The Monk for LotFP

So i finally got an actual physical copy of the LotFP book! And I have promptly begun putting sticky notes in it to fill it with my houserules. So here's some houserules that I cam up with a few days ago regarding a new class (its really a sub-class though)!

The Monk (A Class for LotFP)
Parent Class: Priest (Cleric)
Hit Dice: d6 (+2/level after 9)
Attack Bonus: 1/2 level, rounded down (see below)
Saving Throws: as Priest
XP to Level 2: 2,750 (2,250 if paying a tithe (1,750 if paying all money beyond bare necessities)

Monks have the following class features:

• When making unarmed attacks, their attack bonus is equal to their level (rather than 1/2 it). Certain melee weapons allow for this as well (whichever are favored by the sect the monk is from). If their sect doesn't focus on unarmed fighting, then it can be switched out for certain weapon types.
• The damage dealt by unarmed attacks begins as 1d4 (if using favored weapons, simply add the die type to the weapon's damage). This damage increases every odd level (d4 to d6 at level 3, d8 at level 5, d10 at level 7, d12 at level 9, d14 at level 11, etc.).
• They can use their WIS score instead of their AC for defense purposes. Alternatively, they can add their WIS modifier to their AC in addition to DEX.
• They save as a priest of 1 level higher than their actual level.
• Monks have certain powers tied to their sect. This can be the healing of injuries for a college of doctor monks, or the summoning of elemental powers for monks of arcane science. For all powers, follow the following guidelines:
• Every level, the monk can either increase the power of the ability or the probability of success. For example, with the healing example, say it begins healing d4 hit points, with a chance of it instead hurting the individual more than they already are. When the monk levels up, they can either increase the HP healed to a d6, while keeping the chance of injury the same, or they can decrease the chance of injury but keep the HP regained at a d4.

Example Monk Sects

The Healing Church 

Can heal individuals of their injuries with their elixirs, pills, and equipment that they carry with them everywhere. This begins healing d4 HP (only Flesh, rather than Grit (though many monks of this sect carry with them supplies for that as well)), with a 3 in 6 chance of taking the HP from the individual, rather than giving it. Every level, they either increase the HP healed (d4 to d6, etc.) or decrease the chance of failure (becomes 3 in 8, etc.)

Monks of the Healing Church are more like traveling doctors, who specialize in the healing of more magical and monstrous illnesses. Instead of healing HP, the monk can increase the chance of failure to 6 in 6 (or 6 in 8, 6 in 10, etc.) (using LotFP rules for skill checks) to attempt to reverse such effects.

Monks of the Healing Church are trained in the use of edged weapons and clubs (both of which are extremely useful in surgery), rather than the unarmed fighting of the monk detailed above.

The Cult of the Frog God

These cultists are trained in strange magics that allow them to transform themselves into powerful frog monsters at-will. This lasts for 1 turn (at first), with a 4  in 6 chance of instead turning into a simple powerless frog for the time wished. The abilities of the frog beast improve as the monk wishes, but what powers these are is determined by you.

Monks of the Cult of the Frog God are trained in only the most simple of weapons when in human form (daggers), but when in frog form all of their attacks count as if they were proficient in them.

Monks of the Cult of the Frog God must do strange arcane rituals to retain their shapeshifting abilities. These are usually determined by whichever branch of the cult is nearest to them, but sometimes the cultist will see visions ordering them what to do. These rituals include eating frog eggs from a pond, dissecting a frog alive and eating its organs, keeping an amphibian as a pet for a set number of days without it being hurt, or sacrificing much of your wealth to a well or lake.

The Angels and The Nephilim

Angels are creatures of divine radiation and nuclear fire. In their true forms, they are but clouds of atomic matter or blobs of alien energy, but they take physical forms to venture down to the planet’s surface. They follow unknown laws which they consider the rules and strictures of the cosmos, and they travel to planetary surfaces to punish those who do not follow their laws. They carry swords of radioactive light and shields of otherworldly glass, with bodies of gold and fire and steel, and innumerable eyes of many sorts. Some wizards and warriors enjoy the killing of angels, stealing their atomic fire for their own uses and leaving the strange shells behind, to be scavenged by raiders and monstrous beasts.

The Nephilim are strange creatures born of some combination of angel and mortal. Some of them were produced from the unlikely union of a divine and a person, whereas some others are wizards, scholars, or their servants who consumed the radiant power of an angel. They are gigantic, with skin made of some inorganic material such as stone, gold, or ivory, and radioactive fire within. They are incredibly powerful, and angels sometimes use them as mortal agents, which are named Saviours or Prophets.

The Nephilim

Hit Dice: d10

Features:

• Being a nephilim costs 1 Adventure Point.
• The die used to roll damage goes up by 1 die size, due to size and strength.
• You roll saving throws to resist radiation twice, taking the better result.
• Goes into a meditative state rather than sleeping, where questions that need to be answered are answered by the universe itself. The nephilim is aware of their surroundings while in this state.
• Does not eat or drink, and rather consumes holy oils and incense.
• You are able to speak with angels in their language, Enochian.
• You are able to receive gifts from the divines in exchange for following their esoteric laws, thus making you a Saviour or Prophet.
• You have -2 to-hit small creatures, and they receive a +2 to-hit you.

The Divine Laws

If you are a follower of these laws, and even if you are not, angels will descend from the heavens to punish you. Their strength will vary with the impact of the crime, with small ishim appearing for miniscule breaches, and great arch-angels descending to punish those who commit great crimes. If you go along with the punishment dealt by these angels, they will either incur some special penalty on you (if you are not a Prophet or Saviour), or remove your access to one of your powers (if you are a Prophet or Saviour). If you do not go along with the punishment, then they will attempt to kill you. As long as you are really good at killing angels, you can break these laws all you want.

There are way too many angelic laws to detail them all, but as a general guideline, just make them very strict and esoteric, with lots of restrictions and complex rituals.

The Angelic Order

All angels are equals in the infinite void of colorful space. However, they take on ranks when they take on physical forms. The ranks of angels are as follows (in order of weakest to strongest).

1. Ishim
2. Cherubim
3. Bene Elohim
4. Elohim
5. Malakim
6. Seraphim
7. Hashmallim
8. Erelim
9. Ophanim
10. Chayot Ha Kodesh

Statistics for each angel will be forthcoming, but you could just use whatever angel stats you want (just so long as Chayot Ha Kodesh are stronger than Ishim)

As a general rule of thumb, angels become more and more metaphysical and immaterial the higher up they go in rank. Ishim are uncanny humanoids, whereas Elohim are gaseous and Chayot Ha Kodesh might be no more than a spoken word or thought idea. However, once their task is done or if they are killed, they must leave behind something (a shell). In the lower orders, this is simply their body. But in the higher orders (such as the Chayot Ha Kodesh), the shell must be remembered by the killer for it to remain in the world, or it must be held within a container.

Adventure Points and Some Characters

So I read this post over on rememberdismove about doing away with classes entirely, and I felt that it would fit very well with the system I created for Colorpocalypse, rather than having races and classes. So I will be creating things for this instead of classes. I want to include this with Mutants and Machines of the Baffling Badlands, but I am having difficulties reconciling random mutations and this system. Now, instead of selecting whether you want to be an engineer or a drug fairy or a person with a tv head, you mix and match features that you wish (many races have minor augmentations, and powerful races cost AP).

Also, here's some Colorpocalypse characters that use AP for character creation:

From Kill Six Billion Demons

Jung Cho the Rifle Witch

• Has rifle-shoes that allow her to jump great distances (1 AP)
• Proficiency in guns of all sorts (1 AP)
• Is able to sense changes in the weather and communicate telepathically (1 AP)
• Is incredibly agile and trained in ancient martial arts (1 AP)

CNN the Televisor

• Has replaced face with television screen that shows shows and signals found in the ether. Can use powers derived from these signals, but has 1/2 charisma in social situations (2 AP)
• Is able to see in darkness (1 AP)
• Has device that they can tune to take control of creatures of signal and static (1 AP)

From Kill Six Billion Demons

Balaam the Saviour of Us All

• Is a nephilim (powers and abilities will be detailed in a later post) (1 AP)
• Has major control over fire and radiation (1 AP)
• Is able to see in all directions (1 AP)
• Can smite physical creatures (WIS save or be greatly harmed by subatomic might) (1 AP)

No-Skin the Birdcatcher

• Is invisible, unless wearing clothing or having some substance on skin (such as paint or dust) (2 AP)
• Is proficient in skills relating to the catching of birds, such as trap-setting and stalking (1 AP)
• Can walk on rough terrain and sloping terrain with just as much ease as on flat ground (1 AP)

What I'm Doing With Synthexia

I am not just going to make things for the Synthexia hexcrawl. I am making my own setting, heavily inspired by it (among other things), that I have called Colorpocalypse. It uses an augmented version of the ruleset I created for Mutants and Machines of the Baffling Badlands, but with a class system and a few other augmentations.

Here are some of the original ideas that I came up with to inspire this setting:

GLITTERING HARPIES FEED ON THE EFFERVESCENT FLUIDS OF THE BLASTED HEATH-SCAPE

NEON CLOUDS FLUCTUATE AND HOVER ABOVE THE GLASS AND PLASTIC ALCOVES OF ULTRAVIOLET WIZARDS

TOWERS OF BONES, BLEACHED RAINBOW SHADES BY PUNGENT OILS, REACH TO THE STRANGE STARS UP ABOVE

ANCIENT GODS OF TELEVISION AND RADIO SLUMBER IN THE POLLUTED OCEANS, SHIMMERING WITH LIQUID SMOG

DIAMOND STRUCTURES PICK UP THE MYSTERIOUS WAVES FROM BEYOND, AND TRANSMIT THEM TO THE TELEVISION SCREENS, TO BE WATCHED BY THE MUTANT MASSES

DEMONS OF MELTED GLASS AND IRON SMOKE CRAWL FROM THE METAL FOUNDRIES AND SMITHING PITS

SHOWERS OF INFRARED TEA FLAVOR THE DIRT, MAKING THE WORMS INTO MASTERS OF EMPERORS OF THE GROUND

THE WOLVES HOWL SECRETS TO THE MOON NAMED MEDUSA

TOOTHY MAWS GAPE AT THE CACOPHONY OF COLORS IN THE SKY, SWALLOWING CREATURES CLUMSY ENOUGH TO FALL IN

A CITY OF SLUMS IS BUILT ON THE ALIEN CORPSE OF A LONG DEAD GOD, WHOSE BLOOD IS MADE OF HUMMINGBIRDS AND WHOSE SKIN IS MADE OF MARBLE

ALGEBRAIC SPHINXES HIDE IN THE HILLS, GOBBLING UP ANYBODY WHO CANNOT SOLVE THEIR EQUATIONS

THE MOON NAMED EURYALE WAS A GREAT BATTLEFIELD, BUT IS NOW BUT A BROKEN AND RUINED SHELL, CARVED BY LASER SWORD AND DEATH RAY

A SECTION OF FOREST WATCHES EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS. THE TREES ARE VERY VIOLENT AND ANGRY

BEARS WITH FURRY SKIN BUT FLESH OF METAL AND VEINS OF WIRES HUNT IN THE WILDERNESS, COVERED WITH RADIOACTIVE DUST LIKE SNOW

SOME OF THIS IS BUT A DREAM CONJURED BY STRANGE MACHINERY AND AWESOME DEVICES. OR IS NONE OF IT A DREAM?

THE WITCHES OF THE CITY RUINS STEAL THE MUTANTS’ CHILDREN FOR STEWS AND SPELLS, AND FOR SACRIFICES TO THEIR URBAN SPIRITS

INFO-MONKS HOARD WEBSITES AND PDFS THAT TELL OF TIME IMMEMORIAL, AND THEY SELL THEM TO THE MOST SPIRITUAL BIDDER

IRIDESCENT FLAMES BURN FOREVER IN THE LONG LOST MINES. PEOPLES’ HUSBANDS AND WIVES LIE CHARRED IN THERE

STRANGE ANGELS DESCEND FROM THE STARS AND PUNISH THOSE WHO DO NOT FOLLOW THEIR ESOTERIC LAWS

CYCLONES OF INK STAIN THE LAND, THE SKY, AND THE SEA DURING RAINY SEASONS

PARASITIC FLATWORMS HAVE BRED SERVITORS THAT THEY PUPPET LIKE BEASTS

MOLEMEN AND MORLOCKS HIDE IN THE VILE SEWERS AND SUBWAYS, FILLED WITH SHINY WRAPPERS AND BAGS, AND VENTURE OUT AT NIGHT TO FEED AND WATCH

TURBO-GHOULS, WITH LOWER BODIES OF WHEELS, WANDER THROUGH THE STINKING PIT STOPS

LASER TOWERS STAND, WITH BRICKS OF RAINBOW CLAY, DISINTEGRATING ANY WHO DRAW NEAR

ALIEN COLORS AND RADIATIONS MUTATE AND ANIMATE THE DEAD AND THE LIVING

PLATINUM CHAINS HOLD BACK A REBELLIOUS TITAN WHO GAVE FIRE TO THE FIRST OF MEN. HE IS FED UPON MY GIANT BEETLES, MAGGOTS, HYENA-MEN AND VULTURE-FOLK. THEY HAVE ERECTED A bRIGHT VILLAGE WHERE THEY SELL HIS POWERFUL ORGANS AND FLESH

TENTACLED BEINGS HAVE MADE LIBRARIES OF HOLOGRAPHIC BOOKS, LEFT TO ROT FOREVER UNDER THE BLACK SANDS

3 Weird Wizard Whatsits

Magic is really weird and inconsistent. That's the only thing consistent about it. So here's some strange stuff involving sorcerers (also maybe clerics).

Random Magical Mishaps
Sometimes something bad happens when a wizard is around. Maybe their spell misfired, or you disrupted their weird arcane dreams, or the fabric of space-time or occult hoo-ha is just weird and broken when they are around. Whatever the reason, simply roll 1d30 on the following table.
Magical Mishaps

1. Everybody switches teeth (they fall out and are replaced by the teeth of one other creature)
2. A flash of light of some bright color (usually purple or orange) blinds everyone in the vicinity
3. Someone is replaced by a shape-shifter (50% chance of not having knowledge of being a shape-shifter)
4. The room smells disgusting. It has become filled with the powerful pheromone of some random monster, and there is a high chance that large amounts of that monster will appear.
5. Someone loses their voice. They regain it after a few days, but cannot speak in any languages they knew originally ever again. They can still read those languages.
6. The wizard's spellbook grows legs or wings or a foot and crawls/flies/hops away (if they are a natural magic-user (such as an elf or sorcerer), then one of their organs does this (90% chance of being non-vital)
7. One random spell known by the wizard occurs, but at double effect
8. Someone vomits up a black slug and loses all memories except for basic knowledge (such as how to speak and write). If someone eats the slug, they gain all of that person's memories.
9. A mouth appears in the air, demanding it be fed. You must either feed it 1d4 magic items or 4d6x10 sp (or gp is using gold standard) worth of items or coinage
10. The area becomes overrun with ants
11. One random spell known by the wizard occurs, but at double effect
12. Someone dies. A baby version of themselves crawls out of the corpse, with lesser physical capabilities but identical mental capabilities
13. Any unintelligent animals in the area become intelligent
14. Something crawls out of space-time, in addition to the spell. Generate a random monster (the LotFP summon spell is pretty good)
15. Anything that is a specific color stops existing, and never has. Only the party knows that it ever existed (alternatively, only the wizard)
16. One random creature around gets the ability to cast one of the wizard's spells once per day. The wizard loses it
17. Lightning strikes (even if indoors or underground). The wizard has been split in two, but will regenerate into two new identical wizards in a few days
18. All clothing in the area becomes mobile and sentient
19. The area is now an opposite magic area. All magical effects have the opposite effect now
20. All of your food spoils. You can still eat it, but it tastes horrible
21. One random town or settlement nearby becomes a ghost-town. People will talk about things that happened there as if they were ages ago
22. Someone's hand falls off and crawls away
23. The next time you go to sleep, a huge rainbow centipede will crawl from the nearest window. It is your servant, but only while you cannot see it
24. The sun stops rising
25. You are all teleported to somewhere random (alternatively, only one person is teleported, or everyone is teleported somewhere different)
26. Game jumps ahead to d10 hours from now. You will have no memory, but stuff will still have happened (players have done stuff, but they do not remember it)
27. It rains some unnatural fluid (usually blood or bile, sometimes tears, sometimes something really weird)
28. Someone begins to turn into a tree
29. Whatever spell you tried to cast, or the last spell that you casted, now does not exist at all. Only a few people, such as fourth-wall breakers or certain gods will be able to cast it.
30. Some powerful demon appears. It is your servant, but it hates you and is always trying to kill you

The Failed Wizard

A magic-using class for Lamentations of the Flame Princess

Hit Dice: d4

Attack Bonus: 1/2 level, rounded down

Saving Throws: as Magic-User

Experience to Level 2: 2,200

This is a class that uses and abuses the magical mishap table above. They are those students of the arcane arts that never quite got it, or didn't study enough, or didn't get enough sleep. They can't cast spells per se, but they are almost able to.

Failed Wizards have the following class features:

• Beginning at level 1, you can roll on the magical mishaps table, or any other magical mishaps table, once per day. Every level, the number of times you can roll on the table increases by 1.
• At level 1, you roll 1d4 on the table. At levels 3, 5, 7, 9, etc., you can increase the die size used by 1 (d4 to d6, d6 to d8, d8 to d10, d10 to d12, d12 to d14, etc.)
• Alternatively, you can learn a spell of a level that an MU of a level 4 levels below yours can know (level 1 at level 5, level 2 at level 7, level 3 at level 9, etc.) The number of times these can be cast is always static, remaining at one per day.
• If you wish, you can apply your level to the magical mishap roll.
• Failed Wizards do not use material components for spells, and are always considered natural magic-users

This class is probably very unbalanced, simply because the magical mishap table is very unbalanced, but who cares? If you like very balanced and ordered classes, do not use this class.

The Witch Watcher

An anti-wizard monster made by wizards, to catch wizards

HD: 1-1

AC: 18 (can only be attacked by non-magical weapons)

Attacks: 0

Damage: n/a

Movement: 100'

Intellect: 8-15

Morale: 12

Witch watchers are floating monstrosities created by royal magicians to assist in the witch hunts done by knights. They will be usually be found in the company of knights, but there are plenty who have become lost and wander the wilderness. They look like huge floating jellyfish, but they are always decked out with strong silver armor, decorated with leering faces and anti-magic sigils. If a witch watcher is ever found without its armor, then its AC is 13 and it can be effected by magic and magical weapons. When a witch watcher sees someone or something that has used magic of any sort within the last week, it will float to them and issue forth loud noises that sound like screams, alerting any knights in the vicinity. They do detect clerical miracles, and so licenses are issued to priests so as to not be imprisoned. If they are without a knight, then monsters in the vicinity will be alerted. Any magic used in their presence fizzles away (MU spells are automatically replaced with magical mishaps, and clerical miracles are made at -6 penalty).

Some Documents

I created a game recently, which I have titled Mutants and Machines of the Baffling Badlands, and which is a very simple and small post-apocalyptic RPG in the style of Gamma World, but with very simplistic mechanics. Really, its just a mixture of a few other games (mostly Mutant Future and this game created by Goblin Punch). It doesn't have built-in progression, because it's implied that that should be done in a roleplaying-type way (ie: if you want to increase your attack bonus, find someone to train you in combat. If you want to gain a psychic power, find the weird techno-mystic that'll cut open your head and put one inside.). It could easily be adapted to other sorts of settings, as this is next to the most bare-bones version of it. I might change the ability scores eventually, because I don't like how the normal DnD scores feel, and I've been having a problem with a mental defense ability score.

Here it is.

I'm gonna be working on stuff for this a lot. Eventually I'll make a monster book for it.

I also made a document of Synthexia, the amazing science-fantasy hexcrawl. This isn't different at all from the version on the website, but I made this so that I could read it when I don't have any wifi. I'll also probably make a lot of stuff for this as well.

Here's that.

So, there;s two documents that might be useful, as well as some promises of stuff that will appear in the future! Have a great day!