[RPG] 5 Rank Shugenja Schools (WIP)

By SonofScarlet, in Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game

I'm not entirely happy with the Soshi school, but I believe it gives them a decided theme with which to work. While the base school seems focused on illusions, all of the paths related to the Soshi all seem to revolve around "ninja" activies, so I blended the two in what I think is an....okay format.

Soshi Deceiver
Techniques

Rank 1: The Kami's Whisper

The Soshi cast their spells as quietly as the kami themselves. All spells cast by the Soshi eliminate all visible signs of the spell having been cast. All spell effects take place normally; there is simply no outward sign of what has happened. Additionally you may spend an Air spell slot to conjure basic illusions. This functions as any one of the following spells: Token of Memory, Hidden Visage, or Mists of Illusion. You may cast Sense, Commune, and Summon

Rank 2: Way of the Shadow – The Soshi are masters of deception. You may sacrifice a spell slot of any Element to gain perfect vision when in absolute darkness for up to one hour. Alternatively, you may spend an Air or Void spell slot to gain a bonus of +1k1 to the total of any Stealth, Sleight of Hand, or Sincerity (Deceit) Skill Roll. You may not spend more spell slots than your Insight Rank in this manner on any one Skill Roll.

Rank 3: Ghosts and Whispers

The Soshi have a sinister reputation for the deceptions they can weave. They can create elaborate illusions that trick the senses and turn them against those who try to pierce their chicanery. The Soshi can spend an Air spell slot as an action to veil an area roughly 30 cubic feet in an illusion that gives any one person within it -0k2 to all Perception based rolls. They may spend additional spell slots to affect additional people in that area. This effect lasts for 5 minutes. Alternatively, the Soshi can beset the target with nightmarish visions giving the target the Dazed condition and the illusion lasts for as long as the target is Dazed.

Rank 4: Scourge in Shadow - There are some targets the Shosuro ninja are unable to eliminate, either because of their protection or simply because they are too difficult to kill. For such targets, the Soshi send in their elite deceivers. You may spend a single spell slot as a Free Action to gain a bonus of +1k1 on a Knives or Stealth Skill Roll (this, in a manner of speaking, stacks with the Soshi rank 2 technique and allows the Soshi to expend a spell slot of any element to gain +1k1 to a Stealth Skill Roll rather than just Air).

Rank 5: Master of Shadows

When using your rank 1 or 3 techniques to create illusions, you may spend a Void Point in addition to all other costs, to make these illusions last for 1 hour or until they're revealed to be illusions. Additionally, the Soshi may give the target the Dazed or Stunned condition with that effect.

The Alchemists remainded a bear for me as I tried to conceive of techniques, and, as you can see, I don't have a Rank 4 technique for them. If anyone has suggestions that fit the theme of transformation and natural science I'm more than happy to hear them. Otherwise, I'm more or less happy with how the alchemists are treated. They receive a limited group of spells they can mix into their alchemy, but unlike the Unicorn and their Meshiodo, they eventually get level 4,5, and 6 Fire spells that they can haul around with them. Also, using alchemical items doesn't cost spell slots.

Agasha Alchemist
Techniques

Rank 1: Elements of All Things

Lady Agasha passed along her secrets of the natural world to her students in the form of mizugusuri and kagaku. These elixirs and compounds can create remarkable effects. You may imbue spells into liquid potions and treated objects. To do so you spend a required amount of time gathering plants, metals, and materials that are then synthesized into a natural compound or potion. These mizugusuri (potions) and kagaku (compounds) can mimic spell effects as seen in the sidebar below. It takes an action to imbibe a potion or use a compound. You may cast the spells Sense, Commune, and Summon

Rank 2: Agasha's Wisdom

To the Agasha there is no division between the elements. When casting Sense, Commune, or Summon you may expend a spell slot of any element rather than a spell slot of the element you are targeting.

Rank 3: Fury of the Elements

The Agasha are the only family sanctioned to create “black powder.” This substance, often called “gaijin pepper” is a volatile and dangerous substance used, most often, by the Agasha for fireworks, creating fiery explosions of a dozen colors depending on the power mixture. The Agasha may now create kagaku that can mimic the effects of many damage-dealing fire spells (see sidebar below). These kagaku are then aimed for one round and fired on the next using Craft: Explosives/Perception against the target's TN to be hit. If the mimicked spell has no designated target then the effect takes immediate effect without a roll.

Rank 4: Flesh of the Elements

As the alchemist grows more knowledgeable in their craft, they become more deft in the processes used. They learn how to more efficiently create their seemingly miraculous potions and poultices. When you devote time to creating a mizugusuri or kagaku (via your rank 1 or 3 techniques), you create 2 of the same kind of item rather than just one.

Rank 5: Transform

The final lessons of the Agasha free the student from the illusion of the five elements. All of them are connected and flow through one another in perfect accord. You may spend a Void Point to transform the elements of an object from one to another. You can transform a wildfire into sudden deluge, or create stone from the air around you. This effect functions as the Transform spell (The Great Clans, p.104).

[sidebar]

Agasha Alchemy

To create the alchemical items of the Agasha, the shugenja must spend an hour per Mastery Level of the spell effect he is attempting to mimic from the selection of spells below. Many of the effects created by Mizugusuri are based on shifting the balance of elements within an individual and are thus able to create more mystical (if still natural) effects. Meanwhile Kagaku tend to be much more mundane in their application relying on chemical compounds. GMs are free to add additional spell effects as either Mizugusuri or Kagaku.

Mizugusuri

Bayushi's Bane - Jurojin's Balm (Earth 1)

Brother to Air - Air Kami's Blessing (Air 3)

Brother to Earth - Earth's Touch (Earth 1)

Brother to Fire - Warning Flame (Fire 1)

Brother to Water - Rejuvenating Vapors (Water 2)

Crane's Tongue - Benten's Touch (Air 2)

Dragon's Breath - Breath fo the Fire Dragon (Fire 3)

Earth's Anvil - Near to Ice (Water 3)

Earth's Hammer - Strength of the Tsunami (Water 2)

Health - Path to Inner Peace (Water 1)

Lion's Heart - Wolf's Proposal (Air 2)

Vitality - Essence of Earth (Earth 3)

Kagaku

Moeagaru (Flash Paper) - Shining Light (Fire 3) - uses paper as a medium rather than a piece of armor and is activated by the shugenja using an action

Hanabi (Fireworks) - See below

Hinemuri (Sleeping Fire) - Sleeping Fire is a liquid that can be applied to a surface which can then ignite. This can mimic the effects of: Katana of Fire (Fire 1; though it must use a physical katana or wakizashi), Enticing Dance of the Flames (Fire 2), and Fiery Wrath (Fire 3)

Ekitai Kemuri (Liquid Smoke) - Summon Fog (Air 3) - Fog is acrid and dry rather than moist and does not put out flames.

Black Powder/Hanabi ("Fireworks")

Upon gaining Rank 3 the Agasha is entrusted with the secrets of black powder. This dangerous substance when used to create fireworks or any form of rocketry can mimic the following spell effects and requires an increasingly larger amount of black powder to create. A standard "dose" is roughly 1 pound of powder. The effect often requires a number of doses equal to its Mastery Level. Black powder is also difficult to create and requires controlled conditions for its creation. Each does effectively takes 1 day to manufacture. These doses are then, most often, housed in protective cases or hanabi rockets with an exact amount of powder contained within and cannot be easily changed.

1 Osano-Wo's Blessing

2 Fires from Within, Enticing Dance of Flame

3 The Fist of Osano-Wo, Ravenous Swarms

4 Wall of Fire

5 Castle of Fire, Consumed by Five Fires, Destructive Wave, Follow the Flames, The Dragon's Talons

6 Beam of the Inferno

[/sidebar]

Edited by SonofScarlet

I'm going a very different route with the Agasha (my Tamori are closer to what you're describing here), but I'm having problems with them, too. They really are a pain in the neck to design for. >_<

In this instance the fault is complexity. I try and retain simple design but the Agasha don't lend themselves easily to simple. I take a lot of nods from 1e in terms of fluff and feel (and is where I got the mizugusuri and kagaku). The trouble is finding simple phrasing that encapsulates the limited spells I wanted to give them. I knew I couldn't mimic the Agasha Alchemist New Path directly because I didn't want their concoctions to just be "spells in a bottle." (Not that there's anything wrong with that). I really wanted to hammer home the idea that the Agasha practice natural science to a certain extent. They know how to create seemingly magical effects from "mundane" materials.

But designing around them means I can't just say "all spells with area of effect 'one target' or 'self'" Still, it was either the way I did it or updating the 1e mizugusuri and kagaku mechanics to 4e which I didn't feel ambitious enough to do. That said, my major problem is whether to make the technique a "multi-element" technique or an "alchemy" technique. I've got two of each right now and whatever I make Rank 4 will solidify the main theme of the school.

Yogo Wardmaster
Techniques

Rank 1: The Kami's Gate

The Yogo are masters at creating wards. You may cast the spells Symbol of Air, Symbol of Earth, Symbol of Fire, Symbol of Water, and Ward of Purity. You may cast the spells Sense, Commune, and Summon.

Rank 2: Way of the Wardmaster

The Yogo may now create ofuda, paper talismans similar to the Kuni. These talismans can be inscribed with the power of one of the Yogo's spells from their Rank 1 technique (Not Sense, Commune, or Summon). These ofuda still take the required time to create as it does to cast the spell, but the effect may be held in to ofuda until you activate it (as a Simple Action) by placing it on a target. Only you may activate your wards. The ward sticks to the target and immediately discharge the spell, whose duration is measured normally from that moment. If an area-effect spell is discharged onto a living target, it will only affect that target.
Placing a paper ward on an unwilling target requires an unarmed melee attack using a roll of Spellcraft / Agility. An active ward may be physically torn/destroyed, which instantly ends any ongoing spell effects; this requires a Simple Action. This otherwise allows the symbol to move without it immediately ending the spell.

Rank 3: Wardmaster's Might

Yogo wards are among the most potent in all of Rokugan, not easily pierced or circumvented. You gain +1k1 on all contested rolls involving the spells given in your Rank 1 technique.

Rank 4: Wardmaster's Keep

The limitations of other shugenja are of no concern to the wardmaster. You may have multiple instances of the same ward active at the same time though their effects do not stack.

Rank 5: Wardmaster's Vengeance

When a ward that you created is dispelled by another shugenja through a casting of the same spell or by destroying the surface it's placed on, the ward takes immediate effect targeting the dispelling shugenja or person responsible for destroying it. It is then destroyed (though the target continues to suffer the effects as appropriate for the spell).

thanks for the great work on shujenja SonofScarlet, this will add a greater depth to shujenja.

Thanks. Hopefully there's something people can take away from it.

Reviewing the thread, however, I realized I never made a school for the Moto Death-Priests. I may have to look into that.