… in its dreams.
This misty place of shadows and the evil that was dwelling in them… was the dreams of the Hagborn, of the artificial persona of the curse, the place where its evil and madness gathered and grew, until it erupted out under the Ritual and consumed the skein drawn over it, consuming me in the interim.
Which meant I was doomed, unless I could overcome it.
Very slowly, I began to smile, and then laugh, low in whatever passed for a throat here.
Three things were going to go very, very wrong for this Curse.
One, and very important, was that it couldn't kill me. Without my soul, it couldn't remain alive. It could cause me fear, pain, and trauma, try to bind and seal me… but it couldn't kill me.
Two, I was Sama Rantha. I'd embraced the persona when the world went to Hell. I was already a Hagchild. I could beat this, and I had all the tools and potential to do so.
Three, I had taken that status into this world. I was no Powered. I hadn't played the game as a spellcaster or chi-user. Nope, being a Hagchild meant I was Forsaken. Forsaken meant no magic… not even Curses.
The Curse was doomed, simply because it would never be able to transform me. The transformation would slide off me no matter how hard it tried. I wasn't a Primos, ripe victim for the greatest Curse to afflict the human race. I was Forsaken. I was Normal done Hard, and I could never be a Hag!
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Due to repeated demand, I am adding a Glossary to Chapter 1 as of June 8, 2019.
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At Long Last - The Glossary Addendum!
Okay, okay, I give up. A Glossary is here! Of course, it's not going to be in alphabetic order. Also, if there are any additional terms you want defined here -> that comment section is waiting. Reply to my post and I'll add them on. So if it rambles a bit... I hope it's entertaining enough to put up with.
So, let's begin!
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Some History: I freely borrow from D&D and Pathfinder 3E and 3.5E as I do this, as well as AD&D, BECMI, and even Warhammer FRPG and some of the video games I've played in the past. Since I'm being authorial, I can add all this in to liven up the world and show the underlying mechanics of what is at play. Of course, playing with all of the stuff I use without a computer doing all the stuff behind the scenes might be very slooooooow... especially with Deep Tens getting access to all sorts of stuff!
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The Players!
Powered: The Magic Folks who won the super-power lottery. They can use magic, chi, psionics, whatever, they have the potential for it, they only need the Stats and Levels to make use of them. Basically, they have stretchy souls.
Primos: The rest of us. Terrans are all Primos. We can learn to use magic items, and accept a Warlock or Binder Pact. Souls are considered rubbery rigid.
Forsaken: Primos who had forsaken Magic are either Nulls, Sources, or Voids. They cannot use any magic, chi, or psionic effects that require them to be projected, Cast, or otherwise, nor most magic items.
Nulls: The most common Forsaken, the hardest souls. Reinforce the rules of Reality around themselves. Magic and such energies intruding on their Null simply gets straightened back out to basic background magic, and vanishes into nothingness. Tough and wise.
Sources: Radiate magic at its most foundational level, and so burn away higher forms that intrude on their Sun. Effectively Make Fate for themselves. Strong and charismatic, Kings Among Men/Queens Among Women, natural leaders. Their Souls are hard and burning.
Voids: Filter magic through themselves, tying themselves to it with every breath and heartbeat. Abnormally sensitive to impurities and disruptions, and driven to get rid of them. Very dexterous and extremely intelligent, their Voids manifest as Helices of different colors dependent on their Order that can drain magic from things around them. Their souls are basically ephemeral.
Forsaken are effectively limited to using ki (passive effects only), some Alchemy, and Soul Magic (Feats + Magic items). They can use Powered magic items with passive effects, but cannot improve them.
Karma: Another term for experience points. Karma is gained many ways, but the universally acknowledged fastest way is to defeat worthy opponents. This can be meta-gamey (evacuating a town before the flood caused by an enemy drowns it) or straight up bashing skulls in en masse. Note that slaughtering things that are not a threat to you or yours generally gives you nothing, unless its for a greater purpose (i.e. completing the Fountain of Death Becoming to create an undead army, or something). If you are a Good person, saving lives is generally worth much more Karma then taking them.
Just like classic RPG's and the video games that borrow from them, it takes more and more Karma to gain every extra level. You can always keep accumulating Karma even if you can't level up, buying Feats, Masteries, Hit Points towards your cap, Secondary Levels, spend them to make magic items, and so forth.
It takes a Stat of 10+Level in the Class you want to take a Level in it. Thus, to be a Ten, you need a 20 in the prime Stat of that Class. It takes an exceptional person to gain Levels. If you play the system, you need a 14 base Stat to make it all the way to Ten eventually. Magical items do NOT count towards this limit.
Regardless of how much Karma you have accumulated, you can't Level up ten times in one day. Between Renewals, you can add one Level, one Feat, advance one Mastery, train up one Hit point towards your maximum (Health or Soak, not both), and learn one new spell for a spellbook. You can only put a combination of 1,000 points of Karma and gold combined into a magic item (ONE Magic item!) per day via Infusing or Investing. There are special exceptions to this for consumables such as Scrolls and Potions, but largely 1,000 is a Hard Limit, until you get to very high end Forsaken Crafting...
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THE LIMITS!
Power of Ten is largely an E10 world, meaning characters are mostly limited to Ten. Legendary characters can break Ten, but they are rare. In all of the Rosencrux Empire's millions of citizens, there are less then a dozen. This is not the Forgotten Realms, where every city has an archmage in residence.
Spells are limited to Valence V. Post-Ten characters with higher Slots can meta their spells to be more powerful, but D&D level 6+ spells are not possible to cast.
The First Ceiling is Level Six. This is the limit for a normal mortal/human. It is by definition the limit of being Human. If you are a Seven, you are by definition a superhuman. Thus, Tarzan, Batman, and the like, who are not superhumans, are Sixes. If you are a Seven, you're better in some way then Batman is. The average level of an experienced Terran is Two. An elite is a Three. An Olympian/World-Class is a Four, and the best in the world today might be a Five. There are probably no Sixes alive on Terra, it's much too hard to get there.
Batman would be a Deep Six... a Six with a LOT of secondary Classes, and many Feats and Masteries.
The Second Ceiling is Level Ten. Only true legendary characters exceed Level Ten.
The limit on Stats for a mortal body is 30-35. After that point, your body is basically a magic item, your mind is thinking in the akasha outside your skull, and so forth.
Twenty is the absolute Mortal Limit. After Twenty, you become Eternal, stop aging, and will not die of natural causes, you can only be killed.
Powered gain 10 years of additional prime years (normally age 20-40) for every Level they have... meaning they also live longer then the rest of us. Forsaken do the same. Primos who become Forsaken at Seven get back their years, which can rapidly de-age them, as do Primos who swear a Pact and become pseudo-Powered.
Secondary Classing is allowed. One's Primary Class is not fixed until Level Four...the first Class to reach Four is your Primary forever, so prepare well! Your Secondary Classes are limited to half the level of your Primary, rounded down, +1. Thus, at Ten, the maximum Class Level you can have in a Secondary Class is Six.
Gaining a level in a Secondary Class costs exactly what it would cost to gain your next Level in your Primary Class.
Skill points gained from a Secondary Class MUST be spent on Class Skills for that Class. Likewise, any Stat advances from Secondary Classes must be spent on the Prime Requisite of that Class. Any Feats and Masteries taken must also involve Skills or features related to that Class.
You gain no bonus Skill points for Int from taking Secondary Classes, nor extra hit points. You do get the best of the save bonuses by Class, and Attack Bonus. You also do not gain any weapon or armor proficiencies, or other bonuses only available at Level One.
There are Prestige Classes, which are basically special niche Classes or work off combinations of one or more main Classes. The main Classes are where the real power is. Most such Classes are 5 Levels long, and cap at Ten (i.e. require you to be a Ten to take the final Level).
You gain a Stat point at level 4 in any Class, and again at 8. At Ten, you gain +1 to all Stats.
Skill Ranks impose absolute limits on certain things you can learn and know. If your Soul is not developed enough, you simply can't understand certain things.
The existence of Levels is widely known and understood.
Good, Evil, Law, and Chaos are fundamental forces that empower the universe, not philosophical arguments. While what is 'good' for you might be relative, it is you that is relative to Good, not the other way around. If that seems incredibly arbitrary, the ant you just stepped on thought you were being arbitrary, too. Did you care?
Creation refers to the multiverse of multiverses. Marvel, DC, Star Trek, Star Wars, and the Power of Ten all exist in Creation, although the rules of their realities might be wildly different.
There is no war in Heaven.
Renewal is your Reset time, when your Magical Day begins. It calculates the duration of all day-long spells, the reset on x/day abilities, when you can begin enchanting magical items again, when you can rememorize spells, when you roll again for saves to throw off an effect, and the like. Anyone who has gone through a Renewal knows exactly what it feels like, and so can track days passing by their Renewal. (Yes, I borrowed the concept shamelessly from the Dresden Files).
The vast majority of Renewals are at Dawn. Other popular times are Noon, Dusk, and Highmoon (midnight).
Renewal is based on personal time. Going to a world with week-long days, a Renewal is still once a day. The time of day can be changed by eschewing Renewal at the proper time, and proceeding to the time you want to Renew at.
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FEATS AND MASTERIES
Feats represent special tricks and capabilities that build upon other basic abilities, and come in all types and flavors, magical and not magical. They are analogous to some of the Skills of video games, but virtually all Feats are passive in nature. The ability to Power Attack, giving up accuracy for a considerable boost to damage, or focusing solely on kill-points, is a Feat that builds over time. Skill Focus Feats give a +3 bonus to using a Skill, which doubles at Ten to +6.
Melees, Archers, and Scouts have access to Class Features that basically supercharge certain Feats, allowing them to improve with time.
Many Feats require you to be a certain Level, have certain Stats, possess certain Class Features, be of a certain Alignment, or know other Feats and Masteries to take them.
Power Feats are certain stacking Feats that can only be taken once per every 3 full Levels.
Masteries are basically half-Feats that represent increasing proficiency in a specific area. If applied to a Skill, they give Competency bonuses and count as Skill Unlocks. In other areas, they serve as ways to upgrade a power or ability over time.
Because they have no access to magic or spellcasting, Forsaken focus on Feats. Any time a Forsaken gains a Feat when Leveling or from a Class, they gain an extra Feat. If a Forsaken takes a Class that has magical ability or Casting, any Level where they would gain a Spell or similar power, they gain a Feat appropriate to that Class.
Competence bonuses for Skills are limited to +5, what you get from a Mastery. Most other Bonuses are limited to +3 at Ten. Magical items that buff ability scores are limited to +5 at Ten.
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THE STATS!
-Human Stats average 10-11 as a baseline. As PoT mirrors reality, most women take a -2 penalty to Strength. Conversely, they gain +2 to any other Stat, up to the human maximum. This means women don't make the best Melee Fighters, but they definitely make the most talented Casters! (and where Girdles of Giant Power exist, the difference is superfluous, especially at higher levels. Amazons are the strongest 'Class' that can be chosen!)
- Every 5 points represents a doubling. So, a Strength score of 20 is basically about as strong as 4 men, and a 20 Intellect can match wits with 4 other people easily.
-The total bonus of a Stat increases by +1 every 2 points past 10, and is a penalty in the other direction. The subordinate score increases by +1 in between (i.e. Might increases before Power).
-The normal human Stat maximum at career start is 20 (base 18, +2 for starting choice reflecting training). In the real world, the maximum is about 23. It is VERY difficult for an average human to train beyond that level. Having a Stat of 24+ basically means you are Superhuman in some way. People who are born with natural 18's and train to make it a 20 are incredibly rare... but not on Player Character Creation sheets, it seems...
-If you want to see what a 22-23 represents, pull out the Guinness Book of World Records!
---Ogres have a Str score of 21 on average, making the average Ogre stronger than all but the very strongest humans, and Cons of 18, making them incredibly tough. Spider-man sits in the mid-40 range since he can toss a car, the Thing has a Might of about 60 (Power low since he's not very fast), and the Hulk a Str of 60+ (fast AND strong!).
---Succubi have Charisma scores of 26 (+8) on average, making them more charming then any human on Earth. Napoleon rode an 18-20+ Charisma to historical immortality, despite being nothing much to look at.
--Intellect maps to IQ. An Intellect of 13 is the smartest person in the room. 14, in your grade. 15, in your grade school. 16, in your high school. 17 is a true genius, and best in your college. 18, probably in your state. 20, probably in your country. 22, probably the planet (Sherlock Holmes range). Batman probably has a 23, and Lex Luthor a 24-26 (and a lot of Feats/Masteries). Reed Richards is probably in the 30's, but has no ceiling, since he can grow his brain.
-Spider-man has a reaction time 15x a human athlete, and perfect balance and body control. That puts his Dex score in the 38-40 range (+14-15). The best Snipers in the world will have Precision about 20, while the best yoga masters and gymnasts will have Agility in the same area.
-The wisest and most cunning advisors and plotters in history have Wisdom scores in the 20-22 range, which is about the basic level of an Angel. The way Shakespeare's Plays have endured the centuries is a timeless testament to the wisdom of their writer.
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Strength/STR: Physical power, divided into Might (lifting, breaking, bending, damage) and Power (how fast you can use your Might, hitting stuff, control). Power cannot be higher than Might.
Someone with high Might but low Power could carry a mountain, but only throw it a couple feet, for instance.
Someone with high Might will generally have massive musculature, while someone with Power will appear more toned, lighter on their feet, and faster. A body builder, for example, has high Might, but probably has less Power than an MMA fighter.
Strength is very important to a Melee combatant, signifying speed and control of a weapon, and being able to wield heavier arms and armor.
Dexterity/Dex: Agility and Precision. Not Speed. NOT SPEED. Speed is derived from Power. Agility is quick reaction times and dodging stuff, like Spider-Man doing his thing to avoid all the Green Goblin Shurikens, and twisting like a pretzel. Precision is control, balance, a steady hand, and affects to-hit rolls with missiles, finesse combat, and when working on delicate tasks. These factors tend to be equal, but it would easily be possible for a tumbling acrobat to have a higher Agility then Precision, while a Sniper might go the opposite direction.
High Dex people are graceful, flexible, controlled, precise, steady, and balanced, and move with efficient movements.
Dex is NOT SPEED! It's vital to both quick and agile combatants, such as Scouts, and ranged combatants, like Archers.
Constitution/CON: Vitae, the power of your lifeforce/soul, and Vitality, same for your body. They tend to be equal, strong soul breeding strong body, but do not need to be. Vitae governs bonus to Class Levels/Soak, and Fortitude saves that affect the life/soul (life drains, necromancy, etc). Vitality governs the bonus to Hit Dice/Health and Fort saves that affect the body (fatigue/exhaustion, poison).
People with high Constitution are in extremely good Health and phenomenally tough, able to keep going when others fail, and resist negative energy attacks more easily.
Intellect/Int: Reason and Memory. Reason is the ability to figure out things rapidly, thinking through a new problem. Memory is retaining what you know. Reason governs present skill rolls for many crafting and profession skills, and Memory how many Skill Points you get.
A high Intellect person knows a lot of things, and can apply them effectively and consistently, figuring stuff out faster than those around them.
People who work with Arcane magic and Crafters, as well as Skill-heavy folk, need high Intellects.
Wisdom: Divided into Experience and Insight. Experience is what allows a Wise person to pick the best option out of many available, doing the right thing at the right time. Insight allows a Wise person to know what is out of place, including things affecting themselves, and so pursue harmony.
A Wise person can give good advice easily... or horribly wrong advice, if they choose. They tend to be hard to sway, self-controlled, and calm.
Wisdom is important for those wanting attunement with Nature and the Divine, so Monks and priests require it.
Charisma: Divided into Personality and Willpower (is NOT Appearance!!). Personality is social skills, ability to get along with people, have them follow you, personal magnetism, ease of being around people, silver tongue, always having the right words for the occasion, having a thick skin, and so forth. Willpower is strength of will, inability to be swayed, commanding presence, emotional power, and pure stupid determination.
Naruto would be an example of a high Charisma character... not much in brains or common sense, but gets people to follow him, never gives up, and becomes a leader.
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Examples: The high Int character exploits every cheat in the game, the high Wis character rewrites the rules of the game instead, and the high Cha character convinces the Admin to let her win.
The high Int character comes up with a dozen battle plans, the high Wis character picks the best one... and convinces the high Cha character to back it, so everyone follows along.
The High Int character goes looking for lots of advice and alternatives; the High Wis character gives the best advice; and the High Charisma character bulls ahead, figuring he can fix anything that goes wrong as he goes.
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HIT POINTS: A term that includes Health, Soak, Temporary Hit Points, and Health Qi. The base idea is similar to video games (who took it from RPG's). Health is actual physical damage an object or being can take. Most monsters and creatures only have Health. The average human has 1-8 Health. A brick usually has 5. Fast Healing, Reserve Healing, and Regeneration only affect Health. Health naturally returns at Level/Hit Dice + Con bonus/day, twice that if resting.
Soak is the magical 'oh that didn't actually hurt' effect, very fundamental battle magic. It ONLY comes from Class Levels. Creatures fighting humans with Class Levels hate it. Why puny human not fall down when tree trunk smash his ribs? It manifests in whatever manner is the most efficient to save the person struck, near misses, lucky steps, glancing blows... but you can face plant after falling two hundred feet into concrete, get up and walk away if you've the Soak for it. Magical stuff! Clerical Cures can restore Soak, but mostly it's restored steadily at Level+Con/hour, much faster than Health.
Temporary Hit Points: Come from magic. Any damage taken is first taken from these, and they are burned away/expended. Like a magical field of 'Ahhhhh, don't cut me!'
Health Qi: A form of damage absorption/instant healing possessed by really powerful monsters. You cut them, blood sprays, flesh tears and rips... and in the next second they are right back to normal, and the crimson stuff kinds of evaporates. Powerful monsters can have LOTS of Health Qi. They can burn Health Qi to overcome ability damage, poison, stun effects, etc, meaning things that have it are total pains to deal with. It is recovered after all Health damage is healed, building right back up, so Fast Healing and Regeneration, as well as healing spells, can help a monster get their Health Qi back very quickly.
Temporary or Subdual Damage: This is Health damage that is not lethal, returning at the same speed Soak does. This is how you beat people unconscious. Melee fighters have Vigor which turns lethal wounds into subdual damage, meaning they heal much quicker. Also, every point of Health or Soak damage cured by other means also heals a point of temporary damage, meaning double effect healing!
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COMBAT TERMS:
TO-HIT/TH: The modifier to your roll to hit an opponent. In video games, this is generally a % chance. The enemy has a target number for you to hit (their Armor Class/AC), you roll % dice or a d20 (twenty-sided die), add your To-Hit modifier, and if you equal or exceed their AC, contact is made and it is time to roll damage. Most magic weapons modify To-Hit and Damage by a fixed amount.
TH is divided into MAB, Melee Attack Bonus (close combat) and RAB, Ranged Attack Bonus (missile combat).
If you are subject to Luck, rolling a 1 (01-05) is always considered a miss, and rolling a 20 (96-00) is considered always a hit.
This is somewhat different from many video games, where you are presumed to hit, and damage is just modified. Mathematically, they end up in the same place... whiffing is basically the same as seeing 0,0,0 damage come up...
In terms of combat importance, you generally want your attacks to hit, then do more damage per attack, then gain more attacks. It's all math, but if you can't hit, it doesn't matter how many attacks or damage you get, and if you don't do any damage, it doesn't matter how many attacks you have.
D4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d100: the d is short for 'die'. Google 'Gamer dice' to see what they look like. They are used to roll random results from 1-4, 1-6, 1-8, 1-10, 1-12, 1-20, and 1-100, respectively, with other combinations possible by halving or combining different dice. They are used for calculating weapon damage and hit points for combat, and TH rolls and saves.
A knife or dagger does a d4 in damage.
A gladiator's short sword or a normal arrow does a d6.
A knightly longsword or broadhead arrow does a d8.
A two handed sword or axe, or a lance on a charge, does 2d6.
A cloud giant is four times the height of a human, can wield a Heavy Weapon, and so his sword strike would do roughly 5-30 damage, +11 from Strength... Remember us Terrans have on average 5 Health...
A d20 is also known as an icosahedron. D&D basically invented the market for almost all non-d6 dice.
CRITS: If you actually roll high on a TH Roll, you have a chance of hitting a key point (throat, eyes, stab the heart, cut the groin, etc)... you know, the places you WANT to hit. You confirm the Crit by rolling again, and if you hit again, you generally deal double or triple damage, depending on weapon type and feats.
Sword type weapons crit more frequently (19-20 roll) and generally do double damage, making them more consistent.
Axe-type weapons crit less frequently (20 roll), but hack down for triple damage when they do, making them more explosive.
Simpler weapons, such as clubs and maces, crit on 20 and do double damage. A few exotic weapons are 20/x4 and 18-20/x2.
HIT DIE/LEVELS: These are the number (and type) of dice rolled to calculate hit points. Monsters use a d6 (such as Fey), d8(ex. Animals, Aberrants), d10 (magical creatures, Jotuns, Soulborn outsiders), or a d12 (Dragons) for their Health, usually assigning average values. To each Hit Die, you add their Constitution bonus to gain their Final Health, which can vary with other Feats and Masteries. So, a 12-HD Hill Jotun with a Con bonus of +6 has 12 x (1-10+6) Health, or roughly 12 x11.5 on average, or 136 Health. An average Terran Human with a Con of 12 (+1 bonus) has 5.
Video Games tend to assign hit points per level, instead of rolling variables, and using an average is perfectly fine. Basically, the more Hit Die you have, the tougher/stronger/more badass you are.
The average Human has 1 Hit Die for Human/1, and 1-2 Class Hit Die. How's it feel to be a wimp like me? An experienced, Veteran soldier might be a Three, and the best spec ops soldiers in the world, 4's.
Player Characters are assumed to be highly trained and experienced, and at level 1 start with maximum Health and Soak for their Class and Race. Us noncombatant NPC's have to roll...
Class Levels also have Hit Dice + Con bonus, which grant Soak. Pure Casters, like Wizards and weak combatants (Experts, Commoners, Vizards), have a d6 for Soak. Partial combatants and skilled-centered classes have d6+2 Soak (Scouts, Archers, Bards), primary fighting combatants have d6+4 (Melees, Dragon Warriors, Paladins, Knights), and savage melee combatants have a d6+6 (Barbarians, Berserkers).
Note: This is Power of Ten, and I am making a clear difference between the Classes if they use average hit points. It takes much more investment to make a Wizard as tough as a Melee using d6 vs d6+4 (3.5 vs 7.5 average), instead of using a d6 vs d10 (3.5 vs 5.5 avg). It was a problem in 3.5E D&D.
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AC/ARMOR CLASS: How hard it is to hit something. Unlike many games, PoT treats actual armor not as damage reducing, but avoidance, i.e. it bounces off your armor. If some force gets through, it isn't reduced automatically by the armor, it's a hit.
Armor Class is raised by wearing armor, using a shield, being dexterous, dodging, being insightful and reading movements, having a tough hide/skin/scales, and other methods. It starts at 10 (a normal human with no bonuses or penalties), and goes up as high as you can make it.
Bonuses to magic armor and shields raise the amount of protection they give by the same amount as the bonus. Better armor and bigger shields naturally give better bonuses, as anyone who video games a sword and board fighter knows.
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DR/DAMAGE REDUCTION (and Hardness): The amount of damage taken off a physical attack. This can be magical protection, toughness, supernatural vitality, special armor, otherworldly physiology, and so forth.
DR is expressed as a number/bypass. DR 10/Silver means 10 points of damage is removed from every physical attack... except if the attack is silver. This is the standard defense of were-creatures, and why they are fearsome enemies if you don't have silver, as you just can't hurt them or nickel and dime them to death.
There are Feats and Masteries that help bypass DR.
DR X/- means there is no bypass, except some Feats. Common types of DR are X/Silver, X/Magic, X/Good, X/Cold Iron, and X/Adamant, but there are X/hawthorn, X/Jade, X/Obsidian and X/Gold out there, among other things, and X/random special object are always fun to throw at people.
Hardness is possessed by objects, but is more Indestructibility, while DR is more like Invulnerability. You need to exceed the Hardness of an object, using the right tool, to damage it. So, wood has a DR of 5, and a casual blow by a human isn't going to damage it. Steel has a Hardness of 10, and is very hard for a human to damage without the right tools. Mithral and the finest steel hit Hardness 15, and Adamant has a Hardness of 20.
Jotuns have Primal DR equal to their Strength bonus, which also applies against Energy of the standard types. It allows them to live pretty much anywhere
ENERGY RESISTANCE: DR for Energy, as opposed to physical attacks. Even a single point of fire and cold resistance is enough to render you immune to earth extremes of temperature. The five basic energy forms are fire/heat, cold, acid/base/corrosive, lightning, and thunder/sonic. Other types of damage include necroic/negative energy, Force, Radiant, Primal, Divine, Eldritch/Arcane and vivic/positive (which generally doesn't harm the living), among others.
Poison is not an energy type.
1 point of sonic resistance means you can fire off a gun next to your ear all day without harm.
1 point of lightning resistance means you'll never pick up a static charge from the floor. 10 points means you can't be shocked by your home wiring. 20 points makes you immune to a downed power line. 30 points means you can ignore being struck by natural lightning.
1 point of acid resistance means bleeding in the sea/salt in your wounds won't sting, and most caustic fumes have no effect on you. 10 points means you can drink battery acid. 30 points means you can drink aqua regia.
1 point of fire resistance means you can't be burned by a match, and are immune to sunburn and sunstroke. 10 points means you can stand in a decent bonfire. 20 points means you can't be burned at the stake. 30 points means you grab and mold lava, and stroll around in the heart of a forest fire. 50 points or so means you can go swimming in lava, and watch an acetylene torch not burn your skin.
1 point of cold resistance means you can hold a chunk of dry ice all day, and go swimming in ice water. 10 points means you can guzzle liquid nitrogen. 20 points means you can tolerate the cold of earth-orbit space. 30 points means you can take a bath in liquid oxygen, and walk around on Pluto (air pressure and breathing still problems, however!)
Templates: A suite of abilities applied to a creature a specific purpose. Want a little bit tougher foe? Give them the Advanced Template, bonuses to all Stats and minor tweaks. Want a horror from beyond Creation? Pseudonatural Template turns anything into a terrifying monstrosity that can kick ass. Fire Template makes a creature native to elemental fire. Draconic Template turns a creature into a descendant of a Dragon.
Operationally, this is similar to adding a suite of armor to something with specific buffs, without changing the underlying creature. Fire Orc, Frost Orc, Advanced Orc, Draconic Orc, etc.
The highest order Templates would be Divine, which creates a demigod, and Exemplar, which makes just a hideously overpowered critter out of anything.
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SAVES: RPG's use the concept of rolling dice to mitigate, avoid, nullify, or neutralize magical and other attacks, known as 'saving' against the attack. This is different from video games, which often just reduce the damage or duration of an effect. Saving Throws, like AC, are part of a person's main defenses.
The broad categories of Saves are Will, Reflex, and Fortitude (Fort) saves.
Will Saves: Attacks against the mind and willpower. Illusions, charm spells, paralysis spells, 'these are not the droids you are looking for' effects, and so forth, attack a person's will.
Reflex Saves: Here comes the fireball! Roll a modified 22 or better to dodge the brunt of the attack to take half damage. Also used for, say, jumping out of the way of the boulder rumbling down the hallway, Dr. Jones... or ducking around the corner ahead of the dragon breath, or firmly lining up behind your shield to deflect the lightning bolt some. Evasion is a quasi-magical Class Ability that allows you to totally avoid any damage on a successful Reflex save against something, along with a quippy phrase and sneer of contempt or two...
Fortitude Saves: A combination of spiritual and physical vitality. Attacks against the soul, such as life drains, and against the body, such as poison, are fortitude saves.
A Save works much like a To Hit Roll against Armor Class. The target number represents the potency of the attack, with a low number being easy to resist (12 for a small spider's poisonous bite) and a high number meaning you better be praying (27 for a Banshee Scream or the poison of a house-sized Scorpion), and can reach 30-40 or higher for truly legendary monsters... and PC's who build in that direction.
Naturally there are ways to make yourself immune to certain effects, which basically means you 'auto-save'.
Generally speaking, a 20 on the die roll is considered 'always saving', and a 1 'always failing', if you are subject to Luck.
There are many effects which can modify Saves, including high Stats, Resistance, Luck, insight, blessings from the divine, and so forth.
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Finesse Fighting: Normal combat assumes you are using your Strength to control your weapon and hit hard and accurately with it. Finesse fighting assumes you are using lighter weapons and using them with extreme precision and control, going almost solely for those key points. Because you aren't using as much force, you don't smash home with as much power when you hit... but if you have High Dex instead of Str, the additional bonus to hit means landing blows that might otherwise miss.
Knife fighters are typical finesse-style fighters, but it's not uncommon for many weaker, faster martial artists.
SA/Sneak-Attack damage: You know all that extra damage your rogue/thief damage does when flanking something or backstabbing it? That's Sneak Attack damage. Special note: Your attack actually has to hit and do damage, and THEN the Sneak attack damage applies. So, hitting that werewolf for 9 points... nope, you didn't get past his DR 10/Silver, and you don't get to apply your 6d6 of Sneak Attack dice.
Notably, Sneak Attack dice are not multiplied by critical hits, since they are basically 'critical damage' as they are. Also, creatures that don't have weak points in their anatomy, like slimes and oozes, elementals, golems, and the like, tend to not be affected by Sneak Attack damage (it's hard to poke a liver when they don't have organs).
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MAGIC, WEAPONS AND ARMOR:
Naming Karma: If you Name a Bonded Weapon, you can share your karma/experience points with it, up to 1,000 points a day. This way, you can grow a magic Weapon without being a Caster. However, how strong your Weapon can get is still affected by its QL.
Goldweight: A unit equal to exactly the amount of gold a Powered Character can imbue into a magic item per day. This amount was divided by 500 to get the size of a standard gold coin. Thus, a goldweight is also equal to 500 gold pieces (gp). Silver is worth a tenth of what gold is for imbuing items, platinum is worth five times more. Gems can be worth anywhere from 1 gp to tens of thousands.
The existence of active magic tends to coalesce pure minerals far more then in a non-magical world, so veins of precious metals and gems are more common. Different flavors of magic imbuing different materials creates Energized Materials, whose biases form 'new substances'. Energized pure Earth Tungsten is Adamant. Mithral is Water Energized Titanium.
Burning gold to create magic items releases their essence into the item. The gold (or other material) dissipates into the aether... later to recoalesce as it gathers enough magic, forming another vein of the material once again, somewhere else.
QL/Quality Level: How well an item is made. Subsumes both crafter skill, material, style, complexity, ornamentation, and other things. QL limits how powerful an item Crafted with non-Divine aid can be. A god can make an old tooth an artifact. A human would need a QL 40 item to contain something with a Caster Level of 20.
The general rule is QL 20/masterwork for the simplest, Cantrip-level weak magic items (shoes that tie themselves, a coat that sheds rainwater, etc), +1 QL for every Caster Level of effect you want to put in it.
Note that maximum Caster Level you can imbue into an object is based on Spellcraft Ranks. As a Ten, that is Ten Ranks. So, many powerful magical effects cannot be put into magical items.
WEAPONS/ARMOR: Magical Weapons and Armor have further restrictions. The number of Slots magical Arms and Armor have is limited by QL, to 1 for every 2 points of QL over 20, to a minimum of 1, and maximum of 10. Thus, 20-23 = Slot Einz, 24-25 is Slot Zvei, etc. It takes a 40 QL, requiring a base +30 Crafting Check, to make a potentially Zehn-Slot item, with 10 Slots open and running.
Furthermore, Spellcraft Ranks must be 3 Ranks for every point of Enhancement Bonus or equivalent. This limits Weapons to +3 or equivalent effects at Nine, improving to +4 at Twelve and +5, the mortal maximum, at Fifteen. So, no Vorpal effects before Fifteen.
Opening each Slot is more and more expensive per Slot. Doing nothing but opening all Ten Slots costs 100k gold for a Powered, and 200k for a Primos.
Different materials can only be crafted to certain QL's. Normal base steel can only hit a 30, with really fine alloys hitting 35. It takes mithral or adamant to hit a 40 QL or higher for metals. For wood, you're looking at Weirwoods or other hugely rare, powerful trees.
Powered folk Imbue magical items with gold-equivs and Karma. Primos and Forsaken Invest them with gold or power comp equivalents, and Naming Karma, instead.
ARSENAL: Forsaken have no magical signature, enabling their Bonded Weapons the ability to change between Rune effects on their Weapons. Arsenal is the name of the effect which houses these Runes, allowing one Weapon to change its nature based on current need. Of course, it all costs a lot of gold and/or Naming Karma...
Arsenal I takes only +I effects. Arsenal II takes two additional Slots, and +II effects. Greater Arsenal can potentially take +3 to +5 effects, but has to be tied to the appropriate Slots. Naturally the prices for all such Runes must be paid...
SLAUGHTER: Bane effects are the strongest targeted magical effects you can put on a Weapon for their cost, and the nature of their curse-oriented Rune doesn't work in an Arsenal. Thus, Banes have their own Slaughter Rune which stores their ire. Adding a Bane to a Slaughter requires 2,000 points of Karma/gold (i.e. two days), and first killing a member of the enemy type to be Bane to.
Bane enemy types are fairly narrow. Each humanoid type (orcs, humans, elves, hyen, etc) has its own Bane, although Animals and Vermin (bugs) are fairly broad. The Enmity Effect is broader (Mortals, Natural Creatures, etc), effectively subsuming multiple Bane categories, but it's not as strong.
Additional note: A non-Forsaken using a Weapon Bane to his own species suffers the Bane effect themselves. Thus, a Powered man using a Humanbane Weapon takes an additional 2-12 damage from all attacks against him, and foes are +2 TH/Dmg against him! It's not a curse effect for nothing...
The corollary effect for Armor is called Armory, and Bulwark for Warding (the anti-Bane).
Adding an effect to a Weapon or Armor must be declared and added until done, i.e. I'm adding Brilliant, means I'm going to open 4 Slots, and I can't stop midway and use the gold Invested for something else, or start something else, without losing all the work put in. The runework depowers if you abandon it for anything else, although it will wait if you stop and then start again.
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OTHER STUFF:
Vivic energy: I invented this myself. To wit, it's the opposite of necroic energy, and a subset of positive energy. Where necroic lifeforms (the undead), are mostly-dead and feed on life energy, vivic energy is mostly alive and feeds on death energy, their exact opposite. It has next to no effect on living creatures, unless they die, when it starts consuming their bodies like firewood, feasting on the negative energy slowly flowing into them. Corpses with magical power in them burn faster, and undead/negative energy life forms (including many necromancers) of any kind burn like oil, taking 1-6 points of damage from contact with vivic flame. Pure negative energy dumped on vivus is like using an aerosol can on a fire.
Vivic energy is generally used in ritual athame at funerals to set a body aflame with unwhite fire, reducing it slowly to dust, and making it nearly impossible to resuscitate, and more importantly, utterly impossible to animate or desecrate with necromancy. Vivic fire is slightly heavier than air, misting slowly along the ground as it burns, the energy slowly sinking into the Land, where it is absorbed and turned into basic life energy for the Land.
'Unwhite' is 'true white'. The human eye sees 'white' whenever multiple colors stack on one another. Unwhite is 'true white', it has no component other colors. Its opposite color in the thaumaspectrum is naturally utterblack.
Thaumaspectrum: Those who can Detect Magic can see the Thaumaspectrum, the array of light and colors given off by magic, and infer many things from it, such as type, school, or Domain of magic, personal biases of the Caster, strength of the magic, source plane, and other things, depending on the strength of their Arcane Sight.
Valences: Power of Ten uses the Vancian Spell system, where the energy for Casters is first accumulated in distinct packets of energy, not a spell point system. Cantrips are level 0, endlessly castable, and come from the heart of a Caster's Matrix. Level 1 spells are Engrams floating in a shell around that heart, the first Valence. Each successive Valence is a higher and larger shell, and can hold more powerful Engrams, up to the Fifth Valence, where the Caster can teleport hundreds of miles, bring the dead to life, fly all day as swift as a pigeon, turn a foe to stone, Summon powerful creatures from other planes, or travel to those very planes themselves.