Echelon: Recovered, now with Gnomes!

It has been a while since I have written anything about one of my original projects, the Echelon Gaming System.  A major reason for this is the fact that I was keeping the working document on a usb flash drive, so I could work on it wherever I went, and the flash drive got fried.  And when my drive died, so did my motivation to work on Echelon.

It must be my shoes, my clothes, or the carpet, but I always manage to build a store of static eletricity while sitting at my desk (perhaps a sign to not sit on my ass so much).  Well, I was about to get up and I reached for the drive and I felt that zap as I discharged some of that built up energy into the drive.  Then you could smell the pungent odor of burnt electronics.

Well, I decided to take the sucker apart and I saw some burn marks around what I would call electrodes (I’m not an electrical engineer by any means) on the PCB.  So I took a cotton swap dipped in rubbing alcohol and attempted to clean it.  Well, it must of worked, because the drive works intermittently, and I was able to recover some of my files!

I was so excited I decided to post my unfinished version of the Gnome race for Echelon.  My goal was to take a more feral approach to the race, making them a fey type and boosting their skill with illusion.  I don’t know if this version will make it into the final draft of Echelon, but it shows the general direction I want to take them.  Note that I have not created a table for their animal companion, but I do have some short descriptions of how a few powers work.

Gnomes

Racial Traits:
	Average Height	: 3’5” – 4’-0”
	Average Weight	: 65-75 lbs.
	Speed	: 25 ft.
	Vision	: Lowlight
	Automatic Languages	: Common, Gnome
	Bonus Languages	: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, and Goblin
	Favored Powers	: Skald, Wizardry
	Size	: Small
Heroic Tier:
	Ability Scores	: +1 Constitution, +1 Charisma
	Skill Affinities	: +1 Arcana, +1 Bluff
	Weapon Familiarity	: Gnomes may treat gnome hooked hammers as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons.
	Discern Illusion	: Gnomes received a +1 racial bonus against illusions
	Fey Glamour	: You can use fey glamour as an encounter power.
	Giant Evasion	: +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against monsters of giant type.
	Gnomish Trickery	: Gnomes possess a +1 racial bonus to attack when casting spells of the Illusion subtype.
	Misdirection	: You can use misdirection as a daily power.
	Racial Enemies	: +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against goblinoids and kobolds.
	Speak with Critters	: Gnomes may speak with any burrowing mammal at will (see the speak with animals spell description).
Paragon Tier:
	Ability Scores	: +1 Constitution, +1 Intelligence
	Skill Affinities	: +1 Bluff
	Animal Minion	: You gain an animal companion chosen from the Gnome Animal Companion table (see table below).
	Knack for Illusion	: Spells of the Illusion subtype cost Gnomes 1 less Mana to cast, for a minimum of 1 Mana for illusions with a casting cost.
	Pierce Illusion	: Gnomes receive an additional +1 racial bonus against illusions.
	Swift Performance	: You may make a Performance check as a swift action.
Epic Tier:
	Ability Scores	: +1 Constitution, +1 Charisma
	Skill Affinities	: +1 Arcana
	Break Illusion	: Gnomes receive an additional +1 racial bonus against illusions.
	Cloak of Disillusion	: You grant non-gnome allies within 10 squares of you a +2 racial bonus against spells of the illusion subtype.
	Improved Speed	: Gnomes increase their speed to 30 ft.
	Smoke & Mirrors	: You can use smoke & mirrors as a daily power.
Legendary Tier:
	Ability Scores	: +1 Charisma
	Skill Affinities	: +1 Bluff
	Dazzle	: You can use dazzle as an encounter power.
	Drain Illusion	: You gain half the Mana cost of any Illusion that fails to affect you.
	Greater Animal Minion	: Animal companion increases one size and gains Dire template.
	Shatter Illusion	: Gnomes receive an additional +2 racial bonus against illusions.

Misdirection – Swift action, your next ranged power does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Smoke & Mirrors – If an enemy misses you with a ranged or melee (non area) attack, you can force the enemy to attack another enemy adjacent to you.

Dazzle – Burst, enemies are blinded, save ends.

Listening to: Crematory - Revolution – Solitary Psycho

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Mad Menagerie: Keymaster

[Note: The table below will display better if you install this font, as it was created with Asmor's Monster Maker.]

A figure stands before you jingling like a chime in the wind.  The humanoid shape is buckled from head to toe in black leather with hundreds of ringlets.  Attached to these rings are hundreds more keys, all clanging and bouncing off each other as the figure moves.  Whoever is inside the leather and keyring suit must only be able see and speak through three keyholes that cover its eyes and mouth.  It croaks in a gravelly voice, “The override code must be provided to obtain travel authority.”

The Keymaster is a unique entity that resides in the Hall of Doors , a Nadori complex that time has forgotten.  The Hall of Doors is a nexus of gates that allows one to travel from the Prime directly to any of the other known Dimensions.  The Hall of Doors is the name that legend now gives the Nadori Dimensional Conduit Terminal.  Here the Nadori exerted their influence through the Æther and into other dimensions.

The complex has been abandoned for over a millennium, but the Keymaster has maintained his vigilance over the Hall the entire time.  He guards the locked portals to the other dimensions, and only he knows which keys unlocks the appropriate doors.

He is commanded to deny entrance to anyone who wishes to use the portals but is otherwise not hostile.  The Keymaster cannot be negotiated with, nor tricked into unlocking a portal.  Only through the Keymaster’s destruction or if given the “password”  may one pass.

Keymaster Level 8 Solo Soldier Medium Immortal Animate XP 1,750
Initiative +12 Senses Perception +10
HP 360; Bloodied 180
AC 24; Fortitude 20, Reflex 22, Will 20
Immune charm, disease, fear, poison, sleep; Resist lightning; Vulnerable necrotic
Speed 6
Action Points 2
M Slam (Standard; at-will)
+15 vs. AC; 2d6+7 damage.
m Lightning Slam (Standard; at-will) ♦ Lightning
The Keymaster makes to Slam attacks and adds an additional 1d6 lightning damage to each attack.
c Looking Through the Keyhole (Standard; encounter) ♦ Charm
Close Burst 3;+14 vs. Will; Hit: The target is Stunned until the end of the Keymaster’s next turn; Miss: The target is slowed, save ends.
c Tumbler of Woe (Standard; recharge 56)
Close burst 4; +13 vs. Reflex; 1d10+6 damage. Miss: Half damage.
Teleport (Immediate Reaction; encounter)
As soon as the Keymaster is attacked, he can immediately teleport up to five squares without provoking attacks of opportunity.
Alignment Unaligned Languages Common
Str 17 (+7) Dex 22 (+10) Wis 17 (+7) Con 17 (+7) Int 20 (+9) Cha 17 (+7)

Tactics

Once pressed into battle, the Keymaster will attempt Teleport to the square where the players are concetrated. Once in position, the Keymaster will execute Looking Beyond the Keyhole, spend an action point, and then execute his Tumbler of Woe power.

Keymaster Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful History check:

DC 15: You have heard of an immortal guardian that protects the Hall of Doors.
DC 20: It is said that the Keymaster can hypnotize you with his accoutrement of keys.
DC 25: The Keymaster is said to be vulnerable to necrotic energies.

Looking through the Keyhole: The keys decorating the figure’s attire begin to spin of their own accord, whipping and wizzing and making an eerie chimelike noise, all the while a strange glow emanates from the keyholes of its face.

Tumbler of Woe: The leather clad humanoid begins to spin like a top, clicking and whirring sounds issue from the figure like an enormous lock being opened.  Suddenly the ringlets shoot forth on silver wires striking everything within range.

Listening to: Soil – Scars – Wide Open

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Echelon: Powers

Powers are the primary abilities of a character.  They are the means by which characters will affect their environment.  Powers may be thought of as the tools of various professions.  Wizards cast spells, priests channel the gods through prayers, and rangers strike from a distance with archery.

Gaining Powers

During character creation, you may allocate 3 ranks into any power or combination of powers.  After character creation, you gain powers by purchasing them with Experience Points.  Powers cost the rank being purchased multiplied by 5 for Powers favored by your race or multiplied by 7 for any other Power.

Using Powers

Each Power has a key skill listed in brackets next to its name.  Each rank of a Power has in its description the following: name, cost (if any), action type, resolution method, damage type (if any), and effect type (if any).  To use a power you must be able to perform the action type (free, swift, immediate, move, standard, full-round, or extended) and have the necessary amount of Vitality or Mana to spend for the Power’s cost.

After paying the Power’s cost, you roll a d20 and add the character’s rank in the Power and its key skill to the roll and it must overcome either a static DC or the target’s appropriate Defense listed in the Power rank’s resolution method.

Artifice [Craft]

Artifice governs the ability to create, forge, and craft things beyond the mundane.  It is the art of weaving dweomers into the worked steel of a sword, binding an enchantment upon a freshly forged ring, and hammering magical vestments into plate mail.  It also covers the manufacture of golems and other constructs as well as the brewing of potions.

Alchemy

Alchemy is the art of brewing potions, distilling elixirs, and concocting oils.  An alchemist can infuse just about any effect into liquid form, providing an easy to use resource that can be kept in reserve for when it is most needed.  The source of these mystical fluids may be supplied from magical or natural elements.

*      Smelt Element Create alchemic items such as thunderstones and tanglefoot
**     Brew Potion Create potions such as cure wounds, haste, and bear’s strength
***   Concoct Poison Create contact, ingested, inhaled, and injury poisons
****  Extrude Oil Create uncommon oils such as etherealness
*****  Distil Elixir Create rare elixirs such as life, love, and truth

Automata

Automata is the purview of artificers who wish to either make life easier by delegating mundane tasks to constructs or play god by striving to instill sentience into something fashioned by their own hands.  Either way, assembling and animating automatons can lead to misfortune should an artificer’s creations break free from her control.

*       Clockwork Create small devices and automatons that do repetitive tasks
**      Homunculus Create a small servant from your own flesh
***     Lesser Golem Create golems with simple instructions
****   Greater Golem Create golems with more complex instructions
*****  Spark of Life Instill a form of sentience in one of your creations

Imbue

Imbue allows artificers to instill magical properties upon mundane items.  Legendary weapons, enchanted armors, and mystical rings have all been crafted by an artificer utilizing the Imbue power.   Many traps in treasure laden tombs have been enhanced by a royal artificer to keep the raiders and looters at bay.

*        Limited Enhance Enhance weapons or armor for a limited time
**       Minor Enhance Give small permanent enhancements on equipment
***     Minor Dweomer Imbue equipment with lesser dweomers such as frost
****    Major Enhance Give large permanent enhancements on equipment
*****   Major Dweomer Imbue equipment with greater dweomers such as haste

Listening to: Union Underground – An Education in Rebellion – South Texas Deathride

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Mad Menagerie: Fossilifungus

A strange fungal mass is growing on the head and torso of this shambling corpse.

Fossilifungus is a fungus that has evolved into a near symbiotic relationship with the undead, specifically zombies. When a fossilifungus spore attaches to flesh animated by necrotic (or negative) energy, it will take root and begin to grow.

Fossilifungus draws nourishment from enzymes produced when flesh decays from necrotic energy. Over time, the fungus will spread to cover the back, head, and upper torso of its host. Fossilifungus has a defense mechanism triggered by the movement of warm bodies. This mechanism involves the discharge of five to ten tiny barbs in a cone that is ten feet wide and fifteen feet long. When a living creature is struck by a barb, it causes paralysis for up to one minute.

This paralysis gives the host enough time to reach this immobile food source and begin devouring its flesh. There are many horror stories from the fringes of the Dead Wastes about victims being eaten alive by fossilifungus ridden zombies, only to be able to call for help once it was too late.

The fossilifungus represents a new class of monster in that it is a Symbiont.  A Symbiont is never encountered by itself as it relies on the host creature to survive.  A Symbiont works much in the same manner as a template, except for the fact that it always has a method of removal.  A Symbiont can be added to any creature type it applies to.  A monster with a Symbiont gains the benefits provided in the Symbiont description as well providing an additional amount of Experience for defeating the monster.

Benefits: +1 Bonus to AC; +10% bonus to Hit Points; gains use of the Fossil Barbs power.
Bonus XP: +33%
Host: Any Corporeal Undead

Fossil Barbs (ranged, standard, recharge 4, 5, 6)
Blast 3, +6 (+ 1/2 Host’s Level) vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d4 (+ 1/2 Host’s level), Stunned (Save Ends)
Effect: If the target breathes, he is Slowed (Save Ends)

Tactics

The tactics of the fossilifungus is somewhat dictated by the movements of the host.  It will attempt to catch as many targets as possible in its Fossil Barbs and will continue to do so when it recharges.

Lore

DC 15: The growth on the corpse is a fossilifungus, a fungus known for its paralyzing spray of barbs.
DC 20: If you breathe in the dust caused by the fossilifungus’ spray of barbs, it drugs you and makes you slow.
DC 25: It has been said that any spells, rituals, or items that can cure disease can instantly destroy a fossilifungus.

• This is pretty experimental, as pretty much all the custom stuff I do is…  I am still toying with the idea that Symbiont have a separate, flat experience value.

Listening to: Android Lust – The Dividing – Stained

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Echelon: Archetypes

Archetypes determine a character’s Hit Die, as well as applying bonuses to Attack and Saving Throws.  Archetypes also provide bonus ranks to certain associated Skills, are able to purchase their own Archetype Feats cheaper, and each provide a unique special ability that are considered Extraordinary abilities.  A character’s Base Attack Bonus and Base Saving Throws are equal to one-half his Experience Rank (XPR).  At creation (XPR 1) a character’s Hit Points are equal to the maximum value of his Hit Die plus their Constitution rank.  At each additional XPR a character gains a number of Hit Points equal to the maximum value of his Hit Die.  A character chooses an Archetype at character creation.  At each Experience Tier, the character may choose a new base Archetype or advance an existing Archetype to its next tier. 

Adventurer 

The Adventurer is the standard Archetype of Echelon.  The Adventurer offers an even distribution of Hit Die, Base Attack bonus, Saving Throw bonuses, and Skill bonuses.  The Adventurer also provides an additional rank to any Power chosen when the Adventurer Archetype is selected.  The additional rank is not used when calculating the cost of purchasing the next rank in that Power.

Hit Die: d10
Base Attack: +2
Saving Throws: Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +1
Skill Bonuses: Athletics +1, Dungeoneering +2, Nature +2, and Perception +2
Special: +1 rank to any Power�
 

Brute 

Brutes are stronger than ordinary specimens of their races.  They tend to be excellent athletes and warriors.   Brutes can push the limits of their Strength or Constitution once a day with their Power Surge special ability.  As a free action, a Brute can invoke Power Surge and apply +2 bonus ranks to either their Strength or Constitution for a number of rounds equal to his XPR.

Hit Die: d12
Base Attack: +3
Saving Throws: Fort +2
Skill Bonuses: Athletics +3, Endurance +2, and Intimidate +2
Special: Power Surge 1/day�
 

Devout 

The Devout allow their faith to guide them in all things.  Whether it is faith in a god, a cause, or themselves, the Devout use their faith to help them triumph in the face of impossibility.  A Devout character may treat one d20 roll per day as a natural 20 by invoking their Guided by Faith special ability.

Hit Die: d8
Base Attack: +1
Saving Throws: Will +3
Skill Bonuses: Diplomacy +2, Heal +2, Insight +2, Religion +2
Special: Guided by Faith 1/day
 

Intellectual 

Intellectual characters prefer brains over brawn in any confrontation.  They use their superior intellect to discover opponent’s weaknesses and strategies and exploit them.    Once per encounter, an Intellectual can invoke Achilles’ Heel by studying an opponent for at least one round.  If the Intellectual succeeds on his next attack, all damage related to that attack is maximized.  If the attack also happens to be a critical hit, then it does an additional multiplier of damage (i.e. X2 becomes X3).  For each consecutive round an Intellectual spends studying his target, he gains an additional +1 bonus per Intelligence rank in damage.  If the attack fails, the Intellectual must study his opponent all over again.  Achilles’ Heel can only be applied to targets that are normally susceptible to critical hits.  To study an opponent, the character can only perform move actions on his turn and must be able to see the target.

Hit Die: d6
Base Attack: +0
Saving Throws: Reflex +2, Will +2
Skill Bonuses: Arcana +2, Dungeoneering +1, History +2, Nature +2, Religion +1
Special: Achilles’ Heel 1/encounter
 

Scoundrel 

Scoundrels make their living on deception and misdirection.  They are natural smugglers, thieves, and rogues but they be found in all sorts of professions.  Scoundrels are elusive targets on the battlefield and may invoke their Sidestep special ability once per encounter as a move action.  Sidestep allows the Scoundrel to move half his speed without provoking attacks of opportunity, ignoring non magical terrain, and may pass through spaces occupied by enemies.  This does not allow a Scoundrel to move through solid objects such as walls and closed doors.

Hit Die: d8
Base Attack: +1
Saving Throws: Reflex +2
Skill Bonuses: Acrobatics +1, Bluff +2, Stealth +2, Streetwise +2, Thievery +2
Special: Sidestep 1/encounter
 

Survivor 

Survivors are often the only living citizens of villages pillaged and slaughtered by raiders, or former soldiers left for dead on the battlefield, or perhaps once infected by plague or other diseases.  Whatever their misfortunes, they have survived insurmountable odds and overcame events many would perish in.  A Survivor may re-roll any failed Saving Throw twice a day by invoking his Elude Fate special ability as a free action.  A Survivor must choose one of the following skills to apply their +2 bonus ranks on: Dungeoneering, Heal, or Nature.  This choice reflects the circumstances of their survival.

Hit Die: d10
Base Attack: +2
Saving Throws: Fortitude +2, Reflex +2, Will +2
Skill Bonuses: Endurance +2, (Dungeoneering, Heal, or Nature) +2
Special: Elude Fate 2/day

Listening to: Darkseed – Ultimate Darkness – Save Me

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