Legendary Creatures
Most of the time, characters start out as plucky underqualified adventurers, and slowly build their way up to earth-shattering power. But a select few – demigods, titans, and influential leaders, for instance – can possess a few abilities that make them stand above their peers in some respect. These are Legendary characters, whose actions shake the foundations of the world. This is an optional section, and the abilities inside are meant to make things substantially more powerful than regular creatures. It’s up to GMs to decide if and how Legendary can be acquired in the game.
What is Legendary?
The [Legendary] subtype is a mechanism for depicting characters who are truly larger than life. These characters have more in common with Achilles, John Carter, or even Elric than they do with Odysseus, Sherlock Holmes, or the Musketeers. Fights against [Legendary] foes are enough to merit ballads in their own right, and often enter into the greater mythology of the world.
In general, [Legendary] characters can be considered two levels higher for the purposes of calculating encounters, but this is not a perfect analogy. Simply put, [Legendary] characters are not suitable for use as common monsters or mewling recruits; they require a little bit more planning and thought. [Legendary] is also a mechanic for defining player characters, but it is critical that if one player’s character is [Legendary], all the player characters should be.
There are four tiers, and at each tier you acquire a single ability. There are no dependencies between choices, so feel free to mix and match to build the larger-than-life megalomaniac you’ve always wanted.
- Champion: 1st level and up
- Fated: 5th level and up
- Immortal: 10th level and up
- Legend: 15th level and up
Champion
This is the first step towards a more profound destiny, the first display of greatness through some particularly adroit skill or powerful trait. For many characters, the ability granted at this tier is their most defining mechanical aspect.
Chameleon
You always have the right tool for the job, demonstrating either a preternatural degree of preparedness or a distressing ability to fake it. Once per [Scene], you may use one of the following abilities:
- As an immediate action when you hit with an attack, you may cause that hit to become a critical hit.
- As a free action, you may gain any one feat you qualify for, for three [Rounds].
- As a free action, you count as trained in an additional skill for three [Rounds].
Child of the Forge
You gain early access to a Greater Item, and may use it in addition to the normal Greater Items you are entitled to.
Collateral Damage
The length of any wedge and line area effect you create is doubled. The radius of any spread area effect you activate is doubled. Whenever you would create any other area effect which covers squares a certain distance or number of squares away from a target square, that distance or number of squares is doubled.
Indestructible
You halve physical damage you would take, after [Damage reduction], [Resistance] and other effects that would reduce damage.
Magic Bullet
Once per [Encounter], the next time you make a ranged attack, before you choose targets, you may gain line of sight to all creatures within range of that attack until the end of that attack. The attack ignores line of effect, [Covered], and [Miss chance].
Mr. Atlas
You get a +10 bonus to Acrobatics and Athletics.
Origin Story
You must take the Full Buy-In option to qualify for this ability. Once per [Scene] at the start of an [Encounter] or between [Encounters], you may reveal the current version of your origin story. When you do so, you may pick a different track for your Full Buy-In track.
Suave
You are as cool as a cucumber, though somewhat more deadly. You enter each social encounter with a free token on one opposing party.
Woldhewn
You halve energy damage and magic damage you would take, after [Resistance] and other effects that would reduce damage.
Fated
Your name is whispered by the firelight far from civilization. Tales of your deeds are sung in taverns the world over. Your footsteps shake the earth and leave nothing unscathed in your wake. Knowledge checks made to identify you are made with a +5 bonus.
Iron Monger
You gain early access to a Relic, and may use it in addition to the normal Relics you are entitled to due to your level.
Wayfarer
Once per [Scene], with the work of twenty [Rounds], you can form a short-lived bridge between a point within [Close] range and any point within a hundred miles. For three [Rounds], the entry and exit points of your bridge are treated in all ways as though they were adjacent squares. This allows line of sight and line of effect to be drawn. As the bridge is being formed, a tell-tale hum and an actinic glow are present at both the origin and the destination; a DC 15 History or Arcana check can identify the effect.
Awesome Presence
Bystanders are awestruck by your charisma or reputation. You enter each social encounter with a free token on everyone else.
Phantom
Once per [Quest], you can call in favors or exercise your considerable acumen to hush up just about anything, from a robbery to a political gaffe, all the way up to a brutal gunfight.
Bigger
The length of any wedge and line area effect you create is doubled. The radius of any spread area effect you activate is doubled. Whenever you would create any other area effect which covers squares a certain distance or number of squares away from a target square, that distance or number of squares is doubled.
The World Twists
You begin each [Encounter] affected by Illusionary Terrain, as the consumable.
Windblessed
Ranged attacks made against you from Template:Braclet or longer range simply fail, unless the source is [Legendary]. These attacks still count as having been made for the purpose of any resource cost, and if an action was spent to make one or more of these attacks, that action counts as having been used.
Full Sanction
Once per Template:Braclet, you may use this ability by initiating combat during a social encounter. Doing so immediately ends the social encounter, but you suffer no social repercussions from any party other than the one you attacked.
Servant of Twelve Labors
You can move stunning amounts of material. With a [Scene]’s physical or mental labor, you can dig a small canal, dig a trench with built-in earth fortifications, or erect a solid fence around a military camp.
Summoner
By expending all your actions for a [Round], you may create a Minion anywhere within your [Melee] range. The Minions you create this way are always one level lower than you. These Minions die when you die, and collapse completely into dust, bones, or clay at the end of the [Encounter].